Yesterday I got a chance to catch up with my ex-team and on the way back home I realised that there were some qualities that made those guys so special. It definitely isn’t that they’re highly talented, technically very sound or know some cool stuff(s) which always makes you wanna give an ear to what they say. It is that we always shared a good laugh together. Yes! It is that simple.

I’m proud to say that I’ve been part of two such great teams at ThoughtWorks. I am quite unsure of what the future holds for me in months to come but I definitely know for sure that a team that has a smile on their face when things look bleak is a team that I want to be part of.

Hmm.. Interesting piece of information. Ain’t sure about the credibility of this but I found it rather interesting.

There are some things that I religiously follow. Some are stupid, some make no sense, but these are the things that make ME. Things like

1. Make note of all the emergency exits when I enter any public place

This one is quite weird, but I don’t know why I end up forcing myself remember all the emergency exits when I enter a public place. I think this somehow accounts to my weekend travels. Everytime I board one of those KSRTC buses, I take some time to figure out where the exits are. Crazy, but hey, coming across so many casualties on that dreaded road it is just wise to be prepared for the unexpected.

2. Take some time to pray whenever I see an ambulance pass by

I don’t exactly remember why this one started, but I ain’t complaining. It always makes me feel good that in some way I care for people around me who I don’t even know.

3. Clearing my TEMP folder(s) too often

This one is ridiculous. I “have” to stop doing this. I overdo it, to an extent that my Window Manager actually crashed when I went ahead and did a force delete on the contents of /tmp.

I’ll stop now before it gets out of control. And, there has been an addition to this endless list

n+1. Make sure I speak/IM to everyone that I really miss… everyday.

Might prove an annoyance… but, hey, that’s just me!

All I want to say is Sept 2009, although a month that I was rarely active with anything, has been one heck of a mess and has brought me down day-in day-out! I hope today marks the end of everything that I wish did not occur… EVER!

Yesterday there was some turbulence with my ISPs DNS which annoyed the heck outta me as it wasn’t a pleasure accessing Google through http://208.67.219.230 which actually led me to something which was the highlight of my day. OpenDNS.

OpenDNS is just another step in making my network secure, reliable and safer. Also, personally I felt that the load time(s) of some of the websites were faster. It has a pretty good anti-phishing service too. As they claim, these might be few of the many reasons why millions of people have already switched to OpenDNS.

So, just go ahead.. Pull the plug from your ISPs DNS and switch to OpenDNS.

OpenDNS on ubuntu : https://www.opendns.com/start/device/ubuntu

“Peter Gibbons: …So that means that every single day that you see me, that’s on the worst day of my life.”

Man! Office Space rocks. The irony is that I’m afraid I’ve started feeling the same.

Today did not start out that great. Felt sorta low the entire noon. By evening, it had hit rock bottom. It is just one of those days when nothing seems to go as you want it to. As I was taking a walk, I noticed my neighbour playing with his dog and it immediately reminded me of Goochi Boochi. Man I so miss him!

Shorter version:

I’m highly impressed with Gnome-DO.

In great detail:

Off late I spend more time on Ubuntu, and being a big time fan of QuickSilver, I felt that I was crippled initially. I knew about Gnome DO for a long time, but never had an opportunity to use it. The first command that I ran upon installing Ubuntu this time was

sudo apt-get install gnome-do

And, voila! She was so beautiful. An elegent piece of abstract art waiting for someone to start a conversation with her.

I’m in love with the flexibility that this provides and all of it for nothing in return. Amazing. Of the infinite things it can do, here are some of my favorites…

1. Seemless integration with RhythmBox

2. Integrate with Google Contacts

3. Interact with your Instant Messaging clients

Hmmm… Finally! In Master Shifu own words, “Inner Peace!”.

Lately, there are two songs that are stuck in my head: Sara Bareilles – Vegas and Michael Buble – Home. I never get tired listening to them day in day out.

Hmm… Seems like gone are the days of Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Rammstein.