I ran a diagnostic tool DiscInfo which displayed the following:

rpc1.org is aptly named “The Firmware Page”. It is an active community of users who help each other to remove the DVD restrictions. I was able to quickly remove the restrictions on my DVD drive; in less than 5 minutes. Once the patch is applied, all restrictions from your system are removed permanently.

This is what the diagnostic tool shows after my DVD drive is patched successfully. Now, I can watch any DVD, without worrying about the restrictions.

Some people wrongly push the blame for these restrictions on the OS. In this case, it is the content creators (movie studios, game manufacturers etc) who are to be blamed, if appropriate. This restriction is apparently set by the content creators to control piracy, pricing, regional sensitivity and staged product launch around the world. The users are allowed to change the region settings of a DVD drive for a set number of times (usually four). Once this number is reached, the last region code selected becomes permanent. Re-Installing the operating system, formatting the system does not help reset the counter. These changes are permanently stored in the hardware (probably BIOS). One way to overcome this restriction is to “patch” your DVD drive and remove the restrictions permanently.

Be very careful while applying the patch. In most cases, you will void any warranty with respect to the DVD drive. Also, if these patches are not applied correctly, they you will end up with a big paper-weight.

I have been very efficient in managing my work / corporate emails. My work inbox has less than 5 emails at the end of the day. However, I was lagging behind in organizing my personal emails (mostly due to lack of time which I can attribute to my inept laziness).

My inbox is cluttered with lots of emails. I receive a variety of emails:

• Some emails are important
• Some are newsletters
• Some are notifications from social networking sites
• Some are pure junk or spam emails

Most of the times, I skim through the emails over my Android phone. Over a period of time, the number of unread emails increases exponentially making it difficult to keep a track of the important emails.

Beginning 2012, I am trying to keep up with my new year resolution to be more organized. Whenever I check emails, I make sure to act on them as I do for my work emails:

• Read the emails or keep it unread
• If it is something which I need to follow-up with later, set a flag and / or mark it unread
• Delete unwanted emails
• Unsubscribe to newsletters as I am receiving (which I do not tend to read any more)
• Create rules / filters for known emails which I receive for reference or backups
• Move emails to appropriate folder so that I can locate correct information in the least possible time

Over the past couple of weeks, this has helped me to be at par with all emails which have been sent to me. I can search for any information and locate it within a few minutes. At the end of the day, my email inbox is light and organized.

I strongly believe it is pure discipline to master your email inbox.

2011 was an eventful year for me. A few events which I would like to share:

• Esha and me, we completed our first wedding anniversary (May 2011)
• I entered the Android world after my Windows Mobile Phone died (August 2011)
• I visited India to be with my family (December 2011)

2012 and beyond

Looking back at 2011, I see that I have not been able to keep up to my resolutions. I do not want to go into more details about that. But, upon retrospection, sticking to resolutions is something we need to make it a part of our day-to-day life. One needs to be patient, disciplined and diligent in one’s efforts. This year, again I have some goals and I hope to stick to them.

To make sure that I am at speed with my goals for 2012, me and Esha (my wife) have done something different. Instead of making individual goals, we both sat down and made goals for each other. Of course, the room was open for a discussion to make sure that the goals were in sync with each other at the end. I am keeping my calendars organized and syncing the same different systems I use. This will keep me up-to-date with the events as they come.

Some of the goals which ended up having:

• Revisit the goals progress every three months
• Motivate each other and help accomplish the goals set
• Visit the local library every couple of weeks to participate in events or grab a book to read
• Pen down our thoughts / learning every couple of weeks
• Reduce paper waste by going paperless in any and all day-to-day activities
• Setup a new design / layout for the site and keep it updated

I have been using a computer for more than 15 years. Initially, I used a desktop at home; later laptop. On an average, I have been spending 8-10 hours in front of the computer screen.

This being said, one may be wondering if my health, especially, my eyesight would have been affected badly. My health would have been affected, but, my family has been into eating nutritious items and practicing some simple, but effective ways to promote a healthy being.

Food Habits:

• A big bowl of fresh fruits
• A bowl of green vegetables
• Garnish vegetables with corriander leaves and lemon juice
• Drink fruit juices (Orange / Carrots / Apple)

Work Habits:

• Dim the computer screen

Often, the monitors / screens are turned on to the highest brightness value. Since we are so used to looking at the same, we do not even realize how much damage and stress it may be causing to our eyes. Look at the manual of the monitor and try to dim the screen a few points at time. Trust me, your eyes will find a big difference.

• Massage my eyes

Rub my finger tips gently over the circumference of my eyes. Also do some light tapping of the muscles surrounding my eyes

• Give eyes a rest while using a computer

I have setup a background task running in my system which does a simple thing: Lock the computer periodically. Initially, I set the task to lock the computer every 60 minutes. It was very frustrating to see the computer lock itself while you were in the middle of work. However, as time went by, I was feeling more comfortable and my body started getting used to the locking. I started to reduce the time from 60 minutes to 50 minutes, 45 minutes and currently, 30 minutes. My goal is to move down to 20 minutes which eye specialists recommend a golden time for the eyes to get rest after looking at a computer screen.

• Look at distance

Once the computer is locked, I tend to look at a distant object outside the window or something in the office corridor; which gives my eyes the much needed relaxation and stretch.

I have found that I feel more relaxed towards the end of the day. My eyes feel fresh. I hope that this exercise does have long term benefits.

My mom and sister-in-law’s mom are visiting us for the next few months. When they arrived at the airport at Boston’s Logan International Airport, the weather was pleasant, sun shining, highs towering over 54 F (12 C). However, two days later, we were hit by a snow shower pushing the lows to 11 F (-12 C).

The sudden change in weather was startling to our moms who could not really believe the extreme changes in weather in such a short time. But, they were thrilled to see a snow fall happen which they had not seen often back in India.

Had they arrived earlier in January, they would have been more shocked to see the North East being battered almost every week with over a feet of snow, freezing rain and sleet.

Hope the better weather returns soon for them!

What can one do?

• Discipline one self to spend 15 mins every day
• Identify what one has learned
• Share a couple of lines and see what people need to say on this

Hopefully, I will be more ‘active’ and less preaching over the next few weeks!

North America:

• United States

Europe:

• Germany
• Czech Republic
• Austria

Asia:

• India
• Singapore
• Thailand

In the coming weeks, I will pinpoint in detail the places I have visited in each country.

The book is short and intelligible. The book talks about the ups and downs in our daily life, be it work, personal or academic. The author uses the term ‘Peaks’ to denote the ‘ups’ and ‘Valleys’ to denote the downs. Some days we are happy, some day we are sad. Some days go by where nothing changes (when we hit a plateau).

Like Dr. Spencer’s other books, Author has used simple and lucid language to illustrate the takeaways.

My Observations:

• Fear kills a person. It drives a person from peaks to valleys (up to down)
• If you go through bad times, have faith in your self and good times will follow
• If you go through good times, expect bad times to follow, but try to see the essence and truth in the dark times and make the most of it
• We are the ones who decide what we see next; is it going to be a peak (good times) or a valley (dark times) or a plateau (not good nor dark)
• Accept the truth and reality
• Aim high, carve out or envision a ‘sensible’ pathway to reach the goal. Start out small

I find this book helpful and give be a perspective of how to look at things. I hope that I am able to put these ideas in my day-to-day life just like I am able to accept and perceive change as  part of our life after reading ‘Who moved my cheese’.

If you have never read books from Dr. Spencer Johnson, you can give it a try. The books are usually short (approximately 100 pages). The author highlights the key points but quoting them in separate pages which hold just the teaser line to chew upon. This book has a story within a story. This book, like the previous book, follows the same tradition.