Madurai Sketches
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
You're a true Linux geek if......
Anytime you see a penguin, it makes you think of Linux
Your computer has four times more RAM than your car has horsepower.
When you hear the term “Evil Empire”, you think, not of Ronald Reagan and the old USSR, but of Microsoft.
Before you move into a new house or apartment, the most important thing to you is the availability of cable internet or DSL.
You have a LAN in your room.
You like the sound of modems handshaks .
Pornography is not the first thing you think of when you see the letter X.
You don’t think wearing tennis shoes with a suit is strange.
You own more than 50 T-shirts, but can’t remember the last time you had to actually pay for one.
You’re probably the highest-paid but worst-dressed person in the office.
You get involved in heated conversations on newsgroups concerning things about which “normal” people have never even heard.
You’ve spent more time in front of a computer screen than a television screen.
Your PC’s monitor screen is bigger than your TV
When watching movies that show computers, you can not only tell which operating system is being used, but you also know what development tool was likely used to create the custom applications that are shown.
You know who Scott McNealy is. You know where Scott’s Valley is and you know that it wasn’t named after Scott McNealy.
You keep in touch with dozens of people on a regular basis, but have not sent a personal letter via the post office in years.
(I think 99% of my friends fit 99% of the criteria above perfectly!)
Home Sick
Last Wednesday, after being confined to my home on the bandh day, I swore to myself that I would not stay at home the whole day ever. And I spent the whole of Thursday and Friday very much at home because I was down with viral fever. Oh, the irony of life! But those two days and two long nights were horrible. I constantly ran a fever of 103.5 degrees and hence couldn't sleep. To make things worse, this was the first time I fell ill since I started living alone and so I had no medicines other than few homeopathic ones from my dad.
On Wednesday night, when the illness started, I employed my mp3 player to help me sleep and it worked for sometime. I was starting to feel really sad about the whole situation cos I was sick and all alone but Frou Frou helped me get over it by singing "There's beauty in the breakdown" in my ear. And so at 3:15 am, I called up my landlady and asked for medicines.
I am much better now. The motivation for getting better, of course, is that I'm going to Lucknow tomorrow for Diwali. And its been a year since I went home. I last went on last Diwali. The difference this time would be that my parents now have broadband at home so I will keep posting and keep reading other blogs. In fact, I may be able to post more than I do now.
And even though I don't write too many posts these days, its good to know once in a while that my blog can keep people occupied for hour(s) and even make them come back as is evident in screenshot 1, screenshot 2 and screenshot 3. (The third visit was longer than the screenshot). I think that's enough reason to feel good about. What do you think?
Update: In a major offence, I forgot to tell you all about my new pictures from my trip to Nagarahole in which I saw crocodiles, elephants, dears, birds, a fox and a will boar. The pictures can be found on flickr, as always.
Update 2 This is a small clip from one of the funniest episodes of Family Guy. Take a look. It's just too funny!! Watch it, please!
A whole new concept
Happen to visit this cool stuff from one of my friends blogo. A whole new concept of no clicking at all throughout the site. Let me not break the ice.
Check this out yourself. http://dontclick.it/
Though might sound like a run off the mill flash presentation, really a good concept worth seeing(feeling). But i though feel it weird without clickingggggggggg.
Sp no more hitting Mickey's head.
Labels: interface
Truly wonderful, the mind of a child....
Sunday, December 24, 2006
Truly wonderful, the mind of a child....
I get hurt by the amount of "grown ups" that I see around me. I was recently asked why I hang around with juniors so much, mostly the FY's. Well, the answer is quite simple, you're all too grown up for me. I just saw the movie "Finding Neverland" after a long time and felt like expressing my own views on Peter Pan.
It's no big secret that we were all afraid of growing up when we were young. I still get freaked out when my mom mentions the word "marriage" in front of me, and others don't understand what the deal is since they believe I should be able to talk about it normally by now.
It's actually a pity that India is a country with a chronologically young population trying to grow up too fast. Maybe it's all this ancient philosophical stuff that's being fed to them by parents or it's the whole educational system (which I will attack a bit later), but the reality is that kids are being asked to be grownups too fast. Kids should be playing and fighting and arguing and name-calling and having fun. Instead, I see five-year-olds being scolded for coming second in the class instead of first. I see 8 year olds being sent to a billion classes so their moms can boast in public parties. What the hell happened to us? We got freedom, we have a democratic country, when will we wake up and smell the coffee?
I still dream of becoming a Power Ranger or a Jedi Knight, and building my own Batcar, and learning Ninjutsu (being inspired from the Ninja Turtles). But somehow, I find my friends to be too old to discuss these things with. They're what is generally called as "pragmatic" and "rational" and spend time discuss theiring own marriages or bollywood love affairs all day long. What the hell happened to this young promising India?
We use the words creativity, innovation, passion, etc. and we don't know what they're about in the first place. Every major personality who has made a difference in this world was a child. Pure, innocent, full of convictions, confident, adamant and demanding. But day after day, society is against such traits.
Look at Bill Gates and Richard Stallman. Both are just so convinced about their point of view and are so childishly adamant about it that it's benefitting society. Microsoft comes up with idea after idea and Stallman keeps coming up with idea after idea. Both of them in an unending battle to prove their superiority. That's what makes the computing industry such a fun place to be in.
Look at even Mahatma Gandhi himself. He was so convinced that we should have freedom, that he simply sat down and refused to budge until the British left - not very different from how I used to demand Ice Cream when I was younger. What these cases have in common is that a child is totally convinced that he wants ice cream, and he demands in adamantly. But at college, I have to politely ask if anyone is up for going for a coffee these days.
Science is the same. One morning the child inside a US patent clerk decides that some dude called Newton was all wrong about how the universe works. He got up and adamantly kept insisting on having his own way with Gravity. And he became one of the most influential scientists of all time. If he were a "grownup" like us, he would have gone by Newton's position and status and all that stuff and never would have challenged his theories. It was the child in him that was defiant and adamant and so full of energy and enthusiasm which made him successful.
Why can't we just be happy knowing our kids are playing on bicycles and falling down and getting hurt and playing with dogs and cats and attempting to communicate with them (I spent two years trying to teach my dog to speak, being totally convinced that my parents had been careless with him as a pup and hence never taught him to speak themselves). We dreamed of building cool gadgets, and I even have sample blueprints of a prototype Batcar. We're too plagued with marriages and examinations and companies and philosophy and status and reputation. And it's hurting our future generations.
We need schools that would encourage kids to talk to their dogs and make them speak (you never know what might happen). A pragmatic and rational approach of telling them to give up is the real culprit. It inhibits their imagination. So what if they imagine? I still can't go to movies with my friends because they never watch X-Men or Spiderman and the like, and I can't bear to see a guy and a girl crying over their parents' disapproval.
Now I want to comment on what I shall define as "Intellectual Genetic Material".
Remember how genetically close relatives' offspring can have genetic defects? In fact the Egyptian royal race died off due to marriages between siblings for generations (the same happens to Voldemort's ancestry in the Harry Poter series). I believe the same happens to ideas. Intellectual matter must be mixed, thrown around, discussed, spread, debated, argued and fought over. Remember how we used to get involved in fights about which of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was the best? They were full of energy and confidence and passion and conviction and sometimes they degraded into physical violence. We fought because we believed our favourite turtle was the best. Why don't scientists in India show that same passion towards their ideas? Why is there so much conformance in the entire system? Why are one billion people having similar opinions?
I think we're lacking the thought material for producing better offspring in ideas and hence generation after generation they're becoming more defective.
I believe that is also the problem with our educational system. I used to wonder what is wrong with it and could never put my finger on it. Then suddenly I realised the error. The system is perfect on paper and in theory. It's problem is that it's dated. It has not changed, evolved or undergone random mutation. That is the problem. It's not dynamic. And that's why the kids who learn in it are also the same. It's so structured that a whole ecology has formed around it - there are "paper patterns" and "exam strategies" being used for ages now. It's like an old building with vines and trees growing around it and putting their weight on it so that more floors can no longer be added. We are so dependent on the structure that we don't want to disturb it, because it would mean killing all these vines and bushes and shrubs that have grown around it.
The system has not intermixed with others around the world. It has not given anything to others around the world. There are too many grownups taking rational decisions now. We don't have kids who can say, "Hey all those old dudes were wrong and I know how education should be done." If Einstein were in India, he would have been criticised for attacking a man of Newton's "status" and "position" who was a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences and a Knight of the British Empire. And in the same way we discourge hundreds of Indians from crazy ideas.
In fact, I say we must encourage them to find flaws with Einstein. We're in the space age now. We need different ways to travel faster than light. I say kids should grow up dreaming to disprove Einstein's limits to the universe. They must grow up questioning Alan Turing's theories on computation. They must grow up questioning everything they see around them. They must question why dogs can't speak. And if they find an idea, they must be trained to be adamant about it. Be it the freedom of India, the Theory of Relativity or their favourite Ninja Turtle. It should be no different.
The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce
Thursday, December 21, 2006Beginning in 1881 and continuing to 1906, Ambrose Bierce created a series of sardonic word definitions of his own. Many of these were collected and published as The Cynic's Word Book, which he later protested was "a name which the author had not the power to reject or happiness to approve." So in 1911, he pulled together a collection that was more to his own liking and called it The Devil's Dictionary. The entries are a tad uneven in quality, but most are amusing and some are great. Each reader will have his own favorites, some of mine are as follows : ACQUAINTANCE, n. A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to. A degree of friendship called slight when its object is poor or obscure, and intimate when he is rich or famous. ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other's pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third. BIGOT, n. One who is obstinately and zealously attached to an opinion that you do not entertain. BORE, n. A person who talks when you wish him to listen. CONSULT, v.i. To seek another's disapproval of a course already decided on. CYNIC, n. A blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be. Hence the custom among the Scythians of plucking out a cynic's eyes to improve his vision. DICTIONARY, n. A malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic. This dictionary, however, is a most useful work. DISCRIMINATE, v.i. To note the particulars in which one person or thing is, if possible, more objectionable than another. EDUCATION, n. That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding. FUTURE, n. That period of time in which our affairs prosper, our friends are true and our happiness is assured. HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.... A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling... He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions and opinion of taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line. POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage. And, my choice for the very best among them : CONSERVATIVE, n. A statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. By all means, read it and pick out your own; you're sure to find a few that tickle your fancy. GRADE : A
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The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete by Leonardo da Vinci
Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
In the bestselling tradition of The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal, The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude and The Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook comes The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook--the companion volume to Michael Gelb's 1998 Delacorte hardcover bestseller.
Created to structure and motivate the reader's development of the seven da Vincian principles introduced in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook represents the natural extension of Gelb's da Vinci line. As any modern da Vinci student knows, Leonardo's notebook both served as the incubator and repository of his unique genius and provides the foundation of any modern-day student's attempt to emulate that genius on his own. From the very first exercise in the original How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Gelb encourages readers to keep their own personal notebooks in which to hone their da Vincian skills; now he provides that notebook for them, with the added bonus of tips on exercises they'll recognize and new suggestions and assignments that will build on the work they've already done.
Designed to echo the inviting look of How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, and structured to help readers focus on each of the seven genius principles, The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook is a companion volume that truly complements and enhances the reader's experience of the original book on which it's based.
Created to structure and motivate the reader's development of the seven da Vincian principles introduced in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook represents the natural extension of Gelb's da Vinci line. As any modern da Vinci student knows, Leonardo's notebook both served as the incubator and repository of his unique genius and provides the foundation of any modern-day student's attempt to emulate that genius on his own. From the very first exercise in the original How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Gelb encourages readers to keep their own personal notebooks in which to hone their da Vincian skills; now he provides that notebook for them, with the added bonus of tips on exercises they'll recognize and new suggestions and assignments that will build on the work they've already done.
Designed to echo the inviting look of How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, and structured to help readers focus on each of the seven genius principles, The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook is a companion volume that truly complements and enhances the reader's experience of the original book on which it's based.
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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
The story is so familiar we almost forget the point. Even in our old age it is not too late to change. Even in our old age it is not too late to live the life which is our birthright.
In Dickens' tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, an old miser is shown his past, his present, and if he does not change, his future. 
The first ghost reminds him how he once enjoyed life's pleasures. The second ghost shows Scrooge his current deplorable state. The final ghost foretells the likely outcome of his skinflint ways.
A Christmas Carol is not so much a Christmas story as a New Year's story. For those of us who want to change the course of our life, for those of us who want this year's resolutions to actually mean something, we need to go through an Ebenezer-like process.
Mine the past for its lessons, search the present for its patterns, and project where those patterns will lead us in the future. If those patterns lead to unhappiness, those patterns must be altered to lead us to better ends.
Whether your life is a bad life or an abused life or a flat life, you can use the ideas from this simple story as a guide to breaking the patterns which lead to bad ends.
You can even read A Christmas Carol free online.
From A Christmas Carol:
--"External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty."
--[But after his transformation] "Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father. 
He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world."
--"Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him."
--"…and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!"Labels: charles dickens, Christmas
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