Heard the song 'Dust In The Wind' by Kansas on the car radio when returning back from work on Thursday. As I was listening to the song, it took me back to Oct of 2001. It was Diya-time at WPI and NK and Gunnar were practicing for performing on stage. I used to hang around while they practiced. One of the songs they performed that night was this song, with Gunnar singing.

NK, this one is for you.

Today, I got a brand spanking new Nintendo Wii. Its an early First Anniversary gift from Chitra. I am looking forward to going home and unpacking and setting up the Wii. Chitra would never let my play on the old XBox and I had to give it away. But the Wii is so revolutionary that even she is looking forward to playing with the Wii. Its the perfect family gaming console.

Last week, there was a lot of buzz in the major news outlets about the disappearance of James Kim - an editor at the popular CNET.com - and his family in Oregon. I was tracking the news much before it appeared on CNN.com because it was being talked about in all the tech blogs much before it became mainstream news. The family of four got lost in the snow in Oregon and got stranded in the middle of nowhere. They stayed put for almost eight days in their car, before James decided to venture out and try to find help. Sadly, it was not a happy ending for the family. Rescue teams found the James' wifes and kids near the car, but by the time they got to him, he had already died, apparently of exhaustion and possibly hypothermia.

This brought back memories of the time, when we got lost in the snow in New Hampshire. About 10 of us were hiking up to Mt. Washington in the White Mountains area. It was some time in October 2001 and there was a lot of snow on the trail. The trail was really treacherous, very icy and slippery. We started a little late in the day and by the time we reached the top, it was already getting dark. As we slowly made our way down it become completely dark and we had just the moon-light guiding us. The trail markings were no longer visible and got lost in the mountains. We realized we were not on the trail anymore, because we were treading on snow which was very soft and things didn't look familiar. Not one of us had a cellphone then. It was decided to continue on the path we were on, because we were atleast headed down the mountain. At some point we were talking through what felt like a stream. We literally started walking down on the stream, because it had to do down. At some point we saw the lake, which was near the parking lot and we just started jumping and rolling down the mountain slopes till we reached the base.

Luckily for us, we ended up on the road very close to the parking lot. Some of us shouted partly in joy and partly in relief on touching the hard road. But the 45 mins that we were lost on the slopes it was very scary. Hardly anybody else knew where we were, we had no food or water supplies and no way to get in touch with anybody to call for help. Its an experience, I will never forget... Anybody from that trip, remember your experience?

Everyone hates TV Commercials. They are mostly dull, humorless and ineffective. Companies like TiVo and open-source projects like MythTV, owe their success to the inherent desire of the couch potato to skip ads and just be able to watch the real programming. But every once in a while, ad agencies come out with some very creative ads that make you sit up and notice. Here are two such examples

My hosting plan with 1and1.com is ending in November. It was great while it lasted. I got a great deal for a three-year plan with 1and1 - FREE. But now, time to move.. I have relocated the site to Dreamhost.com's servers. Dreamhost gives almost unlimited space (200GB+) and bandwidth (2000GB+) and a ton of features like SSH access, custom DNS, PHP5. And for about $5 a month, I can host multiple domains on one account. Some of the other active domains that I manage are Ragzzmatazz.com, Toralcreation.com, Wpi2k.Net. If you want to score a $50 discount on Dreamhost, use this code - MAHESHRAJU - when you sign up.

And, if you see any broken links or images, drop me a note here. I hope to post more often. Next up, though is a long pending re-design of the site...

That was the title I saw as I was browsing on Digg's video section. I was curious what it was about, and so I clicked on it. My browser started playing a video which started off like a music video. It turned out to be a tribute to special bond that the father and son duo of Dick and Rick Hoyt have. By the end of the video, I was so touched, that I had to share this. Honestly there is nothing I can say or write that can capture this story.

So here watch the video and read their story: Team Hoyt

Its Raksha Bandhan. A day to celebrate the wonderful relationship between brothers and sisters. Every year my sis Vidu - the blue-eyed baby of our family - makes it a point to send me and my brother in Colorado Rakhis all the way from India. And it always comes with a beautiful card. No matter what. Last year she was in Pune, but she did not forget. This year, she is all alone in Delhi and still did not forget. This one is for you..

Vidu, Rags,
I am lucky to have two sisters like you. Wish you a Very Happy Raksha Bandhan.