SM Krishna Meets Qureshi !!!

Recently Indian external affair minister SM Krishna and his Pakistani counterpart Mr Qureshi met in a parking lot both waiting for their cars. Thanks to aman ki asha, they started talking..

Krishna said.. Hey buddy ?? how r u ?? what’s happening.. ??

Q said – hi Krishna.. well nothing much.. just water water every where.. not a drop to drink.. water in Punjab, water in Baluchistan and water in Lahore..

You say, how it is going ???

Krish- Same here buddy.. water in delhi, water in Bangalore, water in Odissa.. nothing different.. Did you see, how we shifted the blame of the commonwealth mess on the monsoon ??

Q - Yeh you are right.. god has written the fate of both the countries with the same ink.. For example.. you also have ample corrupts officials.. and for us.. each one is better than the other.. Leave others.. our president himself is known as 10 percent.. J

Krishna quickly said – Ha.. we are ahead of you here also.. we charge more.. let the enquiry happen for common wealth games… then only Kalmadi’s actual percentage will come out..

Anyways.. see we hosted common wealth and before even starting, bridges fell, roofs came down.. (giggle ) but we are fine.. not worried at all.. because we have one thing which even US do not have.. Jugad technology.. and as u may know India’s biggest star has said once.. that like our movies, in our lives also, everything comes to place in the end.. and if they do not.. picture is still not over… (mmmmm .... shahrukh style.. )

But I want to thank you for one thing… for not sending any terrorists to common wealth.. I know they are very much interested in shotput events... ;-)

Q – oh sir.. what r u saying.. we don't send them anywhere anymore… we ourselves have cut down our infra budget and increased the z level security of our ministers.. no body can trust them..

Kris – ya true.. anyways.. hey man what happened when we offered you 90 crores Rs as flood relief.. ?? you seems to be choosy begger.. ha ???

You know in dubai there was a begger.. he won a prize of 10 crore Rs.. when Media asked him what he will do now, he said… nothing.. I will buy a house a big car, get married to a beautiful film actress.. and when they asked no, what will you do for a living now.. he said.. nothing.. till now I begged on feet.. now I will beg in the car…

Q – so what.. u also have beggars who beg in cars.. no ??? your politians.. ????

Krish – hmmm.. true… but they have upgraded now to helicopters.. begging in cars are only for the reality show contestants.. I am very poor.. I have a small bunglow at juhu.. I want another on chowpati.. to see me in the next round, please vote me.. my code is .. Ha ha ha..

And u know we have a totally different class of beggars also.. just because taking bribe is a crime and begging is not, many of our politicians and officials do not take bribe.. instead they beg for help .. saar, I need 200 bricks and 20 bags of cement for my son’s study room.. please saar.. what? Your approval ?? next week.. sure saar.. it’s done… :-D

But Qureshi, trust me.. u know who is the biggest beggar in the world ?? You country..

Baba.. please give few dollars to the UNO.. we will take it from them..(laugh..)

Q – what can I do sir.. u don’t know the people in my country.. they can wear your clothes, they can eat your bread but they won’t take help from you..

Krish – aah... that’s fine. U think we really wanted to help ??? :-D

Actually we were celebrating the joy of giving week that time.. and anyways.. it is a fashion these days to help people… earlier Gandhi and Vinobha bhave lived with the poor to understand their need .. but now it is a fashion to help.. trophy wives of rich men start NGOs, clubs etc to help the poor.. once a month they call for meeting at the farm house.. discuss their sarees and jewelry, have light snacks, set the agenda for the next month’s meeting and go home.

There are very few really genuine helpers… like bill gates.. but in this world, if one man stands to do something .. 5 stand to stop him.. recently, in delhi a club has been chartered to stop Bill Gates from giving away his wealth in charity.. they say that if he does that, many more father, specially in India may follow his footsteps.. and if that happens what will happen to the millions of spoiled and totally useless sons in India.. where they would go, what they would do ??? after wasting the entire youth in driving big cars on the pavements, their fathers are their only hope..

Q- very true Krishna ji.. both our nations are handcuffed with poverty, corruption, illiteracy and lack of infrastructure.. on top of that there are rains and terrorism… still you managed to become the 3^rd powerful nation in the world… congrats on that..

Krishna – Thanks Qureshi.. I give you a inside information.. we have our most corrupt official in US govt also.. that’s why our name has appeared in that list… :-D

But you are right that we are gagged with all these problems.. but I can see the mother of all problems right now.. it looks like about to rain.. and we are standing in Delhi, so I suggest you head to your hotel fast.. because if you get washed away in some drain.. you country will blame us for that also...

Disclaimer- The original idea of both of them meeting at a parking lot and discussing flood and flood relief is taken from a Hindi news paper article. The rest of it was my few cents added to it..

Your XBOX Kinect Guide

What is this ?
Inspite of having google, answer.com, yahoo answers and thousands of such discussion forums for getting responses for all our technical queries, you must be thinking what is so different in this blog. Friends, in this blog I would like to share my 1st hand experience of buying, setting up and playing my new XBOX 360 S with Kinect. I am trying to put across things as easy as possible and trying to avoid all alien-feeling-techi-lingo.

What is Kinect ?

This info is for the real beginners. Others please don't get offended, if u know this already.
XBOX is a gaming console which plays game DVDs and you can play video games using remote controls (called controllers). Kinect is an accessory to be attached with XBOX console. Kinect consists of few sensors (not going into tech details) which can see your body movements so that you can play a game without remote but just be your body movements like hand for TT, Boxing and Legs for Football.

Sony has a similar thing for their game console and it is called Move.

First Thing First !!
So, if you were thinking of buying a gaming console for a long time and couldn't buy one because of budget constrainsts, I can't help you much because it is a bitter truth that this will cost you a fortune. In such cases you can go for sony PS2 which is just 6k INR but remember, it will be phased out soon and no new games will be launched for PS2.

Now if you want to buy a console and confused between Sony PS3 and Microsoft XBOX here is the comparision -

XBOX 360 + Kinect
Motion Sensing games - ( Plus)

NO Remote for Motion Games - ( Plus )

Response time of hand motions - V Good

Current Motion games - Boxing, TT, Volleyball, Bowling, Dancing, Fitness, adventures etc

All major/popular games (controller based) - Yes

Some popular games are exclusive for XBOX and some are exclusive for PS3.

Media Support - upto DVD

**Region Lock for Movies - yes

**Region Lock for Games - yes

XBOX 250 GB price(console + Kinect + 2 remotes) 35000

XBOX 4 GB price (console + Kinect + 2 remotes) 26000

Sony PS3 + Move

Motion Sensing games - ( Plus)

Remote for Motion Games - ( Minus )

Response time of hand motions - Awesome ( Plus)

Current Motion games - Boxing, TT, Volleyball, Bowling, Dancing, Fitness, adventures etc

All major/popular games (controller based) - Yes

Some popular games are exclusive for XBOX and some are exclusive for PS3.

Media Support - up to Blue Ray DVD

**Region Lock for Movies - yes

**Region Lock for Games - No ( confirm before buying )

Sony PS3 320 GB price (console + Move + 2 Remotes + 2 Move Remotes) 29000/-

** What is region Lock ?

People who were thinking of getting their XBOX from US should get disappointed here.

Region Lock means certain hardware is locked to work in certain region only. XBOX is one of them. So how does an end user is afected by this ?

Simple -

1. XBOX bought in US(NTSC supported) will not work in Indian TVs (PAL supported)

(not going in much details. PAL and NTSC are 2 types of tranmissions for TVs. India has PAL and US has NTSC)

2. If you TV does support both PAL and NTSC, XBOX bought from US will work.

3. XBOX bought in US will not play game DVD bought in INDIA. same NTSC-PAL theory.

4. XBOX bought in US will not play Movie DVDs bought in INDIA. and Vice Versa

BUT !!! India and UK both have same PAL system. So XBOX bought from UK will work in INDIA. Games DVDs bought in UK will work in console bought in India. and vice-versa. (I am not taking any guarantee for this)

Why I choose XBOX over PS3 ??

Apart from the comparision shown above, there are simple personal reasons-

1. I and people like me, are casual gamers. We cannot simple hooked up to a game for hours. Our need is a casual game and entertainment with our family. And Remote games a a real deal breakers when you have your wife, kids, parents etc at home. I bought Kinect because my father, my wife, even my Mother and my 2 year old daughter can play on it.

2. XBOX 4 GB is cheaper than XBOX 250 GB and as I said we are casual gamers. We may not indulge in downloading use less game demos, movie trailers from net, avatar and other useless technological waste. So 4 GB XBOX will be a good deal and anyways you can buy a 16 GB pen drive and connect it to your XBOX via USB. It will cost you just 1000-14000 INR..

Setting it up !!

Ok.. so I have convinced you and you have bought a console finally. What's next.. Well I am not copy-pasting the entire user manual here but I would like to give some suggestions.

1. Setup your console with the help of the manuals inside.

2. Please READ everything thoroughly and DO NOT press YES without reading everything on your TV screen.

3. I formatted my 250 GB hard disk by mistake when I tried connecting it to the console. Reason - I did not read the instructions properly.

4. Similarly, I played around with the Kinect Senser manually, tried to adjust it angle by turning and twisting it and later came to know that it is fitted with a motor which does all this. SO, DO NOT TRY TO ADJUST THE KINECT SENSOR MANUALLY...

Congratulations !! you are ready to play your Kinect now.. after this everything will be a cake walk as you simply have to follow the instructions on your TV screen.

My personal experience !!

1. Place the console in a horizontal positon to avoid the chances of tipping it over.

2. Place Kinect Sensor on TV for best results. It should be near the edge so that it's vision is not blocked. But when you are not playing you should move it back to avoid free fall. You see a white soft padding attached with the Kinect Sensor Base. Remove it. It is just a packing material. It will hamper with Kinect Sensor's Movement.

3. Be patient with the Kinect. Some times it takes time to start and configure. And if you move Kinect Sensor every time after switching off the console, the Sensor will surely adjust the angles when it will be started next time.

4. When Kinect Sensor adjusts for the 1st time after you switch on the console, make sure no body else is standing with you. It will make sensor takes more time.

5. You cannot play pirated games on your console. It will simply not play.

There are techniques(small softwares) which can play Pirated game DVD on the console but it will void your warranty and you will be banned from XBOX LIVE*

XBOX LIVE* is for connecting your console to internet for playing online and buying/downloading games etc.

6. If you feel new games are too expensive then, instead of looking for pirated games, try pre-owned games.

6.1 Try Landmark. They sell pre-owned games. Price ranges from 700 to 1400 per DVD. Minus point is, obviously, the games are old.. i.e. released in 2005 to 2007.. but for the 1st timer on consoles, even they will give you awesome fun.. (this is only for NON-Kinect Games..)

6.2 Try National Market in Bangalore or any Gray market in your city. You will find 2nd hand game DVDs there and wil be cheaper by 50% than landmark. But try at your own risk. Don't buy pirated or scratched DVD.

6.3 Buying from UK/Europe.. if any of your friend is travelling back from UK you can ask him to bring some games. pre-owned games selling in Landmark for price of 1200 INR can be found there in 7-10 GBP.. which will be 500 to 700 INR..

6.4 Sharing among friends... best options.. :-)

7. There is an option to save the entire game on the hard disk of your console. But you cannot simply borrow a DVD from your friend, save it on you console, return the DVD back and play. Saving game on drive gives you an option to play the game from drive, just to avoid wear and tear of your DVD. However, You Have to Put the DVD in the console to play the game from the hard drive.

I will contribute some more to this blog as and when I unfold new secrets of Kinect.. till then Happy Gaming..