Blog has moved
My blog has now moved for the second time. It is not being hosted on my home server. I haven't finished setting it up completely but for now the url is http://temphome.mine.nu/cs/blogs/default.aspx

I am hoping to keep the http://www.sushantbhatia.com/blog url so that you guys don't have to worry about making changes to your links. :-) See its all about you.
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 5:32 AM (9) comments

Evil Curse
I believe there is an evil curse on me. I seem to fall sick so often these days. Last night, the right hand side of my face got swollen and was painful. So today, I went to the dentist cause it was a gum thing and she said that the nerve has become infected and is called an absys. So she had to give me some anesthetics and then make an incision on the side of the gums and get the pus out. My face is still swollen and i'm on some HEAVY medication. I'm feeling so out of whack now. I guess its the world trying to tell me not to do my thesis or graduate. :-)
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 7:59 PM (0) comments

Linux you torment me thus!
Dammit, Linux doesn't want to install. I get the following error:


Loading...isolinux: Diskerror 80, AX = 42DB, drive 9f
Boot Failed: Press a key to retry...


This stupid error occurs again and again. I looked online and it seems it could be that the cd didn't burn properly or my hd is messed (which I doubt because it runs other OS's just fine).


Any ideas??
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 1:31 AM (5) comments

Evoking the Installation Gods
I've been messing around with hardware & software today. I "fixed" some hardware in my pentium 2, added hd & cdrom and removed the floppy. Then I installed Windows Server 2003 & right now I'm updating it to the SP1 patch that came out yesterday.

Once that is done, I will install a new WinXP w/SP2 onto my machine. After that, I'm in two minds. Appy suggested that Vitural PC with Fedora should be a nice collusion. I like that idea and the fact that I can make a copy of fedora as a Virtual PC and take it to another machine. But the draw back is performance. I want it to run really fast so I can experience it without any "problems."

I got my External drive today...looks sweet...but very noisy. Good think it has a off button. The headphones suck comfort wise but they were around $2. The 2 PS/2 to USB is amazing. I LOVE THE KVM SWITCH! I can press Scroll Lock 1/2 to get between the two computers.

I also installed a USB 802.11b adapter on the pentium 2.



This neat device works pretty well although using the provided software to "connect" doesn't work at all. So now my Win Server 2003 machine is ready to be left underneath the side table. I hope to setup an FTP server for my cousin. Also I might just run a SQL Server database out of it. I need to use it for my thesis stuff and till now i've used my server machine in school for this stuff but its getting crowded with stuff and I couldn't be bothered to reinstall. I'll also use the server machine to run Skype so that I can talk to my cousin as we play Unreal Tournament 2004 together.

I have a Logitech bluetooth headset.



Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to want to work with windows. It connects but when I look under services provided, it doesn't show anything.

Anyways, there's tons of work to be done still and even though I was hoping to be done today, it might be the weekend before I'm completely set.
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 12:05 AM (0) comments

Sleepless in Tempe
I've tried to lie down and sleep thrice since midnight. Somehow my body doesn't want to shut down for maintenance even though my eyes are almost closing. What's worse is I have to be in for work at 9:30am.


News Stories of Interest

The Sardar Has Spoken
A Canadian radio station has been censured for broadcasting "abusive" remarks about the Sikh community. Psychiatrist Pierre Mailloux, host of the Doc Mailloux phone-in show on Montreal's CKAC-AM station, had referred to Sikhs as a "gang of bozos".


Power-hungry PCs cost users dear
People who cannot be bothered to turn off their computers properly are costing both the environment and their own pockets dear, a study has concluded.
Computer magazine PC Pro measured the electricity consumed by PCs, printers and TVs. It found many devices were extremely hungry when it comes to eating power.


Two Journalists Arrested for Saying President Heard Ghosts
Reporters Without Borders today called for charges to be dropped against two Malawian journalists who were arrested yesterday for reporting "false news" after they quoted an aide to President Bingu wa Mutharika as saying the president had abandoned his official residence because he believed it was haunted.

Only in Malawi :-)


Well i'm going to try give sleep another chance. If you like dance music & the show 24 on Fox, check out the 24 theme - the longest day (armin van buuren dub) on the digi-fix.com website. Its pretty neat.
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 4:05 AM (0) comments

To Linux or not to Linux..
That WAS the question. I just finished downloading Red Hat Linux 10 (Fedora). There are 4 CD's (ISO image downloads) and 1 recovery CD.

My Plan:

- Install a dual WinXP & Fedora on my "powerful" machine.
- Install Windows Server 2003 on my pentium 2 machine for "server" purposes.

The Idea:

- To mess with Linux & get a feel for it.
- To use MONO (.Net for Linux) & get a feel for it.

Long Term Goals:

- The world seems to love Linux cause its "free". Is it really worth it?
- Maybe if the job market trend suddenly spurts to Linux, I might at least know a tincy bit.
- I might even try writing device drivers for Linux again (I wrote a PCI device driver a Loooonnnngggg time ago).
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 3:56 AM (5) comments

South Park
So you wanna watch South Park but you don't own a diamond mine to pay the cable company with & you don't run Kazzaa cause it's wrong! Well what does a moral but bankrupt (as opposed to "morally bankrupt" hehe!) person like you do?

Download from http://www.digi-fix.com/ thats what!!!!

All the latest episodes are put up there in RAR form. Download, unrar and enjoy. WARNING - Sell your soul to Real Player at your own choosing!!
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 3:51 AM (0) comments

Access Denied!
Seems the access to our labs etc has been revoked all of a sudden today! Yep, elevator access is DENIED! No idea whats up. Tried calling facilities management but they don't handle that sort of thing so who knows when its gonna get fixed. So, i'm going to be in the lab till late. Say around 9 or 10pm. Downloading stuff from the ELMS site at school so its gonna take a while.

Lucky for me I have 2 new albumns to listen to as I wile the time away.
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 7:03 PM (0) comments

Music - JBT + Queens of the Stone Age
I just bought:
Queens of the Stone Age - Lullabies to Paralyze
The John Butler Trio - Sunrise Over Sea



The Queens of the Stone Age sounds pretty nice so far. I am ripping it as I write this. I'll keep you updated on how it is.

For now..here's a review of the albumn Lullabies to Paralyze from Allmusic.com

Before heading into the studio in early 2004 to record the fourth Queens of the Stone Age album, Lullabies to Paralyze, the band's guitarist/vocalist/chief songwriter, Josh Homme, kicked out bassist Nick Oliveri for undisclosed reasons. Since Homme and Oliveri were longtime collaborators, dating back to the 1990 formation of their previous band, Kyuss, this could have been a cause for concern, but QOTSA is not an ordinary band, so ordinary rules do not apply. Throughout their history, from Kyuss through Queens of the Stone Age's 2002 breakthrough Songs for the Deaf, Homme and Oliveri have been in bands whose lineups were as steady as quicksand; their projects were designed to have a revolving lineup of musicians, so they can withstand the departure of key musicians, even one as seemingly integral to the grand scheme as Oliveri -- after all, he left Kyuss in 1994 and the band carried on without him. Truth is, the mastermind behind QOTSA has always been Josh Homme -- he's the common thread through the Kyuss and QOTSA albums, the guy who has explored a similar musical vision on his side project the Desert Sessions -- and since he's wildly indulging his obsessions on Lullabies to Paralyze, even hardcore fans will be hard-pressed to notice the absence of Oliveri here. Sure, there are some differences -- most notably, Lullabies lacks the manic metallic flourishes of their earlier work, and the gonzo humor and gimmicks, such as the radio DJ banter on Deaf, are gone -- but it all sounds like an assured, natural progression from the tightly wound, relentless Songs for the Deaf. That album contained genuine crossover pop tunes in "No One Knows" and "Go With the Flow," songs that retained QOTSA's fuzzy, heavy neo-psychedelic hard rock and were channeled through an irresistible melodic filter that gave the music a serious sexiness that was nearly as foreign to the band as the undeniable pop hooks. Homme has pulled off a surprise of a similar magnitude on Lullabies to Paralyze -- he doesn't walk away from these breakthroughs but marries them to the widescreen art rock of R and dark, foreboding metal of Kyuss, resulting in a rich, late-night cinematic masterpiece. One of the reasons QOTSA have always been considered a musician's band is that they are masters of mood, either sustaining tension over the course of a six-minute epic or ratcheting up excitement in the course of a two-minute blast, all while using a familiar palette of warm, fuzz-toned guitars, ghostly harmonies, and minor-key melodies. While Lullabies is hardly a concept album, its songs play off each other as if it were a song cycle, progressing from the somber Mark Lanegan-sung opening salvo of "This Lullaby" and steadily growing spookier with each track, culminating in the scary centerpiece "Someone's in the Wolf." The key to QOTSA's darkness is that it's delivered seductively -- this isn't an exercise in shallow nihilism, there's pleasure in succumbing to its eerie, sexy fantasies -- and that seductiveness is all musical. Specific lyrics don't matter as much as how Homme's voice blends into the band as all the instruments bleed together as one, creating an elastic, hypnotic force that finds endless, fascinating variations on a seemingly simple sound. Simply put, there is no other rock band in 2005 that is as pleasurable to hear play as QOTSA -- others may rock harder or take more risks, but no one has the command and authority of Queens at their peak, which they certainly are here. They are so good, so natural on Lullabies to Paralyze that it's easy to forget that they just lost Oliveri, but that just makes Homme's triumph here all the more remarkable. He's not only proven that he is the driving force of Queens of the Stone Age, but he's made an addictive album that begs listeners to get lost in its ever-shifting moods and slyly sinister sensuality.

- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 2:26 PM (0) comments

Damn Its 12:30am already!!!
How quickly time flies when your doing nothing. I came home early to get some sleep so I can get into work early and get some serious stuff done.


Anyways, I guess it will have to be a bit later now. I ordered some stuff from Newegg.com. Nothing major, just a microphone/headset $2.75. A Kinwin external usb 3.5" hd enclosure for my spare 250GB hd for $28.47. Finally, a USB-2 PS/2 port cable for my KVM switch for $7.49.


Total is $38.73. Those thugs then charged me $14.78 for shipping on Fedex Express Saver. What a rip off but sadly, I didn't realize my error before the order was processed.


- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 12:26 AM (0) comments

Audible.com - A sad tale.
I have been a big audible.com fan since Dec 2003 when I got my IPOD for the sole purpose of listening to Audiobooks. I had at that time felt that my "consumption" of lesuire reading was non-existant and so I decided to take on the $20 a month subscription to pay for the two books a month I got in return. This has been one of the best decisions I have ever made. I managed to get the complete Terry Pratchett series. From his first book to the latest one, i've heard them all. Every night, I let my computer play a book as I lie in bed and listen to the story.

Sadly, I will have to shut down my subscription after April 10th. Unfortunately, I've spent way too much money on these "books". At last count - $20/month * 16 months = $320. I've got 43 books (actually I bought some books too) so I spent $400 on books.

43 books. I never realized just how many I had. Its worth every penny I spent on it. I might restart it when I have a proper job but for now, funding is low and this is a $20 a month I can't spend anymore.

So long, Adieu & Thanks for all the fish!
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 11:46 PM (0) comments

JBT - Music
Tonight just by chance, I got to listen to the beautiful sounds of John Butler Trio. This Australian group was performing one of their songs from their new albumn Sunrise Over Sea on the David Letterman Show. Now, I'm pretty skeptical of groups who show up on these "Shows" but sometimes, just sometimes you get to hear sounds that make you tap your toes and join in with lyrics your hardly know and really make up.



Here is a review of their 2005 albumn from allmusic.com

The John Butler Trio's U.S. debut album, Sunrise Over Sea, is phenomenal — from the opening notes of "Treat Yo Mama," a muscular and soulfully expressive roots rocker, to the final strains of the expansive, ten-minute-long opus "Sometimes." The John Butler Trio is arguably the best musical group Australia has to offer in 2005, and Butler's superb, bluesy riffs and innovative melodies are only part of the JBT musical equation. The sturdy rhythm section of Shannon Birchall (on bass) and Michael Barker (on drums) gives added life to hit contenders like the powerful "Company Sin" and the buoyant, breezy "Better Man." If the mid-album blues vignette "Damned to Hell" seems an ill fit at first, its lo-fi, banjo-strummed presentation shifts effortlessly into the warm, heartfelt "Hello." On occasion, as with the uplifting acoustic number "Peaches & Cream," Butler's voice recalls the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Anthony Kiedis, but Butler and his bandmembers are without question on their own trip. And one only needs to hear the magical love song "Seeing Angels" to feel the trio's transcendental power.

This group is definately going to be my next purchase.
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 11:38 PM (0) comments

Seven Thousand'th Visitor
Yep. It was just a few weeks ago that I myself became visitor # 4000. And now, its #7000 for me.


- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 6:12 AM (0) comments

Indian food & how to cook it


My good friend Vivek kindly posted a PDF file on his website with 332 indian recipies. Good stuff. And if your cooking, make a little extra for me. :-)
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 1:27 AM (0) comments

Ut 2004 Again
Did I or did I not say that I kicked ass. Lookie here. 26 holy shits.



And here's a view of me getting the holy shit with a head shot!


- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 6:10 PM (0) comments

Unreal Tournament 2004 Holy Shit
Yep. Thats right. 12 Holy Shit Kills. I'm also Unstoppable. I rule UT!!!



- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 4:36 PM (0) comments

Finally I am writing again
Sorry to say i've been sick for the last 2 weeks. Some virus or something. Whats worse, my jaw hurts now. I guess old age is creeping up. So a while back...about 7 years, one of my molars broke and left the never in the gums. Turns out this is VERY VERY bad and can get infected and would need the section of gum and jaw removed permanently. SO I need to get the nerve out. Of course being a student, we have NO dental coverage. Stupid health care!! As a result, instead of this costing me 200 dollars max, i'd need to shell out much more all out of my own pocket and it stinks cause i'm broke.

So...I need a job...and quick! I need medical coverage so that I can get that damn nerve out of my gums and not have this pain.

Theres a limit to how much Motrin 600mg you can take for the pain. Yesterday I took two and I felt my heart beating faster, my breathing was shallow and I didn't feel at all well.

So..if someone wants to hire me or knows of any jobs that will sponsor a H1, I would be most happy to hear from you. :-)

As the saying goes...Give me a job or give me death! (well close enough...)

P.S. Is it illegal for a dentist's firm to not send you your records if you request them? I went to a dentist in San diego when I was there for a conference to get the pain meds and they won't send me my records even after they say they will. What should i do?
- posted by Sushant Bhatia @ 2:35 AM (0) comments