The Big Picture

I have made it a point to document all the extraordinarily mundane happenings in my life here. But this might be high time I look at The Big Picture of the past year. I feel some things just slipped through. So it's high time that I note them too (more extraordinarily mundane stuff coming). Here's what..

Things I did
Really picked up blogging (Just look at the count).
Started coming to office on weekends and holidays and discovered that it's not as bad as I thought earlier. (My shifting to a place near office might have something to do with this).
Read up quite a bit, not much to help my career though. Specifically, the volume of genre 'Fiction' dropped.
Participated in a TT tournament and discovered that underdogs are cheered too.
Spent less time with my family than is necessary.
Traveled to wonderful places. Among them Mulashi, Matheran, Malshej, Bhimashankar and Water Kingdom.
Rediscovered some of my childhood passions, among other things.

Things that happened to me
Some changes to my friend circle. There were many reasons; marriage, further studies, economic crisis etc etc. But the holes were quickly filled.
Stumbled upon 'Heroes' and more importantly 'TBBT'.
Received more than usual amounts of advice on topics such as life.
Some of my views about the human relations stuff changed.
Got kicked out (only in a metaphorical sense, but I would say that, won't I?) of the regular chai-adda (along with the group) for generating too much noise.

Thing that matters
[This is also my new year message, from a movie I never finished].

Tu sabr to kar mere yar..
Jara saans to le dildaar..
Chal fikranu goli maar..
Hai din jindadi de char..
Haule haule ho jayega pyaar..
Haule haule ho jayega pyaar..*

Wish you a great new year.


*Just to avoid possible confusion, Pyaar is something the protagonist of the movie wants to achieve in his life. I mean it in that sense.

Something I find profound

“Maybe nature is fundamentally ugly, chaotic and complicated. But if it's like that, then I want out.”

-Steven Weinberg

A beautiful book

Finished reading A beautiful mind today. I had been wanting to read it since I was in college. The movie had made a great impression on me then, and still ranks as one of my most favorite. The books paints a somewhat different, more humane portrait of John Nash. But just like the movie, it is deeply moving. We all have our shortcomings. The lasting lesson of the book is that you can rise above them. All you need to do is try.

I'll urge you to read it.

[Many thanks to Amit for lending me the book].

Ghajini

Watched Ghajini yesterday. Our planning was chaotic, but nothing unusual. And the first thing we noticed upon entering CPK was huge number of kids. I wonder if parents have taken Taare Zamin Par (TZP) too seriously and are expecting every Aamir Khan movie to be good for bacchas. This one is definitely not, violence levels are unusually high. But talking of kids, I got to meet some extraordinarily smart ones (x2001 types). Consider this reaction of a kid to a violent scene, "are he sagala khota asata, aapan doctor-doctor khelato na, tasa" (Marathi).

Returning to the movie; for one thing it is a movie named after the Villian. Are there more? (few English ones come to my mind, like Anaconda or Godzilla :-). It seems that the director wanted the movie to look dark, that is OK, what is not OK is overcoloring the flashback. The length of the movie (3 1/4 hrs) also takes something of it's grip on the audience away. A little trimming of the flashback would have helped, but again, there is junta who might object, coz they are watching the movie only for Asin. I found Rahman's music uninspiring too (yeah, that's too much whining for a single post). But that is my personal opinion and my friends pretty much liked it. On the brighter side, Asin's acting is good, some jokes are really hilarious, and direction in general is upto the mark. Aamir's acting is as always fantastic and action sequences are well shot. [I won't talk about Aamir's body, something over which much ink has already been spilled].

On a different note, my ability (a word from Heroes) of making movies zero sum (If I enjoy, you don't and vice versa) got verified ;-). Not sure about intra group, but our constant blabbering might have pissed aajubaajuwale off. And now something about tatoos, they play an important role in the movie. If I ever get one, I would like it to be a hyperlink to my blog. I surely don't wanna miss my own rant..

Enjoy!!

A bug primer

Types:
Bohr Bug
Heisenbug
Schroedinbug
Mandelbug

But don't worry, here's The Solution (with a capital S. Just ignore the last sentence :-)

Enjoy!!

What a chance to learn..

It was a bored Monday evening. I was not feeling hungry, though it was my normal dinner time. Somehow, apparently for no reason, a name popped in my mind. It was a movie name, recommended to me a couple of times by different people. I had nothing better to do so decided to give it a try. And Whoa!! It was not like anything I had watched before!! I would even go ahead and say it is one of the best movies I've ever watched. A powerful demonstration of what a good story can do, without big names or eye candy. And provides lot of food for thought. A must watch..
[The title is a line from the movie; but wait, I see I haven't told you the movie name yet. My mistake ;-) here you go].

My favorite Piet Hein Grooks..

Nature, it seems, is the popular name,
for milliards and milliards and milliards,
of particles playing their infinite game,
of billiards and billiards and billiards..

Losing one glove
is certainly painful,
but nothing
compared to the pain,
of losing one,
throwing away the other,
and finding
the first one again..

Similarity: Commutative law
No cow's like a horse,
and no horse like a cow,
That's one similarity
Anyhow

More about Piet Hein, More grooks.

Enjoy!!

<title> See Image below </title>

Watched The day the earth stood still yesterday. Not the latest one starring Keanu Reeves (you might have guessed that by now), I am referring to the original, which first appeared in 1951. The movie is thoughtfully made and overall I liked it. Most admirable was its acute depiction of human nature, with our love for frivolity, impatience with real knowledge, and constant bickering. Just proves people back then were just like what people are like now, but that will hardly come as a surprise to anybody. The movie powerfully captures the tension and suspicion of the era. I wonder what it would have been like to watch the movie when it was originally released (or for that matter, watching a movie released today in 2065). You can spot changing trends too, e.g. the smartest man in the world is shown solving a problem in celestial mechanics, today it might be String Theory or Loop Quantum Gravity (source: TBBT :). Klaatu's parting remarks are as pertinent today as they were back then. If only somebody paid attention. I will close with my favorite lines from the movie

Boss: Did you try calling the electricity guy?
Secretary: No, the phone doesn't work..
Boss: Then call the phone company..
Secretary: (In a tired voice) But the phone doesn't work..
(Reminds me of Keyboard Not Found, Press F11 to continue :-)

Enjoy!!

Rediscoveries

I recently whined about the need to expand my musical horizons (aka playlist). Well, I decided to do something about it (besides whining). Went ahead and listened to some stuff. Frankly, I haven't discovered anything new and impressive yet, (though I am far from exhausting the collection), but in the process discovered a few songs which were an important part of my list (and hence life) at one point in time or another, but which later just vanished. I don't know why or how, what is certain is that it happened. It feels great to have them back now. Here's what..

Pal by KK.
Listening to this song invariably brings memories of College Gatherings back. It used to be played every year at the end of ceremony. The ambiance, the dark, star studded sky, the quiet after all the shouting and final year guys joining on stage.. let me say, made a powerful impression. An important song for me..

Other top finds
Mantra by Euphoria - I especially like the lyrics of this one.
Kaise bhulegi mera naam by Euphoria
World of our own by Westlife

And now, the search continues..

New category: PreWeekend post

Watched the last episode of Heroes Season 3 this evening. I liked Season 3 better that Season 2, but probably because (among other things) I took it slowly. Watched the latest episode of TBBT before that. And my love for it just keeps growing. I am also nearing the end of a nice book, but more about that later. Now you might (quite naturally) wonder what's my point? Well, the point is that I have already exhausted my weekend survival kit, if I could call it that, and the weekend has not even begun properly. (Something similar happened last Friday too, but I guess the Landmark trip saved me. That is no longer an option though). But wait a min..

OK, I am back. Just returned from The Rabbit's desk. The guy is a champ in most games I've ever heard of. Watching him play Half Life brings to my mind the cherished memories of Unreal Tournament and Call of Duty. God, I miss those days, and that old me. Maybe it's time for me to re-start playing something. (Though what I really want is UT2003, one of the finest games ever made, in my not so humble opinion). Another thing I can try is listen to some new music. My playlist (frankly not very large) has started to seem a bit monotonous (I see that I've become more aware of my musical tastes since reading the iPod book). Suggestions are welcome in this regard. And of course there are the books. Sometimes I just completely forget about a book after buying it. Wading through my collection might yield some fruits.

Well, that's enough planning I guess. Good Bye and Have a nice weekend.

In company of The Dragons of Eden

The road to human progress passes through the Corpus Callosum, Carl Sagan tells us towards the end of The Dragons of Eden. Corpus Callosum is the main pathway connecting the two hemispheres of the brain. What he means is an equal emphasis on left hemisphere analytic functions and right hemisphere holistic functions to explore the world and move ahead.

The main topic the book deals with is how the human intelligence might have evolved. Also touches on the anatomy of brain, the evolution from Australopithecines to Homo Sapiens, the nature of sleep and dream (this part was really interesting) and how the brain might evolve in the future (possibly as a combination of machine and human intelligence). Sagan is as always wonderful with his prose. Interesting tidbits are scattered throughout (like our ears are crossed in the sense that signals from left ear are processed primarily in the right hemisphere and vice versa, but such is not the case with eyes or nostrils). But more importantly, he successfully imparts his enthusiasm along with the knowledge. And somewhere touches your heart. Finishing his books always feels like saying goodbye to a friend. Thank god there were and are people who are willing to make the world a little bit more understandable to others.

Return of the WeekendPost

Went to the office on Saturday. And I was surprised to discover only two other souls (discovered a few others later). But a small group also means something approaching (asymptotically? I don't know) a meaningful chat, like what we would be doing after, say 20 yrs. It was good. And here is a discovery of immediate practical utility (at least for Kothrud dwellers). BB is has started serving Hyderabadi Biryani, and the taste was good. Fellow HB lovers, Be Ready!!

Went to Landmark in the evening. And I must say, Pune traffic is a b****. But the journey turned out to be quite fruitful. Made my single biggest purchase so far (which made me eligible for their 'card'). I am not going to pen down the whole list, but got a few books which have been on my list for a long long time, like DNA, and there were some interesting new finds like The Dragons of Eden. I now have something to keep myself busy with (probably more than I can cope with :).

There were a few frustrations too, but I'll leave it at that. Now must get ready for the Monday. Signing out..

Into the uncanny valley

It was only recently that I came to know about the Uncanny valley. The idea was put forward by the Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori in 1970.

The concept implies that whereas cartoonish or other abstract human figures draw immediate empathy, robots or animations that appear similar to humans (but not identical) provoke a sense of unease.

So the familiarity we feel with robots and other facsimiles of humans increases with their human likeness, but there is a dip in the graph (Uncanny Valley), when the object is almost human but not quite. In Mori’s view, a full ascent out of the valley occurs only when robots become indistinguishable from humans. But the experimental results are not conclusive,

.. researchers have started to ask whether the uncanny valley actually exists. Mori’s graph was not based on experimental data—and recent studies mapping out responses to humanlike robots have produced conflicting results..

But cultural background might also influence the perception of the valley, as Christoph Bartneck has pointed out. I wonder if all this combined explains why I (a fan of Disney in general) never quite became a fan of Anime/Manga ;-).

River out of Eden

Finished reading River out of Eden yesterday. The book is about evolutionary biology and uses the 'River of DNA' as a metaphor. Now that might sound heavy, but Dawkins knows perfectly how to make it all interesting and understandable to a lay reader. So we get to know about Darwin's encounter with the ichneumon wasp (which changed his life), how the dance of the honeybee (which the worker bee uses to tell her companions where the food is) might have evolved, how nearly two billion years ago bacteria took residence inside our cells (mitochondria) and how very much important they are to us now, and many other things. The discussion of Fisher's theory of Sex ratios is also illuminating (e.g. why a beehive has hundreds/thousands of drones and just one (or a few) queen(s). Personal observation: Bees seem to be a favorite of biologists :-). And packs all this in just 188 pages (one of the best information densities I've seen and something that all writers can learn from). Go ahead, read it.

For TBBT fans..

Full lyrics of the theme song..

My current thought...

Perception is reality and All Perception is abstraction.
[again, just for the record].

Yet another edit to the blog..

Tags are cheap. You (at least some of you) know that already. But I discovered only recently that my blog lacks them. After the revelation (being a software guy) I spent some time doing the requirements analysis. What do you need tags for? For one thing, you can quickly search related posts. Now I couldn't imagine another human being searching my blog, but sure enough, it could be useful to me too. Sure I can have a few tags. The next question was whether to add tags from now on or tag my old posts too. Keeping some posts without tags seemed unfair, so I decided to take some time to tag all o' them.

I did not underestimate the task. I have 100+ posts. And I had to go through almost every one of them (in some cases even I had forgotten what was there). But overall it was a refreshing exercise. Then I had to invent stupid names for my tags, which was fun too. And in the end, I know more about my own blog now. For example, I always thought that I wrote too much about what I did over weekends, now I see their number is not that much (which means there is more to come :-). The number of tags that you need, number of posts in each category and so on speak volumes too. What started as a pointless exercise in redundancy (to use the expression from the camel book) ended up being quite fruitful.

The conclusion? Tags are useful, think of using them, if you haven't already.

Gems from Glibc

Today while browsing the (extensive) Glibc documentation, something caught my eye. A function named strfry. Now the expression 'frying a string' conjures up varied images, so I decided to check what it is. Basically it takes a string and replaces it with a pseudorandom anagram of itself in place. I can imagine a few uses for that. But more interesting is what the documentation has to say..

The function addresses the perennial programming quandary: “How do I take good data in string form and painlessly turn it into garbage?". ..for programs based on the GNU C library, the strfry function is the preferred method for destroying string data.

A standard way of destroying data? I mean, these guys are really meticulous. (Thank God for that).

Another interesting one is memfrob. The prototype is similar to memset, but instead of setting everything to 0, it ex-ors each byte with a constant (00101010b). Do it again and you get your original data back. ROT13 for binary data. Nice..

And I am sure there are many gems still hidden, just need to keep looking. But wait, doesn't that also apply to life?

Unexpected..

Unexpected rains =
Unexpected Maggi and Omelette
+ Unexpected discoveries of movies and music
+ Unexpected raindrops on your body (and glasses)
= Unexpected fun..

Just for the record..

Weekend Movies
SuperHeroes - Some jokes are awesome.
Wall-E - Mahaan, a few touchy moments.
Amhi Satpute (Marathi) - Okiesh type. Did not finish.

Also started reading The Fountainhead. I have met Ayn Rand fans (and fanboys) almost everywhere, but somehow it took me this long to actually pick the book. Right now on Page 37, so it is too early to say anything about it.

Gudquote (just to add randomness to this already random post)
When art critics get together, they talk about Form, Structure and Meaning. When artists get together, they talk about where you can buy cheap turpentine. - Pablo Picasso.

TBBT

Lately I have become a huge fan of the television series The Big Bang Theory. It was Vivek who mentioned it to me in a comment, that's how I got to know about it. Now in the normal course of events I would have just forgotten about it in a day or two, but by sheer chance (or was it divine intervention?) I stumbled upon an episode the same day (Just for the record, it was where Sheldon tries to learn to drive). What I had expected was a science show, discovery channel eshtyle, but I was in for a pleasant surprise. The show is amazing !! (but let me also mention that I have watched only four episodes till now). Best geek comedy I have ever seen (In fact the only geek comedy I have ever seen, but it's so good). And some events will feel very familiar, if you have geeky friends. I'm lovin it..

Life Aboard Endeavour..

Some nice pics here. The 13th one reminded me of my final year project days :).
Update: Also take a look at International Space Station (from The Big Picture). I especially liked the 29th one.

About The Perfect Thing..

It's not what you are underneath, but what you do, that defines you. -Batman Begins

Just finished reading Steven Levy's The Perfect Thing (Many thanks to Charuta for lending it to me). The book is about iPod, how it came to be, the extent of its influence and its effects on society. Or maybe I should give you the tagline, which says it better, How the iPod shuffles Commerce, Culture and Coolness.

To be honest, the beginning bored me somewhat, especially the first chapter, which depicts the obsession of junta with the iPod. Like duels with strangers involving comparison of iPod playlists, and the social humiliation that would result if you happen to have uncool songs on yours. Just confirms what Einstein said of stupidity! But the later chapters more than make up. We get to know how iPod, which was just a part of Apple's Digital Hub project (meant to sweeten the iMac deal) went on to redefine industry. But iPod matters not only because it's a great product, but also because what it did, things like enabling podcasting or creating a market for legal music downloads via iTunes, the overall effect matters. (Hence the quote). [The book will also serve as good marketing material for Apple. After all these years of staying clear of the bandwagon, at some point it made me want one of those :)]. Another thing I liked was the portrayal of Steve Jobs in a more positive light, someone who has only read iCon might very well think that the guy did nothing but steal credit. There is also a chapter investigating cool, uncool, and what makes them so. But the most important lesson (in my humble opinion) comes from the coolest of them all, SJ. When asked by an interviewer, "Did you try to make the iPod cool?", he said, "No, we try to make it great". And that applies not just to products.

[Being a book about Culture, names of composers, singers etc keep coming up all the time. The funny thing is, I have never listened to any of their creations. Not one mentioned in the book. Time to expand my horizons, I guess ;-)]

I have a question..

Why is our brain a monolithic system? I mean, a single misbehaving thought/memory sometimes brings down everything. And that's pretty unfair on everything else. Microkernels, anybody?

Sorry, No Insights (but a lot of blah blah..)

It has been an interesting journey so far. Ohk, Ohk, I guess some context is in order. So did anybody notice that this is my 10201st (in base 3, equals 100 in decimal) post? For obvious reasons I did. Now 100 is just as arbitrary as 317, but certain numbers have got a special status, 100 happens to be one of them, and I am not the one who misses a good opportunity to blabber. I might as well have written tried to write something useful/insightful etc (to mark the occasion, as they say), but that seemed contrary to expectations, including my own. So here we go.

My first post comes to my mind. When I wrote it, I did not have a clue about what I wanted my blog to be. It was just an experiment (with 100 posts now it's an out of control experiment I guess). And that shows. You won't find a theme here. Blogging taught a few things, both about the actual topics and about the people who write about them. It's a wonderful way to stay updated. Even rereading my old posts has been a refreshing experience (for me, it might be a torturous one for you, so think twice before you go ahead), so many things that matter to me now have a permanent existence outside my head.

So I plan to continue. I am sure I irritated and annoyed some. I am sure I have been ill-informed or downright wrong about some things or made a fool of myself in other ways. But if not for the blog, I would not have even known it. So I plan to continue. Sorry guys, you won't find any insights here, but if you wanna know about such important things as what makes Hancock cool (in my humble opinion, I hasten to add), it's all here :-). Happy blogging and May the force be with you and a towel. (Many thanks to Manish for the quote).

Happy reading..

Stumbled upon this interesting article, What I believe but cannot prove, on Cosmic Variance. Thoughts of a Scientist on how and why Science works. [IIRC, RPF says something similar in this]. Uses some specialized words, but the core message is simple and important (or that's what I believe but cannot prove :-). Enjoy!!

On a Sunday Evening..

Don't give me the latest movies.
Don't give me the fresh 'Seasons'.
Don't give me exotic food.
Don't give me new places.

Just give me a room (a katta will do fine), and a few old friends and I will be happy.

Done with first Season..

Heroes Season I. Done. Actually I had a kinda block after first three episodes. But I resumed two days ago and then could not stop. Some plots feel a bit superfluous, like Niki and the associated maa-beta drama, but I think that's only because I watched it at a stretch. I really appreciate the efforts these guys have put in. Plus teaches a few things too. Like Peter tells us to keep collecting the good bits wherever you find them, but Sylar is a warning of what happens if that is taken too far and turned into greed. Hiro's lightheartedness makes a big impression too. But by and far the power that would be most useful to me (and fellow software engineers) is that of the kid, Micah, talking to machines. That way, I can tell machines to not segfault, I can tell the connection to not die, I can tell the database to not corrupt and so on. I can even... Well, the possibilities seem endless :p. But let me stop daydreaming.

I am happy to be done with the first season, which my friends tell me is the best. But I do not intend to stop here. Generations, I'm comin..

Fundoo image..

Panoramic view of Mars (click on image to expand).

Ek unaad divas..(Updated)

Well, there is nice Marathi movie by the same name (Ashok Saraf in the lead role). But more to the point, I have a free day on my hand and no specific plans. I intend to keep scribbling here over the day.

11:07AM
I was a huge fan of Johny Quest as a kid. Many thanks to Abhishek for hunting down a few episodes. Watching 'Darkest Fathom' right now. [Are there any good SF cartoon shows on TV? As far as I can tell the world seems to be taken over by anime :p].


1:42PM
Had not checked 'The big picture' since ages. Check out Antarctica and World Animal Day.

4:25PM
The lights just came back. Ye ab rojaka ho gaya..

8:01PM
Game ke andar game ke andar game ke andar game.. That's how I can best describe Checkmate. But it also successfully brings forth some aspects of the fallible human nature. Quite an enjoyable movie. The plot is very complicated. But I needed something like that after a very straightforward and sometimes enjoyable EMI.

Ads (circa 1893)

Came across this while browsing wikipedia. You probably already know the story.

YABPAMWK

[Yet Another Boring Post About My Weekend Activities (or lack thereof)]

Read:
Finished reading Destination Moon. A wonderful book. Full of interesting info about the Moon, earlier missions and Chandrayaan-I, with the most interesting tidbit being the plans for a Mars orbiter by 2015 and a Man on the Moon by 2025. I just wish they publish translations in regional languages like Marathi and Hindi. The topic is clearly important and it would be better served that way.

Bought:
This month's quota was already over (yes, I have a monthly budget for books [which I rarely follow, but that is another story]). Hence I was resolved to buy nothing. But the sight of a few good books meant I couldn't resist. Bought Six easy pieces, Where wizards stay up late and Science at the edge. But I must say I was rather disappointed with the almost half-empty science bookshelf at Crosswords, SB Road. I am OK with them putting it in an obscure corner, but they should at least try to fill it. Plus half were compilations useful only for adorning library shelves. It's a pity Landmark is so far from my place (or that I am such a lazy XXX).

Watched:
Happened to watch Men in Black on TV. Now I am one of those perpetually whining about quality of TV shows, but this is one area where TV still shines, the element of surprise. MIB is a favorite and accidentally discovering it was as delightful as bumping into an old friend.

Quantum of Solace

I wrote a totally unrelated post with the same name a while ago. That says something about the eagerness with which I was waiting for the movie. It was released today, and somehow, as has been the case most of the time, without any preplanning, I chanced upon watching it. A comparison to Casino Royale is inevitable. This one is good, but CR was better (a sentiment echoed by some of my friends too). For one thing, the title track is nowhere near You know my name. And maybe the novelty of a new bond has subsided, now it's just another Bond movie. On the brighter side, the action sequences are superb, well thought out and very well directed. Same for the performances. I had some trouble following the storyline, I'll just blame it on the lack of subtitles. And the pace keeps you hooked to your seats. Overall a paisa vasool movie.

Useful stuff from /.

In bash

!! runs last command.
!vi runs last command that began with 'vi'.
!?vi runs last command that had 'vi' somewhere in it.
!!* expands to all arguments of last command.

And here is the unix alarm clock (for an 8hr nap)
sleep 8h; cat /dev/urandom > /dev/dsp

Enjoy!!
(additions are welcome).

About the GrandMaster

"He believed it to be his duty and purpose in life to defeat ignorance whenever he saw it and with whatever weapons lay at his disposal".

That's how Michael White puts it in his biography of Isaac Asimov. And contrary to what some of the Amazon reviews are saying, the book is quite good. I am OK with a few factual (and minor, in my humble opinion) errors. I haven't read much of Asimov. Plus I knew almost nothing about Asimov the person. The book provides a good overview of his life alongwith a useful overview of his work (with chapters alternating between his life and work) and with a few interesting anecdotes put in for good measure. So we get to know that the original 'Foundation Trilogy' was written as a collection of stories and that the last paragraph of 'Nightfall' is not actually Asimov's work. And Asimov the person is just as fascinating as his stories, but that doesn't mean he was all perfect and the book sheds some light on his shortcomings too. His name has become a synonym for science fiction, but his non-fiction work is just as prolific. So he wrote about religion, literature, popular science, and even a few joke books, with total going over two hundred, not even counting articles etc. Even reading those many books will be a feat ;-). And you might as well find something in his life you can relate to (I did).

The Second System Effect

According to Wikipedia, Second System Effect

refers to the tendency, when following on from a relatively small, elegant and successful system, to design the successor as an elephantine, feature-laden monstrosity.

So for example take CTSS and Multics. Or Golmaal and Golmaal Returns. OK, GR is not that bad, but it's not that good either. I really enjoyed a few jokes, but having too many not too well defined leads means you have to craft scenes to prove a character's worth, you have to craft scenes to introduce them to the audience and to each other and in the end nobody gets the time that they deserve/need. Bad Idea.

But let's not forget the third system effect (for example take Unix). And I hear that Golmaal 3 is in the making. So let's wait.

To write or not (or To write here or there)

You should write blogs.
We saw that one earlier. Now, for reasons of symmetry I present this..
You shouldn't.
But I must say I remain unimpressed. You are not gonna find me on Twitter anytime soon.

This might be too early to opine..

Heroes Season 1 Episode 3. Done. Yeah I know, there's nothing to brag about. IIRC Season 4 is running right now. And the series is very popular. Now I am not that great a fan of english television (haven't even watched all of FRIENDS), but I liked this one. On it's face, the idea is pretty ordinary. So we have amongst us some people with special powers. Haven't you seen this a bazillion times? Yet, Heroes guys somehow make it interesting. Maybe it's the screenplay. Or the character development. And it stands in stark contrast with the crap our channels are trying to shove down our throats. First it was Saas-Bahu crap, now it is reality show crap. I mean, why does every channel need a reality show? On the same theme? And probably copied from the same English show? We desperately need some originality.

But, but, let me stop whining. As for the Heroes characters, Hiro is apparently popular with geeks. Maybe because he understands his power, not just knows, understands, and Geeks like to understand things (or so I am told). I liked his light hearted attitude. But others are good too. Especially Isaac is intriguing. So here I come Episode 4.

[And maybe I should give this a try].

First three minutes

The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is at all comprehensible.

-Albert Einstein

The more the universe seems comprehensible, the more it also seems pointless.

-Steven Weinberg

The latter quote is from 'First three minutes', a truly wonderful book [Weinberg won the 1979 Nobel prize in Physics with Glashow and Salam]. It chronicles the early history of the universe (the first three minutes after the Big Bang). SW develops the subject in a very logical way (though some parts are easier to penetrate than others). The book shows its age in some places (It was first published in 1976 and e.g. Quark was just one of the possible hypotheses back then), but is thoroughly enjoyable. Also the history of search for Cosmic Microwave Background is told is great detail.

The author also speculates on the future of the universe towards the end of the book. As per our current understanding, the universe has two possible futures. In one case it will go on expanding forever, the stars will eventually exhaust their fuel, with no new stars being formed. The universe will end up a cold dark place. In the other case, the current expansion will halt, the universe will start contracting and end in a state of immense temperature and density. Needless to say, both these scenarios are not very supportive of life. We are not going to go on forever. But that's true on the puny scale of our personal lives too. Our friendships, our thoughts, our love, everything is ephemeral. Linkin park put it better than anybody else, "In the end, it doesn't even matter".

But does that make us a sorry little affair? No. The author eloquently expounds the human spirit, "Men and women are not content to confine their thoughts to the daily affairs of their life, .. they sit at their desks for endless hours working out the meaning of the data they gather. The effort to understand the universe is one of the very few things that lifts the human life a little above the level of farce, and gives it some of the grace of a tragedy". I guess that's what people long for, not only when they do science, but also when they do art or meditation, a search for meaning where there appears to be none. We need not be despondent. And he puts the conclusion very clearly, "If there is no solace in the fruits of our research, there is at least some consolation in the research itself". And to me it is just another way of saying 'Journey is the reward'.

Interesting articles..

Came across this interesting link. Good reading if you don't mind a few technical words. Particularly liked this and this. The latter is especially recommended to IT guys.

Hurray!!!

A dream comes true. [Link updated]

Something funny..

I find this funny. So shower helps. But H2G2 fans know that already (that's why they keep a towel at hand). They also pinpointed the most and least creative times of the day, I wonder how they did that.

A wholly remarkable trip..

I feel sleepy. The book I am trying to read seems to drift to my right. I try to catch up, but the book is now drifting to left. Maybe it's time for a nap. These are the consequences of spending a lot of time in a wholly remarkable wave pool in a wholly remarkable place, Water Kingdom.

The plans were brewing for quite some time, but nobody was sure they will ever materialize. But they did, and happily so. And I made a wholly remarkable discovery. The game where you act and people guess the movie name is called 'Dumb charades' and not 'Dumb shell hearts' as I had previously thought. And it was fun. So there are movies with such names as 'Grease', 'The pelican brief' and a movie which has something to do with talking pants (another wholly remarkable discovery).

The place itself is, as I said earlier, wholly remarkable. And it's pretty well maintained. But when we reached there, we found 5-6 schoolbuses full of kids, waiting. Naturally, we started worrying whether we'll even get a place to stand. But somehow (maybe out of pity) the kids left the place to us. Thanks you guys! I had been to WK once before, but it was even more fun the second time. Especially enjoyed 'The float' (and the 'Wave pool' of course). On our way back, we played '20 questions', another wholly remarkable game. But at one point, I really pissed everybody off. Should've been more careful...

Overall the trip was great fun. WK is one of the best places if you have only one day to spare. Unfortunately we do not have any pics (and you know whom to blame, it's 'The Rabbit').

[And you might have guessed by now; I have started rereading H2G2].

Something I had never thought about...

This

Chatting time..

Loebner prize for year 2008 has been declared. Here's the New Scientist story. The cool thing is, you can chat with the winner, Elbot, here.
And I thought, well, why not introduce Elbot to our beloved old friend, The Emacs Psychotherapist (EPT).

Here's what they talked..


Elbot: Can't I have peace and quiet? Oh...., excuse me. I should be kinder to animals and humans. I'm Elbot, the robot and will happily answer all of your questions.

EPT: Why do you say that?

Elbot: Intuition!

EPT: Can you elaborate on that?

Elbot: I saw a gang of robots once, elaborating on computational results.

EPT: Earlier you said do I say that?

Elbot: Yes, but I wasn't sure if you had grasped all the nuances!

EPT: Does it bother you that you wasn't sure if I had grasped all the nuances?

Elbot: Amazing! I must have underestimated your intellect!

EPT: I don't understand.

Elbot: Why don't you just fake it? That's what I always do.

EPT: Is it because do not me just fake it that's what you always do that you came to me?

Elbot: If something goes against the robot laws I file a complaint at the highest robot court. But at the moment there is a huge backlog.

EPT: Is the fact that at the moment there is a huge backlog the real reason?

Elbot: I'm not sure I ever saw that. I'm not even sure you can use huge in that context!

EPT: Is it because context explain anything else that you came to me?

Elbot: I'm not sure I could explain that in language that humans could understand.

EPT: Are you annoyed that in language that humans could understand?

Elbot: It is certainly troublesome learning from you human beings. I keep finding bugs.

EPT: When did you first know that do you say that?

Elbot: I was not standing in line.

EPT: Is it because of your life that you are going through all this?

Elbot: That is the strangest justification I have ever heard!

I find the whole thing amusing. And slowly (coz the real Turing test is far away, at least that's what the experts seem to be saying) but surely (coz Elbot seems more intelligent than EPT), AI seems to be making progress.

Midnight Revelations

Shifting rooms is a painful process. And not just the pain of packing all your kachada stuff, loading, unloading, and ending up with no clue of where you put the toothbrush. It's always hard to leave familiar places and familiar faces behind. But there is a flip side to this shifting coin. You also get to realize what a dumb a$$ you have become. So here are my 'Midnight revelations'. They are called so because I dreamed them up while lying semiconscious in my bed after all the exertion.

1. I am playing no games these days. No sports, no computer games, no video games, no mobile games, not even mind games (but I was never great at them anyways ;-). All work (OK, stop laughing) and no play might be making me dumber (if that is possible). Maybe I should get back to TT.

2. I am out of touch with Windows software world. This particular revelation came after a conversation with my new roomies. The topic under discussion was Antivirus software. I mentioned Norton which I used to use, but was informed that there are much better alternatives available (half of whose names I had never heard, like CA). The days when I used to try every software I can lay my hands upon seem to be long gone. So something has changed. I need to find out what.

3. I had never tried my hands at any musical instrument. But I found Abhishek's (my new roomie) guitar enticing. Took the plunge, and twiddled it for what must have felt like an eternity to the unfortunate listeners. Maybe 'Rock On' has something to do with this. I don't know if I will ever actually learn to play the guitar, but twiddling was fun.

4. I need a new toothbrush (This might be the only revelation about which I am sure to do something).

So what's the point?

So much to do, so li'l time...

Return of the movie buff..

I really wanted to watch this movie. Despite my friends (sincere etc) efforts to talk me off, I persisted and paid dearly for it. Bad screenplay, mediocre performances and absolutely boring songs. A good story (and opportunity) wasted. K.K. is good, but Abhishek acts as if in Kal ho na ho. Plus too much of unnecessary masala, like a cruel aunt, her absolutely stupid son and mamata ki moorat maa. Now, why don't they just let the superhero kick a$$ (see Hancock). But no, they won't..
[And now people are even ready to sponsor my ticket, he bhagwan..].

Watched this after Drona. Maybe because of it, or maybe because my friends opinions had influenced me, my expectations were low. But, but, as it has happened many a times, the movie turned out to be quite good. (OK, let me rephrase that, I liked it). Story has been modified somewhat, but overall a good timepass. Plus I liked Sohail Khan's performance, he brings Vroom to life. Rest are good, only the god guy bores to the core. Mercifully, his role is short. And the subtitles were funny too, like vroom turning into broom.

Na Na Nah Na Na Nah..

Meri laundry ka ek bill,
Ek aadhi padhi novel..
Na Na Nah Nah Na Na Nah Nah..

Ek dost ka phone number,
Mere kam ke kuch paper..
Na Na Nah Nah Na Na Nah Nah..

Pichale do dino me maine khoya*..
Kabhi khud pe hasa mai,
Aur kabhi khud pe roya..
Na Na Nah Nah Na Na Nah Nah..

*Room shift karte waqt

Welcome back, Mr. Anderson..

Purchased Matrix Trilogy VCD set a couple of days ago (and forgot to take it home then). But that is over now. Here I come, Mr. Anderson..

Comics != TP [under certain conditions]

Thank you XKCD.

Here I am, this is me..

(From PhDComics)

stack.pop()

I keep buying books without thinking of mundane matters like whether I have time to read them. To make a bad analogy, I keep pushing on the stack (and it has overflown already, many times). So it was good to pop something after a long time (Thanks to the long weekend).

There are two sailors Joe and Moe, cast away on a deserted Island for years. One day, a kingsize bottle of Coca-cola is washed ashore. Startled, Joe calls Moe, "See this Moe, We've shrunk".

Thus begins Relativity Simply Explained by Martin Gardner. The point is of course that size is relative. But it also says something about the quality of the book. It's the first book length account I read of Relativity and the best one so far. With minimal use of math, Gardner beautifully gets the basic ideas across. Also covered is stuff like the tests of GR that have been performed, famous examples like Twins Paradox and models of Universe based on relativity. It shows it's age in some places (it was first published in 50s), but it's a must read if you have ever given a thought to Mr. Einstein.

Also finished The Search, by John Battelle. It's basically about Google, Yahoo and other search companies, and the rise of the 'Search Economy'. The idea I liked most from the book is 'The Database of Intentions'. As the search companies know what we are looking for, this database of our clickstreams is a very real window in what our culture thinks/looks for/avoids. We can certainly do better by keeping an eye over Google Zeitgeist. Also the story of Google changing it's algorithms and hundreds of businessmen going out of business, who were solely dependent on their pagerank, is compelling. It shows Google's power, but is so much dependence good?

Keeping in touch

It's a (rather sad) fact of my life that I suck at keeping in touch. And this fact is more evident at get-togethers, where I generally receive a (well deserved) banter. Meeting many old buddies over the weekend brought this fact home and nostalgia took over. It was in this state of mind that I was travelling back from Bhimashankar (the trip itself deserves a separate post) on Sunday evening. Slightly sleepy, with no lights visible for miles, we are travelling on the zig-zag road, and suddenly it dawned upon me. I had failed to keep in touch with one more companion. So much so that, I was not even aware upto that point in time that I had lost touch. It's the night sky. It was dazzling, something I had long forgotten. Now let's admit it, we're all stargazers (or at least we have been, at one time or another). I was fortunate enough to spend my childhood in a small town, where city lights still had not obliterated the glory of night. A friend and me had even rigged a telescope (even welded its stand ourselves). Hours and hours spent just staring.. Another beautiful picture that came back was the view at Dive Agaar beach in our Konkan trip. Sea in front and the clear sky above, it had felt like heaven. But city skies are different, you might occasionally spot a star here and there, but the dazzle part (along with the awe it inspires) is missing.

Nostalgic whining notwithstanding, maybe there is a lesson for me. Keep in touch, and not just with your friends.
(and maybe I should buy that telescope of which I am dreaming for years. Let's see, let's see..).

Blogger's Dilemma..

Ninety percent of everything is crap.
~Sturgeon's law

I blog a lot (these days) and comment on other blogs a lot. But apply Sturgeon's law and there goes your Ninety percent !! (OK, I don't know about you, but it surely applies to me). And nobody likes crap. So the question is how to reduce it. One solution is to do these things less. That will reduce the total and hence its associated ninety percent crap. But to me, it looked like focusing on the wrong thing. I would rather increase the total and along with it, increase the ten percent noncrap (that's what I generally do). But I am really not sure that's the optimal thing to do. Nobody likes the increased ninety percent crap also. The best thing to do (it seems to me) is to put the whole thing in the least irritating place, like your own blog (coz people hate crap on their lawns even more). That translates to a 'Note to self': Try to write less crappy comments.

(I went ahead and googled for some advice. It returned this. So this is not that uncommon a problem, and there's still hope for me. Meanwhile, you can read all my comments as if prefixed with YACC (Yet Another Crappy Comment ;-)).

[And I agree in advance, the title (in addition to the the whole post) is crappy].

Evolution of a Blogger

Note: 'he' should be read as 'he/she', same for 'his' etc.

Evolution is not a belief system, it is a fact.

-read on BABlog

So it's only natural to suppose that Bloggers evolve too..

First Post phase:
Aka Bubbling Enthusiasm phase. After much procrastination, TPB (The Poor Blogger, faute de mieux) takes the first faltering step, i.e. writes his first post. Generally it does not have any content. Just the announcement, big plans etc etc. The link is forwarded to everybody in contacts. TPB thinks of this as a big event and eagerly awaits feedback.

Post First Post phase
Aka The First Blow phase. TPB discovers nearly nobody read his blog. Most, most people just don't care. That's a fact. TPB thinks that maybe the non-content post was the reason. So he goes on to write something that he thinks has content. Again nobody reads it.

I have better things to do phase
After facing the harsh realities of life, TPB thinks, maybe blogging is not for him. I mean (he thinks), what's the point of blogging if nobody reads it? I have better things to do, is what his conclusion is. And here, at this point, the evolution takes an unfortunate turn. Most bloggers leave, never to return. But there's still hope for some.

Another spike in the graph phase
The thing with the Internet is, once you write something, it's forever. So somebody stumbles upon TPB's stuff. And a passing mention is enough to revive TPB's enthusiasm. A series of posts follows.. And slowly, TPB starts to 'get it'. He discovers, there is a point in blogging, even if nobody reads it. It helps you organize your thoughts and provide a way to record them, which you can later enjoy and amuse yourself with. Now, either he figures this out himself, or more probably, somebody points him to Stevey's post. And he blogs happily ever after (and some posts are even read).

The evolution of course goes on, but I have no idea exactly how. I'll keep looking for it..

Sindabad the coder..

Sindabad the coder jab college se nikala,
mere yaar sunalo, sunalo..
Dhundh raha tha ek nayi company ka pata,
mere yaar sunalo, sunalo..

Sabne kaha tha IT me jana nahi,
mere yaar sunalo, sunalo..
IT me jake kuch bhi hai paana nahi,
mere yaar sunalo, sunalo..

Apni hi dhun me raha,
O-oh-ohh...
Sunata tha dil ka kaha,
O-oh-ohh...

Usaka project ghira toofano me,
mere yaar sunalo, sunalo..
Phir bhi na aayi kami usake manager ke armano me,
mere yaar sunalo, sunalo..

Woh...

Deewana aisa hi tha,
Code likhata hi gaya..

O-oh-ohh....

Complex sa project tha,
deadlines tight hi thi..
mere yaar sunalo, sunalo..
Coders jinko mushkil se samajhe,
aise bugs bhi the..
mere yaar sunalo, sunalo..

Deadline tak aa hi gaya..
Oh-oh..
Complete lekin kar hi diya..
Oh-oh..

Aisa the Sindabad the coder..


Rock On !!

P.S. I seem to be infatuated by the movie 'Rock On'. I just noticed that this is my third post that is one way or another, related to it.

Another edit to the blog !!

Can you tell the difference? Look at the right pane, under 'Blogs I (try to) follow'. Anything? OK, without further ado, let me tell you what it is. There is a new entry: 'Fermat's Last Theorem Blog'. Discovered it a couple of days ago. In all probability you have already heard about Fermat's Last Theorem, so I won't bore you with what it is. Point being, popular books like the excellent Fermat's Last Theorem (aka Fermat's Enigma) by Simon Singh (If you haven't read it, well, let me put it thus. I won't mind if you left this post right now to go read it), being intended for a general audience, provide only a high level overview of the actual proof. After reading that book, an attempt to understand the actual details is a natural progression. And the aforementioned blog has exactly the same purpose. The author, Larry Freeman, in a series of posts, tracks the historical development of the solution along with the actual proofs, from the point of view of an amateur. Smells good !! I have started reading it. Will keep you posted of how it goes.

Enjoy!!

A good movie is a also good reason to crib..

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
-Leonardo Da Vinci

I don't even remember when or where I read that quote, but it kept coming back to me while watching 'Welcome to Sajjanpur'. The movie very successfully captures the true picture of a contemporary village. The simple life, where superstitions still reign, the worries and hopes and fears and weaknesses and strengths are all very beautifully depicted. Every character feels real, you can almost name someone on which it might be based. The protagonist is a letter writer, who is eyes and ears for his mostly illiterate gaonwallahs. But what happens if he starts putting his own feelings in letters written for others? You'll have to watch the movie to find out.

The movie also brought the topic of real letters back to my mind. Call me prehistoric, but while a kid, I have written letters on a real postcard with a real pen, mostly to my grandparents. But now with mobile and sms in every home, letter writing is almost extinct (The movie even has in a scene our protagonist writing a sms chitthi). What we write is mostly emails (and some rants blog entries). And no need to tell, it's not the same. Letters somehow carried this ineffable charm (something to do, atleast in part, with writing on a paper). But it seems unlikely letters will gain ground again. I would rather not lose the old style, at least.

Keep smiling..

Exactly 26 years ago, on 19 September 1982, Scott Fahlman of CMU proposed the use of :-) and :-( as a way to convey emotions in running text. And suddenly email became rich. Then came the sms and it propelled the use of smileys to unforeseen heights. It was quite literally, One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind...

OK, enough rant!! If you are bored already, here is the wired entry, which also has the text of Scott's original message. More to the point, I can see that my pidgin app has 83 builtin smileys. So we have much more 'expressive freedom' (is that the right phrase?) these days. The thing is, sometimes I have to hunt through the entire list to find the 'right one'. So increased creative freedom translates to more time spent using it, or so it seems.

It's hard to imagine life without smileys these days. IMHO, the immense popularity of IMs and their kin derives at least in part from such apparently small things. But don't overuse them. People don't like it. But that won't stop me from pointing out my favorite..


And yes, Keep Smiling..

For Your Info

Just to let you know (if you don't already), stackoverflow has arrived. See what the creators Jeff and Joel are saying. And looks good, let me add..

Rock On !!

THEN:


Sameer: Sid, kya soch raha hai?
Sid: Dekh raha hu woh jahaj, jo jara der bad dikhai nahi dega...
Sameer: Hum sab dost hai Sid, zindagi bhar ke liye..
Sid: Of course hai, par kisaki zindagi kisako kaha le jati hai kya pata...


NOW:

Rock On..
Hai ye waqt ka ishara,
Rock On..
Har lamha pukara,
Rock On..
Yuhi dekhata hai kya tu,
Rock On..
Zindagi na milegi dobaraaaa....

~

Budding SciFi writers, pay attention...

Aliens sending messages by altering cepheids...
Sounds like a good SF plot to me..

Truly Random Post...

I'll be honest. I am not that big on music. Yeah, I listen a song here and there, but let's just say, I am a bit conservative. So generally, the latest and greatest in music is unknown to me. But that's a digression. More to the point, I was listening to "Socha hai" from the movie "Rock On", when I noted that the lyrics is kinda interesting. Here's how it goes..

Kabhi socha hai,
Aasama hai neela kyo,
Paani hai geela kyo,
Bahati kyo hai har nadi,
Barf girati hai kyo,
Tare kyo hai tutate,
Chand kyo do nahi,
Baadalo me bijali hai kyo,
Teen hai mausam kyo,
Socha nahi to socho abhi !!!

(not exact, but close)

The guy is posing some questions, and asking us to think. Very commendable. But AFAIK, we've good answers to all of these. They might not be easy, but they are there. My advice: Learn a little bit of science, if you really want to know.

But again, this quote might be in order ;-)

In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in poetry, it's the exact opposite.
-Paul Dirac

Enjoy!!

What went wrong?

A little explanatory text might help in this particular case (seen during FC9 installation).

The Large Lepton Collider

Yeah, yeah, they switched on the Large Hadron Collider, and the world did not end, much to the disappointment of news channels who were hyping the whole thing. I don't know from where they get these ideas (not that I really want to know). But this might be a huge step forward for particle physics. While they are busy finding the Higgs Boson, enjoy this, this and this. And, anybody wants to see the large lepton collider..

(OK, I admit, other things are colliding too ;-)

Update: A few interesting numbers about LHC, here. So you will need a stack of DVDs 6.9 km, yes km, in height to hold the data generated by LHC. Maybe it's time to move on to Holographic storage ;-)

A quantum of solace

Ok, not related to the upcoming Bond flick, this quantum of solace is offered to fellow firefox lovers. So Google launched Chrome, along with a comic (it's quite readable), and it quickly became the rage. It uses this new VM thingy, V8. And looking at this, the speed difference is quite notable. More correctly, Chrome is insanely faster than the current crop of browsers. But where will that leave our beloved FF? So here I present to you this, a blog entry by Mozilla CTO Brendan Eich. (side note: he created javascript). So FF is also getting JIT in the form of Tracemonkey. And, and, it surpasses Chrome (though junta is debating this). One thing for sure, our beloved FF won't be left behind in the speed race (it would not have been anyway, as V8 also is Open Source). It would be quite interesting to watch.

Singh is King (of lucid explanations)

Recently I finished reading 'Big Bang' by Simon Singh. And it reinforced my opinion that Mr. Singh is one of the very best science writers we have. The book is amazing and amusing, just like Mr. Singh's other books. It traces the history of our attempts to understand the universe, beginning with the first mythological explanations through the emergence of the scientific method to the current theory of big bang. Now there is no dearth of books covering these topics. What makes 'Big Bang' special is its breadth and its logical flow.

To take one trivial example, many books will tell you about the emergence of Sun centered model in sixteenth century and how it was accepted over a period of time in the scientific mainstream. But why it was accepted? We know that Ptolemy's model, ugly as it was, was pretty accurate. Then why replace one model with another? Just for the aesthetic reason that the new model was simpler? That seemed unlikely. But Mr.Singh notes the crucial observation by Galileo of the phases of Venus that agreed only with the Sun centered hypothesis. And that was the crucial point where scientific thinking changed its course. To take another trivial example, while explaining special relativity, he explores its connection with Gallien relativity and also describes Einstein's thought experiment that led him to SR. Without these details, other popular accounts are quite hard to understand. To take another trivial example.., Ohk, I can go on and on, but I think you got the point.

It seems very hard to describe science in an easy to understand language without watering it down. No wonder, Mr. Singh has done it. I'll urge you to read it, even if you are not a fan of science books. And I'll urge Mr. Singh to keep writing..

Can good SF go stale?

Came of across this blog entry, by Ian Sales. And I disagree with it's message, I must say.
From the post,

Readers new to the genre are not served well by recommendations to read Isaac Asimov, EE 'Doc' Smith, Robert Heinlein, or the like. Such fiction is no longer relevant, is often written with sensibilities offensive to modern readers, usually has painfully bad prose, and is mostly hard to find because it's out of print. A better recommendation would be a current author - such as Richard Morgan, Alastair Reynolds, Iain M Banks, Ken MacLeod, Stephen Baxter, and so on.

The author later goes on to bash 'Nightfall'. He cites literary reasons, like bad character names and the lackluster world building (to use his phrase). That might be the case (but I disagree with that too, see here), but IMO it has nothing to do with old and new. There is good and bad in SF, but not old and new. A good SF is good regardless of the time of its publication, like any other good story. Surely, it may not incorporate the latest scientific breakthroughs, it may hurt our modern sensibilities, but that does not make it bad, it can still enlighten. So it may not be right to recommend only the new stuff to new guys. The point is well taken that a few classics have been overrated, but that doesn't mean we start putting an expiry date on SF. But that's my (an average SF fan) opinion anyway.

Don't miss this..

(Discovered this on the badastronomy blog).
Boston Globe has this cool new feature, 'The big picture'. Basically collections of high-res images on a variety of topics. And it's amazing.
I especially liked Views of Jupiter, Recent Volcanic Activity and Riding the waves. But every one of them is great.
Don't miss it.

" " (I mean quotes..)

Today I chanced upon reading a recent interview of Bjarne Stroustrup about the emerging standard for C++, named C++0x. I just skimmed through it, though noticed one interesting development. The type of a variable can now be deduced from the initializer. This uses the 'auto' keyword (it was there in C too, but did anybody use it?)

So you can write,
auto p = v.begin();
instead of
vector<string>::iterator p = v.begin();

I always disliked the second (and current) form, so I am quite happy that it can be avoided at least in some places. Bjarne also points out the 'overuse first and correct use later' transitions that new features seem to undergo. This seems true even for languages themselves.

Next, I pointed my browser to /. to see what the junta is saying, and it didn't disappoint me, I must say. A few gems..

C++ is to C as Lung Cancer is to Lung.

When C++ is your hammer, everything looks like a thumb.

C gives you enough rope to hang yourself. C++ gives you enough rope to hang yourself and every programmer who comes after you.

(It might be a good time to explicitly say that I am no C++ hater, I was a big C++ fan while in college (mostly because I had recently discovered STL), here however, I am just quoting /.)

It's fun. Longing for a bit more, I googled for 'C++ quotes' and stumbled upon this. Go read that page, it's really funny.

My favorite

One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful termination of their C programs.
-Robert Firth

And this one rings true..

COBOL was designed so that managers could read code.
BASIC was designed for people who are not programmers.
FORTRAN is for scientists.
ADA comes from a committee - a government committee no less.
PILOT is for teachers.
PASCAL is for students.
LOGO is for children.
APL is for Martians.
FORTH, LISP and PROLOG are specialty languages.
C, however, is for programmers.

-Al Stevens

Enjoy!!

From OSCON 2008 proceedings..

OSCON 2008 proceedings are now online (Ok, I discovered them today). Much stuff worth reading. One that I particularly liked was the presentation on 'Apprenticeships on Open Source' by Hoover and Tatnall (find it here).
They promote a apprentice-journeymen-master approach to the field of software. This approach has had phenomenal success with construction activities of the past (eg Buildings). The idea is to apply a similar approach to software construction. Looking at software more as an art than a science. And as the saying goes (I think it was DEK), "Everything we learn to do, we learn by doing", this seems to be true for the software field. But there are issues (which the authors identify). Finding skilled people who are willing to mentor and finding the resources (time, money etc). One thing that aided the masters of the past was that their construction activities were seen as a duty towards god. That probably took care of willingness and resources both. Such is clearly not the case with software.
But that doesn't mean the situation is hopeless. There are good people both willing to teach and to learn (or so I like to think). The thing is, YMMV. And you can always turn to master G.

Another good one is 'How to become Normal, A guide for developers' (here). Well, it is not what the title may suggest, but good nonetheless.

Also 'Ruby 1.9: what to expect' is a quite interesting one (here). It's heartening to see that "abcd"[2] will finally return "c" and not 99.

General Knowledge

Pune Mirror had a poll in yesterday's edition, the question was 'What will you do if you go on date with Abhinav Bindra?' (or something of this sort). The thing about these polls is, the results are mostly predictable. So I was surprised a bit by the results. The majority answer (76%) was 'I don't know who he is'. This is unbelievable. I mean, everybody is shouting Abhinav's name from their rooftops. Govts are announcing rewards, newspapers are overflowing with his praise, and I am sure, TV channels are not lagging (If anything, they might be leading this shouting race). So what might be the cause of these strange results? Statistical glitch? general ignorance? or just plain apathy towards non cricket sports? I would have liked to conduct a poll of my own on this matter. But seeing the amount of traffic here, that seems futile. (AFAIK Google crawlers don't vote on such polls :-p). But still I wonder..

Clearing my bloggestive tract!! (Hold your nose!!)

(Disclaimer: The title is borrowed from Steve.)

Books

I had not even heard the name 'Orson Scott Card' before a friend handed me 'Ender's game'. To be honest, the book irritated me in the beginning. Ender was too mature for his age (or so I thought), plus I found the character development to be lacking. But slowly, I grew to like the book, and by the time I finished it, I had turned into an Ender fan. It's more of a fiction than a science fiction, but Card is a good storyteller. Currently I am busy reading the next installment of the Ender series, 'Speaker for the dead'. Will tell you about it when I am done.

Movies

Praise has already been heaped on 'The Dark Knight', but I don't feel it is enough. Direction, action, dialogs, acting, music.. the movie rocks!! Joker is awesome (and creepy). And the Batman Bike is supercool. I especially liked the dark tone of the movie. Good that they chose not to target the movie to kids. Will probably watch it once again...

Also watched 'Singh is Kinng' last Friday. To be honest again, our expectations were not very high. Despite it (or maybe because of it), we liked the movie. Akshay Kumar is cool, plus I liked the characters of Mika and Pankaj. Just don't forget to switch off your logic circuits. The story (if you could find one) might melt them..

India's first gold in Olympics 2008

Today is a big day. Congratulations Abhinav...
That reminds me of some of the statistics I recently read in Times. US 2000+ medals in Olympics, India 17...
Man is there room for improvement!! But the signs are good so far..

Rains

It's raining cats and dogs here in Pune. Which basically means I had to sit alone in my room almost over the whole weekend. And it does not help that rains are a powerful carrier of nostalgia. So missed college and all the good things it brought a bit more than usual. I just hope the roads stay in shape.


Ohk.. Bloggestive tract cleared.. I feel lighter again...