Sand grains keep falling on my serverFri, 30th Dec '05, 10:50 pm::

The Falling Sand Game I am hosting on my server is attracting over 30,000 different people each day to my website. Kinda interesting. Till Dec 25, about 200 people a day visited different pages of "chir.ag". Now in just 4 days I've had over 9,000 people check out my maps and over 25,000 people check out this page (my blog). The good news though is that my server's able to handle all this amazing amount of traffic without showing any signs of slowing down. After being linked on Digg, Reddit, Delicious, MSNBC and tons of other popular websites, I'm kinda proud of my little server holding up just fine. Head over to my /tech blog to read more about Little Servers, Big Performance.

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Wed, 28th Dec '05, 10:00 am::

Just wanted to mention that our company has moved to a new (much bigger, nice, awesomer) building and I've been extremely busy setting up the entire network. I'mfinally in my new kickass office :)

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Sat, 24th Dec '05, 6:35 pm::

I generally don't have the patience to play video games or puzzles. But I found an awesome one: Sand - Draw lines to alter the flow of various substances. Via Fark.

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Sat, 24th Dec '05, 1:20 pm::

I want to go to a Russian party and learn how to drink vodka and stay sober.

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Red Sleigh DownSat, 24th Dec '05, 4:15 am::

Breaking News: In a heroic triumph of National Security Enforcement, an unidentified aircraft was shot down over rural Minnesota early this morning.

Reports from US Intelligence confirm the aircraft was linked to evil-doing Al-Qaeda Terrorists and ISB-TLK (Iranian Suicide Bombers That Love Karaoke). Analysis of the cargo suggests fissile bomb making material was being distributed to sleeper cells throughout the US to fuel the liberal attack on Christmas by toppling Jesus as the symbol of Freedom.

The 300lb self-proclaimed "Jolly" aircraft pilot in festive red attire has been transferred to US Naval Station Guantanamo Bay for aggressive questioning while his pack of eight flight-enabled Cervidae were traded in for a brand-new H2 Hummer with $0 down and low monthly payments. As usual, the White House suggests people be on the lookout for suspicious strangers and has raised the Terror Alert Level to Fuchsia.

Inspired by a Farker

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Thu, 22nd Dec '05, 5:00 pm::

I am glad that I'm not flying Air India when I go to my sister's wedding in January. These people had a 45-hour delay and it's all over the news. Earlier this year I had to endure pretty much the same situation with over 48-hour delay on my flight back to Tampa.As one passenger joked about this recent debacle, "Air India is going to give out infrequent flier miles."

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Sun, 18th Dec '05, 10:55 pm::

I realized the other day that NASA basically created the 3AM infomercial industry. I mean EVERY stupid thing from Ginsu Knife to the all new amazing EasyAutoAeromatiCoBreeze Bed was invented using space age technology by NASA. No wonder we haven't landed a human or even an animal on Mars almost 4-decades after landing on the moon. They spent all their money on inventing filterless juicers and heatless soldering irons.

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Futurama: See you on some other 'blogSat, 17th Dec '05, 4:00 am::

The first DVD series that I put on my rental queue the minute I signed up for NetFlix was the entire collection of Futurama. Futurama is an animated cartoon series about a pizza delivery boy Philip J. Fry, accidentally frozen in a cryogenic facility for a thousand years and revived in 2999. Signing on with Planet Express, a space courier service, he befriends a one-eyed mutant, Leela, an alcohol-powered robot, Bender, office manager Hermes Conrad and Dr Zoidberg (my favorite character), a lobster-like alien.

While it seems like any other children's cartoon show, I've always known that Futurama is much more... it's humorous and clever on the surface but beneath the nerdy jokes are all sorts of weird characters and creatures that have one thing in common - they embody the innate human emotions, beliefs, and flaws, no matter how much titanium and dark matter they are composed of. In addition to the spontaneous bouts of random craziness, there's a distinct level of timelessless to the entire series, clearly evident from the numerous underrated nuggets of profound wisdom like: "When you do something right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all." - God Nebula

Of course, everytime I mentioned that Futurama is more than some funny cartoon about aliens and future, everyone would just stare at me as if I'm an 8-year old awestruck by an escalator. So I felt vindicated when I found this article tonight about the creators of Futurama, Matt Groening (also created The Simpsons) and David Cohen.

In the article, Cohen says, they hoped to "incorporate all the craziest ideas from science fiction, but we also wanted to have a point and reflect on life today." Groening says. "We had this show that looked goofy, with robots and aliens, but was actually very sophisticated. Having people overcome the hurdle of taking us seriously was something we didn't anticipate... What I love about the reaction to Futurama these days is that people who did give it a chance and fell in love with it are still ardent fans." Both Futurama and The Simpsons, Groening says, share an ambition to tell timeless jokes. "Both shows are trying to do something which will knock people out the first time they watch it, but will also hold up years later," he says. "Jokes that make sense now, and will also make sense 10 or 20 years from now."

It's refreshing to hear that the creators of the show share the exact same thoughts as I do as a regular viewer. I mentioned the timelessness of Futurama to my friend Art just the other day but wasn't really able to back up my views with better explanations as to why. When I mentioned how moving some episodes of Futurama to my coworkers I got a mere chuckle. While I understand that South Park and Family Guy are not everyone's cup of tea, I don't see why Futurama is so undervalued and ignored by everyone except the hardcore-fans.

All I can say is that if you're not in tears by the end of Episode 4-07: Jurassic Bark then you don't have this little thing called a "heart." Or try Episode 4-12: The Sting. Or Episode 4-03: Love and Rocket. Or Episode 3-01: Parasites Lost. I can go on but I got a few more episodes to watch now before I go to bed. G'morning!

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Sat, 17th Dec '05, 3:25 am::

Here's an interesting benefit of living by yourself: You own your time. It's past 3am and I just cooked enough dinner to last me 2-3 days. It's a mix of chick peas, black beans, green & red pepper, jalapenos, green beans, and mushrooms; tasted pretty good actually.

I was really tired when I got home after work today and passed out on my bed while still in my jeans. Woke up around 11pm and can't sleep anymore. I figured I'd do something interesting so I cooked while watching South Park. The kitties are being their playful selves as usual. Rest all's going well. Just counting days till I go to India for my sister's wedding! I'm soooo excited :)

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Big HeartWed, 7th Dec '05, 3:25 pm::

Little things that make me smile: The cute cashier chic at this fast-food place I just went to, drew a big heart on my receipt. I didn't even notice it till I was eating my food. She was probably just being nice because I looked like I haven't slept in a week. I woke up late and rushed to work. I didn't take a shower, didn't even comb my hair, and didn't wear nice business clothes. What's wrong with these girls!

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Tue, 6th Dec '05, 8:30 am::

My late-night crazy business idea: Strip-Pay. And I wasn't even drinking when I wrote that!

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Sun, 4th Dec '05, 1:40 am::

In case you ever wondered who visits my site, now you can see the World Map of Visitors by Country - made possible by John Emerson's DIY MAP and my own newly-released PHP GeoIPLocation Library. Both are free so if you know how, you can have a map like this on your own website too...

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