Monday, August 31, 2015

Divergent


This is a trilogy by Veronica Roth. It is not in the same vein as the Hunger Games trilogy but remains quite close. It is a science fiction film that is set in a futuristic community after wars have destroyed most of the world population. In this film, societies are divided into five separate factions, representing different virtues. At 18, children have to decide their particular faction based on a test that highlights their inclinations and they have to choose a faction for the remainder of their lives. The protagonist, Beatrice (Tris) Prior has to make a her choice that surprises everyone. This is a good thriller, not as good as Hunger Games,set in a place where people have to pick factions before blood. Tris is warned that she is a divergent, meaning that she does not fit into any slot. Along with Four, a character from the Dauntless faction, she has to unearth a conspiracy by Jeanine (Kate Winslet) to eliminate all divergents. Tris has to understand what makes divergents so dangerous. The character development has been handled well by Director Neil Burger. Good performances by Shailene Woodley as Tris and Kate Winslet.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

A Television Remote Control can help you access Energy Consumption Information


Control4 Energy Management System Cheyenne helps you save energy by using a programmable thermostat control, load disconnect measurement and control and lighting control. All these can be accessed through a television remote control. As per research done by Nielsen Media, today’s average household contains 2.73 television sets per house which is actually more television sets than people as people’s average per household is only 2.55. An average American spends about four hours per day using television. So, many of us are familiar with how a television works. We are more familiar with how a television remote control works than any other electronic device in our home. Through this remote control, you can have the power to access real time information on energy consumption and electricity costs.

Greatest Spinner that played for India


Bishen Singh Bedi was born in Amritsar on 25th September 1946. He was inducted in the Northern Punjab team when he was just fourteen. He made his mark as a slow orthodox left arm spinner from this early age. He went on to become India’s greatest spinner. He played Ranji Trophy for Northern Punjab from 1961 to 1967. Then he played for Delhi between 1968 and 1981. He also played for the County of Northamptonshire between 1972 and 1977. Bishen Singh Bedi played test cricket for India between 1966 and 1979. He made his test debut on 31st December 1966 against the West Indies. He played his last test against England on 30th August 1979. He made his one day debut against England on 13th July 1974 and played his last one day match against Sri Lanka on 16th June 1979. He played 67 tests during his career scoring 656 runs with a top score of 50 not out against New Zealand at Kanpur in 1976. He has taken 266 test wickets, taking more than five wickets in an innings fourteen times. He played ten one day matches and 370 first class matches with a total wicket haul of 1,560 wickets, taking five wickets or more in an innings for one hundred and six times, making him the greatest spinner to emerge from India. No bowler has reached his tally of 1,560 wickets in India. When he played for Delhi in the Ranji Trophy season of 1975, he has picked up a record sixty four wickets in a season. Bishen Singh Bedi was part of the famous spin quartet. He used to lead them from the front. He was Captain for the Indian team in twenty two test matches. He is well known for wearing a colourful Sikh head knot gear known as `patka’. Like Lala Amarnath, he is recognised for his outspoken nature on cricket issues as well as his blunt views. Bishen Singh Bedi’s bowling was known for his artistic style of delivery that was backed with beauty, grace and guile. He was an expert flighter of the ball, inviting the batsman to come down the crease and lift him. He was fully capable of either hurrying the ball or holding it back. His strategic variations in spin got him many wickets as batsmen found him difficult to play. He was able to bowl in all the three sessions, sometimes covering the full day with total control and rhythm. In fact, the pace bowlers would just complete the formalities of taking the shine away from the ball by bowling just about fourteen overs when Bedi would start the spin proceedings. He was of great value to all the Indian captains before he took charge himself in 1976 taking over from Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi. During the Australian tour of 1978, he picked up 31 wickets in that series that India lost marginally by 2-3. Bobby Simpson had come back from retirement to lead Australia to victory. Bedi’s best test bowling was 7/98 against Australia at Calcutta in 1970. Though Kumble took more wickets than him and even got ten wickets in an innings, he could not replace the artistry of Bishen Singh Bedi. Also, in Kumble’s days, India would be playing four times more number of tests than in the previous years when Bedi was in the team. His first test victory as Captain was against the West Indies at Port of Spain in the 1976 series when India made a record 406 runs in the fourth innings to win that test. He also became the first Indian Captain to concede an international one day match in November 1978 against Pakistan at Sahiwal. India was requiring twenty three runs from two overs and Bedi recalled the batsmen from the crease and conceded the match in protest at the bowling of Sarfaraz Nawaz who bowled four bouncers in succession without a single ball being declared a wide by the umpires. It was not in good sporting spirit and Bedi drove the point home. It is another matter that India may not have scored those twenty three runs in the twelve balls remaining. He was a man of principles and played a gentleman’s game as cricket demanded. He started a cricket academy and pointed out that it was necessary for the limbs to be supple for good spin bowling. Hence, he always washed his clothes with his own hands and recommended it as the best exercise for the fingers and shoulders. Bishen Singh Bedi, India’s greatest spinner, has accused one day cricket and small cricket grounds as the murderers of classical spin bowling in India. He refers to T20 cricket as a vulgar display by hooligans.

140 Character Limit of Twitter Hacked


Twitter’s 140 character limit has been hacked. Twitter customers were stunned when they saw that people have managed to write over nine hundred characters in a tweet when they know that the maximum limit is 140. Stack Exchange has posted that this strange message contained backlashes and a bunch of numbers. The message was posted in Russian. It contained Unicode surrogate points that were not properly encoded as UTF-8. The CESU -8 encoding utilized in the tweet is accepted by some Twitter interfaces but for display purposes as the social network expects valid UTF-8 sequences. Each surrogate code point ends up being displayed with twelve characters since three bytes on each of these sequences are displayed as 3 C style octal escape sequences of 4 characters each. Some technicians feel that it is possible since each group of characters that begins with a backlash represents an escape sequence which is considered as a valid character constant. Some of the escape sequences available are control characters. These characters tell the computer to move the cursor to move left or right or delete the characters to the left maybe. They can be used quite effectively to confuse Twitter.

7 ways to protect your printer


There are many risks involved with your printer, particularly when you are networking. You often neglect to keep the printer secure. People have a tendency to secure their data and pay lot of attention with file servers providing encrypted access controlled storage. Workstations are also encrypted with password and even biometric access. What you do not realize is that when you print that confidential data or send it off to a printer, the printer may not be as secure as the remainder of your system. You can avoid the networking printer problems if you are careful with these steps. 1. Unplug If you want to avoid network printer problems, don’t network your printer. If you connect directly from a personal computer through a USB, your printer and your printing jobs can be kept confidential. 2. Password Networked printers can be accessed remotely with a password. You can always change the default password. This is the most important step of all for a networked printer. 3. Firmware When security issues are likely, printer makers release updates to its firmware. You can keep your printer firmware updated. By keeping your printer secure with a strong password and closing any known security holes with up-to-date firmware, you can take care of most basic network printer issues. 4. Secure Your Infrastructure Keeping passwords updated, installing the latest firmware and securing access are just a few of steps you can take through remote-management software. You should also use firewalls to protect against outside attacks and make sure that Wi-Fi networks are secured. 5. Secure Your Data When you send a print job, you have to be sure that it is on a secured network. You can use encryption so a print job can’t be intercepted along its path. 6. Secure Your Printers Beyond changing the default password, implementing access control can protect the printer from being accessed remotely. Printers with hard drives for spooling have to be encrypted. Once a job is printed, traces of it should be erased from the hard drive and from memory. 7. Secure Your Printouts If you generate secure documents with special paper, secure trays are available to protect the media. Avoid leaving documents sitting in a printer tray.

Friday, August 14, 2015

The Meaning of Life by Monty Python


The Meaning of Life by the Monty Python troupe is a comedy with a touch of a musical sketch that was made in 1983. It was the last in a series of films that featured all six members of the troupe before the untimely death of Graham Chapman in 1989 due to tonsil cancer. In this film, the team of Monty Python is sorting out an important question in everyone's life - What is the actual meaning of life? They try to answer by exploring numerous life stages, beginning with birth. Here, doctors are more concerned in their equipment than in delivering the baby safely or caring for the mother. Next stage calls for a Roman Catholic family bearing many children as sperm is sacred and there is no room for a condom. This is followed by a lesson of sex education and acts of war. During the middle age, a couple orders philosophy in a restaurant menu, proceeding to live organ transplants. The highlight of the film is a song 'Isn't it awfully nice to have a penis?" many people may find this film tasteless but it happens to be extraordinarily funny; it is my kind of weird fun! The questions about the meaning of life are answered in a chain of vignettes that are outrageously funny. Words cannot describe this wacky riot in detail. See it for yourself in this preview - https://youtu.be/54ulXNk-bmo

Zubin Mehta - A Tribute by Late Pandit Ravi Shankar


"Zubin Mehta has chiselled features, a dashing smile, handsome; he is one of the greatest conductors of our times. As a fellow Indian, musician and friend, I have more reason to admire and love him. I first met Zubin in the early nineteen sixties when I was in Montreal to perform. He was the chief director of Montreal symphony. I came to know him better a couple of years later in Los Angeles when he became the director there. This was right after the Monterey concert and I was also living there a that time. Both Zubin and I met often in parties on various occasions. We got together again in the late nineteen seventies when he became the director of the New York Philharmonic. This is when I started to write my Second Sitar Concerto. Zubin asked me to write minor second and seventh notes. I avoided the fifth note. I tried with rhythmic cycles of five and a half and thirteen and a half beats. It was performed by the NYPO under Zubin. I cherish that memory. We also recorded it later with the London Symphony players. I was living in New York near Gramercy Park with Sue Jones and our daughter, Nora (Geetali), was a few months' old then. I used to go to the Lincoln Center in the mornings where Zubin used to rehearse for the pieces hat were to be played in the evenings. Zubin loved spicy food and hot chilies, particularly. In fact, he always carried a little metal box with him in his pocket which contained hot chilies. I remember Zubin as a conductor who has music running through every vein in his body. He has worked for numerous humanitarian causes and is loved by everyone. He is a caring and a sensitive person. Recently, he heard Anoushka perform in Switzerland and after the concert, he contacted me immediately to tell how ell she played. It was a wonderful gesture from him and I was deeply touched. I like to keep track of Zubin's glorious conducting career and tours all over the world and my love for him grows stronger as I feel closer to him. May God bless and protect him always."