Got a new camera!

Yes it has been months, since I got my camera. Also took me a long time to decide upon one. I need to read though all user reviews and technical jargon to decide upon. Here I'm trying to consolidate my learnings for a better perspective. Choose your right cup.

Why you need a camera?
Primarily try to answer this question for yourself! Are you buying one since the old camera is outdated and does not possess any new features of the latest digital camera? One might seriously be trying to change a profession and take photography full time. Are you planning to gift some one! Or you have occasional memorable moments that you want to capture. Here I have organized the post based on the camera model

Sleek & Saxy
These are camera's that are going to be mostly on a home use where you would be covering a family get-to-gather. So it would me mostly indoor photography in lights and subject mostly would be human. A good flash is always required. Also the camera is assumed to shuffle multiple hands for taking a picture. Hence to make life easier a small get a camera thats slim and handy like Sony DSC T20. Easy to recharge and share. Convenience comes with cost, they are costlier than other home models.

Point & Shoot
These are camera that serve their purpose. They could be used for daily home usage as well as photo shoots that you would like to cover. Some of them comes with wide ranges of shooting modes, when explored would be really helpful. They also have long range of zoom and flash option. A good example would be Canon S5 IS. The spectrum of camera's is too large and it takes lot of time to decide which one to go for.

Semi Pro
These kind of camera's are your first step for promotion to becoming a pro. They are high end point & shoot camera that are aptly called 'SLR like'. Comprises most of the features of an SLR but not quite there. A panasonic Lumix is a nice example. They are costlier and starts giving you the trouble of maintaining them.

Pro or DSLR
When I was buying the only reason I din go for DLSR's was maintenance. You have the camera separate and the lens separate for them. Protecting the cash cow lens and the camera sensor from dust is painful is what I have read. But tell you what they are worth it when you try a shot with them. You def need to know some basic with Focal-Aperture-Shutter triangle to use them. Canon Rebel XTi would be a nice example (mind you lens is separate).

Reviews
They are integral part when buying a camera. Take some time to shortlist some camera and compare them. There are some nice websites like dpreview or illustratedphotography that has all information that you need. Also user review is most important, Amazon or testseek is a good place for that.

Nambikai Dhesam - Poetry

Nambikai Dhesam, is a collection of small Tamil poetry authored and compiled by Dr. Arumuganathan. Dr. Arumuganathan is a professor, PSG College of Technology. He is one among the most respected and I'm an adoring fan of his probability, I still remember his class on 'Queuing Models'. He is also famous for his role of Hostel warden. Here is one other endowment from his life, 'A collection of Poetry'.

On a brief note from Damodarakannan, It book seems to reflect small aspects from college life and day to day happening. A very good read for Tamil lovers. The book was released March 25 and you can have a glimpse here.

The dear thing about this book is the money raised by selling the book, will be for a charity. Hats off. You can comment on this post or call (9900185925/Varunkumar: 9342945288) to get a copy of the book and its CD for Rs. 50.

Plan your travel

It has now become a routine for me to crib about the annoying things that happen around me. The latest inclusion is the private travels that run across the city. I'm bad at planning or would simply say work occupies my mind most of the time. So tend to miss appointments, dinner notes, mails, msgs, calls and end up getting left & right from all. Thats ok (I dont explain myself.... My friends understand me and the rest wont believe it anyways... - courtesy Karthi).

In my usual style, for traveling for Thursday afternoon I landed in Madiwala at 9pm on Tuesday night. Fortunately I got a ticket, was happy to take that and quickly walk away. Then for the return I asked my Dad to try out something in Coimbatore. Some days back he called me and said he booked one! I was happy again. Then part of the conversation, he said I only got seat number 38. Damm me! Seat No.38. Are you kidding! I never knew that Airbus had so many seats. So I asked him to call and confirm the booking center again. There the ticket booking girl, "Yes sir the bus has that seat number. Infact it comes in the middle so no worry. This is a special bus, it has 52 seats." F$(k! you call that as special bus, a 3+2 seater. On a normal travel itself I fold myself two times, before parking my leg (or the girl in the front seat would turn back giving a killing stare! conveying don shake my seat and disturb me!). Most annoying part of all is that it would take costlier than regular buses. Its was Rs.420 for an Rs.210 ticket. I would still think, if they really have permit for this bus.

Before canceling this special 52 seater. I want to book my seat in some other travels. Many of them turned down the offer with repeated dialog of, "Sunday full sir". Then finally KAVI travels said he had ticket for Bangalore on Sunday afternoon. It was a non-ac sleeper. Funny part is it costs Rs.500. I asked him why, he says like a cool cat, "Its a special bus and we cost every Sunday like this." WTF Even the night sleeper would not cost like this.

The actual thinks that happen within are, the booking agents book the online ticket when the open and show the status in FULL status. Then at the last moment, they hike the ticket at high rates and sell them to all such late comers. I have even spoke to some agents like this, they would say at the moment the ticket opens there would be many agents from other locations trying to book the tickets. So they just type the Name / Sex and rest fill with 1 character by pressing tab and booking the ticket. One other interesting thing would the cancellation charge would be 20%-30% for any time cancellation. When you cancel 4-5 tickets you could have planned another travel with the cancellation money. You can even see a booking guy from KPN get tickets for CONTI & ABT. No government or police would ask them until its been taken to lime light.

Another specific travels to talk about is ABT. ABT would have really entered passenger transport to compete with KPN, Since the ABT parcel service got into a toss when KPN parcel service started growing and sliced good portion of the profit. When they introduced the ticket rates where Rs.360, which was nominal for a non-volvo A/C bus. But they brand it as A/C coaches, really there is a lot of difference in traveling in Volvo A/C and normal A/C bus. As days progressed and he got some good customer base because anyone would accept an A/C travel at a lower cost. But he then hiked his prices to Volvo rates soon (Rs. 415), which is never worth when compared to Volvo experience. But people really take time to differentiate them.

Thought KPN has introduced ID card proof for the online ticket bookings. This would reduce by a small number but still there are hundreds of travels that continue to operate this way. Also its encouraging that SETC get into these routes with good buses, they need to increases the buses many folds to give passenger a good relief from private monopolization.

Conclusion: Finally I planned to cancel the ticket in Kavi too and go to Bangalore on Monday. No harm I can spare a working day.

Moral: Plan your travel days ahead. Dust your calender. Atleast a month ahead, else cancel your traveling appointment. :) Put appointments in your Google calender of when all you need to book tickets for long time.

Good Night.

Happy Holi

Wishing you all a very colorful and Happy Holi.

Left - Right: Vijesh, Saurab, Bharath

Coding food

I wish I write a simple C program that makes tea for me. I just run the binary and get me tea. It would make me feel good. Being practical,

Why can't every degree in Computer science have a course in cookery?

Australian GP 2008 - Live

Australian GP 2008 - Preview

Yes the time has come to buckle your seat belts. Here they come in full throtle. Formula 1 begins in few more hours in Melborne circuit. Hamilton's season sensation and Kimi snatching the title at the last race. Alonzo getting back to Renault, it doesn't get any better. This season's highlight for the sport as far as India is concerned would be Force India. Don miss the stats in offical website and some live blogging in mine.

Welcome to Bangalore

Yesterday evening I returned from office and wanted to try some different food. So Juice Junction's noodles came to my mind. (sick.. a noodles for a change..) I ordered one and was waiting for my order. Mean while I inquisitively noted a guy near by,

He had also returned from office. He was in a formal black pant with full sleeve cream shirt, it was buttoned till his wrist. His shirt tucked in and was standing inside a new woodland shoes, I can notice that it only walked few steps. There he had his new laptop bag with a new t-shirt sprouting out (saying today was my induction) . His hair was well oiled (he did his homework well). A blaring bike on the road soon caught his attention. His dropped head looking at his snack and completing it. At the end came his wallet where money was counted and then taken out. :-)

Yet another engineer ready to swim along! Welcome to Bangalore!

:-)

சொல்ல நினைப்பதெல்லாம் சொல்லியிருந்தால்...
எழுத நினைப்பதெல்லாம் எழுதிருந்தால்...
இவள் ஏன் இன்னும் என் தோழி.

Tring Tring... Tring Tring...
Me: Hello Mii(pronunciation of Mom)
Mom: Hello, Vijay! How are you?
Me: Nice Mii, Life's good.
...
...
Mom: How is your friende?(meaning female friend)
Me: Yeah, whats for them! Everyone seems to be fine.
Mom: Oh! is it so...
Me: You know them all right, what then.
Mom: But you should have caught some special friende by this time in Bangalore.
Me: Come on! Why would I hide it from you.
Mom:
Me: Serious mi.. belive me. :)

Later had a long conversation with one of my friend on some serious topic. I know you should have almost guessed from most of them above. But we did cover a who lot of the spectrum. Yeah its on Love, Infatuation, Commitment, Arranged Marriage, Which one will be secure, For what will your parents support, How does a guys life change after getting married, How does a girl change her life after marriage, what the right age for having a child, lush that happens after engagement, how to handle successful and unsuccessful wedding, how is the search for bride and bridegroom dependent on some crazy string matching algorithm that runs across the matrimony websites, digging the person's profiles in orkut to blogger to corporate profiles. What not.

I assume it will take a day for me to write down the whole conversation. My work also wont allow me to do so. To keep it simple, "Be yourself!"

Super Sunday

A Sunday for India, Indians & Indian Cricket. Will it be the Lions or will it be Lion cubs or both! Where will it happen, in Australia or Malayasia. Yes its lined up as one of the biggest day for Indian cricket where the Big boys take on the World champions for the final showdown of the 'down under' tour. On the other side its the under 19'eens taking on South Africa for becoming the world campions.

I just will keep up with the live blogging happening. I'm counting srihari on this.