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    November 29

    Night

    Just finished reading 'Night' by Elie Wiesel who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
     
    A slim volume with just over 100 pages that captures the devestating and terrifying record of Elie Wiesel's memories of the death of his family, the death camp at Auschwitz, the concentration camp at Buchenwald and the journey that made him lose faith in God and humanity and vowing not to speak of his experience for 10 years. A great read.
     
    The book includes Wiesel's Noble Peace Prize acceptance speech which is still quite relevant 20 years later where we're still in a world with injustice and suffering with many victims of hunger, racism, political persecution....
     
    .....As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs....
     
     
     
     
    November 27

    Icy Roads

    8:00 pm that's when I left work today
    9:10 pm that's when I got home - safe and sound thank god
     
    My normal 15 minute drive was extended due to the snowy weather and icy roads... yes, ICY in Seattle!
    I slid frequently between Microsoft campus till the 85th street intersection (after that the roads were pretty good). As I was sliding (I admit it was kinda fun), my low profile performance tires aren't exactly optimized for winter conditions, I saw many abandoned cars and I was scared that was going to be me in a few minutes. I was equally worried that I wasn't wearing the right shoes to walk home :)  anyways, happy to be home - enjoying my fireplace and tea...
    November 22

    Limited Edition Vaios for the Holidays

    Green storm, red storm, blue streaks, pink swirl and angel ..... oh so pretty :) I'm a big Vaio fan and already have 2 but am very tempted to buy one of these limited edition Vaios.. 

    On a related note, Sony/Columbia pictures are promoting the family with product placements... Vaio laptops had a few appearances in Casino Royale and I also spotted one in the trailor for the upcoming flick 'The Holiday'.

    November 20

    Casino Royale

    Watched Casino Royale last night... two thumbs up. It's one of the more realistic Bond movies... the last one, 'Die Another Day' was a bit too high on crazy unbelievable stunts and gadgets for my taste.
     
    Daniel Craig has my full approval for being Bond-worthy :)
     
    November 17

    absolutely sick and disturbing

    (link to video)
     
    On Tuesday Nov. 14th around 11:30 PM - a student was arrested, tortured and humiliated by a bunch of cops at UCLA.
     
    Apparently he didn't show identification (note that he wasn't posing any sort of threat when asked to present his ID)- you'd think that 4 cops could collectively, maybe, you'd hope , realize that hmmm tasering someone 50 times and asking them to 'stand up' constantly is a) not possible to stand up when you're tasered so many times b) probably not the most effective way to get someone's ID, c)maybe the poor guy didn't have his ID! I've certainly forgotten my ID numerous times. 
     
    This video makes me absolutely sick. I don't know how this started but it certainly doesn't justify such violent measures. Glad that most phones have video functionalities and youtube enables a great uncensored source of distribution.
     
    update: here's an article covering more details....  he was tasered even *after* being handcuffed! sigh.
    November 10

    Talking about Updates to Live.com

    We just released a nice update on live.com.. the perf improvements are definitely my favorite :) and now you can rename your gadgets - for example I have one stock gadget consisting of the stocks I own and one of the stocks I'm considering buying...

    enjoy :) here's the comprehensive list

    Quote

    Updates to Live.com

    Yesterday, we released a small update to Live.com, intended to fix a number of bugs and improve the overall experience. While there aren't too many drastic changes that you can see, a number of items are worth calling out:

    • Performance Improvements - We told you that we were serious about performance, and we still are. Every time we release an update, the team makes sure that the site is only getting faster. We made several improvements with this release that should make things snappier. Speed is our priority, and we hope you're feeling the benefits. Watch for even more improvements coming soon!
    • Rename Your Gadgets - You can now rename any of your gadgets right on the page. Simply use the "Edit" menu (found on any gadget), select "Rename" and type in any name you would like.
       
    • Start Over - Is "My Stuff" stuffed? Want to start customizing Live.com all over again? We now offer an easy way for you to start from scratch, and erase any changes you have made to your page. When you are signed in, simply click the "Start over" link that can be found next to your name (we'll ask if you're really sure before we change anything). Erasing is forever... be sure you truly want a fresh start before clicking that link! We will not be able to recover you data once it is gone. This functionality was previously offered to our anonymous users, but we're happy to now give our signed in users a chance to start over as well.
    • Stock Gadget Enhancements - In addition to making this gadget more accessible for users using assistive technologies, we've added some nice new features as well. First, you can now add mutual fund symbols as easily as stock symbols - this was a frequent user request, so thanks for the feedback! Additionally, the stock gadget now offers selectable period charts from within the gadget. Expand a quote, and use the arrows under the chart to cycle between 30 day, 90 day, 1 year and intra-day charts!

    • New Gadgets - Just in time for the holiday season, the Windows Live Shopping team has released some fun new gadgets to help with your gift buying (even if you're buying for yourself). Click "Add Stuff", select "Gadgets" and then "Shopping" to discover the Gift Buying Guide, Shopping Price Watcher, Window Shopping, Shopping Search Gadget, and more! Have fun with these new gadgets, and keep watching Windows Live Gallery for new user-created gadgets to add to your page!

     

    As always, we love hearing your feedback and want to hear your thoughts! You can email the entire team at livefb-at-microsoft-dot-com. Enjoy the new release!

    November 08

    Vista released to manufacturing!

    Vista has RTMd!!!
     
    Congrats to all the folks who poured their heart and soul to this quality release including my brother :) Now go celebrate, you guys deserve it!
     
    Can't wait to get the ultimate