As the year goes by leaving behind its warmth of memories, I present to you some pictures from my collection of 2006.
2006
A CUA from Today
I suddenly realized there’s more dust on my keyboard then I had imagined. Anyway, the long leave from blogging was not without a reason. Off late I had been focusing hard to get my CUA certification which I finally did today. I have now become a Certified Usability Analyst. Just for information, CUA is a test for usability professionals which is preceded by a 4 part training course in various faculties, conducted by Human Factors International (HFI). They have been renowned for their work in the field of usability engineering for the past 25 years. Personally speaking, this certification has given a much needed impetus for my continuing research and interest in the field of human factors and interaction design. Thanks to all my lovely friends who had hoped for the best and prayed for me for this day :-)
Dhoom 2 (2006)
Bikes, babes and battering blows, machoism and hip music; that’s Dhoom (excitement) for you. But unlike Dhoom, the prelude, which had John and his team modifying their mobikes and going for the loot, the sequel lacks substantially in a convincing plot (the script had inspired a gang of real thieves in Mumbai which were apprehended by the police some time ago). The mantra of the sequel seems to be gadgets and disguise and the story banks on both to move forward (ala The Saint). Therefore we have a hunk called Aryan (Hrithik Roshan), an elusive high profile con man, skydiving on a speeding train in the middle of the Namib Desert which is carrying the Queen’s crown. A few implausible acrobats later, the mission is accomplished successfully. Incomparable with the train dacoity sequence from the movie Sholay, the best in the history of Hindi cinema. But that’s for later.
A Momentous Day
Birthdays are a special reason to celebrate and most of the time I would prefer to do it alone within the confines of my humble abode. I would watch movies, eat junk, surf the net for all kinds of foolish things, shop for myself, receive birthday wishes on phone, mails wherever; yes that’s special for me.This time I ventured away from my 5 year tradition of not working on my birthday and considered celebrating it with my colleagues and friends. 2006 in many ways has been a “year of big changes” for me.
The day always starts with a visit to the Ganpati temple to offer my prayers and seek blessings for the next year. Then the heavy lunch at the India Tea Center, here in downtown Mumbai (with 16 of us) was amazing. If you decide to visit Mumbai, do plan a visit at this place in Churchgate for its traditional Indian interiors and good food but be aware of the slow service that they offer. Nevertheless, the highlight of the day was a book on the dutch graphic artist M C Escher gifted to me by the team, which contains some of his rare works and his “puzzled” artworks. The cake cutting ceremony in the office was made momentous by the laughter and the chatter over some silly innuendos. Someone was generous to shoot a video and I would see if I can share it here. Lastly it was my meeting with an old friend Randhir in the evening which bought some old memories back. At the end of this as I had anticipated, the celebrations and the joy had bought me crashing down on my bed too fast.
Check out the events that took place on 7th November, back in time.
Resurrection
Murphy’s Law – “If anything can go wrong, it will”. My belief in this quote was strengthened last week, in a mail from my host informing me about a serious security breach by an hacker. The maniac rid 16 servers of its valuable data and left me high and dry. I did not have a backup of my blog entries, nor did my respected hosting service. Luckily I had a backup till March 2006 which I am now presenting to you. Please understand that some sections of the blog are yet to be made live and some content might need some polishing. I will take care of those problems eventually.
After such a terrible loss (I am partly responsible for it as well), there was no chance about staying with Webhostplus. After extensive reviews, I shortlisted Bluehost for my website. As of today, the service seems to be pretty good.
The loss is irreversible, the trauma is unbearable but it was good lesson for me to learn – always take backups on the PC! The resurrection is completed and it’s not happening again, I promise.