I got my first camera. It is Sony Cyber-shot DSC-H9 Black.

To name few key features - High power Carl Zeiss 15x optical zoom lens, 8.1 MP, 3.0 inch tilt-up screen, 9-point auto focus, NightShot infrared system, 76x smart zoom, Remote control functions, optical image stabilization and Advanced sports mode.

It isn’t DSLR but very close to the features of a DSLR and hence mistaken for. It is the top one in High Zoom cameras of Sony Cybershot series. After spending lot of time looking out for suitable camera, I would call it best purchase, a person like me can expect while going for a digital camera for first time. You can read its review over CNET explaining how it overpowers all other cameras lying in its group. At one point I was thinking of going for DSC-H7 but unique NightMode feature of H9 made it weigh more than any other in the range. Everything about it is just wonderful.

I am loving it. Also purchased Sony 4 GB Memory Stick DUO with adaptor as there is only 31MB internal memory.

PS: For now, going through few starting hiccups as Vista isn’t able to recognize the USB 2.0 interface of H9 and hence can’t transfer photos directly.

I am trying to continue the trend started by me when 2006 was ending. To summarize the things in the way that you can recall them later, more easily than ever.

Here is the first series of that kind (you can also find same list for last year) -

1. What did you do in 2007 that you’d never done before?
   1. Continued my job for 2 years (of course that is an achievement when it is for first in 3 years of career)
   2. Completed NetAmp application - an app to play music over network
   3. Found my love
   4. Traveled abroad / US (Writing from there only)
   5. Visited Disneyland and Universal Studios
   6. Watched lot and lot of movies (I still can’t believe that I managed to watch 50 movies in 2 months!)
   7. Visited Historical Monuments in Capital nearby
   8. Met with old time mate (Happy)
2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

   Oh yes I kept it. I don’t have habit of leaving impossible things like that. If it couldn’t be done in 2006, it was kept in 2007. Hey Krishna, are you listening? Of course, making another one for year 2008 and this time, again it is next to impossible for a person like me!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

   Luckily NO.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

   No.

5. What countries did you visit?

   US

6. What would you like to have in 2008 that you lacked in 2007?

   Remembrance (I think it isn’t about resolution)

7. What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory?

   27/07/2007, 04/12/2007 and 13/12/2007 (all sum up to mah lucky number as I have realized just now)

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

   Discovered Love

9. What was your biggest failure?

   Umm…None.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

    Yes. Cough and Cold for quite long time during Cricket World Cup

11. What was the best thing you bought?

    I never buy things rather I present them to myself - 2 GFs / Laptops (dv9502 and dv6500t CTO NB) and 2 External HDDs (160 GB LACIE and 1 TB Western Digital)

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
    1. Jo
    2. Ritu
    3. Puneet’s laughs
    4. Pankaj’s company during celebrations
    5. Nitesh Gupta for wonderful rides
    6. My Brother
    7. Archana for wonderful compliment
    8. Happy
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

    Three of mah colleagues

14. Where did most of your money go?
    1. Laptops
    2. External HDDs
    3. Clothes
    4. Movies
    5. Coffee
    6. Food
    7. Discotheques
    8. Shelter
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
    1. Love

Presently I am residing here in US of A as Hema called it out! I am here for official trip from my firm and had reached here on December 4. Right now staying somewhere in San Jose and working at nearby location in Sunnyvale. Lucky to have company of two mates here - Amit Gupta and Nitesh Gupta (Nits). We all are colleagues. Nits is here since Nov and I have reached here with Amit. We go to office together, almost staying together and cooking together too. I am liking this place because of its beautiful infra and VTS service. Moreover there are lot of people from other races here as they say that more than 40% people are Indians in this city and it is also known as Gandhi Nagar. It feels like mini India. People are quite friendly and one can easily get hooked up with the ones of their interest. I had my tryst with locals and I am feeling good being here after meeting with them.

Whole week I was busy in settling down at office and at the apartments. Things were so messed up at both places. For first time, I realized that even a girl can mess up an apartment too much to clean up properly. Eh.

This was the first weekend and went out to Mccarthy Ranch. There first went to Best Buy and looked at the electronics goods primarily. But I found that all those which I wanted were more cheaper when purchased online than from store provided you know where to look out over Internet. Then it was Wallmart to get other stuff for living. Interestingly I happened to meet and talk with 2 Indian guys (Harsh and Sri) at Best Buy and one at Wallmart (Srinivas) which was surprising for me provided my nature of… At the end of day, we had something going inside our stomachs (I am not able to recall the name of outlet) but I must say, it is very hard for a veggie to survive on fast-food here specially when you get to eat ultra-cold burgers and that too, not much tasty . India is much better in that way. Also, here McDonald’s doesn’t serve any vegetable items…huh. Also bus service is till 0830 only on weekend. So you better get into last bus otherwise you will be left thinking of almost no other alternative.

Weather here is quite cold and you can’t be out from home without any jacket even when it is a sunny day. And purchase of a jacket was the costliest part of my shopping . I chose Raiders to save myself from deadly cold outside. It was quite expensive shopping for me out of we 3 at the end of day but I had something to feel good for sleeping soundly. Nits is still busy with issues …poor guy. I don’t know when will he get to sleep.

Today was the day when there was no RAM. Well..I cant say much about it but here are the highlights of one of the dynamic days of my life -

• In morning, I tried to start my PC and all I got was to hear 5 error beeps which mean, your PC is missing RAM. Later I came to know that there are about 10-11 other ppl like me wandering for nothing.
• I got to do nothing at all and for next 1 hour, it was all about finding the cause
• Then AC wasn’t working as generator was out of order and electricity cut was there for long.
• Ppl were asked that if they want to go, they can, till things are brought to order.
• I returned to home and rested.
• It was hardly 1 hour when I got call from Ramu asking me for another match - “Hum match khelenge“, were his words. So I was there with Raji, in the ground, following Ramu’s order and voice of my heart :;.
• I was wondered to see that there were about 16-17 ppl including TLs from CE who were there to start the most happening CE match so far - A great progress from last match with merely 6 ppl. Good work, Ram. Match was great fun as it started drizzling and cool breeze was flowing. I took 2 wickets from my 1 over and was the man who stood till the end of innings - no need to mention that I was the lucky guy of the day.
• After match, I returned to home.
• Then I and Raji left for CE after about 1 hour, to get updates. AC was up but still RAM trauma wasn’t resolved - 1 day was all what asked. We are gonna move to 2nd floor - the new construction, next week.
• I dropped Gaurav Bansal on my way back to home in eve after no work whole day, and then reached at home. It was official day off the work and for first time, I dint got to type even a single letter of code at work.
• Anuj threw party pending for long time for couple of occasions. So we had our bright eve at Metro mall, enjoying the ambiance out there and the stuff to eat & play! I got to taste Pan wali matka kulfi for first time and it was yummyyyyy after the double cheese burger from my fav McD, with french fries.
• On our way back home, at about 2300, it started raining heavily and it was for 10th time out of 12 rains of this Monsoon at GGN when I was badly drenched…6 times on my way to office, twice on my way back from office and twice while roaming on my bike. I love this season but had never thought that this season would also love me so much !

Have you ever thought - up to what extent tech can change ad world?

Here is an example. The first thing that kept in mind while creating an ad is to get attention of user and then to retain his attention. It is beautifully done here at DrBanner which has opted to fill the blank space as soon as it gets more and more user attention and what is the measurement scale? The distance of mouse from ad. As user brings mouse near the ad, the missing things start appearing in the ad like in car ad, first tyres appear, then color, then glasses…in the last the full car with full advertisement text - who will not like to see the full car once it starts appearing? And in another ad, in clothing ad, model is shown in different clothes of company starting from full length and clothes keep disappearing as mouse comes closer! And yes, as the patterns change, price and desc. also changes in bottom - this is called creativity or in DrBanner’s words, Creatology.

Here are the lines from website on about page -

• We operate on the border of creation and technology.
• In short: we come up with new ideas and make them work.
• Every campaign, project, or banner is different.
• We live for the challenge.
• And love our work.