Monday, December 15, 2008

A Tribute to Daffy Duck

I've always liked cartoons that were on TV when I was a kid. Today's kids are unlucky in my opinion. The ones during our (assuming you are the same group as mine) times were a real treat. Tom & Jerry, Flintstones, Bugs Bunny, Road Runner Show, Sylvester and Tweety, Dexter's Laboratory, Daffy Duck and so many more. How do Kim Possible, Ben 10, Naruto or Pokeman compare to them?

Even though they were toons, they were closer to reality. With a tad of impossibility for humour and themes you could relate to. Overall a great way to pass time and relax.

Over the past few months, I've been getting nostalgic with the cartoons of our age.They would appear on my desktop background or IM display image. I've been stuck with Daffy for a long time now.

The thing that stuck me about Daffy, is his character; the way he always tries to control things to his advantage and ends up making a fool of himself. The way he is cunning, eccentric, self-centred and a bit vile sometimes. Managing to goof up everything he plans, never learning from his clumsy work and yet being comical will forever be etched in my mind. Perhaps, he was a success (as a cartoon character that sold) because people were able to relate to his demeanour and less because of his rant and the insolent laughter.

Later on in Daffy's career, he was placed along with Bugs Bunny. The cartoon was now more enticing than ever. Daffy's greedy, aggressive manner was a stark contrast to Bugs' thinking, cool disposition. I simply love the combination. One episode with "Duck season! (R)Wabbit season!" is quite unforgettable for me.

Yet, beyond all this, it was one particular picture of Daffy that makes me so attached to it. It has been my profile pic on orkut (ya, I know that's violating rules!) and my desktop background on my system at work. It is very true that a picture speaks a thousand words; this one tells everything about Daffy. Everything I've said above, and more. Here it is:

you're despicable!


This pic has been a morale booster, kind of an inspiration. I love you Daffy! You shall remain my 'avatar' forever! (Hope Warner Bros Looney Toons don't sue me).


PS: This is totally irrelevant to the post, but I just added some fish to my blog. Please feed them! :)

Read more…

Thursday, December 04, 2008

Glitch or gibberish?

Here's an interesting case of how iPhone can jeopardize marriages. A friend forwarded this in a mail. Its a case of how a husband took a "raunchy" picture of himself and mailed it to some female. While his 'Sent Items' claims this, the guy claims it is an iPhone bug! So the wife, who doesn't want to believe him, but still is open to it being iPhone's fault, got onto Apple discussion forums and decided to ask people. This is what followed.

I do wonder what happened to the couple and feel sorry for that female. Personally, I don't think this is a real iPhone bug, however, I did notice something very similar can be done with Thunderbird (my favourite mail client). Similar in the sense of getting a mail in your Sent folder or (Inbox itself) that you never sent! See screencast below: Sorry folks, I couldn't embed the screencast here, If you're interested, you can see here (SWF).

Here's what I did. I have two mail accounts set up on TBird, Gmail and my work email. Now, I select some random mail from one of the accounts (say gmail) and drag-drop it inside my work email's inbox. Now, my gmail (webmail) account shows the same mail as if it was sent to the account. Of course, the 'To' address field hasn't been modified, but it looks identical to case of being in 'Bcc' when the mail was sent.

I don't think this feature can affect businesses (though it is quite easy to modify the 'To' etc fields using some software) however, it can be used as jokes on your friends or if you want to cut out someone from your life....

Coming back to the troubled lady's case, I have shown that these things can be made to happen but I do not know what the chances of all these happening on its own are. But its not impossible; improbable but not impossible.

Update: The husband seems to have gone as far as creating a new account on Apple Discussions to reply to his 'wife' that he (ie some 3rd person) has also experienced similar problems :P
Read more…