Dummies guide to SANFRANSISCO..

What does a desi does after reaching this side of ocean, start making a list of places where he can go on long weekends.. I also did the same.. and the first chance i got was in memorial weekend of May.. when a group of my colleagues decided to go to a 3 day tour of North CA. we spent one day in SFO and i fall in love with the place.. I had heard a lot about this place from dotcom boomers and SFO was on top of my places of must see.. NY, miami, vegas being the other few and SFO didnt disappointed me..

The places we covered..
1. Ferry Building - A city landmark transformed into a gourmet food emporium and farmers market.
2. the Oakland Bay Bridge
3. Golden Gate bridge
4. Sausalito Ferry cruise
5. Alcatraz – just saw it from the ferry
6. The Palace of Fine Arts
Contains the following : A Park,An Auditorium and The Exploratorium
7. Twin Peaks
8. Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower
9. Golden Gate Park - it is SFO's 1,000-Acre Backyard with wonderful green stuff, I heard it’s the largest urban park in US. There is plenty of outdoor action -There's golf and tennis, horseback riding, power-walking and roller blading and you can find people bicycle and rollerskate freely on the park lanes

This park contains -
o California Academy of Sciences
o M.H. De Young Memorial Museum (Closed for construction )
o Asian Art Museum
o Japanese Tea Garden - A faithful and beautiful recreation of a (very large) Japanese garden.
o Botanical gardens
o AIDS memorial grove
o Music concourse aka "The Music Bandshell" - free concerts takes place here.
o and much more
10. Alamo Square -You have to go here to take a picture of the Victorian houses that constitute "Postcard Row"
11. Nob Hill - Also nicked as Snob Hill by SFO's. A very tall hill near downtown, it has a park atop it. The park is surrounded by hotels and low-rise condos with million-dollar views of the bay.
12. Pacific Heights -Stately homes
13. War memorial opera house
14. Lombard Street - this one-way road pass with hair pin bends down a steep hill is known as the crookedest street in the world
15. Cable Cars and cable car museum
16. Chinatown - Jade Shops, Tea Shops And Fortune Cookies: That's Chinatown. Nothing American.. Total Chinese ;-). You must walk through Chinatown to experience everything. Chinatown is one of the City's most congested areas.

San Francisco is one of the rare cities in US where you won't need to see everything by car. You can walk up and down the hills, weave your way through the neighborhoods, and cover the entire city on feats if reqd, booking cab tour is better for squeezing more things in it.

What we missed seeing-• Alcatraz: One Million Visitors A Year visit it; they Can't Be Wrong
(Heard from someone a must -- an "official" Alcatraz t-shirt which lets everyone know exactly where you've been, prison stripes and all.)
• Golden Gate Heights Park
• Pier 39 / Fisherman's Wharf
• Gentleman clubs;-)
• Nude beaches


Weather: The weather can be tricky, Funny, depends on the mood of sea and sea breeze, could be a bit chilly around sea and on ferry ride so best is to Dress in layers.
Souvenirs: No dearth of Souvenirs shops in SFO, Sausalito, Golden gate, Japanese garden.
Food: N number of hotels and restaurants. We settled for desi food at a Pakistani restaurant. Food was ok but the owner was jack ass.

Sehar – UP se Organized crime ka khatma…

Honest cop fighting the system and still emerging winner.. Umpteen movies have been made on this subject and many more will be made in the future.. Some show it from the cops point of view like Ardhsatya, khakee, Aan, Abh tak chappan etc.. Some show it from the point of view of the gangsters and criminals like Satya, Company and many more from Ram Gopal Verma factory.. but this one is more like watching a compelling gritty documentary without the flashy or the glamour of RGV.. Though its equally hard hitting but it spares you with blood and other grotesque shots.. And mind it its Kabeer Kaushik’s maiden script-direction venture (I had to google to find his name).. It is easy to criticize or to attack but it is worth watching a film that doesn’t judge or condemn the cops…

The movie is set in early and mid 90’s and shot in UP.. mostly in Lucknow and surrounding areas with a bit of Delhi thrown in…
The movie is made in a flashback mode through Pankaj Kapur’s eyes.. … Ajay(Arshad warsi) is a honest and brave policemen who joins his work at Lucknow as SSP where he comes face to face with the gangster and mafia nexus in the city.. Welcome to UP the hotbelly of organized crime.
he is working on a case of murder and It turns out that the gangster was killed by another rival gangster Gajraj (Sushant Singh) who is smart, sauve and who uses his clout among political circles and police force and is becoming a headache for police force. As Ajay goes about investigating his case, he figures out how well organized the crime world is with its links to politicians, businessmen and the very keepers of law.

Initially they meet with failures as the corrupt policemens from the system work in tandem with gangsters. Gangsters use the benefit of police jurisdictions to give slip to them many times.. to come over this they had to cover all the UP with out the help of local police for which they required special powers..To achieve this, Ajay forms the STF (Special Task Force) comprising of honest and dutybound cops. Initially STF is pushed down by babudom but when the CM’s Industrialist friends kin is kidnapped its formed and given state wide power. The movie is devoid of unrealistic gimmicks.. like When struck with the new tool mobile-- which criminals use to communicate with each other and catches the police force off gaurd, as they do not know how to listen into these conversations. Keen on wanting to anticipate Gajraj’s next move an expert in cell-phone technology a college professor (Pankaj Kapur) is added to the team by him.. not the usual we know all policemen stuff (supermans)… It is fascinating to watch a realistic depiction of a police force struggling against odds to hold back underworld. with Pankaj kapur’s help they start tracking gangsters and start catching them or eliminating them…In his fight against the gangsters and the corrupt ones, Ajay has the moral support of ADG (Naved Aslam) and love interest in a college lecturer Anamika ( Mahima Chaudhary – in a short and sweet role.. no unnecessary histronics) . In a mentionable role is Ajay’s mother (Suhasini Mulay) who teaches him to be brave while she is herself struggling to come over the memory of his husband who shot himself after getting court-martialed from army for showing cowardice on duty. But shows her caring mom side when gets abusive threatening calls against his son.. very realistic cinema.. there are also many other characters which come and go (usually going via bullet) and many subplots are there like – kidnapping, fraud, suicide – and are given depth by the human emotions of doubt, pain..

Sehar does not have the usual songs, which is also good as it doesn’t interfere with the film flow.. but the background score is fabulous and keeps the flow..
Second thing that’s brilliant about Seher is its editing.. crisp and realistic end product. A lot of thought and hard work must have gone into the cinematography and screenplay. Seher definitely brings out the seriousness of the issues it talks about, though this does give the film a documentary feel.

All in all, Sehar is a good film due to realistic treatment by director and good performances by the star cast. The movie’s climax – shot on a moving train – is another redeeming factor.

Also what makes Seher different is the fact that we finally get to see Arshad Warsi in a much-deserved lead role other then the famous circuit... He is definitely one of Bollywood’s most underrated actors! ..There is another power house actor Sushant singh... He is the main villain of the piece but always kept at a distance. Maybe the intention was to shroud his character in mystery to heighten the suspense but it does backfire after a point. While we are shown the protagonist’s background, very little is revealed of his antagonist. Sushant Singh does the best he can in a somewhat sketchy role..


Best Scenes –
1. Climax – Pankaj kapur taking revolver in his hand.
2. Ajay’s juniors taking the abusive caller to task… the use of word fadfadaye.. and then they being taken to task by ADG.
3. The story by CM.
4. The shoot out to save industralist’s kidnapped son
5. The shoot out of Gajrajs deputy Tripathi in Delhi and then explanation to the lawyer.
6. Cornering the builder of Mehra construction and exposing his links with Gajraj
7. Policemen getting bored in technology lectures.
8. The dialogue on delhi police when they join STF..
9. Gajraj coming to know police is tapping cellphones.
And many more..


Arrey yaar purra ho gaya … abh move to rating and commenting….. Phadne ka hai toh phaad daalo…
Ratings, Comments and Criticism are more than welcome..

Is "WOW" really happened to your windows..??

Statutory Warning – I am an MS hater so all MS fans please read further only at there own risk and only if they can take my whining. Though I use MS software’s 24*7 (not many in this world who doesn’t) but its more by force then choice as all companies use MS and I have to earn my bread and butter too.
Some how I feel each new update is centered towards MS and other of its associates bank balances rather then customers convenience which all there marketing people keep shouting at top of there voices. Will Vista convert me.. ??
I have been using MS products since DOS. I have really been through all the ups and downs and pains with MS over many years now both personally and professionally.

Some people say – once a techy always a techy.. Some how I also fall under this category.
Though I left my hardcore techy job few years back but I still have that bug of playing with technology.
So what should a person like me do when he is feeling bored in job and has nothing to do in his social life and still has friends who keep reminding him of his tech skills by asking small helps once in a while.

I need to find what this wow is is all about !!!… I ask one of my friends to get a copy of windows vista (pirated or legal?..is all yours to guess J ) and start doing R&D..

Jan 30 – The day All Editions of Windows Vista were finally available to anyone and everyone in the general public. Windows Vista is here at last. One of the largest software projects ever undertaken, Vista is indisputably a milestone—despite MS having abandoned many of its most ambitious goals for the OS. Trying to kill too many competitors by one stone.. did some one said Jack of all trades.. yes MS tried to be one..

So let’s start the WOW experience – For a change Microsoft actually developed and shipped 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista simultaneously; tried my luck with 64bit (and faced drivers issue later)

Editions available –
Home Basic –for homes with basic computing needs like e-mail, browsing the Internet, and viewing photos ie.. good for nothing even after spending a good amount.
Home Premium – preferred for home desktop and mobile PCs
Ultimate –Windows Vista Ultimate is the choice for those who want to have it all. Easily shift between the worlds of productivity and play with the most complete edition of Windows Vista… definitely my choice.
Business – made for needs of small businesses..
Enterprise – not sure it’s launched or not but should be for big pocket organizations.(server version)

Before starting -Can your current PC run Windows Vista?
First download and run the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor 1.0 to find which edition of Windows Vista is right for you and most important to see if your current PC is ready to run it. If you have slight old computer I mean around a year old.. ya the same which you used to flaunt till last week.. answer will be negative… you will need a upgrade.. at least on the memory front.
What I figured out -1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM and pretty much any graphics adapter can perform acceptably under Vista, but consider each of these to be bare minimum requirements for performance you need to add a multiplier L In short, you need a hell of a computer just to run this OS.
If you don’t have a DVD Rom forget it.. thisOS no more comes in CD..

The installation was the smoothest I have ever seen from Microsoft. It took the better part of 20-30 minutes and the system was up and running and Microsoft can certainly be commended for that. Nothing except Linux I have ever worked with has loaded in such a short time. For large corporations and system admins this is going to be the biggest time saver ever. (Thanks to Vista's image-based setup, which replaces the ages old method of copying files one by one)
Vista didn't find drivers for all my devices during the installation process, but right after booting it connected to Windows Update to download additional drivers. Seeing the download size of around 300+ mb I dropped the idea of updating drivers and settled for what I got and updated the few most imp.
I then took a look around this snazzy and snappy new Vista (Aero) interface. Of course Microsoft spent a lot of time on creating a really great interface. At first it's a bit confusing but it took me an hour or two and it was second nature; till it started to hang and get slow and brings me back to my world. I did turn on Windows Classic start menu; the new start menu (while intelligent) is a lot slower than the classic menu.
There were many more changes like Vista's directory naming conventions, for instance, are much improved from a command-line user's perspective: Gone is "Documents and Settings" and the "My" prefix for "Documents," "Pictures" and other folders of their ilk.
Having been built on a Windows 2003 base I can certainly say this is one of the most stable Desktop operating system I have ever worked with (Linux excluded)

Features that stand out –
Available in the Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista, the Windows Aero user interface takes clarity to new heights with stunning visual effects including helpful animations, transparent glass menu bars so you can see behind your windows, and Live Thumbnail previews of open programs. Windows Aero includes Windows Flip 3D, which shows you at a glance everything you’re working on. Use the scroll wheel on your mouse to page through open windows and easily select the one you want… unluckily it started to hang every now and then in my case and I have to give it the famous salute.. CTRL+ALT+ DEL and switched to classic theme.
Surf more safely – New dynamic security protection and integrated anti-phishing technology in Windows Internet Explorer 7..IE7 is clubbed in…tabbed browsing etc etc.. how many years after Opera and firefox or just because it was losing market to them
Windows Defender is in built – what’s new about it.. It’s already available as a utility and I still rate ad-aware higher than this.
If you’re using the Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate Windows Vista edition, you can share your desktop or any program on your PC with up to 10 people simultaneously using a new feature called Windows Meeting Space… couldn’t try it.
The Parental Controls built into Windows Vista help your kids use the PC more safely and productively. Monitor usage, set time limits, set browsing and program controls, and retrieve detailed activity reports with ease… I have no kids and I go to all kind of sites. So of no use to me.. but yes a big plus for all the parents.
Sophisticated advanced search – Google’s dominance in search is hurting MS’s big bosses.
One can use Windows Media Player 11. to rip CDs to your PC, get new tracks, listen to Internet radio, or subscribe to an online music serviceI such as MTV’s URGE music service (sadly for U.S. only), which is conveniently built into the media player.
Windows Photo Gallery – Google- your picassa is also on target.
Windows Sidebar with customizable mini-applications called Gadgets for at-a-glance access to weather, news, calendar, and other useful information. – Again taken from books of opera.
Memory boost - ReadyBoost lets you use flash memory by plugging a USB drive as a supplemental swap file (this can be substantially faster than a spinning hard drive)
Sync Manager and windows backup are much improved or are they really?? Not just superficially enhanced. Someone told me it just syncs with Outlook not with windows mails and contacts.. a big let down.. ( though I didn’t checked this feature)
User Account Control – good for sys admins but an irritant for people like me.
Windows Mail – old wine in new bottle.. may be old bottle if given a proper user test.
Windows API incorporates the.NET 3.0 framework.. good for developers.. no apparent use for a layman.

But there's no WinFS (Windows Future Storage), the database-backed file system that was to be one of Vista's core innovations. As a result, Vista's support for tagging and relating files is less extensive than Microsoft promised back when the OS was still known by its code name, Longhorn.
I also ran into a variety of small but annoying glitches and found plenty of features that didn't work as seamlessly as MS was portraying. I can't shake the feeling that Vista's release was rushed.

Now an interesting fact on Vista -On the official launch day of Vista about 8 updates were released for Vista and the next day another update was released and many more till now.. That is excellent as far as Microsoft goes, quick releases of patches means this product gets off the ground a lot quicker than any predecessor. Earlier patches used to come after a longish wait. Of course blogs all over the web has started saying like "just launched and already patches" ... YOU BET !!! WAIT until Service Pack 1,2,3.. scenario

One more peculiar thing I noted you cant change time by double clicking on clock.. ditto for network connection settings it require more clicks.. somehow.. the thing which made MS the most preferred OS manufacturer.. easy of use.. its losing it.. its compelling people to relearn.. which many will hate..

Anyways I am just really sick and tired of bitching about MS. Those who will run legit copies of Vista will know that this OS ROCKS !!! Those of you trying to run cracked copies (like me) are no doubt going to be disappointed. Microsoft is closing the gaps in their software fast. If you want it pay for it. L L so will wait for official update on my laptop till then back to world of XP

So what's verdict? Vista is good—in some respects very good—but not spectacular. Call it a nice-to-have product rather than a must-have.


P.S. I consider my knowledge about computers average, however the novice users look unto me as a genious.......sighs

Ratings, Comments and Criticism are more than welcome...

Pro’s- Improved security.Slick Aero interface. Pervasive search. New APIs and hardware support. Better built-in apps.
Con’s- Hefty hardware requirements. Minor bugs and rough edges in UI. Lack of a killer app to compel adoption. Most features also available for Windows XP users. Bottom line -Vista offers a lot of improvements over Windows XP, but most of them are conveniences rather than essentials.