Tale of Beedle the Bard

The book Tales of Beedle ... Ok, Ok I quit ... from Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

"The Tales of Beedle the Bard is a book of children's stories by British author J. K. Rowling. It purports to be the storybook of the same name mentioned in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the last book of the Harry Potter series.

The book was originally produced in a limited edition of only seven copies, each handwritten and illustrated by J. K. Rowling.One of them was offered for auction in late 2007 and was expected to sell for £50,000 ($103,000); ultimately it was bought for £1.95 million ($3.98 million) by Amazon.com, making the selling price the highest achieved at auction for a modern literary manuscript.The money earned at the auction of the book was donated to The Children's Voice charity campaign.

The book was published for the general public on 4 December 2008, with the proceeds going to the Children's High Level Group."

Here, read it on Scribd's revolutionary ipaper . enjoy ...

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Fiction Literature harry potter and the J.K. Rowling

Sparky

The concept of revolutionizing your digital lives by using a program or tool has been around for a long time – to-do lists, stats display, program launchers, toolbars, thumbnails, eye-candy adders and so on, to name a few. Having used at least one from all of these or in most cases all possible of these, I do have a little experience in these matters. When we were asked to do a project using C, I hit upon this idea of creating my own program launcher, the class of programs which had impressed me the most in these.

Check out Sparky at

http://www.sourceforge.net/projects/Sparky

QUICK START GUIDE

Start the program Sparky.

You should see a lightning icon in your system tray.

Now if you this is your first-run or you want sparky to detect new programs, RIGHT-CLICK on the tray icon and select RESCAN CATALOG

You should see a cmd window opening and flickering in your computer.

Press ALT+SPACE to bring up the Sparky window.

Ta-da ! Sparky is ready type the name of the program you want to launch and feel the unleashed power of your keyboard.

WHAT IS A PROGRAM LAUNCHER?

A program launcher is simply a tool which is used to launch programs. In an ideal world, the number of menu items in our start menu, should be very limited. But just like everything in this world, the start menu too becomes cluttered and full of programs which you neither want to uninstall or create a desktop shortcut, programs like that video converter, which you know you will suddenly need when you are planning a long trip and need a VCD or that old console game which you will still play with your sister, when she's bored. As a result of all these, you have a nearly entire screen covering Start menu items.

And when you hit upon a solution of creating desktop shortcuts to ever program you think you will need, once again you end up fighting for valuable screen real estate. Also, those icons do make the wallpaper you have chosen after browsing through so much of 'top 10 cool wallpapers for your desktop' seem uncool.

In such a case, comes along a program launcher which will help you to launch any program that you have in mind. This is a program launcher ( yeah, I already said it is). And sparky is my chosen tool of the trade.

HOW TO USE SPARKY

Ok, so much for the build up, but how does one use a program launcher, like Sparky.

Using Sparky is very simple, say you have to launch a program say Notepad. All you got to do is type the name of the program you wish to launch in the space provided. Yeah! It's that simple. Type and thy shall be rewarded.

Now as you type each letter in the box, you should see a list displaying the top 4 programs starting with those letters. If you see the program you wish to launch, simply press the Up and Down keys to select the program of our choice. Press that key, that one key – yeah yeah, it's ENTER and ta-da your program should start immediately ( unless it's something bloaty like Photoshop, but,hey that aint; my fault).

HOW DOES SPARKY WORK ?

Well, so much so for running Sparky. How does it actually work ?

Sparky mainly searches your Computer for any .lnk files. So, if you want Sparky to recognise something you want just create a shortcut and select Rescan catalog.

Then Sparky, uses C to access the library and search for any files matching the same name. When you press ENTER, Sparky executes the link using Command Promt.

The residential program is actually a compiled Auto Hotkey script . I have also included the script in the

Sparky (atleast upto 0.3 is full written in C and uses just C). Sparky runs only when you call it using the shortcut keys. So, even if it takes up memory, its only for the launch.

Customize your Win XP to look like Vista or even better ;)

It is common knowledge that Vista bombed. Though technically XP still rules , one must admit that Vista has it's own attractions. Graphically, Vista is miles ahead of XP. So, I wanted to convert my Win XP SP2 installation into Vista one. ;) A graphical Vista reskinning with the good old XP's engine beneath it .

You can see my desktop here …

STEP – 1

TRANSFORMATION PACKAGE

Transform into Vista

Well, the first thing was to apply a transformation package. I tried different versions of the Vista transformation packages. But none satisfied me. Finally I stumbled upon this Gshelltheme package. It's just wow ... The download is about 165 MB, but the resulting effect is in fact every bit worth it. Not only does it graphically replace icons and themes in general, but also give you a Vista sidebar. It also offers you customization allowing you to select the software you wanted to install like Games, a launcher, Rocketdock and so on. I, for example, preferred not to install Rocket dock as I have already tried it.

Install the package from the following link …

http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=20306

SIZE : 165 MB

Double-click on it to install. Go through the steps and finally Click Yes to reboot your computer.

Welcome home, babe.

A look of My Computer …

NOTE : Visual Style is different. We'll deal with that later.

 

STEP – 2

DOCK

Go MacOS style

Many of you might be pretty much aware of Docks, if you have started customization you might have already used docks Macstyle …

There are two main options here …

1. Object Dock
   
2. Rocket Dock
   

Rocket Dock

And also others, like Leopard Dock and so on. I tried Rocket dock first . It's freeware . It's pretty good, but somehow it lacks the graphical saneness of Object dock. If you did not unselect Rocket dock then you might be running Rocketdock itself. Give it a try and then uninstall it to install Object dock.

Link for Rocket dock :

http://rocketdock.com/download

Size : 6.2 MB

Object Dock

Object Dock on the other hand is both for price and free ware. The freeware version is itself good enough for us. Download and install as usual. When you run Object Dock for the first time, it's pretty ugly. But creating beauty from it is then left in your hands.

Configure the themes and change the launchers to what you use frequently. You can even hide the taskbar, but I won't recommend it as you might need your system tray for certain purposes.

Here' the link for Object Dock …

http://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/

Size : 12.2 MB

My Dock screenshot :

I'm using Copper theme .

 

STEP – 3

APPLICATION LAUNCHER

No, competition here … Launchy kicks butt …

It's the best launcher for windows ( for Linux Gnome—do offers serious competition ) . You can get launchy from here …

http://www.launchy.net/

SIZE : 3.9 MB

I personally use a notepad theme for Launchy. You can get it from here …

http://browse.deviantart.com/customization/skins/applaunchers/launchy/

My launchy in action …

 

STEP – 4

VISUAL STYLES

I am using a visual stlye called RAZOR XP. However in order to install visual styles you need to first patch your XP installation or is it Vista ;)

Download this patcher from here …

UXTHEME Multipatcher

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/UXTheme-MultiPatcher.shtml

SIZE : 1.5 MB

 

Next download Tuneup utilities 2008 from here …

http://lassekongo83.deviantart.com/art/SlanXP-2-0-51492944

SIZE : 14.6 MB

 

It absolutely rocks . Once installed goto > Customization > Visual Sytles. In there, select the Install Theme from file option. Select your .rar or .zip theme file you want to apply. Install. Then click apply visual style .

I personally use the following themes :

GEL XP

http://dobee.deviantart.com/art/GelXP-VS-54344195

SIZE : 529 kb

RAZOR XP

http://zrageburn.deviantart.com/art/Razor2-Final-57225969

SIZE : 945 kb

SLAN XP

http://lassekongo83.deviantart.com/art/SlanXP-2-0-51492944

SIZE : kb

 

Ta da … Vista ready or is it even better .

Go and enjoy working on Windows …

 

This is my first tutorial. So, I would welcome any doubts or queries regarding anything.

 

 

 

Batch Day

Our Department Batch Day finally got over. It was a time when all our department became one, as a single unit or batch ... all right, I quit ... this ain't a report !

Point No.1 ... The cake was incredibly good ....

But all that was pointlessly wasted ... though licking the creeam was yummyy ...

We had real fun plastering cakes on friends and squeezing out Frooty on unsuspecting nerds. The point is that we had solid fun for over a period of 2 hours.

After that came the real headache ... in our quest of finding out the supreme tarzan in banana throwing we had actually created quite a mess spanning the entire corridor that even Kingkong would have been appreciated.

It was especially when I in an inordinately slow time-freeze aimed an Frooty ballistic missile at my friend, when inexplicably It missed and fell straight at the feet of the caretaker who choose just that movement to enter the warzone. 

And then started the retreat ... People mysteriously started to disappear ... A thick mixture of that costly chocolate cake and the frooty adorned the floor . I looked around. Found very few souls ... all with the same expression of innocence just like me ... So, much for friends through thick and thin .

We then reluctantly started Operation Cleanup. A couple of girls willingly took the broom and started it. Guys soon gallantly started flooding the entire mess. The water and broom did remove the upper layer but we still had the core remaining which was gradually showing its own effect. Though the cake and frooty both had smelt very nice alone ... together it became something like our bench guys ...

After cleaning up, we had managed to limit the damage. With dreams of an possible impending enquiry, we began to disperse .

So much for a quiet and decent celebration ... though I agree I loved the celebs ...

Rock on ...

I'm not in Love ??

You know I'm the kind of typical person you meet everyday. I beleive love is something that cant' come that easily, but sometimes the strangest of things may happen. It just happened that say I am too practical to fall in love ...

But what is Love in the first hand? Is it wanting someone so badly that nothing else matters more... nope, that is infatuation. Is it liking someone that much that you feel she is great? Nope that is a crush.
Real Love is ... something I can't tell you because I dont' what real love means.

You know the touching story, a girl and boy ride a bike, suddenly the boy starts going very fast.. the girl asks him to stop... but he asks her to remove his helmet as it is very stuffy and asks her to wear it instead for a few minutes and she too does it. He then asks her to tighly hug him and say to him that she loved him... She says and he now slows down.....

But at that instant the bike crashed into the vehicle in front of them, both were terribly struck. the boy died, the girl survived with minor injuries. But the real truth came out at the inquest....

....

The boy had known that the brakes werent working ... so he made her wear the helmet and then asked her to tell him that she loved him. He had wanted it to hear it as the last words before he died....

You know, that's bitter sweet and really touching... true love some would say....

But maybe we all got it wrong, feeling bad when the girl you loved dearly flirted with someone else is not love.. it's possesiveness... Loving the girl because you loved her for what she is -the bubbly, charming, young lady who makes you want to cry out with joy... thats true love.... but even then a part of me dies when she did do something like that cause you are no longer special just one more.... that hurts really much...

I know what I'm feeling is wrong, but I cant help it. Maybe we were never meant for each other, maybe she just wanted someone else and not the me...

Am I in love?? No, there was no one to love in the first place. and two even if were, I'm too selfish for that kind of love..

I'm not in love..
It's just a phase I'm going through...

Hope what all I said is coming true

Living in the now

Well, suddenly everything seems different somehow for me right now.
Had been reading some books as usual, when suddenly a couple of opinions about life in genereal surfaced through me. The fact is that not so much as a opinion, it's simply that I prefer to live my life that way.
The first thing, is that I think that life would be better if we could always live in the NOW. Well always planning ahead and thinking about the past is going to get us nowhere,after all the beauty of a ride is missed if we looked at the smoke coming from the back or the road in the front, it's in admiring the ride from within the car and looking all around you.
Then, I have suddenly grown up -say that the past no longer threatens me and presto! suddenly there is this feeling I'm happy but which suddenly goes out again, maybe the day It stays for longer is the day to rejoice.

Linux!=Windows

Finally at rest within myself on my choice of Linux as a OS.
Here's a gr8 article on why Linux will never be Windows.

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

Those lines on FOSS, Linux copying windows, why powerwindows users like me nearly kick shit in Linux... I love themm

Back To where I was

Well, Life has nearly put about a complete turn for me.
From great dreams, which were actually the mountains from which I looked from I have suddenly seen my ideals turn into caves into which I actually start hiding.

There's a couple of interesting persons in my life right now. One thing which I actually now realize is for whatever we say change is the only thing permanent.The drawing above is by some great guy CHu-Fen .../ whatever mate great drawing. I dunno why but I like it, the shyness in her face the garish yet subtlety mixing colour of her dress and the drab yet astute color of the background draw me to the pic.

As I move forward in my life, I actually now suddenly realise that I am more selfish than I ever expected myself to be, which is kinda of a shock to me. Maybe in the quest for my self-preservation perhaps I have lost the spark which glowed in me for the greater good always. My friend once remarked that I am a dominant personality. Who knows?

In the end what matters to me the most is perhaps whether I have been true to myself. True, I have done ultimately crazy things from time to time, yet I would like in the end to be secure yet free, one of the main reasons why I don't have true friend, 1) nobody in my frequency 2) freedom is too costly right now to pay for constant companionship and I have found no one worth it so far in my college.

Aaah.... there I go rambling. But perhaps this is part of everyones life, when they look inside themselves and find them facing someone they never expected to be there inside their core and not knowing what to do which themselves whether they are facing a demon or angel.....

True the hardest of revelations is to look into the compilation of what you call Yourself.

By the by, Debian rox, using it having dumped Windows true its cumbersome but I appreciate it's flexibility and true power, which is actually doing something for just doing it.