Eyelid Muscle Twitching Episode

I recently went through an extended eye twitching episode that lasted over a month. One day all of a sudden without any reason whatsoever lower eyelid of my left eye started contracting involuntarily. The movement of the eyelid was kind of horizontal. When I looked closely at my lower left eyelid in the mirror, I could see the two ends of the lower eyelid pressuring towards each other. Because of this the two corners of the eyes were feeling constant pressure in the lower corner. A couple of days I even woke up with teary left eye because of the constant pressure from the eyelid muscle contractions the left eye started to shed water.

I was going crazy and started looking for reasons on the internet. All I was able to find was that it was not a big deal. Some websites said that this kind of condition could last for weeks or months before mysteriously going away. Myokymia is the proper medical name of this condition. I also found out that lack of sleep, muscle weakness, stress, or too much coffee could also be responsible for this kind of condition (Note: Do not consider this as a medical advice. I am not a medical professional. Please see your doctor if you are experiencing similar condition). Well, it is good to say that in the last couple weeks I have not had a single eye twitch. It is gone.

P.S. - I did buy a lottery ticket hoping that this is maybe an indication of coming good luck but unfortunately did not match any numbers.

ASP.NET Page Lifecycle Events

Here are the events in the asp.net page lifecycle in the sequence they are raised:

1. PreInit
2. Init
3. InitComplete
4. PreLoad
5. Load
6. LoadComplete
7. PreRender
8. PreRenderComplete
9. SaveStateComplete
10. Unload

Most of the times, the programmers will write the code in the Load and PreRender event handlers.

Washington Beltway Traffic

Does the Washington beltway (outer-loop) traffic in morning rush hour in College park, Maryland qualify as the worst traffic in the nation?

This traffic used to be from New Hampshire Avenue to Georgia Avenue. Then, it was from 95 to Georgia Avenue. Then, from IKEA to Georgia Avenue. Now, I see the traffic from Route 1 to Georgia Avenue regularly. This week the traffic stopped from Kenilworth Avenue to Georgia Avenue.

What will happen 5 years from now?

Dell Dimension 3100/E310 Memory Upgrade

My dell dimension 3100/E310 computer uses DDR2 memory. This system I bought off the dell outlet only came with only 256 MB of memory. This memory is not enough because I have windows xp media center operating system installed on it.

As I was looking to buy a new 512MB memory stick to install, I opened up the owner’s manual that came with the computer to read the instructions. This is what the manual says about memory upgrade: “DDR2 memory modules should be installed in pairs of matched size, speed, and technology.” It also says that if the DDR2 memory is not installed in pairs then the computer will operate at “slight” slower speed.

Dell manual says that if you install DDR2 400-MHz (PC2-3200) and DDR2 533-MHz (PC2-4300) memory, the memory will use the lower installed speed.

It is good that I read the manual before going out and purchasing the new memory module. There is no need to spend the extra dollars and go for higher speed when my computer will downgrade the higher speed anyways.

Yahoo Mindset

Yahoo Mindset is great.

Slowly but surely this obscure tool from Yahoo is becoming my favorite search engine. I don't know why Yahoo is not widely promoting this great feature upfront on their homepage. It is probably because Mindset is currently in beta.

Whenever I am searching for a product review or want to delve into in-depth research materials, I quickly fire up Mindset and move the search dial all the way to the right. The results I get are almost always relevant to the search string entered. The same search strings on regular search engines produce sites with something to sell or sites with ads plastered all over the page, which could be useful when you want to buy something. But, for research you need Yahoo Mindset.

Nissan 60000 Mile Maintenance Service

My Nissan dealer offers two types of services for 60,000 mile scheduled maintenance service: Basic Service and Premium Maintenance. The basic service costs $395.00 and premium maintenance service costs $699.00. The details of the services are as follows.

Basic Service:

1. Change engine oil and filter
2. Lubricate propeller shaft (4WD)
3. Change engine coolant
4. Change engine air filter
5. Change in-cabin microfilter
6. Change free-running hub grease
7. Change front wheel bearing grease (4WD only)
8. Change manual transmission oil
9. Change PCV filter (4 cylinder frontier/xterra)
10. Rotate/Balance tires (except 350Z)
11. Inspect automatic transmission fluid
12. Inspect axle & suspension parts
13. Inspect brake lines & cables
14. Inspect brake pads, rotors, drums & linings
15. Inspect cruise control vacuum hoses
16. Inspect differential oil
17. Inspect drive shaft boots
18. Inspect engine drive belts
19. Inspect exhaust system
20. Inspect suspension ball joints
21. Inspect front wheel bearing grease (4WD only)
22. Inspect fuel lines/connections
23. Inspect fuel tank vapor vent system hoses
24. Inspect manual transmission oil
25. Inspect propeller shaft
26. Inspect steering gear & linkage
27. Inspect steering linkage ball joints
28. Inspect case oil (4WD/AWD)

Premium Maintenance:

1. Change engine oil & filter
2. Lubricate all locks/hinges
3. Lubricate propeller shaft (4WD)
4. Change automatic transmission/CVT fluid (Add $299.00 for Murano)
5. Change differential oil (limited-slip/conventional)
6. Change engine air filter
7. Change engine coolant/flush system
8. Change engine drive belts
9. Change in-cabin microfilter
10. Change free-running hub grease
11. Change transfer case oil (4WD/AWD)
12. Change front wheel bearing grease (4WD only)
13. Change fuel filter (if serviceable)
14. Change manual transmission oil
15. Change PCV filter (4 cylinder Frontier/Xterra)
16. Change radiator cap
17. Change radiator hoses
18. Change wiper blades
19. Rotate/balance tires (except 350Z)
20. Optional: flush automatic transmission (flush with ATF)
21. Inspect all lights
22. Inspect axle & suspension joints
23. Inspect brake lines & cables
24. Inspect brake pads, rotors, drums & linings
25. Inspect cruise control vacuum hoses
26. Inspect drive shaft boots
27. Inspect exhaust system
28. Inspect front suspension ball joints
29. Inspect front wheel bearing grease (4WD only)
30. Inspect fuel lines/connections
31. Inspect fuel tank vapor vent system hoses
32. Inspect headlights/adjust if necessary
33. Inspect propeller shaft
34. Inspect steering gear & linkage
35. Inspect steering linkage ball joints

I see too may 'inspects' instead of 'change' in the service details. It feels like that I will be spending a lot of cash if after 'inspection' any 'change' is necessary. This 60k service will be at least $1000 for my Nissan Altima.

Winter of 2005-2006

The winter of 2005-2006 has been very erratic in Maryland this year. The month of December was unusually cold and there were 2 or 3 snow storms before Christmas. Even though the snow was not significant, it was big enough to shut down or delay the schools and clog up the Washington beltway with traffic jams. January started on the mild note and stayed that way throughout the month. The temperature was above average and when January was over it was the warmest January on the record. The month of February has started with a vengeance and it is windy a lot this month. The temperatures are running at least 2 to 3 degrees below the normal for this time of year. The natural gas prices are higher this year and heating bills are through the roof. The state of the bank account is in a bad shape for a lot of people.

Hindi Channels on XM and Sirius

XM satellite radio channel lineup
Sirius satellite radio channel guide

I just went through the channel lineup of both satellite radio providers and found out that there are no Hindi channel offered as of today. If XM or Sirius offered any Hindi service, many people would sign up just to listen to hindi songs. I know I would.

What is taking so long? If they have channels for continuous traffic and weather for cities like Baltimore, Tampa, Minneapolis and Pittsburgh, then they can find a spot for a Hindi channel. There are estimates that close to 3 million people of Indian origin living in United States. Looks like XM and Sirius are missing some demographic numbers.

OrElse, AndAlso in Visual Basic (VB)

OrElse operator in Visual Basic (VB) is used to short-circuit the evaluation in the if condition. Apparently, in VB the Or operator does not short-circuit the evaluation of the second logical condition if the first condition evaluates to a Boolean true.

AndAlso operator is Visual Basic (VB) is used to short-circuit the evaluation in the if condition. The regular AND operator does not short-circuit the evaluation of the second logical condition if the first condition evaluates to a Boolean false.

I believe, OrElse and AndAlso should always be used in VB instead of regular Or and And we are familiar with. This should improve the performance especially the second logical condition requires a function call or database access to evaluate.

Bottom line:

• There is no "real" differnce between OrElse and Or in the VB. Both produces the same result when used in place of each other. The OrElse operator should perform better than Or operator.
• There is no "real" difference between AndAlso and And in the VB. Both produces the same result when used in place of each other. The AndAlso operator should perform better than the regular And operator.

Visual Studio and Visual SourceSafe Annoyances

Trying to find the SourceSafe history of the codebehind file is very annoying in the visual studio. Every time I hit that history button from the source control toolbar, it displays the history of the aspx file instead of codebehind vb or cs file. So, I have to open the Visual SourceSafe itself, find the codebehind file and do a ctrl+H to find the history of the file. Too much work.

After I add an existing file to my solution, it automatically checks out the file without asking me. So, I have to undo my checkout. As soon as I undo this checkout, the entire solution explorer bar goes up-and-down, up-and-down and up-and-down. I hope these things are corrected in the next versions.

Laurel MD Hindi Movie Theater

I keep losing the phone number of the Hindi Theater in Laurel, MD. The search engines don't help me when I try to find it on the internet. Once I post this, I hope people will be able to find this post from the search engines.

301-352-6987

This phone number usually has a voice recording telling people which bollywood movies the theater is currently playing. I believe the theater regularly shows south Indian movies too. The voice recording also lets you know the showtimes.

And this is the address of the Hindi movie theater in Laurel, MD if anyone needs it.

371 Armstrong Ave
LAUREL, MD 20707

See this Hindi Movie Theater on Google Maps.

If you go there and also want to buy some Indian groceries make sure to check out Eastern Bazaar. Eastern Bazaar is across the parking lot from the Indian movie theater, I believe it is probably quarter to half mile away from the theater. Eastern Bazaar is probably the best Indian grocery store I have seen in terms of big size and cleanliness. The store has an Indian travel agency next door and a movie rental sub-store.

The address of Eastern Bazaar is:

15101 Baltimore Ave Ste 100
Laurel, MD 20707-4661

See Eastern Bazaar on Google Maps

Used Car Values and Honda

When buying a new car:

"If you’re a short term owner (≤ 5 years) and the car has been redesigned for the new model year, then you’ll be better off paying a bit extra for the newer version.

If you’re a short term owner and the car hasn’t been redesigned, then you might come out ahead with the older model year, but only if you can get a really big discount.

If you’re a long term owner (≥ 5 years) and the car has been redesigned, then buy whichever one you happen to like better — the difference in resale value will be minimal by the time you finally get around to selling."

This all makes sense for every other car manufacturer except Honda. The used car prices on Hondas are ridiculous. They don't go down a bit after 2-3 years. I have seen 2-3 year old civics listed for $14,900. That is almost the same price you pay for a new civic. Where is the depreciation? You can buy used Camrys or Altimas at that price. Why people pay 14k for a used civic? This is beyond me.

Reliance India Call Experience

I have been using Reliance India Call for almost a year now. I used the free 15-minute call offered by Reliance in August of 2004 and immediately signed up for for the service in September. As long as I know, all of my family member uses this service to call their relatives in India. My extended family members have abandoned the use of traditional phone cards for the Reliance India Call.

Reliance offers two kinds of service: prepaid and pay-later service. If you use the first option you have to pay first and as you use the minutes, dollars are subtracted from your account based on the usage. The second service charges you every month based on the time you used to call India. I believe there is a monthly charge for using the pay-later service.

As far as call quality goes, I think this service is the best service you can get for spending 12.9 cents per minute. I have used other cards before, but I never had a better call quality.

What are your experiences with Reliance India Call? Leave a comment below and let me and everyone else know. Do you use any other service or calling card? Which card do you use? Do you make VOIP calls to India? How are the charges for VOIP calls compare to Reliance India Call?

Like Cricket, Love Baseball

Are you from England, Australia, India, or Pakistan? Do you like cricket? Did you used to watch and play cricket while you were in your native country? If you are currently living in United States, and if you have made an effort to learn the game of baseball, then what are your impressions of baseball?

I love baseball.

I used to die for cricket when I was in India. I used to watch entire test matches on TV regardless India was playing or not. After coming to United States, I started to learn baseball by watching it on TV. It took about 2-3 months to learn the game, but after that time I just fell in love with the game. Cricket seems boring and slow to me now.

I recommend that, if you have not already done so, try to learn some basic aspects of the baseball. I can say with confidence that if you liked cricket, you will love baseball.

Blogger Toolbar For Microsoft Word

Blogger recently announced a toolbar for Microsoft word. Many bloggers use Microsoft Word to create documents and then copy and paste into blogger to publish it. With this, Blogger Toolbar for Microsoft Word, publishing Microsoft Word documents will be very easy. I have already installed the toolbar and using it to post my writings.

There are a couple of things not supported by this toolbar: images and tables. I cannot post this document through blogger toolbar because it contains an image. The image itself shows the error message I got when I tried to post a document with a table in it.

Indian Aviation Industry

From the latest buzz coming out of India, it sounds like that the Indian Aviation Industry is growing by leaps and bounds. If we want to set aside a moment as a “big bang” for the expansion of the “Indian Aviation Universe” than we can set the last day of the Paris Air Show of the 2005 as the moment. On that day, Indian Aviation Industry came to life with bountiful airplane orders for Boeing and Airbus. Boeing and Airbus now considers India as a prime market for many years to come. I am sure that both airplane manufacturers will deploy their marketing and sales team in India to outsell each other in coming months.

Here is the order summary:

• A new startup airline called Indigo ordered 100 planes from Airbus.
• Jet Airways split its order and bought planes from Boeing and Airbus.
• Kingfisher added five jumbo A380s to its fleet. (It will be interesting to see where Kingfisher airline flies these planes. Major airport infrastructure overhaul may be needed to land this aircraft.)
• A few months earlier Air India ordered about 50 planes from Boeing.

Carnival of Personal Finance

Carnival of Personal Finance is a collection of the entries of the personal finance articles from various financial sites. Good insightful information can be found on these carnivals. Please check it out or bookmark this page to visit the carnivals later.

Date	Carnival Location
June 20	Consumerism Commentary
June 27	Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
July 5	AllThingsFinancial
July 11	Smart Money Daily
July 18	I Will Teach You To Be Rich
July 25	Free Money Finance
August 1	In Cash Flow We Trust
August 8	Consumerism Commentary
August 15	Blueprint for Financial Prosperity

Search Engine Blogs

Google, Yahoo and MSN Search blogs link to each other. Check for yourself by clicking on the links below.

• Google Blog
• Yahoo Search Blog
• MSN Search Weblog

Did search engine spam and scrapper sites brought them together?

Customs At Ahmedabad Airport

Is Customs at Ahmedabad Airport bad? It depends; on your expectations of how it will go. Prepare for the worst and you will roll through without any problems. If you expect it to go as easy as the US customs then you will be disappointed.

I went to Ahmedabad from USA twice in the last year. I flew Air-India both times. Before I landed, I geared up my mind to expect the worst behavior from the staff at the airport. To my surprise, I found less haggling with the customs proceedings now than before. It may have to do with the time my plane reached the airport. Both times, I landed at 3 o’clock at night and got my customs done between 4 and 5 in the morning. If you are flying Air-India, then your plane might also land at the Ahmedabad airport at 3 o'clock at the night. The airport staff must have been tired by then.

After landing, they put us on a bus and the bus drove us to the “terminal”. The bags started to twirl on the tiny belt in a few minutes. I took my belongings and went to the x-ray machine to get them checked. There was an employee of the airport who was putting the luggage from the cart into the x-ray machine for the passengers. He wanted to get some money from me. I said no. He came back to load my trolley again once my luggage came through the x-ray machine. He again pleaded with me for some money. I told him that I do not have any rupees. He insisted for a few dollars. I just rolled out of the airport with my trolley ignoring him. That’s it. It was easy.

What was your experience at Ahmedabad airport? Did you fly Air-India when you went to Ahmedabad? Tell me about it by adding a comment below.

Using Technorati for Product Reviews

Do you do a Technorati search before buying a product? People usually do Google, Yahoo or MSN search for product information. These search engines return the online retailers as the top results most of the time. If you want to know the opinions of other people who have already bought the product in concern than I believe a Technorati search is the best bet. If you want to know what a Jane Doe or John Doe is thinking about a product or what kind of experiences he or she is having with the product than searching blogs is the easiest way to find out product reviews. With Technorati, you bypass the retailer websites and go directly to the opinions/reviews.