Android Apps: How to remove Comments or Post on Facebook

I found deleting a post or comment from my Facebook App Ver 1.8.1 (on Android phones) quiet annoying. Most of the time had to go to the webpage and do it, until I found this intutive method.
Method:
1. Swipe your finger on your post or comment to the left hand side
2. A Remove pop up comes
3. To cancel this Remove, swipe it again.

Simple :)

Padmanabhaswamy Temple under limelight!

We come from North Kerala and it was longtime back that my family had taken this call to make Trivandrum our home for the years to come. Trivandrum, tough to call it a city, held a strange charms and this charisma still makes me rush to the place at the drop of a coin where ever I am on this Planet.

My visits to Trivandrum were mainly to meet up with family, but at the same time, I did take some time out, to spend that solitary one hour somewhere far away from the rush.

On similar terms, as a family , we used to make it a point to visit the Padmanabhaswamy temple. Amma's pious nature and devotion for Sri Vishnu ensured that we spent long hours in the silent corridors of the temple, mesmerized by the stone work and the rustic looks which was so typical of a family owned temple. And this aspect that the temple was under a trust and not with the Government was a big relief. Unlike other temples, where I knew that my devotion and donation would fund someone else's pocket, in Padmanabhaswamy temple, I had this assurance that my offering will remain with the God Himself.

And this exactly what we see unveiling in front of our eyes. The alleged "treasures" found in the temple is nothing more than the donations that was piled up over the centuries. And the Royal family with the thumb rule that they are the "dasas" to the God ensured that it remained with the deity. Added to it the humility that runs deep within the Royal family ensured that all the members thought in similar terms and it is not surprising that we don't hear about any internal rumblings within the Palace. The Royal Family till date is highly respected and even when we have the Temple they technically own under limelight, the studied silence maintained by the Family needs to be highlighted.

The hue and cry made by media is just not what is expected. The BIG question is what needs to be done with the money. Give me a break. What money are we talking about. And why call this a controversy. There is NO controversy comes what so ever. The wealth was in the Temple and it remains there. Period! And since Supreme Court is actively involved, I am sure justice will be served. Until then why not we not run into conclusions and not consider the Temple as a subject to cover 2 hours everyday in the news channels.

And involving other religions and beliefs is not acceptable. I doubt if any other religion spoke about the wealth found and what needs to be done. All of us in secular India, respect each and every faith. Today its the Temple and tomorrow it could be other institutions. Why cry for the money. Why say that it should be used for "developing the society"? If a nation which is more than 64 years old couldn't develop the country with its natural resources and strategy, why depend on the wealth of religious institutions to "improve" the society. Kerala is a state endowed with lots of natural resources and wealth. And what is our so called "Leaders" doing with it. Expect fill the papers with scams.

Hence to summarise my thoughts, the Temple affairs to be left to the trust, Royal family and now to SC. Please do not tarnish other religions and faith for no mistake or involvement of theirs. Keep the wealth away from any government control.

The Royal Family has taken care of this wealth for all these centuries and I am sure, because of the strange umbilical cord connection with the Lord Himself, they are the best judges when it comes to what needs to be done.

Human Values

The current week is really hectic and is also putting me under tremendous pressure. Having recovered from a bout of tonsillitis, I was feeling weak at the beginning of the week. But then the thought of behaving like a zombie at work and at home was not the way I wanted the week to be. Hence I was able to muster most of the energy to keep me cheerful throughout the days.

Any average family in Middle East will have the husband working and the wife taking care of the children. This is what hurts me the most. Whilst I could meet a lot of people and go places, I have my wife sitting at home enduring the tantrums of house keeping and raising a one year old. Wish there was day I could swap places. It is not that I want to enjoy being at home, but to share the load of Wife. Sounds benign but I am sure its not easy. But come whatever the joy of having a family and home is beyond words.

This leads to the main subject of the importance of work in our life. Out of the available 18 hours in a day I spent up to 11 hours at work. Which translates to the fact that I spent close to 60 percent of time at work. So it isn't wrong from my part to call Work as an extension of my family which of course gets more share than the later. In that case, my colleagues become my family members.

The day when you know that one of your colleague is leaving the company is the most devastating feeling. And I regret to inform that I am going through the throes of it. When someone close to you quits an organisation, its not just that he or she is leaving the workplace but is also leaving the family. Added to it, this causes a total collapse of the morale of the others. I have lost my morale and have become desperate to never seen levels. From my previous blogs it was evident that I need a change in life. The dreams of a successful career has ceased to exist and when we look around and see people around you moving to various places, you realize the importance of human values. Everything and anything to me comes to the term human values. Your enthusiasm levels, your sorrow, your joy etc all are derived from the people around you. My colleague with whom I spent 11 hours at work, was certainly a reason for my joys or sorrows or what so ever. My aggression towards certain things was the confluence of deeds of some others around me.

Which in short, summarizes to the fact that for a work place to be good, the people have to be good. Honesty between members is the as important at work as it is at home. Sharing good and bad like we do at home, has to be a practice at work. There should be more "WE" than "I". Such virtues are all part of the human value and if values do not exist, its time that I might have to spent more time under pressure and see my family members leave one after the other!!! Adios...

Typhoon Phet and Oman

Pic 1- 3rd June 2010
The Typhoon Phet has already left the shores of our Oman, even while I am typing out this blog. For me the perspective of the Phet was what I was going through perched up in my apartment in the middle of the Muscat city. The summary is, it was awesome.

Phet was rated as a Cat3 typhoon but as it touched the Omani shores, to the relief, of everyone it was downgraded to a Cat1. So as it crawled into the country, it bought rains all over the Northeastern side of Oman. It stuck Muscat during early morning hours of 4th June 2010. It rained the whole day and today the 5th I see bright clear skies and also a sat imagery which shows it travelling to our neighbor Pakistan.

Pic 2- 4th June 2010

Lobsters for Lunch

Got a call from my good ol friend to hop in for lunch at his home... Had 2 varieties of Lobsters. Feels fishy now....:-)

Mid Career Crisis...

Hello Blog. It has been a long time again, since I blogged my mind out. Technical know hows have improved drastically. I have installed new XP, backed up entire data prior to that and when the new XP came it, I did not lose even one single document or data.

Its exciting when we think what is happening in the world around us. When I re installed the new XP as well as got the latest Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and a host of other stuffs, I could not believe that computing is getting advanced by the minute. The high light was the Office 2010 which I downloaded as a free stuff for 6 months. Whenever we click an Office document, the files required for the operation is streamed...WOW...which means that I NO longer need to have the heavier files installed in my PC. This is what I call as Cloud Computing. The operating systems from Google will or is being developed in a similar fashion is what I hear. What ever be it, as mentioned earlier, the times ahead are going to be really exciting.

But its not the same when it comes to my career. I am confused, I am lost. This is exact situation that I had feared 9 years back when I took my first assignment. I am feeling chocked doing what ever I am doing. I am trying to fight the system to make my voice heard. And I find that I am reaching no where in my career. I needed to get to the bottom of this matter at the earliest and that's exactly what I was doing over last few hours.

The crisis is, what I realised, is mainly because, unlike the puter which got fresh doses of updates, I didn't update myself. I am a pro when it comes to hobby part of things but not when it comes to my career. Do I have a Masters degree? No! Have I initiated any steps towards Career Development? No! Does my employer train me to take up more tasks? No! The No List is endless. Working in the Middle east has its own advantages. You get pretty good time to spend with your family, you get fresh air and water, and of course to a certain extent, based on your company, you may end up with some extra money.

But where is your Career going to end up? Most of companies in Middle east are into trading. Import at X value and sell it at Y. Simple Maths. And when you end up with a profile of Y selling, you will be redundant in your career. So what needs to be done? I have certainly found out where I am lacking. The steps which I need to take and for the benefit of all those of you who are yet to or are just at the beginning of your career, are:

1. Keep yourself updated.


2. Get trained


3. Learn more things, or might as well do a Masters or the next higher level of education


4. Love your job and learn as much as you can from it.


5. Most important- Look out for better opportunities every 5 years. If you stick to a job for more than 5 years and you find you are still in the lower strings of the organisation, look for a better opportunity NOW. This is one mistake that I feel I have made!!!

So, let me try to implement the 5 things that I feel need for my correction. Hope fully Blog, you might get a share of the news. If I don't come back in a weeks time, be assured I am onto something. Until then take care! Cheers..

(Image Courtesy: Its the advertisment for Monster.com job portal. I am yet to find someone who could provide me the rights for this upload. In the event this image is a violation, I shall be glad to have it removed)

Malayalam Fonts in Google Chrome

Its not usual to end up having all garbled letters when you browse Malayalam Language Pages esp www.malayalamanoram.com. The main reason being the absence of Malayalam Font in the Windows Fonts directory.

The fix I have got for you is simple:

Download the Malayalam font from here.

Copy this .ttf file into your Windows Font directory. (Run-C:\WINDOWS\Fonts)

Close the Chrome browser and restart ( or reopen) the Chrome once again.

The font problem is sorted out....

How to Connect 2 Home PC

Tonight, I was very busy. I wanted to acess the Songs and the printer in my PC Desktop using my Wireless Laptop. The situation is :

1. Desktop PC was running on XP and
2. Laptop was running on Vista and
3. I had a 3Com 11g Router used for ADSL AND
4. I had NO idea on what Networking was.

But all I knew was that, if I can access Internet using the same Router / ADSL Modem, I should be able to logon to the Desktop and vice versa. After hours of research, my work is presented to all those who wanted to do so and when you find that all Internet searches returned blank.

To begin with:

STEP 1:

Open your Routers browser. Its typically http://192.16x.x.x. Login and under the LAN button , click the DHCP Client list. In here you can see the machines that your router is handling. Here you will get the IP address of both your PC and the laptop. Note those numbers. They ideally look like : 192.16x.x.x etc

STEP 2:

Goto START>RUN and type CMD in the box. The command prompt comes up. In the Command Prompt window type PING 192.16x.x.x ( ie the other machines IP address) If the pinging works on both the machines (with the other machines number), be assured that the machines are communicating with each other.

STEP 3:

Goto the desktop of your PC.Open "My Network Places". On the left hand pane of the window, Open > Setup a small office or home Network. Then:

Welcome to Setup Network Wizard > Next > Next> Other

I chose "Others" because the Laptop was loggin on to the router directly and I wanted to create a network. This is the MOST USUAL situation at most of the homes.

In the next window I chose option 2 : This computer connects directly to the internet. I do not have a network yet. In the next window, the names of my PC were given. No changes were done here. And in the last section I gave the Workgroup a "NAME". This name is very very important.

After setting the name of the workgroup, I was able to share the Printer as well as the Documents from the C drive. In the event you need to share any other files, you may go to the respective folder, right click, Properties> Sharing > Share this folder on the network ( to be selected)

Now go to your Laptops desktop and right click on the Computer logo. In the window that comes up, goto the third section- Computer Name, domain and workgroup settings. Check the workgroup name. If it does not match the one you made in the PC Desktop, click the change settings and change the workgroup name to match with the Desktop. Soon you will receive the message, "welcome to the XXX group". Restart the Laptop.

Step 4:

To acess the PC from the Laptop, Click Start > Network.

In a few seconds you will see the name of the PC Desktop. Double click the icon and you will see all the files and printer that you wanted to share.

END.

The steps above worked well with me and so I decided to share. Any suggestions and criticisms are always welcome. Hope you find the above information good.

MSXML NOT REGISTERED..what a pain!!

Microsoft errors can at times wreck your happiness. Added to it if its HP that is involved in the error, then your problems are doubled.

Recently my All in One HP stuff F380 ran out of steam. The error message was

"DESTCOMP-MSXML not registered"

I tried a million tricks but after 48 hrs found a solution which I want to share with all. In the event you run into this difficulty,

1. Go to the command prompt : HOW? START > RUN > COMMAND
2. Here you might find the C:\DOCUME~1\NAME>
3. At the end of "Name"> Type " CD.. ". You will now see: C:\DOCUME~1>, at the end of this line type " CD.. ". Now you will get the C:\
4. At this point copy : regsvr32 MSXML3.dll and
5. Paste or type it to the C:\ and press ENTER.

You will get a message that the Registration has been successful. The screen shot below will give you a better idea ( click for the larger view) .

Hope this blog helps to serve many. BBye and happy registration.

Whats in a movie??

It seems that Slumdog Millionaire keeps coming back to me. The last week saw many at work criticizing the movie for having received the Oscars. There was also a tone of discrimination...

This is not what I expect from people. Slumdog Millionaire is a creative movie and if it has portrayed something very real, whats the problem. My country has poverty, politicians and other criminal minded lot from the country do make money out of poverty. But the movie at least gives a happy ending. Added to it some good artists have contributed their talents to make this movie what it is now. Why doesn't people look at this angle and start appreciating the movie as a art form. 

Anyway I have graduated to such levels that I keep myself out from such topics...At least I feel at peace these days...

Snow fall in Austria to Mountain Dew in Oman...

I am back after a short visit to Austria and Germany. It was the ski season in Austria and since I was in Tirol province, where Ski was the main business, I had a nice time watching at the snow covered Alpen peaks with hundreds of skiers busy with their skis. 

The travel was even fun. Lie flat seats took me to Vienna with 19 inch screens to entertain me. It was awesome watching a movie just the way I would have done if I were to be at home. One noticeable thing was the movie most of the passengers were viewing. It was Slumdog Millionaire. Yes, I had my 66 year old Austrian co-passenger watch the movie with subtitles. And there were 10 others of various nationalities watching the same. Being Indian myself I was feeling good that an India based movie has attracted the attention of so many. But the images in the movie also made me mature enough to answer people who asked me..Is the slum scenes real in India. Yes was my answer and also I added that India is a diversified nation with poverty at one end and Big IT companies on the other. But the society is so well woven that the rich and the poor co exist. 

But most of Indians have found the reference slum"DOG" to be offensive. Not me though. It is just a reference on the worse situations that the character in THE MOVIE faced and how he utilized those difficulties to be a winner. The name reference is fine and in fact makes us wonder what is there in the movie, before we even see it. But for the others who really wanted to make an issue, well the name is a sitting duck. 

Anyway I am back and after the Millionaire and the Alps, I was drawn to the reality on prices when I landed in Oman. And that is " MOUNTAIN DEW" prices have gone up by 50 PERCENT. For God Sake WHY???

With summer round the corner, I am sure the American giant Pepsi has decided to make some more money from the market and maybe make up for the global losses it might incur due to recession. But 50 percent?? Its too much. The prices of the commodities are falling and the ingredients are just plain water and some additives. Fuel prices are low in Oman!! And Mountain Dew is locally made. Why did they have to do it. When car distributors increased prices by 15 percent, the residents decided not to purchase. So this 50 percent rise...wassup people? :) :)

Well this is one big blog. Let me stop for the time and take a nap. The travel has taken a little toll on me and added to it the Mountain Dew price ...Ummmm...!!!

Car Prices in Oman....

With the recent fallout in the world markets, the word recession is high in every ones mind and to a lot of them, it means prices of commodities would reduce drastically.

Yes, I agree the prices of commodities must reduce. But has anyone wondered what happens to their own job or business when the prices come crashing down?

I work for the automotive sector here in Muscat, Oman and it is not unusual for me to answer the same question " When will car prices fall" every ten minutes in a day!!! Never will a customer understand the strengthening of the Yen and the decline of US Dollars....that we have to pay more Rials to buy a Yen. Never will he understand that the stocks we have are bought  at a higher price!! And then there are people out there in GCC who have decided to boycott the purchase of cars!!!Hmmmm...

Recession is a malice that is most to do with the people mindset. Prices falling is not healthy. And let me come back to my earlier paragraph about its affect on job and business. When prices fall the fall is expected everywhere. Example- A dealership is expected to drop prices, fair they will do that, but when the dealership places an order for a service, they would ask the service provider for a drop in prices and then its a chain reaction. And it would lead to job reductions else salary cuts.

What I want to say is...Price drop will accelerate recession. Try spending more...buy at reasonable prices...don't quit buying. Buy and beat recession!!!!

Hello...or was it Hell o?? Anyways I feel that I keep coming "back" to my blog after months of Hibernation. Not that I am running short of time or of contents..but its just the sheer habit of been lazy!!! Everyday something or the other happens which is worth mentioning but well...neah..its better to be lazy than to type a few words...hummmm.....Family is FINALLLY back and my lil daughter ( 3 months and counting) is definitely entertaining. What a pleasure its to have her around and time just flies. Added to it good food is back on the table considering what a bad cook I am....

So now driving carefully is the in thing!!! Not until yesterday when a Nissan TIIDA was tail gating me. I hate Nissan vehicles and added to it...it was tail gating me....I was quiet upset on that driver, let him go and then was tail gating him back...Just to give him a taste of his own medicine. 2 mins into the stunt is when I remembered about my family and thats when I took my nose from the hopeless Tiida tail. God bless such drivers and I vowed never to Tail gate...

What a surprise I had today. As most of my friends are aware, I have a 14 page website with nothing much than a few articles and poems from me which are like more than 6 years old.

But I got this surprise when I found that one of my page links is printed in an American book meant for junior and high school students.

The book "Skills for Rhetoric, Student Edition" written by an author James P. Stobaugh had taken reference from my article on the Gettysburg address and the link from my website was mentioned in that page.

It cant get any better!!

1. An American author writing a book on


2. Nurturing effective writing and speaking skills in students


3. Mentions about the famous Gettysburg Address of Abraham Lincoln


4. Taking the reference from the website hosted by an Indian.

It was a pleasnat surprise indeed and this one bit of news has changed my whole day and my outlook on the strength of the Internet.

After 4 years or more of hibernation, I finally caught up with my Blog site. The user name was elusive but with much difficulties I am back on the Blog. From Oman with love..
The reason for this comeback is mainly to due to one Blogger who has instilled the blogging interest once again in me and that is Muscati. He is unknown to me very much the way I am to him. Thank you Muscati, if ever you happen to pass by this blog.

Otherwise, things are going fine with me. 5 years have passed by with me in Muscat.Got married. My car loan in getting over and my hairs have started to Grey. Not that the loan had anything to do with the greying, but I am sure it is a physical indication that I need to pause for sometime and re think about life and where I am heading too. By the way come November, my family would increase by one more member and I am eagerly looking forward for that day...

After quiet some days I checked my old college group mails and its then that I realised that the world has gone way ahead of me.I find lot many wedding invitations of those, who in my memory are still fresh as my classmates with whom we fought, loved and got loved!! But in those mails I found that many or rather all have matured and I must say 3 years have really bought a sea change in my friends! There were mails flowing from as far as Australia, Singapore etc. So I have decided to pen a few lines today to the group so that I get the satisfaction that we are still the same ol buddies. Relationships are essential and are the threads of life...

Today is the much awaited friday in Oman..friday or FRY day I dunno. Temperatures are goin up and at times I feel the climate now is a mixture of Fall and Summer :)
I had lost my Blog ID for sometime and Resmi retrived that for me! Great now Blogs and me have integrated again.
There is this free magazine in Muscat called Week and I am seriously into solving the Gaurdian Crossword. Cracked one last week but never got that 100$ prize.Found that Crosswords are easily answered if we can go online.Hehehe.. So lemme get crackin on it right now. Want to click on that 100 $ !!! Its nice to be bad at times ....

Today the clouds have returned back to Muscat skies. Any time we are expecting a shower. This makes me wonder as to how helpless we as humans are!!still we look out to skies for Rain. No matter how ever the technology progress, its upto the Mother Nature's will whether to excute the technological inputs.
The work schedule for the day is at a slow pace, mebbe because of the climate.All work as of now is complete and guess my work for the month is under control....