Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - Fan Fiction

Last week I found two copies of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows on the net. One of them had  (Leaked) as part of the file name. Knowing the kind of security Rowling and her publishers have around each new release, I was fairly sure that these were examples of Fan Fiction that have appeared on the net every now and then. I was curious enough to download both and transfer them to my mobile phone (Symbian OS with Handy Book reader).

The first one turned out to be an incomplete copy. The last 2 - 3 chapters are missing. I didn't realize this till I reached the end because I never read the end first :-) Anyway, I enjoyed reading the book, whatever was there of it.

I started the second book yesterday and it is better than the first one. Still not up to Rowling's standards but very good nevertheless.

I have uploaded copies of the two books to my web site.

1. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - Fan Fiction 1 (Incomplete)
2. Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows - Fan Fiction 2

Neither of the copies has any author information (obviously since they are trying to pass it off as a leaked copy).

This is the first time I am trying Fan Fiction and I must say I am enjoying myself. The style is close enough to the original to leave the reader guessing. At the same time there are differences from Rowling's style that give the game away.

In parting I must say that whoever wrote these has done their homework. There are a few mistakes that Potter fans will immediately find but the level of detail shows how much effort has gone into these productions.

Lets see what Rowling has for us. I, like most Potter fans, am getting rather tired of looking at the calendar everyday :-)

Fast File Copy in Windows

Stumbled across this neat little software called TeraCopy that integrates with Windows Explorer and manages file copy between folder / drives. It is a 500 Kb download that works like a charm. It uses an internal, dynamic buffer to speed up file copies. Have to install it at home!

Google Moms

I came across this Google page today. It is dedicated to Google Moms.

Cute...

Windows Live Writer - From Work

I am writing this from work. Lets see how well Live Writer works from behind the firewall.

 

Update:

It works! Great.

Windows Live Writer

I downloaded and installed Windows Live Writer last night. This is the first post using Live Writer. Lets see how this works.

I have tried using other offline Blog post editors, without much success. Most of them have nice features but almost all of them cannot handle a proxy server. As a result I cannot use them at work. Sad.

If this works for me then I will move to Live Writer completely. Have to figure out all the features though. Particularly how images are handled as I do a far amount of photo blogging.

Oriental Bank Of Commerce - Web Site Down, Again!

The web site of Oriental Bank Of Commerce is down again! Some time ago they had exceeded their band width and their service provider had shut down the site. This morning I am receiving a 502 error!


When will these stupid banks realize that their web site is as important as their branches?

Another Self Styled Personal Finance Guru & His Crap!

Yet another crappy Rediff.com article "Unable to decide which mutual fund to invest in?". This one is the transcript of a chat session with a so called personal finance guru (T Srikanth Bhagavat).

You have to read the damn thing to understand what I am talking about here. Go do it! There are no better ways to waste your time.

Endangered Peregrine Falcons Return to Oracle HQ

Check out the Falcon Cam in Oracle Campus, Redwood Shores.

Oriental Bank Of Commerce, Net Banking Down

The Oriental Bank Of Commerce is a public sector bank in India. It used to be primarily a North India bank till it took over Global Trust Bank a few years ago. Now it has a pan India presence.

They have good service and a decent internet banking portal. I use this bank because it has a branch next to my flat and a decent ATM network. I am well know in the local branh and get very good service.

Yesterday I tried accessing the bank's web site and got a rude shock. It seems OBC has exceeded it's bandwidth quota on the web server and the service provider has shut the site down. All that comes up is a terse message saying "bandwidth exceeded" (see screenshot below).

The screen shot was taken today. So the web site has been down for at least 24 hours, maybe more. And nobody from the bank seems to have noticed.

Bad for business guys. Most of your customers will not notice since they do not use the internet. However the fact that you have exceeded your quota means that the number of your customers using net-banking is on the rise. Spend some of that profit you are making and give us a better web site!

Cracked Enigma (BitWise, IIT Kharagpur)

Do try it. It is rather good. From the Computer Science students of IIT Kharagpur, my Alma mater.