The problem with Google as a company: http://moourl.com/qrxv1

I don't suppose any man has ever understood any woman since the beginning of things. H.G. Wells

Joke of the day: Rehman Malik says he does not rule out the possibility of a "foreign hand" in the attack on the SriLankan cricket team...

If at first you don't succeed, failure may be your style. http://ping.fm/Vc67l

Here are the results..

• if you chosen apple: that means you are a person who loves to eat apple
• if you chosen banana: that means you are a person who loves to eat banana
• if you chosen strawberry: that means you are a person who loves to eat strawberry
• if you chosen peach: that means you are a person who loves to eat peach
• if you chosen orange: that means you are a person who loves to eat orange

PS: If u r hunting for me to Kick me.....well...I am still hunting for the person who sent me this...!

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

"Been there, done that"...

Solutions for the puzzle:
http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris/irising/klueLESS

I went through the entire phase of frustration to jubilations and anxiety to excitement. Hence, here are the solutions of the puzzle for all those who need just that particular answer or just this one clue for this level and for all those who do not wish to ruminate over it for days.

Before you start looking into this: 3 things that would help you the most

Always look at the url/ the address bar
Google whatever is the hint
Look at the source code (In firefox, press Ctrl U)

If you want the answers you can comment…

1) Nothing to give away in this one and frankly if you could not figure out this one you might want to seriously reconsider doing the rest of it. :)

2) Quite simple as well.
Click on 'Can you knock?'

3) Name the Goddess:
Hint 1: Rainbow
Hint 2: Remember all the text must all be lowercase.
Hint 3: Look at the address bar.
In Greek mythology, Iris is the personification of the rainbow and messenger of the gods. As the rainbow unites Earth and heaven, Iris links the gods to humanity. She travels with the speed of wind from one end of the world to the other, and into the depths of the sea and the underworld.

4) Complete me
Hint 1: Logo
Hint 2: Sunglasses
Hint 3: Best brand in sunglasses
Rayban logo, check for images in google

5) Who's this ?
Hint 1: "Spectre Misery Love Company"
Hint 2: Select All, Google is your friend
Hint 3: Just his surname in the address bar
The man in the pic is Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was the lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter of the Seattle-based rock band Nirvana. Nirvana was an American rock band that formed in Aberdeen, Washington. With the lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from their 1991 album Nevermind, Nirvana exploded into the mainstream, bringing along with it a sub genre of alternative rock called grunge.

6) Number to dial
Hint 1: Check the picture on the phone
Hint 2: Specific number identified with that
Number of the beast - 666
The number of the beast, according to Revelation 13:18 (the quoted scripture), is 666. Interestingly, 6+6+6 is 18, the number of the verse. Elsewhere in that chapter, it is stated that no man will be able to buy or sell without a mark on the right hand or forehead with the number of the beast on it. This has lead to religious zealots "finding" 666 in practically everything.
The nefarious connotations of 666 weren't invented by Iron Maiden -- they are rooted in the Bible.

7) Seven
Hint 1: Look at the address bar
Hint 2: Forget Seneca
Hint 3: Where do you want to go next ?

8) Look out on the road
Hint 1: Look out on the road
Hint 2: What do the irregularities in the road resemble ?
Hint 3: Morse Code
On the road you can see some dashes and dots which is Morse code. You have to decode it to get the login and password...

9) Devil & Saint
Hint 1: Look for the more obvious, anagram ?
Hint 2: Look at the background, who painted it?
Hint 3: Just the first name

10) Something wrong ...
Hint 1: Something doesn’t look right
Hint 2: Right click the image properties
Hint 3: It’s the wrong image. You want level10.jpg and not level9.jpg
Hint 4: Think where you’ve seen that “A” before
Hint 5: Brand, logo, automobiles
If you right click outside the picture and view source it says
"See something that doesn't seem right? Set it right "
So the problem is that we have to change the url to level10.jpg not level10.asp

11) Touch type... can you ?
Hint 1: There’s something wrong with the keyboard
Hint 2: Try comparing that keyboard with your own
Hint 3: Compare wiwvr/suicv with the corresponding actual letters on the keyboard
The letters on the screen are the login and password but the view source says "There's some problem with this keyboard
Can you figure out what it is?"
The keys are changed so replace the letters to the login and password. You can do this by viewing the keys on your machine.

12) Sound of ...?
Hint 1: Each picture there relates to a song, (url says singalong so it's a song)
Hint 2: Look at all the pictures and try to relate the words
Hint 3: Eagles
Remember the lyrics:
VAT 69 - 1969
Mercedes Bends
But you can never leave: No Exit
There is also a map of California in the collage...

13) Thirteen
Hint 1: Cipher
Hint 2: Substitution cipher
Hint 3: 13 is the key
The letters are inverted, you will get gurobbx and these need to be interpreted with relevance to the number 13 (cipher)...
This might help...
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
noprrstuvqxyzabcdefghijklm

14)
Hint 1: Google
Hint 2: This was used as an ad campaign for a certain web browser.
"And so at last the beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all
was not lost, for from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down
upon the unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the
beast had been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of
Mammon cowered in horror"
This quote is from the book of Mozilla...
In the Mozilla Firefox "Book of Mozilla" 7:15 - And so at last the
beast fell and the unbelievers rejoiced. But all was not lost, for
from the ash rose a great bird. The bird gazed down upon the
unbelievers and cast fire and thunder upon them. For the beast had
been reborn with its strength renewed, and the followers of Mammon
cowered in horror. In this case, Mammon is believed to be a reference
to Microsoft, the creator of the Internet Explorer web browser.

15) Deja Vu ?
Hint 1: Logo
Hint 2: Telecommunications
Hint 3: Mobile network operator

16) Alternative Galore...
Hint 1: The page is bigger
Hint 2: Select ALL
Hint 3: ASCII
The page shows a flower's picture saying ALTernatives galore and the text:
Some things don't always make sense...
Here is the alternative
You will see the set of numbers below:
97 100 105 111 115 119 104 105 116
These are ASCII codes, convert them.

17) Whose words?
Hint 1: Google should give you the answer
Hint 2: The quote is from a film.
Hint 3: Bond... James Bond
The man is - Francisco Scaramanga - enter it in the space when you click the quote
If you know your Bond movies you will recognize the island from the movie - "The Man With The Golden Gun" a.k.a Francisco Scaramanga and those are his lines also there an Aston Martin and a Martini and a Walther PPK case...
Scene:
Scaramanga have just shot Hai Fat in his own home. Fat's servant comes running:
Fat's servant: What happened?
Scaramanga: Mr. Fat has just resigned. I'm the new chairman of the board.
Scaramanga walks outside and spots the mausoleum:
Scaramanga: He always did like that mausoleum. Put him in it!

18)Gd nite?
Hint 1: SMS
Hint 2: Translate to alphabet
Hint 3: Use your cell phone
Just type the numbers into your mobile keypad (after opening the sms window)...

19) Ciphered... again
Hint 1: View Source
Hint 2: Look at the direction they are pointing
Hint 3: hpshfpvt.bojnbufe
Everyone is pointing to the left and the view source contains the line {clue: hpshfpvt.bojnbufe } So, just shift these by one letter to the left and you will get the answer.

20) Caesar
Hint 1: Cipher... Find out which one.
Hint 2: (solution to 1, if you wanna work 1 out by yourself don’t read this):
Here's why: first is a quote from Julius Caesar and the picture is of a scrumptious Caesar salad and this is the nasty bit
Its called the Caesar's box.
The cipher message actually needs to be deciphered using a Caesar box decryption method and not a regular Caesar cipher. Research it.
Hint 3 (solution to 2, if you wanna work 2 out by yourself don’t read this):
The original letters: Lllisteennocteiyuhmpgoleeahuknsltri
It’s 6 across. Now put it together.
Hint 4 (solution to 3, if you want to bother doing that by yourself then don’t read this):
Caesar's box is a code of perfect squares. The string has 35 characters, 1 more than that would make it 36, a perfect square
of 6. Next, Arrange the letters in rows of 6 letters each row... below is example, but the spacing is a little off because the fonts aren't fixed width...
l_____l_____l_____i_____s_____t
e_____e_____n_____n_____o_____c
t_____e_____i_____y_____u_____h
m_____p_____g_____o_____l_____e
e_____a_____h_____u_____k_____n
s_____l_____t_____r_____i
Then reading from top to bottom.. you get the answer ..
You get this:
“Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen.”
Now you just need to find out who did this. Google is your friend.
Solution:
'Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen' are the lyrics from the song by a famous American rock band.

21) Them
Hint 1: Read in reverse order
Hint 2: Blurred picture in the background of some 'people' living in the New York City borough of Manhattan
Hint 3: American situational comedy, 10 seasons
Remember reverse order.

22) Turned around...
Hint 1: View source
Hint 2: Cipher
Hint 3: Reverse order "a=z"
This can be useful to do this:
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcab
If you go to the view source you will see:
gsrh ovevo rh hrnkov qfhg rmevig gsv trevm fhvimznv zmw kzhhdliw
After decoding it reads as:
this level is simple just invert the given username and password
fhvimznv: uozpv
kzhhdliw: tilfmw

23) Get this
Hint 1: Look at the url
Hint 2: If it says 'dontchangethis' obviously change the extension
Hint 3: Look at the picture to 'guess' the extension
The picture shows a zipper so we change the extension from .asp to .zip and open the readme.txt.txt file.

Let me know if you want more… or go back