Well, it's been a long time since I wrote, well, anything on this blog. Chalk it up to boredom, lethargy, lack of inspiration, procrastination, or any multitude of reasons. Meh.
That aside, I read my blog from a neutral perspective, after two or three years, and realized how atrociously I wrote. 'Tis was a sober realization, it was. So I decided to clean up the place! Well, if you can count deleting my pathetic old attempts at writing (rooting a $150 phone and doing weird shit with it? What? Delusional ol' me had some serious screws loose) as cleaning, that is. I left up the rest of the articles that didn't make me cringe as much, or ones that I am actually proud of (the confessions one, for example). I'll plan on writing more often, like once in three months, or even faster. No promises, though. I've learnt better. Sid writing off!
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So you may (or may not) have heard of the line - music is love, music is life. I have come to realize in these previous months about the absolute truth of the above statement.
Pirates like me primarily listen to songs on YouTube, Saavn (the Indian version of Spotify), and many other sites. But that is a post for another day. Here are the songs that I listen to whenever I am free. Please note that the order I have listed the songs in are no indication of the preference I may have for them. That is for me to know, and you to figure out. This playlist contains primarily Hindi and English songs. 1) Panda - Desiigner (A guilty pleasure of mine - you don't need to understand the lyrics of this one to appreciate it). 2) 7 Years - Lukas Graham (Bloody amazing song - really hits you in the feels). 3) Aaja - Nucleya (Nucleya is an Indian DJ, who became mainstream after this song - listen to it for the unique base). 4) Agar Tum Saath Ho - Tamasha - Alka Yagnik, Arijit Singh (Again, a song that plucks your heartstrings with ease - and it is even better if you have watched the movie, like me). 5) Be The One - Dua Lipa (Effortless and meaningful singing in this one). 6) Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen (Classic, this one). 7) Bonbon - Era Istrefi (Don't understand a word in this one, but I wish I did). 8) Boom Clap - Charli XCX (Sounded amazing when I first heard it in the movie "The Fault In Our Stars). 9) Chitta Ve - Udta Punjab - Babu Haabi, Shahid Mallya, Bhanu Pratap (Fuck. No words for how utterly POWERFUL this song is). 10) Comfortably Numb, Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd (Classics, both of them - my friend says they sound even better when you are high. Now, I can't verify that one, but, what I can verify, is the fact that these songs are utterly MAGNIFICENT). 11) Control - Matrix, Futurebound (Amazing bass, and sounds. The singer also rocks). 12) Dark Paradise, Summertime Sadness, High By The Beach, Young and Beautiful - Lana Del Rey (Man. Is this women an alien or what? She sings so effortlessly, and the lyrics are, well, fantastic. Side note - she is also bloody beautiful. She is seriously too good to be true. Thank you, Lana, for gracing us mere mortals with your presence. In case you didn't gather, my crush for life is Lana. Sigh). 13) Digital Love - Daft Punk (Haven't really listened to many of their songs, but this one is GOOOOOOD. Like really good). 14) Don't Let Me Down - The Chainsmokers ft. Daya (Man. Although this song's lyrics are, well, the most generic I have ever heard, and the bass leaves much to be desired, and the video sucks, I still love it. Mostly due to Daya). 15) Faded, Sing Me To Sleep - Alan Walker ft. Iselin Solheim (These are two of those type of songs that you can never get tired of listening to). 16) Fursat - Arjun Kanungo (This is another one of the songs that most people can't decide to love or hate. I belong to the former category). 17) Hotel California, New Kid In Town - The Eagles (Both of them can be listened to over and over again. They are THAT good). 18) Hymn for the Weekend, Paradise - Coldplay (Coldplay is one of the best bands ever. These two songs exemplify the fact). 19) Crossfire - Stephen (FUCKKKKKK. >.< No words for how freaking amazing this song is. Hooked from the get-go). 20) I Took A Pill In Ibiza (SeeB Remix) - Mike Posner ft. Seeb (Although the original is slow af, the remix is amazing. Listen to the original, if you want to, to hear the contrast between the original and the remix). 21) Lost Boy - Ruth B (Just listening to this song can send me to heaven and beyond). 22) Radioactive, Demons, In Time - Imagine Dragons (Mark my words - songs like these will be called classic in the future). 23) Space Bound, Not Afraid, Lose Yourself, Love The Way You Lie, Rap God, When I'm Gone, Berzerk, The Monster - Eminem (THIS. MAN. IS. LEGEND. PERIOD). 24) Stay, Raging, Firestone - Kygo (All of these songs rock. End of story). 25) Stressed Out - twenty one pilots (I seriously don't understand why so many people don't like this one. The lyrics are epic. The song is epic. What's not to like?) 26) Never Be Alone, Stiches - Shawn Mendes (Man. This guy really puts his soul into his songs, and it shows). 27) Superheroes, Hall of Fame - The Script (The videos of these songs have even made me cry, once or twice. Yes, I'm man enough to admit that). 28) The Reason - Hoobastank (Surprisingly good, and utterly spell-bounding). 29) Hey Soul Sister - Train (The chords are well, inimitable, as is the song). 30) You're Beautiful - James Blunt (Although the music video is utterly senseless, the song itself is worthy of admiration). 31) Baby You're A Rich Man, Don't Let Me Down - The Beatles (On listening to these songs, you can understand why the band was such a big deal in the 60s and beyond). 32) Kashmir, Jammu, Bazar - KSHMR (One of the best DJs and producers I have ever listened to). 33) Hello - Lionel Richie (Although the video is creepy af, the song is worth a shot - it sticks in your mind long after you've heard it). 34) Addicted To You, I Could Be The One, Waiting For Love, The Nights, Wake Me Up, Hey Brother, You Make Me - Avicii (This guy is epic. His songs are also epic, and it is hard NOT to love them). 35) Zinda - Lootera - Amit Trivedi(A song with a LOT of soul). Whew. That's it for today. You've all heard of these - and maybe used some of them. The ones which look so genuine, you want to crap in your pants in disbelief - how can something be so good? You are lead to these sites by various other "genuine" sites that promise to hack the number of gems in your Clash of Clans Account; the ones that promise "premium" accounts for file-sharing sites, and so on. Today was just amazing however. I opened a site (this) in search of a "survey" bypasser tool. You know, those surveys that promise a brand new Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge at Rs. 250. (On a side note, do the creators of these surveys genuinely feel that anybody will believe the shit these people spew out of their mouth? Huh.) So this site looks genuine on the outside - with the usual stuff - for example, Whatsapp and Facebook hacks (for "free"), CoC Unlimited Gems, and so on. Someone even had the audacity to post premium Netflix accounts for "free". I don't know which people these stupid creatures are trying to trap, but what the hell, man? And well, well, well, what do you know? These guys just.. well, look for yourself. Visa Card Number + its corresponding CVV. Drug lords are running this site, lemme tell you that. With debit cards up for grabs, the sky's the limit. The site is easily found to be fake, as shown below: 1) No Privacy Policy - then why is the stupid button added? 2) Fake Request Form - It is basically a piece of amateur JavaScript that regurgitates what ever you have just typed into the form. Like below. Although the tool request URL cracks me up every time. 3) Fake, and for this, I emphasize, FAKE award on the right sidebar - "Trusted Website" awarded by LifeHacker and PCMag. As if this piece of trash is ever gonna get awarded. Now, I come to the best scams the site has to offer - 4) Fake (but difficult to distinguish from a identical genuine one) forums. On clicking on the "Contact Us" section, I saw a page which had a link to its "forums" and a e-mail for contacting the administrators. Every page of the forums looks like this: And I repeat, EVERY. "Maintenance". Somebody should inform the shoddy admins that you need to have a darned forum to maintain one. On clicking the Facebook, YouTube or Twitter links, you get a page such as this: Basically, the page doesn't exist, for all three sections. Unfortunately, that doesn't come as much of a surprise. 5) Spreading fake information about their site through other non-reputable sites: As expected, the site informs us that Hackolo is "very popular" and "very safe (100%)" The image on the left is a screenshot of Amazon taken on the Black Friday Sale, even though the site being "tested" is supposed to be Hackolo. If these sites are classified as extremely safe, then I'd hate to imagine what classifies as dangerous or malware. None, and I repeat, none of the links on the page actually work - the page can be treated as a standalone site. So basically what I want to say is this - the next time you want to
1) be cheap and emulate PS3 games on your measly little PC, or 2) be jealous (and lazy) and want to read you ex's WhatsApp chats without getting up from your bed, or whatever inane reason you may conjure - Remember. And Never Forget - It is just not worth it. So today I was discussing the concept of arranged marriage with my parents and my sister. I remarked that the arranged marriage system is like a bazaar - the more valuable your qualifications, and the more money you earn, makes the dowry amount that you get to be higher, and higher. Why so? I then said that - we humans are not the most advanced species. We follow tradition and established customs to the highest extent possible. Why so? Is there any point in having four or five pre marriage functions which are completely pointless? Is it necessary to invite everyone, ranging from the cousins of the sister of the nephew of your aunt? Why don't we question these, instead of questioning what the government does?
The discussion then moved on to my career - I said that I am not interested in traditional jobs, in which you have to work your ass off for 9-5, and out of 40 hours of average work that you put in, only about 6 is productive. I said that since life is like diving into a deep pool with choices, I don't know which field to choose from - writing, pure research, a PhD, and so on. They remarked that you could just start a new company. I said - Is that how you interpret happiness? A job, and if not a boring job, then a startup? Have we humans fallen so low that our purpose of life is to earn as much money as possible. Well, it shouldn't be. The purpose of life is to enjoy it to the maximum extent possible, and not waste the extremely limited amount of time given. Wasting it on grades instead of accumulating knowledge is just foolhardy. Doing what you love should be your priority. Visit as much as possible. Listen to good music. Laugh with people as much as possible, and not at them. Read the newspaper everyday, and novels every two days - they broaden your horizons. Live well. Laugh often. Love much. People usually think that in engineering, you usually become either of the two types - a straight-to-God nerd, or a slacker who does nothing much in life. You cannot even begin to imagine how wrong they are.
In engineering, everything you do depends upon you, and not by some external force - who you hang out with; how, what, and where you study from; how much you spend, and so on. In school, the marks you got depended upon what you were taught in classes, how well you memorized it, and how tough the paper was. If it was good, you got full, and if it was bad - you got 2 marks deducted from cent per cent. In engineering, if it is good, you get 60 per cent, and if it is bad, it is possible to get 0. Yes. Zero. Null. Engineering is not about studying. That is a misconception spread by people who have no idea about engineering, or by people who have come to engineering solely for getting a job. Engineering teaches you about life. Seriously. When I was in school, I was a loner - with me being the laughing stock of the class, what with my uncut mustache and beard, thick horn-rimmed glasses, bowl-cut hair, and... you get the general idea. I had barely two or three people I could safely say were my acquaintances. Not friends, that was way beyond my level. Since I couldn't talk to anybody without breaking out in stammers, I decided to put my focus in studies, but I was easily distracted. I decided to change my outlook on life in general in twelfth grade. I made my bag lighter, tried out to reach out to people in my section and beyond, got a new haircut, reduced my focus from studies, and generally tried not to stand out. That worked, to some extent. I found some people who had not heard any rumors about me, and got attached to the hip with them. They were six or seven in number, but for me, that was a gift sent from God. Then, much time passed. I had the admission letter from Thapar in my hand, wondering whether I should go, not because Thapar is a bad college, but because I couldn't face new people - I just clammed up. I then decided - "Screw it !" , and then decided to face my demons head-on. Then Frosh happened. You know, the intro thingy they hold in colleges and universities around the world so we do not feel out of place? Yeah, well, that one. I realized that there were many people out there who had the same fears as me. In one night, which was the Karaoke Night, that it was unwise to keep anything at all bottled up inside you. I made friends. Real ones, who I knew I could count upon. Friends who I knew I could wake up at 4 in the night(or morning, whatever) and they would not complain what the issue was. Man. I loved college. Then came the issue of studies. I loved Maths since as long as I can remember. So, naturally, I scored high on it. But the other subjects, well, not so good. So I decided to follow a friend's advice that, coincidentally, matched that of my father's - On the things you love or like, score high, as high as you can. On the things you dislike, or even hate, well, try to do well in them. But don't despair if you don;t. There should be no regrets. Mess food. This is a thing I hated at first - I learned to deal with it. I learnt that not everything will be given to you on a silver platter - you have to tolerate things as they arrive. Friends - I think I was on a roll during first year - I could talk to anybody, and everybody. My confidence reached new heights. For me, life had finally started climbing upwards, from new lows. I learnt that the us humans have boundless potential - it is up to us whether to squander it, or achieve it to the maximum extent possible. Achieving your potential does not mean getting good grades or getting a "dream" job - it means finding your boundaries, and then pushing them. This can be done by various ways - studying is just one of them. First year at Thapar has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. One day, I will remark upon these moments as, well, momentous. A great man has also remarked - "It is not the things we do that define us. In the last moments of our life, we will only remember some moments, of noteworthy occasion. These are the moments that make us, that define us, It should be our life's objective to maximize these moments. " But the most important thing I've learned is that when a thing or a person you've grown used to is separated from you, you feel sad. Very sad. This is the reason why I miss my family, home-cooked food, some school friends, and why on coming to my second year, I dearly miss my first year. I learnt the value of relationships, and to cherish them dearly, because you never know when they might go away. Sid signing off. So you just installed windows 7, 8, 8.1, or 10 on your new computer. What next? Well, that's exactly what I'm about to tell you. So read on.
1) Install a good browser with extensions. Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Tor and Torch are good choices. Basically anything except Internet Explorer works. (Note:If you're not installing Chrome, then Adobe Flash Player will need to be installed manually). 2) Download Java. 'Nuff said. 3) Install an exquisite theme so that people can fawn all over your PC. My best choice would be GT Graphics 2 themepack. Simply download the file, double click and you're done! 4) Download a PDF reader. I cannot stress this enough. Adobe, Foxit and Nitro work well enough. 5) Download a Music(and/or Video) Player. Since the default Windows Media Player is crappy, this is highly recommended. VLC Media Player, DivX, K-Lite Mega Codec Pack and iTunes will do the job with grace. 6) Download a file compression software. This comes in handy since most downloads on the net are in the form of .rar or .zip formats. WinRAR, WinZIP and 7-Zip handle the job with aplomb. 7) Download a Cloud Management Software such as Dropbox, Google Drive, MEGA, Box etc. This will be needed since if you are anything like me, your hard disk space will be filled at the speed of light. 8) Download LockHunter. Why, you ask? Have you ever seen the message "The action can't be completed because the folder or a file in it is open in another program" when trying to delete or move a folder? LockHunter automatically analyses the task manager, closes the offending file, and then performs the required action onto the folder. 9) If you are a bibliophile, download Calibre which is the book management software. I think that's it. This blog post was made in mind assuming you already have Microsoft Office installed and running. If not, LibreOffice is the best open source office management suite out there. If you have any other software in mind, don't hesitate to comment. |
About me
My name is Siddhartha, and I am a fourth year undergrad CS student from India. I am pro-logic, but like to expand my worldview by reading about differing perspectives. I fancy myself as a music aficionado, and I devour books (when my enthusiasm trumps my lethargy). I also like blogging, and sharing my viewpoints and interests in people, which is a big part of why I have this blog. Archives
April 2018
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