Library

What do I have to do to go to the library

Interesting facts from the LOTR

1. Arwen ( Daughter of Elrond ) is 2690 years older than Aragorn. Arwen was born in year T.A. 241 while Aragorn was born in T.A. 2931
2. Lady Galadriel of Lórien is the Mother-In-Law of Elrond. Elrond married Celebrían, the daughter of Galadriel.
3. Peregrin Took ( Pippin ) named his son Faramir.
4. Faramir ( Son of Denethor - the Steward of Gondor ) and Samwise were born in the same year. Frodo is 15 years older than both of them.
5. Samwise was the Mayor of The Shire after Frodo for 7 terms. That is 49 years.
6. Aragorn served under both Ecthelion II ( the father of Denethor ) and Thengel ( father of Théoden - King of Rohan ) as the Chief Captain of their armies. Back then, he was known by the name of "Thorongil". He also had lots of other names like "Estel" ( Quenya for 'Hope' - given by Elrond ). ( More Info )
7. Frodo and company leave the shire 17 years after Bilbo's farewell speech. In those 17 years - Gandalf contacts Aragorn to try and capture Gollum, Gollum is captured and they leave him as a prisoner with the Elves. But, he/it escapes cunningly. That IS the reason Legolas comes to Rivindell - to explain how and why he/it got away.
8. Only seven people have ever used The One Ring. Sauron, Isildur, Gollum ( Sméagol ),Bilbo, Frodo, Tom Bombadil and Samwise.
9. Of the three Rings that were made for the Elves, One was possesed by Elrond and one by Galadriel. The third one was with Gandalf. (More Info)
   
10. Gandalf's real name is Mithrandir meaning "The Grey Pilgrim". Saruman's real name is Eldar Curunír meaning "The Man of Skill". The wizards are called "Istari" ( meaning "wise ones" in the elven tounge of Quenya) There are only 5 of them. ( The other three being Radagast, Alatar and Pallando ) They came from the Undying Lands located beyond the sea. Look at the map. These people were forbidden to fight Sauron directly.

Here's an interesting one. Though it's not from The LOTR. Sauron is one of the innumerable spirits created by Eru . He is of the same race as the wizards but of far higher order. ( More info )

Do you know any other interesting ones ?

Pathetic sales people

We watched WALL-E yesterday. What a great movie. Simply amazing experience. This was my first PIXAR movie in the cinema hall ;)

That apart, we ( Naveen and I ) wanted to buy some ear phones after the movie. Particularly the ones with the ear plugs like stethoscope that block the ambient sounds completely. They're really nice. Good bass and the max volume doesn't produce any external sound. We went to City Centre Mall first. We roamed around and did not find any.

Then on our way to Ashoka Metropolitan, we went to a few other stores.
- UniverCell: A mobile phone store that sells authentic products. I bought my S500i here. Back then, in this shop, I saw the ear phones I mentioned about. So, I asked them that I want ear phones. Here's the conversation

me: Hi, I want to buy ear phones.
Salesman (S ): Sorry sir, this is a mobile store. We don't have ear phones here.
me: Do you have mobile phone accessories ?
S: Yes we do.
me: OK fine. I would like to see sony ear phones for my mobile.
S: Sorry sir, we don't sell earphones here. We have mobile accessories.

What the -. How else am I supposed to tell him ?
LESSON LEARNT: Ear phones for mobile pieces do not count as accessories.

Then we went to the next store.
- Planet - M ... Mobile, Music, Movies and Masti: We went in and there was a guy who did not even bother to ask what we wanted but he was just staring at us. I went to him and asked

Me: Hi, I need some ear phones, do you sell them ?
S: For your iPod/MP3 Player ?
Me: No. For my phone/pc
* He takes me over to a place and shows me some headphones *
Me: Don't you have those ear plugs ?
S: Do you want them for your iPod ?
Me: I want them for my PC/Phone.
S: We don't have them.
Me: You said you have them, didn't you ?
S: Do you want 2.5mm jack or 3.5 mm jack
( At this stage, I gave up the quest for ear phones for my mobile )
Me: 3.5 mm , the ones which I could use with a PC.
* He goes and brings someone else. This new person had a decent build and a dark complexion. He was not very tall but looked like a typical Hyderabadi guy *
New Salesman: [ with a Why-do-people-buy-things-here look on his face ] Kya Honã ?
* Oh! What the hell !? *

We were very tired after about 2 hrs of walking in city centre and banjara hills for mobile stores. We decided to go to Ashoka Metropolitan. This was our last Hope. I was very glad to see a store "X-CITE" dedicated completely to electronic/mobile equipment. Phones, cameras, TVs etc.
I was really amazed with the warm welcome we received there. Two people came to us even before we put in our second step and greeted us. It's not until they start speaking you'll know what kind of trouble you are into.

*Naveen and I walk in and two people ( Say S1 and S2 ) came to us*
S1: A very good afternoon sir. My name is ****. How may I assist you ?
* I've heard this dialouge before *
Me: We want to look at some earphones.
S2: Please come with me sir
* Naveen went with him as I was staring at the shelf with lots of earphones to my 10 O'clock *
S3: A very good afternoon sir. My name is ****. How may I assist you ?
( Then I remembered. This is how they greet when you call the customer care. What sort of people do they bring in here! Uphh! )
* I repeated to him what I wanted. And surprisingly he leaves *
S3: Please wait a moment sir, let me check.
...
* He comes back and tells me *
S3: These are the ear phones we have
* Pointing at the ones that I am looking at *
( Wow! Is it ? I thought these were 29" plasma TVs you freak )
Me: I want them either for my phone ( I show him my phone ) or to use them with my PC
S3: Sir, you can use them with your iPod.
Me: I don't have an mp3 player.
S3: No sir, they are for iPod
Me: Ok, are these with 2.5mm jack or 3.5mm ?
* Thinks for a while and brings another person S4 *
S4: You shouldn't use them with your PC sir. They won't last more than 2 months.
Me: What!? Why ?
S4: Because, PCs produce huge output and these phones can't handle so much of output and they will quickly stop working. You should be using these instead [ pointing at a very large headset ]
* :O As I was shocked by the pure awsomeness of his enlightening lesson, Naveen came and asked if I had any luck ? A sales lady was coming along with naveen talking something *
Naveen: No, I don't want those regular earphones. I want the ones that go INTO the ear. The "plugs"/"buds"
SL: Oh! Those ? Yeah. we do have them. Please come with me sir.
* We went with her but she again showed us the normal earphones *
Me: No, we didn't mean these. We want those that go INTO the ear.
SL: These WILL go into the ear sir.
* Oh! Really ? Those might as well go right into your C or up your colleague's A. Did you try ? You perhaps should *

We gave up our hope and had a good coffee at Barista. Seriously, what is wrong with the people in these shops? They don't have basic technical knowledge about the things they sell. I had a similar experience when I went to Abids to buy my mobile. I ask for tech specs and they say FM Radio, 2MP camera, expandable upto 2GB memory . Just the three. Once I asked for more detailed specs and the sales person said: "Sab phonã mai is se jyada kya hoga ?"

Right. "Is se jyada kya hoga?" Screw the iPhone,HTC, etc. All you need in a phone is a 2 MP camera, FM Radio and memory expandable upto 2GB.

PS: What is the Portuguese character 'ã' that I used in a couple of places?

Subway at indira nagar

Amazing. Now, there are more places to eat around here. All that is missing is Mc donalds.

The software we use - not every thing is US based

The US seems to many people as the hub for software companies. The non-"tech people" might be in an illusion that all popular software companies are from the USA. The Giants - yes. Not the other popular ones though. Most of the softwares we use on a daily basis and companies that produce them are non-US. You'll find the following list interesting. I might say, at least half of these will pop up on your All Programs list ( If you are a windows XP user, that is )

3d software:
Blender - Netherlands
Maya, 3ds Max - Canada

Multimedia:
MPlayer - Hungary
VLC - France
DC++ - Poland

Gaming:
Crytek , Nero - Germany
UBISoft - France
DICE - Sweeden
Sega - Japan

OS related:
Ubuntu - South Africa
Linus Torvalds - Finn

Other:
ICQ - Israel
Python - Netherlands

Did I miss something ?