Federer vs Nadal..

It was truly and epic final.. the best I have seen in years..
Beats the Aggassi vs Sampras US semi-final (steffi was pregnant then)..
Me and Naga watched it through the night .. before some exams at Teju place ..
me betting on Sampras and Naga on Agassi.. I had won a pepsi then..

this time I bet on Federer and lost HKD 500 .. but still Federer would be my bet until he retires .. just the way I used to bet on Sampras till he retired. :D

Nadal - He is a freak.. :-) ..

Rajinikanth Re-invented ..

No.. its not about the Cartoon movie or Kuselan ..

This is about 'Wanted' starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman..
To summarize this type of movie was done in K/T/B/ollywoods in th 80s and the 90s and everyone ridiculed it. Its now the turn of Hollywood to enter the bandwagon.
- Bullets curl around
- Bullets are cut with knives
- bullets cancel out bullets (as in mahabharata where arujuna nullifies bhishmas arrow)
- there are some twists and turns as you shall watch in any abbas-mastan movie..


when rajini used to do this (catching the bullet, cutting bullet with a knife etc), ppl (esp from north) used to ridicule this.. Now when Jolie (Zeenat Aman) and Morgan freeman (Vajra Muni) does it, it will become a cult .. (Sumanth if you felt Matrix was Mithun movie, you gotta watch this).

The story goes like this..

Morgan is the head of a mill in Chicago .. ( I prefer to call it the Binny mill).. and also a the head of a assassin faternity.. (already sounds familiar to a some desi movie)..
the yarn machine sews out the wool, which our freeman takes liberty in listing ppl he wants to kill.. (they add complexity here by saying it churns out a binary code and you can get a name from this.. too hi-tec)

they find this rajini chap , (who is an accountant before ).. but son of a powerful assassin and has extreme powers inherirted (through jeans oops genes).. and send Jolie to get him .. (this again is bollywood) and convince him that if he doesnt kill the GUY whose name is produced by the Binny Mill machine , then that guy will indeed kill some 1000 ppl .. she does this by narrating her child hood story of her father being duped, tortured and killed (tell me how many desi movies doesnt have a similar plot)..

they train our Rajini chap ..(all the bullet skills he need) using computer graphics .. and make him a superstar (aka rajini).. and then they set him chase to kill this guy who is suppose to be the killer of his father..

but it turns out that man who Rajini is after to kill, is actually Rajini's father and apna Vajramuni ( Freeman ) would have hatached a plan to set the son against the father with a preconcieved thought that the father will not kill his son .. (its shame for me to repeat where u could have seen such a plot)..

and poor Rajini doesnt even understand this when the person he is after to kill (i.e his dad) resuces him from falling of a falling train .. (well need to comment here.. apna desi Rajini has higher IQ here .. he would easily blurted appppaaaa .. and shed some tears and both the father and son would go and finish freeman)...

but the hollywood rajini needs some convincing etc.. (very low EQ and IQ) ..
finally with the help of some rats (cos he has killed his dad by now) he manages to enter the Chakravyooha of Morgan freeman, where freeman defends himself saying whatever he did was right, because the binny mill machine had produced the names of his and his colleagues (including Jolie).. to be killed .. and orders his colleagues to kill Rajini..

but again in true bollywood style, Jolie (Zeenat Aman in Don.. ) fires a bullet which goes in a circle and kills a dozen before she takes into her brain .. (having had some much confusion.. she knows this is the right thing to do )..

by this time you are done.. so am I .. cant write anymore on Wanted ..

Headwear

Why is headgear out of fashion/less diversified? Probably because of inconvenience, I guess. But head gear is definitely fashionable can make a fashion statement.

The conventional Nike cap is a very important gear to a college student. I remember Teju using a NY cap all through his first and second semesters. But now, Nike cap has become cliched. Times are changin'. The nike cap was also be worn frontside back to give the Yo! look.

I am seriously interested in what are the options for some creative headgear :-

a)Golf cap :
If a girl/guy is into hip-hop, you can see them wearing the old style Golf cap. But this kind of cap is something which I will contemplate on wearing after I am 35, maybe. You can also be mistaken to be a bikini killer like this viper, "Charles Sobhraj". That guy is once again in the news for marriage with a twenty year old.

b) Skull Cap:
Suited for round big heads.

c) Mysore Peta : Why not ? It looks very cool as a headgear. The new designers can use the hat's cloth material to go with the suit instead of the traditional ornamental silk. Or maybe a leather Mysore Peta would look different. You would look like the main character of Prince2 - The Shadow and The Flame.

Some designer should consider Mysore Peta as an option ... Tired of Nike Caps.

Inside Man..

Have you watched this movie? It wasnt a big flick .. dint make a big noise at the box office..

what caught my attention was .. the title track of this movie was "Chayya Chayya" from Dil Se.. I was very surprised.. I had to mute my comp.. switch off the TV and restart, change channels, check my iPod etc to make sure that "Chayya Chayya" was indeed being played as the title track of the movie ..

The film starts as a dull "bank roberry" plot .. you wonder why such a powerful start cast - denzel washington, jodie foster, agreed to make such a movie.. but the movie unravels quickly and the bank robbery turns out to be a masterpiece ..

the movie can be best described as "unexpectedly unpredictable" .. - quoted by someone on IMDB.. rating 7.7/10..


oh yes .. and it ends with "Chayya Chayya".. again I had to check my comp, ipod and change channels to confirm I wasn't mistaken.. and glad that I was not ..

Whats your identity..??

For majority of the people living outside their countries its their Nationality followed by religion.
(Now this could vary a lot for specific ppl .. esp like for americans whether is he a democratic or republican, what he thinks about Iran / N. Korea / Iraq ?? ;-)...

It mostly ends there. Anyone who wants to know more about my identity beyond being an Indian stops at my food preference, and concludes these are my religious restrictions.. (with a bit of apathy that I am indeed missing a lot of juicy stuff )


Now turn the scenario domestically and it becomes more complex .. and I think the complexity in India increases .. It becomes a taxonomy.. we have an obsession with dissection .. region (north south india, state, city, area .. the last level of granularity reached in here was till South Bangalore .. now its heading towards individual localities like katriguppe, Girinagar etc ), religion, caste,language, food, movie star idols (ask a rajini fan)...


this is the price we pay for having a history which dates back to 3000BC .. and 2000 years more we will be back like Jews with a single identity.. and hopefully its INDIAN...

The most remarkable achievement for India or of India , is to be a cohesive democracy, with so much diversity (and adversity too).. This is one front where we have excelled beyond any country in the world.. despite numerous races, religions, castes, languages etc we are functioning as a single country for 60 years..

Some Business guru recently said homogeneity increases productivity and diversity decreases it.. he was referring to corporations only.. looks like it applies to nations as well

Gates' last day

So today , it seems is the last day of Bill Gates at office. A Microsoft without Bill Gates is something unimaginable.

I first heard of the name Bill Gates in a function called "Unveiling Windows 95" at a five star hotel in MGRoad. It was in 1995 (of course). There were around 300+ people attending the presentation. At that time, I was using windows 3.1 and I was curious about this "Windows 95" (yeah, really!). There was a small movie clip in which Bill Gates talks about the features of Windows 95 and all that. In the clip they showed this photo. . I had thought "So this guy is the man who made the Windows Software"

And then I saw him when I was in Infy. At that time, the opinions had changed. Heheh.

But still MS will be affected by his departure, no doubts about that.

What will he do next ?
Bill Gates for US President ?

item News ..

are not the same as News items,
item News' are the 'item number' equivalents .. in my dictionary ofcourse ..

with so many news channels, publication and websites today, almost anyone can make it to the news .. and can make a item News ..

e.g checkout the following link .. http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2008/jun/25mba.htm
no offence to the person involved ... or the concerned school ..

some item News of the future..

GD - Blr to HK and IT to Chemical .. what is he doing..
Richie - Back to Y! or Y! Blor to Y! Sunny Vale ..an incredible journey through Ask

or watever ..

back to the future..

@ work last week we kicked-off the 5-year strategic planning process. It was quite hectic and there were lots of socializing events too which was incredible fun..I seriously cant think how to plan for 5-years.. It became very easy when I assumed that whatever I plan would be wrong.. and I just need to put an explanation for that .. ;-)

I am kind of stuck in post-meeting trauma.. the 5-year strat plan process has set me in thinking mode. How would life be in 2013 ??? My main concern is not "What will I be doing?" cos thats easy.. I would not be doing anything unusual .. i would still be contemplating on life and cribbing out many a things including work :-) .. I would be married for sure..

My main question ins "what kind of an environment would I be living in??"

A decade ago Blore weather ranged between 22-28. Today it swings betwee 12-40.
How would this be in 2013 ??? 0-50 ??

Looking forward the biggest threat to human well-being (including mine, assuming I shall be still human in a competitive environment) seems to be the unpredictable and harsh weather.
there will be more deaths to harsher unpredictable weather patterns than to any other cause (assuming al qaida stops bombing, US stops invading at free will, human genocide problem in africa, burma etc would be solved, politicians become wiser and ofcos no nuclear explosions or something like Bhopal tragedy)

okies.. enuf of crap.. its typhoon 3 warning.. pack your bags and leave office before it gets worser.. the future shall be there.. u need to survive the present hour...

adios

I attended a birthday party and another function this weekend. In other words, this means, that the weekend literally flew away before I realize it and I am already sitting here and typing something hastily.

My niece Lakshmi's birthday party was a very well planned and a 'deftly' executed party.

Just like any other kid of today, it featured cake-cutting, party games, spraying some kind of weird foam in the air, dance, "return gifts" like a pack of pencils or story books (ps: return gifts reminds me of the taamboola). The parents of the kids are generally enthusiastic about these kind of things.

As far as I can remember we never had such birthday parties : That was a long time ago.

Our previous generation would say the same thing.

Ditto previous of the previous generation and so on.

Since I am doing some linked list programming, let me put it like this :-


curr = last;
while ( curr != GENERATION_CAVE_MAN)
{
curr->display("As far as I can remember we never had such birthday parties");
curr = curr->prev;
}


That sums up humanity's opinion on birthday parties.

Women generally like socializing. Thats a fact. So mothers of the kids would team up discussing many things like their dresses, their kids' dresses , the colors etc.

The fathers' of the kids were of two types :-

a)TYPE#1 : Tailing their wives going wherever they go.

b)TYPE#2 : Antisocial psychopaths who make faces because they have been put into an uncomfortable situation like attending a birthday party and want the cake to be cut immediately, because they don't want to talk with the neighboring father about "technology you are working on" OR "prospective customers in a value driven economy"

But both the types of fathers regardless of race, age, income in harmony watched one thing in unison. The beautiful sight of a balloon floating in air. It is human tendency to pat a balloon which comes near you. Some people also make that extra effort like jumping to hit a balloon and acting like a clown.

The other function was a formal one. It was the 60th birthday of my beloved maternal uncle. Great food. It is called as 60 year "Shanti". He has undergone quite a bit of rough patch in his life and now he's quite good and happy. Happy for him.

After driving slowly for quite sometime, have you ever felt the need to throttle?

I will give you an example:-

If you had seen the movie Ghulam, Aamir Khan will be going slowly bending his bike rhythmically as his bike waddles. Suddenly on the quite road, there is this array of bikes, which just swooshes past him with an defiance as though he never existed. Thats' enough to drag him into the race. Aamir Khan just wants to be on top of the other bikers, and he chases the guys to catch up with them.

Hmmm.

It's not just on road. It's with life too. My basic observation is the human instinct to be the bigger/better/faster/stronger wherever you are, whatever you do. Human, all too human.

Everything is looking so resigned and so philosophical today. I am looking fwd for the weekend. Lots of things to be done - everything will be taken one by one.

the indian dinner..

15 people from 9 different nationalities (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Malaysian, Canadian, British, American, Australian, and Hongkongese (trust me they need to be treated as a different nationality :P) ) were introduced to paani poori, samosas, tandoori, roti and curry, pulao and raita, gulab jamoon and ras malai..

they were quite open to the food and everyone ate too much .. (some were scared they might have a sensitive tummy) and the the taste was authentic ..
the atmosphere was fun filled, and I was the scape goat and butt of many jokes.. (unusual position)

I showed the way paani poori is prepared on the streets of Bangalore .. using the hand, dipping the filling first and dipping into the paani bowl.. many followed suit to my surprise.. no one stopped eating fearing contamination.. this was my main contribution for the day.. made sure ppl ate samosas with hand, paani poori with hand and ofcos rotis with hand (believe me many eat with knife and fork..) WELL DONE GD on this front..


and there was a caveat that it was all north indian ..
so the next round would be south indian with idli, vade and dose ..

how to test if someone is a bangalorean

some possible methods..

Derides masal dose in any other city in the world and comments even the worst of the restaurants in blore could beat the best in rest of the world .. (and believe me this is true)..

-Thinks it is wierd when ppl say they miss the cold weather back home or hot weather back home or the rains back home...
for bangalorean its always the cool evening back home ..(well this was a decade ago)

i dont know how to identify a bangalorean in a crowd of indians.. (apart from asking the obvious question.. )

.. u can easily spot a mumbai guy.. (find them to be a little bositerous/bragging to be honest about bombay.. no offence though) or a delhiite (behaves like a politician, talks mostly about power) or a madrasi.. (gets offended with the words Hindi/LTTE etc).. bong from the way he speaks ..(about tagore??)

bangalorean .hmmm ..how to identify this person?? Okies .. may be one more.. gets offended when someone derides rajkumar's ACTING skills? (note only acting).. now that could be a kannadiga ..


today.. my colleagues are going for an indian dinner (north indian dinner to be exact)..
i am expecting this obvious question.. "is this what you have at home daily??"
how do I tell them that the first time I had a full fledged north indian dinner or lunch was in 1st PUC..

Need to culturally educate them about south india..

this reminds me of a conversation..
xyz: Are you from Delhi??
me: No
xyz: Then from Bombay?
me: Err, No
xyz: mmmm
me: I am from Bangalore..
xyz: where is it ?? next to bangladesh?
me: err NO..thats calcutta..
xyz: where is bangalore?
me: Close to Chennai,, errr Madrasss
xyz: clueless stilll,
me: close to SriLanka..
xyz: ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
me: aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

There are so many cliches about India which I need to clear .. phewwwwwwwwww

Random

My obsession with randomness lands me with this post. It's got to do with a definition of programming (found on the coding horror website). I am too lazy to create the link, you can go to the website, if you care ....

What is programming ?

Programming is all about knowing when to boil the orange sponge donkey across the phillipines with an orangutang gorilla crossed with a ham sandwich to the fourth power of twelve across the nile with an awful headache from the previous night when all of alfred's naughty jalapeno peppers frog-marched the nordic elves across the loom-lined geronimo induced swamp donkey over and above the fortran fortified kilomanjaro fence past the meticulously crafted anti disgusting sponge cake scenario where all the hats doth quoteth the milk which is not unlike the super werewolf from the infinite realm of ninja-step. it's hard to define, really.

Thats a wonderful definition. But the guy who thought about it deserves to be accoladed.

But, wait a second. It is not a guy who thought about. No not a girl too. It is a random spam program which can generate it. The program uses the concept of Markov chains where a [letter/word] is picked with a degree of probability. Interesting, but we need some time to look into the concept. Here is a link which explains on markov chains. This may be useful in generating some test data for text based programs.

Some play of words with my name :-

sudeeptions
sudeepting
sudeepist
sudeepchism
sudeepheting
sudeeppars
sudeeptulabooking
sudeeptudentlyphered

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious !

I will keep writing random thoughts because it feels good when you are not keeping anything in mind, yet you are writing something.

It is generally a good idea to keep expectations low. Or is it really a good idea ?
I remember seeing a movie called Great Expectations. I liked the movie and Gwyneth Paltrow in that movie. That was a long time ago when the word "Galaxy" reminded me of a theatre.

Speaking of Astronomy, one astronomer wrote something like this :-

I was recently asked to be the external examiner for a PhD thesis entitled A survey of radial velocities in the zodiacal dust cloud. Nothing too extraordinary in that, except that in this case, the candidate had carried out his observational work in the early 1970s, and that at the time when he should have been writing-up, he was enjoying huge music charts success with the band Queen. The candidate was of course their lead guitarist, Brian May.

A rockstar and a PhD. Both are a lifetime achievement. How did he do it?

Let's assume he did it some how. My head is feeling like an empty vessel.As I type this, noises from a busy office are heard. Some people talk about Form16 and some people are talking about nawk. Some one is singing "Khawja Meri Khawja" with headfones on and a shrill pitch. The human brain adjusts the volume of speech based on the dB it's ears is sensing. In other words people shout when they put on earphones. Loudness is measured in dB. Frequency is measured in Hertz. Frequency and pitch are one and the same.

By the way, talking of pitch, timbre, libretto, flat notes, falsettos and so on, I am reminded of SMS based reality singing contests. People dont seem to have enough of it. In future, all the professional singers will have gone through one round of an SMS contest before they make their mark. We will no longer have SPB and S.Janakis who would sing 200 songs a year. Rather 45 people singing about 75 of the songs.

The retired singers have a good career of SMS Contest Judges. I wonder what kind of profession will retired Software Engineers have ? I am sure most of them will run away from any programming competition that asks them to be a judge.

Today the word inertia, grogginess seem to dominate my thoughts. Of course there are other words which are dominating my thoughts too. RA_TS and TO_DO too!

nightmares..

everyone has them.. mine is different ..they occur inconsequentially.. like yesterday..

my worst ones..

a. falling off from a tall structure.
b. Being surrounded by SNAKES ..


but nothing beats this one..

"flunking an exam" , and the period is mostly my under-graduation..
I really cant understand this fear of failure even after 8 years and having an MBA..

well, BU has an everlasting impression .. still remember those days of group studies (rather discussion on issues other than acads in pretext of group studies).. the pre-exam maniac atmosphere, the post-exam discussion/depression, the lab exams - internals, externals, the wait for the results .. the relief/celebrations post results..

well remembering those days once again for fun and to make the post-nightmare morning a happy one

(from a previous post ..here it goes)

I remember my exam days back in engineering,
--the 15 day marathon,
--xerox notes, from malleshwaram, hanumanthnagar and bsk 3rd stage,
--long nights at tejus place ( long because of discussions .. politics , life, career, girls ..everything except studies) ..
--chakku troubling us by call at 11:30 pm and psyching us out by claiming he had completed
--teju's tea and kummi's biscuits
--morning breakfast by teju's mom
-- sleeping the whole day just to wake up for another night
-- the gathering at sudeep's palce at 8 in the morning for the final sharing and ofcos filter coffee :)
-- nair not coming into the exam hall inspite he being on campus ..last minute cramming
-- chilli's record breaking exam writing 2.25 hours max
-- followed by early exits from Avinash (peer pressure), Harsha and Carren
-- Nair bothering swati for answers
-- Tejaswi's recording breaking additional papers, matched equally by Sumanth (with such a small handwriting)
-- Discussions following exam and Avinash claiming the question wasn't there
-- sudeep misinterpreting (minimum 2 from first section as at least 2 from first section)
-- me copying a major step in Eng mech derivation from NAIR
-- lokesh always saying 'adhu neen andikondange easy illa' and HM bashing him up .. Sandeep J getting frustrated before DEC lab due to this
-- juice after the exam at Anand's juice counter
-- occassional beats
-- Dil Chahta hai after one of the exams .. (me satya teju and naga) and sudeep not participating bcos its a hindi moive
-- Maiya collecting notes for the next exam already - Maiya driving Sumanth to a state of nausea
-- Carren using the F word incessantly accusing all the question paper setters as bastards ..
-- Sandeep micro managed chits and Nair photo-copying a chit - truly innovative .. though not using it to any advantage (I think internal times)
-- Me not studying half of Computer architecture and pysching out the last minute ..and maiya explaining pentium architecture..

and the list goes on and on and on

ohh .. My handicapped stage and climbing 2 stories for writing exams and Sumanth picking/dropping me from home (thank u richie) ..

Memorable ..

Randomness

While coming to the office this morning, I saw a defunct petrol pump. There was an advertisement board which from a popular Oil company which said, we dedicate this year to the most important customer this year : YOU. Just below the board, there were goats tied to the legs of the board.

The petrol bunk was defunct. We might have some defunct petrol bunks soon. The Shell Petrol bunk has lost many customers because the petrol rate is almost 73/= bucks. Yesterday I saw Avinash cycling to (office?) I guess. A new trend in Bangalore. I would have done that if the dist <=10km. Firefox cycles look pretty cool.

I guess oil crisis will be a major problem in the next coming decades. Finding a source of energy is a major concern these days. What could be the next source of energy. Nuclear energy would be the best. A drop of anti matter can make my Swift car run for probably 1000 years. But producing such a drop and also the cost to make the energy safely usable is a different story.

Also one comment on the mode of locomotion. Rewind back 200 years ago. The whole world was of full different human beings than the ones living today. Their tranportation needs were supported by horses and ships for long and short distances respectively.Roads might have been full of horse shit and half-eaten hay, I guess.

Speaking of horse shit, I am reminded about one point on global warming. It seems cows and buffaloes cause global warming because of hydrocarbons they release! You can the news about it here. Cow farts harming the planet. Another link about "Cow 'emissions' more damaging to planet than CO2 from cars".

No wonder that villages with so many cows might be polluted areas, despite sanitation problems. On second thoughts this survey and idea might be promoted by some organization. Anything is possible.

Kannada Haadugalu

I feel glad that Kannada music has found a new breath of fresh air.
I think this is a Renaissance of sorts ..

post Chi. Udayshankar Kannada songs were totally non-hummable (i dont know if thats a word) with occasional decent numbers from Hamasalekha..
and then V. ravichandran started acting, direction, lyrics, music, etc etc etc .. and screwed Hamsalekha ..

Then there was the new star - Gurukiran who did some good numbers and good albums too (I like Jogi).. then the runaway hit - Mungaru Male .. The film is seriously nothing better than mediocre ... not sure why it was such a block buster..

Then there has been a marked improvement .. My guess is the old directors like S.Narayan, Om prakash etc are losing their grip in the industry and new directors (music too) are taking a modern outlook and contributing more...

I was pleasantly surprised the radio channels were playing more kannada songs than hindi (though repetitive).. Some songs I picked up during my trip

- Kaddalu manasanna from Mussanje maatu - starts very well , but loses steam quickly
- aakasha ishte yaakideyo - liked it very much.. especially for this line "EE DOSTIYE NAMMA CHATA " .. am pondering over this.. is this still true in my life ?? it used to be
- Jinke marina na - dint like it much.. but they do play umpteen times..

my iPhone as a dozen plus new Kannada songs ..
(this is just to show off that I have an iPhone.. go the 3G version one guys.. I think Airtel is getting it in August.. looking at the US price $199 with a two year contract, there should not be a high price in India too.. Hutchison is releasing iPhone in HK on July 11th... interesting to c what the price would be .. am sure it would be runaway hit in HK .. there are 100,000 unlocked phones which sell at HKD 4000 already in HK)

on bollywood front.. there is Jannat (Lambi judai, Zara se ) and Kabhi Kabhi Aditi (Aamir's nephew's movie)..

kannada songs rock .. (literally)

Quote for the day :-

Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.

-Anonymous

Quoting Quotes and reading documents. A day in the life of Sudeep seems to be very interesting these days. I gotta go. Good news is blogger and blogspot are unblocked.

Psycho

The word Psycho reminds me of that legendary movie made by Alfred Hitchcock. However, there is a new Kannada movie by that name !

The promotional artwork looks interesting. Looks very "scorpion"ish.....

But this movie came to my notice because of this song.

Very distinct rock sound. And the part when the singer says "karunadhi kayo" (in the lyrics). I am reminded of Rajkumar. Thats how he would have sung it for sure.

You really got to listen to this song if you haven't heard it. It is by a "Mysore Rocker" called Raghu Dixit.

By the way Raj had sung a some thing of a rock song apart from the infamous Eeef you come today

somethings on my mind now..

Martial Arts - Karate, Kung Fu, Taekwando
Yoga??
Bangalore, Chitradurga visit..
BCB, Vidyarthi bhavan.. adda..

IT / non-IT for carrer - just read an article on how IT has transformed some rural youth.. household income changing from 15K/ year to 3 lakhs/ year and the role of JKC (Jawahar Knowledge Centers)

How to lose (_____) ?? the obvious thing to fill in the blank

Methanol market in China..
and now back to work...

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.

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.

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.

Everyday

Have you seen the latest Vodafone ad ?

The Vodafone Customer Support guys (or rather, the guys who make the ads for Vodafone customer guys) need to pat themselves on their back. They have come up with the above very refreshing ad with a haunting , introspective music (with dollops of inspiration from Taare Zameen par). And the result is an amazing ad, which gives an assurance to a prospective customer of Vodafone Call Support. Don't ask about the reality though.

The famous Hutch "pug" dog is back.But this dog is really lovable...(a statement from a dog-avoider like me is worth considering.).The Hutch ads were good and the brand was pretty established....Some Vodafone ads are very good, but MANY of them are bad....They are really abstract orr some of them are irritating....The "Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Mein" ad and the "Pehla Nasha" ad were just screwed up.

But what attracts me to this ad, is the music.....Man!!! It's been quite sometime since I listened to something like this. Simple and lovely...

But something is enigmatic about this ad...Which song is this ? Who is the singer ? I tried all my googling skills to locate the singer or the song, but of no avail....Is it an original composition ? Such a lovely composition for a jingle ? Maybe it may be a song in some other language, which has been adapted into English...

Meanwhile I'll keep on singin' :

Everyday I want to fly, stay by my side,
Everyday I want to dream, stay by my side,
Every morning I wish I could just play,
wish the mornings would just stay.

Gandhi's dream

Almost every woman's dream, a free and safe india for the Fairer sex. Is it too much to ask for ??

Look at the following news from today's TOI. Its truly disgusting.. 12-year old, rape, murder .. can imprint horrifying images in your imagination. After the shameful incident in Goa a more henioius and shameful act. Whats with India, molestations and rapes that even cant spare children.. Sucks big time.

12-yr-old raped, murdered
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Bangalore: Enthusiastic about shopping for Monday’s Ugadi festival, she went to the market, never to return. A 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped and brutally murdered in Harohallli police limits in the Ramangaram rural limits on Saturday. The deceased was a student of class five in a government school in Harohalli. Police said the girl had gone to the market in the morning to buy neem for the Ugadi festival and went out again in the afternoon to buy mango leaves. When she didn’t return, her grandmother started searching for her. It was only on the afternoon of the following day that some passersby found her body in an eucalyptus bush, near Hosagabbadi. “The assailants had strangled her to death after raping her. The body has been shifted to Ramanagaram hospital for autopsy. We are questioning locals who had seen her in the afternoon,’’ police said. The girl was staying with her grandmother as her mother was working as a housemaid in Bangalore. Her father had passed away some time ago. Her mother used to visit Harohalli frequently, police added.

Time and Money..

or Time vs Money?? Doesnt matter. These two are inveresely proportional.
How much you earn depends on how much you work. We are hourly paid souls.
Our package is deterministically quantified in terms of time. Forget the official hours.
Those are just nominal anywhere in the world.

Heard that Infy had to pay overtime for its californian employees. What if such a legislation is bought everywhere???? I wish.

Coming to the matter of fact, I miss school and having time in my control part.
What I appreciate about work is cash flows. The money is certainly the thrill (job satisfaction is too... but nothing beats like money.)

So the search is for earning money but having Time in control. Time necessarily doesnt mean more time. I need Flex time. To all those souls who are searching jobs, take it slowly, enjoyy your holidays, vacation, leverage money and enjoy, cos once you start working you get sucked into to myraids of life and end as 'Evano Oruvan'. Job is a necessary evil.

Phd?????????????? in management sounds vague, but CK Prahalad, Michael Porter are inspirational. Phd should pay atleast 75% what the working environment pays. Today Phd renumeration is abysmal and it sucks. I know that money is not the motivation from researchers, but a pinch in the pocket might affect research output????? So richer, the better researcher you might end.

I am talking crap, time to stop now and get back to work

Invincibles Humbled..

This year seems to be a revalation in sports. Some of the greatest upsets

Aussies - defeated on homeland in one-days, if not for Bucknor even in Test matches.
Federer - Aussie open and lately Dubai Open
AC Milan - Defeated at home by Arsenal
Real Madrid - they are down from a long time, but it was Home again this time
Indian hockey - invincible in view of South Americans, humbled by England on SA soil (this really sucks)
on the borring part

I should have missed quite a few from the above list..

I-banks (not bankers) - badly humbled, and rite now screwing the economy
US GDP.. (from the past 4 years)

next to follow.. China, India????

Predictions
Olympics - China will stop US dominance??

A Day Lost

Happens somedays. At Infy it used to happen more (more at offshore).
It is one such day. Woke up late (8 am). Broke a tile. Reached office late. Dint do much.
Dint achieve much.

Lost, totally lost. I dint have any control or my browsing behavior.
Its mostly browse today.

Is this compensating for overdoing yday?? What is it?? Why do we lose days like this?

Simple - We are not machines............ Niether do we do mechanical work..

Some more minutes and am offf.. The Business is closing officially. Want to really call it off

After reading this, I feel sorry for the state of affairs (that a person may be hung to gain/offset some political mileage), at the same time, i cant help but appreciate the way things have unfolded.

Whoever is working on his case in cong is damn intelligent and cong has 'used' Afzal's case very well. I mean, look at it this way, had the govt not stalled his clemency petition and had they subscribed with supreme court's order, then not many would have noticed what happened. But they spotted an opportunity, they kept the mercy petition pending, allowed bjp to make noises abt the case, and donned the role of a govt which is considerate to minorities. Now, they have spotted that there is a chance of the issue backfiring, and they will do their best to prevent that. They basically played a game in which they had nothing to lose, only to gain, if at all. Contrast this with what bjp would have done and you would agree that cong indeed has 'seasoned' politicians.

Office outburst

It can happen to anybody and at anytime. Of course, some people get more angry than others and some people get more frequently angry than others. Some people's anger is harmless whereas some people might get outraged.

This becomes quite a concern at office since the bonding is restricted only to the work-ethics and sometime not even an ounce more than that. Moreover it can be detrimental to one's career and one has to be especially careful in this ugly maze of corporate structure.

First, let us just look from a person's perspective on what he should do when :-
a) He lets out an emotional outburst of anger on his superiors due to any reason.
b)His superior(s) let out an emotional outburst against him.

In the first scenario he should well know that his juttu is his superior's hands before getting angry. Sometimes, an individual might have decided to make himself angry because he controlled his anger on a previous occasion. Whatever it is, the body language indicates aggression and the words start coming out really fast from your mouth. In case, the anger cannot be controlled, my observation is this :-

It is best to make it up as quickly as possible, because it won't stay much time in people's minds

In the second scenario, if his superior(s) let out an outburst of anger against him especially with five other people who are rumor-starved by nature, the best way to deal with it is to have an informal chit-chat with his superior and discover why this happened at the first place.

The most important thing of the lot is understanding why both the sides (the employee and the managers) got angry and get into a problem-solving mode.

Finally, I also believe that if the mutual sides are intelligent (not foolhardy creatures) they can actually work-out a solution.

Happy Grrrrrr-ing :-) But don't become like that dean of Munnabhai......That's really stupid !!!!!

Happy new year everybody!

I had a quite new year party snoring away to glory awakened by those loud crackers. 2007 has been a good year, but then as 2008 starts off, there is quite a bit of apprehension for me on several factors which are currently occupying my mind.

First and foremost my mood is a "Bah!" mood today and a little lull. I do like holidays. But a lot of holidays (I've been having holidays since 21st december) just upsets the rhythm. I had planned about doing this and doing that...Maybe I did 20% of what I thought I would do. Wasted Vacation.But driving to Madikeri, Coorg and the Homestays was a good break from the routine.

As I finished my vacation and came home there was the naming ceremony of my niece. So she is named as "Richa".

Hmmmm and philosophy gets created due to those sad and dull moments too....One realization is that life gets more and more "dont-take-me-for-granted".... As Lennon said "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans".

I have two finite and specific resolutions in mind. And two abstract ones. Well....

Was it worth the sweat, sleep, and stocks?

Dec 14th, the day when I ended my MBA, atleast from my side. I completed my last presentation of my last project and there by ending a roller-coaster ride of 16 months. Looking back was it one of my best decisions? Who knows, opportunity cost cannot be measured ? Really ? NO

Here are some positives
- A psychopathic (not Psychological) relief of being away from Infosys and its politics (onsite, offshore, hierarchy, blah blah blah)
- Alienating myself for IT (application development), which my colleagues used to treat
as a matter of life and death (may be thats what is required to excel, which I never could
attain)
- A new world of fuzzy knowledge - I love this , this is my domain, there is no single
correct answer. Anything and everything is dependent on perspectives. This models real life.
This is where the action is. Returns are correlated to risk and you chose your path in
decision making
- Analytics and problem solving are key
- Socializing is a bane though, which I have avoided to the maximum so far
- Traveling to different countries was fun, will do more of it in the future
- An opportunity wide open to explore Asia fully, North, east, south and west
- A possible travel to different continents (africa-egypt, Aus -nZ, South America-Chile, NA- Canada Trinidad and Tobago)
- High expectations, hope they get delivered
- A lot on personal front - its personal rite...no more explanations

From Jan 14th it shall be a new day, a new life.
Until then holidays.. ( just one more week of erratic sleep and stock selling)

Taare Zameen Par

One line advice - Don't miss it.

Its CLASSIC

Phewww, just incredible.

Are bankers paid to bring down the Economy

In the earlier years of this century, there was a dramatic shift in the finance industry. Actually the pre-cursor was set in the 1990s. Prestigious banks started to face competition from boutique companies and independent financial firms, many of which were established by ex-employees of these big banks. The innovation in products in the big banks were slowing down, and these smaller firms were creating newer attractive products. The big banks had the customers and smaller guys had the most creative products.

So an era of "open innovation" started, where the big banks started adopting the creation of the smaller banks, by distributing the products from these smaller guys. Previously the industry used to be rewarded based on the %age of returns they generated. But now, this could not be done anymore with the big banks having no rights on the products returns. This probably gave rise to the new way of compensating managers - %age of assets managed.

With this new compensation structure, bankers were pushed to sell more and more, and accumulate assets rather than concentrating on returns. The amalgamation of different industry players left customers with few choices of going elsewhere and look for people who had a different structure of operations. Almost all banks issued 3rd party products.

Well bankers kept on innovating products by wrapping up different layers of structured financial methods. One such product is the CDO - collateralized debt obligations. With the compensation structure tied to assets, all it mattered was raising money. The process of due diligence took a back seat. Evaluations were left to third parties. Bad debts were projected as AAA securities and sold to investors. The frenzy caught on, and no banks could resist such an opportunity.

It is estimated that in the $15 trillion US debt industry (this itself is a staggering number) 20% is subprime (not only mortgage it includes everything from credit card, car loans, student loans etc) and in this 90% is bad debt, which will be written down mostly. That mean nearly $2.5 trillion. Till now the total write down is around $100 billion probably. So there is still a lot to come. Embrace bankers embrace. The numbers might be wrong, but it is still huge.

The question is are bankers paid to bring down the Economy?
- the Internet bubble, where the banks issues so many overhyped IPOs
- Now the housing market

History repeats for sure in the banking industry, and mistakes are soon forgotten. Whats the next frenzy wave boys?

disclaimer - this is totally out of my ignorance. I might be grossly wrong

After one really hectic week I am back on a saturday blogging about things happened/happening. First things first. I thiunk Richie will be in India this week. With four of us here, it would be a nice December season. Nothing much happening in life. Mysore Tata, I love you and I am grateful to you.

I am expecting major team changes in the beginning of the first quarter in 2008. Let's see how this whole thing goes. Keeping my fingers crossed! Work had quite a bit of a lull this week and me committing a stupid compile break because of a CFLAG. This whole compile-break issue has been bloated and blown out of proportion. Hmm. It is strange that each manager or client has his own philosophy. Some people prefer Timeliness over quality in Software, and some people prefer quality over timeliness. I am good at delivereing first and keeping on adding patches , but I have to get used to the people who want things picture perfect at first shot.Change is constant in life and we have to learn to move on.

Caught up with Om Shanthi Om. Didn't like it so much, because I was aware of almost all the gags. Ruchira has started driving the car around everywhere in the first and second gear. Thats about from me now .... signing off with work increasing exponentially (for sure) the next week ....
:-(

TWTW (The week that was)

Better late than never....

Because of blogger and blogspot being blocked in office, it has become quite a task to blog!!!!

The beginning of this week I had been to three weddings all in and around Shimoga. The beginning of this week , witnessed a lot of different bakshagaLu and tested my gastronomic limits.

The creme-de-la-creme was me having a little bit of tambaaku (with some excruciatingly fiery betel leaves) unknowingly. It was like a shot in the head to say the least.

Last week, Tejaswi, Kumar and me packed our bags to Shivamogga, Nadahalli and the nearby places. I will upload a few photos for your viewing. We had been to Teju's very old house in Nadahalli. (the above one).

Teju had a quiet birthday , most of it was celebrated using phone calls ... :-)

There are a lot of things to say abt the trip, but I gotta go !!!

State of Higher Education in India

Stumbled on this article on Outlook.

http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071122&fname=harsh&sid=1

Found this piece of cliched quote and stopped reading further

"If we leave aside the IITs, the IIMs, and some other institutions such as the AIIMs, the Indian Institute of Science, and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, we will find a higher education sector that is increasingly unwilling and unable to bear the weight of the rising expectations of an emerging India. "

Agreed IITs and IIMs are institutes of High reputation which have contributed greatly to the Academic circles and the industry, but there are people from other institutes too who have made some kind of contribution. What about the IISc, the RECs(NITs), the UVCEs and RVCEs of different states, the Delhi university, ISBs, SPJAINs, FMSes etc? and the many numerous schools of a decent reputation?

Enough of cliche. The obsession of maintaining exclusivity of IITs and IIMs have really crippled the higher education system, and limited the infrastructure for many talented students. ( I think this is what the author is cribbing about). 2 lakh people for 2000 seats for IIMs? That sucks really. It presumes the 97 percentiles are not worthy enough compared to the 99s. I do not know if it is the lack of infrastructure, or the mentality of maintaining EXCLUSIVITY that is more prevalent or both.

Dont Repeat the Same Mistake..

Is an advice almost provided by everyone, but rarely followed. If rumors were to be true, Yahoo really paid a high price by doing it

First before 1997, the founders of Google went to Yahoo for a seed money for the search technology. Yahoo did not believe there is a market for information searching, as they were overwhelmed by banner ads. - Well this is part of history Google boasts on its website

Second time, Yahoo had an option to buy Google for $1billion in 2003 before the high-profile Google IPO. Rumors has it Yahoo dint acknowledge Google was worth it and some bankers were behind the deal being withered out

Hmm.. same mistake baby (well almost)

Sustainable prod development - REally funny

TOday we had a class on Sustainable product development. The professor presented some envelopes made up of papers from used magazines and commended on the creatitivy of the person who did this. She was so amazed of this massive reusability, recycling whatever she coined it and passed the envelopes around the class to have a deep look into it :-).

I found it really funny. This is a huge industry in India Damnit :D

Read This Please :-)

Think it is a good post in response to Consumerism :-)

FLAT WORLD

America needs a ‘patriot tax’ on gasoline

THOMAS L FRIEDMAN

Two dates — two numbers. Read them and weep for what could have, and should have, been. On Sept 11, 2001, the OPEC basket oil price was $25.50 a barrel. On Nov 13, 2007, the OPEC basket price was around $90 a barrel.
In the wake of 9/11, some of us pleaded for a ‘‘patriot tax’’ on gasoline of $1 or more a gallon to diminish the transfers of wealth we were making to the very countries who were indirectly financing the ideologies of intolerance that were killing Americans and in order to spur innovation in energy efficiency by US manufacturers.
But no, George Bush and Dick Cheney had a better idea. And the Democrats went along for the ride. You’d think that one person, just one, running for Congress or the Senate would take a flier and say: ‘‘Oh, what the heck. I’m going to lose anyway. Why not tell the truth? I’ll support a gasoline tax.’’
Not one. Everyone just runs away from the ‘T-word’ and watches our wealth run away to Russia, Venezuela and Iran. I can’t believe that someone could not win the following debate: Republican Candidate: ‘‘My Democratic opponent, true to form, wants to raise your taxes. Yes, now he wants to raise your taxes at the gasoline pump by $1 a gallon. Another tax-and-spend liberal who wants to get into your pocket.’’ Democratic Candidate: ‘‘Yes, my opponent is right. I do favour a gasoline tax phased in over 12 months. But let’s get one thing straight: My opponent and i are both for a tax. I just prefer that my taxes go to the US Treasury, and he’s ready to see his go to the Russian, Venezuelan, Saudi and Iranian treasuries. His tax finances people who hate us. Mine would offset some of our payroll taxes, pay down our deficit, strengthen our dollar, stimulate energy efficiency and shore up Social Security. It’s called win-winwin-win-win for America. My opponent’s strategy is sit back, let the market work and watch America lose-lose-lose-lose-lose.’’ If you can’t win that debate, you don’t belong in politics.
‘‘Think about it,’’ says Phil Verleger, an energy economist. ‘‘We could have replaced the current payroll tax with a gasoline tax. Middle-class consumers would have seen increased take-home pay of 6-9%, they would have had to pay more at the pump. A stronger foundation for future economic growth would have been laid by keeping more oil revenue home, and we might not now be facing a recession.’’
As a higher gas tax discouraged oil consumption, the Harvard University economist and former Bush adviser N Gregory Mankiw has argued: ‘‘the price of oil would fall in world markets. As a result, the price of gas to (US) consumers would rise by less than the increase in the tax. Some of the tax would in effect be paid by Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.’’
But US consumers would have known that, with a higher gasoline tax locked in for good, pump prices would never be going back to the old days, adds Verleger, so they would have a much stronger incentive to switch to more fuelefficient vehicles and Detroit would have had to make more hybrids to survive. This would have put Detroit five years ahead of where it is now.
We simply cannot go on being as dumb as we wanna be. If you hate the war in Iraq, then you want a gasoline tax so you can argue that we can pull out of there without remaining dependent on an even more unstable region.
If you want to see America thrive by becoming the most energy productive economy in the world — a title that now belongs to Japan, which doesn’t have a drop of oil in its soil — you want a gasoline tax, which will only spur US innovation in energy efficiency.
NYT NEWS SERVICE

Consumerism

I am writing this out of sheer desperation of doing something different for the day, apart from browsing, refreshing inboxes, and surfing channels. It has really been killing :D

The fear is officially declared. Americans are spending less due to various things credit turmoil and rising oil costs being at the forefront. There is no dreadful event as this one - Americans spending less. Worldwide companies, governments, and now a days even ordinary people are worried about this phenomenon and this clearly sucks.

Here is a sect of people who are over draft on their credit, and enjoying a quality of life better than majority of people across the world. And the people supplying Americans are worried, working hard, in order to give these people a over decent life. (much more than they deserve)

With almost no savings and drawing heavy personal debts on undervalued assets, the life enjoyed by the people here is unrivaled. Their consumption cannot be satisfied. They never have heard of conservation, efficiency and similar words. This leaves the whole burden on the companies to innovate incessantly to produce products which can be suited to this consuming behavior and indeed achieve sustainability too.

Lets talk about the energy crisis. With crude kissing $100/barrel, what should be the focus ?
The Energy efficiency bill has so much hurdles getting approved. Everyone blames the Auto and Oil companies for this. But I think deep under its the attitude of American consumers which drivers the Auto/Oil companies not to think of Efficiency.

Now this has given some explosive growth to alternative energy systems in the US, ranging from Solar to biofuels. Somewhere it is wrong economics and somewhere else its rattling the food markets. But who cares of millions of hunger stomachs across the world, compared to vrooming SUVs across the roads of the US. Even people like Mr. Vinod Khosla is pitching so hard for Bio-fuels ignoring the fact that Bio fuels like oil is a global market and will disrupt food markets across the world. Well who cares? When bio-fuel is pitched it is all about energy security, farmers in the US, Green House Gases etc. Who cares what happens to other parts of the world.

Americans are overdrafted and its high-time they spend less and concentrate on savings, efficiency, preserving etc etc etc as there is not enough money to lend more for bad assets.

Spending without having money is stupid, but this country is currently having a gala time.

Diwali

Happy Diwali guys!!!

It was a great 3 day fun starting from Thursday and I had a gala time. Super oota for three days but very loud and noisy diwali everywhere here in Bangalore.

For me, it was the first diwali and it was fun and nice too. Two weeks ago I drove to Hosur, bought MANY crackers at 95% discount and also got a taste of Electronic City traffic. The elevated highway is a huuuuge project (it is more than 8kms, I guess) and the government has done a wise thing by splitting the project by giving it to 4 different contractors. There will be mutual competition and nobody can give a silly reason and escape.

Also, as I have seen many diwalis in my life, I notice that the crackers are getting more innovative every year. Nowadays, Diwali is not just about flower-pot, sur-sur bhatthi and lakshmi pataaki. There are much more innovative stuff. The Standard Fireworks factory has tied up with Chinese firecracker companies and have started crackers which launch something and there is an aerial display of color.

But of course, there is a lot of noise and smoke. I feel very bad about the pollution levels in the city. There are assurances that the noise levels are not more than some prescribed limit of decibels and there are prints saying that no child labor has been exploited. But something has to be done about the smoke. Or I guess, we should start using less fireworks ?

And this weekend, managed to catch the movie "Wag the Dog" on DVD. It's been quite a while since I watched an English movie and enjoyed it. If you find it , it's worth watching.Today there's Teja's wedding. Hope Kummi's Electra 5s has arrived. I am looking forward to see Kummi on it.

Small notes for memory's sake! :-

• Chola Batoora - Day0 with kalsdanna for Dinner
  
• Bisibelebaath, Holige and champaakali - Day1 (Naraka Chaturdashi)
  
• Veg Ravioli Tomato Sauce and Banana Walnut Cake - Day 3 (At Herbs and Spices, Indiranagar)
  
• Gobi Mutter and Chapathi - Day 3 (Bali padya)

Next week we have booked a rail ticket for Shimoga, in view of Avinash, Harsha Ramangagoudr's wedding. And hoping to enjoy some Nadahalli food also.

There are still good people in the world....

The day before yesterday, as I was driving near Chinnaswamy stadium, a car collided at a medium speed to my car's bumper damaging the rear bumper. I stopped my car and I was very angry because, just a week ago in the same place my bumper was damaged by a mammoth sized army truck. I had got it repaired and paid quite a bit for the damage.

Now this time by a Wagon-R !!! As I went to talk to the driver, the driver told that he will call me and took my mobile phone number and drove away. I realized I had not even taken his car registration plate.

Then after 1 hour, he got back to me identified himself as a Software Engineer working for Iflex. He transfered 4000/- from his account within half an hour. (The charges were 6000/= and I told 3500/= would be enough from his side, but he gave me 4 grand)

Kishore ... Thanks pal.
He also thanked me for trusting him in that situation.

Meanwhile my car, sports a grin with a broken tooth .... I will have to leave it to the garage within 10 days after it came out :-(

Bangalore rains suck... Bangalore Traffic sucks harder (especially when it rains) .... It is very difficult for aam-junta to brave a different kind of traffic problem everyday. I hope there is a permanent solution to this ever increasing problem.

Lead India

The initiative looks pretty good, but I guess it could become a case in which a leader is chosen by the media.

The leader might become a "media-groomed" leader. Moreover, using internet-print and TV could help them gain recognition and all that but the advertisement claiming to "Do something" doesn't work at the top level especially when we get hung scenario and one guy is desperately ready to get the power at the cost of losing all his morals and principles. To all the intellectuals out there, talking English and education won't help. Street-smartness is required up there. Otherwise we would have had ALL the double-degree and the triple-degree people in all the discipline vying for the top post!!!!!!

I understand the power and importance of Media in democracy, but media actually helping people to select a leader just shows people are ready to believe what the Times Group "informs" them. What if whatever the Times Group is giving to us is a fake ?

I would rather vote for an experienced and betrayed Yediyurappa than someone else.

PS :- Office alli blogger block maad-bittidaare...Olle goLu :-(

The so many things we've learnt

This Saturday I caught with Tejaswi and we were discussing about "those old and enjoyable college days". We were discussing about some subjects we studied like Instrumentation and Transducers, Karnaugh Maps , some Zener diodes etc. Of course it is a long distant memory (as far as I am concerned), but I missed the feel of sitting on a bench and listening to a professor.

And yesterday I had a dream about learning Calculus (i.e. Maths) in some old thatched roof engineering college in Bhopal. (Bhopal was on my mind for some other reason, of course...haha).

But today before I start my work, I kinda miss subjects like Pure Maths (like Calculus). Are they directly or in-directly affecting my performance. I am intrigued and in a mood of self-retrospection. My skills of Algebra, Calculus, Trigonometry and Arithmetic definitely needs a brush up. I feel you should keep your basics sharp and your mind alert.

I am looking forward for some study program of such sorts. Any pointers on this ? Any active internet group might be good enough.

More importantly, Does anyone feel the necessity of high school Arithmetic, Algebra, Calculus and feel and also "sense" its necessity of application ?

Confusion that never stops
The closing walls and ticking clocks,

-- Coldplay

puzzle

The absolute value of a real number is defined as its numerical value without regard for sign. So, for example, abs(2) = abs(-2) = 2. The maximum of two real numbers is defined as the numerically bigger of the two. For example, max(2, -3) = max(2, 2) = 2. Express: (a) abs in terms of max; and (b) max in terms of abs.

I could think of a). Simple.
abs(x) = max(x,-x)

What about b) ?
Can we do without a "flower bracket if{}" ?

Scientists

I should really salute these scientists. I thought Physics (in particular "basic Physics") is dead and gone. Let me pose a question:-

In today's world, what kind of truth (truth in a "Physics" context) can you find out with a beaker full of water, or half water ?

If you ask a question like this to a boring normal guy(like me) who has acquired ignorance and arm-chair philosophy due to daily-routine inertia, I would probably tell you about the story of a thirsty crow who dropped pebbles into a beaker so as to make it full. Or probably I would tell about Archimedes principle (buoyant force and all that).

In other words, I would say All that, which can be discovered with a beaker full of water, has been discovered by Newton (and his dog, diamond?) or Archimedes or Bernoulli.

But hang on!!!!! People still manage to do interesting things with a beaker full of water.When exposed to high voltage, water does some interesting things. From the article :

'water in two beakers climbs out of the beakers and crosses empty space to meet, forming the water bridge. The liquid bridge, hovering in space, appears to the human eye to defy gravity. Upon investigating the phenomenon, the scientists found that water was being transported from one beaker to another, usually from the anode beaker to the cathode beaker. The cylindrical water bridge, with a diameter of 1-3 mm, could remain intact when the beakers were pulled apart at a distance of up to 25 mm.'"

Well I guess it is just a question of having a "research attitude" and that keen eye. It's all about seeing whether the glass is half empty or half full ! These kind of properties will definitely have some application.

Have a look around the world around you. You will find at least some questions : (If not answers)

Hmmm...Now I guess I should think what happens if you dip a Compact Disc in a beaker full of water mixed with Salt and pickle and give a high voltage!!!

Have a look at this article : Water forms floating 'bridge' when exposed to high voltage

IT IT IT

And there are more unpleasant realities expected to come in the near future of the IT Industry. First is the falling dollar. I understand inter-dependence is of high importance for a national economy to flourish. But a falling dollar in reality indicates yet another recession in the heavily dependent services-based Indian IT sector. Moreover, it can be a hit for both small scale and large scale software companies with news like these :-

What worries IT firms more is that the STPI scheme, which exempts their export earnings from tax, will be withdrawn in 2009. The industry is lobbying hard with New Delhi and even BPO firms have raised the demand for similar benefits. So far, the finance ministry has given no indication of warming to the idea.

The STPI scheme has special benefits like "Duty Free" Import for Hardware and Software, exemption for Corporate Income Tax etc. The IT industry has been pampered atleast for the past 2 decades. In 2009, we have to see how things shape up. But I believe that the Indian Economy will kind of stabilize, with a software job becoming another normal chaakri naukri.

Read the related article Why IT chiefs are nervous about the future

Manorama 6 ft under - * * * *

Here's a movie which is a VERY good creation of a new director. The acting is ekdum first class with Abhay Deol, Sarika (whatte voice!), Raima Sen doing good justice to their roles.

Well, the plot of Manorama... is from Chinatown. I have a book of the script of Chinatown. I loved the multi-layered plot of Chinatown. Jack Nicholson as JJ Gittes..man! what a script. I am still hunting for a DVD version of the movie.

Manorama is a fitting adaptation of Chinatown, one of the best screenplays written. Chinatown was a multi-layered script.

Since I love the multi-layered script concept, let me give an "rough" example of a multi layered plot.

paragraph-1
A ragged cat goes to a pond, catches a goldfish with its paws, and chews it and is delighted with its catch. The another small fish watches the goldfish disappear in the cat's mouth with tears in its eyes.

paragraph-2
A few minutes later,the "small fish" is seen celebrating with joy with its friends. WHY????? The small fish was actually an enemy of the goldfish because the goldfish had eaten the small fish's lover, an hour ago. The cat had not eaten for three days and had fought vainly with dogs. The goldfish was a tyrant. The small fish actually shed tears of joy, when the cat ate it!

Okay that was a stupid plot , I agree, but I hope you get the gist! As you can see in paragraph-2, you are adding a layer below to the peripheral outer layer. It is not just a twist, but a whole story which was covered-up!

In Manorama..., the action happens in Rajasthan. The film itself has such a feel of the desert and the tagline "Nothing is what it seems" is a befitting title.

Folks, Grab your tickets before the film vanishes!

Bangaloreans : The woe is that you have to shell out a monstrous 200/= for a ticket on a weekend. Something has to be done about such ridiculous rates.

ayyo Rama !

Regarding the Sethusamudram Project, it is a tough job to take a definitive stance on whether the Bridge should be actually demolished.

The reason to see why the bridge should be tampered :-
A ship channel across the Palk Strait will be created allowing ships to pass through the channel instead of having to go around the island of Sri Lanka. 30 hours of shipping time will be saved.

The reason why the ship should not be tampered :-
It is a heritage monument. Moreover, it is a pilgrimage place. By demolishing this bridge, they are actually playing with beliefs and sentiments of millions of Indians in general and Hindus in particular.

The Central Government issued a statement of blunder (based on Archaelogical Survey of India's survey) saying No proof of Lord Rama . I am sure the BJP will fight it to the end. Sonia Gandhi might have withdrawn the statement, but in doing that she has made another blunder by provoking the atheist Karunanidhi's DMK party.

From the Central Government point of view, they should not have opened the Pandora's box of troubles.

However, the Nuke deal and its implications, is keeping the Left's useless morons and the whole Lok Sabha busy. So this issue might not blow up. But they may have strained relations with the DMK.

Have people gone crazy ?

It seems they are developing a web-server on a mobile phone. This is getting ridiculous. It may work, but why ?

From the article :-

Running a server on your phone is, at the moment, more of a proof of concept demonstration. However it has interesting potential uses. For example it offers away to gain access to information about where the phone is, what is stored on the phone (both contacts and pictures), as well as providing a personal web server that is more intimately connected to an individual.

Bollocks. When a phone is mobile why would the owner login to the phone when he carries it around ? (unless his whole world is centered on that goddamn phone and he is a forgetful person).

My advice to people who are students who want to come to software.
Give up the software dream; People have run out of ideas and have become stupid. Go back to farming. This is of no use.

Wow!

It was 1956 and these guys were trying to dispatch this hard disk somewhere.
The hard disk weighed 1 ton and it could store 5 MB of data.

This was one of the early hard disks. Have a look at the IBM 350 Disk Storage Unit.
We have come a long way.I somehow feel the oldies(ppl in the industry till the end of millenium) of CompSci were the real innovators...Can someone give the scientists a 4GB pendrive, please ?

B Grade

There is something REALLY to look forward about B-Grade movies. The movie itself has a kind of charm. If carefully watched B-Grade movies are a source of great entertainment. Be it any language, they are fun!

My first tryst with the B-Grade movies started probably when I got Star-TV installed in my house. Some of these exploitation based themes do have good stories and of course good ahem.... But it maybe the camera or the direction which gives the "B-Grade character". But there is some degree of honesty and effort by the B-Grade directors (in at least some movies).I really appreciate that and it is a lesson on production values/direction and shots for all aspiring writers and directors.

The Best B-Grade movies from India were from the Ramsay house, who went on to produce a popular serial called the "Zee Horror Show".They featured some weird kind of Draculas , mandirs and Kali maatah and all that. There was also a VERY interesting story in a Kannada B-Grade movie called "Tulasi Dala". Amazing story by a Telegu writer woven into a Kannada movie.

Well I stumbled into some Hollywood retro B-Grade flicks which are referred to as The Grindhouse.

Have a look at some of the Dialogs from B-Grade movies :-

Narrator(introducing the hero to the audience) : He wears a 600-dollar suit and drives a 10,000-dollar car. He has two guns. One to stop Trouble and the other gun to make trouble.

hahah.

Have a look at the Grindhouse trailers on youtube. The music is a real beauty.

Oh yeah and a scene from the worst movie of all time (according to imdb) :
Manos: the hands of Fate

Enjoy B-Grade movies!!!! (At least once in a while)

Amadeus

The movie "Amadeus" is strong movie. You need patience and a sense of cinema to appreciate it. Deeply.



Well, to be frank, for sometime, when the director goes into all the details of staging operas and the librettos, you'll end up bored.

But the essence of the movie is about : Are men created equal ? .

The director tends to answer this question through a comparatively "inferior man" who's done things the hard way.

The movie is essentially a conflict or a case of rivalry between a genius and a textual, orthodox hardworker.

Consider this in real life:

You have worked for twenty hours and come up with a great piece of work (whatever field you are in). Now your immediate rival because of his genius (who keeps just frolicking away to glory is able to do everything in the last moment.) You are left slack jawed thinking how was this possible ?

Is he a genius ? What the eff is wrong with me ? I work so hard...Why is god so unkind to me?

Well, the story is between Rivalry between Mozart (who was the genius) and Antonio Salieri (who was the inferior conductor).

Caution : It is a very heavy movie and is a work of genius. If you like movies like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and TaxiDriver and movies with ulterior meanings, this will leave you affected.

More than the direction, it was the acting. Salieri was AWESOME!

The top 5 common dreams

It seems the top 5 common dreams are these :-

1. Being Naked (lol!!)
2. Being Chased
3. Flying
4. Losing Teeth
5. Falling

As far as I am concerned, I get from the above list : 5(frequent),4,3,2(rare) in that order.

Nonetheless, this article regarding "Top 5 Common Dream Themes" is a good read. But don't know how much all that is true....

But some of my dreams are ridiculous...Just plain nonsense...

Which ones do you get ?

Outsourcing Mania..

New elections, new candidates, but the issues remain the same... I-raq and Outsourcing are some of the hottest topics, besides trade deficit with China... The outsourcing of manufacturing to China dint cause much furore as IT/BPO jobs are being moved away to low-cost centers mainly in India, western europe, china, philliphines, brazil, mexico etc..

Ofcos the target nation is INDIA .. the mania has outgrown the actual problem. Phrases like 'Bangalored' were discovered and there will be many more such words and phrases. It has become such and issue that Michael Bay could not resist dedicating a scene in his latest movie - The Transformers.

The soldier fighting a transformer in Qatar tries to contact US security through an international call. The call gets re-routed to the phone service company and the guy answering the call is India, who promptly asks for credit card info, for payment. And this becomes a mockery scence as the Indian doesnt not understand the importance of the situation :-) :-). Well my question is would a customer respresentative from the US would have understood the situation?

Imagine you rush into Wal-mart to buy some emergency stuff and you try to run out to resuce without paying the bill, (assuming these Wal-mart jobs cannot be outsourced) and utter words "US security office + emergency + defence secretary", I am damn sure they let you go with their patriotic spirit
their understanding of the aliens from the numerous movies they have watched,
the sense to save save the world,
the urge to attack Iraq and protect humans and oil wells
blame China and India for uncompetitiveness
blame Honda , Toyota , Nissan for producing better cars
blame Samsung for producing cheaper memories
north korea and iran for missiles
cuba and venezuala for having too much oil and not giving
blaming mexcio for immigration problems.......

oh might amercian, u r so knowledgable.

ps:- The movie is a good watch