The case of the colour blind monitor

One fine day (I didn't know about the weather at the time - was inside and online for quite some time), I was calmly browsing and blogging away when I saw it ... (that's called an ellipsis , the 3 dots)

A computer screen which looked unique - different - one of kind. There was something about the way it looked (or rather showed) that caught the eye ... It took a few seconds (guess that less than 60 is few..(now that's not an ellipsis-that's just 2 dots-small things make a big difference)) to figure out that it was missing a color - Red. Almost saying - Gimme red !

Then I remembered....

Flashback

Anatomy class ... having a prized LCD projector , the department finally wanted to show a powerpoint (like xerox became a term for photocopy, powerpoint for presentation)...

Topic : Genetics ...

It was only halfway through the class that people realised that the projector was not showing its true colours. And then when we reached inheritance of colour blindness (color blindness for short - US spellings are shorter I guess- refer earlier post about partiality of Google). The teacher, who by now had realized that we were seeing the ppt without the red, joked that the projector must be having color blindness(there, short n sweet).
After class, I lingered back to examine it and discovered the defect - diagnosis: a broken pin. If I put in a small metal wire, maybe it could see again...

Quickly, I shut down the computer (quickly shut down - an oxymoron) . I pulled the monitor's plug and examined the pins - strangely everything was nomal ( two different problems can have the same outcome ) ... I was trying to break my head over the problem when I thought - maybe the other end of the cable...

Quickly (now truly) , I pulled out the other end from the monitor (usually it's fused to the monitor - a fact that I luckily forgot at the time (this was an LCD monitor in which the other end was detachable)) and examined it. ... ... ... nothing - everything normal ...

Sometimes, u feel frustrated when there is nothing worng ... u kind of feel that everything being right is kind of wrong... Dejected, I plugged in the cable and booted the comp. What do u know - the full colors were back !

Micro flashback

When I was pulling out the second end of the cable , I had noted that it was not screwed on tight.

Sometimes, u do things right even without ur knowledge...

The Gmail Mystery !

My life has changed since I got Gmail. I mean with 2.5 GB+ of space , it should change the way u store your email ! Upload infinite number of essential files and software to the mailbox and access anywhere.

But recently, I came to see that several new features were made available to my friends' Gmails, but not to mine. Like chat ! And calendar ! And photo ! And web clips ! And more ... (actually I ran out of things to say)

I sent an email to gmail saying I haven't received these things yet ! I received a polite reply (obviously looked computer generated - there must have been googols of people out there who wanted equality who would have asked) saying that it will be activated in phases. I resigned to the fact that they didn't care about me even though I use my gmail properly like a valued customer should.

It was later (that is today to be precise) that I finally got a message from a friend advising me to change the photo which had seemingly been selected by me(that's what the server told him, he said) for my Gmail account ( it was a monkey, if u'd like to know, and must have been done by the gmail server which had been making a monkey out of me)

Click ! Revelation struck ! It said that this option was available only to English (US) users !!!!

Huh ! Since I had chosen English (UK) I cpould not get these features !!! If I can manage with British English I definitely can manage US English too !!! As the basic funda of the problem entered into my brain, I rapidly went through the vaious clicks to reach the Holy Grail - the language option in the settings page. Click, Click, Click ! It was all over within seconds (quite a few seconds, slow net connection !) And then the transformation began !!!

The transformation was unlike any I'd seen before (duh !) .

Then I finally got what I'd wanted in Gmail. End of story !

P.S. Am I using too many quotation marks ?

Mastering Google AdWords

A video of the candle light protest Taken by Me !!!

A view of the circle of candle light taken from the top of Lister Annexe. You cannot see the students and residents but you can see the light they hold, as they disperse from the circle formation to fix the candles on a square platform. Anti-reservation protest.