ParaGliding and Water Rafting

April 23rd, 2010 Sanjib

Just returned from Kalimpong and Darjeeling, my second visit to the hill queen in a weeks gap but with an intention of experiencing Paragliding and water Rafting in the waters of Teesta during my second visit. The adventure sports can be experienced in Kalimpong and is a must-do for all who loves adventure. It is not atall scary as it may look from the snaps.

We arrived at New Jalpaiguri station early morning and had to move to Pani Tanki More in a rickshaw as Jeeps from NJP to Kalimpong is scarce. You can then travel to Kalimpong in Jeep at Rs. 80 per person. It was easy to find the Paragliding office as it is located in the heart of the town. You can also find more details about it from the official website. You will be greeted by some very friendly young lads in the office and you can book your flights with them. Roger, the Swedish guy, is an accomplished paraglider and is also very friendly and will make you enjoy your flight thoroughly. The flight merely takes 10 mins in air and if lucky can also see the mighty Kanchenjunga from air. Its a thrilling experience which everybody ( not for weak hearts ) should enjoy. Read the rest of this entry »

.avi file compression

March 24th, 2010 Sanjib

Uncompressed video files ( .avi) which are recorded from cameras or webcam use a huge file size. A 25 sec moderate quality video takes 150 mb of space. It is not possible to share this raw format with others through internet and so I was looking for a method to compress the file and keeping it as a .avi file. After searching the net and testing with a few softwares I was finally able to compress my 150mb .avi file to 5 mb without losing the framerate or quality of the video.

VirtualDub was the answer to my problem. You can download VirtualDub from here. Its a zip file which you can extract and start using by just running the file VirtualDub.exe

You will also need a Xvid Codec for the compression, a good codec is Koepi’s XviD Codec 1.2.2 which you can download and install. I got an error to override the deafult codec while installing it, but I Ignored the error and everything worked fine after that. Read the rest of this entry »

Quotes

March 20th, 2010 Sanjib

Nothing hurts more then waiting since I don’t even know what I’m waiting for anymore.

You asked me what was wrong,I smiled and said nothing,when you turned around and a tear came down & I whispered to myself… everything is.

You know you love someone when the mere thought of losing them brings you to tears.

Life and love is kinda funny some time cause the guys we want are so hard to get, but the ones that we dont want are so hard to get rid of.

I don’t know which is worse, loving someone knowing its going to cause you pain or being in pain because you can’t love someone.

Sometimes the one love you can’t get over is the one love you never really had.

If your wish does not come true then something better was meant for you.

You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only “choice” you have. Read the rest of this entry »

Ubuntu security

March 10th, 2010 Sanjib

I am not a security expert but I have implemented a few of these measures in my Ubuntu box and so thought about discussing about it. Please know that implementing these features will not make your box fully secure. You can discuss or find solutions for any security issues in the Ubuntu Forum

The two features I will discuss is ssh, as you let peoples walk in your machine through these applications.

SSH( Secure Shell Access) normally use password authentication to let peoples in. Firstly you will make up your mind if you at all need to have a ssh connection to your machine. If not, you can disable ssh from the Synaptic Package Manager. If you need the ssh connection to your machine, then change the port for it. Default port for ssh is 22 . Use the following method to change the port Read the rest of this entry »

Drinking theory

March 9th, 2010 Sanjib

From Cheers. Cliff Clavin explaining the ‘Buffalo Theory’ of eugenics to his buddy Norm:

“Well ya see, Norm, it’s like this. A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. So when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members.

The human brain works that way too. It only operates as fast as the slowest brain cells. Excessive intake of alcohol, as we know, kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. So, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. That’s why you always feel smarter after a few beers.”

~Cliff Clavin (from Cheers)

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