Herein lie the stories sung of Nikhil when the world was young.
12-31-2003, 6:37PM
As you may have noticed, this site now contains a custom Google search widget to allow you to search my site. It's on the top page.
12-30-2003, 4:28PM
So it occurs to me that I'm getting a little annoyed by the homogenaity of most web logs - "blogs" - out there. Though I've been coding HTML since its inception, and it has gotten MUCH more complicated, I just don't see the point of a piece of software that gives you a cookie-cutter site: log, links, friends, photo gallery, mini-calendar. A well designed layout lets you do easy customization without relying on others' work.
Isn't the true hacker ethic of old to "roll your own" solution? Ah, hell, I'm probably getting carried away anyway.
12-30-2003, 1:36PM
I have modified the default font on the site to use Arial instead of Verdana. You may not care so much about this, but you will notice that the text spacing is much tighter, with less wasted space. (As always, this site is font-scaling-friendly.)
In other news, the Alpha version of CD Catalog is quite stable and is locked down for now. I'll post it later today, along with pictures, on the software page. Also, the built-in help system is being designed now, and will be added to the alpha code when it is ready.
12-29-2003, 7:48PM
More CD Catalog news... I have further refined the database code to make it even faster, and have also made all changes transactionally atomic. Though Jet is a reliable single-user DB engine, this change should help ensure robustness in the face of errors.
12-27-2003, 10:58PM
[begin rap-speak]Yo, yo, check it, yo. I just want to give a couple shouts out to some peeps out there, yo.[end rap-speak]
First, hello and welcome to Nikhil Kumar, who had a great idea about a link exchange for all the Nikhil's out here in cyberspace.
Secondly, thanks go to SHALABH for the compliments on the new holiday logo, as well as a guess at the hidden meaning as well. :) Very nice, my friend.
Finally, I noted a comment saying the site is a little too dark. Your comment is appreciated, though I was going for something different than the usual garish black-text-on-white look. However, a smart man takes advice to heart, thus I will begin experimenting with ways to add splashes of color while retaining a relatively "dark" feel.
From now on, I'll try to respond to every (non-spam) posting I receive on my guestbook here. I have not done so in the past, and I apologize to those of you were kind enough to leave a few words of enouragement and went unanswered. Though I may be an idiot, I don't make the same mistake twice.
12-27-2003, 10:31PM
A couple links for all of you are below - I highly recommend everyone read the one about TurboTax.
12-25-2003, 11:30AM
The more astute among you will notice the new festive holiday look. I hope you all have a great holiday season and an excellent 2004!
(Or, for the more cynical among you: eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.)
12-23-2003, 3:37PM
My PC is almost fully recovered from the bi-annual rebuild. It was completely gutted, backed-up, reformatted, and rebuilt. Sadly, it is a reality of Microsoft operating systems that this MUST be done at least once a year to keep your machine working efficiently.
12-16-2003, 5:57PM
Multiple small news items today:
Though the size of the Return of the King outing has been reduced to just a few people, it is still set for tomorrow evening at Tinseltown. Call me if you want to attend.
I just spoke to the Night Train, and his wife is doing great and is right on track for the new year - alll our best wishes to her!
Also from T.N.T., things are looking good on the job front for him after the recent announcement of the closing of a large corporation's headquarters at which he is employed.
12-15-2003, 9:00PM
I am back after my long holiday hiatus. While it's good to be back, there's no rest for the wicked...
For the past few days I have been working on an outstanding new application called CD Catalog that will be released to a public beta within the month. Check it out on the software page.
12-11-2003, 3:39PM
DAMN IT!!!! I just barely recovered from a major screwup in registry editing. Unfortunately, it seems the aborted firewall install 3 weeks ago severely damaged my registry. Look at my network properties, to see what I mean:
The good news is, I saved a copy of that section of the registry pre-crash, so I now I just have to manually "diff" 50,000 lines of text. Ugh.
12-11-2003, 2:00PM
So it turns out I can triple my upstream bandwidth for only $10/month more! Not a bad deal.
12-09-2003, 10:00PM
A really good episode on 24. A real mind-job. Turns out that Gayel is working WITH Jack and Tony! WTF?!?!
12-01-2003, 6:20PM
I have just found a spy-photo of the supposed new look of the PlayStation 3. This is only a conceptual drawing, so keep that in mind. The photo is below the description and quote.
According to Phil Harrison, Sony's SSCE Vice-President, the new system may have an upgraded version of the PS2 EyeToy camera that will do facial recognition and gesture-based menus. For reference, gesture-based means an interface similar to what you saw Tom Cruise using in Minority Report:
"EyeToy was a signpost for things in the future," enthused Harrison. "If you can attach very high-resolution, low-cost video cameras you can deduce some quite interesting things about their users. We'll be able to extrapolate eye movement and gestural recognition, more complicated finger movement, and the logical next step of that is to deduce from a person's facial expression and demeanor what their emotion [sic] state is." Harrison also discussed the possibility of the new console sporting a menu system which was entirely driven by hand gestures, comparing it to the computer system used by Tom Cruise's character in the movie Minority Report.
(Thanks to Gizmodo.com for the info)
12-01-2003, 4:00PM
FYI, I'm codifying my rules for archiving the Daily Log. From now on, the previous month will be archived after one week has elapsed in the current month.
