The chronicles of ME !!

Red Hot Chilli Peppers

2011-10-24T07:09:00.002+05:30

Since I don't have wisdom to share with you, here is a brain-dead post. My top 10 Red Hot Chilli Peppers songs. RHCP doesn't break into my list of top 10 artists, but recently I had the opportunity to explore its songs and some of them are pretty cool. I'd like to share the top 10 songs with you - in the order I like them.

1) One ofcourse has to start with their all-time best - Californication

2) Second is a complete goof-off song - Can't stop

3) Third up is a great upbeat song - Scar Tissue

Good quality un-embeddable video link is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzJj5-lubeM&ob=av2e

4) Fourth up is a soothing slow song - Under the Bridge (this one is for the sad times)

Good quality unembeddable video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=lwlogyj7nFE

5) Fifth up is another slow song - By the Way

6) An intense song is next - Otherside

Good quality embeddable video is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rn_YodiJO6k&ob=av2e

7) Next up nice one - Snow

Good quality video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuFI5KSPAt4&ob=av2e

8) Sort of Hip-hop - Give it away

9) Another goof-off song : Aeroplane

10) Lastly, a mild song - Dosed

Hope you enjoy the songs!

What do I "want"?

2011-03-29T07:33:00.001+05:30

I've had sleepless nights and apprehensive weeks thinking about "What
do I want in life?". It has bugged me the most in my worst times. In
some ways, the thought is like a Dementor - sucks the life out of you.
Anyone who is seriously bugged by this question of life is stuck in
the "want-loop". An unsolvable unending loop which has only one
solution : realization.

"Wanting" something is based on our experiences of life. I "want"
chocolate ice-cream because I've had it before and I like the taste.
What about an eggplant-icecream? Argggh! I don't knowww! That is
because I've never tasted. How can I want it or NOT want it?

Thats the chicken-egg problem : One cannot "want" anything before
trying it out and we usually don't want to try out anything major
before really "wanting" it. This is an endless loop. We'll never try
out things before wanting them and we'll never want things before
trying them out. Aarrgghhhh again!

What about people who've already figured out life? They are either
ones who were forced into it somehow or they've already tried out a
bunch of things before they settled in.

Point is, and I've realized it only today, thinking about "what I
want" is pointless.. it better to just take the "leap of faith" and
see whether it works out. If it doesn't, you probably wanted the other
option. Anyway, you'll get the answer :-)

Happy ranting!

Asa ch..

2010-11-15T03:34:00.001+05:30

May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong

(by Chief Dan George)

Raleigh - Impressions

2010-08-04T11:52:00.001+05:30

Its been a week since I've landed in Raleigh, a townish-city in North
Carolina, USA. It a while before my college starts so I have had
plenty of time to explore and "form impressions".

The first car I saw when I landed in Raleigh was a Nissan. You can
easily catch sight of Ferraris and Fords and Volkswagons (the really
small cars). As Russel Peters says, if you see a Honda or a Toyota,
rest assured it belongs to an Asian. Cars here are just bloody
awesome. Almost no one has bikes and the ones who have them, have the
cool sport bikes. This is mostly because the speed limit is 60 mph =
90 kmph. Imagine driving an activa at that speed.

The traffic rules are very good. In India the whole traffic is in push
mode. We always try to push our vehicle before all others. Here, the
traffic is in Yeild mode. You almost always let others go. Pedestrians
are toh the king of the roads. If a pedestrian is crossing the road,
all the cars will stop to give them a passage (even on busy main
roads). Rarely does anyone break traffic rules. It kinda feels weird
at first. The first time I was crossing a road, I stopped at the
centre of the road to let a car pass by, he got pissed at me because I
wasn't moving and asked me to cross the road first.

Bus services are the most delightful. You can track buses online on
maps to see where they are. So, I leave the house only when the bus is
near enough so that I don't have to wait much. Only a couple of
minutes. The buses are free for students and the drivers are
super-jolly!

The entire campus is wifi-connected and I have an iPod touch! yayyy! I
use it so much, I have to charge it everyday!

I went to the gymnasium today. Damn is mesmerising. There are 4 effing
weight rooms, 8 basketball courts, many many TT rooms and squash
courts. It is so huge, it took us 15 minutes to just walk through all
of it real quickly. And it is all FREE! and ofcourse, I am not going
to use any of it, but I can brag about it on blogs like this one!

And now we come to the library. Okay, the library has 21' macs
available for public use. NCSU is rich! The library is no less than a
5-star hotel! There's ample space and you can take macbooks from the
counter to use them all you want. Is there a need to mention that the
internet is blazing quick? And ofcourse, there are books too!

The people here are very friendly. They'll wish you left, right and
center ("Hey, how are you today?", "Good morning. So, where are you
headed to?", etc) and casually strike up conversations. They are very
patient and go out of their way to help you (eg. One batchmate was
asking for directions and the girl in a car was like "Ohh! you'll be
walking in such heat? Let me give you a drive" and drive she gave!).
Also, the people who work here are almost always enjoying their job.
They do it because they like it and you can feel it! It is a nice
feeling.

There's so much stress on human-less work here. Anything that can be
automated is automated. ATMs accept money to deposit in your account,
vending machines for everything, self-checkout at malls, etc etc. It
is so automated that it'd take time for you to notice if all people of
the USA die tomorrow!!

I visited two beautiful places : Lake Raleigh and Lake Johnson. They
are just so so beautiful. I could become a monk and stay there in
meditation forever. There's a jungle trail which starts from Lake
Johnson. One of these weekends, I am going to explore it too.

You get used to walking around here. Everything is far away. Since
these guys have a LOT of real estate, they build complexes quite far
away. So each house has its own lawn, etc etc. But, it is a pain to
even walk down two houses away. I've never walked so much in my life
and yet it is not at all tiring.

Don't get me started on the females here. Since, it summer time, they
don't prefer to wear much, which works for me :-P.

The Indian seniors here at very very friendly. Its been only a week
here and yet I feel as if I've been living here for a year. We have
had late night cards sessions, went to Indian places for dinner,
watched serials together and cooked together! I have already made some
very awesome friends right here.

Over and all, I know I have missed a million points I had in mind and
didn't give fair treatment to many others but this is just a
brain-dump and a unavoidable subconscious comparison of US and India.
I like Raleigh, but I miss home too much! I hope the course doesn't
give me time to miss home :-)

Us

2010-06-01T02:10:00.001+05:30

Always the confusion,
Always the anxiety.
Always the fear
Of abnormality.

Logic

2010-05-30T11:52:00.001+05:30

"Logic, n.: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding." - Ambrose Bierce

A must-acknowledge before we go on raving about "scientific views" and "scientific proofs". You are not more intelligent than your brain permits you to be, so quit rubbishing everything supernatural as impossible. You are not being super-intelligent by saying God is only imaginary. You don't know the truth. So you are as much a victim of blind-faith as the believers are.

The Japanese wife

2010-04-10T00:13:00.002+05:30

I am updating my blog AGAIN. This will be really short, I promise. Won't bore you much today. I value my readers after-all :-P

So, I watched this movie today. The Japanese wife. The movie is about a Bengali school teacher, Snehamoy, marrying his Japanese pen-friend, Miyagi over a series of letters and being loyal to that vow for more than seventeen years. It might and it does sound a very stupid idea. But, let us consider it from a poetic sense. An exaggeration on-purpose to convey a point.

The point is the essence of marriage. Snehamoy and Miyagi's marriage is a very unconventional and a very successful one. More successful than many, taking into consideration the fact that they have never met and all they can do is exchange letters once a week. Yet, they have such a deep bond. They don't snuggle up or any such stuff, yet they have such affection in their relationship! I am not saying the movie was nice, but I was strangely glad that I watched the movie. It left me with the best of the post-movie feelings. There is still good in the world and there can still be an unconditionally platonic bond between two people :-). Thats my takeaway from the movie.

Very hazy post this, I know. It is purposeful. It is for myself. Hardly anyone would like the movie. I didn't like it myself. But, I have the best feeling after watching this movie and I love the movie just for that!

Edit: A muchhhhhh better article about "The Japanese Wife" is here. (Marathi)

How would it feel to be one of them?

2010-04-07T10:35:00.002+05:30

One of the Jawans of the 81-strong battalion that got ambushed and annihilated by Naxalites.

You are on your way to the base-camp after a 3-day search operation. You are mentally and physically tired after being on the alert for possible way-lays. This is the last stage of your journey and the only thing that has occupied your mind is the safety of the base-camp. A feeling of dreamy complacency overcomes you. You are wading through that deep forest with a lost mind. And then it happens. The truck in the forefront of the battalion blows away. 20 feet straight into the air. Fear, panic, apprehension spike through your nerves.

And then starts the incessant round of firings. You don't know where the firing is coming from. You are caught off-guards. Everyone is running helter-skelter. A feeling of desperation creeps in. You think its the best to run away and survive. You start running in the opposite direction of the firing. But, some of your colleagues just got blasted. Pressure bombs. The escape path is rigged. Shit! Lets take cover behind the trees. You run towards a big tree. Another of your colleague blows up. Pressure bombs near every hiding place. What do you do? You cannot run, you cannot hide. Complete desperation and helplessness. Death is in sights. Mahesh, whom you playfully wrestled yesterday falls dead in front of you. Another one, just married, falls. Memories come gushing in. You start counting your seconds and then it happens. You feel the smearing pain. A chill runs down your spine. This is the end. Another one penetrates. You remember your mothers/wives smiling face and everything goes blind.

You open your eyes. You are in the hospital. A minister is looking down upon you. Anger is all you can feel. Still you force a smile. Scarred for life. This smile is now your life.

RIP Kurt Cobain

2010-04-06T00:06:00.001+05:30

Kurt Cobain breathed last 16 years ago today.

I am a big big fan. So I thought I'd compile a list of my top 10 Nirvana tracks. Here they are (RIP Kurt Cobain):

1) Jesus don't want me for a Sunbeam
2) Smells like teen spirit
3) The Man who sold the World
4) Come as you are
5) About a girl
6) All apologies
7) Lithium
8) Dumb
9) In bloom (Awesome video)
10) Rape me

There are others like "Aneurysm", "Heart-shaped box", "Dive", etc that couldn't figure on the list but are my all-time favourites! If only he had lived longer, there would be more awesomeness in this world! RIP!

Clash of the Titans - Really?

2010-04-03T00:36:00.004+05:30

***** SPOILERS ******

So went for "Clash of the Titans" today. It is a movie shitty in all respects - Dialogs (the worst), script, direction, etc etc. I am starting to hate this James Cameroon style of directing - mind-numbing action and zilch sense to the movie.

It all starts with Zeus' obsession with immortality. To pander to his obsession, he creates humans. His immortality is fuelled by human prayers. So, what he should have done is, watched Matrix and learn how they cultivate humans. But, no! He gives them intelligence and shit like that so that they can rebel against him. How stupid is that? Just make them into praying robots! Job done!

Anyway, moving on. Zeus cannot control his hormones and he does a human queen. Now the king is pissed off, but he waits 9 months to execute her, so that she can give birth. Even after that, instead of just hanging them to death, he orders them stuffed in a casket and been thrown in the ocean (so that they'll be saved by chance). After this crappery, this son is now a demi-god. And demi-Gods are foolish.

This demi-God, Perseus, cannot even wield a sword and has such amount of foolish bravery as to make you cringe. He is like "Ohh! No man has ever returned from Medusa's lair. Lets go there camping and see whether I can chop off her head. But, first I must learn to hold a sword" or or "Lets kill that mountain-sized Cracken thing that is so huge that if he comes out of his lair, it causes a Tsunami. He can destroy a city with a lash of his limb. Lets go kill him". Or what about the awesomeness of the stalker demi-god who is clearly lusted by Perseus giving him the advice "Ask only what you need to" when he is going to the witches for answers. Well duhh! he IS going to ask what he needs. You think he'll ask "My name is Khan, am I a terrorist?" WTF!

So after a slew of lameassery dialogs and needless action and worthless story, we come to the climax. The war between Perseus (demi-god) and Hades (God). You think that would be an awesome war, right? Perseus fighting an ACTUAL God. How awesome! no? Lame actually. Perseus hurls a sword at him. Hades, considering he is God, cannot even dodge it and goes back undeground. How lame. The scene ends in two seconds!

Special mention to Perseus' dialog to Andromeda "I can serve you better as a man". What fantasies!! Also, after Perseus makes a show of his bravery, Zeus offers him a place in Heaven (or wherever the hell he lives). But, Perseus refuses and Zeus is like "You're my son dude". Then he makes a HOTTTT demi-god appear from thin air and leaves her with Perseus. What an awesome father he is! I would do anything to have Zeus as a father :-P

The only scene I liked was the fight in Medusa's lair. Nice action. Baki its a crap movie. Don't waste your time :-)

Stages of Learning

2010-03-26T12:49:00.001+05:30

This post is a reminder to myself. I am sure most of you already know whatever follows, yet, I (and many of us) forget it when the time comes and I succumb to my laziness.

There are 3 stages of learning

1) 0 to 100 in 6 seconds: Assume a running example of learning the guitar. Chances are that you started learning the guitar because you were inspired watching someone play. The first few classes are the most impressive. You have so much to learn that every moment of the class is a new lesson. Your concentration is the maximum and your instincts are being trained at full speed. You learn quick and pretty much everything around the world is a rhythm. Awesome days! These days typically last a month or two where your interest waxes to a peak.

2) Stabilising: After the initial churn when getting started, things start to stabilise. Your instincts have been nicely trained to play the guitar with lesser concentration. This is the phase where the learning speed slows down and the need to perfect even smallest aspect of whatever you are learning increases. This period is marked by constant practising of the same rhythms, concentrating on speed, control and reducing the error rate to the bare minimum.
Now, The first phase had raised the expectations so much that this phase turns into a sort of disappointing one. One starts to think that he is not made for this stuff or one may even lose interest for the lack of anything new. But, then this is the most important phase of learning anything! The phase where you perfect what you have learned. The phase where you groom that genius inside you that will one day unleash. Most of the times, when I get into this phase, I quit. It has happened in the past. With the guitar. But, however long this phase is, I know that if I outlast it and put my everything into it, I am going to go into the third phase a very happy man.

Most of the dabblers quit in this phase. So, it is a good filter too.

3) Mastering: So now you are in more control of yourself. You can command your fingers and wrists and you are ready to break out of the cocoon to fly. If you reach this phase, chances are you'll never turn back. Its a smooth ride to awesomeness from here. One day, I'll reach at this phase. I am already learning something that is a candidate for reaching this phase :-)

So guys, don't quit in phase 2. It'll be boring, monotonous and frustrating. But if you really really like what you are learning, you'll appreciate even the smallest improvements in yourself. Pray for me to outlast phase 2 (Haven't reached it yet, but I am going to need reminding this post when I reach the phase) :-)

Music

2010-02-23T14:42:00.001+05:30

What would I do without music?
Nothing.

The Demon called Language

2010-02-15T13:24:00.001+05:30

Language is a one sadist multi-headed demon.

One thing that Language has achieved, that even the Devil himself couldn't, is that Language tricked everyone into believing that it is actually a blessing. It is probably the greatest trick it ever pulled off. Much like Sauron who fooled the Men, Dawrves and the Elves and made the One Ring to rule the world. Language is playing the same game.

Now the favourite game that this demon likes to play is the trick-your-perception game. It takes reality, distorts it according to what you fear the most and then manipulates your perception to think that this is the actual reality. Much like the Boggart of Harry Potter. Just that Boggart manipulates the physical perception whereas this demon is more sinister. It hampers not just the perception, but compromises your system so badly that there is no notion of "reality" at all. If Boggart is userspace virus, Language is the rootkit.

Fighting this beast is near impossible because of the games it plays. It takes the facts from me, distorts them beyond recognition and inserts this distorted reality into the perception of the other soldier. Miscommunication. We bicker around trying to sort it out, while this demon has a nice laugh and then when everything has seemed to settle down, it plays the game again. And again. And again.
"Stab it with your steely knives but you just can't kill the beast"

This beast can be subdued, but it needs means other than Language itself. Something which transcends words or something which fixes the distorted reality and puts in the right perspective.

(Note: I wanted to write a note, but I forgot what I wanted to write here :-D)

A terrible waste of Life

2010-02-11T19:03:00.003+05:30

Frankly speaking, I remembered my blog only because I was bored. So bored that I seriously considered fixing all the tags in my MP3 files!! I should have seen this coming when a month ago my TODO list dried up. Nothing to do!

Today, its been a week that I have nothing to do and let me tell you that it is mighty frustrating! I am not used to it. No work pressures (no objective to achieve either). Nothing new to learn (well, ofcourse there is loads of stuff to learn, but just learning them to forget is useless. I learn something only when I get a feeling that I'll need it in the near future. Currently, there's no such need. I think I know everything that I am going to need). Nothing to pursue (Its been ages since I quit sketching, skating, basketball. I am game for restarting basketball, but it needs a team and there's no one I know who plays basketball. Anyone?).

Earlier I used to pass time in movies, serials, books and following cricket, chess and a bit of tennis. But, all these passive means of entertainment do not provide any sense of satisfaction. They are just meant to kill time. I long for something active where I play a part. Something real. Something like working on a software package or basketball or table tennis. My favourite passtime used to be to get stuff working in Linux (dns servers and mail servers and dhcp servers and what not). But, even that is just passive and uninteresting now. And there's nothing new to get working ;-)

Its been 7 days I am searching for something to get involved in. Since I am posting to the blog, obviously I have had no luck and now I am just pissed off with myself. To be frank, I have had some thoughts, but, all of those were silenced by "Fakt 5-6 mahinyansathi karaycha? whats the use?".

I need rescuing :-)

Identity

2009-11-29T11:18:00.002+05:30

"Mathematics has the completely false reputation of yielding infallible conclusions. Its infallibility is nothing but identity. Two times two is not four, but it is just two times two, and that is what we call four for short. But four is nothing new at all. And thus it goes on and on in its conclusions, except that in the higher formulas the identity fades out of sight."
page 1754
-Johann von Goethe, In J. R. Newman (ed.) The World of Mathematics, New York: Simon and Schuster

This identity is infact a core part of Mathematics. Example. How would you prove that six times six and nine times four are one and the same thing? (Johann might say that they are not. They are infact what they are: six times six and nine times four respectively. But these are just different perspectives of the same object. Read on.) In the decimal world, you can name six times six thirty-six and nine times four also, thirty six and come to the conclusion that we are talking about the same object. In the hex world, we can name the same quantity twenty four. Names don't matter, what matters is that using these identities we can keep aside perspectives to focus on absolute objects. That is the essence of Mathematics! It kinda puts us in a frame of reference where we can safely define absolute w.r.t that frame of reference.

Now, one might argue that he can name six times six fooday-foo and nine times four, looday-loo. But, then asking for fooday-foo pencils or looday-loo pencils will give you the same number of pencils. So, its better to call them thirty-six.

Until and unless counting is redefined in a revolutionary new way, six times six and nine times four will have the same identity and thats a conclusion that is not just made-up from thin air.

Finding Flow

2009-11-09T01:39:00.003+05:30

A colleague of mine recently recommended this book to me: Finding Flow by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
The best thing about the book is how the author's name is pronounced: "CHICK-sent-me-high-ee" :-D

Jokes apart, its a good book. It had been a long time since the philosopher in me was fed and groomed. It kinda reminded me of the college days when we pondered on how this human civilisation is one shithole at 3:00 am in the morning on the terrace of our society (Fighter Kombdas, remember? :D). A long reflection on self was long overdue and this book provided the perfect opportunity for it.

For starters, it horrendously breaks the myth of how we have come to define happiness and how much importance it has in our life. I like how Flow is closely related (or almost synonymous) to satisfaction. The book drove out all the radicalism that I had been accumulating for a while now. It has quenched my thirst atleast for now.

Its a short read of about 150 pages. It touches almost all aspects of our lives: work, relationships, solitude and provides a solid insight in why all this stuff really matters. It is a good afternoon read and will certainly change the way you perceive life, universe and everything! So, there's my recommendation!

One-liners

2009-11-07T14:11:00.002+05:30

Since I have nothing new to post about, here is some borrowed entertainment. Some of the one-liners are old-timers, and yet never fail to make you grin. Enjoy!

Word play:
1) I've got to sit down and work out where I stand.
2) Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected become the expected?

Insults:
1) Sometimes I need what only you can provide: your absence.

General musings:
1) If it's true that we are here to help others, then, what exactly are the others here for?
2) How come we choose from just two people for President and 50 for Miss America?
3) Think about this...no one ever says "it's only a game" when their team is winning.
4) A conscience does not prevent sin. It only prevents you from enjoying it.

Feel-good:
1) Don't frown. You never know who is falling in Iove with your smile.

Hilarious:
1) Best way to prevent hangover is to stay drunk.
2) If your father is a poor man, it is your fate but, if your father-in-law is a poor man, it's your stupidity.
3) A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you are in deep water.
4) I'm as confused as a baby in a topless bar.
5) Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off now.

Life:
1) Don't take life too seriously, you won't get out alive anyway!
2) I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
3) Of all the thirty-six alternatives, running away is best.

General lot:
1) If at first you don't succeed, skydiving is not for you.
2) Living on Earth may be expensive... but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.
3) Suicidal twin kills sister by mistake!

Ranting a rant ...

2009-10-02T22:37:00.001+05:30

The good thing about the good things is that you can do them recursively and hence, can increase the increase in the goodness. The bad thing about the bad things is that you cannot do them recursively. Eg. you cannot hate hate. (because if you do, then you would have to NOT hate) but you can love love. Or you cannot forget to forget (because then you won't be forgetting anything and hence you won't forget to forget), but you can remember to remember. You cannot kill the dead, but you can give a new life to the living.

I can

2009-09-29T20:52:00.003+05:30

Recently, while I was cleaning up my room for the upcoming Diwali festival, I found a nice piece penned by someone for Saurabh. Now, its not a Longfellow-style classy poem or it doesn't say something that would turn us selfish mortals into angels. But, its nice because it is small simple and wise. (uuuhhhh.. that rhymes!). Hell, its not even a poem, its a "piece"!

Here goes:
If you think you are beaten,
you are.
If you think you dare not,
you don't

If you'd like to win,
but think you can't
It almost certain
you won't

If you think you'll lose
you're lost

For out in the world
we find success begins
with a person's faith;
Its all in the state of mind!

Life's victories don't always go
to the stronger and the faster
but sooner or later the man who wins
is the man who thinks "HE CAN"

--------------

small simple and wise, isn't it? :)

Update: In case you didn't read the comments, vedang pinged to let me know that the poem/piece is actually composed by Walter D Wintle.

The search for a music player..

2009-09-07T14:22:00.001+05:30

Since the death of Amarok 1.* series and the rise of the new 2.* series, it has been painfully difficult to use Amarok. Although I accept amarok has restored much of its lost glory, there are still a lot of areas where I miss the old amarok. So, started the search for a new music player. I tried Rhythmbox, SongBird and a host of other music players, but each one lacked something or the other. Here is a list of what I expect from a music player (besides the basic library and playlist management features)

1) A good lyrics plug-in which runs inside the main player window. Rhythmbox has a plugin, but it is non-configurable and spawns a new window. Amarok had a nice lyics plugins. (Wiki-lyric was the best).

2) Global shortcuts. This is a MUST. I should be able to play/pause/next/previous while the focus is on some other application. It is very helpful when working. New amarok global shortcuts, but it doesn't work. Rhythmbox, songbird don't even attempt to do it.

3) A "--enqueue" like option on the command-line. (eg. rhythmbox --enqueue <song>). This way I can add an entry in the right-click context menu which says "Append to playlist"

4) Search filenames. Many songs don't have valid IDv3 tags. (Especially Marathi and Hindi songs). Then, it is very useful to search them with their filenames. Old amarok had this facility and I was addicted to it. None of the players I reviewed later had this functionality, including the new amarok.

5) File browser within the player. Useful to add songs. Rhythmbox lacks it. Songbird, amarok have this.

6) Good randomisation algorithm. I am in love with the amarok randomisation algo. rhythmbox's algo sucks. With 2000+ songs, it still repeats a small subset of 100 songs fairly enough which is irritating.

Optional but nice to have features:
7) Edit IDv3 tags. Implemented by almost all players I reviewed.

8) Fill the screen with some data or the other (Like artist info, lyrics, songs like this, suggestions from Last.fm, etc)

If you know any nice music players which atleast has 4-5 of the first 6 features, please leave a comment. Currently, I am using SongBird. It is a close replacement to Amarok with loads of plug-ins and functionalities.

Forget some more ..

2009-09-05T00:22:00.002+05:30

Zarin pointed me to this poem. I think it is awesome!

Update: Turns out Zarin herself penned this piece. That makes it brilliant-er!

I forgot how to worry,
and never ran out of happiness.
I forgot how to argue,
and everything around was quiet.

I forgot life is unfair,
and made every moment worth living.
I forgot the word revenge,
and enemies ceased to exist.

I forgot dreams are'nt real,
and lived in blissful fiction.
I forgot how to complain,
and dissatisfaction vanished.

I forgot that I'm human,
and work finished in a jiffy.
I forgot that I'm a slave,
and masters never lasted.

I forgot to have expectations,
and life became numb.
I forgot feelings are real,
and oceans never flowed.

I forgot how to breathe,
and life became heavenly.

An Irish Airman Foresees His Death - Yeats

2009-08-11T01:11:00.002+05:30

(Brilliant! Just too effing awesome!)

I know that I shall meet my fate
Somewhere among the clouds above;
Those that I fight I do not hate,
Those that I guard I do not love;
My country is Kiltartan Cross,
My countrymen Kiltartan's poor,
No likely end could bring them loss
Or leave them happier than before.
Nor law, nor duty bade me fight,
Nor public men, nor cheering crowds,
A lonely impulse of delight
Drove to this tumult in the clouds;
I balanced all, brought all to mind,
The years to come seemed waste of breath,
A waste of breath the years behind
In balance with this life, this death.
--

It is about one US pilot who is a part of the World War I and is about to die because his aircraft is hit. He isn't in the war because he is a patriot or he hates some race, but he is in because he loves to fly.
"A lonely impulse of delight" - what a phrase! and ofcourse, the last 3 lines!! (Paraphrase: The past and the future are just a waste in front of this life and (more importantly) this death!). Darjaa!

Clearing myths about Swine Flu

2009-08-10T20:44:00.001+05:30

Recently there has been a furore in Pune about wearing masks for avoid Swine Flu. Here is an FAQ from WHO which would clear most of the myths.
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/frequently_asked_questions/what/en/index.html

It clearly states that you DO NOT have to wear a mask if you are not sick. So don't be a paranoid. Just stay away from public places. That should be enough.

(Link: abhijit via Twitter)

How to irritate people - Lesson 1

2009-06-12T19:27:00.002+05:30

I am sure all of you must have used gtalk some time or the other. Now, gtalk has this worthless feature which informs you when the other person leaves the conversation. You get a "Blah has left the conversation" update. When you know that the other person uses some client like pidgin (and not the usual gmail chat or gtalk), you can pull of this very irritating trick.

When you get an update of "left the conversation", just send an IM. Most likely, your friend is trying to ignore you and will leave the conversation again (acting as if he/she didn't read it at all). But little does he/she know that he/she just sent a very worthless but useful update to you :D. Send an IM again. If the other person is using pidgin, a window will pop-up and the focus will be shifted there. (For gmail chat and gtalk, it isn't very effective). grrrr irritating! hehe!

Here's a conversation between me and lets call the other person 'bakra', for the sake of protecting his/her identity.

bakra has left the conversation.
Jitubhai: me too
bakra has left the conversation.
Jitubhai: :)
bakra has left the conversation.
Jitubhai:
bakra has left the conversation.
Jitubhai:
bakra has left the conversation.
Jitubhai:
bakra has left the conversation.
Jitubhai:
bakra has left the conversation.
Jitubhai:

-->bakra goes offline here

lol!
notice the intelligent use of blank messages :D. I bet the "friend" was wondering why the hell the window keeps popping up.
Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!

The perfect world ...

2009-05-17T11:25:00.003+05:30

I have always been an advocate of eradicating "money" and "progress" from this world. I still hold that they have been the reason for our misery. So, I have this concept, "the perfect world", wherein we all live together as a single big community and there is no money, etc etc. These thoughts of mine surfaced once again when I started reading this book called "Outliers" by "Malcom Gladwell". The first chapter in itself is very good. Do read the first chapter here. It isn't huge. Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes of your precious time. It is a real good read. I do hope to realise my dream sometime :).

My grand dream ...

2009-03-27T22:58:00.002+05:30

My ultimate dream is to have a server installed at my place. 16-core. 16 gigs of RAM. 1 petabyte storage space arranged as RAID and 8 Mbit upload and 16-mbit download bandwidth. It will run either Fedora or FreeBSD.
What will I use this machine for? I have no idea!! But, I also imagine myself completely absorbed in some very important and very obscure work which only I will understand. I will talk with conf files so fluently as if they were the languages I speak. Debugging a problem would be like a cakewalk. *Jitesh attaches strace to blah process*. 5 min later *Jitesh finds and fixes the problem*

I will be a big-shot in the OpenSource community and will have commit access to most package repositories. Yet, I will be cool. Watching movies, playing CS and having a super-hot girlfriend.

Some day I'll have so many machines/boards attached to my server that I would have to make a farm of these boards. I'd add manual firewall/iptables rules to give each of them different type of accesses. One of them would probably host a git server, another one an httpd server and stuff like that. I'd have 4-5 virtual machines running on the main machine and bridged with the wan interface. I don't know what the hell they would do. But, they would serve some important purpose.

And after all this is done, I'll wake up and use my shivaji-chya-kaal-cha juna PC which doesn't even have Linux installed on it :( ..sigh!

Its not yet another credit crisis article ...

2009-03-11T11:14:00.004+05:30

After the Great Wall Street fall my mail and Reader were flooded with crisis articles. I admit my lack of interest in reading those articles because I couldn't understand half of them and the others were so huge, I got bored half-way. But, today I came across this amazing video which lucidly explains why the crisis started. It isn't wayy to simple and not wayy too difficult. Just perfect and nicely put and entertaining too. Do have a look.

The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.

(Thanks to my good friend Mihir for the link)

If

2009-02-22T01:05:00.002+05:30

(came across this amazing poetry. Some of the lines are simply superb!)

If
By Rudyard Kipling

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream -- and not make dreams your master;
If you can think -- and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings -- nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And -- which is more -- you'll be a Man, my son!

Matrubhumi and Malena

2009-01-18T17:54:00.004+05:30

Recently, I had the privilege of watching two distinguished movies, Matrubhumi and Malena. Both the movies boast of great direction, handling a very precarious topic and powerful acting. And ofcourse both belong to the "cult cinema" category. I won't recommend either, because they also belong to the "brutal cinema" category :). Watch at your own risk.
Both the movies have the same underlying motif : How degenerate can we, as humans, become.

Malena is set in a Sicilian town. It is about the only beautiful woman in the town from the perspective of a boy who has just hit his adolescence. "The beautiful woman" is portrayed by Monica Bellucci, so, you know how beautiful "beautiful" is! :). The director doesn't believe much in subtlety. Some parts of the movie are crude and "crossing the line". But, this crudeness is what helps the movie generate the effect it does.

"Matrubhumi : A nation without women" is set sometime in the future. It assumes that killing the girl child had become prevalent in the Indian villages and imagines a situation when there are no women left. None at all. The movie doesn't indulge in needless scenes of crude violence, but instead uses euphemisms, which makes it bearable. Credit to the director for that. Tulip Joshi has done a great job and so have all the others.

Both the movies are worth an applause, but, both are brutal in their own way. They would make Deepa Mehta's "Water" look tame. If you are into off-beat cinema, do watch Matrubhumi. If it doesn't move you, probably nothing else can. Afterall, movies aren't just meant for entertainment, are they?

Helmets save lives ... and noses

2009-01-07T22:12:00.003+05:30

This is the story of a Wednesday.

It was the day of our convocation. We were going to officially get our graduate certificates (and I was going to get my Post-graduate certificate.. you know, genius people are always two years ahead of everyone :P). The clock announced that it was 2:00 pm. Time to go to the university. This particular day, being a very good one for me (for entirely irrelevant reasons) I was in my usual jumping-jack mood. Salil and Sanjyot were waiting for me outside the Marvell building. I was late and Salil called me up (that bastard.. it was all because of him). So, I had to run. I couldn't have missed the luxury of getting a free lift in her car :P.

So, I ran down the stairs to the ground floor. And I decided to take the main entrance. The main entrance is a big glass door at a distance of about 50 feet from the four elevators (that is where the stairs end). At this precise moment, Salil called and so I started running towards the main entrance hardly realising that the doors were made of Saint Gobain glass and were fucking SHUT. (Now that I think of the timing that he called, I doubt whether it was all a set-up :P). I don't think I can continue the story any further. Please, run your imagination as wild as it can, because, yeah, IT HAPPENED ...

Fortunately, there was no one around except two security guards. I bet I could see the smile on the corner of their faces as they came to help me. I hurt my nose, tore my upper lip and a bruise on my scalp. But, I wasn't worried about that. All I was worried about was that I was going to be the butt of the jokes for the next few days :P. And my my! my friends didn't disappoint me at all! :P

Anyway, I am in the process of suing Saint Gobain and passing a bill to make helmets compulsary while walking and running too. Please support my bill!

My bucket list

2008-12-21T23:58:00.000+05:30

Today wasn't exactly one of the glorious days of my life. While laying idly on my bed, I wondered what would Maria have done if she were in my place? Probably, thought about the things she likes the most. Would it work? Heck, I thought, lets give it a try. And with memories of "The Bucket List" still fresh in my mind, I decided to make my own bucket list. Things I want to do before I "kick the bucket". (Most of the stuff is taken from what I've seen or heard or what other people have been doing)

(Btw.. It works like a charm!)
Here's the list I made:

1) Be kids again.
2) One fine day, just take a back-pack and leave to explore untrodden yet wonderful lands.
3) Kiss the most beautiful girl in the world (Picked up directly from the movie. Isn't it a fabulous idea??)
4) Be an OS wiz (Now that might sound somewhat stupid, but, I always wished I was)
5) Affect someone's life in a very good way (Teach? Guide? Inspire?)
6) Have all my friends live in the same building. (Now, wouldn't that just be great?)
7) Go cycling in the Himalayas.
8) Draw an insanely beautiful sketch.
9) See the world from as high above as I can (Eiffel tower or Burj Dubai would be good candidates)
10) Become a monk.
11) Read the entire JRR Tolkein collection.
12) Play Basketball again.
(Descending order)

I wonder how many of these things will I be able to complete? Although, I always dream myself in one of these situations and it makes me high.

Now that I have my list, its time to fly ...

The time has come to reform ourselves

2008-12-20T12:43:00.000+05:30

This is the title of an article written by a friend, Mithila Joshi, in the DNA newspaper. Read it here(Page number 2).

I cannot agree more. It is a very different perspective on the Mumbai attacks. There has been a huge vitriol hurled at the government and the intelligence. But, hardly anyone has cared to determine the root cause of the inefficiency of the authorities. This article, in my opinion, is a good start. Would these scum-bag politicians be our leaders, if only we were vigilant and not-so-ignorant about politics? How much do we know about the people leading us? Its time we stop giving petty excuses like "no one is worth voting" and realise that there are actually people who are honest and determined to serve the soceity and they deserve our votes. But, it doesn't start at stop at politics. It is time we started respecting our social obligations.

I really do wish that this article triggers a renaissance because all of us are in a dire need of one!!
Time for a self-reevaluation?

Amen!

Story of a woman ....

2008-11-12T22:44:00.000+05:30

Whenever I listen to "woman empowerment" stuff, I am always disgusted. Mostly because all of that is only pep talk. It is all in our minds. We are showered by the "woman is weak and easily manipulated" shit-talk so much that we actually start to believe in it! But, then you come across someone, who by the strength of her character proves otherwise.
This is her story.

She stays is a small town, about a 6 hour drive from Pune. Happily married to a very respectable and upright husband, she has a daughter and a son. They used to live in a joint family with three brother-in-laws, all of them married. They had a family shop run jointly by all the four brothers.

So, these three brother-in-laws were anything but honest. Embezzlement in the shop business was like a daily affair. But, her husband totally trusted all of them and never even bothered to check or re-check their accounts. Typical story. About 6 years ago, one fine day, this man realises that they are in a debt of Rs. 22 Lakh. And then he gets the picture of whats been happening for the past many years etc etc. So starts a family feud.

They were asked to share the debt (which is obviously outrageous) and they denied. So, they were thrown out of the house. Nowhere to go. Nothing to eat. They didn't even know where they were going to sleep for the night. The husband was badly affected by the turn of events. His hands started trembling and he became too wary of everything. Unable to make decisions and afraid of everyone. He receded in a cacoon. Imagine a woman with 2 kids (11 and 9) and a husband to take care of.

She sent her children over to her mother's place. Somehow, they got a very shabby place to live. It was the backside of a shop. Nothing more than a passage. No cupboard, no rooms, nothing. Even a small gas and a bulb was a luxury. They couldn't even afford the meagre rent.

So, they decided to open up a shop. They had their now-shut-down old shop. But, the other brothers won't let them use it. They did their best to keep them away from it until they bore their part of the debt. Finally fed-up with all this, she decided to take matters in her own hands. She instructed her husband to act as if he had no control on her. Then she inaugrated the shop (with nothing to sell.. even keeping it open was a big deal!). Everytime anyone came to pull down the shutters, she used to go and stand beneath the shutter. The brothers even went to the level of sending some men over to threaten her. But, she won't budge. Finally, they gave up.

On the other side, the situation of her kids was equally bad. Her brother is a bit whimsical. He used to torment her kids. Swearing and expletives were common-place and calling his sister names was no big deal. So, the children had to be taken out of there. She brought them back tp her. Two more heads to support. But, no income.

Now, at the shop, they had another problem. No one would give them goods on credit and they didnt't have any money to buy the goods. So what would they sell at the shop?

By this time some of us got to know about her situation (she didn't even tell us until then!) and help poured in. So, she was able to start a small shop with only rare interferences from the brothers.

Today, 5 years after the drama, she has no debt on anyone. Her shop has goods worth more than 2Lakh. Her husband is doing better. Just a few days ago, she got an order of 12 television sets. Things are coming back to normal.

It would have been impossible without her courage and strength. Hats off to her!
Does she need empowerment? She made her own life!
We have heard thousands of stories of courage, but when you see one from so close, then you realise what it takes to live the story!

Klueless 4

2008-10-27T20:48:00.000+05:30

I've just started to solve Kluless 4 (I know I am late :) )
Here's the link:
http://www.iimi-iris.com/iris-2008/klueless/

This one's good and simpler than Klueless 1 (didn't solve 2 and 3 :( )
18th level is fucking amazing !!!!!!!!!

stuck on 19th .... Look out for updates !

Update : 23 !

Update: 26..
25 is a damn amazing level!.. too cool !

Update: Officially done with Klueless
(Switching to Nirvana mode :P ....)

A Wednesday

2008-10-04T23:37:00.000+05:30

** Possible spoilers ***

I apologize for posting two consecutive movie reviews. But, some movies are just too great!.. Truly truly great! And to be coming from bollywood, known for its stupid movies, I was shocked and pleasantly surprised!

While I write this piece (lets not call it a review, for it is inappropriate) I don't have Wednesday as a movie in my mind, but a concept. I can't elaborate. Sorry.

Frankly, I didn't know anything about the movie before I decided to watch it (except, ofcourse, that it was a terror flick). I expected another film on the Aamir lines. But, the final few minutes just blew me off. And not only because of the surprise-factor. It is the insignificant part of the movie that impresses me. The little things. Like, there is no crap about "mashab" and "hindu-muslim". NO! Infact, we don't even know to which religion our "common man" belongs to!

And the last scene is permanently embedded in my mind. The one where Anupam Kher shakes Naseruddin Shah's hands and asks him his name. And the scene stops as Naseruddin Shah says " My name is....." (Well, you have to watch the movie to feel it!!)

Naseruddin Shah is superb! No one could have done it as well as he has!!

I wanted to write a lott... but I am out of words! Guess I'll savour this post-movie feeling for a long time! Also, I feel terrible because I could write such a long post on a terrible movie and not a single good paragraph on a great movie! Anyway, that doesn't matter. What matters is, Wednesday is great! (is that 101st time I am saying that?). Please Please do watch it !!!!!!!

Kidnap: The classic !!

2008-10-02T21:59:00.000+05:30

I thought "Saas, Bahu and Sensex" would be the best ever movie I'd see in the theatres. But, little did I know that in another shady corner of this world, a clique of talented artists (?) were working on a equally breath-taking piece of art : Kidnap !!

Kidnap is a classic!! It has all the ingredients of a classic (The first such "classic" movie was.. Gunda: The Classic)

Let me list them down for the ignorant readers:

1) Amazing dialogues. Let me support the claim with examples

Sanjay Dutt "Mere assisstant se keh do mere dushmanon ki list banake rakhe" (Applauds!!)

Imran Khan "Jail main sirf ek cheez khali rehti hai. Dimakh. To maine computer sikh liya" (WTF?!?!!? ... I get paid and I am even provided with TWO computers and yet I am not yet as genius a hacker as he is.. shame on me!!)

Minnisha Lamba (there are 2 n's in the name) "Maa.. main roj ghar pe rahugi. Mujhe bas birthday pe ek gift chahiye.... Papa!!" (Well, I thought only babies are made...)

Let me not reveal all lest you lose interest in the movie!!

2) Skin show. Minnisha Lamba is effing amazing! She starts off with a bikini on the beach and never looks back. Man! But, our villian, Imran Khan, is also one helluva smart guy. While he has kidnapped Minnisha (Oops! Was that a spoiler?), he always keeps her in amazingly skimpy outfits. May be for entertaining himself? He takes her to beaches so that she can have a bath and he can bathe in serenity.

3) Acting. I must say, all the actors in the movie are soo good at hiding their feelings. Spot ONE feeling in the movie and get goodies from me. Too good!

4) Climax. Climax is just too good and mind you, VERY VERY unpredictable. Watch the movie to find out more!!

5) Message. Every Classic movie must have a message. This one has one too. Swimming in a bikini can get you kidnapped. (Oops... another spoiler!.. I hope I havn't revealed the great scheme of the kidnap!!)

It is a must watch movie!... Please book your tickets now lest you miss it!

My rating : Unrateable!

The decision...

2008-09-17T23:04:00.000+05:30

He stood at the edge of the cliff.
He stretched his arms and felt the wind pass through his body.
He was ready now. Ready to take the plunge. Decide his fate.

He looked up. The beautiful sky beckoning him. He spread his wings. Conquering the intimidating mountains, he rose. High above everyone else. The world was beautiful.

Then he looked down. The deep trench. Even the quick fall seemed long. A thud. Silence.

Higher the rise, deeper the fall. Thoughts tumbling in his mind. The beckoning skies. The pulling trench. The beautiful world. The long fall. The thud. The silence.

He was afraid. What if his wings fail him?
He had one long look at the sky. Then, he turned back. May be some other day.

The thing about eggs being vegeterian ....

2008-09-15T00:48:00.000+05:30

Let me get a couple of issues cleared before I start off.
First. I've been hearing a lot lately about eggs being vegetarian, especially infertile eggs. Obviously, I think it is outrageous and just another excuse to avoid moral scruples.
Second. I, myself, didn't have any facts to back my opinion. So I decided to dig deeper, for myself. Not for anyone else.

Here's the issue: Claims are that infertile eggs are vegetarian as they do not lead to birth of an offspring.

Let me first clarify my definition of non-vegeterain:
According to Jainism, organisms are divided into 5 categories. Having 1,2,3,4 and 5 senses. (skin, tongue, nose, eyes and ears in that order). Also, Jainism gives prime importance to Ahimsa (refrain from violence). Ahimsa is not only about the slaughter of animals but extends to any living thing (including microbes and trees). But, it is impossible to totally abstain from being the reason of death of other organisms because merely our presence kills millions. So, we reduce it as much as possible. We eat only one-sensed organisms (that too not all) that too aganist our will and that too only if necessary. Trees have only one sense.

Lets me start the reasoning by quoting the research by Philip J Scamble.
"Whether the egg is fertile or infertile, life is essentially there; and it has all the symptoms of life, such as respiration, brain, feeding ability, etc. There are 15,000 porous-breathing holes on the shell, the cover of the egg. The egg begins to rot at a temperature of less than 8^ Celsius, 00^ Fahrenheit. When it begins this process, its rotting manifests itself through evaporation of the water content. The egg becomes infected by germs and thus becomes diseased. The progress of the rotting soon reaches the shell of the egg." Clearly, egg has a life. I need not say more. The cynics will find a way out eventually. I don't care about them. As I said, the post is to satisfy me!.. not others....

Secondly. "Hens are given five kinds of violent-generating foods: bone meal, blood-meal, excreta-food, meat-meal and fish-meal." So, even if eggs won't be directly non-vegetarian. We are indirectly promoting violence. It is like endorsing a mass-murder but not actually committing it.

Thirldly. "The hen gives infertile eggs during the absence of the male bird. But it has been observed that she gives an infertile egg before the day of contact with the male bird - and also the next day. In other words, she can give a fertile egg even without contact with a male bird. On the fifth day, again she gives a fertile egg. This means that the semen of the male bird remains lying in her body for a considerable duration. In some cases, this duration has been observed to be as long as even six months" .. Also, there is not much difference between a fertilized and an unfertilized egg. So, it is difficult to say which is which. Would you rather risk eating a fertilised egg which could have produced life !!!!

Lastly, the yolk of the egg contains various microbes having 2 or 3 senses (i.e. skin, toungue and nose). That, according to me, classifies as non-veg.

Also, I will not talk about the beak-cutting and all other miseries of their life because that is a current-day tragedy which can be avoided.

I hope I am clear enough... I feel satisfied!! Also, I hope people stop queiting their consciences by stupid arguments. If you want to eat egg, why find an excuse!
Amen!

Project Looking Glass

2008-08-24T16:28:00.000+05:30

Project Looking Glass is a 3D desktop environment. It is java-based and so platform independant (So it can run on Windows/Linux et al). Sponsored by Sun Microsystems.

Personally, I havn't tried this Desktop environment, but it fascinates me. May be some day.

Check it out here
The sad thing is that, I couldn't find a decent screenshot on their site. So here are some screenshots I got through google
Screenshot 1
Screenshot 2
Screenshot 3

The project is still open for active development, so there might be some opportunities for those desperately-searching-for-prob-def BEs.
enjoy!

Windows sucks?

2008-08-17T15:52:00.000+05:30

Tired of shelling out money on crap that brings alongwith it another load of crap (anti-virus softwares, anti-spyware softwares, blah blah) ... well here's something to cheer you guys up

http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/

Enjoy!

(thanks to Yugandhar for the link)

Who wants this life full of care.....

2008-08-14T22:55:00.000+05:30

(Ok... the title "might" be borrowed from another of my friend's blog, but this post is in no way related to that one.... the title just suits best!.. and I love the poem !)

Ever since I left college, I always thought I am going to miss college because I am never going there back again. Never meeting the same people and all that bullshit. But, I never missed school or Junior college that sorely.

Now I see why. Although I am working for a semiconductor giant, on Linux (which I have come to love) and a job description that many people will envy, everything is different. You have to act responsibly. You have to follow a "time-table". Because now you are a "grown up". Basically, you are sucked into the treacherous whirlpool of survival. Do hell with it. (Might be a self-made illusion, but anyway it is atleast partly true, isn't it?)

I don't hate my workplace, infact, it is quite the contrary. I just hate what we have made ourselves into. We work ourselves out to "survive". And what do we do when we manage to survive? We WORK!... Its so hilarious. When I am idle, just laying on my bed talking philosophy with myself, I literally laugh out loud. Whats the point?

If I were God, or one of those people on planet Magrathea, I would have called this "total failure" (something like Windows?). But, anyway thats the way we are. We make gigabit neworks, not because that'll reduce our workload and make us less miserable, but because that'll enable us to do more work and make us more miserable!.. and how excited we are at the prospect of a gigabit network! damn!

We have made travel faster, not because we want to make the world a smaller place and ourselves less miserable, but so that we can make 10 business trips a week and make us more miserable! damn!

We have invented mobile phones not because that can help us in emergencies and make us less miserable, but so that it will make us ubiquitously reachable and more miserable. damn!

And yet, we marvell at these inventions, because we as people are miserable!

Inspite of what I am saying, I still want gigabit networks, I have a mobile phone and I take the fastest travel method available! And people say I don't adjust?.. Well, I have accepted all the things that make me miserable! What more do you want!

So, lets come together and stay in a jungle. Sounds great, ain't it? damn!
Go survive yourself! (nice expletive, isn't it?)

Happiness :)

2008-07-08T13:25:00.000+05:30

"Work like you don't need money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
And dance like no one's watching"

Nice quote.. Here's the original article..
(What the author wants to say is that happiness is our state of mind.. it doesn't come from incidents but from how we think ...)

Well not that I am all inspired by the article... The author has merely put into words what we already know... not that he has written a great article.. yet something tells me I have to post it on the blog :P

Anyway ... nice article.. enjoy!

Worth a read.........

2008-05-12T21:44:00.000+05:30

Chasing an illusion.....

2008-04-29T10:22:00.001+05:30

In the haze of depression,
I had an enlightening vision.
Shaken back to reality, I realised
I was just chasing an illusion

let Conscience be your mirror....

2008-03-21T10:46:00.000+05:30

A war raging inside me,
A battle everyday.
How can I face thee,
I lose to myself each day.

Beginning of the end.....

2008-03-17T10:15:00.000+05:30

I've canceled out 6 beginnings and I still don't have words to write this post....

The last 4 years was a pleasant journey... I've learnt so much. I've met people who have changed the way I act, the way I think and the way I am. PICT is probably the best thing that happened to me.

I've seen people wasting their life in vella and others wasting their life in over-dedication... I've met the breed of "politicians" and others so good at heart, that you are simply amazed... people who crib about "what they are doing here" and others who still manage to find time to do what they like... people who have been ignored all their lives, yet bear that radiant smile!... people who inspite of all the mockery hurled at them, still have that zest to learn, still keep trying.... people whose silence you can hear louder than anything else!...
This place is NOT a factory of bookish-geeks. I've seen people doing so many different things that sometimes I find myself wondering - where to am I leading myself.

But its not just about the students... without our project guide, BE would have been just another year... now thankfully, I know what I want to do. No one could have done it better than him. Someday, I'd like to be him.
However depressing, frustrating these past few months were, in hindsight, this was the best period of my life and I want to live it all over again. Probably I can live it better this time.

Finally, I've had friends that I absolutely adore!.... its not just about the friendship but what kind of a person they are!... I've never felt so much of a positive energy around me. Someday, i'd like to be them.

And finally as I come to my senses, I realize that I set out to write about how the project era has affected me, but, ended up writing this. Anyways, I really adore all of you guys. I had the best time over here, and am pretty sure this is NOT the end.... it can't be...

2008-01-19T18:27:00.000+05:30

Words sting. The lack of them sting deeper.

There are situations when you just cannot think... no matter how direct the hints are, you always assume the worst case (may be he didn't like it and he said xyz for totally different reasons?? or may be she meant it as friends and I took it the other way?)... there are times when you need confirmation, reassurance... not just hints, but plain crude facts. And when they don't come, it is depressing and annoying and irritating and disturbing and getting to your nerves.

I always thought words would be the poorest form of communication, but now I see they have their own place. They are as important as others are.... Silence is golden, but when applied to the wrong places it can be as disastrous as it is useful.

Switched back to Suse

2008-01-10T18:37:00.000+05:30

forget the Suse being microsoft-ed thing.... as of today, suse works for me !!:)

Well. it isn't that ubuntu isn't great... only that getting the developement environment to work for you is *very* tough .... and i don't have that kind of time at my disposal... so sadly, have to switch back to beloved suse!!

may be i'll go back to ubuntu after the project!!....

Switched to Ubuntu

2008-01-08T08:41:00.000+05:30

After a long time using suse... finally switched to another distro : Ubuntu

Not that anything is wrong with suse (except that it going to be Microsoft-ed), the reasons were entirely project related.

Now that I am using Ubuntu...here is a brief review
The look and feel is really grand... very easy to use.. you no longer have to care about the horrendous dependency problems and unsupported file formats... Ubuntu automatically downloads support for them when you try to run them!!.... no need to search frantically on all repositories:) ....

On the other hand,
Ubuntu dosen't have a GUI for dial-up connections... so you have to use the terminal to connect to the net.. also, it is not as customisable as suse... the arrangement of menus leaves more to be desired...

all-in-all... if you are only an end-user.. Ubuntu is nice, just that you'll take time to get the hang of it.... but once you do, it is really really really cool... and with compis installed, its time to say adios to Windows!

A typical day in-between the exams

2007-12-16T16:27:00.000+05:30

YES YES... my secrets revealed :P:D.. here goes ==>

set the alarm clock to 5:30 am ...
wake up at 5:30am... yawn as if someone was going to shove a 10m round pipe into ur mouth... set the alarm to 6:15am ... go back to sleep

wake up at 6:15am.. don't care about the next alarm... go back to sleep

wake up (finally) at around 7:00 bitching urself and ur laziness

waste half-an-hour reading the newspaper anyway... and another half just staring in void

clean urself and eat something hurriedly....

think : 10 min to 9:00 ... i'd better check out orkut and yahoo in 10 min ...

9:30am... mom shouts from the kitchen and I realise what time it is ... don't shut down the PC ... finally start studying

after each 5 min... yawn and see if there's some nice/hot song playing on any of the TV channels..

sigh! and bitch the censor board... check orkut and yahoo to see if anyone's there... sigh! and bitch everyone for not wasting time and studying (except probably prajya :D)

1:00 : lunch ... go to sleep.. wake up at 3:00 ...

not in my senses... so check orkut and yahoo for an hour ....

4:00: study.. ass on fire.. so some serious study upto 7:00

7:00 ... finally make urself believe that u have worked very hard today and that u *deserve* a break

check orkut and yahoo .... go for a nice walk ... return 8:30
watch "asambhav" ... discuss whats goin to happen next ... time : 9:30pm

call up someone just like this or check orkut and yahoo ...

mom says one should not study at night... so check if there's some nice/hot movie on any of the channels... again bitch the censor board!....

set alarm to 5:30am... go to sleep!!

Who is she?

2007-12-15T09:03:00.000+05:30

If anyone knows who she is .... do leave a comment !!!:):)

Auto-generate Break-up mails :D

2007-12-13T20:05:00.000+05:30

Finally the software revolution has caught on with relationships too... here's the ultimate, most customizable break-up mail generator... Right from I-am-sorry mails to You-are-an-asshole mails... You HAVE to try this out :D

Check here
Trust me, a software can't get any better !!

Klueless

2007-12-08T17:52:00.000+05:30

the 3rd Klueless puzzle series is finally out...
go here and start scratching your heads...

(Thanks to Vikrant for the alert :) )

Linux softwares

2007-12-07T13:14:00.000+05:30

Here is a (supposedly) helpful list of packages you'll need to plunge into the linux world:
The best method of installation is to compile the source. Being platform independant, you don't need to worry about which distro the source is meant for.
A typical sequence of commands you'll need to follow for installation from source is :
./configure
make
(login as superuser)
make install

consult the corresponding README files for any divergences

Coming back to the list:
Internet Dialer : Kinternet
Browser : Firefox
Messenger : Gaim (or pidgin as it is lately called)
Music player : AmaroK
Video player : Kaffeine (even, MPlayer or VLC will do)
pdf reader : Acrobat
chm viewer : kchmviewer
Text editor : Kwrite / Gedit
CD/DVD burner : K3B
Paint : GImp
Image viewing tool : GwenView
System Manager : YaST (Suse specific)
Word Processor : OpenOffice
Hex editor/programmers editor : Emacs / Vim
calculator : Kcalc

Any suggesstions/additions are welcome....

CHM woes

2007-12-07T12:58:00.000+05:30

Having switched to linux about 3-4 months ago, there remained only one hitch -- I couldn't find a chm viewer under my suse. (chm formats are btw, a 10000 times better than PDFs in terms of usability and simplicity). So, after unsuccessfully running after xchm for more than a month (which btw, i suspect, was specially programmed for Debian distros only), I resumed search for another good chm viewer.

There were atleast two other viewers I found : kchmviewer and Gnochm
To express my unconditional love for KDE, I chose the former, even though the screenshots suggested its graphics would be nothing more than "primitive"

Although, the graphics is quite primitive (uses Qt libraries)... the overall GUI is user-friendly albeit a bit slow. An additional tabbed-browsing feature is exactly what i missed in Windows' chm viewer.

also, the executable isn't directly put in one of the PATH listed folders. So, in order to use kchmviewer like an ordinary command, you first need to put it one of those folders. (/bin or /usr/bin ... etc).

so, adios to Windows... who needs BILL and GATES when everything is FREE and OPEN !!:D

The wheel of death

2007-12-05T22:44:00.000+05:30

This is a must watch... incredible!!

Hat-tip : Prajwalit

Goal : A Review

2007-11-23T13:41:00.000+05:30

The only reason I went to this movie was that our exams were just over and I can't bear the torture of Sawariya and OSO.....

It could have been a pretty decent movie if some cliches could have been avoided. Actually, making these kind of sports-heroics movies is difficult, since you cannot have anything new in the story. You have to mesmerize the audience merely by the direction skills.

Some things I liked about the movie :
1) For a change, the actors seemed to be quite committed to the movie. as in, atleast in some scenes, the actors could actually PLAY football !!.. thats a positive change in bollywood and probably that is a reason why I started off having a good impression about the movie.

2) Arshad Warsi was good in his role and so was John.

3) for a change, this bollywood movie did NOT revolve around love and romance.

Many things that bugged me:
1) My god!.. this movie is an epitome of racism. as Arshad Warsi puts it in one of the scenes, "it is not about football, it is about our race, our colour". In almost every scene the English are referred to as "gora"s.... I mean, come on, whats up!.. can someone please give us a break from racism!... how long do we keep insulting ourselves??.. call ourselves "powerless" because we are coloured... get some self-respect man!.. unless we don't stop cribbing about racism, why should they?

2) the climax was the biggest screw-up. The climax is NOT at all about football, but totally about John. Not a single brilliant strike or a phenomenal save, not even a simple tackle. Also, Boman Irani dosen't at all suit in the role of the tainted hero.

3) Although I agree that the story line or should we say, the climax is always predictable for such movies, but, the part that leads to the climax can be different. But, not a single effort is made towards this. The plot thus ends up being a cliche.

4) Bipasha needs to join an acting school.

There are some funny and some really touching scenes. But, they are only a few in number. All-in-all, the movie is worth watching just to check out the footballing skills of John. The first half was good... but the end was pathetic.

My rating : 5.5/10!!
enjoy!

2007-11-14T14:53:00.000+05:30

Eric Schmidt's serenity prayer... -FSJ

you guys HAVE to check this out... the most hilarious piece of writing ever !!!!
hail FSJ !!

here is the "prayer"

2007-11-12T22:11:00.000+05:30

Here comes the best FSJ poem ...

This guy never-ever stops...
Namaste. :)

The Hobbit movie ...

2007-11-11T11:20:00.000+05:30

Want The Hobbit to be as big a legend as the LOTR series??.... who else can do it better than Peter Jackson, the man behind the magic of LOTR...

http://www.youchoose.net/referral/jitesh_s/click/2/campaign/the_hobbit_movie

check this out ...

An Achilles' heel in Google !!

2007-10-06T23:01:00.000+05:30

So, the mighty google is not perfect afterall.... They found a way to hack gmail too !!
click here for all the details...

do check out if you have any unauthorised filters installed !!

UPDATE : (8th of oct)
Google says the vulnerabilities on blogger and google were fixed long before the public announcement by CERTIN on 27th of sept. Only the vulnerability on gmail was fixed on 27th sept !!!.... <:-P

Linux : converting wma to mp3

2007-09-28T10:14:00.000+05:30

It was never this simple !!
The only thing you need is : MPlayer codecs (w32all-codecs). You probably already have them installed if videos (specially avi) are running fine on your distro

Change to the directory where the wma files are stored ....
Type in the following one-by-one in the terminal (a script file will also work .. and probably be much more simpler... but lets use the terminal !!)

Thanks to : http://www.linuxquestions.org/linux/answers/Applications_GUI_Multimedia/Convert_WMA_to_MP3)

//remove spaces
for i in *.wma; do mv "$i" `echo $i | tr ' ' '_'`; done

//remove uppercase
for i in *.[Ww][Mm][Aa]; do mv "$i" `echo $i | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`; done

//Rip with Mplayer / encode with LAME
for i in *.wma ; do mplayer -vo null -vc dummy -af resample=44100 -ao pcm -waveheader $i && lame -m s audiodump.wav -o $i; done

//convert file names
for i in *.wma; do mv "$i" "`basename "$i" .wma`.mp3"; done rm audiodump.wav

The only change you require is probably in the conversion script... wherein.. the -waveheader option is deprecated..
instead modify it as : -ao pcm:waveheader
and it'll work fine !!

simple and fast... eh !!

Etags

2007-09-18T22:22:00.000+05:30

Imagine studying the linux kernel (for entirely sane purposes :D) with thousands of files containing thousands of functions... Around 70MB worth of text... And you are told to find a function in this haystack !! (well... don't even try grep.. it takes MONTHS to return a result.. I'd rather search manually :P)

Etags swoops in to ur rescue...
etags is basically a utility which generates tags for each function or data definition.
eg. a function declaration fun() would yeild "fun" as a tag. The corresponding file name and the offset at which the definition can be found is recorded in the file TAGS. TAGS is used by Emacs editor to simulate hyperlinks for tokens.
In simple language, if you come across a function and wonder how it is coded... just move the cursor over the function name and press M-. (M= meta key... usually ALT)... and voila!
The simplest way to browse a code !!
neat... eh!

wanna go back to where you were... no probs... M-* and there you are !!
Linux continues to amaze me!!

For kernel source code :
go to /usr/src/linux-[version]
login as su.. nd type in "make TAGS"...

For your own directory tree:
this is a bit clumsy since etags dosen't support nested directories... etags searches for specified files ONLY in the current directory... so.. the roundabout way is :
go to the root of your directory tree and type in
$ find . -name "*.[chCH]" -print | etags -
and voila!:D

what it does is... the find command returns all the filenames of .c and .h extension and this output is piped to etags command (the hyphen after etags directs etags to use standard output as its input)...

now that i see what linux editors can do... notepad suddenly appears soo lame !!:)

uhhh... suse problems !! (and solutions :d)

2007-09-06T12:45:00.000+05:30

Yesterday was an eventful day for me. Finally I was prepared to completely dump windows and switch over to linux. As a part of that endeavour, downloaded w32 codecs and got video and all other workable things working on my Suse 9.3 ... and in the excitement of videos running flawlessly on my distro (which is outdated and antic :D), tried running as many as 5 movies on all possible video players !!

Today, I would quit Windows. Little did I know what Linux had in store for me :(
(Btw... this has forced me rethink the "completely" part of dumping windows... I'd rather use Windows to troubleshoot linux when it crashes :D... a worthy use for Windows :) )

The thing is, I have a 10G partition dedicated to Linux, of which only about 5G is currently in use. But, today while I was browsing the internet, a pop-up message showed up saying I was low on disk space and within minutes, all applications ceased and failed to load when I tried to restart them. I looked around for a while, then decided to reboot (the windows way :D)... but, when I rebooted, Suse tells me that I can't even log in because the disk is 100% full !!... Not a byte to spare for the user of the system to log in!!... (may be because XWindows system requires some disk space??) whats suse goin to do without ME :D

Anyways, so here's where windows comes in, a simple google search suggested that I use the du command to check the disk usage and then decide on the further action.
So, booted Linux in failsafe mode, and entered du :
The problem was : the temporary folder (/tmp) was hogging half of the disk with a whopping 4.8G !!

and why's that ??.... well .. apparently when I played the movies yesterday (which were stored on the windows drive), what linux did in the background was :
it copied the movie, realtime, onto the linux /tmp folder and then played the movie. i.e. the entire movie was being copied onto my linux drive in the background. And the responsible application didn't even delete it from the temp folder!! I am still not able to pinpoint whether the erring app is kaffeine, VLC or Mplayer... but once I do, its going to get a beating of a lifetime :D

So, solution ?? ....
$ rm -rv /tmp
(del contents on tmp folder)

Configuring suse : The n00b way !!

2007-08-22T15:43:00.000+05:30

Gone are the days when Linux was ONLY for developers. Today, Linux is set to become the Universal OS. What with excellent multimedia and 3D games support. And .. anyone who has checked out the xgl graphics would certainly throw Windows out of the Window !!

Suse configuration is extremely easy, given you use the right source to get your info. The first thing you should know is how to use google. There is help on each and every topic you need, given you care to search for it !!

(Note: I use the Suse 9.3 distro... but the process described here is same even for later versions)
Configuring Suse for Internet : (DSL modems)
1. Don't be dumb enough to wrongly connect the hardware :D
2. Goto Start->System->YaST ... Enter the root password
3. Network Devices -> DSL (Ensure that your Network card is detected)
4. Click on "Configure" to Configure your DSL device
5. PPP mode = PPP over Ethernet... Click Next
6. If you don't have a provider added (which you probably won't) .. click "New"and fill-in the username.. password for the connection... Click Next.. and Finish !!
(You can click NO for the Configure Mail popup)
Done !!!!!

To Connect : Start -> Internet -> Dial Up -> Kinternet
Kinternet will appear in the Tray.... just click Dial-in.. and You are connected !!!<:-P

Getting the Multimedia Working :
Assuming the sound drivers and installed and working.. here's how you can get multimedia working...
Note that due to licensing conflicts, no codecs are available even for mp3 files....

1. Connect to the internet
2. YaST -> Software -> Online Update
3. Select Multimedia Option Pack 1 (compulsary for audio), 2 (for basic video.. like mpg..), 3 and 4 (extras)
(If you want only audio to be installed.. select only pack 1.. etc etc)
4. Complete the installation
And AUDIO is working !! .. but whoa.. the video still refuses to play....

To fix that... Uninstall Xine, Kaffeine, and LibXine1 (if you have them)

Now, you need to download latest codecs for avi, divx, etc to work..
The simplest way to is to use repositories... Reposiories are nothing but an online collection of packages.. I think, Packman is a really good and exhaustive repository... everything you need.. you'll find it there !!

here's how you add a repository : (make sure you are connected to the internet)
YaST -> Software -> Change Source of Installation -> Add-> HTTP
For Suse 9.3 ... add the following :
Server : packman.iu-bremen.de
Directory : suse/9.3
(for 10.0 and above... a simple Google search will give you the repository details)

once that is done .... Now you need to install Codecs and the players
So, go to
YaST -> Software -> Install and Remove Software
ADD : Win32all codecs, Xine, Kaffeine, LibXine1 and MPlayer (xine, kaffeine and MPlayer are media players) .. Install them..

and now... the Videos work too !!
(You need to uninstall and then reinstall the packages because the video players use the codecs available during their installation.. they can't be added later on.... )

Recommendations :
Audio player : AamroK simply ROCKS !!!
Video : Consider downloading either VLC player or MPLayer.. the default in Linux are clumsy to use

And then dump windows :D:d:D
good luck hacking with Linux.... Always say to yourself :
"I'll google before asking a dumb question" :D:D... and all your linux problems will be solved in no time !!

Top 10 !!

2007-08-07T15:59:00.000+05:30

I thought I'd compile the list of top 10 songs I love... this list may, and will change almost every month... so keep checking

1. Ana : We Are (Spiderman 2- OST)
2. Boyzone - Words
3. Fuzon - Khamaj
4. Linkin Park - Leave Out All the Rest
5. Godsmack - Serenity
6. Metallica - nothin else matters
7. Led Zeppelin - Stairway to heaven
8. Eric Clapton - Layla
9. Guns n Roses - Sweet Child of Mine
10. KK - Yaroon Dosti

Music...........

2007-08-01T23:59:00.000+05:30

Finally I mustered the courage to broach up the sensitive topic :D:D
why sensitive?... here's why --
(People claim) I am a really pathetic singer.... (not that I disagree... but to maintain a decent image of myself... I think of myself as the greatest vocalist of all times !!:D:D)... forget even trying to learn to play a musical instrument (I stay away from it for "The Greater Good" :D)... yet, I love music soooo much. I could listen to music for straight 5-6 hours. infact, 2 days after I installed winamp, the history showed that I played a total of 101 songs for 13:24 hours !!... I even intend to exploit the multitasking abilities of windows (and lately Linux) to the extreme... what with winamp, mozilla, yahoo, Word, etc etc always open at the same time! its impossible to even think of doing something without music in the background... my computer is either turned off or Winamp is running... such is the craze!...

and I listen to.......
Linkin Park (all time fav...), Nirvana, Coldplay, Scorpions, Beatles, Metallica.. and some of the songs of Pearl Jam, Led Zeppelin, GodSmack, 3 Doors down, Guns n Roses, Johnny Cash, Pink Floyd, Rasmus, U2, etc etc

among others would be - 1990s ke hindi songs, fuzon and aayushyavar bolu kahi, diwas ase ki and namanjur....

and the list is by no means exhaustive ... there are many many others... but I have better work to do than document all of em (like trying to share directories on linux... even though ping works just fine, sharing which would take max 15secs on windows, is a herculean task on linux :D)

so music is my soul, but you don't want to ask me to perform :D:D... its all jolly-good ONLY until I am LISTENING and NOT participating :P...
(btw.. I accept suparis for murders and torture :d)

Why do i blog?

2007-07-30T08:54:00.000+05:30

7-8 months ago... I started a blog just to know what a blog exactly is... I had no idea what was I gonna write on the blog... so for nearly 4 months my blog was just sitting there in the dark corner.. waiting to be rediscovered. and then a concoction of circumstances changed everything... today I just love blogs! here's y--

1) I came across some really awesome blogs which was my source of inspiration for a blog. I realised I could write whatever I want, however I want. And its soo different from a diary, which no one would read, atleast until I pass away. I could communicate whatever I can't through normal 1-1 communication. just coz they aren't considered to be "healthy" communication topics. I could log whatever I feel at the spur of the moment... come back to it later and discover how wrong I was !! I could vent my frustrations... talk to "unknown" people without caring whether they are listening or not...

2) blogs can be private... so instead of a potentially unsafe diary, I can always resort to a blog and use it as a diary.... today, when i read the posts written when i was either frustrated, angry or exhilarated, I realise how foolishly I acted in many situations... that the fault was mine in many of them... that people weren't as wrong as I thought when they accused me of condescending... but isn't it for the good?.. now I can work on the areas I faltered!

3) and lastly, blogs make me feel free!!.. u don't have to care about your, so-called "image"... you can be rude, sarcastic, selfish, generous, caring, compassionate... just anything u want!!!.... u can finally be YOURSELF without caring "what others will think"... that, i think, was the major attraction !!

~~~~

The Boy Who Lived ... censored as it was a spoiler

2007-07-23T22:39:00.000+05:30

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

***************** Spoilers *****************
(almost the entire plot uncovered :D )

What a way to end the fascinating 7 year journey through the truly magical, magical world of JK !!!
Not a single word in the entire 607 page epic fails to grip you... there is action right from the word go... so many secrets unravel... new unfathomable powers... and the brave 17 year old wizard facing the might of Voldemort, the most powerful Dark Wizard ever... The book surely gets the adrenaline rushing. And at the end, it is satisfying. Nowhere do you question the absurdness of a novice wizard challenging the might of Voldemort and still winning. so convincing is the story.

The grooviest part of the book was ofcourse the fight at Hogwarts. The climax that is! Giants, Giant spiders, Death-eaters and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named- all those aganist a bunch of Hogwarts teachers, Order members and some students !! .. and how Harry manages to pull off the victory!

But, JKs masterstoke would be the delineation of Dumbledore!!
She has a message here. Dumbledore is not this infallible shrewd wizard who somehow always does the right things! During his youth, he was as attracted to power as Voldemort was. Even he had this greed to "master death" ... apparently that was the last common thing between the two great wizards. No man is born great, its what his deeds that make him great...Dumbledore "understood" magic. He knew its limitations. He understood HIMSELF. He gathered himself up after the initial fiasco, learned from his mistakes. That made him great. He did not succumb to the greed of power. Voldemort did. In the insatiable hunger of power, to rule the world, to defy death he cornered himself!
We should all know this... its how we react to situations, that describes us. Selfless love, trust, faith make us powerful, not fear and coercion.

newayz... the book is just awesome!
How she manages to weave such mesmerisingly flawless and gripping stories, she knows!... but the spell she casts on the readers is unsheildable! :d

The sweet taste of success !!

2007-07-17T23:25:00.000+05:30

Today's lesson : Wine is not the only thing that tastes sweeter with time ... so does success !!
I also realised why people get so intimidated even at the thought of hacking with the linux kernel.

5 days ago..........
Me : Hey, lets do that kernel module thing... its gonna be whacky !!
He : yeah man, lets do it...

So, we installed Suse linux 9.3 (and while trying to recompile the kernel.. totally screwed up 2 laptops... one of which refused to detect any active partition and the other simply gave up!!.. but thats another story which is definitely not gonna appear on this blog !!).
and tried the "Hello, World" kernel module... to be frank.. "hello, world" programs have never excited me .... one of the reasons being their over-exposure (C, C++, Java, VC++, VB, SQL, LISP, etc etc) ...

but.. this one was just kickass !!
so.. we wrote out first hello, world kernel module. It took hardly 3 min... but what followed was hell !!...
Linux just refused to compile the code saying that some "CONFIG_X86_L1_CACHE_SHIFT" wasn't defined... that we managed to circumvent... but the next error was a bouncer

#error processor family not defined

what crap??... Linux just refused to acknowledge the processor that ran it!! .. that is kalyug !:P
newayz... so started our brainstorming sessions... we googled everything... read forums... pestered our proj guide to bail us out (till the point where he must have thought.. why on earth did i choose these dumbasses?)... studied the linux code header files... and every damn thing that cld be done .. was tried !!.. recompiling the kernel.. trying the 100s of commands suggested on various forums... other linux versions... and what not !
but...alas! 5 days... all wasted!! ... each one of us put atleast 4-5 hrs a day just beseeching Linux to ack the presence of its GodFather, the processor.....

and comes today. What a way to solve the problem !!
well ... while i was driving to chill's place (thinking about Emma Watson ofcourse ;) )... and bang! ... the lightning had struck! ... so.. cancelled all the plans... told Emma to wait while I do some imp work... went back to my place.. booted Suse... and husssh.. the DAMN thing worked !!
IT WORKED !!
I cld see my "hello, world" module proudly sitting 3rd in the lsmod listing !! ... that was it !... the exhilaration was numbing... I wanted to dance.. shout... sing... kiss Emma ;) .. all at the same time !! ... that was it...

and suddenly i realised, its just a "hello, world" program .. and thats the best hello, world program we wrote!!....

Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix

2007-07-13T15:36:00.000+05:30

******* WARNING : SPOILERS ***********

So was released the 5th installment of the Harry Potter series !!

For a hardcore HP book fan the movie turns out to be a disappointment. What with many scenes deleted, worse : modified. But, thats not the only thing that makes the cinema aweful.

The director somehow thinks that 2 hour movies are sure-shot hits. But, in that frenzy to be done with the movie in 2 hrs, the plot is distorted !!
1) the movie moves on soo fast, it is sometimes hard to catch-up with the pace. It ends up to be a collage of only the most imp scenes. HP loses its magic with the details not filled in.

2) many many scenes are simple deleted (eg. No Marietta the traitor, No centaur teacher, The room of requirement cannot be accessed by just anyone (the movie sadly ignores this), no Avada Kedavra curse in the Voldy-Dumby showdown (in the book Voldy fires 3 of em on Dumby), no Sirius-Bellatrix fight, etc etc)

3) The characters lack depth. You never feel the same anger and resentment for Umbridge as you do in the book. The portrayal of Dumbledore, Bellatrix and other powerful wizards/witches is pretty much lame. You just don't get the adrenaline rush when Dumbledore enters a scene. Even the scene in the last fight, where Dumbledore makes a grand entry and takes on 6-7 death eaters so easily, is simply dropped !!

4) NO QUIDDITCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
now thats outrageous!! ... how can there be no quidditch in an HP movie!

5) The looks of the Dementors is changed (but its for the good).. also the way Sirius appears in the fire is slightly modified (but again.. for the good)

Agreed that the book is too long and that its not possible to show everything in the movie blah blah... but 3 hours would have surely done some justice to the plot.. you can't relate the story in 2 hrs... its bound to fail !!

But, there are some agreeable changes too .. like the Fred and George escape (altho modified... the effect is magnificent!)... and the voldy-dumby fight is excellently portrayed (altho I seriously missed Avada-Kedavra !!))

All in all, if you are a hard-core book fan, its unlikely you'll love the movie.. but its a good one-time watch.. but for others.. its a feast for the eyes !! what with Emma Watson ;) and the awesome special effects !!
My rating : 7/10

A bastion among the clouds !!

2007-07-11T09:52:00.000+05:30

There we were, 7 of us (not related to the 7 wonders of the world :P) at the Malavli station (just before Lonavla). The sweet scent in the air was sooo much refreshing, a change from the otherwise polluted Pune environment !!

So, started our trek (I prefer to call it that, sounds FUNDOO :P) to LOHAGAD. 100m into the trek and we were already beginning to enjoy it. We were standing on a bridge spanning across the Mumbai-Pune Expressway... on the bridge.. the E-way spanned till the horizon on both the sides... awesome!!

And after what seemed like only a few seconds (but actually a whole 20 mins), we continued. As we were treading across a village, it seemed that all the bulls out there were seduced by VEDANG's charms... all of em WANTED him !! (to be fair, he was wearing a bright red T-shirt). And as we passed the village and Vedang rejected all the advances... we 7 jewels started composing a poem on our dear friend VINAYAK ... it went something like
"ek hota Vinayak...
to vikayala gela kitak nashak...." etc etc... (check out FRIENDZ blog for the entire poem)
and then as we were done with the poem, we entered the wonderful world of nature!... streams of clear water flowing along the kaccha road we were treading, clouds obscuring the pinnacle of mountains, brief spells of rain, greenery all over and the brief glimpses of the fort among the clouds .. all sooo mesmerising !! On one side were the vast expanses of plains and on the other the intimidating mountains...

1:30 hours into the trek, and we reached a place that would leave Kashmir far behind. Two mountain ranges crawling towards one another, both pointed at their ends with steep slopes. On the left range sat royally the Visapur fort and on the right, the LOHAGAD fort. Both majestic. we were there in the valley between them mesmerized by their royalty. The clouds and the slight sunshine permanently imprinted the view on our minds.

and SO, we continued (for the fear of overrunning the Google server with too much data, I'll skip over to the point where we actually reached the fort). So, after climbing just about 30-40 steps, we realised why Shivaji maharaj chose this location to build the fort. Well, I don't have words to describe the point and frankly no words could suffice. Here's a sample pic :

Next, we entered the fort. It is in such a good shape. No one would believe it was built 100s of years ago. The holes in the walls for firing arms, the huge doors, the small dark chambers, even the unharmed steps, the intimidating walls, all sooo beautiful !

and we explored the fort for nearly half an hour. Then we reached a Darga. we could barely discern the structure among the thick fog although we were barely 20-25 m away from it. The ravine on the left and the NOTHING on the right (Actually, a thick cloud cover:P) and the rain now pouring. It was the perfect spot for a katta. So, we sat there and chatted chatted chatted while basking in the heavenly atmosphere.

Here's a pic of the darga:

None of us wanted to leave, so we continued up the hill in now, even a thicker cloud cover. There we reached a well. The biggest one I have seen till date. We couldn't see the other end of the well.. but till the point we could discern, the well had no end!
A perfect spot for a horror movie:P. by then, the rain had gained such a momentum as to be comparable to the Mumbai rains. we could actually feel the rain slapping us on our backs. So we had make a move. But, took shelter in a nearby shelter!
There we unleashed our musical instincts which never subjugated until we reached Pune. We sung all the songs right from "Pardesi Pardesi jana nahi ..." :P ... to "Yaaron Dosti ....". (and we could make out the irritation on CHIRAYU' face... ofcourse.. what would a musician feel to face such a mass-distortion of awesome songs!! .. we could totally understand.. but our spirits couldn't... and we continued.............................

and let me not bore u with our return journey.. which was every bit as exciting as the climb.
I guess.. this was by far the bessst trek I ever had !!!
And I would never forget the lovely place, only second to Kashmir. The best part of the trek was that we were almost alone in the entire fort which kinda made us feel like the kings of the fort! ...

a must visit place !!

"AAJ TAK" - the fastest news service spreading rumours

2007-07-09T01:42:00.000+05:30

How can people be so stupid?
well.. just yesterday while I was out attending a marriage... one of my relatives came to me sounding distressed... apparently he had been watching the news and "aaj tak" news channel reported some 27 deaths .. and the cause?
You get a call from an unkown number.. and when you answer the call ... you instantly die of brain hemorrhage. This is because the call activates a virus which sends out high-frequency waves...

I mean.. how stupid is that!
First... how the hell does a call activate a virus?

Second... Are the handset makers stupid enough to provide speakers that can emit such high frequency tones? (well ... even NORMAL programs do go wrong.. and they are aware of that.. so they will never take such a risk)

Third... Why does the screen turn red?.. does the mobile OS somehow get a premonition of the forthcoming death? :P

and Last... technical.. but well.. even the techies were taken for a ride by this rumour...
Do you know the concept of bands? .. no signal outside a band of frequencies is accepted or transmitted.. bandpass filters ensure that.. so how the heck does this new virus circumvent that?

click here
for the complete news of the foolhardy !!.. we had real fun during the marriage.. faking unknown numbers.... and havin a gooood laugh!!... you too will lol once you know how absurd all this is !!

New cell

2007-07-01T10:10:00.000+05:30

its been 10 days since i got this new cell : Sony Ericsson W200i...

cool, isn't it?
I've been addicted to this ...

although there are some shortcomings like no bluetooth, only a VGA camera and only 128MB mem, it has everything I want.
Walkman facility with high quality mega-bass headphones and the usual games and applications. The GUI is great. and unlike the LG or panasonic handsets, the buttons are easy to use.
The lack of bluetooth is somewhat compensated by infrared. atleast I can transfer themes and small wallpapers, if not large applications and games.
The looks are typically Sony Ericsson, rocks !!

and the most imp thing : its real cheap... 6380 bucks is what it costs !! with amazing functionality packed in!!

The worst thing

2007-06-21T12:39:00.000+05:30

the worst thing in life is to be dependent on someone...
no doubt people will say that social life is full of dependencies.. but you can sometimes do without them.. what i am talking about are dependencies from which you can't even flee... you are like a helpless animal in the cage... you can't live with it, you can't live without it !!

badd!!

What does Barney do for a living?

2007-06-03T18:26:00.000+05:30

seriously! .. what does he do for a living?

1. A lavish house
2. Wall-sized Televisions in every room
3. Stacks of mention-nots
4. Can run and win a marathon without any preparation
5. Always suited up :D
6. "awesome" standard of living

What does Barney do for a living?
:D

An argument on eating habits

2007-06-01T18:05:00.000+05:30

for the complete argument click here

well .. its sort of lengthy ... infact insanely lengthy ... i'll try to highlight the important points .. or write a summary ... but after the exams:)

Bill Gates and Steve Jobs on the same stage !!

2007-06-01T12:48:00.001+05:30

Two giants who with an unpleasant history and contemporary stiff competitors ...
check this out :
includes the full interview....

Click here for the interview

Bill clarifies he's not the fake Steve Jobs:P:P

and Steve says (on the fact that Apple had to design iTunes for Windows) "it was like offering glasses of ice water to people in hell":d

What do you make of this?

2007-06-01T12:27:00.000+05:30

(This is purely a work of fiction:P)

what do you make of it when -
1. You find yourself frequenting places where she hangs out?
2. When you can't concentrate on your fav work just coz you may miss out a glance at her?
3. When your eyes constantly search for her?
4. When you can't act normally when she is around?
5. When you are tongue-tied when she is around?
6. When you get a sudden surge of gloom when she says "bye"?
7. When you are jealous if she talks to someone else?
8. When you feel down if there's no contact since days?
9. When your insides toss and turn just looking at her smile?
10. When you feel at the top of the world when you make her laugh?
11. When you just want the time to freeze and the "others" to vanish in thin air, when you are with her?
12. And finally, when you are disappointed when she calls you only a "friend"?:D .. sigh!

(crap... dnt gape... just going the "LP" way.. trying my hand at something "different":P..
NOTE : This is purely a work of fiction)

Friends

2007-05-23T18:42:00.000+05:30

A "friend" is an interesting term ... ppl have come to associate friends with two diametrically opposite viewpoints ...

First, a friend is the one who is with you in all the times, good or bad. He is the one who is always on "your" side. (He flatters you in the good times, and blames the others for your failures in the bad times. )

Second, a friend is your critic. He always points out your mistakes, irrespective of whether u just scaled mount Everest or you failed miserably in a venture.

Clearly, both the views are flawed. The former can be easily confused with a flatterer and the latter, with an antagonist.
The obvious solution is to say that a friend should have both these qualities. But, there is something more to it. A friend should know when to show which quality i.e. he should not mess up your moments of joy with stinging criticisms .. as well as... he should not wrongly blame others for your faults.

Friends who exhibit this poise are more likely to be helpful and close to you than the 2 categories mentioned earlier.

(Post under construction .... )

Non-veg : Imagine this .....

2007-05-22T19:15:00.001+05:30

I have been mocked and ridiculed for being a veggie. Well I pity all of them. the self-centered assholes. Have they ever imagined how would it be like if their own brothers and sisters were murdered like this in front of them. How it is like to know that you are going to die and actually seeing your kindred being mercilessly slaughtered. Murdered just for someone else's delight.

What if tomorrow someone opens up a slaughter house to slaughter humans .. wouldn't all these ppl cry foul? (If they don't ... dudes .. you are beyond repair) Then why do they show no compassion towards non-humans? .. just because they can't retaliate .. or coz they aren't human !!
sad!!

neway .. check this out ... this is a song by "The scorpions" named "Under the same sun" .. awesome song .. nd have a look at the lyrics :

"I saw the evening
Fading shadows one by one
We watch the lamb, lay down to the sacrifice
I saw the children
The children of the sun
How they wept, how they bled, how they died

Do you ever ask yourself
Is there a Heaven in the sky"

Microsoft is lame

2007-05-22T19:02:00.000+05:30

How lame can anyone get !!
apparently microsoft is planning to sue OpenSource communities for an infringement of 235 of its patents !! ... kewl .. Bill really knows how to mint Bills:P
Patents related to the user interface and the kernel; OpenOffice suite

Bill ... no need to get hysterical ... there are other moral ways of quashing competition ... grow up! don't you remember how Microsoft came into existence?? ... remember Apple?? ... How "someone" stole their OS which became "DOS" ??

newayz ... OpenOffice ... Bill ... do u claim title to the concept of open office? ... CONCEPT !! ... the concept belongs to the world Bill .. grow up !!

see here for the complete news

IBM launches 4.7GHz processor !!

2007-05-22T18:58:00.000+05:30

The frequencies just got faster ....
IBM just unveiled its 4.7GHz POWER6 processor !!

A dual core, 64-bit processor with 8MB on-chip cache .. wow!! ...

check out the complete new here

Microsoft makes a foray into the ad market

2007-05-22T09:03:00.000+05:30

hah .. so finally the giants enter the hitherto unheeded (by Microsoft:D) field of online ads. The competitor is none other than Google.

So what provoked Microsoft to enter the ad field?
The question remains unanswered ... but we can guess it has something to do with "popularity" or "future competition" ...

well .. google just launched its own online word processor program ... for FREE !!! ... which Microsoft sees as a potential competition to its Office products.
So, how does Microsoft counter-attack? .. By a $6bn deal to buy out the ad agent aQuantive. People also see it as a reaction to the google's recent spate of buyouts including $3.1bn deal with DoubleClick.

Whateva, the competition just got groovier
Click here for the complete news

Fake Steve Jobs !!!:P

2007-05-22T08:59:00.000+05:30

check out this blog ... this guy is just blows me off !!!

http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/

Linkin park : Leave out all the rest

2007-05-18T19:12:00.000+05:30

Check out the lyrics ...... shows how much LP has matured these past years .. the 4 yr wait really seemed worth it after I heard this song ... just awsm !!

I dreamed I was missing,
You were so scared.
But no one would listen
'Cause no one else cared.

After my dreaming,
I woke with this fear.
What am I leaving,
When I am done here?

So if you're asking me I want you to know;
When my time comes,
Forget the wrong that I've done.
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed.

And don't resent me,
And when you're feeling empty,
Keep me in your memory.
Leave out all the rest.
Leave out all the rest...

Don't be afraid,
Of taking my beatings;
Of shit behind me.

I'm strong on the surface,
Not all the way through.
I've never been perfect,
But neither have you.

So if you're asking me I want you to know;
When my time comes,
Forget the wrong that I've done.
Help me leave behind some reasons to be missed.

Don't resent me,
And when you're feeling empty,
Keep me in your memory.
Leave out all the rest.
Leave out all the rest...

.
.
.
.
.
.

I can't be who you are,
I can't be who you are.

Spiderman 3 ... arghhhh

2007-05-16T22:37:00.001+05:30

After the action-packed and mesmerizing two installments of Spiderman, here's the third one : the worst so far.

But, as a token of respect:) to Spiderman 1,2 ,I'll start with the plus points.
2 overwhelmingly powerful villians join forces to eliminate their common enemy : spiderman. Both of them are amazing. You have the Sandman born out of a mistaken particle physics experiment. (which they perform in open air:) .. outside a lab .... r they crazy?) and the other one Venom, an alien parasite attached to spiderman's peer who wants him dead. Both of them have awful powers.
The climax just rocks. You get this adrenaline boost seeing all the action and turn of events. Rocks!!

But, there's where the plus points end. sigh!:(
The first half of the film is pointless. Spiderman's unsuccessful attempts to woo her girl, his romantic life, etc etc. What crap? Are we here to see how spiderman kisses or how he approaches women? btw ... I bet everyone in the theatre had this feeling of just leaving the theatre at some point or the other in the first half. Awful.
the real movie starts in the 2nd half : and unfortunately, the wooing session continues here too ... but is more in the background and has kinda -ve shades, so its k. By k i mean ... handleable, without getting any feelings of just slapping spiderman in the face for his dumb gaffes.
In the 2nd half, as we are gettin a feel of spiderman, the director has a lot to offer. Understanding the complex relations between harry and spiderman, Venom and Sandman. As a result, there has been sort of an unfair treatment to each character. No one would have minded two separate movies for each of the villians coz both of them have that ability to fill up a movie:)
Finally what you get is ... 15 min of great action and 2:15 hrs of boredom!

So, when u r just gettin that action for what you went for the movie, bang ... the movie just ends. And you come out shaking your head in disappointment. Wasted 3 hours in which you could have solved your own love problems !!:)

Why do we need "scientific" reasons?

2007-05-13T16:05:00.000+05:30

When I saw the "Matrix" trilogy for the first time, the concept was fascinating. A virtual world designed to keep the people in the real world unaware of themselves. But, what if someone says you are fast becoming a victim of such a design? And the grand design is made by none other than "SCIENCE"!!

Right from a very young age, a lot of emphasis is given to scientific thinking, scientific point of view and logic. NO problems. But, then science crosses the lines to rubbish spirituality and traditions as "crap". Why are they crap? Because there are no "Scientific" explanations for some of the beliefs.

"scientific" ... the meaning of the term changes with each century. From Newtonian theory to Darwin's theory, every theory has its shortcomings. Even the most "intuitive" Newtonian theory was superseded by the thoroughly complicated and counter-intuitive Einstein's theory. Science is still far away from perfect !!! Then, why do we judge these beliefs based on science? With science's limitations today, the fact that these beliefs can be true cannot be ruled out.

If in the Newton times, someone said, "hey, an electron can be at 2 places at a time", he would have been regarded as deranged and mocked at. But, today we know it is the truth (refer Einstein's theory:). So, whats the guarantee that tomorrow the basis on which we overturn the beliefs, themselves do not exist!

Just because a bunch a scientists could not find the relation between the planet positions and our "supposed" future (Even I do not believe in this crap, but ... ), can science label astrology as crap? Can't it be attributed to our limited knowledge or immature science?

Why do we believe that there isn't anything called "soul"? Why do we rubbish reincarnation theories? Why do we deny the existence of GOD? (here, GOD isn't someone who made this world or controls this world .. NO ... he is just a perfect HUMAN BEING).
Just because science says so? Just because it is illogical? Don't you acknowledge your own shortcomings? Don't you think there might be some things out of your ken? Some things you can't know because you can't see or feel them with your senses?

Actually, the fault is ours. We think our culture is a big hoax. Something called the GOD was imagined so that there'll always be someone who one fears. Well, science chauvinists need to open their eyes to the shortcomings of science.
Thousands of years ago, it was said that eating green vegetables on some days in a month is unhealthy. The belief was rubbished. Today, it is found to be true. 5 times a month, when the moon is nearest to the earth, the gravitational pull of the moon causes increases water-levels
and humidity. This atmosphere is conducive for germs and hence, unhealthy for us.

The main problem with religion is, the reasons why we follow some of the mores are lost in time. So, there is no way of distinguishing between what are true traditions and what are just blind beliefs.

One of the unintended victims is : Spirituality. Although science dosen't directly attack spirituality, it has come under the scanner. If spirituality is overthrown and "logic" emphasized so much, I fear we might be reduced to robots, devoid of emotions and relationships. What makes us humans unique is NOT only the science but our culture, which is a fine mix of science, religion, traditions, spirituality and social inclinations.

Also, there's no reason to abandon our beliefs about soul and GOD and the higher facets of our spirituality. Science should just keep itself in check. It should understand its limitations. We should understand its limitations.

The Subconscious

2007-05-12T13:14:00.000+05:30

Spoiler : I do not try to explore the mystic and hermetic lands of the subconscious and propound the ways to tap its omnipotent powers for your spiritual upliftment. NO. I am not into that crap. This blog is merely a collection of my some of my observations and conclusions drawn from them.

For skeptics, lets first try to establish that there is something called "the subconscious".

Have you experienced something called "the lightning solution" (It is unlikely that you know this term, coz i just coined it!!:) ) ? Lemme explain.
There's a knotty and complicated problem badgering you since days. You aren't able to figure out the solution no matter how hard you try. Finally, somehow, while you are doing something else or just goofing off, your mind interrupts you to announce the solution to the problem !! You haven't been thinking on it for days, then how did you "stumble" upon the solution?
Well, some might say that the quantum waves of the solution somehow penetrated your mind blah blah blah ... others might say ... ghosts of the primordial period whispered the solution into your ears:P.
I beg to differ

Here's where the subconscious comes into the picture. According to me, the conscious is the part of the mind you can discern through your senses. But, the mind is far more complex than this. the subconscious mind is where the problem are actually pondered upon. It would be unwise to assume that we have only one subconscious, there may be many (like Threads in a processor:P).
Anyways, the important thing is - how does it work?
What I think is, the conscious part of the mind provides the subconscious some inputs to work on. (Thus, it logically follows that if you don't mull sufficiently on a problem, the subconscious has a lesser chance of coming up with a solution) Then, it is the job of the subconscious to work out a solution and interrupt the conscious whenever necessary.

So, enough of this boring blabbering ... now we have a theory as to how the subconscious works, so how can we put it to test?
Try this out -
1) Suppose you encountered a problem just as you are about to sleep. Don't defer it to the next day. Think on it a bit and then doze off. This (hopefully) will kick off the subconscious and will probably simplify your problem solving task the next day.

2) Give the subconscious enough time. Studying everything at the last moment is not going to help you. The job of subconscious is not only to find solutions to problems, but also to reflect on whatever you have learned in the course of the day (the process of reflecting may take months:D). So, it is recommended (by me:P) that start studying asap and go slow, don't overstuff yourself. It will help you to grasp the concepts well and retain them longer. Remember, the earlier you start studying, the more time your mind has to consider the aspects of the issue in question.

So, it is not that we have NO control over what our subconscious does. We do have some. We just have to figure out how to exploit it.
The power of subconscious is soo vast, its not worth neglecting it.

GRE (old sylabus) : how to maximise ur score

2007-05-04T12:02:00.000+05:30

You can either learn from someone's mistakes or you can learn from someone's success. Surely, both the forms are equally important. This is a guide to the former.

I didn't get a particularly good score in GRE. 1340. Not that bad, but obviously if you are reading this, your aim will be significantly higher (say 1500+). So, here are some of the "avoidable" mistakes I made. Learn from them, don't repeat them:P

1) There seems to be a pervasive misunderstanding that GRE is a test of Barron's words. Although it was quite true until some time ago, things have changed significantly. Today, Barron's is a guide to - which words are least likely to be asked in the GRE, and it is a good guide:). Even if you learn each and every Barron's word carefully, paying attention to the minutest nicety, you would be very lucky to cross 550 in verbal.
This dosen't mean you go to the market and buy a book giving you a list of non-barron's words. The point I wish to propound is that "learning" words from "lists" is no longer the only thing required to crack the GRE. What you need is good language which only comes from voracious reading (not only fiction, but a wide variety of books, magazines and articles). The words asked are not obscure words coined by a jobless pedant, they are the words which we have heard here and there, yet they are not as popularly used.
Words like "hull"(v) or "ream"(n) etc. These words won't appear in any of the lists.
Yet, a good reader will be well aware of these words. Also, it is less likely yo find these words in a fiction or a non-fiction book. What you need is a comprehensive reading habit.
That is the new GRE !! nothing great .... nothing to be afraid of ... very few esoteric words, but its a real test of your language !! and thats what people are afraid of !:). The test of your language and NOT your ratta skills.

I suggest, if you have time, start reading newspapers, magazines, watch sitcoms, movies, etc. Don't discount on the Barron's lists ... they are going to fetch yoy 550 ... its the way to 800 that we are trying to uncover and the way has to pass through Barron's !!:)

2) Do not neglect RCs and SCs. People tend to leave RCs for option assuming that they can cover up the score in the other question types. They are grossly mistaken. RCs is going to be your saving grace in the GRE (it was my saving grace, words totally screwed me). + If you get easy questions for the other types, good answers for the RCs can land you well above 1500. Also, RCs are NOT as difficult as people tend to think. Its difficulty is merely aggrandized by the grapevine. They are manageable, but only with practice can you tackle RCs.

And the last thing, don't neglect analytical section either, although it is not at all difficult to score above 4, people tend to bungle up in over-confidence. It is not that easy either. + a good 5 or 5.5 can compensate for a mediocre GRE score.

In summary, Barron's is NOT the ultimate guide, concentrate on improving your language.
DO NOT neglect RCs and SCs.

Best of luck !!

What is time?

2007-03-23T00:13:00.000+05:30

Have you ever spared a thought to this, seemingly "trivial" question? It is not as simple as it looks. Time, as we perceive it, is clock-ticks, hours, minutes, days, years, centuries and ages. But, is this really time that is passing?

Well, you guessed it right, it depends on how we define time. If time is defined as "something measured by a clock" then the above hypothesis might be true and you don't need to read all the prolix prattle which follows. But, if we consider time as something which gradually passes, then we have a problem.

Consider an Arrow. its motion is similar to passing of time. Now, according to Heisenberg's Uncertainity principle position and momentum of this arrow cannot be accurately and simultaneously determined (Yes, it is true even for macroscopic bodies!!). And it is true, if we photograph the Arrow, we know its position, but we have lost all the information about its momentum. and if we see an arrow moving, we know its momentum (as a vector), but we can't determine its position !!

Now, its analogy with time. If time is an Arrow. and say the arrow is moving, then we can't say whether we are in Past, Present or Future !!(its position can't be determined). and if we assume that we are in the Present. then Time is stationary (momentum cannot be determined !!). Thus, a fallacy!!

The thing is, we confuse time with relationships. We measure time (lets call it that for the time being:) ) with respect to some cyclic changes like Earth's revolution around the sun or moon's revolution around the earth. Which implies, that if these motions slow down, time will slow down !! ... therin lies the fallacy! .. we don't measure time, we compare ourselves with other activities. This comparison should not be confused with time!

So, there is nothing called time.
Time is just a perception. An imagination of human mind. That explains why time (the colloquial "time", acutally there is nothing like time) seems to pass slowly while we do a boring piece of work and why time seems to fly away when the work we are doing is interesting! Because, clock-ticks is not time, neither is the location of sun or moon with respect to the earth!

Then what is past? what is future?
Past is just an improbable event. i.e. the waves of probability have grew stronger for the Present and weaker for the past. Also, the waves of probabilty are weak for the future. So, future is also an improbable event, as of now.
To understand it completely, well, consider a gramophone record. Assume, the needle is at a particular point playing your favorite song. Well, it just implies that the other parts of the record are improbable and the part which is being played in highly probable (the analogy with past, present and future in simple).
To summarize the above paragraph, well, past and future are nothing but, improbable events. There is nothing called "time" as such !!

Its all quantum mechanics. As true for macroscopic objects as for microscopic!

So, go over the topic again ... What is time? .. does it seem that simple yet??:))

Quantum Computing

2007-03-07T18:16:00.000+05:30

This is my seminar topic this year. And the most promising new development in the field of computing.

Today the processors are growing faster and faster. But, there's a limit to the speed. A given mass of material cannot perform more than certain calculations. This puts us into a jeopardy. How will we cope with the future requirements ? The answer suggested was PARALLEL processing. But, again traditional computers proved grossly inefficient in implementing the concept. Scientists were in search of something that was "inherently" parallel in processing .... and the ans came in the form of "quantum computing".

Quantum computing emerged from the fact that the processors will grow so small that their elements will be of the size of an atom. Then the classical laws will be rendered meaningless and quantum laws will come into picture. quantum bits - popularly known as qubits - can store 2^n values SIMULTANEOUSLY, where n=size of register. Thus, the inherent prallelism!

Thus, 2^n computations can proceed simultaneously in a n-qubit register. This massive parallelism has gripped the imagination of the scientists world over!

But, the main problem with this field is, as a renowned scientist summarizes
"My students don't understand quantum computing, because i don't understand it"
Such is the intricacy of the subject that even those working in the field can't confess to have complete knowledge of the topic! Also, most of the technology required to implement a quantum computer is rather non-existent.

All in all, quantum computing is NOT the near future. But, in the long run quantum computing will certainly cause revolutions in the quantum field !! ... It will change the way we compute !

GRE : why when and how ?

2007-03-07T17:56:00.001+05:30

GRE : Graduate record examination
This is a must exam alongwith TOEFL (which is also compulsary to apply to US universities for higher studies.

The typical question asked today is "Why US? Indian engineers are earning enough, why go to US?" (This post is only for engineers, others shoooo :) ) ... The reason is, the US education system induces some practicality in you. + You have a chance to become independant i.e. live on yourself. Also, although software engineering is a booming field, there are bound to be recessions and your MS degree in US will help your boss NOT to sack you:).

When ? : there is no restriction by ETS (the GRE conducting body) as to when can appear for GRE. But, considering our own benifit, I suggest you should appear for GRE in your TE (that too, the month of March. March because it is believed that the examination is a bit easier then). TE because, you'll need atleast a year to complete all the formalities : GRE score, TOEFL score, VISA, application to universities etc). So, you can leave for USA as soon as your BE examinations are over. Thus, you don't end up sitting at your home for a year straining your father's income:). If you are NOT sure whether you will clear all subjects in TE or BE, then also, it is suggested to appear in TE only, because GRE score is valid for 5 years.

Classes : I don't know about others, but Dilip Oak's is a good option if you are a puneite. But, again classes are not that much of a help. I suggest, buy out the DOAK's material and prepare on your own.

Books and other resources :
The ultimate guide will be Barron's book. A nice work. You can also go for, Princeton or Kaplan's guides. Besides, there's a lot of material available online.
You can also download some from,
http://nidheshjain.googlepages.com/gre2
and if anyone needs anything more, well you can contact me. I pride myself with an awesome GRE collection.

Required score :
for computer engineers anything above 1300 will be called decent.
One can easily score 750+ in the quantitative section. So, you are just supposed to scrape in 550 odd in verbal which won't be a problem.
Also, recently Analytical writing scores have gained importance. try to get atleast 8 out of 12. Again this is NOT at all difficult.

Final words :
Anyone readin this post now would probably appear in the new syllabus. So, beware there are only Reading Comprehension and Sentence Completion type questions. RCs are hell. So, start reading now. You need to have a good vocabulary to understand the RCs and attempt the SCs. So, taking a look at the Barron's list will still be a good idea (although, ypu won't need to learn the words as you needed to do in the OLD syllabus)
Plus, the new syllabus will be a 5.5 to 6 hours ordeal. So, get your concentrations up too.
And, Quantitative and Analytical sections are unchanged, so, NO problems on that front.

(Add a comment if you found this useful or if you need further information.
Best of Luck in your endeavour)

GRE

2007-02-23T08:46:00.000+05:30

some really good material with me :
1) princeton and kaplan tests
2) dictionaries : POD, meriam-webster's, thesaurus, WordWeb(by princeton, very very good)
3) Ananlogy bible
4) Antonym bible
5) out-of-Barron word list : 2700 words
6) 32 issues and 32 arguments (5-6 pointers)
7) Word Hacker (good for last min revision)
8) Rarest eng words (About 1800, believe me .. they are quaint and amusing)
9) some links to regulary to test your progress

the only thing missing is RC practice set ... if anyone is in possession of one, plz plz mail me