Rohit's Ramblings

Whew! After almost 4 years of relentless searching on the Internet and other places, I finally found the piece of image which is worth its weight in Gold. Well maybe not for everyone - but for us the die-hard Microprose Flight Sim Fans. Have been flying their Sims  of F19 Stealth Fighter since about 1992-93 and have had the F117 since about 1996 but I lost their manuals etc. It is a different matter that these games are now so old that you need DOS Emulator to play properly - but what the heck. They are the best and will remain the best to me. Here is the Aircraft Identification Matrix Sheet. Hope it helps some of you to get back to the old game

2009 to 2016 - about 6 years of being away from blogging I decided to revive my blog. The big question I hope to answer is Why? Why after all those years did I choose to revive my blog. The answer is simple. Something happened on the way - a thing called Facebook Facebook ! I can see the incredulous look on your face. How can Facebook be the reason for getting back on blog? I don't know if you remember or not - in the earlier days, the wall of your Facebook page used to be pretty neat and clean. You would get information about your family and friends and people who matter. It was fun and the addiction went way way deep. Then suddenly - as your friends list grew - you saw your wall changing shape. Someone climbed down a tree - it is a Facebook post. Someone ate a chewing gum - it is Facebook post. And suddenly your entire wall was awash with Tom, Dick's or Harry's post except your own. Add to it the growth of smart-phones and you had the perfect recipe for a big load of...

Took a personality test at Big Five. Here are the Personality result. Do take the test and share your results

The sorting hat says that I belong in Ravenclaw! Said Ravenclaw, "We'll teach those whose intelligence is surest." Ravenclaw students tend to be clever, witty, intelligent, and knowledgeable. Notable residents include Cho Chang and Padma Patil (objects of Harry and Ron's affections), and Luna Lovegood (daughter of The Quibbler magazine's editor). Take the most scientific Harry Potter Quiz ever created. Get Sorted Now!

"Celebrate Every Day of Your Life" - is what I believe in; but this cruel Earth and it's people don't allow you to celebrate everyday of your life. Well, for the desperadoes amongst you, here is something which you will find extremely useful. Check out my Reasons for Celebrations Go ahead! See when is it your birthday on another Planet or When you have completed 11000 days of living and Just Celebrate. Extrabit.com has really added fun to our lives. Cheerio!!!

Most of us are taught Testing of Hypothesis using the old Null Hypothesis approach. In fact, In Indian Schools, it is de-rigor to know the statistical testing using the Null Hypothesis Approach. However, statistical software do not follow this approach, rather they follow the p-value approach. This creates confusion when students use statistical software foe their work. To help my students I downloaded the following picture from the Internet. It beautifully illustrates the methods for both the approach. I hope that this will help the students of statistics in India. PS: I downloaded the above file from the Internet. If you come across the original please let me know so that I can acknowledge the original

It is with sadness that I write this blog about the demise of a small software company. In 2003, I had purchased a small software "Just the Fax" from a small company RKS Software . I was impressed with the software as it made the process of sending a fax from a computer. In fact, so impressed was I, that I decided to spend $ 19.95 to register the software. The software was made for windows 98 platform but over the years I found it to work flawlessly on Windows Me and Windows XP. And to tell the truth, that small piece of software has saved my bacon innumerable number of times over the years. Yesterday, on a whim, I decided to visit RKS Software but to my dismay I found that the company has closed down it's shutters in December 2008 and hived of it's products to various other companies. I felt really sad seeing the notice of closure. RKS Software was a good company making a slew of really useful products. As far as I am concerned, I will continue to use the software ...

I guess it is time to wish Happy New Year to all of you through my blog. In the past few days, I have been majorly active on scribd. Do view my documents on scribd:

Finally the big day arrived. Calcutta University decided to hold convocation for the Doctoral Degree Holders. I arrived post haste to Kolkata to be present at the convocation. But what a big letdown!!! You must think that the convocation ceremony of the Oldest University in India would be gloriously managed solemn affair. Not So. In fact I have had seen better convocations in private collages. No Academic Gown, No Photographer, No laminated / or bound degree holder. 341 of the degree recipients were called on stage one by one and handed over the degree in the same manner as a pamphlet is handed over by the street level evangelist. And to top it all, the attitude was as if university was doing us a favor by inviting us to the convocation I could not hide my disappointment as after 5 years of hard work, this was the day that would have been the culmination of all my academic efforts. But Alas, as usual, Calcutta University left a scar! A scar for a lifetime. Oh well, that is Calcutta Uni...

"Insurance is a subject matter of solicitation" is the disclaimer written on every insurance brochure. In this sense, it is no better that the oldest profession of the world. However, the solicitation of Insurance companies leaves a lot to be desired. People today, still fear taking insurance because of the arcane words and phrases that is used in Insurance. I too was in the same league, till about a year back - when I decided to upgrade my knowledge about matters of Insurance. In this blog I will deal with the basic types of Insurance that are available in the marketplace. You should note that Insurance companies customize their products and brand them with catchy name. However, the basic product remains one of the following or a combination of the following. So what are these basic types of Insurances? 1. Temporary Assurance: Temporary Assurance or Term Assurance or Pure Protection Plan is the most basic plan being offered by all Insurance Companies. In this type of Insur...

It has been ages since I have blogged on the web. Well life has it's own ways of interrupting your plans. It all began in April this year when my daughter started having some kind of spasms 3-4 times a day. It was not until we took her to Calcutta were the spasm correctly diagnosed. Anulika has been diagnosed with " West Syndrome " - which is a rare form of Infantile Epilepsy. In fact, since the day she has been diagnosed with west syndrome our life has turned topsy-tury. It is so rare that according to some sources that the prevalence is about 1:100000. Anyways now that the diagnosis has been done, she is under treatment. Thanks to the grace of God she has not been having any spasm since 2nd of July. We hope and pray that she gets well soon. Given the rareness of the disease, there is significant lack of information about the same in Indian households and doctors. I would like to appeal to all of you to send me information about the syndrome. Please don't send inform...

Another day and the internet never ceases to surprise me. Just downloaded a wonderful download manager named "Free Download Manager". Have tried Get-Right and Flash-Get, but I was never too happy with them. FDM seems to fit the bill perfectly. Try it if you have not done so far. Here is the link: Another software review and this one is a rant. Just downloaded and purchased the F-secure Anti-Virus software. What a pain. The file-size is a whopping 82 MB and it politely says that it requires 1GB RAM to function well. My laptop has simply chocked up. What a size bloater. On top of that, it checks for internet update every hour when you are connected to the Internet. Could it not check just once a day? Finally, I wish they had put the size and the system requirement (in detail) on the website and not when you are on the verge of installing the downloaded software. IT industry please pay heed. You may be playing with the latest hardware but majority of the junta does not have the...

The last year had been full of changes in my life. It is a year that would remain truly memorable in my memory. First and foremost, we had a little daughter Anulika in the month of October. Then, in the month of November, I completed my Ph.D. degree from University of Calcutta and finally in the month of August, I was able to purchase my new car (albeit after taking a massive loan from SBI). A fruitful year I must say, and I am thankful to God for providing me the small pleasures of life... Let us see what 2008 has in store for us

It is amazing how God showers us with his gifts. We were blessed with our second child - a girl child - on the 5th of October 2007. May she have a long, fruitful and prosperous life

Let me begin with a small background. I purchased a new car - Zen Estilo made by Maruti Suzuki - sometime last month and was waiting for the number plate to arrive. The car dealer tried to sell me some of the interesting number's (for which he would get a premium) but I preferred to wait for luck to take charge. And, believe it or not, luck certainly seemed to favour me in this context. When the number plate arrived, I came to know that I have been allocated the number JH-01T-4217 . I felt a bit disappointed but later on as I was researching the number, I realised that I have been incredibly fortunate. Let me explain: 4217, when the digits are added up is the single number 5. This is also my own number as per numerology 4217, is a proven prime number 4217, is one of the prime number whose sum of the digits is also a prime number 4217, is one of the few prime number which yields another prime number if you add the product of the numbers (4 x 2 x 1 x 7 = 56) to itself. So 4217 + 56 ...

Just finished reading the last volume of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (HPATDH). And to confess - in spite of the publicity surrounding the book; I was pretty disappointed. It was just not magical enough. Somehow or the other, Harry blunders along and manages to win... Hallows or Hoarcrux... Seems like JK Rowling lost the plot.... The unnecessary death of some of the key members sounded idiotic.... Anyways this being the last book of the series... All well that ends well.... But a few days before the release of the official volume, I downloaded a fake copy of the HPATDH from the internet. I don't know who the writer is - but my congratulations to him or her for writing a better story that JK Rowling. The prose was not that polished, but the plot was gripping and mature. Bordering on Harry's obsession with Ginny the book felt much better than the original one. If you have read the book; you know which book am I talking about... If not, I suggest you search the net and dow...

I have heard stories that people who get selected into Microsoft have to go through 6 or 7 levels of interviews; and that the final interview most of the time's is taken by one of the top honcho's. I was never quite lucky to work in Microsoft but if the practise is true then they should stop wasting their time and money. I mean how stupid can you get. Take a look at the picture below: Enlarge it if you so wish. I got the webpage when I was trying to update an old system which has Windows 98 installed on it from Internet Explorer 6.0 I was completely floored. ROTFLOL would be a better word. Look at the second line it says: "This website is designed to work with Microsoft Windows Operating System only ". I am completely lost. AFAIK and remember, MS Windows 98 is a Microsoft Windows Operating System. Right or wrong? Can anyone explain? I know you have stopped support for MS Windows 98 - but the stupid error page is the pits. I mean, ........ I guess you know what I mean.

L et me first explain the background. I am working as Reader at Xavier Institute of Social Service, Ranchi. Ranchi is the capital of Jharkhand - a state in country of India. At XISS, I teach marketing and research related subjects in three different departments - Information Management (IM), Marketing Management (MM) and Financial Management (FM). Each department has different requirement of teaching and from time to time i need to give my students handout and notes. XISS is served with a 2 GB data pipe taken from the Internet Service Provider - BSNL. The 2 GB data pipe feeds into a single server from where it is distributed to the faculty and students using Wireless Area Network. Now, in the city of Ranchi, the ISP services are more down than up, and as such using the internet for distributing the notes and softwares via the internet was a major pain. I tried uploading the notes to various file sharing sites - but the result was the same. With the ISP being down most of the times the ...

I took this test and it quite accurately predicted my mental state at that time. Why don't you try it too. Rohit Vishal Kumar took the free ColorQuiz.com personality test! "Wants interesting and exciting things to happen. A..." Click here to read the rest of the results.

My youngest maternal uncle Shri Brijesh Kumar Srivastava passed away on 30th of November 2006. He was posted as CJM Gazipur in Uttar Pradesh. May God rest his soul