http://www.ariyam.com and babblings! Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:21:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en There are times (many) that a .NET developer needs to use the web-iversal Hex code for a color as opposed to the pretty-named Microsoft palette. I can't begin to count the times I've needed a simple Hex code for LightSteelBlue, or LemonChiffon, or one of my favorites, Gainsboro. Hence, provided ... http://www.ariyam.com/2009/03/10/net-color-to-hex-code/ I'd like to introduce my latest software creation: The Free Shakespeare Reader. What is it exactly? Does it read Shakespeare plays for you? No. I suppose if you take the title literally, it's a total misnomer. But, it's too late to change it! What my new application does, is it provides ... http://www.ariyam.com/2009/02/24/free-shakespeare-reader/ This doesn't feel real. An African American president? I'm at home, sick with a cold, alone in bed with my laptop, and the road outside my window is all quiet. There are no cars going by. There are no children outside running around cat-calling. The television is off. But I ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/11/05/obama-history/ One might assume that after, what, 7 years of college and with a majority of those classes involving a bit of writing, that one would finally grasp the idea that waiting to the last minute to write a paper is generally not a pleasant experience. Furthermore, one might assume that ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/08/04/paper-can-be-folded-to-make-things/ Alright, that was stupid. I just came back from a long day of work and class; it was 9pm; and there was no food in the house except for a plastic bucket-like thing filled with pistachios. I think it's easy to see where this is going. Yeah, I just ate ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/07/30/pistachio-binge/ Someone had forwarded me a link today to a new search engine called cuil.com. This new search engine was developed by three ex-Google senior engineers and claims to offer a new more updated approach for scouring the web. Apart from my initial frustration with the name which I struggled ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/07/29/cuil-kul-its-lukewarm-debut/ I was reminded this evening of a particular day at work in a job I once had. It was myself and two of my colleagues (all programmers) on the phone with two other guys, two other "programmers" (only this time with quotes). It took years for me to fully realize ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/07/28/snake-oil-salesman-of-the-modern-era/ You may have thought I was talking metaphorically. However, I am not. Cutting a mango is a serious art, that involves some very deft skill. There are even mango martial art dojos out there that explore this ancient technique, in a mind-body spiritual context, and combine it together in self ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/07/27/how-to-cut-a-mango/ Review: “We The Living,” Ayn Rand (Book 34 of 100) WE THE LIVING is a great and interesting novel—though to be frank, I wouldn’t necessarily place it on the all-time top 100 book list. My suspicion is that it landed on this list much the same way that 12 Charles ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/07/26/review-%e2%80%9cwe-the-living%e2%80%9d-by-ayn-rand/ Alright, I caved. I bought a new iPod touch. Now I'm sitting next to my laptop (but I'm not on my laptop), tethered by a stylish white USB cable, and tapping away at a 2 inch keyboard with my right index figure and writing a post. I imagine I most ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/07/25/ipod-touch-taptaptap/ We’re almost two-thirds of the way through the year 2008, and it’s about that time to look back at how well we’ve kept up with our New Year’s resolutions. I only made one this year: to read the top 100 books from the Modern Library’s Reader’s List. So far, I’m ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/07/24/update-100-book-new-year%e2%80%99s-resolution-goal/ My friend Anja (I'm just going to use her name and hope she doesn't mind) said something that kind of threw me off-balance the other day. She began by relating how "surprised she is that there isn't more general misogyny in the world." Apparently, she has this sort of antipathy ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/06/27/a-misogynist-woman/ Oh man, if this is what my back feels like at 25, I can’t imagine what it will feel like at 75! Yesterday morning, I woke up in agony grasping my back and making geezer-like guttural squawks of pain—to no one in particular. However, the pain was slight enough to ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/05/03/the-enigmatic-body/ (This is the last despondent political post of the year, I promise.) Is it me, or has this been the longest presidential campaign season ever? What’s worse, it’s just the primaries! We’re only preparing for the real thing. It’s primer! The heavy white ugly gelatinous stuff you cover you house with ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/04/26/okay-nobody-cares-anymore-or-should/ Have you ever told anyone before that you're choosing NOT to vote in the presidential election? I imagine you have. And I can guess the response you've gotten, the almost involuntarily emetic regurgitation of that same cliqued expression, "If you don't vote, you can't complain!". To me, that is just ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/02/09/rock-the-no-thank-you-vote/ I sometimes talk/write like what I've recently been exposed to. When in the company of London folk, I can't help but talk London-esque -- over-pronouncing every syllable, resorting to olden juvenile forms of censure, words like "Mikey", "Lick". Such the same with the Scottish, when I visit the ol'RiRi. ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/01/24/txt-msg-speak-lol/ After several months of programming -- and several months of NOT programming -- I've finally finished a new programming project, codename: Melodie. There are still a few tiny rough edges in the program (as in any program, see MS Vista) but at this point, the application is functional enough for ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/01/17/melodie/ I am so underread. (And only someone underread would even dare use an expression as 'underread'.) It’s true, I don’t know a lick of contemporary literature. Except for the names you can’t escape, like Dan Brown, Rowling, or Tolkien, the rest of the authors’ names stir no recall to ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/01/16/100-book-new-year-goal/ Desert of Sorrows A Strange Desert, Wretched and ill foreboding, A land of Barren plains. Yet ‘fore hope went dry, Steady rhythm resounded, And upon me a Rider came. "To where's the sun?", I asked, "And its lesser lantern pair? Or that speckled net of wonder Sprawling endless through the air? To what score Dynasty age Has the Blight claimed rule? Royal famines, ... http://www.ariyam.com/2008/01/03/desert-of-sorrows/ I accept the monotony of the routined life implicitly almost all the time: getting up, dressing up, showering, working, laughing, playing, teasing, eating, drinking, yelling, reading, sleeping. And then to repeat that refrain, repeat that refrain, till it would seem silly not to. But, all of sudden, at the heightened ... http://www.ariyam.com/2007/12/10/imaginary-lines/