Sometimes my mind is like a live-wire, electrifying my head and compelling me to do the things I love and blank out everything else. So when I came to know of a senior giving us a seminar on how the recruitment process in VJTI is going to take place, that thought of going for it never really got too much attention. Over a period of 22 years, you’d think I would know to distinguish between right and wrong, what’s good for me and what’s not. Well, some may think I’m not taking things seriously, some others may feel I’m rebelling against any significant change in my life, and some others may believe I refuse to grow up. But in the end, what really matters is what I think, isn’t it? After all, being an adult, I’m supposed to own up for the decisions I make. 

’twas a choice between going to college on a Saturday morning and sleeping till late afternoon. I chose the latter, not purely because I was lazy, but because I needed the rest to work for long hours and implement some of the things I had thought of. Besides, the part of my brain that’s responsible for deciding what’s important from what’s not, gave the event of listening to a senior speak about the placement process a measly score. Apparently, my mind would like to stay unemployed. 

I guess my greatest fear is that I won’t get to express myself in the way I want to once the job-life begins. I’d be forced to do things someone else’s way, out of my comfort zone, doing the things I may not necessarily love. This is the only time I get to do what I love. To put my stuff out there.

In contrast to what people generally have to say about living your college-life (or pre-job life), I disagree with most “experts”. They usually say something along the lines of “Trust me, you need to do this. You won’t understand the importance of doing this until later”. It usually seems like they’re trying to educate us on their regrets, or boat about all the things they did right. One respectable person recently pointed out that participating in extra-curricular activities, competitions, college festivals was critical. To that, my brain said, “This website counts as extra-curricular. The visitors who stumble down here are the judges. This is a gold-mine I’m working with here. I’ve built this from scratch. And it leaves my mark on the world. Google my name and have a look. What could be more critical that making it to Google?”. I agree that my brain constantly tries to find ways to avoid criticism, but I firmly believe that I am my own critic. Criticism is essential for growth. I don’t expect you to believe that I am my harshest critic and you may feel like I’m resisting growth. If you feel that way, that’s when you’ll find me telling you to mind your own business. I live in a shell thanks to my introverted nature, and it’s cosy in here. You are not welcome. At the end of it all, it’s me and my brain that decide what’s good for me. Outside opinions are welcome, but they may not stick.

What works for you may not necessarily work for me. That’s the basis for everything. Live life your way. Own up for mistakes; that’s what life is for — making and learning from mistakes. Have no regrets. I don’t believe people should try to learn from other’s mistakes, at least from ones that aren’t obvious. You just might miss out on some golden moments. 

Interruption — I just watched a bit of “Beautiful People” on CNBC TV18, with Anuradha Sengupta interviewing Ram Gopal Verma. God, she was annoying! She didn’t let him finish his statements. I bet he was annoyed out of his mind. Maybe the folks at CNBC TV18 put her there to do just that; to get as many questions through as possible. Every time “Ramu” was about to say something interesting, she’d interrupt him and ask another question. Boy, would I hate to deal with such a personality in real life, even as a friend. It’s like she’s barely listening and drawing conclusions prematurely even before you finish expressing yourself. She kept saying, “You mean to say…” and blabbered on about what she had gathered from what he said. That is just rude! 

Anyway…

I’m thinking of creating a “Changelog” to document the cutting-edge changes here. I intended to mention the names of the Wordpress plugins I’ve edited so that it could help people, but recently I’ve experienced my fourth interaction with a hacker (this time, from Ukraine). Reported that sucker to StopBadware.org and McAfee’s TrustedSource.org.  That experience also introduced me to a real-world SQL-Injection exploit, that I had only heard of previously.  The exploit looked to take advantage of vulnerabilities in the code of some plugins, namely — wp-cal, fgallery, wp-adserve, wassup, st_newsletter, wordspew, and others. Not something you would learn by attending lectures in college, boy. to_date=-1+group+by+id+union+select+1,2,3,0×6875616B,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12– :P 

Some of the changes that took place IN ONE DAY are as follows —

1. Embedding YouTube videos in Wordpress the jQuery.Flash way
   Adding YouTube videos in Wordpress was kind of a pain since the code generated by YouTube for embedding videos is NOT XHTML-standards-compliant. Validating this page would produce errors. Annoying. Then, I modified a brilliant plugin (that will not be named) to insert a SPAN element with the YouTube video ID, and a small JS code to make jQuery replace the SPAN with jQuery.Flash magic. This method was used long ago on the main website.
2. Clickable Flash Headings
   Gone are the days of system fonts. Behold the new way of display non-default fonts in the web browser without requiring the user to have the font installed. The power of two of the most exciting web technologies combined. jQuery and Flash. Again, a very old feature on my website. The change I made was that the Flash animations are now clickable. I mean, it’s the heading of a post, so it ought to be clickable! I now pass the post URL as a Flash Variable to the movie, which applies the link (getURL) to a rectangle shape for the onRelease event. I was mighty impressed with myself.
3. RSS, better than ever before
   RSS feeds for Facebook are now rendered beautifully. An added feature was the replacement of “You” in FB feeds with my name. Well, not necessarily my name. I modified the Wordpress Feeds plugins to replace “You” with the owner of the blog, presumably having user ID 1 in the Wordpress Database “wp_users” table. The getuserdata(1) function helped out. A bug that later caused trouble was identified and rectified. I was using str_replace() whereas I needed to use the str_ireplace() function, which is case insensitive. More problems followed, but were rectified. Admin options for the widget’s new “Replace You” feature added. 
   
   
   
   View Code
4. Finally fixed the time issue. Who would’ve known that I would actually have to go through documentation to find a solution to this. I was previously using the date() function, which took into account the Daylight Savings time. date_default_timezone_set(‘Asia/Kolkata’) wasn’t working for some mad reason. Tried editing php.ini and setting the date.timezone too. Anyhoo, I needed to use gmdate() Greenwich Time, and that’s what I’m doing now
5. A Facebook Share icon
   
6. Numerous other changes in CSS code

Now I need to get college things into order. UML, WT and other uninteresting crap.

Conan O’Brien in his last stint on The Tonight Show said these wonderful words —

“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

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It’s about time I shared my secret about how I respond to Facebook messages so quickly. Recently, my friend compared me to a “bot” who spends his entire day lurking around on FB just because of the speed with which I commented on her wall post. I admit that compared to other activities, I spend most of my free time on Facebook, but that time is mostly spent responding to mails, comments and other correspondences; not “lurking around”. 

What allows me to respond so quickly is the nifty Feed-Reader feature built into most modern browsers. I haven’t really explored this option in any browser apart from Opera, but I’ve heard about Firefox and Chrome having a similar feature. Not sure if it’s built-in or available through extensions in other browsers, but I’m pretty happy with Opera. Sure wish they could add the ability to play a sound for new notifications. Currently, sounds are available only for a handful of events. I’ll surely request this in the DesktopTeam’s blog. 

Anyway, so everytime you communicate with me on Facebook and you cause a new notification to be generated (bottom-right corner, next to FB Chat), that notification is delivered to my browser/desktop via an RSS Feed. Clicking on the notification describes what it’s about, and if needed, I log into Facebook to respond to the activity. I get notifications in my browser without having to log into FB. Got it? 

The feed is updated every 5 minutes, so yeah, that’s a lil too frequent.

The following set of screenshots should guide you on how to go about setting Opera up for the Facebook Notifications.

Umm, about these images, I realised a lil too late that my screen resolution was too high. 

Also, use the arrow keys on your keyboard (left/right) to navigate through the images. You can “drag” inside the image to move it.

I have never come across a TV show with characters so honest, with story-lines so simple yet hilarious, with situations so real and with outcomes of those situations so true. After watching the first 3 episodes of the show at a stretch, I was crazy curious to know what to expect from the show. It’s a new show so I felt after the initial episodes it would pick up pace and move in a different direction to attract audiences. I was wrong. I guess it’s for the first time that a TV show is trying to be honest rather than entertaining.

A few weeks back I read an article criticizing Stargate Universe for being sexist, and a few weeks later I sensed that the story-line began portraying the female characters as strong individuals, especially Camile Wray. For me, that isn’t fair. Story-lines should not be altered according to fan or critical opinions. Show-writers need to have the creative freedom to take the show where they want it to go. SGU’s story-line eventually settled back to where it was after the spat between the Captain and Camile came to an end.

Coming back to “Men of a Certain Age”, the show has realism as a major component. That’s why I like it. I usually don’t like Dramas but this one and “House MD” are strong exceptions. The show is largely meant for the male audience since the female audience may find it hard to relate to. It might be for the first time that the male audience of a TV show sympathizes with the characters. It’s oh-so-hard to feel sorry for unreal TV characters. Maybe a certain class of men feels sorry for the characters in “Desperate Housewives” , but no one feels sorry about Gregory House (we love that he’s an addict!).

I feel the situations are like those in Seinfeld. Very real. While Seinfeld tries to be funny, this show tries to be honest. Get a glimpse of the sensitive side of men; a side you don’t get to see very often.

For Joe’s character (played by the awesome Ray Romano), it’s not a story of a 40+ separated “underdog” who scores a hot chic. It’s a story of up’s and down’s; the small, little things that bother him, pull him down, and the silly things that make him happy. He owns a party-supply store (who wouldn’t want to own a party-supply store with cool balloons, hats and fancy items!), has a gambling problem, and has a tendency to fret over the silliest of things. He’s single, vulnerable and lonely, but a great father and a nice genuine guy. After being married for a long time and separating from his wife, he finds dating to be a tedious task. The most hilarious scene was this guy on a float in a pool, totally drunk (after he finds that his ex-wife has moved on), with packets of chips floating around in the water. Being kind of a straight arrow, I guess this was the first time he broke a vending machine to get chips out of it, used the pool after official hours, and got drunk with his “bet-provider”. I felt the episode ended with the sentiment that two random guys who’ve been through similar situations (“girl problems”) can relate to each other pretty easily and no matter how unlikely their friendship may be, they can have a crazy night to fix it all. Brotherhood.

Terry, the struggling actor, who manages to date girls almost half his age, is kind of a playboy but with a great heart. He’s clear about his intentions before he starts the “relationship”. Although he breaks up with his dates pretty often, he appears to still have good relations with them, which is very commendable. He believes in Yoga and some other spiritual crap, and tries to give (unusual) advice to his friends when they need him. He’s also been mighty helpful to his friends.

Owen is a family-man who has a seemingly difficult relationship with his hard-headed Dad, and puts in quite a bit of effort to prove himself to his critics. A wonderful family-man.

Personally, I love Joe’s character, admire Owen, and find Terry hilarious (although he doesn’t try to be funny). Terry’s in-depth knowledge of how to hook up with younger chics is also commendable.

This show, along with the movie “(500) Days Of Summer” is something I feel every guy should watch. Not for entertainment, but for realism.

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Is it just me or Facebook is making people dumber? I think it’s just me. I don’t see others complaining about the increasingly annoying trend: People on FB are joining Groups and becoming “fans” of weird Pages. People now create and join Groups that often give an indication of how they feel at the moment, or how they feel about a particular thing, or a group resembling a particular opinion that they support. You’ll seldom see folks joining groups for products and services they use, or places and People/Music/Movies/things they love and would like to follow nowadays. New groups pop up everyday and have thousands of followers within hours. I guess a lot of them are a sham. “Expressing yourself” has found a new medium – through a group created by someone else. At least you won’t spend your time scratching your head trying to come up with something funny; erm, something that you strongly believe in.

That thing you believe in. It’s right there in someone else’s words. Waiting for you to click one simple button. There you go. You’re part of the collective.
Congratulations, you have me convinced that you really love Bob Marley.

It does make a little sense to join groups. I mean, the groups that you see these days (like “I ♥ walking barefoot on the beach”) are fit to be status messages, but I guess people choose to join groups since status messages get lost in time, while Groups are featured on the “Info” tab permanently. The groups people join often tell an awful lot about the person; sometimes too much, but it’s an interesting way to connect with people with similar interests.

btw, I am no exception to this crap. I’m guilty of joining some of these groups too. This is just me taking a stab at some of my close friends (presuming they can handle it ). Especially you Lionel.

My Picks

• ‘I don’t bloody care how old the song is! I like it. So shut up!’ (My my, what a temper!  )
• i wish i knew who i could trust. (Oh, and joining a group on FB and announcing your trust issues to a world of strangers – that seems like a positive step  )
• No Matter How Many Pens I Buy, They Always ‘Mysteriously’ Go Missing! (Hon, joining a group won’t help! Get one of those stringy things that keeps the pen around your neck  )
• I Need A Hug….Don’t Question Me…Don’t Say Anything..Just Hug Me :/ ♥ (YEAHHH! FREE HUGS! Umm, you want them online or delivered to your doorstep?! Your profile doesn’t mention your street address!   )
• i hate it when you make plans….get excited…..they never happen (Blame it on the “organiser” in the group. No really, blame him for your cellphone no. being unavailable )
• I am a Doctor and I love it! (Bet you wish half the people on your FB list would fall ill! Do you cut cake every time you get a patient?!  )
• I’m so tired but I want to stay up and talk to you (It’s all about you, isn’t it? Has anyone ever asked him what he wants?! Nooo!  )
• I have to sing the ABC’s to know which letter comes before the other. (Umm, even now?! Aww, always remember that you’re a very special child!  )
• Listening to music while you are sleeping, specially when you are so tired (so awesome you are! how do you do it? what’s the secret? )
• ” Fuck Relationship Status… My fuckin life’s status is ” its Complicated (damn! That is deep man. Really.  )
• Official Dislike Button – WORKING  
• Don’t say anything about Twilight. Ever! Oh, shit I said Twilight. (I have SO much to say about you joining this group  )
• After Monday & Tuesday even the Calender says W T F…(Now I really didn’t know that. That’s funny. Ha ha. But you really should’ve saved that joke for the times when you aren’t funny in real life  )
• I like the smell of rain/petrol/lavender/fresh sneakers 
• Natural Beauties (NO MAKE-UP NEEDED) (How about letting someone else be the judge of that?)
• I ♥ my mum/dad (Good to know that, really )
• Hey, Facebook, breastfeeding is not obscene! 
• I HATE CIGARETTES (oh my, you’re a saint! Join a group to notify the Pope NOW!)
• You know you are from Mumbai (Bombay) when… (Wasn’t this an e-mail forward?!  )
• Shut up, The World Won’t End in 2012. ( The people who already know that think you’re an idiot for joining this group)
• I Play Piano Therefore I Am Legally More Talented Than You  (“Legally”?! Oh really!? )
• Honestly, I write “lol” and I’m not Even Laughing (who cares!)
• I Picked a Major I Like, and One Day I Will Probably Be Living In a Box (Well, if that’s what you really want, I’ll pray for you!)
• FARMVILLE – GET 100,000 COINS & 100 CASH GUARANTEED!!! (OFFICIAL METHOD) (Are you STILL playing that game?)
• Not Playing Farmville (Good for you! Why tell me about it?!)
• Looking at old photos and thinking how much things have changed. (Really?!?! What else do you do in your free time?)
• The First Thing I Do When I Wake Up Is Check My Phone (Um, what’s the last thing you do? What about the rest of the day? Couldn’t find groups for those, eh?)
• sometimes when im walking i try keeping my feet in the little square tiles. (It must be really hard for you to walk on floors with tiles smaller than your foot )
• We Will Not Pay To Use Facebook. We Are Gone If This Happens (Educate yourself on FB policies, you mindless drone! )
• I’ve met someone this year who i know i will never forget in years to come. (Um, you do realize that as the years go by, this Group’s name will remain the same, don’t you?)
• I love sneaking out of my house xD (Joining this group will help you tremendously, especially if your mum’s on your friends list )
• why you always hate the person you love the most (I don’t know. Did joining the group enlighten you on why this happens? )
• I read the group name, I laugh, I join, I never look at it again (yep! Lionel’s joined this one too…  )

PLEASE posts your opinions as status messages or use Twitter to voice your opinions. Personally, I don’t mind you joining groups for voicing your opinions, but the idea is kinda stupid.

When I first tried the Last.fm for Wordpress plugin with this Wordpress 2.8.4 installation, I received the following error :

Warning: gzinflate() [function.gzinflate]: data error in /hermes/web07/b2563/blah/blah/wp/wp-includes/http.php on line 1787

The Wordpress plugin page mentions that the plugin is compatible up to WordPress 2.7.

After checking out the code in the plugin file (/wp/wp-content/plugins/lastfm-for-wordpress/lastfm.php), I was able to determine that there was something wrong with the fetch_rss() function. Using that function caused the above warning to be displayed. Wordpress Function Reference mentions that the function has been deprecated, but it should still work to enable backwards compatibility. The suggestion given on that page was to use the fetch_feed, which seems pretty straightforward. But I chose to do some more digging.

I googled the problem to try and figure out what was wrong. The most common solution I found recommended editing the http.php file (/wp/wp-includes/http.php) and altering line 1787. I think it was also accepted as a bug in Wordpress and will be rectified in Wordpress 2.9 (out now). But anyway, one thing I’ve learnt from my previous Wordpress updates — Never alter code in core files. I lost all my “custom modifications” when I upgraded to 2.8. I’ve learnt to write maintainable code the hard way.

It’ll take a few weeks for me to make up my mind to update WP. Until then, the mod should work just fine.

To sum up the mods I’ve made to the original plugin file for it to work with my Wordpress 2.8 installtion -

• Changed fetch_rss() implementation to the new fetch_feed() implementation. Uses the SimplePie and FeedCache functionality for retrieval and parsing and automatic caching, instead of MagpieRSS and RSSCache.
• Commented out MagpieRSS settings variables.
• Removed line 131; wonder what it was there for.

$songs = fetch_rss(‘http://ws.audioscrobbler.com/1.0/user/’.$username.’/recenttracks.rss’);

Download here or See full plugin code.

NO WARRANTY OR SUPPORT PROVIDED. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

CREDIT TO ORIGINAL PLUGIN AUTHOR : Ricardo González

UPDATE: I still see the gzinflate error occasionally.