Asta is Not With Us Anymore...

• Asta, our pet Fox Terrier, is no more. As i mentioned on a reply in FaceBook, she lived an eventful and contented life.
• ENTHUSIASTIC - the word to describe her every day of existence. For a dog, she taught me a lot. 'Dog'matic in many ways, she was demure and very mature. Yes, always retained that uncertain characteristic of changing the mood and letting off on the street-side brat or mongrel. Showed the importance of remaining unpredictable in life!
• Though most of my interactions with her were that of pulling tails, snatching the ball from her mouth (towards the end, that was very dangerous as an odd tooth was a likely addition to the ball too !) or generally running around, it was the silent friendship that she kept that was most reliving.
• As I write this, I am reminded of how she stood guard near the bundle of joy called 'Siddharth'... we were apprehensive that she may not like the chap and may misbehave. But it was such an unfounded thought - we learnt only much later. Apologies for that, Asta.
• I am sure that this is one association I will not forget too soon... regards, ever, Asta.

Relocation!

• We recently relocated from Siliguri to Bhopal... guess good enough reason to not post updates for sometime now!
• The move itself was uneventful - i.e. if you call shifting schools for the kids, re-visiting Siliguri for the omitted signatures on the Siddharth's school TC, looking for a house and hoping fervently that the crystal is just that and not its plural during un-packing - as uneventful!!
• We are firmly settled down now.
• I have joined in a new appointment and seem to be the boss around here! Good for me, though - as dad mentioned this morning - I can't give an excuse that I was away with the commanding officer anymore!!
• Meanwhile, the new place also gave new scares. One innocuous looking message from Google one fine morning said '...Server settings have changed; do you want to sync?'. To which the Google swear-er promptly said 'Yes'. Lo! and behold, a few mins of the cursor updating itself, all my 'contacts' on the phone went kaput. It took a lot of cajoling and requesting Google's servers to give me back my data.
• More in a couple of days. Good times, always...

Procastination Killed the Crow!

• Well, well...have been off the link for sometime now. The blog head amply clarifies the basic reason! In fact, the biggest crib in the household is that I spend most of the time (available) to sit and make a 'list' of what is to be done... and then there is not enough time left to do the task at hand -  you see, it is then already time to make the next 'list'!!
• I have, therefore, firmly firmed-up my mind to sit an offer to the discerning reader a short list of what (s)he would need to sort out at least a few of the problems I brought out in the last listing.
• At the outset, these list of 'essential' softwares are but a reflection of my requirements. You may freely moderate yours, accordingly.
• I have to ackonwledge my whole-hearted thanks to the compilations and efforts of Alfred and a dash of my own too. So, here goes...
• PDA FullScreen Keyboard. A nice software to give you greater freedom of space, on an enlarged keyboard, I for one use it - but for a change of the default sounds... i recco a change@!
  
• Task Manager - The Task manager application is a bunch of several useful tools in just one tool. Includes Process manager, CPU usage, Application Manager, Service Manager, Device Manager, Windows Manager, Notification Manager, IP Config utility, Ping utility, Net Stats utility, Registry Editor & Run program utility.
  
• Quick Menu - A great help to meander thru' the Start Menu. I find it quite useful, as it is very similar to Windows XP start menu.
  
• Clear Temp - As you go ahead and install newer softwares, you will notice a distict drop in CPU performance, that can be attributed to use of internal memory (to some extent)... and that is where this nice software comes in play. Recommended for regular use. 
  
• Real Player - Real Player for your phone, though I personally have not yet installed it or tried it...
  
• KeePass - Store account names, passwords, credit card numbers, etc safely on your phone.
  
• PocketTV - PocketTV is a MPEG Movie Player and VCD Player for Windows Mobile. PocketTV takes full advantage of all the features of Windows Mobile 6 and 5 Professional, Standard and Classic devices, such as Landscape display, soft-keys, on-the-fly display rotation, VGA resolution, 800×480 wide-screens, etc.
  
• Adobe Flash Player - Enables to view Flash content on the phone.
  
• It is late for the day... need to prepare for the Holi in the morning. Apart from the 'colour' part of it, it also happens to be my birthday, by the Hindu calendar. Will have to factor-in a lot of phone calls too. Calling off for the time being. Hope the compilation is of some use, to some one aleast!

All My 'Syncing' Woes...

• Have been on the trip to get all my data syncronised... what use of the new HTC that one has got under the belt. But, as the road to discovery showed, it is not that an easy task.
  
• After all, what does the normal guy-on-the-street need, really? 
• Have an updated Google Calendar (mind you, the aspect of events needing a re-fresh at the start of the new year is a thing to keep in mind... yes! need to suggest this to Googleplex'ers).
• Sync the Contacts on the Outlook, with those on Gmail, and finally those on the phone. Beat it, after weeks of trying out a slew of freewares... must confess that some of the plans did not materialise (umm, fully). I tried out GCalSync, GMobileSync and GooSync for syncronising the Google Calendar to the phone.
• For the sync of the Contacts, there were many options ( i found NuevaSync one of the best) but... and imagine the look on my face on seeing the all-in-one plan rolled out by Google Inc itself. strongly recco a visit to the self-explanatory site. 
• Must confess, after all the obedience of instructions on the Google site, have yet to get the sync happen for the Contacts part (fear of the notice put-up, saying you may loose existing data on the phone). The Calendar is working fine now, though. Even the latest Kalnirnay (Marathi annual calendar is out on the Public Calendars on google... you can get it here)... that way, i can show the 'updated' state i am in - in so far as Marathi social events goes!! If interested, some details to begin with, are here.
• In fact, I intend putting a list up of all the essential softwares one would need... oof! why did it not be like gut-ol-times when we had a nice old black (backelite) phone with a rotary dial... and had enough time to book calls with the civil exchange and wait at leisure... training the vocal chords for the tryst with the feeble voice on the other end of the wire. Anyway, digression, digression... more of my woes tomorrow.

Handling Unexpected Crisis

• Today was a day of great learning... we had an unexpected death in the work place and all aspects related to the unfortunate were on us. It was a nice opportunity in seeing who amongst the lot was the real leader and could take decisions!
• In fact, the entire conduct of the ceremonies at the hospital were a series of discoveries... overall, a very poignant set of events. i did weep a few tears towards the end... after all, the guy was close and young (a year younger than me!) and one of the (few) hardworkers around. Renuka chipped-in more than her bit and spent time consoling the lady.
• Must confess that we learned a lot... about others, and about ourselves as well. May He grant peace to the departed soul.
• Also, it was nice to see two comments posted on my blog. Heartening!

Enough is enough!

Read a nice and informative Blog - by  retired coursemate of mine - and it seemed the last (proverbial) straw... I sat up till late night to re-search out my Blogsite... update the colour scheme et al. It is now looking the way I think it should... just the minor aspect of thoughtfuly populating it!