webbrowser control sucks ...

I am not able to get this control to work on IE 6 machines without a memoryAccessException being thrown. Is this freakin rocket science or what ?

Oh and by the way I have a fact of the day today:
While loading sos.dll in your Visual Studio, if you find that the application is breaking then make sure
that the target application is NOT associated with any external tool; like the Application Verifier.

Save yourself some trouble ...

Finally ...

.. I managed to clean my room on Sunday. Damn I love it now :)
Cleaning your room from time to time is a good practice; everyone should try it ...

VS Problem

While doing the transition to VS2005 of a web service, we came across the following exception at runtime:

System.Web.Services.Protocols.SoapHeaderException: Server unavailable, please try later ---> System.Configuration.ConfigurationException: WSE032: There was an error loading the microsoft.web.services2 configuration section. ---> System.Configuration.ConfigurationErrorsException: WSE040: Type xxx.CustomUsernameTokenManager, xxx could not be loaded. Please check the configuration file.
at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.EvaluateOne(String[] keys, SectionInput input, Boolean isTrusted, FactoryRecord factoryRecord, SectionRecord sectionRecord, Object parentResult)
at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.Evaluate(FactoryRecord factoryRecord, SectionRecord sectionRecord, Object parentResult, Boolean getLkg, Boolean getRuntimeObject, Object& result, Object& resultRuntimeObject)
at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.GetSectionRecursive(String configKey, Boolean getLkg, Boolean checkPermission, Boolean getRuntimeObject, Boolean requestIsHere, Object& result, Object& resultRuntimeObject)
at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.GetSection(String configKey, Boolean getLkg, Boolean checkPermission)
at System.Configuration.BaseConfigurationRecord.GetSection(String configKey)
at System.Web.Configuration.HttpConfigurationSystem.System.Configuration.Internal.IInternalConfigSystem.GetSection(String configKey)
at System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.GetSection(String sectionName)
at System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.GetConfig(String sectionName)
at Microsoft.Web.Services2.Configuration.WebServicesConfiguration.Initialize()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at Microsoft.Web.Services2.Configuration.WebServicesConfiguration.Initialize()
at Microsoft.Web.Services2.WebServicesExtension.BeforeDeserializeServer(SoapServerMessage message)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---

I had to spend some time fooling around the net to find the resolution. But I got it in the end.

The reason is that name of the dll that is output has changed in VS2005. Its usually called App_code. So kust make sure that your web.config file contains this dll name rather then the name
of the DLL based on the namespace that you are working on. The section is: securityTokenManager

Movies of the week past....

Sleepless in seattle - everybody knows about this one ....

Kings guard - Passable. Looked like a British TV serial !

Mystery men - Funny. Not exorbitant. But funny.

Breakfast at tiffanny's - Ah. Nice old classic. Check it out if you find it.

Of mice and men - I was not impressed by the story as much as by the acting ability of John Malkovich. Text book performance for aspiring actors. Simply too gud.

Raise the red Lantern - Lovely movie. I initially thought its another crap chinese movie. But if you
can sit through the first hour, this is a high impact movie. The first part is very "artsy" that really
bores me to death, but towards the end, this movie really comes out into its own !

Life. As it comes by.

These are bad days all around us.

so here we are ....

another week goes by and some more movies seen ....
Best movie I saw: House of Fools. Unfortunately there was some problem half way through the
DVD. But whatever I saw left some impression. Go and see the movie for yourself.

Another nice movie I saw was Sabrina. It was an old classic that I wanted to see for a long time.
But a movie that really touches you is "The Joy luck club". Its about 4 friends and their life stories.
The movie itself is in English but almost all the characters are chinese.
Verdict: Dont miss if you get the chance.

Then of course, I saw the Bond movie: Octopussy. Not much in it ... unless you are a Bond afficiando.

Highlight of the week ? I got myself a twin bed ..... and drove it all the way from the city on top of my neon. On the way back, we lost our way completely but I finally managed to reach my destination. As always ;)
And I got to do parallel parking in real time ! If I may say so, I did not do a bad job of it too :)

This week I also did some shopping in Gurnee Mills ... I hate shopping like the next guy but I
HAD to get myself a belt in any case. And now my room is complete.

Oh hell, did I tell that I ordered me an iPod also !

the week gone by ...

Another hectic week ... its same old same old life going on.

Muslims continue to provoke Jews in Israel.
In Bangladesh, and India, Muslims continue to kill or rape Hindus.
In UK, Muslims continue to conspire against the very people who gave shelter to them.
In sweden, the whites continue to defend their women against the Muslims who seem to rape
them with impunity.
In Canada, Muslims continue to DEMAND more rights.
In Saudi Arabia, Muslims continue to trample the non-muslims' religious rights....

And life goes on ....

Last week I saw soo many movies. Prince Caraboo - a time-pass kind of movie. Dead Poets' Society - engrossing movie. After watching this movie I can confidently say that Shahrukh
Khan, the muslim actor, virtually slaughtered Robbin Williams' character.

Then I saw, "A kid in King Arthurs' court". Another time-pass.
Lastly, I saw the BBC version of the childrens book, Narnia- The Lion, The witch & the wardrobe :)

Moving on to the weekend ... I had some fun last night ... went out with the boys for bowling and pool. Returned home at 2 in the morning ... most of the guys were half-drunk by then and immediately hit the sack ....

This week I continue my sessions with Hollywood.

More Later !

Baby's day out !

This has been a nice week. There were a lot of showstoppers at work. And I slaughtered them all.
Ok, there were some other people with me too. Ok there were more then 'some' people :)

Anyways, I went to this kewl chinese sushy place (sushy is chinese ??) near my home. I guess one
can always trust Anand to find out the best places to eat out. He has earned his girth ;)
The coolest part was - I ate crabs for the first time. Boy, they are tasty !
Did not take the octopus though; will do that next time.

I also went to the Swaminarayan temple in Bartlett. This is one temple that I could not locate on
the net. The address available on the net does not really correspond with any place in the maps.google.com DB !
Anyways, I decided to go ahead with the trip. The plan was to reach Bartlett & then follow any desi
that we spot :P A long shot, but it almost worked. We reached the Metra station in Hanover Park
& still could not locate any desi in a car. Then suddenly we saw this lady in salwar-kameez coming out of the train. Swallowing my pride, I decided to send Rishikesh to ask for directions to
the mandir. Thus armed with the directions, we finally reached the temple.
And boy - is it BEAUTIFUL. I am sure in the night, it would look even better. There is a nice
Mukhya Dwar, and then the main temple itself. There is another building adjacent to it which
houses a store + kitchen + huge reception area. All structures are intricately carved with various
figures from mythology or reality.
Since we reached around 12:30, we had to wait for the opening of the 'Kapat' till 4 pm.

Finally we had darshan, prayed for some time and left for home. What did I ask the lord ?
I prayed that may India prosper, may muslims die. Dharma ki vijay ho, Adharma ka naash ho.
Rishikesh asked me what I had asked for & I told him.
He went quiet on hearing what I had asked for :D

Anyways, we also made some funny videos there ! & took some snaps etcetra etcetra

God bless the jews.

the blasts ...

If there is anything that portends the future for India is the mumbai blasts & its aftermath. those
motherfucker hindus who cannot see it unfold are the proverbial ostrich. A thousand curses won't
be enough for them...

- Increasing demographic changes in favour of muslims - the sisterfuckers continue to breed like
rabbits.
- The ease with which they can make attacks on indian soil.
- the heavy political support that they enjoy from communists & politicians like mulayam singh.
- the full freedom of religion that they are exploiting.
- state governments like UP, tripura that are simply trying to garner votes at the cost of the honour of our hindu sisters ...
- the sheer impotency of the government to deal with pakistan
- the plight of kashmiri hindus whose life has been made a virtual hell in INDIA ITSELF
- the virtual extermination of minorities in pakistan & bangladesh.
- no longer does our blood boil when our servicemen are captured, tortured & their bodies returned like animals.


AND MOST IMPORTANTLY THE TOTAL DISINTEREST OF THE HINDUS IN MATTERS
OF NATIONAL SECURITY. NO Longer does a hindu feel the pain of another hindu.

wish i were a jew in israel :( at least they have the balls

oil prices ...

Coming back to the more real life problems of feeding the car - i saw the regular gas price in a mobil station as
3.35 USD :((

I dunno when this Israel thing will stop. I hope the jews win but I also hope they win fast... The prices are
beginning to feel now. All this Middle east thing had me doing another 'wiki'search on the Lebanese
civil war. One of the more interesting things I found is about the "Druze" people.They seem to be some kinda mix
of Jews, Xtians & mooselimbs. I did not know that there are non-jews that are  such ardent supporters of the state of Israel & that too amongst so-called arabs. There is always something to learn :)

another week goeth & the summer heateth

this was a mixed week ... there was another fire at office - seems like its going to be a hot monday :(

but i did see a couple of movies that I wanted to see for a loooong time. Constantine starring Keanu Reeves, is a nice movie. Another xtian mythology inspired "good vs
evil" kinda movie. But the graphics are nice. The other movie is "Kingdom of Heaven". Now this one really
rocks. The setting is around the end of the 12th century and tells the story of a crusader knight. Verdict ? Engrossing. I actually did some wiki search after watching the movie. It turns out that the
movie is loosely-based on some real life events !

Oh and I have started my weekly swimming schedule again .... yesterday, the crowd was chilled too ;P

Manoj night shyamalan ....

I saw "the signs" recently - & it comes across as a rather poor effort by manoj to build on his 'suspense movie' reputation. It does not scare - it does not entice. It does nothing ! Its a crude
mix of sci-fi with horror.
Verdict ? Passable.

I would much recommend "The Majestic". Funny man Jim Carrey comes up with a very mature performance... Nice movie.

Next in Line ? Constantine.... Woo Hoo :)

This is a step up

After going thru the wines in airlines, for the first time in my life, I am trying to develop a
taste in wines. I bought a [lemme rush to fridge & check] .... Cava Wine. Its a BRUT from Friexenet. Not a very expensive one ... but let me start small ;)

And I am listening to Jagjit Singh on youtube. The combination is gut !

The bloopers never end

Ok, this is the story of another adventure in the kitchen that I have just had. It is 4 o'clock
& I decided to do something about the voices in my stomach... So I decide to treat myself to
an omelette. I break the eggs successfully and manage to mix them without anything dropping
on to the floor.
So far so good.
Now it would be nice to make it spicy. So I decide to mix some salt and chilli powder into it.
I see the bag of chilli powder lying next to the electric stove. And I mix it. Now I see that plastic
cup of white granular substance -- what else can it be, it has to be salt. So I mix this 'substance'
into the omelette. But now I dont know if I should add more or not. So I decide to taste this
salt, to check its virility. And darn, it tasted SWEET :(( . I have just added sugar to my omelette.

I am anyways going ahead with my omelette to check what it tastes like. Also, since I did not add
too much of the sugar so let us see what its like .... I only added half a tablespoon of sugar.

As the weeks go by ...

Ok, Finally I did it. I saw "Casablanca" finally, this week.
Always wanted to know what makes this one of the all-time classics. Personally I felt though the
theme was nice, but I thought that some of the characters were jarring. Including the female lead.
Yes she is beautiful & all that, but how can her "love" be in 2 places at the same time. It is NOT
friendship, she is in love with the 2 male leads... :|
Anyways, I saw a disaster called "Love, Actually" starring Hugh Grant & an all-star cast.
Puppy crowd may like it.

Pick of the week - a movie called "It's a wonderful life". This movie is sweet & has morals too.
Its about this guy who does good to others all his life & then is about to take his life when god intervenes. Nice movie. See it if you get the chance.

Anyways, it was a loooong weekend & I spent the time in my appartment. And thank god for that.
The other option was to go out with a desi which thankfully I did not do. Ok, I did not do it for
3 out of the 4 days holiday. I did go out with him on the 4th day, & must I say, fully regret it.

The fireworks in the north suburbs were nice , & it must have been better in the city itself.
But come what may - I will not go out with a Desi - unless desi happens to be a 36-24-32 ...

Did I get the dimensions right ?

Independence day

This is a long weekend.
That means 4 days holiday.


Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy      :]

Neways, I saw 2 more movies this week. First, "My big fat greek wedding". My comments ?
It was like a Sooraj Barjatya movie minus the songs. But more importantly, the emotions were
more genuine here ...

Then I saw "Lost In Translation". It was just the kinda movie that I hate. First off, who said the
movie was a comedy ? Just because a movie has some witty dialogs does NOT make it a comedy.
Honestly I did not understand the hoopla around this movie last year. I mean, frankly, it was
passable ...

Next one on my schedule is an old Ingmar Bergman classic, "The seventh seal". Lets see how this goes..

sad commentary...

I wanted to write about the latest movies that I had seen, but just now I came across this link
http://www.indianpad.com/story.php?id=6134

This is heart wrenching  :(

 

the End oF JuNe

Statutory warning: Pls do not look for relation between the headings I chose for my blog entries
& the contents of the blog themselves.

The film festival of Hollywood continues .... I saw "The wild one" (*ring Marlon Brando) & "The manchurian candidate" as the classics of the week :)

My review ? One word - "Brilliant".

mid-june update

The past few weekend have been a festival of old hollywood classics. I have seen the following
till date :
- Roman Holiday
- Topper
- Topper Returns
- Singing in the rain

Somehow all these movies have the same feel-good kinda theme as present in the Hindi
movies of the same era.

Oh, and another movie I saw was Harry Potter & the goblet of fire ... but I think I mentioned that earlier.

its 5 in the morning now ...

.. and i m still awake . I wuz watching Harry Potter & the goblet of fire. My review comments ?
Its OK. Nothing much different from the standard set by the earlier Harry Potter movies.

More importantly I came across this wonderful site http://www.faithfreedom.org.
I think I will make this part of my signature in every post ... Pls pls give this site a visit.

God Bless all humans a.k.a. non-muslims (+ apostates)

Event update

I GOT MY DRIVERS LICENCE !!!
WOOHOOOO :)
:)
:)
Can't stop smiling !

neways, joined the library over the weekend ,,, and finally got to see "Roman Holiday" !
Sweeeet movie ... very desi in content :P

So this is what Audrey Hepburn looks like ... Ok. She is cute :)

Hurray

Milestone today.
Bought my car :)
It is used - but what the heck ....

I pray to God, that it survives at least till nov 2007.

This is what Nehru wanted ...

This was the truth behind Reservation policy ... it was supposed to be temporary. Not for all
times !

I recently came across some chat rooms where a lot of pakistanis were elated by this policy of
Indian government. They are sure this is a sure-fire way to stop India from progressing.
Alas, what they could not achieve on the battle field - they have got courtesy Arjun Singh.

Just the right thing to do ....

In the recent past, there have been some clues which say that we
are beginning to play good in international politics. Like this

We need to make just the right noises at just the right time. If we can do that, believe me, its just a matter of time before evil is destroyed from planet earth. If we 'give' 2 rupees to PA,
we need to 'spend' 3 rupees on the advertisement among the h0m0 islamus. Of course, we
should continue spending 500 rupees on israeli equipment.

In 40 years time - the oil supply from these countries would start showing signs of strain. By then, it would be just the right time to strike.... for the good to vanquish evil. With more opening up, even the chinese are not gonna get more commie - from where they are right now, they are only going to get democratic. I guess a better word would be 'opened up'; not democratic.

This is only a rough way to specify a possible turn of events - people can write books on this
kinda subject. The sheer number of variables is mind-boggling. Like what, if huge oil deposits are discovered in Russia ? What if there is major environmental crisis because of global warming &
low level military basis in andamans or diego garcia get submerged ?
What if the taiwanese are stupid enough to declare independence ?

This battle could go either way .... its just a matter of time.

and one more thing

Did I tell this world that I failed the Driver licence test last week :((

Made two mistakes -
1. Did not yield while making a right turn (I swear the traffic was toooo faaaaaar, but the examiner
won't believe me ...)
2. Crossed the double yellow line ! And that too was her fault. She confused me by asking me to
then left and then midway changing her mind.

But then getting the licence is my birthright and I shall have it. Or as the romans would say,
Dum Spiro Spero.

May day , May day

This has been, arguably, the most productive weekend in a long time.
I finally managed to put into action something that I wanted to do in a long time. At least there
is something less to worry about when I go to office on Monday.

Finally paid forthe subscription - lets c what I can do for myself using that.

The game with Anand went well - I lost :)
He is a better player then I anticipated him to be. Given the contours of his body.

And of course, how can I forget. I managed to give my clothes a wash. finally.

humdrum mere...

its 1:30 in the morning and I gotta go to the office tomorrow .... and i m watching a nepali
song on youtube !!!
How lame can it get :(

Time travel to the Dark Ages

Recently, I came across this news item in a Pakistani newspaper. Read the full article
here...

From the article:
Bibi Jan was bought by a family for Rs 53,000 to be given as compensation to a family whose girl had eloped with a member of their family. However, the recipient family rejected Jan, demanding a ‘healthier’ girl be given to them. Jan was given as compensation following a jirga decision in Rusthum in Mardan district that had directed Afsar Ali of Shahbaz Gari to hand over a girl to the family of Gul Sanga of Rusthum. Since Ali had neither a sister nor a close relative, the jirga ordered him to buy a girl and then hand her over to the Sanga family...

The April story

Its been a month since I last updated the world on whats latest. Can't even remember all the
stuff thats happened in the meanwhile.
Got a car rented on Saturday - a ford taurus. Must say its a nice and smooth car. The last car
that I drove was a Nissan Sentra. Can't really decide which one is better. Just fooled around
in it for some time. Was planning to really go around on sunday but because of easter it seems
many places will not be open today. Bad planning :(
And the rain hasn't helped really.
But it has been a learning experience for sure. I had some trouble getting the gas filled again.
All in all - I feel more comfortable going for my DL test.

Someone has asked for a loan of 6 grand & I don't what to do. Some careful planning will be
required to get out of this with the minimum damage.
When am I going to get my life back :(

A long recess

Here I am, doing nothing, on this 17th day of the month of March, on this 2006th year from the
year of the holy one.
Its a beautiful night and I can see the full moon right outside my apartment window.
This has been a week to remember for me.
The big news is that I have taken my first few tentative steps towards learning to cook; and what a
way to start - with chicken !
And I am proud to say that the first attempt was NOT a disaster.

The other big news is that I got my Instruction Permit. That is my first attempt at finally being
able to drive !
Now, there is the small matter of getting a car to drive ...

Ides of March

Ok, I finally got the green light for the long term stay ... so moved into my new appartment.
Its a nice cosy place with 2 b/r. Now my only concern remains the transport.
Should go in for my licence exam some time next week, or its going to be hell.

Hell0 Chicago

Lots of catching up to do.
Well after the wonderful new year event(s) that I invited upon myself, it was back to the
insanity of my project. And 2 weeks later I find myself on the plane to Chicago.
The trip was good. I had some good company with me. But her mother was also there, so not
much happened :(

Coming back to the past week, I have been heavily involved with the project completion. The one
thing that hits you in the face is the difference with the LA office. There is virtually NO inkling of
any fire happening in this office !

This is a city that I soooooo want to tour around. The difference with LA is that there is virtually NO
store which is walking distance from home - and I live in the suburbs. If you don't have your own car/transport
then you might as well stop living :((
But the weather has been beautiful, to say the least. There has been half feet of snowfall today, and I
just want to go outside and soak it allll in.

Happy Neu Year :)

wishes go out to all..
Hope all of you had a blast yesterday/today ... i had a cool trip too. Me and the gang went from
Chennai to Pondicherry. On bike. At 8 in the night. Reached by 10:30 and the damn city was FULL .... neways managed to manage somehow ...
did a couple of "Firsts" in life ;)
By the way, to all who intend to go to Pondi.... do NOT miss the sunrise... its BeaUtiful.

Happy 2006 to u all...


- wiz0