Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Leaked! Book Images Posted!

The rumors seem to be true. The torrents I mentioned in a previous post is about 60% done and I took a peek at the files. And guess what? They look real!

Potter Mania! First 10 Chapters Leaked!

The net is going crazy! Lots of leak rumors, blog posts and even news items on NBC etc. Lots of reports of leaked files on the BitTorrent network. Some say that the a group of Potter fans are transcribing a leaked (photographed pages apparently) copy into text and are posting it on the net. The first 10 chapters are supposedly available.

Well, I was curious enough to go looking for it. And I found this, supposedly the first 10 chapters of this so called leaked book. Might just be another example of Fan Fiction. I am transferring the file to my phone right after this post. Then maybe I will last till the book stores open the weekend!

Go ahead and download the file. At the very least it will keep you entertained till day after tomorrow. And if it is the real thing, then you can skip over to Chapter 11 and start from there !

1. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - First 10 Chapters (Text Format)
2. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - First 10 Chapters (PDF Format)
3. The original files downloaded from BitTorrent (converted from RAR to ZIP)

[Update] - I found three other torrents that are supposed to contain the leaked book. Two of them are a bunch of images. The third contains a PDF.

[Update] - I have removed the links to the files above. Just in case this thing is for real! I don't want the publishers after my ass.

Indian Govt. Blocking Blog Sites

The Indian Govt decided to block certain blogs that spread hate for India in an attempt to fight back against terrorism. They ended up blocking all sites on Blogspot.com and other blog sites. For example, my photo blog, Mo-Chitra, is blocked. I can of course still access it from work because our gateways are in Japan & Singapore. It is only from home that I am unable to access my blog.

I ran a tracert to mo-chitra.blogspot.com and got the following output:

d:\>tracert -w 20000 mo-chitra.blogspot.com

Tracing route to blogspot.blogger.com [66.102.15.101] over a maximum of 30 hops:

1 13 ms 8 ms 8 ms 172.30.69.1
2 25 ms 10 ms 12 ms 203.109.92.1
3 18 ms 26 ms 22 ms 125.16.0.73
4 24 ms 23 ms 24 ms 59.145.0.226
5 43 ms 34 ms 25 ms 202.56.223.109
6 59.145.11.73 reports: Destination host unreachable.

Trace complete.

Querying the IP Whois tool for the last two IPs shows that they belong to Bharati Tele.

inetnum: 202.56.223.0 - 202.56.223.255
netname: BTNL
descr: Bharti Telenet Ltd.
descr: Bhopal
descr: India
country: IN
inetnum: 59.144.0.0 - 59.145.255.255
netname: BHARTI-IN
descr: BHARTI INFOTEL LTD.
descr: ISP Division , Long Distance Group - Telesonic
descr: 234 , Okhala Phase III
descr: NEW DELHI
descr: INDIA
country: IN

So Bharati is blocking access to blogspot.com... Mr. Mital, I assume you are not a fool. With this assumption, I hope that you will instruct the idiots in your IT department to work a little harder and not block legitimate web sites. It takes a few seconds to block an entire domain. It takes a lot longer to block specific web sites. Somebody in your organization is cheating you of the salary you pay him.

I managed to access my blog inspite of your blocking access by the simple device of using TorPark. Only a fool tries to stop the Ganga from flowing to the sea. Are you one of them Sonia, Manmohan and Mittal?

Mamli's Star - Class 3D, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's Public School, Jubilee Hills

Mamli is now in class 4. Last year she did rather well. She won a number of prizes and managed to beat the the person she was most afraid would do better than her!

I took these photos with my mobile phone and have been meaning to post them here for some time now. Well here goes...

Well done Mamli. No pressure but we do hope to see the same again this year!

 

Purloined Banner Image From Puri Online

I love this banner image on the Puri Online web site. I took the liberty of grabbing a copy. Sorry Bulu. The image is so beautiful!

 

 

Shree Shree Jaganath Ratha Yatra 2007 - Photo Gallery

Puri Online has a photo gallery of this year's Ratha Yatra.

Also a video gallery with videos of the Snana, Hati Besha & The Yatra.

Great work Bulu & team!

Public Interest - HDFC Credit Cards - Excess Cash Back Charges

 

The following email was sent to an internal mailing list in my organization. I think it is worth reproducing it here.

If you are holding an HDFC Value plus credit card and have in past few months seen something like an excess cashback billed to your card , please get in touch with HDFC customer care people asap .

 

I too had experienced the same in 2 of my past months card statements .Infact my roommate and some of my friends were also charged for the same thing .We talked to thee HDFC people and finally after putting in some efforts were successful to get our money back.

 

To add to that I had personally asked them to send me an apology letter for the same , which , though I got is in a very sugar coated language,but nevertheless I got my money back..I told  them that I have a number of friends who were confronted with the same issue , so they gave me a POC for this issue whereby if anybody among you has come across the similar problem ,you can talk to this POC and he'll get your problem resolved .

 

The POC is  : Sai Rupendra.. (U can call HDFC customer care and ask the person taking the call to directly connect you to Sai Rupendera).

 

So folks , please utilise the services of this person to claim back your hard earned money from HDFC .

 

Do examine your credit card statements carefully. You should not allow yourself to be charged for something that you did not spend!

Bablu's Experiments With MS Paintbrush

Bablu loves to play with the computer. When he is not playing games, he is drawing pictures with MS Paintbrush. I showed him how to save his paintings and he hasn't looked back since then. These are a few samples of his work

Shri Shri Jaganath's Ratha Yatra

Today is the Ratha Jatra of Shri Shri Jaganath, the lord of the Universe. The Ratha Jatra is an annual pilgrimage that Jaganath along with his elder brother Balabhadra & younger sister Subadhra undertake to the adobe of their aunt. Special Rathas are built every year by a guild of carpenters & blacksmiths. The Rathas are swept by the King of Puri with a golden broom before the Jatra commences.

Jaganath's wife Lakshmi is left behind by the siblings and she closes the temple doors on them, to be opened only when they return.

See the live telecast on major TV channels today. You can also see a live web cast of the Ratha Jatra on PuriOnline.

See this article for information about the Ratha Jatra and meet the head carpenters.

 

Jaganath Swami

Nayana Patha Gami

Bhava Tume!

 

Madhumita Satpathy's Marriage

Madhumita is my cousin and the youngest daughter in the Satpathy family (my generation). She married Sidharth Hotha on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at Rourkela, Orissa.

I attended her wedding along with my parents, grand parents and a host of other family members. This trip to Rourkela was rather arduous. I left Hyderabad on Tuesday afternoon by Faluknama Express and arrived at Bhubaneswar on Wednesday morning at about 11.20 am. Took the late night bus to Rourkela the same day. Attended the marriage and then caught the train back to Bhubaneswar the same night. Finally took Konark Express back to Hyderabad on Friday afternoon, arriving at 11.30 am on Saturday morning. Phew!

This marriage was overshadowed by the death of my youngest uncle (father's youngest brother). As a result none of the Satpathy family (of the same Gotra) could participate in the marriage itself. The bride was given away by her maternal uncle, Dr. Bharatendu Swain (Apollo Hospitals, Hyderabad). My aunt (father's sister) did most of the work.

Anyway, I am back in Hyderabad now. Catching up on emails and have the boss breathing down my back...