Vacation

There will be no updates on this blog from 1st Nov to 10th Nov. Will be taking a nice lil vacation. :-)

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His Girl Friday

Anand had posted sometime back about the 1940 classic His Girl Friday (174th in the IMDB Top 250 movies) being in public domain and available for download from Archive.org. But at 3.3 Gb for the MPEG2 format, it is a whooping download.

Yesterday, while browsing DVDs at the local mall, I found a copy of His Girl Friday and it was for just 99 bucks. I also picked up Sonny Chiba's The Street Fighter for the same price.

I found quite a few such public domain movies available on DVDs for very low prices. Keep your eyes open next time you go DVD shopping. You might pick up such gems at throwaway prices. :)

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Some More Trivia....

1. What is the claim to fame of Sir Christopher Standish?

2. His father served as a cabin boy to Christopher Columbus, discovered desert mesa which became known as "Walker's Table" and was later killed in a fateful pirate raid. His son married Christopher Columbus' grand-daughter Marabella. Who are we talking about?

3. Connect the following: Jimmy Wells, Melville Horton, Prince Pepe, Matt Matton, Prince Bey, Dr Kirk and Prince Hali.

4. Where would you find the following treasures: The diamond drinking cup of Alexander the Great, King Arthur's sword Excalibur, the mummified asp that Cleopatra used to commit suicide, Cleopatra's wedding ring, the golden laurel wreath Mark Antony gave to Julius Caesar, Charlemagne's crown, Cleopatra's wedding ring, the original script of Shakespeare's Hamlet, the pen used by Shakespeare to write Romeo and Juliet and the lyre of blind poet Homer?

5. He was believed to be the costliest and fastest horse in the world, and was initially owned by the Maharajah of Nimpore. The question is simple: name the horse.

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Trivia Time

Q1. What is located at a large country estate at 1407 Graymalkin Lane in Salem Center, a city in Westchester County, New York?

Q2. This group originally consisted of five teenagers: Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Warren Worthington, Hank McCoy and Bobby Drake. How do we better know this group?

Q3. Erik Magnus Lehnsherr is the sole member of his family to have survived Auschwitz. But we know him better by another name. What?

Q4. In 1995, Pocket Books published Planet X, a novel that featured the X-Men sharing an adventure with another equally famous group. Which group?

Answers in 4-5 days!

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Improving Font Readability

On your Windows desktop, right click your mouse and choose Properties from the context menu that appears. Next select the Appearance tab and then click the Effects button. In the pop-up window that appears, select "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" and then choose ClearType from the dropdown menu.

Click OK and Apply your changes. You will find a dramatic improvement in the font rendering on your laptop.

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1 Man, 1 Boat, 5000 Kms

2000 people have sailed the globe
1400 have climbed Mt. Everest
450 have been into Space
180 have been to the Poles

To date, there have been only 32 successful attempts at rowing Solo across the Atlantic.

My friend from Reliance days is attempting something truly phenomenal. Starting in December 2005, Bhavik will attempt to row 5000 kms across the Atlantic Ocean, from Spain to Barbados. While I am yet to confirm with Bhavik, I believe he is the FIRST INDIAN to be attempting this feat. Way to go Bhavik!!

Link: http://www.bhavik.com/crossatlantic/

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Nice...

http://reader.google.com/

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300

If the original story be so riveting, Frank Miller's adaptation will obviously be brilliant. The best dialogue from the Graphic Novel:

Persian Emisarry: One hundred nations descend upon you! Our arrows will blot out the sun.
Spartan (sardonically): Then we will fight in the shade.

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