Thursday, June 30, 2005

alexis's last day today....

it was really great interacting with him at work....

he codes like any other bloke, but his way of testing(unitary testing) software is probably the best i have seen till now...debugging skills are just right too!

A lot to learn for me.....

the unitary tests he has created, just ensure a LOUD "YES THIS PIECE WILL WORK 90% of the time and it is fit to go into a realtime node"

I love solaris's compiler and solaris documentation...unlike gnu's compiler, the error messages of the sun's compiler, tell you what to do,they dont escape saying "parse error before if"

i asked him to come to an indian restaurant(restaurant de indiénne :) )...
he has suggested another restaurant called place de italié.....duddu boLu ...but this guy is too sweet for that :)

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

Food

Well , the josh for cooking food lasted approximately for 3 weeks.
The josh waned after the self realisation that i cannot be a good cook.
Too lazy to continuously keep up great culinary interests.

The newest challenge is to keep up the josh....How do I keep the josh to cook AND EAT the same food?

The answer for this question lies in watching those freaks who eat lizards, toe nails , grasshopper syrups,snakes,spiders etc. as a challenge. I look at that tv show for inspiration and gulp my food. I just cant get the measurements for the food...

Anyway nigerian rice , thai rice etc are good only for the ears (it sounds exotic);
The catch is you wont get Indian rice.

I prepare good rasam,rice, and good-for-nothing anything else.
Tropicana is thick like molten plastic.
And salt chips suck....there is no kara for chips....

And there is beef,fish from the river Nile , pork , mutton, chicken....
Ofcourse I dont eat this....
French fries are the best here...they are spicy too....

Apples rock, Bananas are better back home, capsicum is really good here, Onions are good...
Time to packup , Good evening angels...

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

the week zipped past ..

I am happy to be finally back in Bangalore. It wasnt a warm welcome at the office. The Manager's have a wierd way of allocating projects and that pissed me off.
Was on bench for a week, and have finally landed in a project.

Bench was bliss, most of it spent at the food courts. :-) reall long hours sipping tea, eating ravaidlis and savouring mousambi and mango juices..

DOing a bit of injustice to my boday by skipping yoga. Have decided to become more regular to help my brains and body. (does it really work ?? )

The sports scene wasnt great. The race sucked, though narian finished on points and MS with a win on the Podium. Ferrari has more haters now GRRRRRRRRRRRRR, thanks to Michellin. The obvious question would the Miechellin runners wudnt race if Bridgestone had a similar problem. Well no hallucinations. Majority is not democracy in F1 :-).

Happy to know the NBA finals will be decided on the 7th game, not from 1994, when I dint even know, there was NBA, but had an idea of basketball. Yup I used to play badly then.

Sania Mania or Maniac ?? to lose such a game. boooooooo or booooooohooooooooooooooh .. mixed emotions. 4-3 , 40-0 up and someone loses the set. Blame it on ignorance (lack of tennis acumen) and arrogance. Wished she would be first indian women to win on center court apart from the first to play on.

Well with so many Islamic nations, the first Islam lady is from India, surprise surprise ?? hope there isnt a Fatwa issued by some of the radical Islamic bodies. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR... I hate fundamentalism ..

Monday, June 20, 2005

Guru Shishya #5

The shishya sits in the La Défense metro station at Paris , looking at the digital clock to display 7:59. In minutes, a metro train zooms like a bullet and stops at the wink of an eye. As usual, hoards of beautiful people get out of the train.

As the shishya keeps looking at them , the metro zooms away.

Oh no! I missed the metro.

The shishya curses that he has to wait for another 5 more minutes.

A beautiful masterpiece Vienna_esque music is played just behind the shishya. A beggar with an accordion. A born musician.With solid speakers and background music.

Another struggling artist in Paris....Not a beggar

The beggar magically transforms into the guru.

GURU :-
What are you doing here , you idiot ? I thought you were in the ashram.
You havent attended many philosophical lectures for many decades.

SHISHYA :-
Oh holy one...I need a philosophical lesson rite now....

The guru was always a helpful man. Giving a lot of help when it was needed the most....

GURU :-
What do you want to know abt ?

SHISHYA :-
About concentra....

As he says the word,the shishya's head turns as he ogles at a group of 7 blondes with make-up kits in one head and the happening "Da Vinci Code" book in another hand, wearing really short skirts just swaying away.

The guru notices his shishya ogling.He is disturbed.

GURU :-
Lesson one:- Keep everything within your own race.

SHISHYA :-
Yes oh holy guru!

THE BLONDES :-
but why oh guruji ???? We are all for inter_racial love.We love the shishya.

The guruji utters some mantras in French and sprinkles water , they turn into stone.

GURU :-
The disturbance is gone.Okay tell me now,
What do you want to know abt, Oh shishya ?

SHISHYA :-
The role of Concentration.

The GURU utters some more mantras in Sanskrit and they see a huge screen like one of those at a rock concert.

On the screen, the Guru is seen, standing with 20 pre teen shishyas standing with bows and arrows in hand.

The Guru is teaching them a lesson on concentration.

There is a clay bird ( a lump of clay moulded into a bird ) on the tree and the shishyas are aiming at the bird.

GURU to SHISHYA #1 :-
What can you see ?

SHISHYA #1 :-
I can see the eye of the bird.

GURU :-
Excellent...Next.

The next Shishya stands in front of the guru and takes an aim at the clay bird.

GURU to SHISHYA #2 :-
What can you see ?

SHISHYA #2 :-
I can see the pupil of the bird.

GURU :-
Excellent...next one....

GURU to SHISHYA #3 :-
What can you see ?

SHISHYA #3 :-
I can see the RETINA of the bird AND NOTHING ELSE.

GURU :-
Unbelievable concentration.Next.

GURU to SHISHYA #4 :-
What can you see ?

SHISHYA #4 :-
I can see you wearing a saffron dhoti, the other three shishyas happy because they received your praise, the forest, the trees and a meteor heading straight where we are standing AND the retina of the bird.

The guru sees a meteor heading towards where they are standing. His eyesight crushes the meteor into 55484123156 pieces.

GURU :-
Shabaash mere bachche.....This is what is required for anyone on this planet.You have to be alert
about your surroundings AND concentrate on your work.Otherwise you will get lost in the details of life and lose the big picture.

The screen blurs and we are back to the Paris metro station.

GURU:-
Is it clear now, oh ignorant one ?

SHISHYA :-
Yes guru.

GURU :-
Now get back to work and concentrate and be alert.

Friday, June 17, 2005

july 5th

Wish I were in Bangalore today......:-)
One trivia is in 1997,on this day I had been to "Gupt" and I was bowled over by Manisha Koirala.

Well updates in life :-

1)Lunch featuring aloo palya and rice...Great stuff for my standards.

2) People leaving Paris and me all alone here at Paris.It is terrible to think of what I am gonna do in the weekends.

3)Hilarious french movie which featured pretty women doing silly things.I remember the Paresh Rawal Hungama movie impact.

4)Got adjusted to the french keyboard having keys like é è ù à ....Have to get adjusted back to the good ole keyboard back at Indie

5)Still trying to get adjusted to people who dont talk a word during work. All talks are strictly
work related

6)When people smile and say Bon Jour,you better reply to that. Unsuspecting Depp learnt this the hardway facing a rude Metro ticket giving old woman.

7)The French revolution took place on 14th july and it is a holiday here..You have parade, drills etc ...

8)The next training is gonna be tricky....

9)Apples in evenings for Depp

these are the days....

Well here , our onsite team are having this gala food mela at raghavendra's room. I can assure you, none of them is a good cook...but i am geared up, cos undoubtedly i am the laziest cook....i have been assigned to fry pakodas......

hahaha ( x 10 )

sudeep and his pakodas....

People will be bursting with indigestion after the food....

Anyway the happening songs here are (for memories sake) :-

Gorillaz with their new song "Feel Good Inc"...I luvvvv this song!
That song is used in Apple iPod advertisements...iPod ads suck.

Black Eyed Peas - Dont Phunk with my heart. (These guys are spoiling the funk genre with a stupid
song like this and an album titled Elephunk....
Funk music is extensively used in Oceans 11 and Oceans 12...you get the idea )

Greenday's songs

French Band Frettle Brot "Emanuella"....hilarious and funny video

An irritating German song with an irritating lady with an irritating voice and copying BobDylan's video where he keeps throwing paper cutouts

The MTV cartoons....these are the most funny annoying vulgar cartoons I have ever seen....it is funnier than the Dexter's lab.....The best one was that showing Michael Moore using the white house as toilet!

Mando Diao - God knows (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED)
Had a Bad Day - Some unknown Guy
Ass like that - Eminem's funny video taking on Jessica Simpson and Gwen Stefani

To all the sagars and darshinis i will be coming to you......

tv news channel

Watch the news everyday .... The reason is obvious....

Most of my training is done, I am kinda free for sometime.

:)

Monday, June 13, 2005

Where was I?

Here and there, doing this and that; and sadly, still doing the same....but a few updates nonetheless.

Spent a week in Karnataka; first traveling through the North Western par through Hubli, Sirsi, Banvasi, Soraba, Sagara, Joga, and finally ending up in Shimoga before making my way to Bangalore. It was mostly about friends this time; Suman's wedding made it possible to meet GD & Pushpa, Sumanth, Kumar, and of course, the man, Sudeep himself, all together. And as it happens usually in large friends-get-togethers, never really got to know what they are doing fully, and will just have to manage with changed looks, and the same old jokes. Both of which are great :)

Saw the best of rains in Bangalore this time, missed a tree falling over our car by a whisker on Lavelle road, navigated the worst of traffic jams in Bangalore, and for the first time in my life, experienced "road rage." It was an interesting experience - driving in Bangalore this time.

Caught up with Ashok after ages. And thinking of that gang, I wonder whether Nair is still alive. Dude, if you ever end up reading this, drop me a message; we need to visit SLV for our usual.

Chili, Akshai, Dhimant, and all the other NPS folks seem to be doing good. But of course, "good" is what I gather by first impressions. Never got to talk to any of them at length; so, well, I hope they are doing good.

In what seems to be the coup of the year, Kannambadi is marrying Lakshmi (Dhruva's sister), and the engagement party was great fun. There, Suri, the first real entrepreneur of our gang (he has actually quit his job), gave me a quick walk through of what exactly his new company is doing, and it sounds great.

After years, took a walk through Bugle Rock (Mount Joy), took a ride down the good ol' jaaro bande with Harsha. Made customary visits to BCB, Suprabhata, UD, and of course, Vidyarthi Bhavan.

Made it a point to have Nishant (friend from IIT) drink great coffee at Suprabhata, eat real Masale Dose in Vidyarthi - all to show him why I keep cribbing about the coffee and south Indian food in Bombay. I could see that the point was well taken. The adage that one should never have south Indian tea and north Indian coffee seems to hold true even now.

The trip back to Bombay was incredible!! Nishant and I were accompanied in Kurla Express by the great Yakshi. Hale Sanyasi stole the show in the train, and we were in no shape to complain. Hic [sic], it was worth it!

Back in Bombay, and as Yakshi was here, another week just went by with no work getting done. Time to get back to it at least now. Adios amigos.

Wednesday, June 08, 2005

#define problem

#define is evil, filched from Stroustrup's 'The C++ programming language'. Experienced this the last week.
The problem
Library A: having a.h, library B: having b.h, and my code requiring both.
a.h has #define DEBUG 0, and b.h has const int DEBUG = 1.
If included in the order b.h, and a.h things work fine, otherwise all hell breaks loose. Fix was to do some more macro magic,
#ifdef DEBUG
#define OLD_DEBUG DEBUG
#undef DEBUG
#endif
and after the include of b.h ,restore the state of DEBUG from OLD_DEBUG. This worked thankfully.


Monday, June 06, 2005

time

Su Depp is not getting enuff time to blog.

I remember the famous words from Kurt Cobain

Im worse at what I do best, and for this gift I feel blessed

One new habit I have cultivated in Paris is shaking hands with virtually EVERY PERSON YOU MEET at the office. Here, people shake hands with a dead pan faced "Bon Jour".At first , it was really tiring to shake hands with all the monsieurs and the madamemoselles here , but now I am used to that. I shake hands and flash a brilliant, useless smile...I remember that famous permutation and combination problem of n people meeting at a party.

une ville a appelé Paris

guys i have reached paris and the place truly lives to its name.....it is good here....but cooking is damn hard here ....virtually no veg food.....I ate some salmon salad mistaking it for a piece of papaya.....

many things to tell but lots of training scheduled for me.....will keep u updated....

Sunday, June 05, 2005

french open ..

I had time to sit through the men's semifinals and the finals at Roland Garros.

The finale was a treat, Great match, could have been better if Putera hadnt tried to mimic Nadal (especially the drop shots) or mock him.

Nadal's moves were awesome, in the finals. But, in semis the credit should go to Fedrer's erratic tennis than Nadal's clay court prowess. Such poor quality wasnt expected from the reinging number 1 of world tennis. Fedrer lacked in every department he is famous for. His movement was sloppy, temparment was nothing less than hot, improvisation best not seen. I was greatly disappointed and rightly fell asleep by the end of second set.

It looked like Nadal was destined to win, what was called the 'virtual finale' and the classic 'semi finale'. The match between davydenko and nadal was far more superior. Though on the outlook both the players looked sluggish, worn out and out of class, they managed to display a gritty and nerve biting 5 setter.
I did not manage to bite my nails, as I ahd no favorites for the match.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

few updates

kannambadi is getting engaged tomorrow. Sad that i will not be able to attend.
I fainted yesterday, after a jog in the morning. Probably managed to drain the sugar in my body. But after so much sweets in Bangalore I dint expect that to happen.

When I gained conciousness I was lying on the floor. Managed to get into the apartment and slept for a while.

Later realised a slight pain on the back of my head, left shoulder back and left arm.
My thoughts werent normal. My memory was :-) I felt I might have injured my brain.
haha .. everyone still finds to be abnormal ..so things are fine ..

there is no swelling , nor bruise on my left shoulder and the left arm. But both are in grave pain. Had a bruefin just now. I need to gulp is dozens probably.

Back to hoggin spree in the pretext that I need carbo, sugar and glucose.
HOpefully will be back to normal tomorrow.