Saturday, May 31, 2008

Weekly ponderings

Saturday evenings are better than Sunday evenings. You still have one day more. I've realised planning weekends well in advance is good, so that you can maximize the fun.

Suddenly the words optimize, maximize are very much a part of vocabulary as I keep browsing the radio allocator software component. It tries to optimize the usage of carrier bandwidth on the air interface. It is supposed to be the most complex software component in our software suite and I am looking at it for the first time. It tries to allocate radio channels to mobile phones and also does something called as "Timeslot aggregation" (where in one mobile can use several timeslots) and "Timeslot partitioning" (where in one timeslot can be used by several mobiles at different times). Basically it is a problem of optimization of resources.

Ah the above paragraph might not have been interesting.

I have typed so much, yet I feel I have not typed something which is interesting. What exactly is interesting ? I think interesting/uninteresting can be related to will and also energy. If
you feel tired, you won't be interested in anything. Interest has something to do with a sense of purpose which may play a key role in badi zindagi. By "badi Zindagi " , I mean the dialog from the movie Anand where the dialogue "Zindagi lambi nahin, badi hona chahiye".

I am bewildered and fascinated by the piece of news regarding the uncontacted amazon Indians. Very interesting. At least I find it very interesting. At the moment I feel like putting on a hat like Indiana Jones and going to the amazon basin. The pictures are just stunning to say the least. Wow! just imagine how surprised they will be to see people flying around in planes. It will be too much of a shock for those guys. In the same way, I hope some really advanced tribe contacts us and we too are shocked like the guys in the picture.

What kind of gadgets would I like to see? I would like to see an exact software model of the human brain. Our loved ones might be mere mortals. But the concept and the thought and the way they respond to events are immortal. So take a backup of your human brain and store it in a disc. Another technology I would like to see is antimatter production and storage. One drop of antimatter can power an entire city. It would solve the energy crisis. Time travel and travelling at the speed of light. And something more realistic, would be short distance flight with a pair of mechanical wings like Icarus.

Hmmm. It is gonna be 9:00. I have to sleep now given the fact that I didn't sleep yesterday till 2:30.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

Roti Kapada Makan

another day at the office .. weather is cloudy.. but f'in humid..
read a great article about why the commodity prices are so high.. which was inline with my argument and against goldman sacchs argument and I feel happy..

short answer is not demand being strong and supply being short as said by Goldman,
but investment companies buying commodities with billions of dollars ..

one example given was striking .. it seems investment compnies have so much Corn in future contracts that it would be enough for the whole US ethanol industry to run at 100% production rates for a whole year and plus..

if you are investing in US mutual funds u r doing a crime against humanity :P .. kidding..
the essence was that US government should regulate commodities market anta ...

looks like free markets and capitalism is already killing ROTI and MAKAN of the ROTI KAPDA MAKAN combo..

back to methanol.. there is a comment from the boss
Sunday night blogging.As usual stringent office rules makes it possible to check blogspot only on weekends. Pity.

I had been to the town Mulbagal a religious town near Bangalore this Sunday. I think just like how human beings are born, thrive and pass out...so do civilizations and cities. Some cities like Rome are very successful. They have a very rich cultural, economic heritage for thousands of years, whereas some towns become something like a "Lost World". The people move away to other places because their importance diminishes after that golden era. However the buildings speak about the swan songs of "those old days". Mulbagal might have been such a place. Some buildings are reclaimed by trees , rocks and grasses ....Hidden between the forests you find dilapidated buildings....Bangalore might become such a place after tens of hundreds of years.

Meanwhile at Mulbagal I saw the sparrow. The House Sparrow. The sparrow was a bird which was superbly adapted to Urban life in Bangalore in 80s and early 90s, competing with the crows. Today you don't find sparrows in Bangalore. They are extinct in the city. Suddenly they are gone. Today I was lucky to spot a thriving population of sparrows in Mulbagal. I read in an article in outlook. Sparrows feed on rice grains. But the young ones of sparrows need plenty of insects. And they were harmed significantly by the cell phone radiation and so on. I liked the chirps they made. It was pure nostalgia. There is kind of birds' biodiversity in RRNagar. I see white cranes in the morning feeding on banyan leaves' left over food competing with the crows and pigeons. And another strange bird which I have never seen in any place other than RRNagar. I see them only in the mornings.

But the road leading to Mulbagal was narrow. I was driving a Lancer and I was drivin at 70 to 80kmph and occasionally at100kmph. But since the road was narrow, I would get some sudden surprises.

Hmmm .... Getting geared for another grind of a week. I guess I am starting off some new things at works. Hope they go well. Keeping fingers crossed.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Random things

* Well , an update from the previous post....Well it seems it is an original. But here is a background music which resembles the hutch ad.

* Meanwhile I managed to catch the movie "The Pink Panther" (the one by Steve Martin...I have heard that the Peter Sellers' version is better). I loved a few aspects of the movie (like the Hamburger scene) .... and the way they kind of make pun on the French way....If you can, try to catch the movie.

* Anyone is following IPL ? I will see from the semi-finals , I guess. I was initially angry with the team selection of Royal Challengers. But now I care a hoot for the team. After Dravid and Co. keeps losing,losing,losing,losing,losing,losing,losing,losing matches, I guess they can change their team motto to "They came, they saw, they lost". And the team name could be "Royal Losers" or Royally Challenged (LMAO) ?
Rajasthan Royals is my new favorite. So many unknowns in the team, yet such a nice performance.

* I had a look at the new BIAL airport, just timing from my house. The airport itself looks damn cool... It may be around 2.5 hours on a weekend. From Electronics City, it could be a different story altogether. Three hours minimum.

* I have noticed a growing trend. Being a Software Engineer in Bangalore for quite sometime, I feel, the Software Parks are decentralizing and many people are moving to the city closer to their homes. Chennai and Hyderabad are already established in the South. In the north, we have Gurgaon and Noida. Pune is also an option and for the Easterners Calcutta. Although I don't endorse any extremist views, I feel, finally after devouring Bangalore's infrastructure and after complaining endlessly, "India Inc." is decentralizing.

* I have been wondering about the term "individuality". What exactly is individuality ? Does it get killed by teamwork/environment which you live in ? In my opinion no man keeps his behaviour constant. Behaviour depends on environment. At least Sudeep in 2001 != Sudeep in 2008 (as far as behaviour, opinions is concerned)

* I was following some nondescript TV program in the morning. Heard that City Market was called Seegeballi in 1900s, which was an affluent residential cum commercial area at that time. There was a plague breakout during that time. The then Maharaja of Mysore asked the local vendors to move to beyond the hillocks...beyond a temple which we now know as "Bull Temple". The area was christened as NarasimhaRaja Colony in honor of the king. Thus NR Colony was born. The layout had site-rates of Rs.30 for a 40 x 60 site in NR Colony. Thats when gold was values at 8/- per souren.

* Some people are unbelievably innocent. I wonder how they lived for so many years ? I am still reeling in disbelief! Some people are methodical...They rigorously follow a something like a "ten-things-to-do-before-i-die" list and live by it. All the best for them....But also remember to take life as it comes :-) ...I am noticing a pattern in the human society. Everything is so inter-connected. A subject of another post when the thoughts are crystallized.

* Morning walks and runs are good fun.