Hello readers! This time I want to talk about something that has been plaguing my thoughts for a long time now. Wonder what it is? Before I tell you about that, let me ask you all question. How many of you have heard the names Dhyan Chand, Balbir Singh and Dhanraj Pillai before? Many of you might answer that you have heard the last of the three names I mentioned. And even that is because the name appeared recently in the papers. No, it was not in the crime section or the politics section. It was in fact under sports.

And the three people I have mentioned are actually former players of the Indian Men’s Hockey team. They created history in a game which is supposed to be a country’s national game, but which is ignored by 90% of the country’s own population. The country I am talking about, as is obvious, is none other than glorious India. All this ignorance is because of a game called Cricket. I personally hate cricket. Just because of the publicity it gets. I feel it doesn’t deserve all this popularity it is gaining. In fact, the game gets so much publicity by the media that it has entirely eclipsed all other games and sports.

I wanted to write about this since a very long time. And now I am taking the initiative to put it into words. But before I wrote this article, I wanted to make sure how much other games have suffered. What better place to start than Wikipedia? And so I began with our national game, Hockey. Field Hockey to be exact. Did anyone know that the Indian Hockey Team remained unbeaten champions for six years in a row in the Olympics? And it has not even finished in the podium after 1980(Olympics)? This doesn’t end here. The same condition exists even in the World Cup. The statistics were disturbing. You can find out more about them here.

Courtesy: http://pinastro.wordpress.com/

One good thing is that Tennis is gaining more popularity and so is Formula One racing. It is high time that the people realized the tricks the media is playing on them and they start thinking for themselves. Having said that, as a closing note I would like to dedicate a poem which I wrote to the Indian Hockey team and the various other sports that have lost their value in India because of Cricket.

How fare thee Indian?
Do you remember me?
Or are you caught up in the tricks the media plays?
Forget me not oh diversified media; for I sway to the tunes that you play.
Steeping the people in ignorance and misinformation,
Is the most reliable source of the entire nation.
Why, oh why do you choose to obliterate;
what you claim is not worth to iterate?
Wake up, oh ignorant Indian!
For the time is nigh that you think like one.

I sign off today hoping that this small post which contains long suppressed emotions of a true Indian makes a change in at least ten others. Proud to be an Indian, Pavan a.k.a AnniYan.

Ah the taste of victory. It is sweet. Especially if it is an immense victory over Microsoft. I know, I should probably get a life and stop boasting about my small over-comings of Microsoft’s huge shortcomings. I should also stop drinking too much tea. I think it’s melting my brain. No? Fine then, I think I will pester you all with this post on the WINdows Emulator. Also fondly referred to by Linux gamers as, WINE.

I should probably stop cribbing about Microsoft now that I have something MUCH more effective,secure and ass-kicking-ly AWESOME. Yes, I was referring to Ubuntu. But enough about the bragging. I will now describe how not to use Windows in your life again AT ALL! You could also picture this as a guide to stop using microsoft. So here goes…

Three inconceivably good reasons why you should first of all STOP using Windows:

• SECURITY: I know you know that I know that you all know what the word exactly means. But is it actually implemented in Windows? NO! Virus, Virus, everywhere and not an Anti-virus to defeat them. Stupid actually. Some people might also argue saying that the only reason why there are no viruses for Linux and Mac is because nobody uses them. Well my Windows-has-made-you-dumber friend, the real reason is because they are actually secure. You can find out why HERE.
• SUPPORT: I guess this is something that Microsoft users will most probably crave very badly. That is because they don’t offer free USEFUL support. Anyways, there isn’t a problem you might have that hasn’t already been analyzed and solved in the forums.
• It is FREE: Let me make it clear to you. FREE means, NO cost to use, NO silly activation stunts, NO limited installs, and most important of all, feel free to pass it on.

So if these reasons are not enough for you to ditch the sorry excuse for an OS you might already be using, then nothing will be. So I suggest you start using it if you already haven’t. Now coming to the topic why I wrote this post, I would like to say “WINE RULES!!!”.

The WINE is a program that emulates the Windows kernel while working on linux. Why do this? Because it is one more reason to stop using Windows. Even games can work in Linux this way. Believe me when I say it. I have a screenshot of one of the games I love playing too. SEXY FUN!

Commandos 2 - Men of Courage

Now I have lesser reason to go back to Windows. I haven’t deleted it though. Because I just pause at the boot-screen and give out a psychotic laugh and say, “You are NOT going to be used!”. MAN that is exasperating. I know what you are thinking. “This guy is pure psycho.” Right? You probably are right. If you thought that way, you would mostly prefer Windows to any other operating system any day. And I hate you too. In a friendly way. Is that possible? Maybe. Now passing on, I had recently given an interview in The Pakistani Spectator.

I didn’t want to advertise myself and say, “Look at me! I gave an interview!” at everyone. I am not condemning the people who have done so already. Many others have done the interview too. So it was just like a survey of some sorts according to me. But still it was worth the attempt. The questions were sensible and some of them very sensitive too. Check out the interview HERE. Alright, I am now really tired and need to get some sleep. Wondering if I can drag myself away from the PC. Signing off; your friendly neighborhood madman, Pavan a.k.a Anniyan.

PS: I have mentioned that WINE is a WINdows Emulator. But it is not so. Thanks lufthanza for pointing out the mistake. To check out more myths, go to THIS LINK.

First of all, a HUGE HI! to all you people who make it a point to go through my blog. My unprecedented absence from the computing world has almost gone unnoticed. However, that doesn’t worry me. I am happy with my readers. All this was because the dreaded cold/flu virus. To be very frank, I don’t even know the name of the virus that causes it. But then, it does the most damage whenever it visits. To top it all, in an outstanding display of mercilessness, my PC was also attacked by a virus. No, not the same virus but the ones all us computer geeks and some others are familiar with – “A damaging program which may cause data loss or other unwanted events to occur when working on a computer”.

With this on my hand, I had to format my hard disk and re-install the operating system. Why didn’t I just download and install an anti-virus program? Because I HATE them. All that most of them do is find the virus and say it cannot be repaired or quarantined. Result? Deletion of some apparently important system files. Now that the damage was done, I decided that formatting-reinstalling was the best option. HUGE MISTAKE!!!

I found to my very disappointing revelation that my DVD drive was not working. Utter irritation! Then I concluded that my PC was not worth anything other than to surf the net and play some very old games. If anyone wants to know the configuration, I would be very happy to reply to them through comments. Mainly I don’t want to bore the readers by telling them all my stupid problems; which i most probably have already done.

So how in blasted hell did I resolve this problem? Good question. Really.(Am I talking to myself? ) I got the XP installation CD AND DVD drive from Harsha and very very dejectedly installed it on my PC. Something is better than nothing, right? Wrong! ANYTHING is better than Microsoft©. Deciding that I HAD to be online again ASAP, I continued with the installation. And then I slept peacefully knowing that I was back online. Well, at least in a couple of days(I still have the flu btw). But its a little better now. Was hoping to make a good come-back post. But I guess this should do.

For all of you wondering whether these are the lyrics of one of my favourite songs Cartoon Heroes by Aqua, I am sorry but you are mistaken. I actually want to show you guys the role cartoons played in my life. Alright, I know what you are thinking. Is he such a nerd that he still watches cartoons? I am 21 yrs old for your information. But I find cartoons are much more than just 2D/3D animations. I am about to reveal a very startling fact to you. I actually learnt to speak some proper English only by watching cartoons. I know this sounds weird. But that is a fact.

I remember the good old days when I used to come home from school and watch a good bit of cartoons until my parents came home. The best part of all this is that we used to discuss cartoons like they were the most important things in the world in school. I still see many people discussing something like this; TV-series/soaps. It actually set me thinking. Do we actually need to watch these soaps and fill our hearts with contempt(I am not talking about my new theme ) and sadness? I prefer getting a good laugh out of watching a cartoon series. But I now see even these cartoon series have changed a lot.

Whenever I switch on the TV and surf all the cartoon channels like Nick, Cartoon Network and Jetix all I see are a LOT of copied concepts and really annoying cartoon series which would be better off if they just stopped. I meant all these Power Ranger type of cartoons. I mean… what are they trying to achieve by doing this? But POGO is an exception where I still see some good shows like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and lots more. I had a good laugh and forgot all my troubles for a while.

Why is there so much merchandise on cartoons? :O I am still not able to comprehend all this. Of the half four show on the TV, approximately 15 mins of it is only commercials. and I HATE commercials. F*** those crazy B******S. For fear of being marked as a mature blog I have refrained from spelling out those words, which I would happily spell if someone asked.

Why am I bitching about this here, you ask? I can’t find any other place where people will listen to me. Simple, isn’t it? The other thing that captivated me as a young teen(wait… teens are SUPPOSED to be young. Right? Well whatever) are video/computer games. I was all coo-koo over them. Not my fault you see. Those people made them that way.

Ok. Be frank. Tell me how many of you have wondered how these games were actually made(do I  use “actually” too often? )? I guess I could be one of the very few who wondered about this. But then I always had an over-active imagination. Some people may also refer to this as dweebism, if such a word exists. But on the other hand, I have seriously considered taking up game development as a carreer. Sure, you can laugh at me. But all you people need to think for a bit. Are you taking up your carreer because you like it or because everyone is doing it and its the “in” thing?

Before this post gets diverted too much, I would like to say thank you for putting up with my nonsense for so long. Always glad to be of help.

-Yours lovingly,

Your friendly neighbourhood dweeb

PS: Please go through my other posts and pages too. I am very disappointed because many people don’t. YEAH RIGHT!!!