Liesure, Birthday and Television…
…are all that are keeping me occupied as my vacation stretches on. For those still in the dark, June 30th was yours truly’s Happy Birthday….though the twenty sixth one can’t be counted as a happy one since it bodes well for the quarter life crisis to take over one’s thought processes! Nevertheless, the amiable presence of family and friends did make it a happy enough occasion to forget the years of underachievements!
All of have known it by now….Spain have won the Euro 2008 by beating Germany 1-0 in the final on Sunday night. Due to an ongoing dispute between our CableOp and the MSO, we were bereft of ESPN-Star Sports telecast and hence had to make do with Doordarshan’s telecast for the Final. Thankfully enough, the commentary was from BBC or Sky Sports and hence wasn’t a complete eyesore/earsore but the pre, mid and post-match analysis purely sucked!!! Anyways, yay! to the Spaniards for shaking off their would-have-been tags and emerge victorious. Campeones La Ispana 
On a brighter note (from my PoV…not necessarily rosy for the aapis folks), the vacation might be prolonged for a few more days! The northern regions of Orissa have been receiving incessant rains for the past few days and hence, all rail traffic from that direction is either being suspended or diverted. My scheduled departure was on the 6th but that train has now been diverted until the 10th! And alternate accommodation isn’t available until the 8th….so I may have to start to sow the seeds of doubt in the minds of the aapis folks vis-a-vis my return. Pronto.
Away on Vacation
Its almost like a ritual, isn’t it? Almost akin to the unfailing punctiliousness of the Halley’s Comet! I’m talking about my summertime vacation, which will be kickstarted from today. Year on year, I plan for only two sets of vacations - one in June, to coincide with yours truly’s budday and another in december for the ushering-in of the new year. And this year too, its the same. Though last year’s summertime vacation had to be postponed, this time round, I was taking no chances and had planned everything well beforehand.
But fate had something else in store for me! The flood situation in Northern Orissa meant that my train was running on a diverted route and wouldn’t touch my hometown! After some hectic parleying and harum-scarum, I did manage to get tickets on another train, albeit much slower and more of a yawn-inducer! But as I always say to myself, something’s better than nothing :mrgreen:
So its Adios till a week…a week in which I hope Spain will win the EURO 2008 & Kimi Raikkonen triumph in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Also hope to catch up with Hancock and The Incredible Hulk. Have gotta pen the Ooty Tour Diaries as promised to friends and catch up on several correspondence and also upload the pix that are languishing in my cam at home. Damn! Doesn’t sound at all like a chillax-vacation 
urlclassifier3.sqlite woes on Firefox 3
Ever since I’ve started using Firefox 3, I’ve been noticing that the ‘profile folder’ (where FF stores all the user’s personal info, extensions info etc) was steadily growing in size. Right from my initial usage of Firefox, I’ve not been using the default folder path for this profile but using the firefox -p startup option, create a Firefox_Profile folder at a different location so that the personalization could be carried over from version to version.
With Firefox 3, this profile folder started to bloat in size very often. Whilst with FF2 it was almost always nearabout 50 megs, with FF3 it grows to ~100 MB after a few hours of browsing. I looked into the individual files and bam! the culprit stood out to be a urlclassifier3.sqlite file which was topping out at 68 MB 
. Alarmed at this, I Googled around and found this Mozilla Knowledge Base article on the same.
The urlclassifier2.sqlite file contains information on known phishing sites that is used to warn you should you visit one. The information is downloaded by default from a Google database once a day. This functionality can be modified or turned off in “Tools → Options → Security
Firefox 3 contacts Google at each startup to get an updated list of known phishing websites and updates the same in the urlclassifier3.sqlite file. Agreed this is what makes our browser safe and secure but why is it bloating up in size? Are the phishing sites on the web increasing as fast as the size of this folder? Naah! Apparently, there’s a known bug in FF specific to this urlclassifier file which says that it has a lot of vacuum/blank space within and there ought to be a mechanism to automatically compress it effectively.
Its Germany Vs. Spain in the Euro 2008 Final
Vs. 
Fiery Spain beat a lacklustre Russia 3-0 in the second Semi Final of the EURO 2008 to book their spot in the final against Germany. The first half ended goalless with Spain carving out many a chances but lacking the finesse to finish it off! Striker David Villa looked subdued and Fernando Torres couldn’t apply the finishing touches to the gilt-edged chances he received. Russia were overtly defensive and never could get their counter-attacking style going. Arshavin and Pavlyuchenko were reined in well by Sergio Ramos and Carlos Puyol and at halftime, the Russians could muster only two shots at goal against the Spaniards five!
Second half started feverishly as both teams were pepped up to finish things off….but it was Spain who landed the opener and with it, the entire momentum of the match. Xavi Hernandez trundled in a neat pass from Iniesta after 50 minutes and the Spaniards gained a ton of confidence after that. Substitute Guiza added a second at the 72nd minute and David Silva sealed the victory with a neat finish from a Cesc Fabregas cross from the left. The Russians were well and truly beaten.
The final is on Sunday between two European powerhouses, each eager to shine on the big stage. Spain have been underdogs for as long as I can remember and Germany haven’t really set the stage alight post their World Cup victory more than 20 years ago. Both teams will be taking an awful lot of confidence after their victories but I feel Spain have the edge, having earned a more decisive victory as compared to the Germans scrappy one.
La victoria de Espana!!!
Flag images courtesy Wikipedia
Main aur meri Subconscious….
Act I Scene I
Am fast asleep. Sub-conscious thoughts about the Euro 2008 Semi Final race by. I vaguely see Italy winning against the Russians…..overlapped by the visuals of Kimi Raikkonen emerging victorious at an F1 race. There also are faint snatches of me sitting in a plush theatre watching The Incredible Hulk and chatting with friends who’re all Eric Bana fans and are least interested in Ed Norton. Could hear a far-away hooting of a train siren….the annual vacation is approaching….cut to a confrontation at the workplace….something about me having to cancel my leave at the last possible moment and I slamming the door shut in someone’s face. As I rush out, I realize I’m all sweaty….I wipe my brow and realize its not sweat……its soapy lather….smelling like surf excel…….wtf!!!
Act I Scene II
An incessant blaring of saat samandar paar main tere peeche peeche….aagayi awakens me from my slumber. I realize its my cellphone ringing away. I answer it and it turns out to be a colleague who’s been trying to reach me for the past hour or so. I mumble something incoherent (can’t remember it!) and doze off again.
Act II Scene I
I’m jarred out of a deep slumber by something which I still don’t know. A quick glance at the clock tells me that its 2 AM in the morning!!! I had slept like a log for the past 5 hours!!! I wonder why and realize a li’l while later that it might be due to the neat (as in without water) gulping of quarter-a-bottle of Benadryl! Since morning the throat’s been acting cagey and was unable to swallow anything without considerable pain….throat infection…or maybe tonsillitis!!!
Act II Scene II
I switch on the TV and see the last seconds of the Germany Vs. Turkey Euro 2008 Semi Final. Germany have pulled off a last-gasp victory…much in the same fashion as the Turks had done against Croatia and the Czech. I remember that I had to do the laundry and get to it pronto. Back-breaking work it is, without a m/c!
A quick check on the web tells me that my tickets to home have been confirmed and so has been my leave! The annual vacation’s just round the corner. I smile to myself, recalling the might-have-beens.
Curtain.
Epilogue
What an intricate thing the human subconscious is? Its pretty vague at best but all the thoughts that were swirling around whilst I was drifting off to sleep are all events that have occurred/will occur soon! And I was thinking that everything was fine and I needn’t waste much thought on those events anymore! Seems I don’t see eye-to-eye with my brain
Weekend Sports…gone abegging!
The weekend trip to Ooty meant that I missed out on all the sporting extravaganzas that took place during that time. Prior to the trip being finalized, I was quite eagerly looking forward to watching all the action in the Euro 2008 Quarter Finals. Italy were my pre-tournament favourites but they made it to the QFs by the skin of their teeth and no longer looked the team that had won the World Cup. The Netherlands and Spain were my choices to come up trumps in their respective matches and ideally, I would have expected Portugal and Croatia to join them in the SF’s. But imagine my surprise the day after on each matchday as I learnt from the news that Germany & Turkey had put it across their much-fancied rivals. What followed next was a knock-me-down-with-a-feather kinda shocker….the Neds were rolled over by the Russians! And though I had access to the television for the last of the QF’s between Italy & Spain, I chose to grab some much-needed sleep….which turned out to be for the best. The dour match would have nevertheless lulled me off to sleep! Spain prevailed in the penalties and thus we are now set for two cracker Semi Finals. Which I’ll be sure not to miss!
Also gone abegging was Kimi Raikkonen’s victory in the French Grand Prix over at Magny Cours. Bad luck seems to be striking Kimi whenever I miss watching a race! Having nailed the P1 slot in Qualifying, all was hunky dory for Raikkonen to wrap up a victory on Sunday…but alas, a broken exhaust meant that the win was snatched by teammate Felipe Massa with Kimi having just enough left to lumber on into second place. Hamilton had a pathetic race…and though that’s quite un-sportsman-like of me to say so, serves him right!!! Though reports suggested it was not quite an exciting race, I would have loved watching it nonetheless! Now I gotta wait till the next race at Silverstone in two weeks time to catch the highlights 
Returned from Udghagamandalam
The bygone weekend saw me head out to Udhagamandalam - or Ooty as it is called - along with few friends for a well-deserved holiday trip. Initially planned as a four-day long excursion, a multitude of situations forced us to cut it short by two days. It was fun nonetheless. I had been to Ooty once before…way back in 1991 and the quaint hill station has undergone a sea-change. Not only has it become too crowded, it has become too much commercialized!!!
The trip was kickstarted from Bangalore and we also touched Mysore, Bandipur/Mudumalai Forest Reserve on the way in and Coonoor on the way out. Shall post the detailed travelogues sometime soon…
Pics will be posted over at My Purely Placid PhotoBlog.
Part of the Firefox 3 Record? Show it off!
The Mozilla Foundation has clocked up 8 Million+ Downloads for its Firefox 3 browser as part of the record for the most software downloads in 24 hours. While the record is still to be verified by the Guinness authorities, the Mozilla foundation is giving away certificates for all of those who have participated in the ‘download spree’.
Of course, there is no verification in place to actually check whether you’ve downloaded Firefox 3 or not before it gives you the certificate!!! All you gotta do is to enter your name in the certificate page, and out comes a PDF file with your name on it! So get it and proudly flaunt off your record attempt participation.
The Fox is here…Firefox 3 i.e.
After almost two hours of waiting, the Fox has arrived onto my notebook. The Download Day started for us in India at 22:30 Hrs but the site was down even before the said hour approached! I gave it half-an-hour time (maybe they were uploading the files, beefing up the cache etc etc) and was constantly monitoring the release tracking Wiki. I also was checking up most of the Mozilla mirrors…might be there was a new version all ready for me to grab…but alas! all the 3.0 folders had was a “We’re not quite ready yet” message.
Finally, at about 00:35 HRS IST, this download page was accessible and I promptly clicked upon the Download link for the en-US/Win32 version. The 7.1 MB download took a little over a minute and when it was ready, I was in two minds as to whether should I uninstall the older version or overwrite it! I eventually chose the latter and boy! was the installation quick! The mandatory extension-compatibility check took a while (since I have many of them) and I was a tinge disappointed to see many favourite extensions not making the cut! Hopefully, the makers will scale upto 3.0 soon. Once installed, I quickly tweaked some settings and am good to go….and this is my first post from the latesht and fastesht and coolesht browser - Firefox 3.0…..FTW!
First Impressions:
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Itz lightning fast…seriously, I never logged onto my Dashboard this fast!
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The ‘New Tab” button to the left of the tab-bar is gone! Instead, there’s a ‘Undo Close Tab’ button!
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Tabs are bigger than in 2.0. The Opera influence???
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One-Click bookmarking and two-click categorizing and tagging of oft-visited sites.
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Revamped Add-ons page - Search for new ones, Update existing ones, view installed plug-ins (plug-ins, not add-ons)…all in one page.
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Uncluttered status-bar. Add-ons that are displayed on the status bar go unobtrusively to the rightmost corner. Progress bar too goes right-wards.
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No AdBlock
- The memory leak has NOT been fixed!!! 3.0 still hogs up 70+ MB of my RAM!!!
More as I continue using it further…
As of now, I should get back to the Italy Vs. France EURO 2008 game…Italy leading 1-0 with France down to 10 men 
GMail ‘Experimental’ Features: Superstars & Quick Links
Few days ago, the developer folks over at GMail had introduced the GMail Labs - the experimentation hotbed for new features in GMail. They had introduced 13 new features wherein users can change the settings to enable/disable them and try them out on an experimental basis. Though I have not exactly been too much busy all this past few days, I somehow tried not to get too close to these experimental addons. I was trying out a little experiment of my own on GMail (involving CSS & Stylish; but that’s for another day, another post) and hence didn’t try’em out. Today, however I got a little free time and was on Safari, so had the chance to check out two of these new features….
GMail Superstars:
This add-on is nothing but the addition of a few more gif icons to the starred feature in GMail wherein messages can be starred so as to stand out prominently. Previously there was a plain ol’ yellow coloured star but now we’ve twelve more gifs which can be cycled through for starring a mail. User can select which gifs to use from the settings page by dragging the icons from/to the In use/Not in use selection:
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Likes: Can differentiate between important mails, easier than coloured labelling.
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Dislikes: None
GMail Quick Links:
Feature where a particular view can be added as a quick link or bookmarked within the mail interface itself. Again, an enhancement to already existing functionality. The UI has almost every link one needs to access a particular function, be it sent mail, archived mail, labelled mail or drafts. One has to be very imaginative in thinking up links that are not present by default but can be generated via search/filters and then add that view as a Quick Link. Some that I could think of and add were Today’s Mail & My Mail:
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Likes: Customisability of views that can be accessed via several clicks, quick access to tedious views not present in UI, can use to view all mails with a particular type of attachment.
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Dislikes: Cannot manually add the search/view path. In automation terminology, its record and save rather than script it!
Other features will be tried out later on…stay tuned!
