Yup. RockBox 3.0 was released recently. You can check out the release notes to know more.
I am still a little disappointed though that RockBox does not run on mY 6th generation Ipod classic. 
Got my TOEFL scores a few days back. Managed a 111. Now quite a lot of people have asked me about the material I used for my preparation for TOEFL and the minimum time required for preparation.So I thought why not write a post here so that it would help others with similar queries.
For those you have no idea what TOEFL is all about, you can start here.
Well, I used the Barron’s TOEFL iBT CD for my TOEFL preparation. Thats it! I must say that giving GRE before TOEFL made things a little simpler for two sections in particular : Reading and Writing. But even otherwise, the reading and listening sections should be a cakewalk for anyone with decent english. The writing section is not that hard. But it might require a little practice for those of you who aren’t used to writing a lot. The speaking section, in my opinion, is relatively more harder than the rest of the sections. Unfortunately, the Barron’s CD does not provide you with a utility through which they can judge your speaking ability. Therefore, judging your speaking ability can be a little difficult as you have no idea as to what is classified as a poor/decent/excellent response. In such a scenario, it is better to use the sample responses that are available on the ETS – TOEFL site and use that as a benchmark to rate your responses. This will also give you a fair idea as to what the evaluators are looking for while they hear your response.
Now with regard to the minimum time required for preparation, I gave myself one week ( I used to work during the day and prepare for about three hours in the evening). It might sound a little less for some of you. But it depends. I took my GRE before my TOEFL and I thought that because the reading and the writing sections on the GRE are relatively harder, I could spend more time preparing for the speaking and listening sections. The choice is yours!
Well thats about it! All the best to all TOEFL takers! Ping me if you have any queries.
I was reading this article by Karan Thapar and I must say it is hilarious. Check it out.
Well, blow me down if the Supreme Court hasn’t ventured into this territory. They’ve defined the word idiot and I wonder what you make of their incredible definition. Here it is:
“An idiot is one who is of non-sane memory from his birth, by a perpetual infirmity, without lucid intervals; and those are said to be idiots who cannot count (to) 20, or tell the days of the week or who do not know their fathers or mothers or the like.”
Mystifying as this definition may be for most of us, it’s quite frankly excellent news for those you and I call idiots. By this definition, they definitely are not. Indeed, by this definition it’s very hard for any one to be an idiot. In fact, I would go one step further, by this definition the Supreme Court has made the world idiot-free!
Now I don’t particularly like the guy, but he certainly has the ability to entertain you. Just what you want from a guy who comes so often on TV. 
Using Vim like an IDE is so simple now. I recently added the taglist and the NERDtree explorer pugins for VIM. Looks great! This is a useful demo on what the NERD tree explorer looks like.
NERD tree plugin will need some editing to be done on the vimrc file. Should not be much of a problem though. Just run through the documentation provided on the site and should be a cake walk! 
Current Music : Linux Can! by Phenom.
Update: I forgot to mention that NERD-tree explorer would work with VIM 7.0 or above. You can download the latest stable release (as of this date :VIM 7.2 tarball ) from here .
I watcher ‘Aamir’ yesterday night. I do not want to reveal much in terms of the plot of the movie as such because by doing that I would be killing the movie itself for you (believe me! i am right about this!).
But ‘Aamir’ will give you a new perspective. It will give you a third eye view of some our social problems. It will open up the door to several questions : most of which will be unanswered. But more importantly, it will make an honest attempt at trying to convince you that not all that meets your eye is the ultimate truth.
Kudos to Rajeev Khandelwaal! His portrayal of the character called ‘Aamir’ is simply brilliant! RajKumar Gupta is brilliant in his direction.
Overall, a must watch!
Rating : 4/5
Religion and Region. Every Indian uses these two aspects two define his identity. I touched upon the second aspect in my other post titled ‘Grow Up‘. That post got a lot of response, primarily because I did not agree with the opinions expressed on Kaustubh’s blog about the same issue.
I wanted to express my views on the first aspect : Religion.
To be quite honest, I have never really quite understood the concept of religion. I have never quite understood why my mom thinks I look like a Muslim each time I grow a beard. Who is a Muslim? What does it mean to be a Hindu ? After all, as per my understanding, this whole concept took shape in different forms to guide people to lead their lives meaningfully and in harmony, whatever that is supposed to mean.
I am a Brahmin. I am supposed to wear a thread around my body and recite prayers in Sanskrit every morning. It is a different issue that I do not comprehend most of those prayers. But why should I recite them anyway ? Why should I wear a thread ? Because I am a brahmin ? So what if im a Brahmin ? How am I any different from a person who is not a brahmin ?
And if all relegions are ultimately supposed to be doing the same thing i.e teaching you how to manage your life, how does it matter if I convert from one relegion to another. It is my choice. Sure, you may lose all the respect you have for me in the process. You may advice me to rethink, although it is really none of your business to do so. But why would you go to the extent of murdering someone or resorting to outright violence like in Orissa or Mangalore ?
VHP and Bajrang Dal, grow up! For God’s sake!
And if Hindus in my nation, like myself and some of you reading this post, think that the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal actually represent us, then we have never really understood what Hinduism truly stands for.
Richard Wright (1943-2008)
Keyboards, Pink Floyd
You may be gone but your music will live forever.
RIP Rick.
This is one of the most awesome videos that I have ever watched on snakes. I enjoy most of the programmes hosted by Austin Stevens, but this one was just out of this world. This place is not too far away from my native (Kundapura). Encounters with the King Cobra are not that uncommon here. They are normally super aggressive.
Enjoy this video!
Video LAN finally released VLC media player 0.92 (named “Grishenko”) after nearly two years of development. Here is a quick review of this media player:
You can check out the release notes on the Video LAN site for more details regarding new features and bug fixes that have gone into this release. Just a warning though, this player does not seem to be that stable despite some nice new features being added to it.
As I am writing this, the download stats on the Video Lan site read a whopping 100 thousand downloads for Windows alone!!
Download using this link. Enjoy!!
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