My final year in college didn’t seem all that boring or pointless. It basically didn’t feel like engineering.

In other news, I got my visa yesterday so thats one less thing to think about. It doesn’t really feel like it’s been a year since I wrote my GRE.

It’d be great to say I’ve come a long way since last year but unfortunately that isn’t true. Oh well, at least I get two more tries.

A little clicking later I like what I see. A site that looks like a community driven site for Indian music. Nice idea! I wonder why I haven’t come across those types of sites before.

Anyway, here’s the site I’m talking about: Musicballroom. If you’re the weird type, you can ignore that link and click on the one that’s in the shoutbox. Check out the international section (their main site) too, it’s quite something.

Comment if you know any other sites like this.

The Album Reviews give you a lot of background info which you probably won’t need but try out their sampler which you can use to hear a song before you buy it. I’ve bought a song from them and I’ve just played it on my computer and on my Discman. No DRM at all. Nice.

In case you’re one of those heavy downloaders you can try out their affiliate program where they will pay you for linking to them. The extra dough can be used to buy more music. An incredibly simple interface adds to the ease of use of the whole site. Check out their Music News section for an idea of what I’m talking about. Ignore the occasional grammar mistake since it’s a Russian site.

I’ve been finding it difficult to fund my account though. Presently, they don’t accept credit cards or PayPal. That leaves me with E-Gold which I have just exhausted. I’ve got to see if I’ve can fund my account off their affiliate program.

Lack of time due to a cluttered course schedule isn’t an excuse. Technically, we’ve got a whole extra year to work things into the schedule. No one in their right senses would say that there isn’t a need for a student union. On an average, Engineering colleges charge more than Arts and Science colleges so funding shouldn’t be a problem. So there, they’ve got the need, the time, the money and the students. Whats their problem then?

Another sad observation is that its becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish a symposium from a carnival. Nobody ever discusses anything worthwhile and half the time the food is what is most interesting. Its heartening though, to see IITM get it right. They seem to know exactly what they’re doing when organising Saarang and Shaastra. Why can’t their model be replicated? They’ve shown it can be done.

LBG’s got this rather nifty flash music player. The last time I saw they had about four songs listed from each album that you could listen to. Now you can listen to all the songs from both their albums. Nice huh?

Someone try out their ‘Buy Now‘ link and tell me if they support Cash On Delivery. Their form freaks me out. Too little info besides the text boxes. I don’t like those.

Interesting ideas are not hard to come by. I can’t say the same about reasonable professors. I don’t mind if my ideas are shot down because they aren’t feasible or are completely insane but rejecting it because some senior did something similar last year or because it’s mostly a simulation or because it’s a term they’ve heard of and hence its not cutting edge enough? Seriously, WTF?!

The best recommendation they could give me was to go to a project centre. After spending a month trying to convince them that I could do a project on my own and failing miserably, I finally go to a project centre. These people hand you a booklet with projects that are nicely categorised under headings like IEEE, Embedded Systems, Networking, Communication, VLSI. How nice? Like vegetables arranged in your neighbourhood grocery they’ve got everything all nicely arranged for your picking. You listen to their rehearsed, almost retarded explanation of the project, pick a project that sucks the least and pay up. Ask them what you’re expected to do and their answer is (translating quote from Tamil to English) “cash apart, you’re expected to attend classes and not mess with the kit once it’s handed to you (smile)”. And to think the project costs 20,000 bucks. They’re fleecing us and I can’t do a damn thing about it. The only consolation is that I’m assured of my project being accepted and a ‘guarantee’ that it’ll work.

Anna University finally lets us do something creative and my college goes and screws it all up. Another sem wasted. I’m not sure what I feel right now. I’ve run out semesters to make my college education worthwhile but that would also mean I’m done with this whole load of crap. Oh well, one less day of college per week. I guess I should be glad.

The only big purchase was a gift I bought my brother for his birthday since I figured it was better to buy something online and have it shipped to him in the US rather than buy the same here and ship it myself. Another small portion was a few donations I gave out. Apart from those every other purchase was $10 or less.

Seeing that I don’t get much in the first place I’d better start managing what little I have better. I’ve never thought of myself a spendthrift. I’m way better handling physical cash and real bank accounts than online money. I think the problem lies with me subconsciously thinking of online cash as play money. (Reminds me, I used to be pretty good at Monopoly, Mayfair was always mine)

In other news, I’ve got a verified PayPal account. So now even the sending limits can’t stop me from spending.

The website has a clean interface that is rather intuitive and very familiar looking. If you’ve browsed through an online directory of some sort then you’ll have absolutely no problem with navigating this site. One great feature that the site has, is the ability to mention a price that you’re looking to pay for a product. Once that price is offered by any of their suppliers they’ll contact you. If, after two weeks, they can’t find anyone that meets that price then they’ll just mail you the cheapest price listed by their suppliers. Now how cool is that? They’ve also got an extensive list of stuff so using their search tools is probably a good idea.

My only gripe is that they could have offered better sorting tools. The present sort based on price or relevance doesn’t seem to help much while shopping. The lack of reviews or the popularity rating of the product is a minus but once you’ve got a product in mind, finding the cheapest price offered is a snap.

This site is definitely worth looking at before you go shopping.

First, I saw a car while trying to overtake another, went a bit too far and got one wheel over the stone dividers. The car went a small distance before colliding with a metal barricade that the police generally stick wherever they fancy. This was on the road between Gandhi Mandapam and Kotturpuram.

Next, at some place in Nungambakkam, a speeding moped turns sharply, whacks a guy standing near a median to cross the road and then smacks right in to a lady that was standing by the side of the road facing the opposite direction. Like all good citizens of India, the people nearby crowd around her to make sure any thought of fresh air is pointless. An auto driver, who eventually took her to the hospital, had to practically fight his way through the crowd that was unwilling to give up their ring side view of the setting.

On a calm street in K.K Nagar there was this rather hilarious incident. A guy while riding his cycle was talking on his cellphone. He cycles right in to this open manhole and his front wheel gets stuck in it. Now, he wasn’t going particularly fast or anything but for some reason his back wheel lifts up in the air, swings to the left and he falls off his cycle and lands on a pile of coconuts stacked by the side of the road (The usual piles next to a coconut water vendor). The funny part was the expression on his face (kinda half shock, half glee that he’s still alive) while lying on a pile of coconuts and that he was still clutching his cellphone and I could hear that someone else was screaming on the other end. I helped him get his front wheel unstuck. I’m not sure he appreciated it though, maybe because I was laughing my head off right before that.

Lastly, the not so funny part, I’m waiting for the signal to turn green at the L.B Road - Sardar Patel road junction when some jerk decides that the best way to take a u-turn is by trying to power slide in to my bike and then get to the opposite side on the rebound. Total moron. Not only did he topple my bike and jam the kick start lever, he also managed to attract the cops. Luckily there were enough bystanders around that could explain what happened without me trying to do so in my pseudo-tamil. Actually, now that that I think of it, they never even gave me a chance. Not that I mind.

The whole thing seemed so unreal. A few accidents every now and then is normal in Madras but that many on roads that hardly support speeds of greater than 40 kmph? Seriously, I’m taking out the car next time. If someone wants an early end, at least I won’t have to tag along.

The reviews of each online casino seem well thought out and informative. I like the way everything is laid out, from the side tables to the neat presentation of facts. They even tell you when the last update was made so you know if the reviews are up to date or not. The whole website has this no nonsense, no frills look to it. It’s a site that does reviews and it seems to do that very well. A bit more content would be appreciated but it’s probably a good idea to leave out casinos outside the top ten.

The site does have a few problems though. The ‘About us’ page doesn’t seem to be displaying anything. That’s something they might want to fix soon. The dowload link on the homepage seems to timeout everytime I try it. The domain name is very direct but maybe a tad long. Nothing a bookmark can’t solve.

Overall, it’s a nice small site that does exactly what it says it does. Free access to quality reviews of top online casinos in the USA. No more, no less.