Kiran's Kernel

Setting up static IP address for ESXi Server

2009-11-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

Put your ESX host in maintenance mode and disconect it from Virtual Center.
Have a physical access to the VMWare ESXi host console.
Remove the old IP adress (by deleting the vswif interface, if vsfif0 is your interface to remove) “esxcfg-vswif -d vswif0″
Create a new vswif interface with the new IP address. “esxcfg-vswif -a vswif0 -p Service\ Console -i 10.0.10.10 -n 255.255.0.0 -b 10.0.255.255″, where -i is the new IP address, -n is your new subnet and -b is your broadcast. This one is the default value, if you need replace Service Console with the name of your Service Console port group.
Update the default gateway by opening “/etc/sysconfig/network" file through vi and add "GATEWAY=10.0.0.254" after Hostname line.
Then you need to restart the interface. Do “esxcfg-vswif -s vswif0″ (this will disable the vswif0 interface) and “esxcfg-vswif -e vswif0″ (this will enable the vswif0 interface)
You should now update DNS, DHCP and your HOSTS files.
Open the VI client and highlight the ESX Server host and click on the Configuration tab. Click DNS and Routing & select properties. Change the appropriate values like hostname, domain, DNS servers and default gateway.
Reboot the server.

Enabling FTP & SSH on ESXi Server

2009-11-01T10:29:00.000-08:00

At the VMware ESXi host, press ALT+F1 to access the console.
Enter the word 'unsupported' in the console
Then type the password for root login
To enable SSH and/or FTP, edit /etc/inetd.conf and remove the comments from the lines having #SSH and #FTP (on both IPv4 & IPv6)
Save the file & restart the inetd process, by issuing the command /sbin/services.sh restart
Now you can access the host via SSH and/or FTP

How to disable password complexity on ESXi Server 4.0

2009-10-23T13:50:00.019-07:00

Logon to the ESX Server through a telnet session or through console
Open the file /etc/pam.d/common-password
Just add 'enforce=none' at the end of first line & save it.
No restart required for the ESX Server

#%PAM-1.0
password requisite /lib/security/$ISA/pam_passwdqc.so retry=3 min=8,8,8,7,6 enforce=none
password sufficient /lib/security/$ISA/pam_unix.so use_authtok md5 shadow
password required /lib/security/$ISA/pam_deny.so

Importing PST file onto Exchange 2007 mailbox

2009-10-23T11:45:00.034-07:00

At the time of writing & testing this import process, these are the steps I carried and here are some of the issues I encountered & troubleshooting steps I took to overcome. Things might be different by the time when you attempt it in your environment. To import data from a .pst file, you must run the Import-Mailbox cmdlet from a 32-bit computer that has the following installed.

Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later versions.
32-bit version of the Exchange management tools.

Pre-requisites for Exchange management tools

The 32-bit windows machine that is identified should be on the same domain where Exchange 2007 server is
Should have IIS 6 installed on it
Should have .Net frameworks 2 with update/hotfix KB 942027 or .Net 3 frameworks
Windows Powershell for 32bit
Microsoft Management Console 3.0 for Windows Server 2003 (KB907265)

Installing Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools

Download 32 Bit Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Management Tools (32-Bit):
Run "E2K7SP1EN32.exe" & extract the installation file
Run Setup.exe and choose "Install Microsoft Exchange".
Choose "Custom Exchange Server Installation"
Mark the checkbox "Management Tools".
Enter the Exchange Organization name (if it didn’t auto completed by the installation wizard).

Troubleshooting

If you happen to get the following error while opening the Exchange management console, try to use a different Admin account to open the console.

Active Directory server is not available. Error message: A local error occured. It was running command 'get-AddressList'

Make sure that the user with which you run the import command has Full Access on the mailbox on which you are trying to run the import. Otherwise you may use the following command to assign full rights.

Get-Mailbox -Identity Neptune | Add-MailboxPermission -User admin -AccessRights FullAccess

Sample Import Command

Import-Mailbox -Identity Neptune@demo.com -PSTFolderPath C:\PSTImport\Test.pst

Most of the times, the import command seem to run successful, but doesnt import anything. First thing is, do not use the same PST for more than once. If you want, you could take a copy and then try again. Secondly, move the pst to a specific directory (say C:\) and give it the alias name of the mailbox like Dolmen.pst (assuming Dolmen is the alias of the user Neptune).

Import-Mailbox -Identity Dolmen -Pstfolderpath C:

Sharing some technical information

2009-10-23T11:03:00.010-07:00

I know many of my blogs are mostly related to travel or photography. Rather making it mundane with the same flavor of items, decided why not add spice to it by sharing some technical information.

Somehow or other I spend a reasonable amount of time in the internet searching for some technical assistance or information regarding something which I come across as new. I have the habit of writing intranet wikis, unlike many techies who are lazy in documenting. So in the next few blogs or may be with future blogs I would like to share some technical information which I learn. I assume that it would be useful for some tech guy like me who is in search of the same information which I write here (if at all it comes up in the search results). I understand it may not be interesting for many of youse...

Jaunty Jackalope

2009-10-22T18:42:00.021-07:00

So...Windows 7 is out today. I feel like I checked Vista only recently and wrote a blog about it, but couple of years have gone past in no time. I see MS is facing a pretty tough competition, not just with the OS series but also with browsers, mobile OS, gaming device, office software suite, webmail, mail server, database server, cloud computing, etc..(I am sure I missed a lot more in this list).

Statistics say MS is slowly losing its market share in OS & browser wars. Years ago I remember MS used to be a monopoly in many of the fields. In another few years from now it might lose a majority of share mainly in OS and browser. I very well see users are expecting a change, something new, a little different & innovative products. They are shifting their focus towards things like Mac, Linux, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. Nevertheless least said about the free stuff. Most of the stuff are now a days available for free. So why pay for something which you already get free elsewhere.

Slightly drifting off the topic. A few months ago with my personal laptop, I wanted to try out Ubuntu on it. Reason?, I seriously got frustrated with the annoying repeated spyware attacks & pop-ups (...nope I don't surf those sites much). You know that installing Windows OS and fixing those bunch of device drivers takes a while and test of patience. Installing Linux was a piece of cake for me and almost all the devices were set up during the installation itself. Connecting to a wireless was totally automatic, Office suite was already there. After all that, I never had to worry anymore about spyware & pop-ups at all. Even with a low memory, its working really fast.

Back to the topic, I haven't actually checked or tested 7 much, but I am sure it would be yet another memory monster. The greed for faster processor, more memory and larger hard drive space has never ended with Windows series. On a contrary Xubuntu doesn't ask for that much memory at all, which is specifically targeted for low end models.

After installing & trying out Ubuntu, I am pretty impressed with Linux family of desktop OS. If I buy my next laptop, I dont think I would go with Windows as desktop OS. You might be wondering why named this blog 'Jaunty Jackalope'. This recent install gave me better insight of Linux and turned my focus towards the Linux world. I dedicate this blog to Ubuntu as I am pretty happy with it.

Beauty shall thy be called 'Yosemite'

2009-02-11T22:15:00.012-08:00

Of the many places I've seen so far, 'Yosemite' has been the one which made think I should visit again. Even after couple of trips, I Still feel like going there. No wonder John Muir visited this national park so many times.

Of the snaps I've taken there, couple of them I really cant forget & would treasure them. Even if I see them now, I am engrossed in the beauty of the scene. Especially ,the yosemite falls taken from the meadows, it just happened that the two of these taken during each visits just matched exactly.

Mysteries

2009-01-04T20:02:00.010-08:00

After moving to Bay Area, happened to visit these two places, 'Winchester Mystery House' & the 'Mystery Spot at Santa Cruz'. Pretty interesting to know their details, hard to believe but its true.

The following videos sum up everything what I want to say. Of course, these aren't mine, a link from youtube. Check my pictures, but you may not understand anything out of these snaps till you visit these places.

Fotos: Mystery Spot & Winchester Mystery House

Websites: Mystery Spot & Winchester Mystery House

Longest day of my life

2008-04-23T09:57:00.001-07:00

22nd April 2008 has been the longest day of my life. Was in Sydney between 12:00am (midnight) to 3:00pm, then spent 14 hours on air, and the rest of the day at San Francisco from 11:00am (again) to 12:00am midnight. Totally I made almost 42 hours as against 24 hours. Crazy and bizarre experience !!!

Sydney Spectacular

2008-03-03T16:47:00.002-08:00

Been there, relished that. Went to watch the 1st ODI final of the 2007-08 Commonwealth Series final between Australia and India. On a perfect day for cricket, India pulled off a marvelous victory. Adding to the joy, the master blaster came up with a fantastic century.

Taare Zameen Par

2008-01-18T20:25:00.000-08:00

Though Bollywood is as popular as Hollywood, in my opinion, not many quality movies come out from there. The recent movie 'Taare Zameen Par' created by Aamir is lining up with Lagaan and Swades, which are samples of rare and quality productions from Bollywood. This movie has a touching message, with the little guy doing very well in action. Though not having a great story on hand, Aamir has done a fantastic job as a debutant director. The concept created and compared by the writer Amole, with real life legends was astonishing to note. Simply a good movie to watch.

Floola-the coola

2008-01-01T17:36:00.000-08:00

Few months ago I bought an iPod. I was having high hopes about it, as its been entertaining millions of users around the world. Till the time I installed and started using it, it was looking good & fine. Later realized that iTunes which is an interacting software used to organize the iPod is such a big crap as it gave me all sorts of troubles. In my opinion though iPod is good release out of the Apple family, iTunes on a contrary is far opposite to that. It froze my computer & iPod several times and had to restart them million times. The main frustrating thing was, it rearranged all the albums and songs on its own fashion and totally shuffled the structure of arrangement. Ultimately it was a real pain in my back to get it work in my way.

Then I started researching on the net to see whether others have experienced these difficulties which I was going across. Browsing through different forums I got to know that there were plethora of buddies who were frustrated like me. Then reading through those discussions came to know about Floola. With Floola, I could rearrange & fix my album structure within minutes on the fly. Adding, modifying and deleting songs were so easy. It was far better than iTunes, really a cool piece of tiny software. Instead of saying a software I would say its a standalone application which doesn't even require any installation, so its portable. Moreover, it was free!!! Floola was the real coola for me and it made my life much easier with iPod.

NYE 2008 at Sydney Opera House

2007-12-31T07:52:00.002-08:00

Sydney invited the New Year 2008 with much more than the usual fun fare with an amazing fireworks show.

Centre of everything, middle of nowhere

2007-11-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

Though I have visited a few places before, visiting Uluru National park has been a long time dream for me since I arrived in Australia. The Uluru National Park surrounds the area of the Uluru popularly called the 'Ayers Rock', the Yulara village, the annexed tourist centre, Kata-Tjuta or 'The Olgas' and the little connellan airport which just bears a tiny strip of road called the runway and a coffee shop. Its one of the most iconic places down under, or in other words the highly acclaimed natural icon of Australia. I would say, this has been my most spectacular trips I have ever had so far.

Uluru is approximately 3.5 hours by air from Sydney, situated almost at the centre of Australia and closer to Alice Springds. Lot of tourists especially from US and Canada visit here. So what is so special about this place. There is nothing here, thatz what is the specialty I would say. When you have an aerial view of the whole place, you could see that its totally barren on all directions (watch my video below). Simply to say, its an arid desert expect for two rocks. These two rocks have geological significance and also has a great historical importance among the aboriginals. The aboriginals still worship them as God.

The marvel about these rocks are, though Olgas and Ayers rock are close by, the rock formation between them is entirely different. The Olgas have a pebble formation, but the ayers rock has a scaly stone structure. A closer look at the pictures will reveal this information. The Olgas is formed by 36 domes surrounding it. In the aboriginal language 'Kata' means 'many' and 'Tjuta' means 'domes', which describes the reason for its name.

Peep in here for more pictures....

Uluru/Ayers Rock Aerial View

2007-11-19T17:11:00.000-08:00

An aerial view of the Uluru/Ayers Rock and Kata-Tjuta/The Olgas from an helicopter.

Your Business Success

2007-11-19T13:38:00.001-08:00

On the weekend's business program 'Your Business Success' on the popular Australian TV 'Channel 9', last week the focus was on web based branding & it was on ' The Cavalry'. You can see my bosses Peter & Sturt talking on the program. Its my office where I work and surprisingly my office looks really clean on the TV. Unfortunately I am most of the time at my customers' place these days and none of the other technical engineers were there in that video as well.

http://www.yourbusinesssuccess.com.au/pages/default.cfm?page_id=39695

http://money.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=322936

Vista...Waste-a

2007-03-02T00:24:00.001-08:00

Had a chance to install and work with Vista. As an Engineer working with Microsoft technologies and as an end user would like to comment on this new OS.

Firstly, the interfaces and screens are very dull which makes us hard to work on LCD monitors especially with laptops. The glass like icons & screens and their fading effect makes us feel it to be similar to Mac OS X. All the games shipped along with the OS are looking almost like those of the Linux's. Obviously no need to mention that its very slow when compared to XP sp2. All the windows are almost similar to XP sp2 and nothing much different. For some of the screens we have to search for ages to figure it out.

Though its claimed to be the most secure OS in its family of versions, it doesn't seem like so. We end up getting so many pop-ups and warnings leaving the decision to us whether to run the application/process/program whatever it is, which is really annoying. It looks as if the OS doesn't want to act intelligently or responsibly, instead wants us to decide. Already with IE7, it was disgusting to get so many security warnings, its much more worse in Vista.

Ultimately doesn't impress me much.

A few interesting messages

2007-03-02T00:08:00.000-08:00

Last week came across a few interesting messages which got studded in my mind very deeply.

The "Will" ain't about how hard you hit, but its about how hard you are hit and move forward. -Rocky Balboa

If your mind says YOU CAN, then you definitely can, no matter how hard it is.

There are things in life, (1) Things you know (2) Things you know that you don't know (3) Things you don't know that you don't know. If we focus on (3) & move them to (2) and from there to (1), then we all can become a champion. Its easy to say but hard to make it a reality.

Its a lot more different world

2007-02-23T03:34:00.000-08:00

We had our team meeting and sort of training at the Northern beaches.

Usually I go to work by train, but today to attend this meeting I had to take a ferry. I haven't traveled much on ferry as I don't have the opportunity. Though its not a big deal but still it was different from my daily routine.

Also this is for the first time I've been to the Northern beaches. I would say its entirely different than the western suburbs, where I have been living for the past few months.

After our meeting we went to the nearby Queenscliff beach for surfing. Though I have been to the sea few times before, I never get into the water as I am scared of it and also don't know swimming. Inspite, I braved myself and jumped into the water with a surfboard. Though it was just a for short time, I extremely enjoyed surfing in the sunny beach. To be honest, I got sunk two times, drank water three times and had cramps four times...hahaha, still I loved it. Now I repent for not knowing swimming.

These three little changes on the same day which I experienced, made me feel that its a lot more different world when we have a few changes from the daily routine.

Photo : Me along with my team at the Freshwater Reserve, Queenscliff.

Gottu know what does H U G E mean

2007-02-21T01:45:00.000-08:00

Since the time it departed San Francisco, I couldn't wait to see her, as I knew that her next stop over was Sydney. Though she makes a visit every year, this time it was a bit different as she 'The Queen Mary 2' and her little sister 'The Queen Elizabeth 2' were hitting the harbour on the same day, so it was double the attraction.

In the evening, after my work I went up to the Woolloomooloo bay to see her. As and when I saw the ship, I got to know what does H U G E mean, "yes", as it is said she is the largest, the longest and the widest ship in the world and supposed to be the largest moving object.

I never expected that thousands would flock to the city like me to see the arrival of the two. It was also fantastic to watch the media choppers hovering around, covering the two in all possible angles and those little ferris & boats escorting her all the way through. At night the fireworks was adding much more fun to it. And above all, the sisters jazzed three times at the end as an acknowledgment to the fireworks & the greeting, which roared through the city corners. That was something w o n d e r f u l !!

Where the bloody hell are you?

2007-02-17T00:19:00.000-08:00

This is nice to watch, both...

Original tourism video

Spoof video

Vista and then Vienna

2007-02-12T20:01:00.000-08:00

Its been just couple of weeks since Vista was released in the market, now Microsoft(MS) says its planning for a release of its next version of Desktop OS called Vienna by 2009. MS says its been releasing new versions almost every 3 years in a row, but Vista took a bit of time of 5 years as its claimed to be the most stable and secured version ever from its family.

Just a few days ago I was reading through an article discussing about large corporates like banks planning their strategy to upgrade their client versions, as its not easy and cheap for them to get migrated with thousands of seats on hand. Also the version of OS which they are migrating has to be trouble-free with their daily operational systems. Corporates say that they have just now migrated from their previous versions to XP and now Vista is released & Vienna is on its way. Whoa...Microsoft has to slow down a bit.

Mount after bushfires

2007-02-08T22:59:00.000-08:00

Charred Mt. Oberon at Wilson's Promontory Park after the summer bush fires.

Late sunset on a warm summer day

2007-02-08T22:43:00.000-08:00

Backa Packa

2007-02-08T12:56:00.000-08:00

Wanted to capture the arriving train, but didn't find time to switch to the right mode in my camera and ended up focusing on this unidentified backpacker, at the Sydney Domestic Airport teminal.

Talking texts

2007-02-07T15:32:00.000-08:00

Just a while ago I was talking about the power of rss/xml. Came across this short video which is really cool. It doesn't talk but conveys more things, esp about internet, hypertexts, xml.....

Google's hasty releases

2007-02-06T23:01:00.000-08:00

Talking about Google's bugs, yesterday Google Maps Australia (GMA) released its enhanced version providing search, finding directions, businesses in nearby locations, etc. Though GMA was released long ago, till yesterday it was only providing flat maps. Obviously out of curiosity wanted to test a few things with this release, but frankly speaking I wasn't happy with the results.

Coincidently came across an article from SMH today commenting about the same. For a journey from 200 Sussex St to 201 Sussex St, it gives a scenic route of 10.4km including a toll. Its really funny to read...

I think its just because of hasty releases.

Beta Bugs

2007-02-06T22:39:00.000-08:00

Bugs are common with any software and my beloved Google is not an exclusion from it. As I was saying, I have been exploring with Google Reader. I attempted to feed my own blogs to the reader and you could see the feed also lists the blog which was deleted long time ago.

I browsed a lot with the help and other related conversations/blogs looking up for some fix to this, assuming I was making some mistake as I am novice to this. Later came to know that its a known issue with Google Reader and they dont have any solution as of now.

There could be more bugs elsewhere in other Google's products. I don't think Google will never come out of its Beta release for any of its products.

Nasi Goreng is the favourite of 2006

2007-02-05T23:16:00.000-08:00

The Telstra Bigpond commercial becomes the favourite ad of the year 2006. Its one my favourites too.

A TELSTRA BigPond commercial which shows a father telling his son the Great Wall of China was built to "keep the rabbits out" has been voted Australia's favourite TV advertisement. -The Daily Telegraph, February 01, 2007 12:00

See change, sea change

2007-02-05T12:31:00.000-08:00

Though the one I took earlier at Apollo Bay was good, this gray scale picture in spite of being dull is not bad I suppose. Sea colour can't always be blue and that need not always be beautiful with just being blue. After all it only reflects the colour of the sky.

It was during summer and a overcast condition all through the day, shot Sydney CBD while on a ferry from Circular quay to Watson's Bay.

Sydney Tower = Eiffel Tower

2007-02-04T20:59:00.002-08:00

I have been living here in Sydney for the past 1.5 years and never knew that Sydney Tower is as tall as the Paris Eiffel Tower until I made a visit there. There is one more interesting fact to note that, the Sydney Tower is exactly twice the height of Harbour Bridge, which is exactly twice the height of Opera House.

I was talking about capturing cityscape by night. During last december, I went up to the observation deck of the Sydney Tower, carrying my (new) tripod along with me. I spent almost 4-5 hours there to capture the cityscape in all the possible directions. It was really painstaking to shoot, due to the reflection of deck's lights in the tower's glass wall. Also I had a tough time with the school kids around me, who came along during their summer holidays. I had to wait a long for them to clear off to get a good snap. However, I carried home a very high satisfaction along with good pictures when I returned that night.

Check out Wiki's page and my photos at picasaweb.

Burkini

2007-02-04T20:59:00.001-08:00

Do you know Burkha+Bikini, called Burkini is for Muslim women who want to go to beaches and still get dressed in their traditional dress. So far this word hasnt been added to any of the online dictionaries, but gone into many news websites. It is claimed to be an oz invention.

Brothers in arms

2007-02-04T17:02:00.000-08:00

On our return to Melbourne after a day trip to the sovereign hills at Ballarat, we were cruising through the Western Highway. With a rainbow appearing on my left, I just wanted to capture it. But this turned out to be more beautiful with two pylons automatically getting centered along with the arc right next to it. Also the sky in the background perfectly painting gray with a foreground of sun dried grass added more to it.

Cityscape by Night

2007-02-04T14:42:00.000-08:00

Cityscape by night is always spectacular to view. But capturing the same in a camera is very tough, unless we use a tripod. Even before buying a tripod I made several attempts to shoot the cityscape. I spent a lot of time and had to waste almost 20-25 exposures for each of (just) these two pictures. But at the end I didn't lose anything since it was a digicam and at last it was worth it I suppose.

Left : Cityscape from South Bank (Yarra River) at Melbourne, winter of 2005
Right : Cityscape from Darling Harbour at Sydney, winter of 2006

Aerial attraction

2007-02-04T14:39:00.000-08:00

I was completely filled with excitement when I made my visit to New Zealand. As you can see that the excitement was so much that I started clicking photos even on my flight. This was shot just before the landing at Auckland airport. Viewing from air, most of the region of Auckland looks like this, having tiny strips of land spread across the water.

RSS, Its really simple

2007-02-02T19:45:00.000-08:00

Really Simple Syndication, a jargon that has been hitting the web world quite a lot recently. I have been hearing that for the past two years and know about it since I have a little exposure to webservices and xml. RSS/Atom feed is one of the chum features of all the products from Google. Not just Google, many sites now a days do provide feed from them.

Recently I subscribed to Google Reader and have been exploring it. Today, I came across the feature of feeding Reader's shared items to Blogger service. If you look at the widget at right hand bottom corner titled, "Kiran's public items", it might look like a simple text having links pointing somewhere outside, but its actually not. The whole widget is fed from Picasaweb -> Google Reader -> Blogspot and back to -> Picasaweb. It was really fun playing around with this feature and settings of both Google Reader and Blogger. I could realize the flexibility & power of xml feeds. Also the background technology of this RSS is very simple, as the name goes. Above all I liked Google's facility of circular references within its products. Though Yahoo Photos is pretty much older than Picasaweb, so far yahoo doesn't provide this feed facility at all. Go Google !!!

Its interesting to note from wikipedia that the first version of RSS was created by Ramanathan V. Guha of Netscape in March 1999.

Glittering, but not gold

2007-01-28T15:13:00.000-08:00

While walking through the Kuirau Park at Rotorua early in the morning, saw these nice flowers and captured it. Just because of the added flash from the camera I suppose these white flowers look glittering and bubbling. I didn't do anything more.

Smelling and Fuming City

2007-01-28T15:10:00.000-08:00

When I made a trip to New Zealand two years ago, I was highly recommended to visit Rotorua. Rotorua, an outback town in NZ at about 100 kms down southeast of Auckland. I boarded a bus from Auckland to Rotorua, and it was a sailing ride from Auckland to Hamilton through a major freeway.

From Hamilton, the route swerved from the freeway and started going through country side. It was so beautiful then having en route lush green meadows, grazing horses, livestock all along the wild Waikato river. Till the bus reached the outskirts of Rotoura, it was obviously exciting. When we were close to it, I started smelling something strange and it was Sulphur, as I came to know.

To describe the city of Rotorua in few words, its surrounded by mountains all around, a big lake at the centre, broad roads all through, few thousand populated and a very quiet city. All these description may hold good for any place down under, but the main difference is, the whole region has lot of bubbling geysers, hot springs, mud pools and smoking waters. Simply to say there are lot of geothermal features underneath its ground.

Though it was just smelling weird that evening, the next day morning when I started walking through the city, I could hardly see anything in front me, as it was just fumes everywhere, and the odour was heavy. May be there is some geological effect in early hours of the day.

At the end it was such a fantastic place and a rare experience for me, and I never wanted to get out of there. Rotorua is also famous for active volcanoes, river jet cruises, cable car, etc. I would definitely recommend anyone visiting NZ.

Gorgeous Greeen

2007-01-22T12:05:00.000-08:00

In my earlier blog I mentioned that more the colors, better the snap turns out to be. Looking at these two pictures, what do you think. Isn't that contradicting my own earlier statement. There aren't many more colors except for shades of green. Honestly I don't have the answer for it. I believe its just because of the location's beauty, and also green being a nice pleasant color for our eyes. What do you say?

Left : Erskine Falls, Lorne, Victoria
Right : The Queens Park, Essendon, Victoria

Rang De Basanthi

2007-01-22T02:50:00.000-08:00

According to me, more the colors in a photograph, better the snap turns out to be. This is a typical example, as I dint strain much to shoot, but this turned out to a nice one (I presume). I took this picture almost 2 years ago, while walking up to my supermarket, when I was at Essendon. Its really delightful to see beautiful flowers like these on the streets, during spring.

Coat Hanger

2007-01-21T14:19:00.000-08:00

I heard and read through wikipedia that it costed £10,057,170.7s.9d to build the Coat Hanger (as its the local nickname for Sydney Harbour Bridge). In early 1900s or even before that, for decades there had been debates, whether to build a bridge across the bay. In fact history says that the then state govt made a huge loss with this project, after it was completed in 1931.

It costed me $169 (as of Nov 2006) to climb the bridge and there are approximately 600-700 visitors/day climbing the bridge, according to "The Bridge Climb". Then compute whatz the total yield for an per year. Approximately 160, 000 vehicles/day (as of 2001) cross the bridge. There is a minimum of $2.20 toll, then calculate the total revenue generated for an year. These are the two direct businesses I can quickly think of. The harbour bridge and the opera house attract thousands of tourists every year. And moreover millions hit the city to watch the fireworks on the new year eve. Now I cant even imagine the innumerous businesses around these landmarks getting indirectly benefited. Above all we can't forget the tourism & airline industries.

With these comparisons I think its enough to say that the earlier debates and the loss made was worth, which instead has proved profitable to many, in the last 6 decades & for the years to come.

Prodigious PYLON

2007-01-20T15:39:00.000-08:00

Can you believe that this Pylon structure houses a cinema hall, two decks of museum/antiques and a deck for promotional merchandise. This pylon is none other than the one found in the corners of the mighty harbour bridge.

There is one more interesting thing to know that this structure wasn't added to support the span of the bridge, instead it was just built to add to the looks of it.

Infamous Big Brother

2007-01-20T11:31:00.000-08:00

"Big Brother" is gaining its rating & popularity for its infamous activities within the house. Last year the oz series got into controversy by the "turkish slap" from one of its housemates and this year the british version by the racial issue. I dont see anything interesting or funny in this program. Neither its useful nor meaningful. Its worser than the worst tv program any. These sort of programs simply clog the channel's airtime and increase the traffic by its SMS responses from its fans. Unfortunately, on the other hand its gaining more popularity year after year.

New Features!

2007-01-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

Anyone would love to see new emails come into their Inbox when they login. But for me, I would like to check the New features! launched by Gmail, even before reading my new emails. Because all the new features launched are quite exciting, unique and simply innovative. Not just with Gmail, for any of the products from Google.

Of late I have started extensively using almost all of the leading Google's products. Its amazing, easy and more than that its not flashy. Every new feature launched by Google is really far above the features provided by any of its rivals. I remember Gmail was launched a couple of years ago when the then monopoly public emails were only providing just 2Meg of storage, along with their junks & ads. I really hated that. Haah, now they are all forced to provide more space, just because of Gmail. Not just with that, they have become a copy cat of all Google's features.

I am big fan of all Google's products especially Gmail, Picasa, Picasaweb, Calender and Blogger...

Hello World @ Youtube

2007-01-19T22:26:00.000-08:00

Obviously everyone knows about youtube and its popularity. So far I have only watched videos there, but today I created an account and attempted to upload a few of my debut videos which I took with my camera at Twelve Apostles. Please bear with the jitter in these clips, as I was shooting from a chopper and also its not a videocam.

The Great Ocean Road

2007-01-19T21:45:00.000-08:00

In my earlier blog I had mentioned about the twelve apostles at the Great Ocean Road. After a much long wait, I could find sometime to make a visit there, by last November. It was one of the awesome trips I have ever made so far. The Great Ocean Road is a very popular tourist attraction having magnificient coast lines, beautiful beaches, breathtaking cliffs, scenic villages, historic ship wrecks, beacons and waterfalls, stretching for a few hundred kilometers from Torquay to Warnambool. Though I spent two days there, I couldnt cover all those. In fact I was much greedy to visit all of them. It was one heck of a drive for me but at the end it was fantastic.

Check out my snaps here...

Cyril Takayama

2007-01-19T21:24:00.000-08:00

Have you heard of "Cyril Takayama". Neither do I, until I came across Youtube. Make a search in youtube.com with that tag and you will be flooded with his videos. All those 'magic' clips are really fantastic, and am sure you will have good pass-time. Thatz how I spent most of my night shifts at P&O. Also I can tell you that its much better than David Blain's street magic (according to my opinion). Some of David's magic are yukky.

OZ Shots

2007-01-19T00:40:00.000-08:00

Accidentally came across this nice site which has fantastic collection of photographs, almost covering all major tourist locations Australia. Simple & well organized website. Surprisingly they are a bunch of Russian tourists. OZ Shots....

Perfect blue-athon

2007-01-18T16:11:00.000-08:00

Usually we say "sky blue", but with this picture anyone would say its perfect "sea blue". I dont think it can get any better with the color of the sea. I reckon it was just becos of a bright sunny afternoon and the elevation at the Apollo Bay. In fact, that morning was a foggy rainy one. ya..its weird Victoria.

SCGreen

2007-01-15T21:34:00.000-08:00

Cricket has been a passion for me since my childhood. I reckon its a passion, since thats the only game I knew then. I never thought that my first experience to watch a match live would be at SCG. It was an awesome experience to view the game sitting at the Bradman Stand. Not just the view, the service there was also simply exceptional, cos' I went in a corporate ticket along with teammates.

I remember seeing this Member's Pavillion while watching matches through tv telecast, but seeing it there in this green foreground was fantastic. May be I think it was purposefully topped green just to match the ground. Its really a perfect setting !!! Cant get better???

Though all the settings were perfect for a cricket that day, the pommies couldn't sustain much with the oz bowling. For the whole series the english were like minnows to the aussies. Australia made a clean whitewash of 5-0 in the test series.

Technology has improved VERY MUCH !!!!!

2006-03-06T19:11:00.000-08:00

I am a frequent visitor of dictionary.reference.com for the last 2 years almost. Recently I came across thefreedictionary.com as its the new default search engine added in Firefox. I observed that once I double click any word within the site, it automatically refreshes the page with meaning for that. I was amazed with this idea and also the technology behind that. I have big interest for web technologies & a little knowledge about it. I would say, this stuff for me is really awesome.

Technology has improved VERY MUCH !!!!!

Say Tulip !!

2005-09-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

Usually we say 'Say Cheese!' for photos, but we should say 'Say Tulip!' when we go to the Tusselar Tulip Festival. Its held every spring in a farm close to Lilydale at the outskirts of Melbourne suburbs.

Tulips grow on cool climate and are seen only in certain places of few countries. Though the Tasselar tulip festival is famous, the tulip show in Canberra is more popular within Australia. So far I haven't been lucky enough to go there yet.

Nayakan listed in 'Time'

2005-08-27T18:37:00.000-07:00

Its proud to know that the Tamil movie 'Nayakan' is listed on Time Magazine and rated 3.88/5 among many other international movies. The list published by Time, rates the Top 100 movies of all time in any language. Kudos to Mani.

Desi desithan

2005-08-01T23:44:00.000-07:00

I have seen many lovers who tend to inscribe their names mostly on classroom benches, temple walls, bus seats, toilets, etc. This place(Dam Wall, Maroondah Reservoir, Healesville, Victoria) hasnt escaped from these desi lovers.

Land out of Lava

2005-07-25T23:10:00.000-07:00

I heard from one of my friends that, New Zealand doesn't have any snakes or spiders. That was amazing to hear? But how? Upon investigating, I came to know the reason. Geologically, New Zealand is remarkably young, made out of active volcanoes, believed to be a fragment of land which broke away from southern super continent of Gondwanaland. Still, the flora and fauna of New Zealand is unique from rest of the world. The north island is mostly of volcanoes, bubbling mud, springs and geysers, while the south island is much of snow covered mountain ranges. Isn't that fantastic to hear? Visiting those places are much more exciting. More info @ Animal Help, NGC, Ace.

'Enna Vilai Azhagae?'

2005-07-08T16:25:00.000-07:00

The drive through 'The Great Ocean Road' is said to be spectacular & scenic, and one of the most attractive tourist locations of Victoria. The annexed 'Twelve Apostles' in the coastline is world famous and some of the song sequences of Tamil movies were shot here (Enna Vilai Azhagae of Kaladar Dinam and Kadali Kadali of Avvai Shanmughi as of I know, but should be many more from Bollywood). Couple of days back one of the twelve apostles lost its root strength and crumbled. Geologists say that these apostles are million of years old and are made of limestone. But it is believed that more apostles are to be formed due to the ocean corroding the cliffs. Definitely, this rock should have been captured by millions of cameras so far. Should this be considered as a real loss? If its regarded as just a rock, then it isnt. If its treated as a heritage of million years then it is. Unfortunately I havent been there yet.

Desktop is now a satellite

2005-07-08T02:07:00.000-07:00

Have you tried Google's Earth. Its amazing!! Really makes you feel like viewing pictures from a satellite. I am still not yet out of the hangover due to Gmail, Picasa, Hello, etc. In the meantime releases like these makes us feel the power of computers and especially internet. Products from Google labs are really really fantastic. Technology has improved very much !!!!!!!!

Snaps with Wildlife

2005-07-08T01:29:00.000-07:00

Left: An Australian Kookaburra, at the Wilsons Promontory Park.

Bottom Left: (Should be a) Red Kangaroo, at Lake Wartook in the Grampians National Park.

Bottom Right: (Reckon its a) Rock Wallaby or a Grey Kangaroo at Mt.Zero.

Sorry am'nt Steve Irwin. My snaps at Wilsons Prom Park and Grampians Park

How about Koalas then?

2005-07-08T01:06:00.000-07:00

Though Koalas are generally harmless, the wild ones have long and thick claws which are dangerous. They infact make a big impression/leave a mark on the trees while they climb. They are herbivorous and mostly found sleeping on the eucalyptus tree. Even these are not exempted to get killed on the highways. One more interesting thing to note about them is that consume water very less, thatz why they arent much energetic and so they sleep for days in the tree.

Gangurru alias 'Kangaroos'

2005-07-08T00:11:00.000-07:00

My recent visits to "Wilson's Promontory National Park" and "Grampians National Park", attracted me a lot towards the wildlife of Australia. Till these visits, I havent seen much of kangaroos and never a Kookaburra or an Emu. Since my arrival in Australia, I had a doubt whether Kangaroos are endangered. And these visits made me more curious to find out the same.

One thing I clearly noticed during these visits, is that many kangaroos get killed on the highways. Upon enquiring about the reason with the locals, they say that kangaroos mostly hide within shrubs during day times and tend to hop when they hear some sound/noise. They roam freely on the nights, in fact its common with all animals, since there are no disturbances from the humans during that time. Thatz why the locals insist on not growing any trees or (clearing the) shrubs on the highway sides. Its a common thing to notice the road signs indicating kangaroo areas and small fences on many highways which are meant to protect them, but if at all speed limits are followed, we can preserve them.

Sorry for flooding with so much of information in this blog, but some of them which I gleaned, are really interesting facts to know, Here we go...

The word kangaroo is said to derive from the Guugu Yimidhirr(an Australian Aboriginal language) word gangurru, referring to the Grey Kangaroo. The name was first recorded as kangaru by Joseph Banks on James Cook's first voyage of exploration, when they were beached at the mouth of the Endeavour River in the harbour of modern Cooktown for almost 7 weeks repairing their ship which had been damaged on the Great Barrier Reef.

Found naturally only in Australia and Papua New Guinea.

Kangaroos are marsupial, male kangaroos are called bucks, boomers or jacks; females are does, flyers, or jills and the young are joeys. The collective noun for kangaroos is mob.

The marsupial family includes the wallabies, tree kangaroos, grey kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, rat-kangaroos, euro, bettongs, antilopines, potoroos and the quokka, etc and almost 60 species in all.

Red kangaroos are found on the flat open plains. Grey kangaroos overlap the reds but prefer denser scrubs and forests. Wallaroos have an extensive range throughout the inland, but prefer rocky outcrops or stony ground. Rock-wallabies live among piles of boulders, rocky hills and cliffs. Tree-kangaroos are found in the mountainous rainforests of north Queensland. Smaller species of wallabies and kangaroos live in a wide range of habitats, from desert to woodland to rainforest.

Kangaroos have extremely powerful z-shaped back legs and long feet. Large tails help them balance as they jump and are used as a third leg when they move more slowly. Kangaroos use their small front legs for grooming and eating. They often lick their forearms to help them keep cool.

Red kangaroos are said to jump more than 6 metres in a single hop. They mostly live alone. When a kangaroo is moving fast it uses very little energy. Scientists are not entirely sure why, but it seems the faster the kangaroos hop the less energy they use. They are most efficient when they reach cruising speed, but if they go too fast they start to burn more energy.

Sometimes Red Kangaroos are considered menaces because they also gather grass and different plants, which thus competes with livestock. That's why it is evident that, in those areas where the vegetation is limited, the kangaroos are destroyed. These animals are also considered to be pests because they eat not only the grass but also the roots of plants. A mob can destroy a field in a very short time.

Fights ('boxing') between large males are rare. Most fights are one-sided and end quickly, the challenged individual usually moves away. A submissive 'cough'/cluck is heard in eastern greys, wallaroos, euros but not in reds. Threat displays indicate an intention to act aggressively, these include upright posture, stiff-legged walking, pulling on grass or bushes. "Larger kangaroos, although ordinarily timid, are dangerous when threatened by rivals. In a form of ritualized wrestling, kangaroos support themselves on their hind legs and tail and pummel attackers with forepaws and kick with their powerful hind legs".

Small species, such as potoroos, bettongs, and musky rat-kangaroos, tend to be solitary and widely dispersed, with a male's territory encompassing those of several females. The animals come together briefly for mating, and mother and offspring remain together only until the young can live on their own. In contrast, red kangaroos and gray kangaroos are highly social, forming large groups, of ten or more males and females. Males form a hierarchy in the mob based largely on age and size. The most dominant male, called a boomer, has exclusive access to the females for mating. He spends much of his time wandering in and out of the mob, checking the reproductive condition of the females and also intimidating other males who attempt to mate with them. It may take a male ten years to achieve the status of a boomer, but he will remain in this position for a year at most. A younger, more vigorous male soon forces him out of his position and even out of the mob, and he soon dies.

Tongue Twisters

2005-02-17T02:12:00.000-08:00

We would have come across many tongue twisters so far, but all of them would be a sentence like. I would say each and every place in New Zealand is a real tongue twister. In a way, most of the places starting with 'w' in NSW and VIC are also among those.

Flights with cameras

2005-02-16T00:01:00.000-08:00

On my trip to New Zealand last week, I traveled through Emirates. I was wondered to see that the flights were having forward and downward cameras, which gave a good view of the take off and landing. I don't know whether other airlines are providing this technology, as I am not a frequent flyer. I was amazed to see this for the first time on board. I had a good view of Melbourne airport on lights, while landing.

Batting for "Willows"

2005-01-27T14:24:00.000-08:00

If you are a serious Cricket fan, you would be aware that Cricket Bats are mostly made out of Willow trees. If a bat is made from willows and coming from Australia, then it should be from the Macedon Ranges - he says.

On the trip to Daylesford, we drove north of Daylesford to Lavandula Lavender gardens. While finishing off our visit at the gardens, we saw a signage informing about this place and hence drove further north until we reached "Cricket Willows", somewhere far in the country of Victoria almost remote from civilization and technology. We could first see just a lush green oval and a player's pavilion which is totally surrounded by the macedon ranges. We were first greeted by a lady (wife of this person) and later introduced to him. Though this man is entering his 60s, he doesn't seem so, as he is living so close to the nature. The only technology which we could find there was his tractor. His other mates are a dog and an eagle. He and his wife involve themselves in maintaining the ground and a cricket museum(near the pavilion). They manufacture cricket bats and supply all over Australia and moreover arrange for matches on the weekends. We were talking to the couples for almost 20-30 minutes. We gave our appreciations and wishes for their dedication in maintaining the "willows". What a way and a place to live! Visit willows website for more information and my snaps to have a feel.

Broad'ways' thru Broadband

2005-01-24T15:33:00.000-08:00

A few months earlier the Chief Minister of Tamilnadu, defensed the video piracy with a stringent law. After this enforcement, Kollywood feels that the filmdom is back to life. May be! . A few weeks ago, the Union Minister for IT & Communications introduced the Broadband services at affordable rates. Though Internet could be used in many ways, I would say it would mostly be used for downloading movies and songs from the net. Actually, there are almost 'n' number of sites existing on the internet from where we can download movies, where 'n' is very close to infinity. Would the law enforced by CM still defend the piracy, or will it take a leakage through the broadband?

Yarra Sickening

2005-01-22T01:04:00.000-08:00

Yarra, flowing across the City of Melbourne is no way better than the Buckingham Canal of Chennai. Yarra hits the headlines of the major news dailies when a person dies after consuming the yarra water. I think every country is having the same sort of issue with the river flowing across the city.

Airbus A380

2005-01-20T23:34:00.000-08:00

Should have heard of the recent success of Airbus in launching the new A380 model. At the customer's end it is good to hear that the larger capacity of the flight could reduce airfares. Will that be true? Lets wait and see...

"MELBOURNE will be the first Australian city to welcome the new super-jumbo A380 Airbus, which will carry up to 800 passengers" - The Herald Sun, 19th January 2005.

Swades and Kadhal

2005-01-16T18:13:00.000-08:00

Last week I watched a couple of movies, which really deserves a note. One was a Hindi movie called 'Swades' and another a tamil movie, 'Kadhal'.

Swades, is from Ashutosh Gowarikar who directed the academy nominated movie, Lagaan.

The movie gives a good contrast of the state of technology between a space center in US and a remote village in India. Ashutosh, feeds a feel of several prevailing factors of the village wrt social, economic, caste, political etc. Though it is mild and soft through the dialogues, I would say it is strong through the incidents. Unlike other movies where the Hero speaks several pages of dialogue at a high dB regarding patriotism, Ashu has handled it very well and gently. Through the hero, he has come to say that by teamwork, we can achieve anything.

The expansion of NRI as 'Non Returning Indians' by the village teacher (Gayathri) gets really studded into us (Is that true?). The argument between the villagers and the hero kicks off really well and during the talk shahrukh very well says that instead of blaming others, why don’t we blame ourselves for the lack of initiative. That was a commendable one.

At the end, its really hard for the hero to compromise between the job at NASA space center and the settlement at the village. Though he opts for the second one, its hard to do so in real life. May be one in a thousand would do like so. If there could be any person who does it, really kudos to him.

Kadhal is a very simple love story, which centers a two-wheeler mechanic and schoolgirl. The main thing, which is good with the movie, is the second half, where the guy and girl come out of their house and reach Chennai city in search of a new life. The director has greatly filmed the struggles, which they encounter for shelter, food and settlement. At the end, when they find all these, the story takes a turn and ends up pathetically, much more worser than our 'Sethu'.

Arunkumar, the young assistant at the workshop has done a good job in this film. 'Inthanganae Peppusi' is the best Nakkal from him among a few comedy scenes.

Vege 'mite'

2005-01-04T01:22:00.000-08:00

Since childhood we have been experiencing the bitter taste of medicines. But, so far I could tolerate any medicine until the first time when I encountered Vegemite. Anybody new to Australia cant even smell this food. This is so much bitter in taste you cant even consume even a "few mg" of this. But OZ Doctors highly recommend this, which is the richest source of Vitamin B. This is used as breadspread, which is the extract of yeast. Almost every OZ house will have it and they are proud saying as uniquely Australian by this way.

History of Vegemite source : http://www.whatsthenumber.com/

Vegemite had its beginnings when a young chemist named Dr Cyril P Callister developed a remarkable new spread from brewer's yeast. Over time it has become an Aussie icon despite originally receiving a poor reception by the public and slow sales.

Vegemite was produced at the Fred Walker Cheese Company. It's one of the world's richest known sources of Vitamin B. It appeared on grocers' shelves in 1923 as a delicious spread for sandwiches and toast and to improve the flavour of gravy, soups, and stews.

In 1939 Vegemite received endorsement from the British Medical Association which allowed doctors to recommend it as a Vitamin B-rich, nutritionally balanced food for patients. This helped boost sales and public acceptance.

Since World War II Vegemite has traveled with our soldiers for its nutrition and to provide a taste of home. Demand was so strong during the war that it often meant Aussies at home had go without it so their soldiers would have enough.

Can you guess what product was the first to be electronically scanned at a grocery store in Australia? Vegemite of course. In April 1984, a 115g jar of Vegemite priced at 66 cents was scanned in Woolworths at Chullora NSW.

Vegemite is found in 90 percent of all Australian homes resulting in over 22 million jars being sold every year. It has truly become an Aussie icon. For more

Eureka! @lias Ballarat

2005-01-03T02:07:00.000-08:00

On 27th December 2004, myself, Sri and G-man had a day out to Ballarat and the Sovereign Hill. Ballarat is almost 110Km from Melbourne and well connected through the Western Freeway. The hill is located very near the Ballarat City and was having rich resources of Gold which has a history as old as Melbourne. Some of the snaps took over there are on my photos site. when we returned home that night, we three felt that the day was remarkable.

Tsunami!

2005-01-02T16:35:00.000-08:00

Whenever any country(ies) encounter(s) a major disaster, obviously the people's focus is turned towards Nostradomus and his predictions. Upon searching on Goolge, to go through his prophecies I found this interesting site http://www.sacred-texts.com/nos/index.htm . I got to know more about him and his predictions. Though anyone believes in his prophecies or not but his predictions are being correlated after every major happenings in this world. http://www.nostradamususa.com/ is also a good site to browse through.

Hello World!

2005-01-02T16:30:00.000-08:00

I got really inspired by some of my mates who regularly Blog! I realized that if they can contribute their time to frequently blog, then why cant I. This first blog is almost like a "Hello World" program for a programmer who learns a new language. So, this is now complied and running perfectly.