A year passes

It is like an early morning journey in winter. Dew is everywhere. In the rear view mirror, you can just see a vague reflection. You know it is you, but that is all. A little effort yields all kinds of funny effects. And with each passing kilometer, features begin to emerge. They are your own and you know it, but a patient exmination might still surprise you. And so it is with a passing year. With  triumphs and defeats, hysteria and depression, and everything in betwern, and the ragbag of bittersweet experiences, the reflection in the mirror of mind is a bit clearer. And the journey continues.

Wish you the best in eveything in the new year.

Surprisingly common errors

From the Glibc manual (v2.16, chapter 2: Error codes)

EGREGIOUS: You did what?
EIEIO: Go home and have a glass of warm,dairy-fresh milk.

Do check your errno.

The sliding window

The window starts at zero. With the first steps in this world, as one learns to talk, to read, (for some) to think, the window starts filling. Experiences,  memories, knowledge, all crowd up. Awareness grows, the window expands, sometimes seemingly exponentially. But like in all protocols, there is a limit to how much it can grow. Once that point is reached, the window starts sliding. The dear people and loved books of earlier times just disappear, because they are no longer in the window. But the window is advancing. New is constantly taking place of the old, so one rarely notices. But then there is a limit to this as well. The window reaches a point at which it can neither grow, nor advance. It can go nowhere but shrink. Things seemingly disappear, but nothing is taking their place; the simple reason is there is no space in the window now. The window gets smaller and smaller, faster and faster, and there is comes a point when, suddenly, it snaps shut.

The transfer is complete. Another window starts at zero.

12.12.12

A naive curiosity, but it got me wondering. The last time it occurred general relativity was still in the future, quantum mechanics had barely begun, people would have laughed at the prospect of one, let alone two, world wars, my great grandfather was a hardworking farmer in Mysore province of British India, calculating machines could barely challenge abacus, and the word computer still meant a person.
So what will it be like the next time? Will we have a unified theory, quantum computers or maybe flying cars? Will we have solved Riemann Hypothesis or P=NP or both? Will we have fixed global warming and the energy crisis? Will the free internet exist, or is it its destiny to remain an accident between naive curiosities? Will we have a bit more social justice? And will there be someone wondering of the same things? I think at least the last one has an affirmative answer. It will be interesting as it has always been, and though I won't be there, I am sure glad to be here.

The story of the old one

A biography can be judged based on a number of criterion. Balance, readability, comprehensiveness are all worthy candidates. But more importantly, we should ask whether it brings the spirit of its subject out. Walter Isaacson's Einstein succeeds triumphantly on all counts, especially the last one.

As one would expect, the book has readable introductory accounts of Einstein's science, but instead of going into too much detail, Isaacson focuses on the principles that guided Einstein's work. Einstein's life is presented in extensive detail, as an unknown patent clerk in Bern, as the biggest superstar of science after General Relativity, as an ardent pacifist who changed his mind when Nazis came to power (a good scientist abandons a theory when it no longer fits the facts), as guard of Realism in science which he found threatened by the rise of Quantum Mechanics which he himself had pioneered, and as a seeker of Unification, of forces of nature in a unified field theory and of nations in a world government, both quests which proved unsuccessful. Einstein had his flaws, but that is why you will feel even more kinship with his spirit. We get to witness the journey of a man through the maze of life, constantly amused at its strange turns both good and bad, trying to do as much good as he can and finding solace in his work to rise above the 'merely personal', and all this without losing his curiosity or sense of humour. Without qualification, a great portrayal of a great life.

Towards the completion

Just finished reading 'Second foundation'. With this, the Foundation triology is complete, and two books remain from the entire series of seven. I found this one to be the best of the lot so far, both because of the Mule and of course the second foundation. I am also glad that contrary to appearances, at least some things are nearing completion.

Easier the other way

Firing a build takes more jumping around than building a fire.

Daylight Saving चालू झालं...

आता आम्ही (आमची वीज जाळून) आमेरिकेची वीज वाचवणार...

A false dichotomy

Simplest vs Hardest. They are basically the same.

[One more cliche borne out by experience].

एक वाक्य

"किती आले किती गेले, आम्ही आहोत तिथल्या तिथे"

(गावातल्या चावडित आणि आय टी कंपनीमधे या वाक्याचे अर्थ अगदी वेगवेगळे होतात).

Tales of Cards

I recently got myself a credit card. Now this news would come as big relief to some of my friends, because before I was always  begging to use their card for something or the other. One might think repeated begging should have pushed me to get one for myself, but then I don't call myself lazy for nothing. I managed to be a holdout for more than four years. I had one before that, for a year or so, but it expired and I let it (again, I don't call myself lazy for nothing). The push to get one were the recent 'faaren' journeys; not having a credit card really is an incoveneince when in a different country. The funny thing I noticed was I did not immedietly go on a shopping spree to complete my long pending plans. For example I wanted to get a LWN subscription forever, but the thought came to my mind a couple of months after I was in a position to get it without begging. Ditto for a subscription to sciam digital. I think I had gotten too used to living without a credit card. I was surprised at how deep that 'used to' went.

Foundation saga so far

Foundation series is one of the tallest pillars of science fiction. It tells a history of the future in seven books. Some numbers

The order of events in the future history
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The order in which the books were written
3 4 5 6 7 1 2

The order in which I wanted to read them
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

The actual order so far
7 1 3

The last number of the last sequence was an addition over the last weekend. As can be noted it was the first book to be written (in 1951), and it is part of a subset of the series known as 'Foundation Triology' (comprising of books 3,4,5) so it was an important addition. I liked it very much anyway. I thank the anonymous benefactor who left a copy of the book on Z's desk (for over a month) which I finally decided to borrow for the weekend. May you live long and prosper \\//.

Good read

Richard Hamming's (of the Hamming code) advice about doing first class research. Relevant for all young professionals (as a side note I can feel my age writing those last words :).

You and your research.

Made in Japan

These words used to carry the connotation of sloppiness not a very long time ago. In the book with the same name, Akio Morita, one of the founders of Sony tells how they turned these very same words into a symbol of qaulity.

The book tells the story of Sony, from its beginnings in the devastated ruins of Tokyo after the second world war, the enormous problems that were faced and the ingenious ways in which they were overcome, and the commitment to quality that made brand Sony what it is today. However that is not the entire book. Morita in his later life became an advocate for more harmonious world trade, a defender of Japanese policy when Japan came under attack from US in the 1980s for 'eating local jobs' and he also spent his time and energy in bridging the gap between Japan and the rest of the world on business and other levels. So the books spends a fair amount of time on how Japan does business, how Japanese think and also a little of its history. The book is old (published 1986), so some of this latter material might be dated, but it is a good, optimistic, and I dare say, inspirational book.

I really liked this quote

Not that I have anything against OO..

 

"I think the lack of reusability comes in object-oriented languages, not in functional languages. Because the problem with object-oriented languages is they’ve got all this implicit environment that they carry around with them. You wanted a banana but what you got was a gorilla holding the banana and the entire jungle".

-Joe Armstrong (creator of Erlang and OTP)

It just clicked

Unix is telling me how to live. Read, Write and Execute. It was there all this time. Clever.

The End of Eternity

Asimov takes time travel to a new level in this short novel. We had had too many loners traveling into past; here we meet an entire organization engaged in doing that and that alone. And not just travel into past, they make changes to the past to get the present that gives (in their opinion) the 'greatest happiness to the greatest number'. This means there is an abundance of realities, each as real to its inhabitants as ours is to us, coming into existence when the current past (whatever that is) leads to it, and going out of existence when past changes again (leading to an alternate reality). Not the best Asimov novel in terms of character development, but readable, and provides quite a bit of food for thought.

Reading update

Some good books I read recently.

The information by James Gleick - The book accessibly traces the history of the technology and the concept of Information, and how it came to dominate our present times. You will see the rise of writing (Plato was no fan to it), the first dictionaries and encyclopedias, telegraphs and African talking drums. And you will meet the work of Shannon and Chaitin and Kolmogorov. Quite fascinating.

In praise of Idleness by Bertrand Russell - It's a collection of essays on various socio-political topics. For example in the title essay he discusses the benifits that might accrue if work hours were to be reduced, giving people more leisure. He presents the case for Socialism, and philosophical history of fascism. And he talks about the delights of 'useless' knowledge, which enriches our experience of the world, despite having no practical application. In some cases you might find yourself disagreeing with Russell, but the concern, clear thinking and quality that are present will surely impress you.

The man who loved only numbers by Paul Hoffman - A biographical sketch of eminent number theorist Paul Erdős. One of the most prolific mathematicians ever, he published 1475 papers in his lifetime, with 485 collaborators. He organized his life to maximize his time for mathematics, which meant no wife or children or family, no home, no permanent job either. He lived his life out of a suitace, always moving and finding new collaborators. What little money he earned almost entirely went to needy students, relatives or charities. A warm, delightful book about an extraordinary life.

The counter expires

When you have waited long enough and hard enough for something, it is hard to be objective when you actually get it. Watched 'The Dark Knight Rises' today. And due to this absence, I will refrain from swaying your opinion one way or another, by ending this post right here.

Couple of updates

Read 'The old man and the sea'. A touching little story. Written as a single section so a little hard to read. Plus some of the fishing/sailing references were hard to figure out. By the way this is the book that won Hemingway (the author) the Nobel.

Watched first episode of 'Sherlock' the TV series. Loved this modern interpretation. Wondered if the precision logic that Holmes employed was somehow an overgrowth of certitude of Victorian science in general. If so, one cannot write a Holmes today.

A first

What do you do when you finish a novel and are all touched by it and pondering it and only in the afterword you come to realize that it is based on actual events? Not much I guess, except being swept in the thought storm that follows. This is exactly what happened with me and Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. It holds the world record for a bestseller for number of times it was turned down by publishers (121). And it has some poignant and pertinent and wise things to say. And you might find part of your own journey reflected there. Worth a second read I think.

P.S.
Wikipedia fetched this good interview with the author.

Why is the crow black?

I was taking my post lunch walk today when a crow flew-by. At this point one of my friends would have started calculating its speed, but it occurred to me that I don't know why is it black. After all it hunts in the day so its color is not an aid for hunting (as it would be for hunting in night). Or maybe crows got their color in some other region and migrated here. But then probably they would discolor over time. But never the one to prefer thinking over googling, after coming back I put the question in the search box. Here are three answers I found, you are free to take your pick.

One
Two
Three

Days--;

What_exactly++?    //TODO

This is awesome..

Gives me goosebumps.

A short review of Prometheus

It was disappointing. And not only because I went in with high expectations. The story begins with promise, but soon degrades into second rate, incoherent bamble. Special effects, some of them spectacular, fail to save the day.

Interesting stuff of the day

[Which on the work side was pretty hectic. Anyway.]

The recent transit of Venus at the big picture. If you missed the transit, at least don't miss the pictures. You (and I) most probably will not be around when the next one takes place in 2117.

Schemaverse - A galactic conquer game written inside PostgreSQL and played by typing SQL statements. I don't think I will be able to play it, but the idea is fundoo. Reminds me of the flight simulator in Excel.

For what it is worth, here is an article about Color models. I think UI people would find it useful. I am yet to finish reading it, but looks interesting.

Enjoy!

Chaar Shabd

Dolyansamor mast divasaachi vaat.

Colors for Ears

I forgot my headphones today, so had to borrow a set from a friend. Normally headphones are like bridges, they faithfully pass on (or don't) what they receive. This one had NAT; it looked at what it received, 'decided' where it needed to go, modified accordingly and then passed it on. I am not well versed in the language of bass and treble to explain what exactly it was doing, but it was crazy. For some songs, barely audible notes that I had never noticed were playing full steam. For others, solos had turned into chorus. Tones had shifted and words had vanished, all over the place. It was like looking at the world through colored glasses.

Meteoric rise

I cannot be the first person to be confused by the phrase 'meteoric rise' (another example is 'quantum leap'); you see meteors don't rise, they fall. But then recently I came across the story of Ensisheim meteorite; it fell in 1492 near the town of Ensisheim now in France. The thing is, after it was discovered and kings and such had taken its darshan, it was duly chained. It remained so for more than 300 years. Originally this was done to prevent it from taking flight again, in case it had mind to do so. Probably a common belief at the time. Does the phrase 'meteoric rise' has anything to do with this idea from pre-modern-science times? I wonder.

Why is it dark..

..when you close your eyes? The obvious answer is only part of the story. See this amazing post at Cosmic Variance for more.

Now when I was writing this, a similar question popped into my mind, where again the obvious answer is only part of the story. Why is it dark at night? I thought I will just find another post and link to it, but I could not find one (I am sure there are some), so I am writing it down myself.
Assume the universe is infinite, not only in space but also in time. In 17th century, when this question was first considered, this was a very reasonable assumption. In such a universe, wherever you look you will see a star. The stars get dimmer with the square of the distance, but their number increases with the square of distance too, assuming they are distributed uniformly. So at every distance, there is an equal amount of light output. Add infinite stars and you have infinite amount of light reaching you, even at night. This problem became known as Olbers' paradox. Of course, paradox means either your assumptions or your deduction is wrong. It turns out to be the former. Big bang theory tells us that universe does not extend infinitely in time, it came into existence 13.7bn years ago. So stars have not been shining forever, and only light from those within 13.7bn light years of us has reached us. And they won't keep shining forever either. And that is why, at this very moment, it is dark outside.

Bits from weekend

Made a trip to the British library after a long time. Usual interesting finds, about which you might see more in the future. On my way back, bought a copy of Mrityunjay. It's a gem of Marathi literature (also a winner of Dnyanpeeth award), but there is more to it. The year I was in 8th standard was filled with this book. Day and night I used to read and think about it. I may not read it cover to cover this time, but many pleasant hours of browsing surely lay ahead.

We all are eagerly waiting for Dark Knight Rises, but that is no reason for others in bollywood and hollywood to lose all hope and produce utter crap. But apparently that is what they are doing for a couple of months. Thankfully, the third iteration of MIB provides a welcome break. But first things first. This movie had 5 pre movie trailers, along with a sneak preview even longer. I welcomed this change. There was this new bond movie, Skyfall; the new spiderman movie (Trivia note: the guy who played Saverin in Social Network is the new spidey), and a new version of Total Recall (probably closer in storyline to the Philip K Dick novel on which it is based than the earlier version featuring Arnold S). All were bookmarked of course. Coming back to the movie, MIB3 retains some of the freshness of the original, which is a hard thing to do. The new villian is cool too, and the story is nicely integrated. Barring a couple of glitches, this is surely the tonic you will need to survive till July 20th.

Finished reading 'Quantum theory cannot hurt you' by Marcus Chown. The title is a little incomplete btw, about half of the book talks about relativity. And despite this, it's a small book, only 158 pages. It explains some things well, but handwaves others (ratio might be about 70/30). That is unavoidable for popular treatments; but I have read others and it was more apparent with this one. Interesting bits of trivia are aplenty though, they keep you reading even when you are familiar with the ideas. For example, the sun is getting lighter by 4 million tons per second (mass equivalent of its energy output). Or that if all the space were squeezed out of matter, the entire human race would fit in the volume of a sugar cube (because atoms are mostly empty space). But the best one probably is this quote,
"Black holes are where God divided by zero".

Enjoy!

Two approaches

'Intelligent design' and 'Evolution' are not just approaches to the question of how life came to be on earth [in that context, the first one is totally bogus], but are also problem solving strategies in general. In this latter context, I always favored ID. It is only now that I am (slowly) realizing that many of the larger questions of life can only be solved by Evolution. It lacks the beauty and the clarity of the former, but then it at least leads to a solution.

Recent (unrelated) snaps

My click-rate has gone high since getting The Note. Here is a recent sample. Now I am pretty bad with both theoretical and practical aspects of photography, but as (hopefully) can be seen, Note has a decent camera. Similar posts might be seen in the future too.

Gulmohar near my house. Reminds me of the fiery blossom I used to witness every summer in my grandparent's village.

A lazy shot on a lazy afternoon. With increasing distance you might spot part of my room, my terrace, my neighborhood, and probably eternity if you focus long enough on the middle section.

A bridge on my way to office. Can you guess which?

Instant messengers of the past ages, probably reminiscing about those ages on a tranquil evening. Taken during the snack hour at office.

Enjoy!

Tales of a checkup

[This again from the blogger app. Bad formatting and typos to be expected].

Company recently announced a medical checkup. Obviously my reaction was, "who'd get up so early?". But somehow people convinced me to go. Some points

I woke up on time, slid the heater (I have an immersion heater) into the bucket on time, and came back 15 minutes later. Only then I realized I had forgotten to turn on the switch. So much for being on time.

There were a great many tests, many of which I underwent for the first time. All were carried in a fairly low tech way though. Extraordinary amount of blood (at least by some accounts) was drained from people.

For the ECG, in addition to the electrodes, they also clamped my legs. Now I have seen (in movies) legs being clamped for only one reason, shock treatment. After this thought, I was laughing like an idiot through the whole test.

Breakfast was served at the place. Overall it was good, but the sandwich bread could have served as the source of raw dental profiling data.

My teeth received a complement compliment from the dentist, which they found rather amusing. But let's not forget I was standing between the guy and his lunch at the time.

As I said, there were quite a few tests, but one thing not mentined in the test case document was tested too. Our patience. The thing started at 8 and ended at 1. Thankfully friends from office were there so it was not boring.

Enjoy!

The deep range

[Apologies for formatting and any remaining typos. The blogger android app does not help with either].

Until quite recently, I had only read the space age science fiction of Arthur Clark, so when on a recent landmark trip I located 'The deep range', where sea is the stage, I immedietly picked it up. Just finished reading it.

Clark himself was an early underwater exploration enthusiast, as he relates in the preface. The book is a little different from his characteristic epic sagas though; it takes place in quite the near future and the science element is not miraculous, as is the wont of epics. Superb narrative and plot development, and interspersed bits of geniune wonder and wisdom are there as expected. And as one reviewer puts it on the back cover, "Enough crises to keep you reading avidly".

The book is an engaging read, but that is not the whole story. The topic of sea also brought back the roars  and the sparkles which etched themselves on my mind at the campfire at Diveagar in 2009. Getting reminded of them was as a great a pleasure as any.

Enjoy!

I like..

..that many more stars can be seen from Viman nagar as compared to Kothrud. Not as many as from Vadgaon though, and even that pales into insignificance against the star studded magnificience of Diveagar.

Some pretty cool special effects

located today just above my head.

And yes, have a nice weekend.

We ought to make that mandatory..

Error messages as Haiku.

There are many jewels in there, but here is my favorite

Error reduces
Your expensive computer
To a simple stone.

[Came across this while reading this article about BeOS. Worth a read though it is a little ranty].

Early morning browsing

Of course, you only live one life, and you make all your mistakes, and learn what not to do, and that's the end of you.

[From 'Surely you are joking, Mr Feynman', page 255]

Good article

From BBC.

New game in town

What particle are you?

Psycho

Watched Psycho over the weekend. It is probably the most famous Hitchcock movie, and was on my list since long. The first half is somewhat slow, but the part towards the end will surely send chills down your spine. A must watch if you watch movies at all.

Little old trick

I hope your job does not require you to be able to calculate squares quickly. Mine doesn't. But in case it does, here is a little trick for relatively small numbers.

First thing is to memorize squares upto 25. Schools generally hammer these into your brain, so that's a reasonable requirement I guess.

Suppose the number is between 25 and 50. Let's express it as 25+n, 25>n>0. Get the square of 25-n (now that you remember it). Take it and add 100n. Voila.
Let's take an example. Suppose you want to square 43.
43=25+n, n=18
25-18=7 whose square is 49. add 100n=18*100=1800 to it.
Answer is 1849.

Next step. Suppose the number lies between 50 and 100. Let's say 73.
73=50+n, n=23
So let's first find square of 50-n=27.
27 lies between 0 and 50 so you can use the trick mentioned above to find it if necessay.
Anyway it is 729.
Add to that 200n=4600. So 4600+729=5329, the required answer.
Note here we multiplied by 200 (as 'base' is 50, not 25), rest is same.

You can go on for x=100+n but then the amount of backtracking takes a little longer. And you have to multiply by 400.

The explanation of why this works is pretty simple, but it will be lengthy (in fact I started this post with it, but it just kept growing, and not to mention blogger is terrible with formatting), so I'll skip it.

It's 00:28

I am listening. 'The man from earth' has such a beautiful background score. I wish I knew more about music.

Incoherent bambling

There are things that touch your soul in ways you can't describe. Watching 'The man from earth' had that effect today. And not for the first time. What moves you is the crux of your identity, and as it gets overpowered by the dross of everyday life, it felt really good to glimpse it once more.

A question

Have you ever become tired of playing the maturity game?

Blogger forced me

I was doing something very simple and blogger loses my template. That is why the new look. I had wanted to pick something from the classic templates, but it then throws away data (eg my painstakingly crafted link lists) too. New look courtesy mercy of blogger.

Genuine, primal hunger

Genuine, primal hunger scrambles your brain to such an extent that the result is blog posts about genuine primal hunger scrambling your brain to such an extent that the result is blog posts about genuine primal hunger scrambling your brain and so on.

Most C programmers have struggled with this

Sure I did. Good article about byte order (and why it doesn't matter) from Rob Pike.

Enjoy!

Universe/Fate/Whatever...

You just don't think I have enough frustrations.. Do you?

Counter Clock world

Counter clock world is one of the strangest I have ever been to. I was a little skeptical before beginning the journey; you see, The divine invasion had not made much of an impression on me. But this one increased my respect for Philip K Dick a lot.

Now about the strangeness. In this world, time has reversed itself, something called the Hobart Phase. The dead reform in their coffins, and knock and ask to be let out. There are businesses doing just that, selling the deaders (as they are called) to the highest bidder. People say 'Goodbye' when they pickup the phone, 'Hello' just before they hangup. 'Smoking' cigarette butts converts them to full length cigarettes. A religious leader is about to be reborn, and the story revolves around the consequences.

Despite the strangeness, the plot is quite plausibly developed and the narrative is fast paced. A good read, but probably only for 'serious' readers (but don't ask me to define that).

Another mighty mathematician you never heard of

Dattatraya Ramchandra Kaprekar.

The Mighty Mathematician You’ve Never Heard Of

From NYTimes.

My brain at the moment

Happy Pi Day (3/14)

[The brackets in title are just to annoy you].

You can celebrate by eating a pie (if you are a vegetarian) or marathi py, aka leg piece (if you are a non vegetarian).

It is also Einstein's birthday. So take a moment to remember one of the greatest minds who ever lived.

Not much change

I used to collect rare coins as a child.
These days any coin will do.

Amazing..

SCOOPING THE LOOP SNOOPER.

From a weekend trip to lavasa

With time..

..a man learns to wait for paperbacks.
[wisdom after buying Barrow's Book of Universes]

Like on a number line..

..there are far more irrationals than rationals here too.

Don't Kid Yourself.

It is not as easy as it sounds, but please don't.

Face Painting and Holi Celebrations at Company

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Artist

Watched The Artist over the weekend. I was prepared not to like it. It's black and white, I was told. Plus it had 'art' in its name. Plus it won Oscars. I did not know it was a silent movie, but that would have just added to my apprehension. It would be an emo-choked-drama-of-a-lone-suffering-artist-against-the-stupid-world, I thought. And I dreaded 'arre usme itna art hai' discussions.

So here's the deal. The movie is delightful! It has art too, but the movie manages to be much effective by being, well, silent about it. Kudos to all the actors for saying so much without words. And the direction is superb. Definitely a must watch.

Last three books

Yes, that's the best title I could come up with. But finding enough energy to write this post is joy enough.

Edison on Innovation: This is a small book which tries to teach lessons about Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Innovation by drawing on Edison's life. The actual 'lessons' are not much to write about, but it was nice to delve into Edison's life once again (I devoured a biography of him as a schoolboy).

Jack: Autobiography of Mr. Welch who as the CEO from 1981 to 2000 grew GE from a 18bn company to a 550bn company [side note: Edison was the founder of GE]. The book focuses mostly on his professional life. The writing is lucid and you will learn quite a bit, even if you don't agree with everything he has to say.

The Pixar Touch: The history of Pixar from its earliest days as a Grahics computer maker (The ill fated pixar image computer, which Pixar itself only used for a single film) to the king of animation. A terrific read full of interesting nuggets, including how Toy Story and its bretheren got made. And you will pick a thing or two about animation.

Enjoy!

Brain on holiday

Thought you should know.

Look at the brighter side

Only five months to Dark Knight Rises!

[Btw I just noticed that all my tag names are CamelCase which i_abhor_in_code. I am totally at loss why that is so].

Update available

[Writing this on the blogger app, which does not seem to enjoy a great reputation. Formatting might be an issue].

A few updates (once again hoping there will be more of those from now on).

I have more or less settled into my new place and discovered that I don't mind living alone that much after all. Maybe I have always been antisocial, but just used to think otherwise. I like the new room, which is, most importantly, much quieter than the old one.

Not much on the reading side except that I actually counted the number of books I have while shifting. Out came a truly staggering number. Purchases have gone down quite a bit, though not vanished yet.

Watched one or two recent movies, but nothing worth writing about. Maybe we should all just wait for Dark Knight Rises.

I bought an induction appliance. And made tea. Yes, me. With my bare hands (with some help ofcourse). That is a personal record of sorts.

Enjoy!

An observation

Pain is an inverse-square phenomenon.

The Tao of Programming

The Tao of Programming.

Recent Science Fiction

Certain troubles were going on lately, which barring the details meant I was unable to read anything remotely heavy. Thankfully a (small) pile of science fiction came to my rescue. Here is what

Isaac Asimov : The complete stories Volume I : Asimov has been called the greatest science fiction author of all time (Clark has been too, and I am sure many others have been and will be). Statements concerning 'all time' are perilous, but Asimov certainly was one of the most clever. Read this book to convince yourself (besides spending many pleasat hours). The breadth of themes and plots is simply astonishing.

A Time Odyssey Book I: Time's Eye: I remeber borrowing this one from V a long time back and not finishing it. Did that recently. Enjoyable, if a bit stretched at some points. Full of scientific and historical nuggets like Clarke's other books. Good, but not great.

Quicksilver: Not science fiction per say, but close. Very clever, but descriptions of places and dresses are a bit laborious to read. But dialogues more than make up for it. Some familiarity with the early history of Royal Society and principals involved is (I think) required to fully appreciate it though.

Enjoy!!