Wish

I want to be the Big Bang. I don't care much about Space, but I sure do want to create some Time.

Wish you a great new year!

Memories of a bygone era

Long long ago, but in a galaxy not so far away (in fact, in this very galaxy), there lived floppy. Smaller and sturdier than its predecessor, it was also abler. It reigned on the desktops for years, but like all mighty kings it came to an abrupt end when the extraordinarily mighty CD came to the fore. But we, the faithful followers of (once) mighty floppy did not budge. Large pieces of code (so called software) were thrown at us, which the floppy was too weak to handle, but it did not fear. A new ally of floppy emerged, called 'file splitting software'. Those among you as ancient as me might rememeber it. Floppy managed to survive, for a while at least.

Times changed, floppy drives disappeared, and splitting softwares vanished. Even the mighty CD was surpassed by Flash drives and DVDs. And it seemed no harm would come our way even if we forgot our past. But it was not to be so. Yesterday I wanted to transfer a movie to my laptop. File size: 7.94GB. Pen drive capacity: 7.46GB. I can create a network / do a HDD to HDD transfer. But I am biased. I'll just go ahead and split it. If only for old times sake! :)

Enjoy!

A bunch of stuff

I have not been writing lately. December might see the lowest post count of the year. And as it happens, last December saw the highest post count of that year. Add to this the fact that in my case, post count can be taken to be roughly proportional to my energy level. So the reason is simple, I have not been writing because I have lost my energy. And the reason for that? Well, I beleive there are many (but I would rather spare you those). The raison d'etre of this post is not to reiterate all that. The good thing is that clarity has surely, albeit a bit slowly begun to emerge. And that is one thing that I cannot live without. To break the Blogger's block that I've worked myself into, here's a brief listing of things I wanted to write about

My most expensive toy ever: Well, I am talking about my new laptop. Everything took the maximum time it could, part shortages, warehouse clearance delays and so on [a friend coined the term 'Murphy Fida' to describe the situation, must admit I rather like the phrase], but it finally did arrive a week ago. Here's an excerpt from the config sheet

Core i7 720QM processor
4GB DDR3 1333 MHz RAM
ATi Radeon 4670 1 GB GPU
15.6" Full HD (1080p) monitor

[I guess now you would agree that it just doesn't seem right to call it a lappy :p].
The best thing is, it permits me a reentry into the Gaming world. A world which I had to leave (reluctantly and screaming) because my desktop(P4, 256MB RAM - it's a real vintage piece) won't allow me to play anything above UT'03. Those days are gone now. I installed 'Left 4 Dead', and it runs as smooth as silk on the highest possible configuration. Also installed 'Painkiller', a game I always wanted to play, but it grew monotonous a bit too soon. Next on list is 'Crysis', just to see how far I can go!

Movies: Watched Paa, Rocket Singh, Avatar but much to my regret, missed Radio.
Paa: Good one time watch.
Rocket Singh: Liked this one.
Avatar: Just another 2012. Awesome awesome effects, but bad story.

Memories: A tip o' the hat goes to DJ, who recently mailed our 2006 BE IT Konkan trip photos (of course we have looked at them countless times before, but for college memories, there is no such thing as 'enough'). Say hello to the batch of '06.

[Thankfully, nobody was run over by the approaching bus :p].
Understandably the photos are not of the highest quality. A 1.1 MP Nokia 6600 was still a luxury back then. Now the photos have got resolution which life seems to have lost. Anyway, the memories of carefree stupidity of the days fills my mind with joy!

Enjoy!

Now playing

Hai ye to ek jashan..
Tu thirakane de qadam..
Abhi saanso me hai dum..
Abhi chalne de sitam..

[Khalbali, RDB]

Arre O Samba..

We all love the line and The movie, but this time I am not talking about that Samba. Not the dance either. What I am talking about it is the open source implementation of SMB/CIFS that allows seamless networking between Windows and Unix, commonly known as Samba. Having never looked into it seriously and taking its existence for granted, today I stumbled upon How Samba was written by the author of Samba Andrew Tridgell. Don't miss it; it's fun and introduces the 'French Cafe' technique of developnent. (We tend to use something of that sort from time to time, but I did not know it even has a name). And to complete the line I began with,

Arre O Samba, bada hi mehanati hai re tu.. Dhanabaad..

[you'll probably get the last line only after reading the full article].

Enjoy!!

My friend Sancho

'India Uncut' and 'Amit Varma'. These names need no introduction to you bloggers. I cannot say I am a regular reader of IU, but I recently read Amit's latest book My friend Sancho. It's a small fiction novel, and here's the deal, I actually laughed out loud more than once reading it (only later did I realize that it had been ages since that happened). I totally enjoyed it, but could not avoid the feeling that author dodged the hard question of how to end the story. It could be just me though. So go ahead, give it a try! Comparison (fair or unfair) to the other Indian English Novel Writer (of course I am talking about Chetan Bhagat) is inevitable (at least to me). Grand conclusion: I liked AV much better (but that could change too). And despite being sure that most of you are not gonna get this, here's my end line,

"Now eagerly waiting for our own AV's 'My friend Danco'" :p

Enjoy!

Walt Disney: The ultimate fantasy

Do you know which is the only Disney character to have a middle name?
Answer: Donald Fauntleroy Duck.

At least I did not know before reading 'Walt Disney: The ultimate fantasy' (the fact that I grew up watching Disney Hour notwithstanding). And despite what the name may suggest, the book is in Marathi, not a translation but a pure, original Marathi book! A very readable biography of Walt Disney, since his earliest days laboring under his father, through when Oswald was taken from him, to the triumph of Mickey, and the subsequent growth of animated features, whose pinnacle is today's Pixar. The optimism and maddening confidence of Walt make a lasting impression. His idea of Disneyland was opposed by almost everybody. Oswald was snatched stolen from him. He reached the verge of bankruptcy more than once. But even in the face of massive setbacks his smile never parted him. And that's a most important lesson!

Enjoy!

Today

Tension got a Dimension.

Lichtenberg Figures

What they are.

Now, the motivation to read that article, here.

Enjoy!

De Dana Dan

Thou shalt not watch De Dana Dan (at any cost), but if you are so venturous, you can read my review here (written in public interest).

Dizzying Rides

You might already be familiar with Edge. If not, it's an online forum where leading intellectuals (including Richard Dawkins and Lee Smolin) discuss stuff that interests them. Makes for good reading, but one of the more interesting features of the forum is their Question Center. Each year, a question is formulated, and replies from leaders in respective fields are collected. To give a specific example, the 2005 question was, 'What you beleive but cannot prove?', and for 2006 it was 'What is your Dangerous idea?'. The responses for both these years have been published in book form, and I recently got a chance to read both of them.

Dizzying Ride! That's the only way I can put it. You tend to like some responses, dislike others, agree with some (a few), but learn from almost all of them. They represent the cutting edge of research in wide array of scientific fields, and unlike the popular science books (which I tend to read from time to time), are not always easy to digest. More often than once I found myself thinking, "Ohh, I did not even know that such a problem existed!". It's a wonderful way to get a broad view of the very latest thinking in a wide range of scientific fields. Don't miss it! I tend to prefer the Dead Tree version, but they are available online too, just go here.

Enjoy!

Pairs

Position - Momentum (Heisenberg)
Time - Energy (?)
Truth - Clarity (Bohr)
Bwa ha ha.

Fun Time

An engineer, a physicist and a mathematician are driving through the high country in Scotland. Atop a hill, they see a black sheep. The engineer says: "All sheep are black!" The physicist says: "No, no, some sheep are black." The mathematician: "At least one sheep is black on at least one side."

I first read this joke in Jayant Naralikar's influential Aakashashi Jadale Nate. In the nine years that followed, I came to appreciate a few more math-jokes (but only a few). But today yours truly got lucky. Stumbled upon a treasure trove. Mathoverflow has a thread running on the same, and it's overflowing with some seriously good stuff! Do not miss! Of course I did not understand everything, but it's worth it. Here are some of my favorites, picked from the thread, and the links linked (?) from there.

A physicist, an engineer, and a statistician were out game hunting. The engineer spied a bear in the distance, so they got a little closer. "Let me take the first shot!" said the engineer, who missed the bear by three metres to the left. "You're incompetent! Let me try" insisted the physicist, who then proceeded to miss by three metres to the right. "Ooh, we got him!!" said the statistician.

A mathematician organizes a raffle in which the prize is an infinite amount of money paid over an infinite amount of time. Of course, with the promise of such a prize, his tickets sell like hot cake.When the winning ticket is drawn, and the jubilant winner comes to claim his prize, the mathematician explains the mode of payment: "1 dollar now, 1/2 dollar next week, 1/3 dollar the week after that..."

OK, time for a quick quiz..

Q: What is a topologist?
A: Someone who cannot distinguish between a doughnut and a coffee cup.

Q: Why didn’t Newton discover Group Theory?
A: Because he wasn’t Abel.

Q: What’s a polar bear?
A: A rectangular bear after a coordinate transform.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: Fermat: It did not fit on the margin on this side.

Q: Why did the chicken cross the Möbius strip?
A: To get to the same side.

OK, enough fun. Time for some serious math now.

Theorem. 3 = 4.
Proof. Suppose
a + b = c .
This can also be written as:
4a − 3a + 4b − 3b = 4c − 3c .
After reorganizing:
4a + 4b − 4c = 3a + 3b − 3c .
Take the constants out of the brackets:
4(a + b − c) = 3(a + b − c) .
Remove the same term left and right:
4 = 3. (Mwuhahaha)

And before leaving, I give you this tongue in cheek, but still telling quote.

An engineer thinks that his equations are an approximation to reality. A physicist thinks reality is an approximation to his equations. A mathematician doesn’t care.

Enjoy!


P.S. One more that I just could not resist.
Q: Why do mathematicians often confuse Christmas and Halloween?
A: Because Oct 31 = Dec 25.

Reasoning with the Unreasonable

The unreasonable I am referring to here is the stuff of the mind. Thoughts. We spend almost every waking moment thinking. And we pride ourself on our way to reason, our logic; but surely there are moments when the unreasonable reigns. On one side you can see the, well, unreasonableness (if there is such a word) of your own thoughts. If only that would make it go away. But No. It'll sit there, eating your cycles, consuming your energy. Personal quirk, or some remnant primal urge? Or something else? I am not sure. Fact is, it's there to pop its ugly head occassionally, and we have to learn to deal with it.

Being a robot ain't entirely devoid of benefits, it seems.

The frank politician

Values are faithfully applied to the facts before us, while ideology overrides facts that call theory in question.

-From Audacity of Hope

Barack Obama has become a symbol of hope for millions worldwide, and that includes not just Americans. His Audacity of Hope was a wonderful read. The things that stand out most is his frankness to say things as he sees them without political pamper, his willingness to say that the problems before him may not have simple solutions and also to consider the alternate point of view. Coming from a politician, you might expect it to be dry read, but it's not. The book is enlivened by narratives of the author's encounters with the Aam Aadmi. And I think the things he talks about apply (to some extent, at any rate) to our country too. I think you should not miss it.

2012

My review @ the movie blog.

A forward

Engineer's love story

Mai BE me tha
Wo BE me thi
Mai BE me tha
Wo ME me thi
Mai BE me tha
Wo PhD kar rahi thi
Aaj uski shaadi hai
Mera backlog ka paper hai..


Received this SMS forward a few moments back. And let's face it, it's not very funny. But still, I immediately forwarded it to my old engg. gang and a few other friends. Why? Because it filled my mind with those golden memories (which for the record contain many love stories, in all of which I play the innocent bystander :p). Nightouts, coffee at 1:30AM.. I keep takling about it all the time, and still don't seem to get enough. Drizzling rains and an unusual quiet in the room may have played a part today!

Enjoy the Rains!

Few simple rules

To live by. As you might have guessed, I am in preaching mode today.
So here they are.. (brackets tell where they are lifted from)

Be original! (Parker [Not Peter, Pen])

Know Stuff! (Abstruse Goose)

Travel Light! (My own brain)

Have Fun! (Robert Love, LKD 2nd ed. From the Preface)


Additions (preferably expressed in two words) are welcome!

The Double Helix

I had wanted to read the The Double Helix since forever. I knew the DNA story, and in some detail too, but learning it from the horse's mouth is always a different deal. And it did not disappoint. It's the chronicle of the discovery of the structure of DNA by Watson and Crick in 1953 (which in turn led to a Nobel prize in 1962), by Watson himself. The things that stand out immediately are his honesty and his bluntness. Without mingling words, he tells the reader where he went wrong, and where others went wrong, before eventually discovering the right answer. There are false starts, professional jealousy and so on; but there also is a sense of fair play, and a thought given to the regular life. Once started, you can not put it down. Don't miss it!

Two States

I read Chetan Bhagat's Two States recently. The thing I like about his writing is his acute observation of Indian mentality. The thing I don't like (or at least don't enjoy very much) is his plots are a tad too unrealistic. This one is no different. The plot is even more dramatic than usual. I personally liked the first half much better. Overall the book is not significantly better or worse than earlier CB novels. So if you have enjoyed earlier ones, you will probably like this one.

Enjoy!!

An old (and somewhat fuzzy) memory

A snap of my Engineering class (second year probably). I think the photo was taken on Tie day (of course it's obvious). A Tip o' the Hat goes to DJ for forwarding me this (and forcing my transition to senti state).

You might already know this..

But I discovered it only a few moments back. For the lovers of TBBT, I present The Big Blog Theory. I absolutely loved the idea (explaining the science behind TBBT, the show), and the first post. Haven't read the rest coz I just could not wait to tell you about it. I am going to it right after this. And so should you.

Enjoy!!

When I am bored..*

PHB: Aayiye aayiye developerji (Did you realize the joke? Of course you did. I mean, Dev and ji? Anyway as all this is fiction, I might stretch it as much as I wish). Ye lijiye aapke sare bugs taiyaar..

Developer: Marking as 'Fixed' nahi, marking as 'Wontfix'..

PHB: Lekin aap to hamesha bugs Fix karte the..

Developer: Karta tha.. lekin jab koi invalid bug holiday time me log kare to koi Fix kyo kare, Wontfix na kare?

PHB: Maan gaye..

Developer: Kise?

PHB: Aap ki parakhi najar, aur aapka compiler, dono ko..



*Now you know I am really bored. I hope you are not. Happy Diwali.

A different Entrepreneur

Recently I finished reading Leaving Microsoft to change the world. I simply loved the book, probably because i) It is about a software guy, which I am. ii) It is about books, which I love. and iii) It's about making meaningful contribution to the world, something about which we all keep thinking.

John Wood was on a vacation in Nepal. Being a senior Microsoft exec, his reasoning was, "If you get high enough in the Himalayas, you can not hear Steve Ballmer yelling at you". But on an unplanned visit to a local school, he was dismayed at the condition of the library. A few books, unuseful to students, and those too locked up, because kids may not handle them 'properly'. Being an ardent reader himself, he decided to return with books for the library. And he did. But sensing this was not enough, he decided to commit his energies to this cause full time. So he quit his job and established Room to Read, which has by now opened thousands of libraries and schools, and donated millions of books in Nepal, India, Combodia and elsewhere.

The book details John's journey from M$ to R2R. He describes the months of anxiety he had had before he took the plunge. He describes the enthusiastic support, and also the setbacks of his early years. He tells us how he applied the business lessons he learned at M$ to charity, and got great results (I loved this). And he candidly talks about the compromises he had to make, things like not being able to afford the house he always wanted, or even not having enough time for a permanent relationship. But he wisely accepts what he has to do, cause nobody else is there to do it.

I have read about charities earlier, but this one captivated me. The reason I can think of is I understand the value of education. Coming from a small town, only a handful of us from my primary class rose to graduation level. I can name dropouts almost from every stage. And I can see the difference education made, first hand.

I think everybody should read this book, and I am more than willing to share my copy. But I also think you should read it, after buying it, cause the author has pledged the proceeds to his organization, so by buying it, you will be helping someone. And if you want to donate, this is the place to go.

Go kiss the world

Recently I finished reading Subroto Bagchi's Go Kiss the world. The subtitle 'Life Lessons for the Young Professional' gave the impression of a self help book, and I am no fan of that kind (in fact I don't read them, almost as a rule), but I had read some of Subroto's readings earlier and liked them, so decided to give this a try. It turned out be just wonderful.

The book grew out of the inaugural lecture with the same name Subroto gave at IIMB in 2004. The book has a biographical flavor, but from each incident in his life, Subroto tries to draw some lesson. Some might appear trivial, some are priceless, which you tend to learn the hard way. And the special thing is, the events themselves are not that extraordinary. It reminded me of the old adage 'A good student can always learn more from a mediocre teacher than what a mediocre student can learn from a good teacher'. And Subroto is a good student of life. He recounts his journey from modest beginnings in a small town in Orissa, to found MindTree and take it from idea to IPO. I think there much to learn for the so called 'young professional' here, a class I guess most of readers will fall in. Subroto also discusses 'mid-life crisis', an oft heard word and how he dealt with it. He bashes the dreams of 'retire by 40' that some of us have. And ultimately what success means, at least to him. I have just one complain, it should have been longer.

Go ahead, read it. You will surely learn a thing or two.

Of the day

What an idea Sirjee award of the day

Goes to this. I think you'll agree.


Song of the day

Band jo baje tera, Khul ke tu bhi saath gaa..
Mann ka radio.. Bajne de jara..


Quote of the day

'Good enough' is never good enough ;) What is the ideal implementation? Let's implement that.
[Found on KernelTrap]


And to top it off,
Advice of the day

Do not set your favorite song/tune as your ringtone. You will witness a sudden rise in the number of missed calls.

Enjoy!!

My (current) Dream

Ek bangala bane nyara..

Most people have a dream home. I really haven't given the topic much thought, but there is one feature in particular that I would like want to have. This feature is an isolated room, the size of a large hall, 36 X 36 X 12 would be enough. The walls of this room need to be strong, scratch resistant and sound proof. There is not much furniture required, just a bed/aaram-kursi. And chairs. Here we can have variety; plastic chairs, rotating chairs and a couple of wooden chairs. They are not to be all put in a corner, small groups need to exist, spread over the area of the room. Now if you already haven't guessed what I intend to use the room for, here comes the surprise. I want to be able to throw a chair whenever I feel like it. In any direction. It's a great stress buster (at least I think so, haven't gotten around to throw my first yet, but these days the feeling often overpowers me). You might think I got the idea from Mr. Ballmer, but no, I think humans have this basic urge to throw chairs. And there is a lot of scope for improvements. One that I can immediately think of is a healthy supply of cups. I suspect throwing cups might be another basic human urge. Of course, somebody needs to clean the room, and refill the stock, topics I would leave for some later post. I also think developers would be a lot more productive if companies make such an arrangement possible.

So what ya think?

Update: It occurs to me that I can also build this dream in second life.

Now playing

My insides all turn to ash, so slow...
I've become so numb I can't feel you there, becoming so tired so much more aware..
And I live it all out to find, but I am not the only person with these things in mind..
So let mercy come and wash away what I've done..
Cuz in the end, in doesn't even matter..

What's your Raashee?

Some rant at the movie blog.

Enjoy!!

Gudlinks

Why you should destroy your computer.
Do It Now.

AES: xkcd style.
(I mean, if you haven't destroyed your computer already).

Soul

Nova
Eclipse
Data General
VAX
DEC

How many of these appear familiar? Chances are they will be, if you've studied CS. Data General was a big maker of minicomputers (second only to DEC, the king) in the 80s, founded by Ed de Castro, the lead designer of PDP-8 earlier at DEC. In 1976, DEC introduced the VAX* (a 32 bit minicomputer) and DG needed to respond in quick (it's then current Eclipse line was 16 bit). This forms the background of the story so admirably told in Tracy Kidder's The soul of a new machine.

This book was a chance find on my recent visit to Odyssy. I had never heard about it before, but it appeared interesting and additionally it's a Pulitzer prize winner (1982), so decided to give it a try. The story focuses on the design and creation of DG's answer to VAX (later to be named Eclipse MV/8000) and the author was a live observer of the process. And a good observer he is! He acutely captures what actually goes on inside computer companies; the joy of creating something of value, the enthusiasm, but also the pressures and the unavoidable politics. And the apparently trivial things which later turn out to have a large impact (esp on support), things such as whether the on-off control should be a push button switch or an on-off button.

As for me, some things of which I was only subconsciously aware became apparent (which is good when dealing with them). The main personalities in the story are portrayed well, and they'll appear very familiar. The book really succeeds in capturing something of the the soul of the computing industry (at least as per what my little experience tells me). Give it a try, it's worth it!


* VAX had an OS named VMS. Dave Cutler, it's principal developer, later became the lead designer of Windows NT (the forerunner of Windows XP).

A small thing

I happened to change my desktop clock setting today. I needed to measure the load time of something and compare it with something else, so I changed it from hh:mm to hh:mm:ss. It seemed like a small thing at that time, but now sitting in my chair, with none a soul around, I realize how fast my time is running out.

[Reminds me of this xkcd piece].

Into the wild

There is a pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is a rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes, By the deep sea, and music in its roar;
I love not man the less, but Nature more...
- Lord Byron

They say a picture says a thousand words. Welcome to my million word post. The occasion is the amazing weekend trip to kaas valley and nearby places. Needless to say, it was awefome.
[Click on the images to enlarge. The thumbnails here leave out much].

We were to leave at 5:30AM Saturday morning. The car was supposed to pick me from office, but when I reached there at 5:40, not a single soul was to be found. I decided to go in search of a chai tapari. Found one on Sinhgad road, and the walk was wonderful. It feels great to walk so early in the morning, very few people to be seen and streets beginning to wake up. Streetlights were out, and the day had not yet properly begun.

Junta arrived eventually, by 6:15AM. Here's the group, except Amit and Shruti.


We started our journey towards Thoseghar. Our first stop was Sriram Vadapav center near Shirwal. The place is very famous, and for good reason. Probably the best vada pav you can get on NH4. The tea was good too. Here's Amit and me (with my third cup probably).


The journey was as usual filled with songs, discussions and jokes (PJs, some prefer to say). The road to Thoseghar is picturesque. Here are some snaps clicked at a random spot where we made a halt. The highlight was the sky, the grandeur could actually be felt, not only seen.


Here's one I clicked. Had to lie flat on my back, but I think it was worth the effort (Thanks to the good camera).


We resumed our journey after the brief halt. The most important feature of the place can be seen in the next picture.

Yes, pawanchakki. I remember seeing a few when I was a kid, but here we had an entire farm. Here's we trying to act as if we are falling.


I think I am the most realistic one of the lot :p. Here's one more.

As you can see, we are posing for different cameras, Lalit for the front camera, myself for the left. I don't know which camera MD was posing for. Here's another with the Pawanchakki.

If you look hard enough in the bottom left part, you'll find me, arms outstretched. The landscape was beautiful too, filled with flower beds like this


Here's another one. Don't know why, but it reminded me of the Eucledian plane, with many lines intersecting.


I really did not want to leave the Pawanchakki-land so early, but there're many more things on our plate. Our next stop was to be Sajjangad. I had heard about it, but never visited earlier. Beautiful, serene. We had Mahaprasad, and the simple elegance of the system made an impression on me. The food was great too. Maybe the purity of the people preparing it somehow finds its way in the food. Here's a snap taken from a distance..


In a just-another-stroll, we discovered this beautiful valley.


OK, all I am trying to say is, idhar mat jana, bahut gahari khai hai... I am unsure of how much success I had had in conveying that message.

For some reason, this is one of my favorites. But I see you haven't looked at the valley in its totality yet. Take a look


After spending the afternoon in wandering around and a little bit of shopping (me and Amit bought digging tools, these days we find ourselves in continuous need of those :p) our next stop was to be Thoseghar waterfall and then Kaas lake. Here are some new friends we made on our way.


Our first stop was the waterfall. Actually there are many waterfalls that can be seen from that point. They are not very big , but the the whole is very impressive. Take a look


Later we started our journey towards the Kaas valley and the lake. The valley is actually a plateau, where flower beds sprawl around this time of the year. It was beautiful, but I guess we missed the main season by a week or two. Our next stop was the lake. But first things first. Here's something we encountered on our way


The rain was falling, but on a very small portion of the water, just like they show in cartoons. And one could discern the moving shadow of the clouds on water. I think something like this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
We reached the lake in the evening. Here it is


Some of the group went swimming, but I did not want to, so went for a walk instead. We discovered another hidden beautiful spot

Now it was about sunset. So we decided to leave. We were to stay at Mahabaleshwar for the night. Thanks to C for making the arrangements. Here's a snap of the place.

We actually did not stay at one of the building in the snap, but in one to which the road leads. It was way better than I had expected. We had our dinner at Swad, which is famous for it's chicken. The plan was to do some tp in the evening. We gathered in a room, and within 15 minutes, most of the group was asleep :).

We woke up early next morning. Here's wonderful snap of a cobweb MD clicked.


Our original plan was to go watching the points in Mahabaleshwar. Instead, we decided to go to Pratapgad. I had visited it in a school trip in my sixth standard, but remembered very little. After a journey that did not go too well for me, thanks to the overdose of tea (5 cups) and breakfast I had had in the morning, we reached Pratapgad. Mist was everywhere. Here's a snap taken from the payatha.



And here's an attempt on beta's life (in the middle), by crushing him between two buruj. But he survived. You'll find out why in the snap after this.

Insan aur Shaktimaan

Dono milke Duniya bacha rahe hai

And may I add, Bwa ha ha :p

Here's me staring into the mist.

This was also the spot where I received my acid burns. Some plants here have white stringlike formations on their leaves and I accidentally brushed my hand against one. It burned like anything for the next five minutes, and marks could be seen for some time. As I kept saying the whole day, Evolution rocks!!

We continued our climb and we're halfway through when we encountered this handicraft shop. My initial reaction was to skip it entirely, but later we decided make a quick run. And, and, we spent almost an hour there. No doubt the objects were very attractive. All made from wood. Bought a model aeroplane, among other things, which I again convinced me that I am turning into have turned into a shopoholic. And we decided to skip the remaining climb when we got out. This small incident made our true motives (shopping) clear to us :p.

We wanted to start the descent asap, but heavy rains intervened. We found shelter in a tapari nearby. I'll let the pictures talk for themselves as for what we did for timepass there.

This
and this


Here are some more snaps from Pratapgad. This one is called idhar udhar dekho, idhar udhar :p


And here's me sitting on a three hundred year old sofa.

On our journey back to Mahabaleshwar, we found this beautiful zarna.

Next on our plan was boating at Venna lake. Here it is

We don't have any snaps of the boating as it was raining heavily. But we did spend quite a good amount of time after boating discussing whether we were kutte jaise bheege or a bheegi billi. :p And the bhutta was fundoo.

We soon started our journey back to Pune. But one cannot leave Mahabaleshwar without visiting Bagicha, famous for its strawberry-cream shakes.


Reached Pune by 9:30.

There are many more snaps and more stories, but I think I'll stop here. Thank you guys for the awesome time. (And special thanks to Lalit for paying all the bills. Ye ahsaan mai zindagi bhar nai bhulunga :p.) To use words of a member of the group, this was a weekend spent as it ought to be spent. I totally agree.

Enjoy!!

Update:
I jumbled the chronological order. We went to Waterfall before Sajjangad. Thou shalt not write in sleep. :p Thanks to C for pointing out the error.

Now playing

Suno to zara hum ko hai ye kehna
waqt hai kya tum ko pata hai na
so gayi raat jaa ke din hai ab jaag utha
aankhe masalata hai saara ye sama
awaazen bhi leti hai angdaiyaan
wake up sid saare pal kahe
wake up sid chal kahin chale
wake up sid
sab dishaon se aa rahi hai sada sun sako agar suno
wake up

ye jo kahe wo jo kahe sun lo
baate jo sahi dil ko lage chun lo
karna hai kya tumhe ye tum hi karo faisla
ye soch lo tum ko jaana hai kahan
tum hi musafir tum hi to ho karvaan
wake up sid saare pal kahe
wake up sid chal kahin chale
wake up sid
sab dishao se aa rahi hai sada sun sako agar suno
wake up

aaj bhi dekho kal jaisa hi na ho
aaj bhi yun na tum sote hi raho
itne kyun susta ho
kuchh kaho kuchh suno
kuchh na kuchh karo
ro pado ya haso
zindagi mein koi na koi to rang bharo

wake up sid sare pal kahe
wake up sid chal kahin chale
wake up sid
sab dishao se aa rahi hai sada sun sako agar suno
wake up!

[Lyrics taken from here].

After so many years..

..feels good to be in a uniform.. (or at least part of it)

P.S. Thanks to Charuta for the image and Khyati for the image-within-the-image.

Gödel's proof

I first heard of Gödel's proof while reading GEB (I've not finished it yet, to my great chagrin). GEB as you might know is a book that defies genre boundaries. It's popular science, music, art and just beautiful passages and dialogs rolled into one, and then something more. Words (my words, by any count) will fail to catch its essence. But more to the point, I first came to know about Gödel's proof in its introduction. This little book was cited as the main source of inspiration for the author of GEB, Douglas Hofstadter. At that time, I did not take much notice of this seemingly trivial tidbit. But a few days later, I stumbled upon the book and decided to give it a try. The effort was well worth the time. It'a a pinnacle of clear and consise exposition. The main focus is explaining Gödel's incompleteness theorem to the non specialist. In simple words (my own), it reads

For any axiomatic system rich enough to express the arithmetic of whole numbers, there are truths which are not provable/disprovable in the system, which means the system is incomplete. What's more, this incompleteness is inherent to the axiomatic method. Also the proof of consistency of the system cannot be given inside the system.

Gödel proved this by discovering a way to mirror statements about arithmetical truths (so called meta-mathematical statements) into arithmetic (Gödel numbering) and then proceeded to obtain the aforementioned result, all at the young age of 25, in 1931. Considered to be one of the most important advances in Logic since Aristotle, it means that mathematics cannot be axiomatized (and hence meachanized, not at least with current models of computation). Some took this as a sign to despair and some as a way to promote mystical mumbo jumbo. IIRC, Freeman Dyson was one of those taking an optimistic view, and seeing Gödel's theorem as a sign that there'll always be a place for human ingenuity.

In later life, Gödel joined the Institute, where he was a close friend of Einstein.


But the end was not so good. From Wikipedia,

In later life, Gödel suffered periods of mental instability and illness. He had an obsessive fear of being poisoned; he wouldn't eat unless his wife, Adele, tasted his food for him. Late in 1977, Adele was hospitalized for six months and could not taste Gödel's food anymore. In her absence, he refused to eat, eventually starving himself to death.

That aside, it was a privilege to be able to glimpse at one of the most important intellectual advances of the twenteith century. I think this book is a must read.

[Note for AT guys: It's there in the office library].

Enjoy!!

Seven

Today marks the completion of my seventh year in Pune. 5th of September, 2002. I distinctly remember that day. This was the day VIT opened, where I had gotten an admission. Coming from a small town, it's all new to me. I remember sitting on a katta in front of Building B, and thinking, "Apna kuch hoga kya yahape". It seems to have worked out though. And the journey so far has been wonderful.

Enjoy!!

Giving back

A very interesting slide show about voluntary grid computing projects, from NetworkWorld.

[The 'What an idea Sirjee' award goes to slide #6 :) ]

Following

My (short) review of Following at the movie blog.

Enjoy!!

Snapshot

A man can live a good life. Be honorable, give to charity… But in the end, the number of people who come to his funeral is generally dependent on the weather.

You will experience a painful sharpening from time to time, but this is required if you want to become a better pencil.

There is more to life..

The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.

Its so much fun driving the bike..on a slope..in a traffic jam :P

Life is... eat, sleep, quit...

Its a joy to be all alone in a hotel ... and get the best seat too ... !!

Ganapati Bappa..... Morya...!!!! Pudhachya warshi .... lawkar yaa ....!!!

geeta mein bhagwan srikrishna ne arjun se kaha... "hey parth! jo ho raha hai, accha ho raha hai. Jo hoga acche ke lie hoga..kyu vyarth ki chinta karte ho..."

Life is what happens,when we are busy making other plans.

i WANT an ipod nano...

"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are."

Working from home

Update: Sabh ke liye [
♫ I dream my painting and then paint my dream... Vincent Van Gogh
]

Come to the edge, he said. They said: We are afraid. Come to the edge, he said. They came. He pushed them, And they flew...

Cricket every weekend!!!

♫ Dj Tiesto - Just Be

The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing...!!!


[A snapshot of status messages from my GTalk window [used with permission [in a few cases]]]

One life, a thousand deaths..

You have a thought.
You write the post.
You decide a title.
It's different this time.

I have died a thousand times. Or probably more. Sometimes in the deserts of Africa fighting Nazis, sometimes a zombie chopped my head off on the Mars base. And sometimes an alien bug hopped from the roof in the dark corners of black mesa. Maybe I missed a health pack, maybe I turned the wrong way, chasing mutants, ignoring the flag. Maybe I wasted too much ammo on a single target. Sometimes it's just plain bad luck also, you press F5 just when a zombie is about to jump at you. New levels come with new challenges, your experience may or may not help. But there are always health packs to pick, NPCs to guide you, and in some levels, gems to collect. You learn as you go, and sometimes get lucky even. And each level makes you better. So do those thousand deaths matter? No. Not if the flag matters! Just Click to continue!

[All keystrokes from Max Payne].

Another update

Watched Kaminey yesterday. Some Kaminey thoughts at the movie blog.

Enjoy!!

An update

My movie related rant has found a new place, at Zarin's movie blog. Thanks to Zarin for giving me the opportunity. The rest of the rant will continue as usual. That's all for now.

Enjoy!!

Oops I did it again..

Ye chaar kilo ki book jab kisipe padti hai na, to wo uthta nahi hai, uth jata hai.

-Anonymous

Bought a literal tome worthy of the above quote today :-). I plan to survive it though. It's an illustrated World History volume, which means there are many, many color pictures. Yaay! Actually I was in Crossword for Robots (I've been reading Foundation as you know, which has aroused my interest in Robots and Empire), but not one book from the series was to be seen. Wandered to the Non Fiction shelf as usual, and met the new friend. Now only one question remains, just how am I gonna carry it home? :p

On a related note, it seems that Technology Review has got an India edition now. Haven't gone through yet, but am looking forward to some interesting reading.

Enjoy!!

The old me

"When I look at you, I see something I haven't seen in 20 years. I see me."

-Gary Winston to Milo Hoffman (Antitrust)

Like most kids, television was a big part of my childhood. I can say in all seriousness that I could watch it endlessly. The first TV set we had in our home was a 14'' black and white salora (anyone remember that company?). I was six or seven years old then. The thing I remember most clearly is getting up really early (like 4 AM) with Papa to watch India's tour of Australia. And the disappointment when India lost a match by a single run. Later came a 21'' BPL. Cable was all the rage then. ZeeTV was in its prime, and Sony and its siblings were yet to be born. Disney hour (6:30PM on weekdays on ZeeTV, Alladin and Darkwing duck), Fox Kids (same time, but on Star Plus, esp. Spiderman), Ghostbusters (8:30AM, Sony), these are some of my most cherished memories. And Shaktiman (DD1, Saturday 11:30 AM). I remember Alien encounters on Discovery and Aahat on Sony. Movies from that time have their own distinct flavor. The likes of Waqt hamara hai and Raghuveer. I was heavy on cricket at the time too, remember following the '96 world cup with a fondness hardly matched by anything else since. Aah! those were the times!

This came to an abrupt end when I left home after 10th. My room did not have a TV. Yes, in holidays, I still used to spend as much time as possible with my beloved Idiot box; but my interest dwindled slowly. The exponential growth of the stupidity of the idiot box was a reason. The most prominent part was played by the rise of so called news channels. Most are worthy of the title abuse channel, and I won't say this is my humble opinion. Then came the sans bahu dramas, and then the current crop of ultra stupid reality shows. I found myself unable to stand them. I was happy without a TV.

And one fine day, the old friend returned. There was not much communication in the beginning, but slowly, and this is the now, my interest is returning. I learnt to appreciate the creativity of, most of all, ads. Take zoozoo for example, or the sleepwell matress, or the famous daddoo ad. You can have a 1TB harddisk, but suddenly discovering your favorite movie on TV feels almost as good as bumping into an old friend. And things like Tom n Jerry are not gonna lose their appeal, ever. I am enjoying it. I enjoy the burst of memories it brings, relive the carelessness of the days, feel in my bones the enthusiasm unmarred by harsh realities..

Does saying all this makes me old? See, I am not complaining.

Enjoy!!

Timescale

Fling your arms wide in an expansive gesture to span all of evolution from its origin at your left fingertip to today at your right fingertip. All the way across your midline to well past your right shoulder, life consists of nothing but bacteria. Many celled, invertebrate life flowers somewhere around your right elbow. The dinosaurs originate in the middle of your right palm, and go extinct around your last finger joint. The whole story of Homo sapiens and our predecessor Home erectus is contained in the thickness of one nail clipping. As for recorded history; as for the Sumerians, the Babylonians, the Jewish patriarchs, the dynasties of Pharohs, the legions of Rome, the Christian fathers, the laws of the Medes and Persians which never change; as for Troy and the Greeks, Helen and Achilles and Agamemmon dead; as for Napolean and Hitler, the Beatles and Bill Clinton, they and everyone that knew them are blown away in the dust from one light stroke of a nail file.

From Unweaving the Rainbow
by Richard Dawkins

So the point? It's simple.

Aanewala pal..
janewala hai..
ho sake to isame..
zindagi bita do..
pal jo ye aanewala hai..

Enjoy!!

A journey begins..

Finally got my hands upon Prelude to Foundation yesterday (Thanks to Abhishek). I have wanted forever to read the Foundation novels, but strangely, the first book I read was the 6th one (Foundation and Earth) in the 7 part series. Prelude to Foundation completes the collection of first five books and I have already started with it. I am very excited to be reading the series (though I plan to take it slowly). I will keep you posted of how it goes.

Enjoy!!

The most persistent principles..

The most persistent principles of the universe are accident and error.

Dune

Took my first step into the world of Dune. The book repulsed me initially, in part I guess because of the number of new words (it does not help that they are so hard to pronounce) introduced, the likes of Gom Jabbar and Kwisatz Haderach. I used to start it, and after a few pages allow myself to get distracted. And then after a long gap, again start from page 1. This happened three or four times. Finished it yesterday only.

Dune is a story set in the far future, where humanity has reverted back to Emperors and Dukes instead of Democracy, and to blades and shields instead of projectile weapons. Why and how this change occurred is not said (it might be there in other books of the series). Dune is the name of the desert planet where most of the story takes place. This planet has an unusual ecology, with sandworms hundreds of meters in length and very very little water. The techniques the inhabitants use to conserve and reuse water, every last drop of it, makes for interesting reading. The narrative is lucid, and creates powerful emotions (even extreme repulsion in a few places, with the sheer amount of mumbo-jumbo. But only in a very few places). Especially the workings of human psyche, hidden motives and their apparent perceptions. And the role chance plays. I would have liked more on worms though.

Many thanks go to Vinaya for sharing the book with me. I think you will be able to enjoy it even if you are not a die hard SF fan. And a note for would be readers, the book will make a lot of sense after you have read Appendix 3 (on Bene Gesserit motives), so don't miss it.

Enjoy!!

Now playing..

g++ -c -Iliblua -Ilibdnet-stripped/include -Ilibpcap -Inbase -Insock/include -g -O2 -Wall -fno-strict-aliasing -DHAVE_CONFIG_H -DNMAP_NAME=\"Nmap\" -DNMAP_URL=\"http://nmap.org\" -DNMAP_PLATFORM=\"i686-pc-linux-gnu\" -DNMAPDATADIR=\"/usr/local/share/nmap\" -D_FORTIFY_SOURCE=2 nse_pcrelib.cc -o nse_pcrelib.o
nse_pcrelib.cc: In function `void Lpcre_push_substrings(lua_State*, const char*, pcre2*)':
nse_pcrelib.cc:176: `PCRE_INFO_NAMECOUNT' undeclared (first use this function)
nse_pcrelib.cc:176: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once for each function it appears in.)
nse_pcrelib.cc:179: `PCRE_INFO_NAMETABLE' undeclared (first use this function)
nse_pcrelib.cc:180: `PCRE_INFO_NAMEENTRYSIZE' undeclared (first use this function)
make[1]: *** [nse_pcrelib.o] Error 1

I don't have to tell you,
What this is all about,
Cause baby half the fun,
Is in us figuring it all out.

-from "Don't turn off the lights"
by Enrique Iglesias.

Enjoy!!

Mavalsrushti

Just returned from a fun filled trip to 'Mavalsrushti', about an hour's drive from Pune. This was a team outing, and I am always a bit sceptical of such corporate sounding terms, team outings involving team building activities. Am I glad my scepticism was unfounded? The trip turned out be immensely fun filled, and a great refresher.

We were to report at office at 7:30AM, from where a bus was arranged to pick us up. I made it on the exact right time, only to find only one soul already there. A bit later one more soul appeared, and that was all for a seemingly long interval of time. There were chats, as usual, and I utilized the time by calling a few friends and informing them that "everybody's here, just waiting for you, so make haste".

The journey began at about 8:15AM, and the bus was quite full as almost everyone I knew from office was coming. The journey was overfull with jokes, on anything and everything (and some even not suitable for public listening ;-). The road is a zig zag, so the bags kept falling down (the word was 'saamaan', and it was probably the most fertile source for jokes). We reached probably by 9:30AM. A nashta of garma-garam upma and pohe was waiting for us. And then gavati chaha. Pure Bliss..

After the khana-peena, we started wandering. There was a waterfall on the map which was to be our first destination. We eventually did find it. Playing in water (any kind) is an activity which will never lose it's appeal to me. Sitting under the powerful current of water, where you barely can keep your eyes open.. Feels awesome. This was accompanied by slips, falls, photos and a lot of jokes. Later we started our upward journey (the path to the waterfall is a descent), where we discovered this swimming pool. The water was not too good, but not too bad either. And the enthusiasm was overflowing. There were races (running and swimming. yes running, the pool was quite shallow), throwing people into the pool (one of my favorite activity. But let me also tell you that I was thrown as well), and later frisbee and volleyball. Reminded me of the cherished Konkan trip.

This continued till the lunch time. I was literally shaking from chill when I came out (discovered this when I noticed the cup of tea in my hand was almost spilling). The two (or probably three) cups of tea saved me. We returned for lunch, but I ate very little, feeling not very hungry. After lunch, there was gapshap, but I, with a few others, soon found ourselves out for a walk. A new round of photographs, bamboo fights and of course jokes followed. We returned for tea and soon began our return journey. I spent the time in a half sleep mode.

'Mavalsrushti' is a good place for a one day trip. I don't think any photos have been uploaded as of now, but they'll appear soon. Also you might spot some mistakes or even gaps in the temporal flow, because to be honest, my brain is not at its optimal at this point in time, but I wanted to write when all the fun and memories were still fresh.

Enjoy!!

A life in Science

Darwin needs no introduction. His theory of evolution by natural selection is taught to all schoolchildren (yep, it was in my course too, Grade VIII, IIRC; what I learned is a moot point though). Coming back, recently I read a biography of Darwin by John Gribbin and Michael White. It was a good, informative, albeit a bit dry in places, read. Darwin, born into a wealthy family, was an undirected youth. The attempts of his father to push him in medicine, and later theology, failed. It was the trip abroad HMS Beagle that really gave him direction (His official title was as Ship's naturalist, but the real reason he was taken was that the earlier Captain of the ship had committed suicide while on a similar voyage, and the current Captain wanted some intelligent company to preserve his sanity). He first made his reputation in Geology (which was the hot science of his day), and it was his findings that really established Lyell's theories in Britain. He developed the theory evolution relatively early, but sat over it for nearly 20 years, before finally publishing 'The origin of species' (The full name was 'An abstract of an essay on the origin of species and variation through natural selection'. Yes it's quite mouthful) in 1859. Alfred Russell Wallace came up with similar conclusions at about the same time, but in a rare delightful incident, Lyell was successful in having both agree to a joint announcement. Science is full of disputes over priority, the most famous being between Leibnitz and Newton, the independent inventors of Calculus, so this came as a real surprise. Darwin was not an eloquent speaker, so the task of defending his theory fell to his supporters (T.H.Huxley, also known as 'Darwin's Bulldog', being the most famous. It was him who coined the term 'agnostic' btw. And a magazine launched to spread word of the new science by Huxley with others became 'Nature' in 1869. Check this to see how it stands among the competition :). But Darwin was far from being a secluded soul, toiling alone, as is seen from his successful investments, and the way he planned for supporters. Born a believer, his faith slowly eroded, and it was the death of his daughter Annie which turned him into an ardent atheist. He was wrong about quite a few things, like the nature of heredity (he believed in something called pangensis), and the origin of human races, but most of his work stands as tall as ever today.

The book has a few downsides, the flow of narrative jumps to and fro in time, and I was able to spot a few unnecessary repetitions. Also there is very little on the theory of evolution itself, I had expected a more thorough discussion. Still, worth a read!

It's funny !!

It's funny when you amuse yourself. I dare say my ability to procrastinate is quite well known in my friend circle, but sometimes I stretch it too far, almost to the breaking point. I am talking about the dent. Now I am sure nobody remembers what it was, so here is a refresher. I could not help but smile while rereading that post. I had said it'll take at least two days, it took ~ 125 (means I was right ;-). I kept inventing new reasons, one after another (few of them quite entertaining, going by the amount of laughter they engendered) before finally taking the plunge last week. For one full week (when the bike was with the dent-ist), I had to walk to and from the office (this was used as another reason-to-procrastinate in the past). I enjoy walks, but there were moments in the last week when I hated it. At last today, after much ado, I got my bike back. And the dent is gone. Not that I am gonna miss it that much.

Enjoy!!

Strange Beauty

Our knowledge of fundamental particle physics contains not one fruitful idea that does not carry the name of Murray Gell-Mann.

-Richard Feynman

The boy in the photo is Murray, of course. They say a picture speaks a thousand word, so I suggest you spare a moment to take a good look. The intensity leaps out of the picture..

Recently I finished reading 'Strange Beauty', the biography of Nobel Laureate Murray Gell-Mann by George Johnson. Now you would expect the guy to be smart, being a Nobel Laureate, but read the book; you probably couldn't have imagined someone could be this smart. Even Sheldon might seem like an understatement ;-). He earned his PhD at 21 from MIT, and did some phenomenal work on cosmic rays, introducing the notion of strangeness, then went on to discover what he called the Eightfold way, a classification scheme for hadrons, and the quark model (he also introduced the notion of quark colors). Some of these things were independently discovered by others (like quarks by George Zweig) at about the same time, but he enjoyed a "two-decade reign as emperor of elementary particles" as Sheldon Glashow (Nobel Laureate, Physics, 1979) once put it. And here's a little demystification. He did not actually borrow the word 'quark' from James Joyce. He made the sound ('kwork') himself, just borrowed the spelling.

The book is balanced in its treatment of his life and his work. Many of the basics of particle physics are explained in an approachable way. Also well explored is the personal side of the man, like his perfectionist nature, which made him correct pronounciations of people's own names. Or his insurmountable writing block, because of which he failed to deliver his official Nobel lecture for printing. Or the seemingly cruel way in which he seemed to treat those around him sometimes. But all this makes him more human, not less.

Good biographies teach you something about their subject, but the best ones are those which also teach you something about life or yourself. This one fits the bill. Highly recommended!!