Download Firefox 3, be the part of World Record

June 17th. Yup, tomorrow! The day Mozilla has set as Firefox 3 Download day to set the record of most downloaded software in 24 hours. And you can be a part of it!

Can it be any easier than this? No eating glass or juggling 50 bowling pins. Jus click the link below and download Firefox 3. Besides setting the record, you know what the best part is? You'll get a brand new Firefox browser - the best internet browser in the world!

PS: While you download, i suggest you listen to Coldplay's new album Viva La Vida or, Death and all his friends which has jus been released. My current favorite!

Rafting @ Trishuli

The adventure i wanted to do since a long time. Didn't get chance till 20th Annual Rafting Festival. Trishuli it is.. Everything was in a rush. Got ticket in the last hour. But the point is - we did it.

The team members were - Shankar, Ankur, Suvash, Rajiv and me. At the river, a Dutch couple joined us - Jan-Jaap Van Den Hoek & Tamara Jochemsen.

From Trishuli Rafting

Our rafting team. A Dutch couple joined us - Jan-Jaap Van Den Hoek & Tamara Jochemsen.

From Trishuli Rafting

Take me to the river, Dip me in the water..

From Trishuli Rafting

Shankar jumps..

No doubt, rafting was hell lot of fun. Our captain Katak dai led us to the scariest splashes in the rapids. But at the end, we all felt like we deserve even more rapids. Bhotekoshi or Kali Gandaki next??

From Trishuli Rafting

Rafting's over. And everybody's exhausted and HUNGRY! Lunch time..

The Dutch couple were really cool. We had a really nice time talkin to them. These guys were on world tour for a year and after rafting they were touring Nepal on motorbike! They taught us some Dutch too.
- Huth Khatet Khut? (How are you?)
- Meth Meh Khatet Khut. (I'm fine)

Photos are at my Picasa Album.

UPDATE:
- More photos are at Shankar's Album
- Rajiv has a more elaborate blog here

Ubuntu Hardy Release Party on Full Circle Magazine

Issue #13 of Full Circle Magazine is out now! Bibek, Nepbabu and I had written an article about the Ubuntu Release Party that we celebrated sometime back. The article has been published too. :)

The party's photo also made to the cover page..

Download the magazine from here:
http://fullcirclemagazine.org/2008/05/30/issue-13-out-now/

Flavors of Entanglement

Some off-topic this time. My addiction lately. The latest album of Alanis Morissette -- Flavors of Entanglement. Well, this album is supposed to be released on 2nd June worldwide and on 10th in US. But what can i say, it got leaked over internet! And here i am listening to it on n on. When it's out, i'm sure gonna buy the CD too.

I've always liked Alanis Morissette songs, but i believe this is her best album ever. Her previous albums were more focused on lyrics accompanied by usually melancholic piano music. But this is different. Lyrics are strong as always, this time even the music is soo well arranged (Guy Sigsworth ??). Lyrics also have subtle changes. Songs like 'Citizen of the Planet' and 'Underneath' have more global feeling than her signature self-oriented songs. The point is, i'm hooked..

My favorite song in the album: 'In Praise of the Vulnerable Man'. At first i didnt get the lyrics, but later it occurred to me - this song is about her ex! Under similar situation, songs on previous albums would have been more of whine and curse. But this time she seems soo calm.

This is in praise of the vulnerable man
Why won’t you lead the rest of your cavalry home
This is a thank you for letting me in
Indeed in praise of the vulnerable man

How to get your own personal .com.np for FREE

Actually this was originally an e-mail but since a lot of my frens have been asking me about the procedure, i thought it would be helpful to others too to put it here.. The following steps apply to personal webpages, but can be followed to obtain a .com.np for other purpose too..

First of all, some background. The official registrar for .np ccTLD (country code top level domain) is Mercantile Communications and it provides it for FREE! The official website for the registration is Register.com.np. However there are some paperworks involved too.

Most importantly, you need to be a Nepali citizen and you need to submit the photocopy of your (Nepali) citizenship ID to get the domain.

Keeping that in mind, here are the steps to get a .com.np:

1. First of all you need a webspace ready. It's good if u have a webspace already, but since here we're talkin about getting a .com.np for free, lets opt in for some free ones. You can choose any but make sure it supports domain parking facility. Awardspace and 110MB are some good ones that i know. (But as you know free are free. If you want a solid and reliable hosting, i recommend paid ones).
   
2. Register for the webspace and get the DNS addresses. Look somewhere in the settings of the hosting site. It usually has ns1, ns2, etc as prefix. For example, for awardspace.com, the DNS addresses are ns1.awardspace.com and ns2.awardspace.com.
   
3. Now you also need to get the IP addresses of the DNS server. To get that, go to shell (command line) and enter something like 'ping <address>'. It'll give you the IP address..
   eg, ping ns1.awardspace.com
   Get IP addresses for all the DNS servers of your host.
4. Now the registration part, go to www.register.com.np and check the availability of domain. Remember, you can register only the name that corresponds to your actual name. For example, i can get www.jwalanta.com.np or www.jwalantashrestha.com.np but not anything else. So be careful while choosing name. Put it exactly what your citizenship says. Anything different and chances are your application is gonna be rejected.
   
5. Ok back to registration form (http://www.register.com.np/form.asp). Enter all the details. In the primary and secondary name server, put the DNS addresses that we got from step [3]. No need to fill up ternary name server. Or if you want, just copy secondary name server.
6. Submit it and the name will be reserved. (It's only reserved, not registered).
7. Now put the domain name you just reserved in the domain parking option of your webhost. [important!]. For example, if i reserved the domain name jwalanta.com.np, i'd put that in the domain parking option.
   
8. Write an application, get your citizenship photocopied and take it to Mercantile Communication's office at Durbarmarg, Kathmandu.
9. It'll take around 2 days to process the application and perhaps 1 more day for the DNS servers worldwide to be updated about your domain.
10. Congratulations, you've got your personal .com.np!

BTW, don't forget to visit my website: http://www.jwalanta.com.np :)