Chilling your drink in two minutes.

Often we have got some bottled/canned drinks (beer/coke/juice etc) but can't drink it because its warm. Even if we put the drinks in freezer, it will take quite some time before its chilled.

This video demonstrates how to chill a drink really quick using just Ice, Water and some salt.



If you are wondering how is it possible to chill anything in two minutes. Well using salt in water decreases the freezing point of water that causes rapid melting of ice causing the temperature of water and so the drink to drop quickly. If it still doesn't make much sense to you you can read this document for a detailed geeky explanation of the complete process. It also gives you some fun tips to make ice cream at home using this technique.

So, lets beat the heat guyz.. Cheers!!

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Stung!!

On my way to office some insect hit me on my lower neck from front, but rather than going away it fell inside my shirt & when unable to get out started stinging. I realized what happened only after the first sting which triggered acute pain somewhere near my belly. I quickly pulled out my bike, somehow managing to avoid collision & skidding, to take out the insect which was stinging me relentlessly and I was feeling burning sensation and pain all over my belly & chest. Still sitting on my bike I unbuttoned my shirt and looked inside to see that it was a hornet which by then found its way out and flew away. I was relieved that it won't sting again but was also in sever pain. I was very near to my office so I decided to reach office first.

I was in office in a couple of minutes but I had no idea how to stop that pain, even none of my colleagues knew what to do. One of them suggested me to put some ice on it and immediately I was applying ice on the places where I was stinged. I could see 5 prominent patches with some swelling in the middle and it was still very painful. I rushed to a near by physician who asked me to apply some white vinegar using a cotton ball as first aid and gave me some medicines for pain & allergy. Vinegar was a quick relief and after few minutes of taking the medicines, the pain subsided. I applied it twice in the interval of 20-25 minutes after an hour there were no signs of swelling or red patches. I was surprised and happy by the quick recovery and I also know now what to do when a hornet stings :)

Thankfully I wasn't stung by a bee, because bees sting once and leave their stinger in the wound which keeps injecting venom in the skin causing pain & allergic reaction.

These are some general guidelines to follow when someone is stung by a bee / hornet / wasp

1) If it is a bee sting you need to TAKE OUT THE STINGER from the wound as soon as possible. The more you wait the worse the condition will get. So, pinch it out or scrape it off but do it.

2) Apply ice pack for few minutes it gives quite a relief.

3) Apply some vinegar (white) or baking soda mixed with water.

4) If the pain is too much you can take a pain killer or see a doctor.

Enough with the knowledge sharing now I just wish I never get stung again :)

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Windows XP fails to update after a repair install.

If you are getting error message "A problem on your computer is preventing updates from being downloaded", when you try to install updates from Microsoft. This problem generally occurs after you do a repair install on an updated system from a Windows XP CD's repair option.
Here’s how to solve the problem:
1. Click Start > Run and type regsvr32 /s wuapi.dll
2. Perform the same steps for each of the following commands under Start > Run:
regsvr32 /s wuaueng1.dll
regsvr32 /s wuaueng.dll
regsvr32 /s wucltui.dll
regsvr32 /s wups2.dll
regsvr32 /s wups.dll
regsvr32 /s wuweb.dll

I had a tough time finding this out, I tried contacting my OS vendor for assistance but it was of no use. Finally I landed on an article which told me what to do, thanks to Technipages for that. However this article from Windows secrets explains the problem & solution in detail.

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A property.. a dream..

Couple of weeks ago I booked a property.. its a 3 Bedroom flat actually and soon I was trapped into financial turbulence and yet not out of it. Most of payable amount is due to be paid over many years towards Home loan. But still there is a sense of achievement about it. It's really a dream come true.. Its just a matter of time and I will have my own home and the pleasure doubles when you know that it was a dream of your parents as well.

We never had a home of our own and so from my childhood my parents always wanted me to have my own home. They were sure I will get it .. mostly because of an astrologer's prediction who also made my "Janma Kundali" ;) but yeah they always believed it and when I told them I booked a flat they were jubiliant. They didn't forget to remind me the accuracy of astrologer .. granting him some margin of error which is the deviation of 5 years :)

Nevertheless It marked accomplishment of my parent's dream and the first step towards my dreams.

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Diwali Lights 2007

Diwali decoration at Durga Asthan Mandir @ Muzaffarpur, Bihar

Diwali decoration at Durga Asthan Mandir @ Muzaffarpur, Bihar

Yagya Agni during Laxmi Pujan

Yagya Agni during Laxmi Pujan

Diwali celebration with Crackers

Diwali celebration with Crackers

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Pollution Under Control Or Pure Unrestrained Corruption

PUC (Pollution Under Control) certificates issued in the interest of environment have actually become means of Pure Unrestrained Corruption. This certificate was supposed to be used to contain the pollution levels of the vehicles but the authority seems to have forgotten its original meaning. Just choose any moderately busy signal where a RTO officer is also present and you can easily observe many vehicles especially the heavy vehicles stopping at the signal and blowing excessively dark smoke in the face of bystanders, forcing them to choke themselves in order to avoid inhaling the hideous smoke. I myself get caught in this situation almost everyday.

This must be discouraged and can easily be done if the RTO officers observe their duty of spotting these vehicles, check for the PUC certificate and fine them if required. However this doesn't seem to be a concern for them as they prefer to look for easy and frequent catches which mostly are 2 wheeler riders, most of them youngsters, which will fetch them a quick income (read bribe) because generally they are not vigilant enough to renew their PUC certificates.

May be what is required is to educate our officers about the real usage and meaning of PUC certificates.

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CD-ROM detection problem in Windows XP

Sometimes in Win XP the CD-ROM is simply not detected by the OS all of a sudden or is not accessible. This is kind of common with XP and in most cases caused by a corruption of registry entries.

Following is a simple solution which should work for these kind of situation. Make sure to backup you registry or at least the concerned key before doing any changes, because it is just a work around to these kind of symptoms and this may not actually solve the problem at times.

1) Start Registry Editor (Start, Run and type in regedit then click O.K)

2) Locate the UpperFilters value under the following key in the registry: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\
{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

3) On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK.

4) Locate the LowerFilters value under the same key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\
{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

5) On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK.

6) Quit Registry Editor.

7) Restart your computer.


NOTE (Updated): After you remove the Upperfilters value and the Lowerfilters value, if you notice lost functionality in a particular program, such as CD recording software, you may need to reinstall that software. (Cause of this is pointed out in the comments.)

Disclaimer: This work around involves modification of registry values, which may lead to undesired behavior on certain systems. So, use it at your own risk. Also it is advisable to backup your registry before doing these changes.

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