Twilight

I downloaded this latest book called "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer.
The story was interesting enough to have me glued to it as a result of which i was done with the book in a day.

Isabella whose parents are separated comes and lives with her dad and plans to join the high school in the same place. Bella( as she prefers to be called) is a girl all by herself. The first day of her school marked a difference in her life. In a cafeteria that was buzzing with chatters,she finds a table inhibited by a group of five strange people who neither ate anything nor did they talk to each other and stunningly good looking. One among the five was Edward who Bella found she was attracted to.

After many attempts to avoid Bella, Edward gave up and she didnt fail to notice his frequently changing eye color and him skipping a biology class when blood tests were taken. Edward saved Bella twice and he kept warning her to be cautious about him.
Bella tries to unravel the secret about his peculiar behaviors. She comes to know that the all attractive Edward-her Saviour is no human but a blood drinker. Yes, Edward is a vampire in disguise.

She does some research and finds that her theory is true. At one point he accepts the fact.
What happens after that- Is he going to be harmful to her or is she going to change her mind is the rest of the story.

Here comes one time when Edward suddenly calls Bella to join him for lunch and that Bella was taken by surprise.I just love the way the author has written it!

"Why don't you sit with me today?" he asked, smiling.
I sat down automatically, watching him with caution. He was still smiling. It was hard to believe that someone so beautiful could be real. I was afraid that he might disappear in a sudden puff of smoke, and I would wake up.
He seemed to be waiting for me to say something.

A very normal thought that would come to anyone who is invited by someone he is madly in love with :) Beautifully written!

M-commerce

We all know what E-commerce means.. But there is something else that is new and interesting: M-commerce.

M-commerce is basically mobile commerce which enables transaction through wireless hand held devices. Unlike E commerce, this does not have to be wireline. Many top vendors like Nokia, Sony Ericsson are trying to implement WAP(wireless access protocol) in their smartphones to enable wireless transfer. Such hand held devices are expected to hit the market because of its fast, secure and scalable data transfer .


Recent books for m commerce are written by Norman M.Sadeh, a professor in Carnegie Mellon University,Pittsburg.
Though the area is still under research, it is expected to rapidly develop in future once implemented.
So we dont have to rely just on our PCs and laptops because this is no doubt the era of mobile phones taking over the place of PCs.

Nothing really happening

Having finished my 7th semester exam, I had around one and a half month hols. I think Ive utilized it in the best way. I went for driving class(car driving) to get my license. I read a lot of books- kadal pura by sandilyan( yet to finish),bloodline by sidney sheldon, Harmful Intent by Robin Cook, Testament by John Grisham and True Lies by Greg Iles. Books were my good company these hols. And i saw loads of movies too. Consequently, my holidays fled soon and i wasnt bored.

Now, its actually time for me to come out of all this and start doing something constructively.

For the past one week, Ive been idle. One thing tat kept haunting me was my future. In today's economic condition, this is a very tough question to answer. Will higher studies help me? Or should i get prepared for work? This is wat i keep thinking about, but everytime i think i only get a blurred answer. And now so many things lying ahead of me- CAT, XAT, JMET, SNAP, MAT. All of these exams commence from September.
As of now this is the case with all my friends around me. Some of whom are keen on GMAT, GRE, off campus,certification courses bla bla...
A very depressing time and
Just not happening...

And i keep my fingers crossed

"The holiday"

"The Holiday"-I just happened to watch this movie though its an old one. 

A story about two ladies in search of their true love. Cameron Diaz lives in Los Angeles. She dumps her boyfriend when she comes to know he is not true to her. To overcome this, Diaz thinks to have a break in life.

On the the other side, Kate Wincelet in England is madly in love with a colleague of hers for three years. To put it more clearly "unexpressed love for 3 years". And suddenly he gets engaged to another girl. Kate, unable to bear this disappointment was ready to welcome a change in her life . 

Diaz makes up her mind to go out on a vacation and so she selects England. And she finds Kate's house through Google. The very sight of her house attracted Diaz and she contacts her asking to rent her house for a few days.

Kate instead proposed an idea to switch their houses for 2 weeks. And that was a great idea to both of them who really wanted some diversion. The very next day they start. Kate in Diaz's house and Diaz in Kate's house. 

During their stay, they meet many unexpected people around and started realizing that this is what they exactly wanted. Diaz who was ready to get packed back to Los Angeles after Christmas,changed her mind when she came to know that she was in love with Jude Law. Jude is a brother of Kate and a father of two kids. They came to know each other and enjoyed being together. A vacation did make a difference in Diaz life.

And so it was in Kate's too. She made friends around and came to know about Jack Black(a friend of Diaz) who was betrayed as well by an actress. And there they are, comforting each other. Kate enjoyed Jack's presence and he enjoyed her compassion.

Both the pairs, after knowing that they have finally got what they have been longing for decided to get married. Kate, Jack, Diaz ,Jude and the two kids started living in the same house. And the movie ends with everyone partying happily.

The way it is made is too good. The emotions and feelings of the two women is well expressed. I enjoyed watching this movie. And so will you if you are looking for a good romantic story.

Apple's Safari 3.2

As i was surfing through Apple website i came across its recent browser called Safari. Fortunately it was available for Windows also. I just wanted to try to see if it is effective and then after downloading i felt its just too good to avoid.

Below the address bar is the homepage bar consisting of Google,Apple,Youtube, Wikipedia homepages in seperate tabs.The default Apple homepage displays its latest applications, latest movie trailers, headlines, latest book reviews, TV shows and so on.Unlike Google and Yahoo you dont have to select your widgets to be displayed on your homepage.It is all there by default.
The browser setup is 19mb in size and requires atleast 256mb RAM.
The sites u visited via other browsers from your PC are automatically loaded the first time u use Safari. This applies to the Bookmarks as well.
To sum up, Safari is speedy,attractive and user friendly.
So if you are someone who experiment new software/browser arrivals, here u go, u shudnt miss this!
Visit www.apple.com and click the downloads section
And share your experience with me.

Slumdog Millionaire -Talk of the Town

The 66th Golden Globe Awards has been an extraordinary night bringing the Hollywood and Bollywood together. Shah Rukh Khan, one among the 50 most popular people in the world was the presenter of The Golden Globe Awards on January 11 at Beverly Hilton. The movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' has won four Golden Globe awards under various categories.

The nominations for the Best Motion Picture are:

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire was awarded the Best Motion Picture-Drama.


The nominees for the Best Director were
Stephen Daldry- The Reader
David Fincher - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard - Frost/Nixon
Sam Mendes - Revolutionary Road

The best director -Motion Picture was given to Danny Boyle for having directed Slumdog Millionaire.

The nominations for the best screenplay for a motion picture were

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

And The best screenplay -Motion Picture was given to Slumdog Millionaire written by Simon Beaufoy

The nominations for The Best Original Score-Motion Picture are

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button -Composed by Alexandre Desplat
Changeling-Composed by Clint Eastwood
Defiance-Composed by James Newton Howard
Slumdog Millionaire-Composed by A.R.Rahman
Frost/Nixon-Composed by Hans Zimmer

The best Original Score -Motion Picture was awarded to A.R.Rahman for Slumdog Millionaire

A.R.Rahman is the first Indian to receive the Golden Globe award.

The Golden Globe Awards will be followed by the most famous Oscar Awards in a month. Slumdog Millionaire is nominated for the Oscars and the team(the whole country as well) keeps their fingers crossed.

The coolest smartphones of 2008

2008 has been the year of smartphones .In that case some phones have topped the market last year. Lets see which are those

1.Blackberry Storm

Blackberry Storm has become an outstanding product hitting the market in nov 2008.

Proves to be a good competitor for the iPhone. The Storm has all the facilities like Email, messaging, GPS, music, video recording, 3.2 megapixel camera with zoom option etc.

The key factor is the touch screen. When users type. the screen blends a little with a clickable sound.

Running on Verizon wireless 3G network Blackberry Storm costs about $200(as of nov2008)

2.Apple iPhone 3G

The much awaited smartphone of 2008 had a good hype even before it got released. The phone comes in 8GB and 16GB models and features WIFI, a 2 megapixel camera, Email, GPS,Safari browser and a touch screen.

The touch screen has multitouch and pinch facilities for better navigation and selection.

The iPhone also acts as a multimedia phone supporting nearly all the audio and video formats and has an integration with iTunes music Store.

Costs around $199 for 8GB model and $299 for 16GB model

3.T-Mobile G1

This HTC built smartphone is the first to operate on Google Android.

This phone has a keyboard layout and it slides out. Various features like GPS , Google Maps and WIFI.

T-Mobile G1 features a 3 megapixel camera and has access to the Amazon music Store.

The cost is around $180


4.Nokia N97
Nokia has introduced a computer in the form of a smartphone.

Has a keyboard layout, features GPS,WIFI,3G capabilities,3 megapixel camera and funtions on Symbian operating system.

Nokia N97 offers streaming facilities for videos-something which is not present in the other smartphones at present.

With 40 GB of memory space this mobile computer costs around $700.

5.Sony Ericsson Experia X1

The release of this smartphone has been postponed but it already has become a common talk among people.

Experia X1 features audio and video streaming, surfing, multimedia messaging, Email, GPS, 3.2 megapixel camera, music player,video recording and so on.

Runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 professional and has a keyboard layout.

Cost is fixed to $800.

6.Blackberry Bold

This smartphone provides all the functionalities of Blackberry like Email, messaging, GPS, Bluetooth etc.

Provides a qwerty layout keyboard for typing and features WIFI, browser, 2 megapixel camera with zoom facility and video recording.

It supports voice activated dialling and has access to AT&T music store.

Costs around $300.


7.HTC FUZE

Comes up with a 3D user interface in touch screen, Opera browser

with zooming.

Running on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, HTC Fuze enables users to work on Microsof Word, Excel, One Note and PowerPoint.

Features 3.2 megapixel camera,GPS,bluetooth,push to talk and has access to AT&T Music stores.

Costs around $300.

8.Nokia E71

Nokia E71 has proved to be a business device.

Provides encryption for memory cards with 110MB of internal memory and can be extended upto 8GB external memory.

Runs on Symbian OS and features a 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus.

Supports a music player too.

And it costs around $400.



9.LG Incite

This sexy smartphone runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional and therefore provides access to Microsoft Word,Excel and so on.

Features GPS, Email, WIFI and Bluetooth etc.

The Incite has Windows media Player. A 3 megapixel camera with video recording facility is available.

Provides 16GB of memory space.

Costs around $200.

10. Samsung Instinct

Instinct runs on Sprints network and provides functions like visual voice mail.

Users can listen to music while surfing and also paly games. Features a 2 megapixel camera, video recording, Live TV, Bluetooth, an integrated World clock, extendable memory upto 8GB and messaging.

Released in June 2008, the price is around $130.

Microsoft

I found this really interesting.
Have you ever wanted to advertise something to the world? If so, you can get started right away. Microsoft has come over with a new technique where anyone can upload their pic or their video and talk for 5 seconds. Go for a good location and start advertising and your video or pic becomes a part of the microsoft gallery.
Here is the link for you to get started
http://imapc.lifewithoutwalls.co.uk/#

The other day i was going through the microsoft research papers the latest one being "The paper based text messaging" system. This is now just a paper proposed in Nov 2008 but for all you know it might get implemented in future. What is this paper based text messaging system about? SMS and MMS are the popular means of communication today among the youngsters. What about the old? They dont generally prefer SMSing for communication. So there is a communication barrier existing. To overcome this shortcoming The paper based text messaging
was proposed. The user interface being in the form of paper is very simple to send and receive msgs and is therefore useful to the old and young alike.

My experience with CAT

Iam one among the 2.75 lakh students who appeared for CAT 2008 on 16th November. Neither did i go for any coaching classes nor did I take the exam seriously.Having a job offer as a back up option, me and my friend wanted to just give a try.Had I practised well for 1 month im sure i wud have crossed 80 percentile. My exam centre was in Anna nagar and the paper was unexpectedly tolerable. Verbal part was easy and i scored 93 percentile in that section.My quantitative section was the worst of all which i have to pay attention to.Somehow my overall score has got me 68.75 percentile.I was aware that this score isint going to take me anywhere near IIMs but that has taught me to try again sincerely. Hence I have decided to give another attempt this year giving my full effort to get through.. Its said CAT goes online from 2009 and i dont really have a clue if thats going to be favourable or not.

Smart softwares for day-to-day use

Very few try different softwares available in the internet. Some of the softwares which i found are very useful to us in day to day life.
I have a mobile phone which has just 256MB memory space.As you all may know,50 songs at the maximum can be stored.But i have manged to store 120 songs at present. This is possible by a compression software. Convert mp3 to ringtone which reduces the size of a song to less than half its original size without quality loss. Sometimes songs can also be reduced to Kb's.The same thing also applies to pictures.Try it and save your memory space.

You may any time be tempted to buy a new mobile.Not all contacts will be saved in your memory or sim card.So why dont you have a back up of your contacts in your PC? A software exists which enables you to store all the contacts and to retrieve them when needed. You can also provide a password to unlock this software.

And another software i found useful is the "folder lock".Not only folders does it lock but any files or even drives.If you think your PC is not confidential enough,go for this. You hav to lock a folder with an authenticated password as a result of which this folder does not even appear in the directory.You need to give your password correctly to retrieve the file. In this way your data stays secure.

Reading for pleasure

I had an aversion to novels and fictions till i was in school.I always thought i lack patience to sit back and read.It was in college tat i found many of my friends read a lot of books,so i thought to give a try.In english my first book was "Angels and Demons" by Dan Brown,a good start though.A thriller filled with suspense and i loved it.Then i read Da Vinci Code and Digital Fortress by the same author and i liked them but i hate Deception point.Then ive started reading some books of Sidney sheldon,Jeffrey Archer etc.And then Harry Potter.

In tamil my first novel was Parthiban kanavu by kalki.Ponniyin Selvan was supposed to be the best of kalki and i so wanted to read it.But i was only be able collect ebooks tat time.Believe me,i cud not stop reading all the 5 parts of PS in PDF format.A breath taking story and i love it.It was then i realised book or ebook doesnt make a big difference as long as the story is interesting enough to hold u.And thanks to my district library where i borrowed Sivagamiyin sabatham-another great book of kalki and this story can bring tears to even a stone hearted person at the end.
I have the ebooks and if you think u need any of those,leave ur mail id in the comments box and i'l mail it to u

Funny new year resolutions

Some of my new year resolutions

1.Be nice to people (coz i know i was mean to many)
2.I'd use less laundry and more deodrant :P
3.I will not spend time chatting on the phone (but switch to gtalk)
4.I will stop banging someone's door and running away in the middle of the night
5.I will no longer think about my past (but sit and worry abt my future)
6.I would no longer worry my staff by telling the same excuses but start thinking of a new one
7.I will avoid taking bath to conserve water
8.I will read my subject books(as soon as i find it)
9.I will not look at boys(but trust me im not a homosexual)
10.Take up a new habbit (maybe flirting)


But i dont really need all this stinking resolutions coz i know im perfect enough.So i dont intend to take all this seriously