need - some - air !!!

Found, on the internet ....

2011-09-26T16:02:00.002-04:00

I came across variations of this online, but I haven't been able to drill down to the most authoritative source yet. Copied here as seen.

"I am a dynamic figure, often seen scaling walls and crushing ice. I have been known to remodel train stations on my lunch breaks, making them more efficient in the area of heat retention. I translate ethnic slurs for Cuban refugees, I write award-winning operas, I manage time efficiently. Occasionally, I tread water for three days in a row. I can pilot bicycles up severe inclines with unflagging speed, and I cook Thirty-Minute Meals in twenty minutes. I am an expert in stucco, a veteran in love, and an outlaw in Peru. I have worked as a construction worker, commercial fisherman, newspaper writer and attorney all in the same day.

Using only a hoe and a large glass of water I once single-handedly defended a small village in the Amazon Basin from a horde of ferocious army ants. I play bluegrass cello, I was scouted by the Braves and Cowboys. I am the subject of numerous documentaries. When I'm bored, I build large suspension bridges in my yard. I enjoy urban hang gliding. On Wednesdays I repair electrical appliances free of charge.

I am an abstract artist, a concrete analyst, and a ruthless bookie. Critics worldwide swoon over my original line of corduroy evening wear. I don't perspire. I am a private citizen, yet I receive fan mail. I have been caller number nine and have won the weekend passes. Last summer I toured New Jersey with a traveling centrifugal force demonstration. My quarterback passing rating is 158. My deft floral arrangements have earned me fame in international botany circles. Children trust me, especially twins.

I can hurl tennis rackets at small moving objects with deadly accuracy. I one read Paradise Lost, Moby Dick, and David Copperfield in one day and still had time to refurbish an entire dining room that evening. I know the exact location of every food item in the supermarket. I have performed covert operations for the CIA. I sleep once a week; when I do sleep, I sleep in a chair. While on vacation in Canada, I successfully negotiated with a group of terrorists who had seized a small bakery. The laws of physics do not apply to me. A full tank of gasoline costs me one dollar.

I balance, I weave, I dodge, I frolic, and my bills are all paid on time. On weekends, to let off steam, I participate in full-contact origami. Years ago I discovered the meaning of life but forgot to write it down. I have made extraordinary four-course meals using only a Mouli and a toaster oven. I breed prize winning clams. I have won bullfights in San Juan, cliff-diving competitions in Sri Lanka, and spelling bees at the Kremlin. I have played Hamlet, I have performed open heart surgery, and I have spoken with Elvis.

My charm is so contagious vaccines have been created for it. Years ago, I built a city out of blocks. Today, over six hundred thousand people live and work there. I am the only person to ever ace a Rorschach test. Every time I go for a swim dolphins appear. Alien abductors have asked me to probe them. If I were to give you directions you'd never get lost and you'd arrive at least five minutes early. My legend precedes me the way lightning precedes thunder.

When it is raining, it is because I am sad. Even my parrot's advice is insightful. My shirts never wrinkle. I am left-handed. And right-handed. Even if I forget to put postage on my mail, it gets there. I once knew a call was a wrong number, even though the person on the other end wouldn't admit it. You can see my charisma from outer space.

I once buried a time capsule full of things that haven't happened yet. I have been pronounced dead 7 times...make that 8. My bear hugs are actually hugs I give to bears. I can't be bought, but my nail clippings have been know to show up at auction. I have never lost a sock. If I disagree with you, it is because you are wrong. I was once 100% certain about being uncertain.

Most songs about love are written for me, about me, or by me. I'd never initiate a conversation about the weather, even in a typhoon. I'm against cruelty to animals, but I'm not afraid to issue a stern warning. Whatever side of the tracks I'm currently on is the right side. If I crossed them, I would still be the right side. I won the same lifetime achievement award twice. When I go to a restaurant waiters tip me.

I voted for Obama, just to see the chaos. When I wake up the roses smell me. I was once found guilty of being innocent. I sleep with a night light, not because I'm afraid of the dark but because the dark is afraid of me. I hold a Doctorate in Originality which I teach at Stanford where no one ever passes. When I go skydiving Peregrine Falcons always trail behind me. When I look in the mirror there's never a reflection, not because of vampirism, but because I'm only one of a kind. I can defeat anyone in a game of chess without making any moves.

I have written proof that the Bermuda triangle is actually a parallelogram. I once put myself up as collateral. I am so respected, even my enemies list me as their emergency contact number. I once licked a poisonous frog just to see what would happen. I once snapped a woman's bra strap just to see what it felt like to get slapped in the face. I have stopped chickens from crossing the road and I know which came first. I save seals from drowning. Raccoons admire my dexterity.

I know who killed JFK. I won the arms race. I can see the Northern Lights from South America. I counsel the Dalai Lama on matters of spirituality. The Pope once requested an audience with me. I can play Mozart and Beethoven on the piano at the same time. I invented string theory from discarded dental floss. If I woke up on the wrong side of the bed I would still have a good day. I hold the world record for holding the most world records. I know exactly how many blonds it takes to change a light bulb. If your GPS is slow, it's because it's waiting for my response. Niagra falls once asked me to stand still so it could take my picture. I watched as Neil Armstrong landed on the moon... from the moon. I'm smarter than my dog. I'm fluent in machine code, Latin and Klingon. The laws of physics do not apply to me.

I am smarter than a fifth grader. "

Rakhi

2010-08-29T14:42:00.000-04:00

With sisters far away, Soma's mom fills in for them and ties my rakhi. Soma gets one, too, thanks to the new concept of Bhaiya-Bhabi rakhis.

Getting ready to move

2010-08-29T10:05:00.000-04:00

These are just the boxes along the entrance corridor, another million to go!

Duck Duck Go

2010-07-15T11:11:00.001-04:00

http://duckduckgo.com/

Interesting, fresh, fast and efficient take on search. Here for my own convenience - as bookmarks don't come with importance indicators, and most are lost in bookmarks-world.

Love the keyboard shortcuts. Loads faster than google, and does not need adblock plugins running to get rid of junk.

-kundan

We went to Ikea ...

2010-07-10T18:37:00.000-04:00

.. and all we did was eat. Well, we did some browsing first, soaking in some product knowledge on a segment we have skipped so far - Children's Ikea, cribs and bunk beds.

I love smoked salmon - and the ones at Ikea were no worse off than the ones at the local supermarket, plus I didn't have to buy in bulk and store up. Missed some wine and cheese, though. And the crackers were horrible, probably super healthy, tasted like dry straws.

Rain to the rescue

2010-07-10T11:51:00.000-04:00

After waiting so eagerly for a rescue-by-rain from the hundred degree plus heat wave, the rain came quick, and was gone by a couple of shots. At least the ACs can get some relief after their marathon run.

Switch Sweat off Something

2010-04-03T10:09:00.002-04:00

How about some comments on ~~Switch~~ Sweat off Something?

This is on the lines of harnessing some of the energy spent at the gym in the perennial quest to lose weight and shape up.

I understand making changes to a gym to use the energy from the machines to heat up the pool or showers or laundry are lofty ideas, requiring non trivial investments.

How about smaller targets? Like a small stepper or elliptical machine for use at home, that can charge up an iPod or a cell phone?

This has the obvious advantage of giving a sense of tangible benefits - while losing weight takes ages, I can clearly see my gadgets getting charged and ready for use. This also has the added benefit of reducing ghost power consumption - plugging my iPod into a home exercise equipment means the wall charger is off the plug.

Is this a reasonable target? Can a small generator be incorporated into a basic home exercise equipment and the costs kept low? As of now, basic steppers and such cost less than $50 on Amazon and elsewhere - if it goes to hundreds of dollars, this defeats the purpose.

Desktop Organizer background

2010-03-31T15:41:00.003-04:00

As basic as it gets - inspired by an XKCD entry that I'm failing to bring up right now.

Find my things

2010-03-14T21:11:00.003-04:00

Here's a really simple web application idea - a list that will help me locate things in the physical world that I can't remember where I "carefully placed" months back.

Not for things I use every day - finding my keys or the TV remote requires a level of web-to-physical world integration that is not quite feasible. Or needs psychic powers.

Lets say I bought all this camping gear, and it won't go into a single box in the closet - need to put the sleeping bags in one place, the smaller items in another, and so on.

When it comes to packing for camping gear, I have to either correctly recall where I carefully organized each item, or have to hunt through the closets till I find the item in the last place I search (that's a self fulfilling condition).

What if, when I am organizing the stuff, I can make a list and put it safe on the web? Then it would be a simple case of retrieving each item - the bags from the big closet, the flashlight and propane stove from the top shelf of the coat closet, etc.

There are other possibilities - now that I know what stuff I have, I can create packing checklists on the web as well. A winter snow trip will have a list very different from a beach getaway or am outdoors camping trip. Whatever the trip, the night before will be an organized effort of running down the list, grouping the items by retrieval location, and dumping them into my luggage.

If there's already something like that online - great. If not, here's my timestamped blog post on the idea.

A better hard disk

2010-02-13T06:40:00.002-05:00

Speaking of new ideas - here's one for external hard disks.

We have the regular hard disks at about $100 for 250GB, and the super expensive SSD disks.

The ones I like most - like the Western Digital Passport series - come as a nice small package and derive power from the USB cable, no external adapters required.

But these are slow.

Is it possible we can do the following:

- a RAM slot that the user can fill in - say, I put in a 2GB DDR2 piece in there, like my netbook

- a small battery - the iPod runs for hours and hours, surely a battery charged from the USB cable can store enough to run the HDD for some time

- some system software

Now, when I write to the disk, it will fill in the RAM first - just like a memory cache. This should be blazing fast. Then, at a slower pace, it will copy over the data to disk.

Because I have the battery backup, I am free to disconnect as soon as I've transferred data to the RAM, and the disk setup will take care of running on its own - disconnected - to transfer data to the HDD

Is that possible, or just an useless thought? By leaving the memory slot user-filled, costs should not increase much from the basic HDD - but perceived throughput certainly will.

Building a better gym

2010-01-20T10:17:00.004-05:00

Gyms and I don't gel well.

I like the idea of coming out from the gym - feeling lighter, more agile, and fresh from a shower. I just don't like the part of going to the gym, and the part where I need to actually exercise.

So its natural that I come up with ideas on why I don't like the place, and how we can do it better.

Idea 1 : Retrieve heat generated from the machines

The idea to make gym machines "green" by making them generate their own energy and also contribute to the grid has been coming up lately. However, electricity generation is a lossy process - any energy conversion other than heat will invariably be lossy. How about make the machines generate heat, then? Large gyms like the LA Fitness I go to now have hundreds of people taking showers through the day - if the gym can generate all the hot water it consumes, that's a lot of energy saved!

There are lots of places to head from that point - surplus hot water can be used to offer free laundry, at least for towels, making our gym bags a little lighter and giving us a straight motivation (a free hot towel, powered by our sweat, waiting after the workout)

Now, there were a few other ideas I had come across, but I forgot them all by the time I opened this browser window. Will update this post when I remember.

Wish there was a "green" way to revitalize my memory.

Desktop Tower Defense

2009-12-07T15:44:00.002-05:00

I came across Desktop Tower Defense at Hand Drawn Games while aimlessly roaming about - and have been stuck since.

Its a flash based game, with crude hand-drawn graphics, and it takes all of 2 minutes to see what is going on - little creeps are trying to cross the desktop, and the player needs to build a maze of towers to prevent them.

That said, its more addictive than the flowerpot throwing Jardinains several years back.

If you need to read more, there's Wikipedia:

-kundan

"Take me Away" - website that can suggest vacations

2009-11-05T05:08:00.004-05:00

I have taken days off, and have some money put aside for travel, and need to take a break - somewhere, anywhere, as long as its a nice place. Searching on Expedia and the lot is painful -as 300 million other people also have that weekend off (say, thanksgiving or labor day), and have beaten me to the air tickets. Where do I go?

If that sounds familiar, the best match I've found so far is http://skyscanner.net - key in your home airport and your dates, and it will present prices to many destinations - both domestic and international. That can give you some ideas.

Granted, presenting all possible combinations for a given set of dates, a starting airport and a budget is probably a few billion places, but even a pick of 50-odd options to places I've never been to is great - beats having to punch in random places into the online travel sites!

Also useful: http://us.lastminute.com/ for a list of last minute destinations and prices

Geeky fun with Google Maps

2009-04-13T10:05:00.002-04:00

Came across this website today:

http://www.mapofstrange.com

Allows users to submit strange things seen on google maps. Hit or miss, and a lot of crop circles and old planes, but some are really interesting.

Take, for example, these high resolution aerial photos in Africa that have been contributed to Google Maps from national Geographic:
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=10.90385,19.935069&spn=0.000244,0.000429&t=h&z=22

There are a few other high res images - zoom out and scroll around. Look for others in the region from the map of strange website.

Wilson's Leather

2009-02-09T13:57:00.003-05:00

Not quite in the tone of the rest of the blog, but wanted a space to "shout out", and what better place than my blog of random useless stuff?

Wilson's Leather had long been one of my favorite stores - great for not-too-expensive leather jackets and stuff, and lots of locations. Soma liked the purses from the store as well - and I liked the fact that we were buying purses from a leather manufacturer, and not a brand name that has little or no connection to leather. Or, for that matter, a very well reputed brand that did come up as a leather goods / upholstery store, right from the stagecoach days, but now sells a lot of their lower end products in nylon and cloth.

Anyway - we walk into the new Wilson's in the new Tanger that has opened close to us (Deer Park), and are shocked - what's 9 West, Kenneth Cole, etc doing as entire sections of the store? the store look more like a Sears in its cluttered interior?

We bought something that looked like a good deal, then noticed bad stitching all over the item, so wanted to return. Where, in today's competitive retail world, does it take 15 minutes and several handwritten / typed forms to perform a single return, for an item that has not even left the store since purchased? I'm not talking of waiting in line - it took us 15 minutes at the counter to complete the return. The salesperson kept pointing out how complicated that was, and she seemed to be the more experienced of the people working at the time.

Came home, a little disappointed and suspicious, and searched. Should have noticed the news earlier - apparently Wilson's sold its name, website and stores to a separate company back in July of last year:

"The Brooklyn Park-based retailer on Tuesday said it sold the Wilsons name, 116 outlet stores and its online retail assets to G-III Apparel Group Ltd. of New York for $22.3 million in cash. The fate of Wilsons' 100 remaining, mall-based stores and 14 airport stores remains unclear as the retailer moves to cut costs amid rapidly declining sales of its leather clothing and accessories."

(ref: http://www.startribune.com/business/24092414.html)

What's with the AC in New York City restaurants?

2008-09-13T21:25:00.003-04:00

Soma and I chanced to land up in NYC over some chores today - we were dropping off our second car in West New York, and was making our way back by public transport. Since it has become rather rare for us to land up in the city, we though a bit on how to best use this opportunity - and decided on a IMAX movie and a non-chain restaurant.

The IMAX was easy - Lincoln Center was running The Dark Knight. All fun and games with no plot. Just the way I love it.

Now, the restaurant. We wanted to check out Tsampa, since it was way too long since we had a taste of Tibetan. We made out way from Lincoln center down to 9th and 2nd avenue.

Here we got the shock - Tsampa's doors were wide open, not a single customer in sight, the AC obviously off.

Don't get me wrong. I'm all in for anti-global warming steps and lowering the carbon footprint. We have wind power in our apartment, just sold off the second car, I have been taking the train to the City since 2000, we have the AC in our car set to 75, CFL lamps all around the house - you get the idea. Whatever I could, I did. But when I pay $40 a head for a dinner in the City, on a day as hot and as humid as today, I do expect the AC to be running.

We skipped Tsampa, and started walking down the East Village area. This was 5pm on a Saturday night. All of the restaurants that we came across had the doors and windows open - and very few people eating in (well, that makes sense, one leads to another).

I stuck to my (seemingly simple) demand - if the restaurant does not have the AC running, I don't want to eat in there. I assume they are not passing the energy savings to the consumer, so I don't see any reason for them to be on the receiving end of my money either.

We walked a long way - Khyber Pass down in St Marks was the same story, so were the few in the northern end of Chinatown. By this time, we were mentally prepared to go into our favorite Chinese restaurant in Chinatown - XO Cafe and Grill. I'm glad to say, XO had their AC running, and it was business as usual.

XO's "Salty Fish Mei Fun" is unparalleled - and their "Chinese sausage and rice wrapped in lotus leaf" and "Udon soup, wonton, extra spicy" were charming accompaniments. It felt like a dinner in the city - tastes right on the mark, fast service, not a chain restaurant, and the AC was running.

There you go. Satisfaction at last. I'm glad XO is not following whatever fancy hot and humid trend the others are catching on. At least I know one place that has great food, and their head in the right place.

Do you need a visa?

2007-12-26T09:58:00.000-05:00

If this page is updated as regularly as it should be, then here's a great resource that consolidates visa requirements for a wide array of international travel:

http://www.qantas.com.au/info/flying/beforeYouTravel/visaHealth

Its not legal proof, but is a great starting point to read up on whether you need a visa or not!

Wintuk - a big disappointment!

2007-12-05T14:45:00.000-05:00

Cirque Du Soleil shows have become a fond favorite for Soma and me - ever since we saw the 'O' at the Bellagio, Las Vegas, some 2 years back. The last Cirque show I had seen in New York was Allegria - playing at Randals Island a few years back, and had found it quite captivating. A few months back, on another visit to Vegas, we chanced upon $50 tickets to Ka - at the MGM Grand - and that was just as magical as the O.

If you've seen any of the Cirque shows in Vegas, you know what I'm talking about - huge, really huge stages, one changing into a swimming pool with mermaids leaping up to where the stage was, one going up in the air, turning to a vertical, and spinning freely. These shows are as magical as entertaining, and most people are too tranced-up to speak for a few minutes after.

In fact, after seeing the O, when we went for a Broadway performance of The Phantom of the Opera - which, in my personal opinion, is as good as Broadway shows get - we found it pretty lame, like watching a 70's action movie after having seen a current blockbuster.

So, as a result of all this, our hopes were really high for Wintuk. We had purchased tickets - all of 200 greenbacks for each seat - back in March, for a show in November. With the details coming out at a trickle, we were waiting eagerly for 8 months for the show date to arrive.

Meanwhile, in order to have fun while preserving the best for the last, we went for a performance of the Big Apple circus - at the Lincoln Center - a few weeks back. What's a little circus going to do, when the Broadway shows could not stand up to the O and the Ka?

Well, the date finally arrived, we went in to the Wintuk show - on our 3rd anniversary - with the highest of expectations. And then the show started. And we felt the $440 I spent on the tickets very, very dearly. Marginally better than the Big Apply circus, with practically the same shows - jugglers, hula hoop dancers, clowns. No magic stage. No magic at all, period. Can't say we didn't give them our best shot - we were seated in the second row, while we were some 20 rows deep in the O, and for Ka - the last minute purchase - we were stuck in a corner, with a partial view of the stage, and some 40 rows away from the action. For this, from the second row, the magic was completely missing. I was almost falling asleep at times, and when I was not, was looking at the watch to see how much is still to go.

What a disappointment. On our anniversary, too. Shame on you, Cirque Du Soleil, for ripping us so. For those of you who are thinking of parting with your money for this show - save it, and go for the Big Apple or the Ringling Brothers instead. At least that's $40 or so a ticket, for, say, 85% of the same.

Futurama - 1939

2007-11-27T12:19:00.000-05:00

Wired magazine ran a rather interesting article today, and I thought I should post it here - if nothing else, for my own reference in future.

The Original Futurama

Apparently, this is what the Futurama cartoon is named after. Given that this was done in 1939, it provides remarkable insights into design and development that was projected for 1960. In many ways, this is the anti-1984, all full of hope and positiveness.

Here are the links to a video - in 2 parts - of the 1939 fair on YouTube, courtesy RetroRacer13:
GM Futurama - 1939 World's Fair - Part 1
GM Futurama - 1939 World's Fair - Part 2

Hope you enjoy these as much as I did!

Flight Status

2007-11-06T15:50:00.000-05:00

I came across this really useful flight status website - so here it is for easy recall. Powered by google maps, provides about as much tracking information for US flights as the consoles in the economy cabins do.

Track Flight Status & more at www.flightstats.com

Outstanding health advice!

2006-11-09T09:57:00.000-05:00

Picked this up from an email chain that apparently started from AIIMS, New Delhi. If anyone has claimed authorship, please let me know.

HEALTH QUESTION & ANSWER SESSION

Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up!

Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.

Q: Aren't fried foods bad for you?
A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! ... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil.
In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad
for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?
A : Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?
A: Are you crazy? HELLO . Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure?
A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

And remember:
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO, What a Ride"

VisAmex and MasterAmex

2006-10-27T11:17:00.000-04:00

My primary credit card has been from MBNA for many years now - their crisp, efficient website and up-to-the-minute balances were great in helping me keep track of expenses (and verify amounts charged within a minute of the swipe). Now that they merged with Bank of America, the website is a nightmare - they are going through glitches in pulling data across, unable to show transactions for days to weeks, and the super security- boy - forget about crooks, I can't get in myself!

So that's when I got thinking about credit cards and such, and took a look around to see what's what. And that's when the idea hit me - why not combine the best of both worlds?

Let me explain. On one side of the spectrum is Amex. They are great cards, give excellent cash backs to consumers, and some stores - like Costco - take only Amex, or cash. Given a choice, I would like to use Amex everywhere, and get a fat cashback bonus at the end of the year. The caveat - not many merchants take Amex.

The other side has Visa / Mastercard - they are both nearly the same, in my opinion, it's really rare to find someone who takes one and not the other. Rewards are good for some cards, but not as great as Amex. However, most people do take these, so it's really easy to use one of them as the primary card.

The third side had Discover - but I hardly ever miss them. Won't complicate matters here.

So, the best of both worlds approach - why doesn't a bank come up with a VisAmex or a MasterAmex - a 2-sided card, with one side a Visa or a Mastercard, and the other side an Amex? The new Amex cards have the magnetic strip in white, which looks good enough to appear on the face - so why not? The bank would link both cards to the same account, and allow me to make a single payment and manage them together. Me - I'll try to use Amex and reap rewards from every transaction - failing which, I'll use the Visa or Mastercard on the other side! Electronics purchases - use Mastercard. Car rentals - supplementary insurance. Costco - Amex. You get the idea.

So - why not?

If you see these cards coming up in a bank near you - remember where you read it first!

Funnies

2006-10-03T22:39:00.000-04:00

Everyone and their aunt has a list of funny videos and jokes on their website. Here's a start, going with the flow.

United Safety Video - check out the links on the right for other airline-related videos.
Passport Control - a funny spoof on immigration check
Road Barriers - a formula for disaster
How to Steal a Bike in NYC - funny, but real!
Honda ad - not funny, but a gem!
Boeing crosswind landings: if the link is still up, really fascinating to watch widebody aircrafts land in cross winds!

Today's find - Orbox

2006-09-22T15:43:00.000-04:00

Shamelessly ripped off from the Wired Table of Malcontents, here's Orbox. A charmingly simple way to spend your free time. All you need to do is press one of the cursor keys to set the box shooting in that direction - until it hits a barrier, and stops. The idea is to iteratively approach the red square. If it's too much, there's a walkthrough as well.

Hindi ripoffs

2006-09-14T21:07:00.000-04:00

My first 18 years of life - until before I left home for Kharagpur - were spent watching less than 18 films in all, or at least the ones I can remember. Most of that was because of the complete isolation of Dhanbad from the rest of the VCR-totting, movie-rental-strewn world. I caught up with the times a bit at KGP, with the weekly screenings at the Technology Film Society. The real speed-up happened only in the last few years since I've joined Netflix - about 1200 movies in just short of 4 years.
Now that Soma likes a lot of Hindi movies, it's often that I see a movie halfway through, and realize it's a copy - clone, derived, or influenced - from another movie that I've already seen, most often in English. So here's a chart of all the ones that I have mapped, with some help from the comments to this post, and lots of help from this page on Bollywood.com.

Hindi Movie	Original Movie
Main Aisa Hi Hoon (2005)	I Am Sam (2001)
Koi Mil Gaya (2003)	E.T. (1982)
Bluff Master (2005)	The Game (1997)
Fanaa (2006)	Eye of the Needle (1981)
Kaante (2002)	Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Chocolate (2005)	The Usual Suspects (1995)
Jism (2003)	Body Heat (1981)
Bachke Rehna Re Baba (2005)	Heartbreakers (2001)
Bunti Aur Babli (2005)*	Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Kya Kool Hai Hum (2005)	The Monster ()
Ghulam (1998)	On The Waterfront (1954)
Aitbaar ()	Fear ()
Sholay (1975)*	The Seven Samurai (1954)
Ek Ajnabee (2005)	Man on Fire (2004)
Kabhi Alvidaa Na Kehna (2006)*	Closer (2004)
Masoom (1983)*	Man, Woman and Child (1983)
Phir Hera Phiri (2006)	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998)
Pyaar Ka Saaya (1991)	Ghost (1990)
Strangers (2007)	Strangers on a train (1951)

* May not be a frame-by-frame ripoff, but inspired by.