Status messages

As many will agree, Instant messengers are the mostly widely used tools/gadgets in this internet age. These tools bring people closer and a way for those who aren't good at face-to-face communication ;-)
Well, keeping the benefits and advantages aside now, I would like to mention about one thing in IMs which is not followed in the right manner -- yes, few might have guessed it -- Status message option. Before proceeding let me tell you, this is just my personal opinion and not any standard specification :)

Status message option in IMs should be used to mainly show your current state(Busy, Available, Do Not Disturb etc) or to pass on some relevant information about yourself(Blog links, details about self, current stay etc) or something which helps to get some attention or information from your friends in the list.
Few status messages from my friends list which I feel are appropriate and interesting ones are:
- "I want my hour back!" Quite understandable during Daylight saving adjustment
- Link to their employer's website featuring them in headlines with a nice snap. Well, who doesn't want to do this if in headlines :)
- Link to their webpage or blog. Yes, this gives way to know them better
- Link to some interesting articles or cartoons Ex. http://img253.imageshack.us/img253/2096/sarkozy.jpg
- "YooHoo.. I voted!! Awesome feeling!!" Quite timely as this being the election time in the country
- "Its a baby boy!!" Happy to know dear..
- Current music track. Talks about their taste and mood!

And now coming to what I hate to see in status messages is some famous, thoughtful quote; which will be borrowed from a website or from daily subscribed mails or from those thousands of floating mails. Whats more, the quote changes every single day like the change in date in your PC. Yes, I simply detest reading a quote though its quoted by some great philosopher or a great scientist. For that I can simply browse the net and get from the websites. And besides what really does the person wants to prove by having it mentioned there?!! This remains a mystery to me.

My status message reads about the track - Viva forever Spice-girls
Whats yours??

Time for a break!

I have decided to go on a Himalayan trek in search of peace, adventure and trill :)
Sar Pass trek is a 11 days expedition and one can find more details here and here. I have registered for the 16th May batch but will report on 17th at the base camp as I have to attend one of my close friend's marriage on 15th and besides day1 does not have any interesting activities planned. Considering the fact that I missed this trek last year when few of my friends planned for it, I have decided not to miss this year's opportunity at any cost :)
All the necessary flight and bus tickets have been booked today. The only thing remaining now is to get ready with the list of trek items and go for shopping. This I plan to do over the coming weekend.

So thats the story. The countdown has begun and I am really excited about the trek :)

Hidden image

On the way to the coffee-machine in my office, my eyes used to always fall on a particular photo frame kept in one of my co-worker's cubicle(oh NO!!, it isn't the kind of image which catches one's attention normally ;-)) . Well, this photo frame is much similar to the ones which my granny possess. May be this fact made me more curious to know what this photo embeds in it. You might be wondering now, what is so difficult in knowing what a photo or image is all about, all we need to do is to just look at it. But let me tell you, the photo/image which I am talking here is not an ordinary 2D image but is a 3D stereogram.
Today, finally I went to my co-worker and inquired about the image. She was more than happy to explain me about it. She provided me some tips to follow to actually view the hidden image in it. After around 2-3 mins of straining my eyes, I could finally figure out the image embedded in it. The 3D image had layers of images, background image, a heart in the next and finally word 'YOU' on it. It was a great feeling to decrypt it( or is it because of the type of hidden image ?! :) Now having known the trick, I can go to my granny and ask her photos to check the hidden god images.
I went to my friends with the frame in my hand and forced them to try their luck in identifying the hidden image in it. I gave them all the tips but all in vain as nobody could figure it out. I was disappointed as they would not enjoy the excitement what I went through and felt lofty at the same time as I alone could see the hidden image ;-)

Basically a stereogram is an optical illusion of depth created from flat, two-dimensional image or images. And the one which my co-worker and granny have is called a autostereogram. An autostereogram is an optical illusion of depth usually observed by allowing the eyes to focus behind an image (diverge), but also sometimes in front of the image (converge). These two methods are also known as wall-eyed and cross-eyed, respectively.

Wall-eyed:

Cross-eyed:

To enjoy this nice illusion, check out for few stereograms. But mind you, few people cannot see the hidden images - Why?.

Updated**

Tips:
Wall-eyed - Blur your eyesight
- Try to move yourself in the range of 6 - 12 inches from the image and try to figure out the different layers in it.

Cross-eyed - As the name says, its pretty straight forward.

In the wall-eyed image attached above, you should be able to see a knight on a horse(facing left side) with his left hand on his sword and a flag in right hand.