Thoughts of a semi-nerd

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is an open world action-adventure video game. I completed GTA 4 in Jan 2018 and I loved it from the beginning till the last mission. I played GTA Vice City few years ago and clocked some gaming time with other variants of GTA, but my favourite so far is GTA 4. Great Story The intriguing story is the best part of GTA 4. The game follows an European immigrant in US and teaches a lot of life lessons on the way. As a gamer, we must take some decisions in the game that changes the course of the game. This makes the game even more interesting. At the end of the game, we are left with a feeling that money isn't everything. Image credit: Wikipedia Characters There are many characters that would leave a mark. My second favorite, followed by the protagonist Niko, is Little Jacob . He is a genuine person who values friendship more than money or his own life. Realistic Gameplay The car damage, bomb explosion and people' health is very realistic. I haven...

I started using the crowd-funding platform  Kickstarter since the beginning of 2017 and have come across some great new ideas since then. I was also looking for a formal watch during that time and luckily stumbled across  The Everyday Watch . It's a good looking minimalist watch. Image courtesy: Plain Supplies I have been wearing it almost "every day" since I got it on May 2017 and I love it the more I use it. If I have to be nit-picky, it is that I have to change the date manually in a 30-day month. Having said that, it is only for 5 times in a year and it is not a big deal. The watch came along with 3 interchangeable wrist straps - leather, steel and nylon. If at all you are bored of the beautiful leather strap, you have 2 more options. Please refer to the graphic below for the complete specifications. Image courtesy: Plain Supplies Disclaimer: This is not a paid blog post.

Kickstarter is a crowd funding platform that connects creators and backers from all the over the world to bring new ideas to life. The famous Pebble watch was launched as a Kickstarter project and is still the most funded project ever. Let's dive right in then. Creator Any individual/company who has a new product idea but doesn't have enough funds of his/her own. He/she submits his product in Kickstarter to collect funds from the members of Kickstarter. Backer Member of Kickstarter who funds the project(s) of his/her liking. If you back a project, you become a backer. Your money is collected only if the project is successfully funded at the end of the campaign. Your money is not collected if the project is: Unsuccessful - not funded within the deadline. Canceled - creator cancels the project. Suspended - creator violated the Kickstarter rules. Project The creator submits his new idea as a project on Kickstarter, with the following info: Goal - minimum amount needed fo...

It has improved my knowledge in various topics. It taught me more about good manners . I didn't know about so many types of car, before it. It exposed me to some of the best resume formats . It helped me to know about 100+  Indian inventions . I learned more about Nokia because of it. I brush my teeth with my left hand because of it. Now my left hand control is better.  I now close the toilet sink before I flush, because it made me aware about "toilet plume". ..and many more. The list goes on. I've been referring to the question-and-answer site  Quora . Quora is a great platform to learn new things and share your knowledge. According to me, Quora provides a much better value for your time when compared to Facebook or other social media platforms. If you haven't joined Quora yet, please give it a try. Thanks.

* Enable Auto-Brightness from Settings-Display & Brightness. * Turn off location services for some system services. You can find it in Settings-Privacy-Location Services-System Services. My current setting is in the picture. * Turn Bluetooth off when you are not using it. * Enable notifications only for those apps that needs your immediate attention. * Turn off “Background App Refresh” from Settings-General. Hope this helps. Thanks.

Design See the picture below. These are 3 different models of iPhone released in the last 2 years. Do you see any difference? You get my point don't you. It's been the same since iPhone 6 released in September 2014. Camera This seems to have improved, at least with iPhone 7 Plus. I'd love to see the new camera mode abilities in the future versions of iOS. iOS I used to love it when I first started using the iPhone. The addition of new features have been very less in every major update. No innovation here too. In fact, there was an update with a change in font and nothing else worth mentioning. I know that iOS works well (may be the best) with the hardware, but that's no excuse to hold up new features for future releases. Performance Well, there's no surprise here. It's one of the best in terms of performance. If you want a good phone with a good interface that always responds on time, iPhone 7 will always be there for you. Haptic Home Button...

The Shawshank Redemption (1994) To name a few, Patience Perseverance Importance of education Timing is crucial You can't control everything Fight Club (1999) Don't lead a materialistic life Don't try to be perfect Stop trying to live and live ( just wanted to sound dramatic ;) ) The below movies teach the same lesson, Never give up, no matter how hard the situation is. The Pursuit of Happyness (2006) Cinderella Man (2005) Cast Away (2000) The following set of movies teach, Karma - what you reap is what you sow City of God (2002) The Lord of the Rings (film series) - Wikipedia Harry Potter (film series) - Wikipedia Pulp Fiction (1994) Hope this helps. Thanks.

Well, this is a difficult question to answer as lot of factors are involved. Let's see the monthly expenses incurred by a family of 3. Rent Rent is a killer in Singapore. If you’d like to stay in an apartment alone with your family, rent is easily $1800 on an average for 2BHK. This is going by the current trend as rent has gone down. Usually average rent is $2000. A sharing accommodation will cost you a minimum of $1100 if you take the master bedroom. Needless to say, this will not be convenient for some. Groceries You will end up spending $400–450 a month, assuming you cook your own food most of the times. Utilities: Water + Gas + Electricity As you cook a lot at home, you will use up more Gas than the national average. That's still fine as you will save money on eating outside. More cooking will of course lead to more water usage. If your spouse is a homemaker, electricity bill could be slightly high. On an average, you could incur...

Rhino Leave the rhinos alone. Stay away from them. They inflict a lot of damage and also hard to kill. Period. Elephant Once you have enough XP points, you can use them to buy "ride elephant" from your skills menu. They are very helpful when you are surrounded by a lot of enemy soldiers. When you ride in them, they just toss your enemies and vehicles like they are nothing. They are also very hard to kill. Snake Usually green in color. They inflict small damage per attack, but annoying as your guns are not so effective against them. Use your sword to kill them. Tiger They are very ferocious and aggressive. You've to be very fast in killing them if you just want to use sword. Better to stay a bit far and shoot them when they come running towards you. You can slice them when they are too close after which you can skin them. Enemy soldiers with Guns Usually the range of the enemy soldiers is not so good, but they can spot you on an open ground. ...

Google Maps The best app for navigation and Google never stops improving the features. When I'm writing this post, the app provides the following and more. Voice guided navigation Live traffic conditions Street view Download Link https://appsto.re/sg/A8S3I.i Spark I have used so many email clients but this app stands out from the rest.  Add/save attachments from/to google drive, dropbox, onedrive and other cloud services Enable notifications only for the emails addressed directly to you Save your email as pdf Smart Inbox: Auto-customised inbox which separates your newsletters, notifications and priority (other emails addressed directly to you) inbox. I love Spark especially for this feature. Download Link https://appsto.re/sg/MkPB7.i Google Photos All in one photo and video app.  Unlimited backup with normal clarity or limited backup (the space remaining in your Google storage) with high quality. Auto generates animation, collage, m...

Android  powers almost 50% of the smartphones and tablets today. Though many manufacturers have embraced Android, we neither get the pure Android experience nor do we have control over the apps and CPU performance. Nexus and a very few devices offer the stock Android but with restricted access. It is because, by default, we are a normal user of the device. Android Rooting (AR) makes the user an administrator (root) with full rights. Rooting your device is complicated but it has its perks if completed successfully. Rooting is performed by exploiting bugs in the device. There is virtually no device that cannot be rooted. The following are the major advantages of AR:  Full freedom over the applications in your device Take backup and restore applications including the data Completely customise the look of your device including the animation (bootloader) on your device when it boots up You can increase or decrease CPU frequency Applications get root access only with you...

Earning money through ClixSense is easy. I have tried so many sites, but ClixSense is the best PTC (paid to click) site out there. As a beginner, you can start by viewing ads, taking free surveys, completing easy Tasks and free offers. I have earned over $50 so far and you can find  proof of my first payment below. My Payment Proof Join ClixSense Now My Recommendations: 1. Click all the ads every day 2. Check for free surveys and complete them. You can find them under "Offers" 3. Regularly check Tasks and complete them - trust me, they are very easy 4. There are many free offers that just pay you to install an android application on your mobile 5. Play ClixGrid every day and win up to $10 - you never know :) 6. Refer others to join ClixSense - most powerful of all. You will earn every time your referral earns. Daily Checklist Bonus This is one of the coolest features in ClixSense that enables us to earn extra money. If you complete the ...

One of the most coveted tournaments in Cricket is coming back to India. The seventh season of  IPL  started on 16 April 2014 with 8 teams competing with each other. The first 20 matches were held in 3 magnificent venues in UAE. No one could have written a better script for this tournament which has seen  excellent batting, bowling, fielding and more. Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) leads the pack with 5 consecutive wins, courtesy of some brilliant hitting by Maxwell and Miller. Chennai Super Kings (CSK) are in a close 2nd with 4 wins in 5 matches. CSK has seen good performances from various players so far.  Rajasthan Royals (RR) have also played some decent cricket and their one down batsman Sanju Sampson is trending all over because of his batting abilities. He has surely been a revelation but he has to find a way to convert his moderate starts to good scores if he needs to be a part of the Indian National Cricket squad. Mumbai Indians (MI) have been the worst with 5 cons...

Do you know that India's Lok Sabha election is the World's biggest. More than 800 million will be eligible to vote. Here is the schedule in all States/Union Territories of India. Make yourself free and vote. The candidate you vote for is completely your choice. Having said that, I hope you are not biased towards caste, religion or any personal benefits. The final decision is up to you, but please do vote. Every vote makes a difference. We Indians complain about poor road conditions, corruption, atrocity in the name of power and so on. This is the time for us citizens to be responsible. If you really care for India, you must vote. Not just you, make sure all your (eligible) family members vote too. Let us all vote and hope for the best. The detailed schedule of General Elections 2014 can be found  here .

Alex Hales played a magnificent innings in the ICC World T20 match vs Sri Lanka today. Sri Lanka made 189/4 in the allotted 20 overs, thanks to the wet outfield and the generous English fielders. Jayawardene made the most of it with 89 off 51 balls; Dilshan looked out of sorts but still made 55 off 47 balls. England had come in to the match after a frustrating loss to New Zealand with rain bringing in the Duckworth-Lewis method into picture. Ironically, Frank Duckworth and Tony Lewis are English. I personally think D/L method should not be used for T20. This was a must win game for England but Sri Lanka looked confident to continue their winning streak; after all, they've been playing in Bangladesh for 3 months now. After losing 2 wickets in the very first over for nought, hopes were running low in the English dugout. Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan had other ideas. Both played cautiously in the beginning and exactly knew which balls to attack. Eoin targeted Mathews and Al...

The latest flagship  smartphone  from Samsung is not so impressive in my view. I am not talking about the features here, which is certainly top-notch. The real problem is the cheap look of the phone though it burns a big hole in one's pocket. What is that dotted design on the back - really ! I expected a better show from a company that is the sole challenger to Apple in terms of mobile market share. The last smartphone I liked from Samsung was Galaxy  S2  - it was (is) awesome. Great features with masculine design. After S3 and S4, I thought Samsung would take a leaf from  HTC's  book and put some thoughts into design. Specifications are not everything - design does matter. I have a friend who owns a white  iPhone 5S  - man it's good; a pure classic. I am no Apple lover but the design beats it all - it gives a premium feel. The features are no less too - super fast processor, amazing screen clarity and enviable camera. Coming back to Samsung...

It has been almost 2 years since I befriended the green droid. I have used many apps during this period and in my view, here is a list of must have free apps for Android. MX Player A free video player that plays almost any format. You do not need any other video player if you've got this. Its got Hardware acceleration, pinch to zoom feature and even supports subtitles. The controls are very simple and intuitive.  Google Play Link: MX Player CamScanner -Phone PDF Creator A free document scanning software. Once installed, you have to just point your camera towards the document you want to scan and click it - it will automatically detect the document in the picture and zoom it. You can further crop the document as per your requirement and save it - trust me, it looks exactly like you have scanned it from a physical scanner. You can save the documents in pdf format. Google Play Link: CamScanner ES File Explorer File Manager A free file and appli...