Random Ramblings

In Time

2011-12-12T02:10:00.000-08:00

For a few to be immortal many must die.

The film is set in the future where genetic mutation allows people to stop aging and live forever, but there's a catch. Once a person is 25 years old they stop aging however they only get one more year to live. So they have to earn time to live longer. Hence time is the new currency, and the amount of time a person has available is displayed on their left hand. This time can be transferred and if one runs out of time a person dies instantly.

The world is divided into time zones based on the wealth (measured in time) possessed by people. The poor live in ghettos and work in factories and only managing to earn time to survive for a day or so. While the rich live in huge cities with centuries at their disposal with many bodyguards to protect them.

When Time is money, there's gonna be theft. There are gangs that steal money from people, a particular one called MinuteMen. Where there are thieves there's gonna be cops, they're called Timekeepers.

This movie is based in this complex time based world. The hero is a factory worker from the ghetto living with his 50 year old mother although she still looks 25. They're living on daily wages with loans to pay, rent etc. One day the hero saves the life of a wealthy 105 year old person from MinuteMen who isn't happy living forever and gives his century long time to our hero and times himself out (commits suicide). That evening his mother is unable to take the bus to get home as there is a hike in the fare and gets timed out just as she meets her son. The hero is completely helpless with a century of time at his disposal but unable to save his mother. He then sets out to Greenwich to disrupt the system.

I'm not gonna include any spoilers so you can watch the movie yourself and enjoy it. You've gotta watch it, before you run out of Time.

Comments policy changed

2011-11-25T08:03:00.000-08:00

Recently I've been getting a lot of spam comments, you know the one's which have a generic statement about how the like your post and a completely unrelated link attached. It's obvious to anyone who reads it that the comment is link spam. I guess there is a gang of spammers who share information about posts where they can post spam easily and my blog was being targeted so I had to turn off all comments here.

I've finally managed to remove them and comments are now back online. So the real people can start commenting again. I'm sorry to have blocked all comments but it was essential, kinda like the Phoenix that rises from its ashes, I hope to improve comments here.

I've turned off the annoying captcha, yes I hate it too, but as a trade off all comments will be moderated. I hope this will deter spammers when they see that their comments are not being published, and they'll just let this blog be.

I'm looking forward to some genuine comments now, don't disappoint me.

Quick Chat

2011-03-27T02:21:00.000-07:00

Hello everybody!

I know I've been away for a long time and only post here sporadically but the fact that there are people reading this blog is the reason I've kept this domain online. A big thank you to all the readers who keep visiting my blog. I would appreciate if you would leave a comment so we can chat. Also you can catch me on twitter @selurus, I'm on twitter almost every waking hour, but don't worry I'm not addicted. It's all under control.

I would be moving this blog to a self hosted wordpress blog as soon as my issue with PayPal is sorted. I have already contacted them and hopefully they will fix the bug in their verification system and grant me full access soon.

I'm considering hosting my blog with HostGator, 'cos I've heard a lot of good stories about them and also some of my blogger friends are hosting there. So this blog would be moving soon.

Well that's it for now. See ya on twitter. Bye :)

My first Android phone

2011-01-21T01:16:00.000-08:00

Just a couple of days ago I bought a new phone, LG Optimus One.

This is a very different phone than the ones I've used previously. It's my first touch screen mobile. It has a capacitive touch screen so no need for a stylus and the touch response is pretty good. The only other touch phone I've used is the Samsung Corby and all I can say is that the LG Optumus One is in a different league altogether.

This phone does not have a physical keyboard and typing on a touch screen isn't easy, atleast if you're new to it. Luckily I came across a post on Overjoid and got the Gingerbread keyboard from the Android Market and I'm being saved by the auto complete and auto correct feature, else I wouldn't dream of writing this post.

The reason I bought this phone is because I wanted to try Android,and I am really impressed. It's so easy to use. Finding and installing new applications is such a breeze. And there are so many free apps to use, is simply amazing. Previously I was apprehensive about switching to Android, but now I feel why didn't I do this before. Anyway better late than never.

Well I'm off now on a new adventure to explore Android,care to join me?

Switch to Blogger

2011-01-16T10:20:00.000-08:00

If you've tried to visit my blog over the past few day then you've probably noticed that it was not available.

As I've mentioned previously my hosting period with bluehost has expired and I've decided not to renew it for now. Mind you there was on issue with the service and blogging on wordpress is a real pleasure but I need some time to figure things out and decide where this blog is heading.

For now I'm hosting this blog with Google. I had a bit of trouble changing the DNS to google's servers because I was previously hosted with another host and had not moved the DNS back to my domain host. Once I did that I just had to set up the DNS for google and some other settings and also configure the domain on blogspot. And within a couple of hours the domain was live.

So here we are now, hosting the domain with Google. Google does not allow hosting the domain as just selurus.com. It needs to be www.selurus.com as you can see it in the address bar on your browser. But it allows you to redirect selurus.com to www.selurus.com so all the old links still work. Thats a relief.

Now I haven't used Blogger much so I'm just exploring this space and any advice you'd like to give me is welcome. Looking forward to your comments. :)

Are you looking for a new phone?

2010-12-27T14:18:00.000-08:00

Like any other mobile enthusiast I've been drooling over all the new phones being released. Recently I read a post about Overcoming Gadget Lust where Tony Butler talks about how he started to explore his Nokia E72 to keep himself content with his phone till his current contract runs out.

That's a fine article and a must read for any Mobile phone junkie who craves to buy the latest gadget but unfortunately can't because of money or rather the lack of it. Its like you want to have the latest gadgets but don't want to spend a bomb getting them all. It would be nice if there was a library of mobile phones so you could play with the latest device for a couple of weeks or so and then get another device, and again another one... I know I'm only dreaming but hey it doesn't cost to dream, does it?

My dream phone for now is still the Nokia N900. But I'm not buying it! Nokia's announcement that they wouldn't be officially supporting Meego on the N900 has made me change my mind. Although I continue to be amazed by the things that people have been able to do with this device. Also I think this was just a trailer and the updated Meego device would simply blow your mind. So I've decided its best to hang on to my Nokia N79 for a bit longer till a truly awesome phone is launched.

Posted by Wordmobi

Auto Draft

2010-12-24T03:57:00.000-08:00

Quick Update

2010-12-18T16:56:00.000-08:00

I've not been adding posts here again. But I'm spending more time online than ever before.
I wonder where. Twitter, where else. Oh, and also on My Opera. If you'd like to follow me head over to My Opera blog. :)

Also I'd just like to keep you posted that I've decided not to renew my hosting for this blog here. No I'm not shutting this blog down yet. I've renewed my domain so I'll keep it going for some more time till I figure out what I really want to do with it.

Once my hosting account expires I'll probably move this blog to a free host, like wordpress.com or may be go back to blogetery.com or even blogspot.com. I'm still considering my options and my final choice will be based on which is most convenient to update via my mobile, 'cos I'm still a mobile blogger. :)

Financial Jeopardy

2010-11-19T12:57:00.000-08:00

Have you been riding high on credit cards and just realised how expensive free credit is?

Have you suffered losses and got creditors knocking on the door?

Have you got mounting medical bills to pay and a meagre income?

Handling finances isn't easy. Especially because of the society we live in where keeping up with the Jones's has become a way of life, and with the availability of easy credit its no surprise so many people are caught in a debt trap.

But do not worry, you can get over this. You need to keep you head straight and cut the non-essential expenses and focus on paying back the money you owe. At times debt consolidation or restructuring may be necessary and you should seek assistance from an experienced debt councillor. In case things are way out of hand you may have to go for San Diego Chapter 13 Bankruptcy so you'll keep your possessions and work out a plan to repay your debts over a 3-5 year period.

Perfect Smile

2010-11-19T12:22:00.000-08:00

“ Don't cry for a man who's left you, the next one may fall for your smile. ” - Mae West (American Actress, 1892-1980)

Isn't it truly amazing how a simple smile or a frown can change the appearance of a person's face, their mood, their attitude towards life. So you should keep smiling.

When you spot something funny a smile can turn a into a grin and then a chuckle and then into a laugh. And often when you're laughing you draw a lot of attention. So you've got to look good. But what can a person do if they don't have perfect teeth or they've been discoloured or are slightly out of place.

Well firstly stop worrying. With the advancement in cosmetic dentistry in san diego of all places its not too difficult to get your teeth fixed and get that perfect smile back. So don't worry too much now and keep smiling.

Education Expenses

2010-11-19T11:49:00.000-08:00

A good education is priceless and will stay with you all your life. Yup! Thats what they say but considering the way the economy is going and how fast prices are rising its hard for students to stay in schools and colleges. With the cost of lodging, living expenses, tuition, books etc all going up it gets hard for students without a scholarship to make ends meet.

The way to solve this problem is two fold - reduce expenses and increase income. Getting a part time job will get you some money but students should also consider reducing costs wherever possible. Like you could buy cheap textbooks from students from your previous batch. This would help the seller get some cash for their used books and on the other hand save the buyer money as they wouldn't be paying the cover price for the books. Its a win win situation for both parties.

New Symbian Apps

2010-11-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

When it rains, it pours.

After the recently released symbian version of the vastly popular Opera Mini browser we have updates to other popular apps as well. Namely Nimbuzz and UC Browser.

Nimbuzz

Nimbuzz have released an update to their symbian client and also a version that works on the latest Symbian^3 handsets.

Some of the highlights of the update are

* it allows you to change to order of the tabs

* it displays the NimbuzzOut call rates before placing the call

* you can chat with or without avatars

* the limit on 400 FaceBook contacts removed

Complete details about the update are available on the Nimbuzz blog. To download the new version just visit http://get.nimbuzz.com with your mobile browser.

UC Browser

Well I don't really use the UC Browser much other than to download large files, which it has been doing pretty well and continues to do in the latest version 7.4. If you'd like to read more about this new release I recommend you visit Dennis's blog Wapreview which has a fantastic post about this new release.

To download this new version just visit http://wap.ucweb.com with your mobile browser.

Do let me know in the comments if you like the new releases. Also if you find other cool software, drop me a line so I can try it too.

Studying Online

2010-11-01T17:56:00.000-07:00

When you need help with something who do you turn to? The first thing most people do is ask their friends or a trusted colleague, then turn to family members, neighbours or a known expert. But with the dawn of the internet people often just Google their queries and more often than not they're likely to find someone else who had a similar query rather than a solution. Unless someone who faced the same problem had the good sense to post about it with information on how they managed to fix it.

Students these days are faced with so much competition and luckily the internet revolution has proved to be a boon to them. They have so much information at the click of a button and the option to connect with people across the globe to share their experiences and knowledge.

So no matter what time it is if a student has difficulty understanding Prime Numbers or needs some help with math questions they can simply in online and they can find it. In fact there are websites that offer online tutoring for students so they can learn from the comfort of their homes and at their own pace and time. This is great news for students that are always on the move due to the job requirements of their parents.

Also for students that are visual learners the internet offers a great medium of learning via videos, presentations, diagrams etc. Thus making the process of learning more interactive and fun. Besides you can also find chemistry help, or physics help or geometry help to understand the concepts and apply them correctly.

So the next time someone comes to you for chemistry homework help and you're too busy or tired or just don't know the subject the least you could do is guide them to find the solution online.

Opera Mini now on Symbian

2010-10-28T18:38:00.000-07:00

Opera has released a new symbian version of its popular mobile browser Opera Mini. I've tried this for some time now and it feels like Opera Mobile on steroids. This is truly the best of both worlds, the speed of Opera Mini put into a native symbian app, giving it the stability and integration of a system application rather than a java application. So you no longer have to use workarounds to copy paste text, or go to the phone's text editor to use T9, its all integrated.

Also the start up time is awesome and the page loading time is better than the regular Opera Mini version (thats just what I've noticed and this hasn't been scientifically proven, yet).

I haven't used this wonderful new browser for too long so I'm yet to discover any shortcomings, but from my experience of using Opera Mini for over 2 years and being an active forum member I can assure you that the bugs will be annihilated and pretty soon we'll have a final version.

To download Opera Mini 5.1 beta visit http://m.opera.com on your handset and select Download Opera Mini 5.1 beta for Symbian S60.

What Song was that?

2010-09-16T05:29:00.000-07:00

Ever seen a movie and woken up the next day with a few catchy lines of a song you head in the movie but got no clue about the song name or the artist? Lets face it you often hear songs or rather snippets of songs in movies without a clue about the song title or its singer. And at times the few lines get so stuck in your head that you have to find out which song it was and simply have to hear it again to set your mind at ease.

What do you do in that case? The most common answer would be "Just Google it". And thats what I generally do. But at times you've just heard a tune without any words. How do you google that. Like the time I saw the movie Knight and Day starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz and there is that kinda familiar ringtone on Tom Cruise's phone that goes off a couple of times in the movie. While looking for that song I stumbled upon the site what-song.com.

This site has most of the recent movies listed with the names of the songs and their artists. And it lists all songs right from a ringtone as I stated above to a song sung by a character like donkey singing in the movie Shrek. So the next time you've got to find a song you head in a movie just head across to what-song.com and more often than not you'll probably find your song there.

And just for the record the song I was looking for from Knight and Day was called Louie, Louie by Kingsmen and yes I did set it up as my ringtone. :)

Golden Opportunity

2010-09-09T16:27:00.000-07:00

Gold is one of the precious metals and has historically been used as currency in the form of gold coins. Gold is considered as a symbol of wealth and hence gold ornaments have been popular throughout the ages. Especially as the price of gold has been increasing steadily over time.

Even in recent times gold is used as an investment by some people especially in times of economic crisis when the value of the national currency in the foreign enchange markets is affected and hence unfavourable. Although some people store gold as a hedge against inflation, some economists do not believe that gold serves as an effective hedge against inflation or currency depreciation.

In recent times gold prices are on an upward trend. In fact gold spot touched an all time high of $1259.3/ounce on 7th September, 2010. Considering the high prices it isn't the right time to enter the gold market but you would need to watch the markets on a regular basis to make a business call.

State of the Mobile Web - July 2010

2010-08-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

Every Month Opera releases the State of the Mobile Web report based on the surfing habits of Opera Mini users worldwide.

In July 2010 Opera Mini had over 62.3 million users who viewed 29.6 billion pages and generated over 445 million MB of data traffic for Operators worldwide. Thats after the data was compressed by upto 90% else Opera Mini users would have viewed over 4.1 petabytes of data in July.

Also this report focuses on the Southeast Asian Region providing information about the top websites and handsets used in Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar besides the Top 10 countries using Opera Mini worldwide.

An interesting thing to note is that Google and Facebook compete for the top spot in several Southeast Asian countries. In Thailand and Laos, Google is #1, followed by hi5 and then Facebook. In Vietnam, where My Opera is very popular, Facebook is not in the top 10 list at all.

Last month Opera also conducted a survey of Opera Mini users to find out more about the users.
Some of the findings are as under

* They estimate that the global ratio of male to female mobile Web users to be 77% (male) to 23% (female). Although it has to be noted that the number of female users is increasing at a faster rate.

* Across the board, 18-27 is still the biggest age group of Opera Mini users.

* In the survey users were also asked Do you have online friends youve never met in real life? And in general yes responses to this question were high which indicates that mobile Internet users tend toward having online friends they have not met in person.

You can check the details and read the full report here.

Messaging Packs Or pay per use?

2010-08-15T17:27:00.000-07:00

Do you use send a lot of messages on your mobile?

Then its best that you contact your mobile service provides and activate an add on to get free messages. Trust me, even if you don't finish the messages in the pack, as long as you choose the pack wisely it should save you money.

Let of explain with the example of my service provider Aircel.

They have message packs for 9 and 38 rupees which give you 99 and 450 messages respectively.
The normal charges for sending a message is 1 rupee. So in this case even if you send messages equal to the value of the add on you are better of getting an add on than paying for each message.

So go ahead and call your mobile service provider and find ways to cut your messaging costs.

Shrek Forever and After

2010-06-25T15:57:00.000-07:00

I saw the movie Shrek Forever After. A very entertaining movie. I've liked the previous versions and this was just amazing.

The story is about how Shrek seems to be bored of his mundane life after marriage and misses the carefree life he lived before as an Ogre, when everyone was afraid of him and he could do anything that pleased him. He is tricked by Rumpelstiltskin into making a wish in exchange for a day from his life, and then Rumplestiltskin transports him to a magical world where Rumplestiltskin takes over the kingdom of Far Far Away and Shrek is never born, so his life never happened. Now Shrek has to win Fiona's love again to break the contract and get his life back.

I especially loved the songs through the movie which includes One Love, Hello, For Once in my Life, among others. An awesome movie to watch on a day off.

Let me know if you like it. :)

Freebies

2010-06-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

The moon belongs to everyone
The best things in life they're free

Seriously, if you know where to look you can get a lot of free stuff. There are several companies that have adopted the practice of offering free samples or trial packs or starter kits of their latest products which can be used to get to know the product. Yes it may not be the full product but if you're just looking to have some fun them a demo version of a game with about 4-5 levels doesn't sound bad, does it. Some PC magazines give cd's with free or demo software which is pretty good. I managed to get Unreal Tournament, Quake 3 Arena and several other games from such free cd's.

Also I've often noticed that when purchasing something online you have the option of entering an offer code. If you use google to your advantage here, you'll most probably find a code that'll give you a decent discount. I've used discount codes when purchasing domain names and hosting so I'm speaking from my own personal experience. I've also downloaded games free based on a promotional offer. Often these offers are for a limited period only, so you need to be lucky to take advantage of them.

So if you've lucky and you've discovered some amazing freebies, don't forget to share it with others here.

Thelonious

2010-06-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Thelonious

You've probably already heard that word. I'm not sure what it truly means but its the code name for version 3.0 of Wordpress.

If you've visited any social site, you would've noticed that all the bloggers are posting about this major update. You can read the release post to know more about this release here.

Upgrading is a simple process, just back up your database and files, I've got the Wordpress Database Backup plugin that takes care of that for me, and then you simply click on the update Wordpress link on the Dashboard. The whole process takes less than a few minutes, so don't worry and go ahead and Upgrade to Thelonious.

Happy Blogging :)

Delayed June Review

2010-06-07T18:56:00.000-07:00

This month's the review has been delayed quite a bit. I've been feeling very lazy and have been procrastinating since a long time. But finally I've tried very hard and pushed myself to the limit and finally managed to have this post published.

So lets talk about May. I've been buzzing a lot last month (read this post if you've not heard about seededbuzz) and I've recently been buzzed for the first time too. Its a good method to exchange links and provide readers with other relevant articles to read.

Also you've probably noticed the new disclosure policy and some sponsored content recently, what can I say, I hope to make some money to keep this blog online. I'll try to keep the posts relevant to the blog and publish honest opinions.

* PR Update
I've read on a few other blogs about the Google PR being updated on the 4th June and I'm glad that the PR for this blog continues to be 3. How did your blog fare in this update?

Well I don't really have anything significant planned for this month but its best that you stay subscribed to avoid missing out on sporadic updates of great value.

Happy Blogging!

Comment Moderation

2010-05-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

Your Comment Is Awaiting Moderation

I'm sure most of you who comment on other blogs have come across this message sometime. Its basically is a setting on Wordpress, under Settings > Discussion, that lets the blogger decide whether to publish comments immediately or only after being approved by the blogger.

This is an effective strategy to prevent spam comments as mentioned by Nile Flores but it needs to be used wisely, as by nature most people would like to see their comments published immediately before they move on to surfing something else. But when a comment is held for moderation it kind of leaves that need unfulfilled and may even leave a fellow blogger like Spyros frustrated.

On this blog I've set comment moderation off unless the comment contains a link. Besides I always read all comments and try to reply appropriately to them, so that helps to keep the spam clear off my blog and I don't have to manually approve every comment posted on my blog.

Also another benefit of turning comment moderation off is that it encourages commentator interaction, as people can address issues raised by other commentators and they don't have to wait for the blogger to come online and run the show.

Well this is just my opinion, what do you think? Do you have Comment Moderation turned on for your blog? Has it helped you or your blog in anyway? Please share your views in comments and I promise they will be published immediately.

Are you addicted to TV?

2010-05-24T17:37:00.000-07:00

Are you a addicted to TV?

* Do you come good from work or school and just lay on the couch and be entertained?

* Do you believe watching a movie is the best thing on earth and should be done everyday, all the time? BTW Which movie are you watching right now?

* Do you find your meals to be tasteless if your favourite show is cancelled for whatever reason?

If you've answered yes to the above questions then you're probably addicted to TV and don't know it yet.

I can tell from my own experience that watching TV is fun but too much of it is definately not good for you. I remember during summer vacation is school I used to get up and switch on the TV even before brushing my teeth and having breakfast. I would lay on the couch and watch TV all day. I used to watch Cartoon Network then and some movies, at times. In fact I could tell the time just by knowing which show was on.

These day I watch TV only occasionally and its generally the news or some sports event. I mostly spend my free time online, gaming, listening to music or reading. I know I need to reduce my online time and do other things more often. I'try to change that too, soonish.

If you're addicted to TV it can be hard to give it up right away. Try to switch to something else you like doing, for example reading a book or listening to music or try learning an instrument. Try going without TV for a week as suggested in the TV turn off week post. If you need inspiration then read this post about how this mom has raised her kids without TV, quite a feat in modern times. So go ahead and pull that plug.

Alexa Fever

2010-05-21T17:04:00.000-07:00

Statistics are to a website, what weight is to a woman.

Although some webmasters may publicly claim that they don't really care about stuff like Alexa ranking, Google PR, Backlinks etc but these stats are always present at the back of their mind. Right now Alexa Ranking is what has me worried.

Alexa ranks sites based on tracking information of users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer and from integrated sidebars in Mozilla and Netscape.
Source: Wikipedia

Visit this post by Jack Nguyen to learn more about Alexa ranking.

Over the last few months my Alexa Rank has been steadily increasing but this month it has started diving, and its diving sharply. It was over 14M and it came up to 500k but is started to fall back and is currently at 609,509. I'm really suprised at this change as the traffic has increased this month after I posted the video about Nokia X8.

I guess my new visitors don't have the Alexa toolbar installed. Anyway installing Alexa Toolbar on visitor's Browsers it beyond my control so I won't bother about it. If you to need to increase your Alexa ranks then read this post by Tycoon Blogger where if shares 5 effective tips to increase your Alexa rank.

Well I can't use Alexa Toolbar with Opera Mini, but I encourage you to get it, if possible. I'll try to participate in webmaster forums, any suggestions for some interesting forums with good people to hang out with, do share it with me in the comments.

Besides that I'll just continue to do what I've been doing and focus on getting all kinds of traffic (alexa toolbar or not) and hopefully the stats will take a turn for the good again.