HSBC credit card gotcha

I have a HSBC gold credit card which I didnt use a single time. I got it as free card.
yday I got a credit card statement asking me to pay 2247, first shocked to see bill as I didnt do any shopping using this card. splitup was 2000 rs membership card fees and
247 as service tax on it. so I thought yday I will pay and will stop using this card. also felt cheated by the hsbc.

so discussed this with friends today but they said you just call up customer care and they will waive off the charges. and also mentioned that HSBC people add to your bill for various charges but you can waive it off by calling customer care. I called up customer care and they just waived it off.
so in case, you are having same problem, you dont need to pay it. just call customer care and waive it off.

The Zen and art of motorcycle maintenance - quotes

Blind Alley, though, If someone's ungrateful and you tell him he's ungrateful, okay,
you've called him a name. You haven't solved anything.

Woohooo... more than 100 posts on blog.

Enjoy

Scripts to restart apache/mysql in windows

Currently I am working on 2 projects. both projects involves Apache and Mysql. but configuration used for each project is different and one project is using WAMP. So I was needed to start and stop services to switch between projects I am working. it was becoming quite tedious. so I tried to write a scripts to restart services whenever I was going to switch between projects. I am linux guy so like writing scripts but was new to writing script for restarting services on windows.
following are the scripts to start the services..

A.bat

sc stop Apache2
sc stop MySQL
pause
sc start wampapache
sc start wampmysqld

B.bat

sc stop wampapache
sc stop wampmysqld
pause
sc start Apache2
sc start MySQL

I first started using actually executables from bin directories from respective apps. but It was not working for stopping the service.

I used pause because didnt find sleep command on windows. these scripts I wrote using whatever help I got from windows help service. as I was working from home without internet.

if sc start/stop says service is not installed then you can install the service.
sc install servicename.

you have any better ways of doing this things let me know.

konneyy - who is this?

I turned my head with surprize...wanting to know from where question came.
"konneyy?" question in high pitch voice, repeated with mischivous smile on his face..
"Hrithik Roshan" I replied..
"Hitik roan" he repeated excitedly and kept repeating with playful smile.
"He" in this story is my 1 and 10 month year old nephew. I was quite surprized because he barely can talk now. and He wanted to know who is the smart guy on Coffee with Karan show. Amazing!!!

cant connect to mysql from client on remote machine, mysql running on aws

error messages you can get are
Error 2003: Can't Connect to MySQL server on 'hostname'

1) enable the firewall for amazon aws ec2 instance.
ec2-authorize default -p 3306
3306 is default port on which mysql runs. If you are running mysql on different port like 3307 or 3309 enable that.

2) in mysql/my.cnf which is mysql config file.

comment out following line which allows connection only from localhost.

bind_address=127.0.0.1


3) log on to mysql with root from local machine

GRANT ALL ON *.* TO 'user'@'ipadd' identified by 'pwd';

ipadd is ip address of machine from which you are trying to connect to mysql server
user and password are auth info.

useful links

http://forge.mysql.com/wiki/Error2003-CantConnectToMySQLServer

Tata indicom plug2 surf data card

yday bought Tata indicom wireless card, usb one ..from shop new baba mobile store in aundh near parihar chowk, near vishis cafe.

it cost me 2376 Rs for modem + sim.
I opted for recharge card worth 1000Rs with validity 6 months.

Tata indicom main office is opposite to Sancheti hospital, Shivajinagar.

In this rush I lost my Credit card. luckily blocked it before anyone misused it.

Again winner of Collage competion at talentica

We, the winner team, Poushali, ryan, Nitin and Sandip, thats me ofcourse. unfortunately dont have photo of team.

Commonwealth youth games 2008 Pune - wall paintings

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

from
wikipedia

McCartney said in 1994 that it merely epitomises the downfalls of life:

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life. I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer. I don't know why it was silver, it just sounded better than Maxwell's hammer. It was needed for scanning. We still use that expression now when something unexpected happens."

McCartney referred to the song when talking about his 2005 album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard:

"In the past I may have written tongue-in-cheek, like 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer', and dealt with matters of fate in a kind of comical, parody manner. It just so happens in this batch of songs I would look at these subjects and thought it was good for writing. If it's good enough to take to your psychiatrist, it's good enough to make a song of."

Lyrics and video..

Joan was quizzical; Studies pataphysical
Science in the home.
Late nights all alone with a test tube.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine,
Calls her on the phone.
"Can I take you out to the pictures,
Joa, oa, oa, oan?"

But as she's getting ready to go,
A knock comes _ON_ the door.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down UPON her head.
Clang! Clang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.

Back in school again Maxwell plays the fool again.
Teacher gets annoyed.
Wishing to avoid an unpleasant
Sce, e, e, ene,

She tells Max to stay when the class has gone away,
So he waits behind
Writing fifty times "I must not be
So, o, o, o.."

But when she turns her back on the boy,
He creeps up from behind.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head.
Clang! Clang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.

P. C. Thirty-one said, "We caught a dirty one."
Maxwell stands alone
Painting testimonial pictures.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Rose and Valerie, screaming from the gallery
Say he must go free
(Maxwell must go free)
The judge does not agree and he tells them
So, o, o, o.

But as the words are leaving his lips,
A noise comes from behind.

Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon his head.
Clang! Clang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that he was dead.

Whoa, oh, oh Silver hammer,

Maxwell's Silver Hammer flash video

Rangoli competition at Talentica

I never thought I will ever participate in such a competition but you never know.
anyway I dont regret taking part in this competition, I think I would have regretted if I wouldnt have participated. so it was fun, trying to do thing which you are doing first time amidst sledging, jokes played on your work..:)
btw this was not original idea, but baloons Idea was soumya's innovation. :)

cyg

blog in progress...

enjoy photos till then..

http://picasaweb.google.com/sandip.more/CYGPune#

Tenant information form for Pune Police

Tenant information form for Pune Police

Its need to be submitted to pune police.
you can get it online here.

http://www.punepolice.gov.in/sites/default/files/Cir_Ord_Not_Frms_Notifi/PERSONAL_INFORMATION_OF_TENANT.pdf 

Thanks to comment by Anonymous.

2oct celebration with Gandhiji

2oct celebration with Gandhiji

The Clean Earth Movement which is involved in tree plantation on the Baner hill and in garbage management activities in the Baner-Balewadi area announced the Clean Rivers initiative to start on Oct 2nd.

Their aim is to get the Mula and Mutha rivers to their earlier state of being rivers rather than the current state where they are looking more like sewage canals and swamps.

The first step in that regard is to clean up the Ramnadi river that flows from Pashan lake into the Mula river. the sewage canal that flows under the bridge at Hotel Mahabaleshwar, but it actually starts off as a clean river !

Pune Municipal Corporation staff and local activists will explain the plan and also start cleaning activities at this time.

It was nice to be part of this initiative.

some pics from those events.

If you are resident of baner/balewadi and wish to be part of this movement, get in touch. or just
visit baner hill on sunday morning at 8 to plant and watering the trees.

Let it be Success. Go Green. Live Green.

Good news - Blogging made easy - Omeego connected to SwitchABit now

Good news - Blogging made easy - Omeego connected to SwitchABit now 

now I can blog easily and more frequently as I connected my Omeego account to Blogger using SwitchABit..

thanks omeego, blogger and switchabit for making my life easy.

Bollywood teaching people english

Bollywood teaching people english 

kidnap..movie ka naam english me..
lyrics from this movie english me..
mausam yeh awsome bada..

public have no choice to learn english ..then

good for in general increasing english language knowledge among
junta..

Twit Twit Twitter

started using twitter more actively...

one can spy on me..on
http://twitter.com/sandipmore

Anamika on Orkut :)

So when Everyone here in India was worried about trust vote on 22 July 2008, even I was curious about the result and infact I wanted UPA to win the trust vote and they won :) but here in pune 3 of us were chatting about some other major situation on skype, which was initially disturbing for me but became quite amusing later, as is very much related to orkut :) and in the end was reason to remove smiling, smart, cute, beautiful and dashing pic of mine :)) from orkut profile.

so story goes as follows,

On the day of 22nd, maahi was as usual busy with managing his social life on orkut, suddenly in this friends list, he amused and wondered by an unsual thing on his friends list, what was it?

It was a picture of pretty girl, which is not usual for a seedha saadha guy like maahi which he didnt acquinted with to be on his friends list and he got more amused with picture was my profile picture. so excitedly he messaged dear bhola and put scraps to me asking who is she? is this your girlfriend? and bhole messaged me on skype telling me about this unusual thing which on any day, he would not have dreamed that I would have a girlfriend and more to that I would make it public in such a way, setting up a pic of her on my profile on social networking site, like orkut. and on any given day I wont. he guessed it should be some hacking attempt on my orkut account. as she was not my girlfriend who was she, I name it her as Anamika for the reason all knows.

Here is she on maahi's account.



and adding to confusion I tried to log on to orkut.com, it was not showing me my profile page and also not allowing me to logout. We thought it can be hacking case, but I could log into my other google accounts so it was not that sort of thing. fearing that it might be some nasty picture, I asked bhola and he sent me a screenshot, and I said, "Not bad!!!" she was quite pretty. I again and again tried to log on to orkut it didnt allowed me, finally I gave up and told bhola also to take it easy, somehow he seemed much more disturbed with this thing than me,

reason of it as I guess might be some new things like data migration which orkut might be trying at database level to improve performance or they might have tried to implement shards and failed at it. so I let it go.

but on second day, I think orkut dev guys fixed bugs, I was able to log in and got to the profile with apology from orkut about mess up with my profile pic, with telling me that my profile pic is restored but i couldnt see my profile pic.

here is pic restored message,





infact it took one more day for to appear smiling, smart, cute, beautiful and dashing pic of mine :))

In my mind I thanked some unknown dev guy from google for fixing bug with my profile, as I couldnt thank them as they dont have any easy to find feedback form :)). God knows, may be they are trying to become self-assuming gods which you can only connect with prayers.


But she didnt go, she came back and this time she appeared on my profile page again today. however pretty this anamika was, I just removed my profile pic from orkut, so you just see some arbit default image as on my profile on instead of, I bet you remember that ...smiling, cute, dashing etc etc pic of mine.

Here she comes again...



its look like it was some orkut maitenance updates.

http://en.blog.orkut.com/2008/07/update-on-recent-orkut-maintenance.html

so uploaded new photo on orkut, courtesy bhola.

adding image

testing whether I can put image pointing nonblogger site

yes i can

testing switchabit

Dont follow the Arrows - rajmachi :)

long story later but to tell in short that we lost our way cause we followed arrows which were taking us towards caves instead of taking us towards top. we couldnt reach to summit.

Full story as follows:

Trek to rajmachi

narayan and rashmi took a lead to organize 2-day trek with night stay to rajmachi, with 15 people showing interest initially, only 7 turned up on Trek-Day. as per my experience something always has to go wrong when you actually go for a trek, whatever planning you do beforehand it doesnt matter. it was no exception this time too. with sheetal and sunil getting stuck in their own home as they couldnt unlock their super-secure door from inside. and sujay with bad neck dropped his plan so they couldnt come. We had to wake up at 4.30 in the morning, Mahesh and veeru ditched last moment as per his usual reason "4 baje soye the hum log" :) but me and bhola reached the pune station as per plan and then with narayan, rashmi and 3 of their friends. we started our journey as tickets had been booked in advance, train journey was peaceful. we went to karjat then took a six-seater to base village kondivade.

Everything was going well, we reached base village, kondivade at 9 am which we thought was pretty early as per earlier experiences i though it will take 4 hrs so we should reach the top by 1 pm and thought we can come down same day.

so normally one would go to caves first and then to top, we decided to take other route as some big, noisy group of trekkers was with us so we decided to part our way from them and go directly to top. so we started well but soon we saw some arrows pointing the way we have come so we thought this is the way to go. so we followed those arrows in backword direction or in direction they were coming from. though we clearly saw that arrows are taking us in wrong direction, we still thought this is the way to go. so we followed them and after sometime the arrows vanished and we knew that we have lost out way, we messed up pretty badly. then so 3-4 hours we were struggling to find a way to go to top, at one point it seemed to us that we got the way. but it was wrong hope.
and meanwhile there was no rain but it started to downpour heavily. it was good to get drenched in monsoon rain.

then there we met some people from bombay who has organized ropeclimbing, I asked them for way to base village. but a guy told me that he was going towards caves in 5 minutes so he asked us to follow him, in no time it was clear that we are lost again as that guy seem to be newbie. hopefully signal was there so he called rest of group using a cellphone from one of us.

so we got to the caves then descended to base village, on the way back there was big waterfall. so all of us bathed there and then we started for base village. Ate Cheese vadapav there and went to karjat and then pune. total expense per head was 200 Rs only, including travel, food. quite cheap is mahangai ke zamaane me.

Though trek was incomplete we will give a try against next time.

svn update without password

first techi post from me.
I was setting up Cruise control on ubuntu box. cruisecontrol does svn update periodically and it was asking for interactive password for svn update from server. and it was failing. so I needed to set passwordless svn update on our dev m/c. I struggled bit but finally found the solution.
also got fundaes cleared abt how public-key cryptography works? :).

steps to setup,

1) generate private-public key pair on staging (remote server) using cmd
ssh-keygen -t
it will generate 2 keys id_rsa and id_rsa.pub. copy them to .ssh dir.

2) chmod 600 .ssh/rsa_id

3) copy private key from staging to .ssh dir on dev m/c
cd .ssh
scp user@staging:~/.ssh/id_rsa .
chmod 600 rsa_id

4) connect or do svn update from dev m/c to staging without password

Quotes from Vijay Tendulkar

I don't dream but its my wish , my dream, to play a clown. I want to paint myself and act like a mad person

I keep hearing this word again and again. What truth? Whose truth? These are the words that we play with. We wear clothes for others, behave in particular ways for others. And that living is the truth for that particullar moment. It changes from time to time and from individual to individual.

best writer I read till now. though not watched his best "sakharam binder" and "Ghansiram kotwal" ...searching for VCD/DVDs, anyone have it? ..let me know..

Rich man's story

Rich man was poor man 10 yrs back
He fought with his fate
He dropped out from school
He started with renting out auto rikshas
He then shifted to construction business
He got all political links at place
He loved a girl, eloped to marry with her
He became rich in no time
He built a dream palace like house
He goes to the work by his own chopper
and here we see him everyday from our terrace with awe.

Rich man's transport

Dada or not Dada

This is about Saurav Ganguli..the cricketer I loved and admired most till now..
Actually I am not fervent viewer of cricket, and when I was terrific tv watcher during my school days, cricket was favourite thing to watch..although I used to
watch anything that doordarshan people used to show. even regional movies..or sports like kabbadi or athletics...some sports..during these tv frenzy days our cricket team never performed well, always watched them going down to
africans, aussies or west indies...so after debacle in 96 worldcup , things changes..new faces like dravid and ganguly came in to the team, both had kind of style which I
liked...though I used to follow Dravid as he was most stylist and technically solid batsmen I ever seen, personally I loved ganguly as way he used to compete with tendulkar in opening partenerships and way he used to hit big sixes to murali. I never paid attention to his other abilities like fielding. I loved him because India was winning nad thats what was important. people used to criticize him sayin that he plays for himself. though I never able see why people say that..but indeed i loved funda of playing for yourself if your team is winning then whats harm in that...so ganguly became a captain and indian team started winning overseas. then in 2003 world cup, we reached to final. then came Greg chappell though gangule brought him, somehow that guy wanted ganguly out. and they made dravid captain and taking ganguly out of team. I was kind of hurt because my favourite player was out and reason was they wanted to build a team for next world cup and they did something silly things in between, they succeeded in winning few games then failed miserably..and even dada made comeback.
although he did scored well in most of the matches he played...but that confidence...dominance...class...rudeness...style was missing....and till now I dont find it in him.
I think all these things are related to real youth which can be seen now in batting of Rohit sharma or even gambhir...
and thats why i think dada should take retirement from cricket...and That exit should be honourable. Prince of kolkatta should retire. because we can not see someone like greg chappel to come again and take you out without having any aukad but have authority to do so..

The kind of attitude he has, he can do it any other fields of life (though he didnt do any special on cricket field [ing] )
may be he can do something in sports manangement field

One to rule them all..

lots of people are praising this snap from our torna trek so putting it on blog to
get this one deserved attention.
Manoj ke Sony erricson se..

One more Beautiful song from Beatles

John lennon wrote this with help of paul McCartney

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_My_Life

I used lyrics of this song in my email to my classmates to invite them to our hostel valfi. Best suited to occasion..:)

There are places i'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends i still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life i've loved them all

But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When i think of love as something new
Though i know i'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know i'll often stop and think about them
In my life i love you more

Though i know i'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know i'll often stop and think about them
In my life i love you more
In my life i love you more

------

Yes.......you my friends..I know i'll often stop and think about you all...

One more reason to love this song...notice last 2 lines... :D

Holi

Gulal ke Rang
Gubbaro ki maar
Suraj ki kirne
Khushiyo ki bahar
Chand ki chandni
apno ka pyar
mubarak ho apko
"Rango ka tyohaar"
happy holi

so this is the SMS I got from some girl I dont know so I used it quite efficiently forwarding it to all dear ones. wishing them happy holi..
though I didnt acknowledge original sender...well...I do keep away from anonymous people..
Do you get sms from people you dont know? I do get nice sms's
I am quite lucky on SMS things..

Wish you Happy holi...

Shwashank redemption

nothing to write abt.....!!!!



Red: Let me tell you something my friend. Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane.

----------------

Andy Dufresne: Remember Red, hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.


----------------

Red: [narrating] I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend, and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.

----------------
Red: [narrating] Andy Dufresne - who crawled through a river of shit and came out clean on the other side.

Shantaram

So finally finished this novel...though initially I had to struggle a bit to read through pages..as it was like reading someones diary...but as story of this guy went ahead to afganistan and various secretes unfolded..it was like I do not want to stop reading till I finish, and every stop was like the heartbreak.. I realized same mania while reading Fountainhead.

liked imaginary character of Karla and her fundaes abt life expressed through one liners.

Now waiting for movie Shantaram now, heard that Johney depp is going to play central role but as per my visualization it should have been Russel crowe..gladiator fame and do you know Russel crowe is relative of Martin crowe ...now who the hell is...? Few years back he was the captain of NZ cricket team and also his name discussed for coach of Indian cricket team.... and for all you know Johney Depp shares honours with Brad pitt for being my favourite actors of HW.

some one-liners from this novel...
* Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting

* Sometimes you have to surrender before you can win

* Happiness is a myth. It was invented to maake us buy new things

* There is nothin as depressing as a good advice.

* The real trick in life is to want nothing, and succeed in getting it.

Cricket fever

So I think I successfully restarted my cricket career as a wicketkeeper batsman.
with two successive wins on this weekend in 6th Inter IT cricket challenge in pune. and in one match with my imp contribution with bat. :)
We defeated sungrace on saturday and covelix on sunday. though one said that do not play for win, play for fun. but jeetne ka mazaa kuch aur hi hota hai..:)

Creativity Unlimited

This is the doll created from a wrapper of chocolate.
Artists :- me and my sister
Photographer :- me

one more innovative photograph




actually it look like this..

Hakuna Matata

Hakuna Matata! What a wonderful phrase
Hakuna Matata! Ain't no passing craze
It means no worries for the rest of your days
It's our problem-free philosophy
Hakuna Matata!
Hakuna Matata?
Yeah. It's our motto!

So I went to trip to hongkong-macau with arnd 50 member from talentica. 11-14 th Jan to mark this date.
It was first time I went out of India, but its like ek hi paththar me 2 chidiya marna..I made visit to Singapore,
hongkong and macau. the trip was quite eventful and overall enjoyable experience.
with all kind of expected/unexpected problems rolling up in front of us...it was still Hakuna matata...

so starting with one project team facing some problem in their project, delayed our start from pune itself, then 6hr long wait at mumbai airport as flight for singapore delayed then again missing flight for hongkong at singapore, then 12 people including me got caught in some unknown probelms at immigration in hongkong, then in 5 members lost their way in ocean park, then 2 guys losing their passport in macau, then getting back their passport after whole night search and finally to complement it, one guy got caught at customs check in mumbai, as he bought the camera from hongkong.. :)

but all this problems doesnt stopped us from enjoying things. so starting from mumbai airport itself, while waiting for flight I met my old colleague, with whom I worked in cmc-xilinx. lots of old memories refreshed. It was unexpected meeting so really was big surprise. As we needed to take connecting flight via singapore to Hongkong, we got chance to see Singapore, We took short city tour in Singapore which was free. though it was quite boring tour, it was just worth a bit to tell people that I went to Singapore too. :)
And then we reached hongkong, We really had good fun at Disney land in hongkong, where we saw a live lion king show where artists performed lion king story , it was real treat to eyes. then river cruise and 3D Micky, the concept of sprikling water on audiance made show different from other 3 d effects I saw in theaters. other than that we relived our childhood by playing different games their. and Not to miss the Fireworks in the Night, then Next day was in Ocean park where We saw panda then we got behind as sunil was busy in shopping so we got separated from our group. it is not good thing to miss from group as later 5 of people lost their way and we had to wait for them for 2hrs at the gates. that lost and found experience if described will take a blog itself. but I will write abt it at some other time.
we gambled for sometime in MGM casino in macau. and came back and had a good sleep in hotel.

and then we took ferry back to hongkong and then a return flight from hongkong to Mumbai.

so Hakuna Matata in Pune.
soon will post link to photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/sandip.more/HongKong

illusion

Doesn't this bhalu looks real? and do you know i clicked this close photo from
my N72. awesome?
well, I didn't go to any national park to click this pic, actually this is closer snap of friends tshirt...see below..

New name..New game

Isnt it a best time to change the title of my blog. so obvious reason why to change the title of the blog.
So answer my friend is not blowing in the wind but "Change". When I first named my blog as Ice cream, at that time
blog-writing was just for fun, I used to copy interesting things like poems, quotes from internet and put it in my blog, but aftera while
I started writing on my own, my own thoughts and real life experiences, so gradually blog became like my open diary.
One of my friend took a objection abt my posting things online which everyone can read, but actually my experience is completely opposite,
for a year or so, my blog mostly contained copied things and few from my own golden words and creativity, so once I read all
my old blogs, and I liked my golden words more than what I copy pasted, which inspired me to write more, and gradually
I also got feedback from friends that they loved to read my blog, and asked me to write more (not my surname).I think writing some
thing on your own, requires good frame of mind and I find it sometimes very difficult to express general thoughts (though I use Airtel..express yourself..click click)
but when it comes to describing some experience, it's easy.

So back to track, that's exactly why I wanted to change the name? (so whats in name..crystal?) actually this is end of 2007
and I was getting philosophical, and I was thinking abt the things and people(good n bad) went into past and I was thinking that some very nice and lovely
people came and detached, some left everlasting impression on my mind and
others left with their impression, same thing for events happened all this life I spent.
so I think interesting and nice people will come and events will happen in years to come, so its like journey till I stops.

and more creative compositions were sprouting in my mind so thought will put it down on notepad, so finally decided
to put this as a title of the blog.

So answer my friend is indeed blowing in the wind :)

Wish you happy new year 2008 :)

and for a change I started playing cricket....