The man who
Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Friday, December 10, 2004
U.S. Patent No. 6368227
U.S. Patent No. 6368227
Covers the method of swinging on a swing. So if you are in the US and want to sit on a swing, get ready to pay royalties to 5 year old Steven Olson.
Doesn't come much as a surprise, given that someone patented fire and wheel.
I think i can apply for a patent on "A liquid chemical prepared by the complex atomic conjunction of molecular hydrogen and molecular oxygen, that supports and sustains the highly organized auto-cannibalizing system naturally emerging from conditions common on planetary bodies, and consisting of a population of replicators capable of mutation, around each set of which a homeostatic metabolizing organism, which actively helps reproduce and/or protect the replicator(s), has evolved and derivations thereof"
For more info on such patents and the flaws in the US patent system: IEEE Article on US patents
PS: How many patents does 6 year old Calvin have? His dad is a patent attorney.
Covers the method of swinging on a swing. So if you are in the US and want to sit on a swing, get ready to pay royalties to 5 year old Steven Olson.
Doesn't come much as a surprise, given that someone patented fire and wheel.
I think i can apply for a patent on "A liquid chemical prepared by the complex atomic conjunction of molecular hydrogen and molecular oxygen, that supports and sustains the highly organized auto-cannibalizing system naturally emerging from conditions common on planetary bodies, and consisting of a population of replicators capable of mutation, around each set of which a homeostatic metabolizing organism, which actively helps reproduce and/or protect the replicator(s), has evolved and derivations thereof"
For more info on such patents and the flaws in the US patent system: IEEE Article on US patents
PS: How many patents does 6 year old Calvin have? His dad is a patent attorney.
Tuesday, December 07, 2004
Monday, December 06, 2004
An Astrological Predicament
There is this never ending debate if Astrology is a science or a non-science. It is funny, how one can think that one's life is governed by stars, planets and other cosmic bodies. People even go to the extent of identifying common behavioural traits under every sun sign. But I have a question to ask:
Let me assume that astrology has its credibility and is something to be believed. And that cosmic dust has more role to play in my future than the decisions I make. Now, as far as I know, astrology uses a predefined set of planets and stars and their locations in the sky.
But what about the stars and planets that have been discovered recently?
I mean, if Mars and Jupiter can influence the course of my life,
What influence does the asteroid belt that is in between them have on me?
Let me assume that astrology has its credibility and is something to be believed. And that cosmic dust has more role to play in my future than the decisions I make. Now, as far as I know, astrology uses a predefined set of planets and stars and their locations in the sky.
But what about the stars and planets that have been discovered recently?
I mean, if Mars and Jupiter can influence the course of my life,
What influence does the asteroid belt that is in between them have on me?
Thursday, December 02, 2004
Zaheera sheikh and her siblings have been changing their stances as witnesses in the Godhra riots more often than they change their clothes.
First it was she, then her elder brother, her elder sister and another brother.
Have they been bribed? Well that is what this NDTV news article claims.
If not money, atleast mirinda has exchanged hands. Arre bhaiyya, Mirinda ka
Taste aisa chaye character fislaa jaaye.
Hmmm, think the family can replace the Blue Man Group as brand ambassador's of the drink. ;-)
First it was she, then her elder brother, her elder sister and another brother.
Have they been bribed? Well that is what this NDTV news article claims.
If not money, atleast mirinda has exchanged hands. Arre bhaiyya, Mirinda ka
Taste aisa chaye character fislaa jaaye.
Hmmm, think the family can replace the Blue Man Group as brand ambassador's of the drink. ;-)
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Around a week back, a group of students of Reykjavic Univ released a patch to enable the Linux kernel to suppiort C++. what does this mean to kernel hackers?Well firstly, most hackers dont code C++. they code C :)and Object orientation is a paradigm free of programming languages. Yes, C may not have support for concepts like objects or inheritance etc directly, but the same can be achieved by the programmer himself. (Ref: Object oriented programming in ANSI C) It may now be able to code with "Objects" itself rather than just following the paradigm in C.Even in C++, there are only a handful of things that need runtime support, RTTI, dynamic casting, exception handling etc. The rest of the stuff dont.
Still, it will be defenitely interesting to see how this patch gets used (Getting Linus' green signal is the first hurdle). Linux is a monolithic architecture. Can this development mean that soon we have Microkernel linux and exokernel linux-es?
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
I fail to understand how some people can quit job in a company that is at the cutting edge of aviation and join a company that had its origins in exchanging love letters. ugh!
Anyway, congrats and all the best.
Anyway, congrats and all the best.
The Congress Govt removed the Governor of Tamil Nadu because he did not host an independence day tea party.
ROTFL
Why is the congress trying to prove its ineptitude over and over again? It made a mockery of the political-administrative framework (democracy) we live in, in Karnataka and more recently Maharashtra. So much of bickering as to who will do what in a yet to be formed government.
Anyway, we need to hand it to our politicians, than when it comes to politicking, they are top dogs!
ROTFL
Why is the congress trying to prove its ineptitude over and over again? It made a mockery of the political-administrative framework (democracy) we live in, in Karnataka and more recently Maharashtra. So much of bickering as to who will do what in a yet to be formed government.
Anyway, we need to hand it to our politicians, than when it comes to politicking, they are top dogs!
Tuesday, October 19, 2004
The Bakra Story
I wanted to give some serious buildup to the link that follows. Couldnt come up with anything.
Peoples, Kindly read:
Ambar's Bakra Story
Peoples, Kindly read:
Ambar's Bakra Story
Friday, October 15, 2004
The Great Tam Bram galata
Tam bram marriages are amusing, very amusing. The various rites and rituals that are followed under the watchful eye of the vaadiyar are really funny.
Take for instance, seeing Arundathi star at say 10 am in the morning. The vaadiyar points in a certain direction and everyone looks up and nods in affirmation. There are other very notable events in a marriage; singing sita kalyaana vaibhogame the moment “paatu” is uttered, the sudden shouts “gatti melam gatti melam”, visiting the nearby “kovil” in a car, though it is right next to the marriage hall; the umbrella, the fan, the walking stick and other paraphernalia given to the (poor?) groom, the list goes on.....
Above all this, the poor groom has to endure liters and liters of smoke.
And this is just on the day of the muhurtam. Hindu marriages span a full 2-3 days. Phew!
And then there is that thing called the “Reception”. God knows who is being received. All one is interested in (at least I ) is who the caterers are and what the menu is ;)
It is interesting to note what people are doing while the marriage is going on. If one observes, there are a specific set of activities that each age group is involved in. The less than 14-15 yr olds are playing, running around all over the place in the marriage hall. The 15-20 yr olds are getting seriously bored badly, coz they are too old to run around and too young to go out alone (even in a group). The 20+ yr olds are either accompanying the 30 yr olds who are running errands or looking at 20+ yr olds of the opposite sex. 30 yr olds are either running errands or not to be seen at all; they have gone out to improve business in the nearest “potti kadai”.
The 40 and 50 yr olds are literally running the show, managing everything, the 60 yr olds supervising.
Any age group above that is sitting, trying to identify people, relatives or strangers irrespective and attempting to dig out long forgotten relationships with them. Most of the time they are successful.
Well, there is one tam bram marriage coming up shortly, lets see if things are any different.
Btw, my best wishes to the bride and the groom.
Take for instance, seeing Arundathi star at say 10 am in the morning. The vaadiyar points in a certain direction and everyone looks up and nods in affirmation. There are other very notable events in a marriage; singing sita kalyaana vaibhogame the moment “paatu” is uttered, the sudden shouts “gatti melam gatti melam”, visiting the nearby “kovil” in a car, though it is right next to the marriage hall; the umbrella, the fan, the walking stick and other paraphernalia given to the (poor?) groom, the list goes on.....
Above all this, the poor groom has to endure liters and liters of smoke.
And this is just on the day of the muhurtam. Hindu marriages span a full 2-3 days. Phew!
And then there is that thing called the “Reception”. God knows who is being received. All one is interested in (at least I ) is who the caterers are and what the menu is ;)
It is interesting to note what people are doing while the marriage is going on. If one observes, there are a specific set of activities that each age group is involved in. The less than 14-15 yr olds are playing, running around all over the place in the marriage hall. The 15-20 yr olds are getting seriously bored badly, coz they are too old to run around and too young to go out alone (even in a group). The 20+ yr olds are either accompanying the 30 yr olds who are running errands or looking at 20+ yr olds of the opposite sex. 30 yr olds are either running errands or not to be seen at all; they have gone out to improve business in the nearest “potti kadai”.
The 40 and 50 yr olds are literally running the show, managing everything, the 60 yr olds supervising.
Any age group above that is sitting, trying to identify people, relatives or strangers irrespective and attempting to dig out long forgotten relationships with them. Most of the time they are successful.
Well, there is one tam bram marriage coming up shortly, lets see if things are any different.
Btw, my best wishes to the bride and the groom.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
"Anthro" Agassi
Playing a sport for the first time is an experience. I dont think it would be much different than the first steps I took as a kid or the first words I spoke. Well, obviously one doesn't remember those. And I dont know whether one would like to remember the day one plays a game for the first time. Its kind of a mixed bag you see.
I have mostly, played cricket with some basket ball and volleyball and badminton interspersed in between (for want of a cricket bat or ball or both actually) for most of my life.
Playing tennis and playing cricket are just as different as... well...playing tennis and playing cricket.
In cricket one is advised to play the ball from close to the body. And instinctively, I did exactly that, get close to the ball to play it. And due to that, I matched my more experienced colleague stroke for stroke. There was hardly anything different between my style of play and his. Just that what he hit fell in the court and what I hit went over the enclosure.
Anyway these are just early days. And given my abilities and talents; well.... get ready peoples, a new star is rising on the tennis sky.
Look out for the next senior citizens tennis champion!!!
I have mostly, played cricket with some basket ball and volleyball and badminton interspersed in between (for want of a cricket bat or ball or both actually) for most of my life.
Playing tennis and playing cricket are just as different as... well...playing tennis and playing cricket.
In cricket one is advised to play the ball from close to the body. And instinctively, I did exactly that, get close to the ball to play it. And due to that, I matched my more experienced colleague stroke for stroke. There was hardly anything different between my style of play and his. Just that what he hit fell in the court and what I hit went over the enclosure.
Anyway these are just early days. And given my abilities and talents; well.... get ready peoples, a new star is rising on the tennis sky.
Look out for the next senior citizens tennis champion!!!
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Hmmmm........
If the text in the image is not readable -
This is a model created by ccientists from the RAND to illustrate how a home computer will look like in 2004. And this model was made 50 yrs ago.
Begs a simple question to be asked: Have we come along in a "big" way or in a "small" way?
Monday, September 20, 2004
From men to BOY
I happened to notice recently, a few posts on blogger (not necessarily recent), with Calvin as the subject.
Ishwar
Ambar-The Jovian
Epiphany
Sanjeeth
And the usual Google site search
I found Calvin fan following among my team mates at office; Calvin images on websites discussing esoteric concepts like AVL Trees and Chaos Theory (where I didn't expected to find it).
Makes me wonder, what is it in the strip that makes it so popular.
Is it the antics of calvin? his alter egos? his knowledge of things ?(the way he explains gravity before telling mom tht the lemonade jar broke) The one upmanship between Calvin and Dad ?(his Dad popularity polls)
I feel the actual reason is that each person sees himself as calvin when he reads a strip. He sees Calvin doing things that he didnt/couldnt do as a kid. Come to think of it, maybe Bill Waterson put in the comic strip exactly what he wanted to be and do as a kid himself.
The last strip was in 95 but there is an agelessness it. And (luckily for us) as calvin feared, he will remain a 6 year old all his life ;)
P.S.
For calvin fans, here is a gr8 calvin collection ; and here is an RSS Feed.
This image that I have as my wall paper never fails to bring a smile on the face of anyone who sees it.
Ishwar
Ambar-The Jovian
Epiphany
Sanjeeth
And the usual Google site search
I found Calvin fan following among my team mates at office; Calvin images on websites discussing esoteric concepts like AVL Trees and Chaos Theory (where I didn't expected to find it).
Makes me wonder, what is it in the strip that makes it so popular.
Is it the antics of calvin? his alter egos? his knowledge of things ?(the way he explains gravity before telling mom tht the lemonade jar broke) The one upmanship between Calvin and Dad ?(his Dad popularity polls)
I feel the actual reason is that each person sees himself as calvin when he reads a strip. He sees Calvin doing things that he didnt/couldnt do as a kid. Come to think of it, maybe Bill Waterson put in the comic strip exactly what he wanted to be and do as a kid himself.
The last strip was in 95 but there is an agelessness it. And (luckily for us) as calvin feared, he will remain a 6 year old all his life ;)
P.S.
For calvin fans, here is a gr8 calvin collection ; and here is an RSS Feed.
This image that I have as my wall paper never fails to bring a smile on the face of anyone who sees it.
Monday, September 13, 2004
Musings over the weekend.
* I got a strange sense of sadistic pleasure when my MD blasted the HR. I have no idea why he got it. I felt happy!!!
* Developers need to be treated better by their employers.
* Developers cannot work under unreasonable deadlines, specially when a team is involved. Managements need to understand that what comes up as a result is a working but hotch-potch software. And it will take double effort in the clean up later.
* There is NO ego bigger than that of a software developer. How else would you understand the rationale behind using an 1-MB software component on a 32-MB embedded system.
* The worst time to drive in Bangalore is on Saturday night, when it is raining, especially given Bangalore's reputation as Pub City of India.
* What does the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike ( the Bangalore city corporation) do if a building violates sanctioned building plans? It breaks the building's windows!
* I was watching the Italian F1 GP. A outrageous thought : What if Bangalore were to host an F1 race, on city streets, Monte Carlo style. I can't stop laughing at my own thoughts.
* Developers need to be treated better by their employers.
* Developers cannot work under unreasonable deadlines, specially when a team is involved. Managements need to understand that what comes up as a result is a working but hotch-potch software. And it will take double effort in the clean up later.
* There is NO ego bigger than that of a software developer. How else would you understand the rationale behind using an 1-MB software component on a 32-MB embedded system.
* The worst time to drive in Bangalore is on Saturday night, when it is raining, especially given Bangalore's reputation as Pub City of India.
* What does the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike ( the Bangalore city corporation) do if a building violates sanctioned building plans? It breaks the building's windows!
* I was watching the Italian F1 GP. A outrageous thought : What if Bangalore were to host an F1 race, on city streets, Monte Carlo style. I can't stop laughing at my own thoughts.
Friday, September 10, 2004
Can this be true?
For obvious reasons, let me not question the credibility or the validity of the test* nor that of the result. Let me bask in the glory, however shortlived, of the result that I obtained. Let me savour the moment!!
Related Tests : Which OS are you?
*The site itself claims that the "What Famous Leader Are You" test is NOT a serious one.
Related Tests : Which OS are you?
*The site itself claims that the "What Famous Leader Are You" test is NOT a serious one.
Thursday, September 02, 2004
Recipriversexclusion?
Look around you and I bet you will see someone sporting a mobile phone in their hand. Smart, small, sleek sexy phones with myriad ringtones, games, screensavers and what not.
But what is noteworthy is the fact that advertisements of mobile phones hardly speak about the phones abilities as a medium of communication. Ads talk about high resolution camera, motion camera capabilites, WAP/Bluetooth enabled phones, radio, MP3 player, media streaming capabilities etc etc etc. So simply put, the phone is described as being anything but a phone. This I think is a perfect example of recipriversexclusion.
The most bizarre of mathematical concepts, a recipriversexclusion, a number whose existence can only be defined as being anything other than itself.
Update: The mobile phone can now be used as a railway ticket booking device also. The Indian Railways has announced a scheme where one can book tickets via SMS.
But what is noteworthy is the fact that advertisements of mobile phones hardly speak about the phones abilities as a medium of communication. Ads talk about high resolution camera, motion camera capabilites, WAP/Bluetooth enabled phones, radio, MP3 player, media streaming capabilities etc etc etc. So simply put, the phone is described as being anything but a phone. This I think is a perfect example of recipriversexclusion.
The most bizarre of mathematical concepts, a recipriversexclusion, a number whose existence can only be defined as being anything other than itself.
Update: The mobile phone can now be used as a railway ticket booking device also. The Indian Railways has announced a scheme where one can book tickets via SMS.
Friday, August 27, 2004
Happy Belated Birthday Linux
Yesterday was Linux's birthday. By Linux I mean the core kernel alone. It was on Aug 25, 1991 that Linus put the first message about Linux.
From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Message-ID: 1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Hello everybody out there using minix -I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big andprofessional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback onthings people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)among other things).I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, andI'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestionsare welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably neverwill support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
Linux is now 13 years young ;)
See also : Understatement of the century
From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Message-ID: 1991Aug25.205708.9541@klaava.Helsinki.FI
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki
Hello everybody out there using minix -I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big andprofessional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback onthings people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat(same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons)among other things).I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work.This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, andI'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestionsare welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)
Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)
PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably neverwill support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(.
Linux is now 13 years young ;)
See also : Understatement of the century
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Work is worship!!
I am here at work. Disillusioned with the industry in just a couple months; seeing nothing of what I was expecting from it when I first joined. :( Dunno what i will do for the rest of my life.
Now I think, how it would have been had I not chosen this industry and was in a different one.
Would I be in the same state of mind? What wouldI be thinking at this point of time, if I had pursued a childhood dream? A dream at an age when computers were unheard of and the most dashing profession around was that of a bus driver. The driver was the "hero", driving a fast and huge vehicle vrooom vrooom, twisting and turning and applying screeching brakes.
Hmmmm.
More important, if I had suggested my choice of profession to my parents, what would their reaction be? In many western countries, children are out of home in their late teens. they take up jobs and save money for higher education. Here, on the other hand, the structure is quite the opposite. We tend to depend on our parents till atleast our graduation. Sometimes even for higher education.
Our parents would have the shock of their lives if we were to tell that we wanted to work our way for our higher education. Imagine, how would "society" react if a professor's son/daughter were to take up the work of a carpenter or painter. Shock? Surprise?
Let us assume the professor has been exposed to the western way of life. Inspite of it, his/her reaction would be just the same as a person who is not.
Why?
We live in a tight social structure and people dont seem to accept change easily. One one side there is all this talk of western culture invading india and that the social structure is eroded etc etc, we dont seem to see some of the positives. One thing to admire is the dignity of labour. No one who comes from "respectable families" in our country would work as a waiter or newspaper or milk delivery person . Atleast none that I know of.
It takes an open mind to accept the idea and allow something that is "against" the usual way of life here. How many of us (the current generation of "smart alecs" and "know it alls" would encourage this?
PS: I asked a few of my friends "If u were a big shot in the society and ur son got the job of a carpenter / waiter for the sake of earning for higher education, what wud ur reaction be?"
I got a few "no problem" (and a few "no way!") responses from friends I asked; that they would encourage their children to earn for their education. But then, times change and so do people.
Now I think, how it would have been had I not chosen this industry and was in a different one.
Would I be in the same state of mind? What wouldI be thinking at this point of time, if I had pursued a childhood dream? A dream at an age when computers were unheard of and the most dashing profession around was that of a bus driver. The driver was the "hero", driving a fast and huge vehicle vrooom vrooom, twisting and turning and applying screeching brakes.
Hmmmm.
More important, if I had suggested my choice of profession to my parents, what would their reaction be? In many western countries, children are out of home in their late teens. they take up jobs and save money for higher education. Here, on the other hand, the structure is quite the opposite. We tend to depend on our parents till atleast our graduation. Sometimes even for higher education.
Our parents would have the shock of their lives if we were to tell that we wanted to work our way for our higher education. Imagine, how would "society" react if a professor's son/daughter were to take up the work of a carpenter or painter. Shock? Surprise?
Let us assume the professor has been exposed to the western way of life. Inspite of it, his/her reaction would be just the same as a person who is not.
Why?
We live in a tight social structure and people dont seem to accept change easily. One one side there is all this talk of western culture invading india and that the social structure is eroded etc etc, we dont seem to see some of the positives. One thing to admire is the dignity of labour. No one who comes from "respectable families" in our country would work as a waiter or newspaper or milk delivery person . Atleast none that I know of.
It takes an open mind to accept the idea and allow something that is "against" the usual way of life here. How many of us (the current generation of "smart alecs" and "know it alls" would encourage this?
PS: I asked a few of my friends "If u were a big shot in the society and ur son got the job of a carpenter / waiter for the sake of earning for higher education, what wud ur reaction be?"
I got a few "no problem" (and a few "no way!") responses from friends I asked; that they would encourage their children to earn for their education. But then, times change and so do people.
Friday, August 20, 2004
Thursday, August 19, 2004
Sun tv, a channel that
- Shows the earth rotating in the reverse direction.
- Advertises the contents of its 8 PM news during commercial breaks of prime time soap operas.
- Relegates the silver medal winning performance of Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, India's first in this edition of the olympics, to secondary news headline in favour of one which featured a stamp relese function.
What can I say?
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Medical Help for men?
Authenticity of information NOT guaranteed. May have side effects.
Click on the image to hit the site.
Check the Google search results and the Yahoo search results.
Click on the image to hit the site.
Check the Google search results and the Yahoo search results.
Friday, August 13, 2004
Man we are in demand!
Thursday, August 12, 2004
Athension India
If the showing of Indian athletes in the Commonwealth Games in 2002 (Manchester) is any indication, then I expect the Indian contingent to come back with more than just one medal. It has been 2 years since then, but lets hope for the best.
Wishing the best to the Indian sportspersons and hoping they will put up a respectable show.
Wishing the best to the Indian sportspersons and hoping they will put up a respectable show.
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
The fifth Horseman returns?
Visiting a book store recently, I happened to see a book by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre "Is New York Burning". The last page summary reminded me of a book by the same authors published in 1980 - The Fifth Horseman.
In 1980 the two authors imagined a scenario that is so possible today. The story is simple:
Muammar Gadaffi plants a Hydrogen Bomb in the heart of New York and demands that the Israelites withdraw from the areas that they have illegally occupied in the middle east. And gadaffi knows well, there are more jews in New York than in Israel. That is the singular reason for the bomb being there.
What will the American government do now? Israel is a country it has always supported (thanks to its strategic geographical location). The government has to decide between risking the lives of New Yorkers and taking military action against Israel.
The story was definitely way ahead of its time in the 80's and I strongly feel that it is the same story with the names of the central characters changed to suit the 20th century. They hope that in the current scenario, the book will be a bestseller.
There is extreme fear and insecurity in the american mind. They even sent their own troops to protect their athletes in the yet to begin Athens Olympic. If the American mindset were to be cast into a human form, it would be an ideal replacement for the ever paranoid and pantophobic character potrayed by Kamal Haasan in the movie Thenaali.
In 1980 the two authors imagined a scenario that is so possible today. The story is simple:
Muammar Gadaffi plants a Hydrogen Bomb in the heart of New York and demands that the Israelites withdraw from the areas that they have illegally occupied in the middle east. And gadaffi knows well, there are more jews in New York than in Israel. That is the singular reason for the bomb being there.
What will the American government do now? Israel is a country it has always supported (thanks to its strategic geographical location). The government has to decide between risking the lives of New Yorkers and taking military action against Israel.
The story was definitely way ahead of its time in the 80's and I strongly feel that it is the same story with the names of the central characters changed to suit the 20th century. They hope that in the current scenario, the book will be a bestseller.
There is extreme fear and insecurity in the american mind. They even sent their own troops to protect their athletes in the yet to begin Athens Olympic. If the American mindset were to be cast into a human form, it would be an ideal replacement for the ever paranoid and pantophobic character potrayed by Kamal Haasan in the movie Thenaali.
Monday, August 09, 2004
In the end,it was the Sunday Afternoons he couldnt cope with, and that terrible listlessness which starts to set in at about 2.55 when you know that you have had all the baths that you can usefully have that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the papers you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary pruning techniques it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to 4'o clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul.
Douglas Adams(Life, the Universe and Everything)
Douglas Adams(Life, the Universe and Everything)
Friday, August 06, 2004
Today is the day that 59 years ago a mushroom cloud rose into the skies above a town in Japan called Hiroshima. It rained death to a degree that mankind found unimaginable.
Three days later, it was Nagasaki that witnessed the same.
We have been living in fear and awe of the atomic bomb since then.
I can only wonder what would have gone through the minds of Paul Tibbets and Charles Sweeney after they realised the destruction that they had unleashed.
Did they ever repent ( though they were just following orders)?
Three days later, it was Nagasaki that witnessed the same.
We have been living in fear and awe of the atomic bomb since then.
I can only wonder what would have gone through the minds of Paul Tibbets and Charles Sweeney after they realised the destruction that they had unleashed.
Did they ever repent ( though they were just following orders)?
Saturday, July 31, 2004
Every-"day"
Apparently some "friendship day" is round the corner. Man, have we come a long way! There used to be those days when as a kid I understood only two kinds of days - school days and no-school days. Later I started to understand the reason behind the no-school days,( now refered to as holiday [a new "day"]). Still the fact remained that I had no school.
Even at this time "days" were independence day, republic day , my birth day :), someone else's birthday(coz the someone else would distribute chocolates in school) and the usual summer and the winter holidays.
Today however there are a plethora of these days! We seem have more "days" than there are in a year. Some of these days like Population Day, Earth Day, World AIDS Day etc attempt to address issues that the whole world needs to tackle. But things dont always hit the target. People thought(still think) Population Day is a day to celebrate human population and not that it is a day to reflect on the problems we face due to the excess of it! I remember that when India's 1 billionth child was born, she was showered with gifts, free travel in airplanes and all kinds of such offers.
While days with a social cause are one side, we have a day for everything that we see, feel, hear, imagine and experience. We seem to have a day for every emotion and a day for every relation(mother's day, father's day).
We have a day of celebration or mourning on every other day. And what about days like Feb 21 which UNESCO has announced as Mother Language Day!(whatever that means). For a full list one can see the Wikipedia list of historical anniversaries.
It seems very likely that we soon run out of days in the year to commemorate the various events.
All these days have left me da(y)zed I better call it a day!
By the way is there a "World Bloggers Day" ?
If you want to know what happened in history today see BBC
Probably Ishwar would want "underwear lingerie" day. Ishwar, Sanjeeth, Ambar u know what I mean no :-D ;-)
Update: As requested by Ishwar, i have changed "underwear" to "lingerie". Think American winds are affecting Ishwar
Even at this time "days" were independence day, republic day , my birth day :), someone else's birthday(coz the someone else would distribute chocolates in school) and the usual summer and the winter holidays.
Today however there are a plethora of these days! We seem have more "days" than there are in a year. Some of these days like Population Day, Earth Day, World AIDS Day etc attempt to address issues that the whole world needs to tackle. But things dont always hit the target. People thought(still think) Population Day is a day to celebrate human population and not that it is a day to reflect on the problems we face due to the excess of it! I remember that when India's 1 billionth child was born, she was showered with gifts, free travel in airplanes and all kinds of such offers.
While days with a social cause are one side, we have a day for everything that we see, feel, hear, imagine and experience. We seem to have a day for every emotion and a day for every relation(mother's day, father's day).
We have a day of celebration or mourning on every other day. And what about days like Feb 21 which UNESCO has announced as Mother Language Day!(whatever that means). For a full list one can see the Wikipedia list of historical anniversaries.
It seems very likely that we soon run out of days in the year to commemorate the various events.
All these days have left me da(y)zed I better call it a day!
By the way is there a "World Bloggers Day" ?
If you want to know what happened in history today see BBC
Probably Ishwar would want "
Update: As requested by Ishwar, i have changed "underwear" to "lingerie". Think American winds are affecting Ishwar
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
One more-Yours truly "Post Graduates"
The 4th convocation of the Indian Institute of Information Technolgy-Bangalore was held this Sunday and yours truly along with 132 others received their degrees. I cannot believe that 2 years of IIITB have passed by. There seems to be a void that has manifested out of thin air.
The day was joyous.Congratulations, pats, hugs, introductions to family and friends were the order of the day. Laughter was abundant. People were laughing, because it was the culmination of formal education (for most) and for the fact that we looked funny in the convocation gown and cap. I even remarked to one guy that he looked like Mickey Mouse.
As Sanjeeth put it, emotions ran high. While visitors were overawed by the institute that looks (in my view), like a corporate office, this guy stood looking at his photograph in one of the display panels, admiring his upturned hairstyle and commenting that he looked more handsome-er and more geeky-er in it than in real life. Deserving medal winners sported ear to ear grins. The applause that greeted the winner of the "Professional Contribution" award was defeaning. Congratulations to Mr Kirukkal.
The convocation is a once in a lifetime event. An event i will cherish forever.
The day was joyous.Congratulations, pats, hugs, introductions to family and friends were the order of the day. Laughter was abundant. People were laughing, because it was the culmination of formal education (for most) and for the fact that we looked funny in the convocation gown and cap. I even remarked to one guy that he looked like Mickey Mouse.
As Sanjeeth put it, emotions ran high. While visitors were overawed by the institute that looks (in my view), like a corporate office, this guy stood looking at his photograph in one of the display panels, admiring his upturned hairstyle and commenting that he looked more handsome-er and more geeky-er in it than in real life. Deserving medal winners sported ear to ear grins. The applause that greeted the winner of the "Professional Contribution" award was defeaning. Congratulations to Mr Kirukkal.
The convocation is a once in a lifetime event. An event i will cherish forever.
Wednesday, July 21, 2004
Infosys-The true story
Conspiracy Theory
Thelka
Welcome back to thelka.com We continue the commentary from last week's shocking revelations about the long term plans of Bangalore based IT giant, Infosys Technologies Ltd.
The truth is slowly beginning to dawn on Indian business gurus and international military strategists alike. Why did Infosys recruit talent from all sectors of Engineering when most other IT firms preferred people from Electronics or Comp Science background? Infosys has people from Civil Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Naval Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgy, Chemical Engineering, Architecture, Bio Medical Engineering? Mining? This year Infosys also posted recruitment ads for experts in Thermo Dynamics, Ballistics, Advanced chip set computing and neural Networks. What have these engineers got to do with maintaining and upgrading application and business software in sectors like Finance, Insurance, Food Processing, supermarket accounting and Warehouse management ? - Nothing!
What is the common thread between all these different professionals - apparently nothing! Then why are they all together in this sprawling billion dollar campus in Bangalore? Is there a deeper secretive operation happening behind the shaded glass domes of Infosys' campuses? Why are
operations in different divisions within Infosys such a secret? Sometimes Infocions themselves do not know what happens in the "distant" Nortel OSDC, or in the Mysterious "Internet Business Group". thelka.com interviewed several former Infoscions who left the company under suspicious circumstances and often without termination benefits. We couldn't get a single person to give any facts about the inside activities of Infosys. In some cases the person was visibly shaken at the mention of the Infosys Bangalore campus. Is this a well planned conspiracy to threaten panicky Infocions who know too much? What does this campus hold that is so scary to mention?
What are these crazy Infocions upto? Are they building a super secret military base right in the heart of Bangalore? Military experts agree that Bangalore is the ideal place for planning a Military strategy.
Water is a key component in Chemical, Biological and nuclear research. Is this one of the reasons the Infosys campus is so near the Neeladri Water Park? With the talent pool available in Infosys, some experts predict it is possible to build an entire Naval Fleet complete with Battle cruisers
capable of torpedoes equipped with Nuclear Warheads, Surface to Air ballistic missiles and self guiding ICBMs based on GPS systems.
Why does Infosys have a mega bandwidth communication setup? It is believed that Infosys has accumulated enough computing power by not discarding its old used computers and assembling all of them in the underground parallel computing superlab at Infosys City. This parallel processing environment is said to be capable of 365 Teraflops which is much much higher than all the FBIs supercomputers pooled together. This kind of computing power it is said should be able to simulate Thermo nuclear Fusion and Fission in Hours instead of Months. Speculators go as far as to say, Infosys controls its stock prices in the market with an advanced modeling system capable of predicting stock prices upto the Next Century!
The recruitment in Infosys is purely on merit unlike government organizations like the ISRO, NDA and DRDO who are plagued and crippled by the governments own reservation policies. Creating a mediocre talent pool with no real visionary skills. The recent nth attempt to get the GSLV
rocket off the ground in one piece is evidence enough. Government departments are notorious for bribes and sabotage. The Recent tehelka.com expose of corrupt defense officials all the way to the Defense Minister is shameful evidence of the atrocious state of affairs. Research and development for Defense needs in critical locations like Siachen has been severely compromised by ill performing government Scientists.
The necessity for brilliant Minds coupled with the increasing demand for tech workers from third world countries provided a unique setup for Defense Research which could sustain itself through activities like production support, maintenance and enhance 500 companies. This revenue could be internally piped to the other group of Engineers who are ful time into Defense Research projects. It is believed that, presently there are more than 30 different projects being worked on by Infosys Engineers in the Bangalore Campus and elsewhere.
Why did Infosys donate Tata Sumo vehicles to the Local police Department? All this hectic activity does not come without a price. The massive teraflop super computing power needs huge amounts of power and state of the art refrigeration. Infosys decided to start its own Nuclear Reactor in 1993 to evade the constant power cuts from the KEB. More cooling water was required. The Nearby Neeladri water park was secretly purchased by Infosys. Presently this water park is operated by a group of Infocions who are on Bench.
Good Roads were required for transportation of Nuclear reactor Core elements, moderators and fuel in and out of Electronics City. Infosys poured in tons of money to the PWD and the KEB to get the entire Hosur Road from Tamilnadu to Kormangala restored. The Nuclear Reactor work took off in 1998 under the Guise of "Infosys Park". Building 3 was the designated Reactor installation. This also doubles as a fully functional Diesel generator which acts as a front to visitors and Employees. The Nuclear Reactor and the Diesel Generators are being run by Infosys employees on Bench.
The Public Works Dept (PWD), the Karnataka Electricity Board(KEB), the KWSSB (Karnataka Water Supply and Sanitation Board), The BCC (Bangalore City Corporation) were bought off with huge sums of cash or blackmail operations. Sanctions, Land endowments, permissions, pollution control
approvals were all gathered and filed within months. To keep all illegal and unauthorized activities under warps, Infosys started getting friendly with the Bangalore City Police. It started by donating hundreds of Tata Sumo vehicles. Every Tata sumo is equipped with a GPS system that can locate the vehicle within a few meters anywhere in Bangalore. All data is statistically analyzed at the parallel computing Superlab in Infosys City. The Vehicles were also equipped with radio signal controlled camera and Microphones. Of course all this gadgetry was cleverly welded into the frame by Infosys engineers at the time of the manufacture. In June 1996 Eighty Infocions quit jobs and joined TCS in the Tata Sumo operating division in Gurgaon, Haryana. Mysteriously all of them joined back Infosys in Mid 1998. What was the master plan executed in the Tata sumo
factories? How many more of such doctored Sumos exist ? And for what ulterior reasons? The data gathered is used to maintain a huge database of Information about local gangsters, middle men and politicians and detailed documentation of all corruption deals amongst the gangsters, police force and top politicians. Using this information Infosys controls the Entire Bangalore State Police, the underworld and the politicians. In addition using the Information against Central Government politicians. Infosys controlled the Entire country's Police Force, Political outfit,
Media outlet and TV journalism. No wonder the Indian Media seems to be perpetually happy with Infosys. Control of the Media also gives Infosys an edge in the stock Market. The artificially created media hype is done using Cash and Blackmail of top officials in leading publications like
Economic Times, Indian Express, Business Week share prices back home. It can also Influence the world Media, thus pushing its NASDAQ listing by entire points in a day. It was also seen that Infosys shares dropped more than 60 percent during mid February last year. Experts speculate that this was done by mass selling of company owned stocks by hundreds of Infocions on bench in the Cybercafe. This was done to gain a lower share price for distributions amongst its employees in the now meaningless ESOP.
Infosys plays a lead role in ushering in the new Internet. The wireless Internet. Why does Infosys have strategic Partnerships and Alliances with networking and wireless giants like I2, JASDIC, Microsoft, SAP, CICSO, CIDRA, Evolving Systems, Jetstream Communications, Last Mile Soultions, Lucent Technologies, Nightfire Software, Nortel Networks, Paradyne Corporation, Quintessent(tm) Communications, Riverstone Networks, YadaYada?
Observers theorize, that this will give Infosys unprecedented access to the terabytes of data that zig zag the globe including all espionage operations by the United States, Israel, Great Britain, Japan, Germany and China. The value of such information runs into billions of Dollars.
Infosys is also working with Microsoft on the Microsoft.net project. This will virtually put protected information of every Internet user in the world at the finger tips of Top Infosys officials. Medical records, criminal records, government tax records, internet browsing habits,
e-mails sent and received everything. This means a smear campaign can be organized on anybody in minutes. The Value of such information in the open market, especially from buyers like political rivals, business rivals, military strategists are enormous.
Infosys is uniquely positioned to control the Information networks of the world right from the parallel processing superlab, buried underground somewhere in Infosys City, Hosur Road.
Why is there an increase in number of "Accidents" and sickness to key Infocions all around the world? motor accident in Kaulalumpur, food poisoning in Japan, fire in Milwaukee, fever an headaches in Mangalore, sustained delirious coma in Bangalore (read our previous article titled
"Infoscions are Delirious" which talks about hallucinating Infocions dreaming of 60% pay hikes! Ha!).
Tornado and floods in Bubaneshwar last year, Earthquake in Gujarath (whose effects were felt in the Pune DC. The geological survey of India apart from Richter scale recordings also recorded increased radiation levels in the Arabian Sea. The Russian - Ri=DFkoh=C8 Navigator ship recorded faint readings of an undersea thermo Nuclear detonation in the region) Are these really accidents or is there a darker shadow behind these happenings? Are these Infocions receiving threatening letters? No body will tell. We are all puppets. But who are the Puppet> masters? The high officials of Infosys? The Government? The inter party alliance of Defence Activists? A raving Lunatic within Infosys? The FBI? The CIA? Who? Who stands to benefit from all these psychopathic plans? Join us next week, when more reports pour in about the unbelievable plans of this once small time South
Indian company to take over the rest of the world!
- reporting Live for Theleka.com (not Tehelka for copyright reasons, but
Pronounced Tehelka) Milwaukee
It's a work of fiction but really interesting... Enjoy!!! Hats off to person who has written this.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The above article was one that I got in my mailbox. As the last line read, Hats off to the anonymous author who wrote this interesting and creative piece.
Thelka
Welcome back to thelka.com We continue the commentary from last week's shocking revelations about the long term plans of Bangalore based IT giant, Infosys Technologies Ltd.
The truth is slowly beginning to dawn on Indian business gurus and international military strategists alike. Why did Infosys recruit talent from all sectors of Engineering when most other IT firms preferred people from Electronics or Comp Science background? Infosys has people from Civil Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Naval Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgy, Chemical Engineering, Architecture, Bio Medical Engineering? Mining? This year Infosys also posted recruitment ads for experts in Thermo Dynamics, Ballistics, Advanced chip set computing and neural Networks. What have these engineers got to do with maintaining and upgrading application and business software in sectors like Finance, Insurance, Food Processing, supermarket accounting and Warehouse management ? - Nothing!
What is the common thread between all these different professionals - apparently nothing! Then why are they all together in this sprawling billion dollar campus in Bangalore? Is there a deeper secretive operation happening behind the shaded glass domes of Infosys' campuses? Why are
operations in different divisions within Infosys such a secret? Sometimes Infocions themselves do not know what happens in the "distant" Nortel OSDC, or in the Mysterious "Internet Business Group". thelka.com interviewed several former Infoscions who left the company under suspicious circumstances and often without termination benefits. We couldn't get a single person to give any facts about the inside activities of Infosys. In some cases the person was visibly shaken at the mention of the Infosys Bangalore campus. Is this a well planned conspiracy to threaten panicky Infocions who know too much? What does this campus hold that is so scary to mention?
What are these crazy Infocions upto? Are they building a super secret military base right in the heart of Bangalore? Military experts agree that Bangalore is the ideal place for planning a Military strategy.
Water is a key component in Chemical, Biological and nuclear research. Is this one of the reasons the Infosys campus is so near the Neeladri Water Park? With the talent pool available in Infosys, some experts predict it is possible to build an entire Naval Fleet complete with Battle cruisers
capable of torpedoes equipped with Nuclear Warheads, Surface to Air ballistic missiles and self guiding ICBMs based on GPS systems.
Why does Infosys have a mega bandwidth communication setup? It is believed that Infosys has accumulated enough computing power by not discarding its old used computers and assembling all of them in the underground parallel computing superlab at Infosys City. This parallel processing environment is said to be capable of 365 Teraflops which is much much higher than all the FBIs supercomputers pooled together. This kind of computing power it is said should be able to simulate Thermo nuclear Fusion and Fission in Hours instead of Months. Speculators go as far as to say, Infosys controls its stock prices in the market with an advanced modeling system capable of predicting stock prices upto the Next Century!
The recruitment in Infosys is purely on merit unlike government organizations like the ISRO, NDA and DRDO who are plagued and crippled by the governments own reservation policies. Creating a mediocre talent pool with no real visionary skills. The recent nth attempt to get the GSLV
rocket off the ground in one piece is evidence enough. Government departments are notorious for bribes and sabotage. The Recent tehelka.com expose of corrupt defense officials all the way to the Defense Minister is shameful evidence of the atrocious state of affairs. Research and development for Defense needs in critical locations like Siachen has been severely compromised by ill performing government Scientists.
The necessity for brilliant Minds coupled with the increasing demand for tech workers from third world countries provided a unique setup for Defense Research which could sustain itself through activities like production support, maintenance and enhance 500 companies. This revenue could be internally piped to the other group of Engineers who are ful time into Defense Research projects. It is believed that, presently there are more than 30 different projects being worked on by Infosys Engineers in the Bangalore Campus and elsewhere.
Why did Infosys donate Tata Sumo vehicles to the Local police Department? All this hectic activity does not come without a price. The massive teraflop super computing power needs huge amounts of power and state of the art refrigeration. Infosys decided to start its own Nuclear Reactor in 1993 to evade the constant power cuts from the KEB. More cooling water was required. The Nearby Neeladri water park was secretly purchased by Infosys. Presently this water park is operated by a group of Infocions who are on Bench.
Good Roads were required for transportation of Nuclear reactor Core elements, moderators and fuel in and out of Electronics City. Infosys poured in tons of money to the PWD and the KEB to get the entire Hosur Road from Tamilnadu to Kormangala restored. The Nuclear Reactor work took off in 1998 under the Guise of "Infosys Park". Building 3 was the designated Reactor installation. This also doubles as a fully functional Diesel generator which acts as a front to visitors and Employees. The Nuclear Reactor and the Diesel Generators are being run by Infosys employees on Bench.
The Public Works Dept (PWD), the Karnataka Electricity Board(KEB), the KWSSB (Karnataka Water Supply and Sanitation Board), The BCC (Bangalore City Corporation) were bought off with huge sums of cash or blackmail operations. Sanctions, Land endowments, permissions, pollution control
approvals were all gathered and filed within months. To keep all illegal and unauthorized activities under warps, Infosys started getting friendly with the Bangalore City Police. It started by donating hundreds of Tata Sumo vehicles. Every Tata sumo is equipped with a GPS system that can locate the vehicle within a few meters anywhere in Bangalore. All data is statistically analyzed at the parallel computing Superlab in Infosys City. The Vehicles were also equipped with radio signal controlled camera and Microphones. Of course all this gadgetry was cleverly welded into the frame by Infosys engineers at the time of the manufacture. In June 1996 Eighty Infocions quit jobs and joined TCS in the Tata Sumo operating division in Gurgaon, Haryana. Mysteriously all of them joined back Infosys in Mid 1998. What was the master plan executed in the Tata sumo
factories? How many more of such doctored Sumos exist ? And for what ulterior reasons? The data gathered is used to maintain a huge database of Information about local gangsters, middle men and politicians and detailed documentation of all corruption deals amongst the gangsters, police force and top politicians. Using this information Infosys controls the Entire Bangalore State Police, the underworld and the politicians. In addition using the Information against Central Government politicians. Infosys controlled the Entire country's Police Force, Political outfit,
Media outlet and TV journalism. No wonder the Indian Media seems to be perpetually happy with Infosys. Control of the Media also gives Infosys an edge in the stock Market. The artificially created media hype is done using Cash and Blackmail of top officials in leading publications like
Economic Times, Indian Express, Business Week share prices back home. It can also Influence the world Media, thus pushing its NASDAQ listing by entire points in a day. It was also seen that Infosys shares dropped more than 60 percent during mid February last year. Experts speculate that this was done by mass selling of company owned stocks by hundreds of Infocions on bench in the Cybercafe. This was done to gain a lower share price for distributions amongst its employees in the now meaningless ESOP.
Infosys plays a lead role in ushering in the new Internet. The wireless Internet. Why does Infosys have strategic Partnerships and Alliances with networking and wireless giants like I2, JASDIC, Microsoft, SAP, CICSO, CIDRA, Evolving Systems, Jetstream Communications, Last Mile Soultions, Lucent Technologies, Nightfire Software, Nortel Networks, Paradyne Corporation, Quintessent(tm) Communications, Riverstone Networks, YadaYada?
Observers theorize, that this will give Infosys unprecedented access to the terabytes of data that zig zag the globe including all espionage operations by the United States, Israel, Great Britain, Japan, Germany and China. The value of such information runs into billions of Dollars.
Infosys is also working with Microsoft on the Microsoft.net project. This will virtually put protected information of every Internet user in the world at the finger tips of Top Infosys officials. Medical records, criminal records, government tax records, internet browsing habits,
e-mails sent and received everything. This means a smear campaign can be organized on anybody in minutes. The Value of such information in the open market, especially from buyers like political rivals, business rivals, military strategists are enormous.
Infosys is uniquely positioned to control the Information networks of the world right from the parallel processing superlab, buried underground somewhere in Infosys City, Hosur Road.
Why is there an increase in number of "Accidents" and sickness to key Infocions all around the world? motor accident in Kaulalumpur, food poisoning in Japan, fire in Milwaukee, fever an headaches in Mangalore, sustained delirious coma in Bangalore (read our previous article titled
"Infoscions are Delirious" which talks about hallucinating Infocions dreaming of 60% pay hikes! Ha!).
Tornado and floods in Bubaneshwar last year, Earthquake in Gujarath (whose effects were felt in the Pune DC. The geological survey of India apart from Richter scale recordings also recorded increased radiation levels in the Arabian Sea. The Russian - Ri=DFkoh=C8 Navigator ship recorded faint readings of an undersea thermo Nuclear detonation in the region) Are these really accidents or is there a darker shadow behind these happenings? Are these Infocions receiving threatening letters? No body will tell. We are all puppets. But who are the Puppet> masters? The high officials of Infosys? The Government? The inter party alliance of Defence Activists? A raving Lunatic within Infosys? The FBI? The CIA? Who? Who stands to benefit from all these psychopathic plans? Join us next week, when more reports pour in about the unbelievable plans of this once small time South
Indian company to take over the rest of the world!
- reporting Live for Theleka.com (not Tehelka for copyright reasons, but
Pronounced Tehelka) Milwaukee
It's a work of fiction but really interesting... Enjoy!!! Hats off to person who has written this.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
The above article was one that I got in my mailbox. As the last line read, Hats off to the anonymous author who wrote this interesting and creative piece.
Friday, July 16, 2004
Picture This
It is the Friday evening. You are in your seat, looking at the faint glow of your CRT screen, not bothering what is being shown on it. You want to leave for the week. But you can't. It is the monsoon and it is raining cats and dogs. You see the raindrops hitting your window pane, and flowing away slowly. You are bored; bored bored bored bored bored. So bored, that boredom is boring you now. It is cold inside the office too. A sense of gloom is decscnding upon you. A sense of sadness that you have experienced before, but not so much as now. You get up and go to the restroom.
Slowly you make your way back to your seat, pausing to see of the rain has abated. It has not. The sense of gloom increases. You pull yourself to your seat. And on the table you see that thing that comes as sunshine and brings a smile on your face. You see - a plate of hot spicy milagai bajji and a large steel tumbler of hot strong coffee. :-)
Slowly you make your way back to your seat, pausing to see of the rain has abated. It has not. The sense of gloom increases. You pull yourself to your seat. And on the table you see that thing that comes as sunshine and brings a smile on your face. You see - a plate of hot spicy milagai bajji and a large steel tumbler of hot strong coffee. :-)
Friday, July 09, 2004
The city dweller
Does the city dweller have it in him/her to live the life of-
Homo sapien is the most successful species in the world. But for some reason, we change our surroundings to suit us rather than adapting to the them and living in harmony. The native dwellers of the land however, have learnt to live in symbiosis with nature.Can we do the same?
 |  |
| an inca in the arid andes or the Atacama | a taureg in the heart of the Sahara |
 |  |
| an inuit(eskimo) in the vast expanse of snow and ice | a sherpa in the cold mountaineous terrains of the himalayas |
 |  |
| an aborigine in the wild australian outback | a pygmy in the rainforests of equatorial africa |
Homo sapien is the most successful species in the world. But for some reason, we change our surroundings to suit us rather than adapting to the them and living in harmony. The native dwellers of the land however, have learnt to live in symbiosis with nature.Can we do the same?
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Booting an Operating System
This is my first technical article that i am writing. Hope to share some information that i have obtained over time and make things clearer to the interested people. Most of the information here is specific to the PC with intel x86 architecture(286, 386, 486, Pentium Series, AMD).
The Operating System is the main component of any computer. It is the layer of software that handles requests for resources between processes that are running on the system, resources including the processor, memory, access to devices like printers, monitor(s), storage devices, network etc.
Normally, we just press on a switch and wait till the desktop / a login prompt or the command line to appear. We dont bother to know(maybe we dont need to know) what happens during the time we wait looking at progress bars going from the left end to right end (progress bar syndrome ;)
All computers have a BIOS (Basic Input Output System). This is a piece of hardware that gets control of the computer the moment it is powered on. The BIOS has instructions that are executed by the processor. This process detects the hardware attached with some details of the same.( One can see these details in the second screen that is shown when a PC is booting). You may ask, what ensures that the BIOS instructions are executed in order from instruction 1 onwards. Actually, x86 processors perform a hardware reset and initialise a set of registers to predefined values immediately on power on. These ensure that the control is transferred to the BIOS correctly.
The BIOS has in it 2 vectors, one that identified the list of devices that can be booted from (this is updated dynamically) and another that lists the priorities within these identified devices.(These are stored in a non volatile RAM area. You can set the priorities when u choose the boot sequence by pressing F2 key on booting.)The BIOS then cycles through the devices specified in the order of descending prority repeatedly trying to see if Bootable Code (the operating system code) is there. The BIOS reads 512 bytes from the boot sector and then examines the last two bytes(octets). If it is not 0xAA55, it identifies that the code is NOT bootable. If none of the devices have any code, it will signal an error and hang.
The boot sector code will be moved into the memory at address 0X7c00. Now it is the users code that is having control of the computer. Normally this code cant do much in just 512 bytes. This code generally loads and transfers control to another piece of code that does the loads the actual operating system.
If you want to write your own "Hello World" Operating system or know more on Boot process, u can visit these links :
NonDot.org-Includes sample code and specifications.
Getting started with OS development
Boot process
As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway. - The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes p25
The Operating System is the main component of any computer. It is the layer of software that handles requests for resources between processes that are running on the system, resources including the processor, memory, access to devices like printers, monitor(s), storage devices, network etc.
Normally, we just press on a switch and wait till the desktop / a login prompt or the command line to appear. We dont bother to know(maybe we dont need to know) what happens during the time we wait looking at progress bars going from the left end to right end (progress bar syndrome ;)
All computers have a BIOS (Basic Input Output System). This is a piece of hardware that gets control of the computer the moment it is powered on. The BIOS has instructions that are executed by the processor. This process detects the hardware attached with some details of the same.( One can see these details in the second screen that is shown when a PC is booting). You may ask, what ensures that the BIOS instructions are executed in order from instruction 1 onwards. Actually, x86 processors perform a hardware reset and initialise a set of registers to predefined values immediately on power on. These ensure that the control is transferred to the BIOS correctly.
The BIOS has in it 2 vectors, one that identified the list of devices that can be booted from (this is updated dynamically) and another that lists the priorities within these identified devices.(These are stored in a non volatile RAM area. You can set the priorities when u choose the boot sequence by pressing F2 key on booting.)The BIOS then cycles through the devices specified in the order of descending prority repeatedly trying to see if Bootable Code (the operating system code) is there. The BIOS reads 512 bytes from the boot sector and then examines the last two bytes(octets). If it is not 0xAA55, it identifies that the code is NOT bootable. If none of the devices have any code, it will signal an error and hang.
The boot sector code will be moved into the memory at address 0X7c00. Now it is the users code that is having control of the computer. Normally this code cant do much in just 512 bytes. This code generally loads and transfers control to another piece of code that does the loads the actual operating system.
If you want to write your own "Hello World" Operating system or know more on Boot process, u can visit these links :
NonDot.org-Includes sample code and specifications.
Getting started with OS development
Boot process
As far as I'm concerned, if something is so complicated that you can't explain it in 10 seconds, then it's probably not worth knowing anyway. - The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes p25
Monday, July 05, 2004
Sporting Bonanza
I dont think things could get any better than this last Sunday for sports entusiasts. One could not ask for more. The French Grand Prix, the finals of Wimbledon, and the finals of the Euro Cup. For once I didnt surf channels and was stuck to one till the event ended. I am not an expert to comment if the winners deserved their victories or not. But they are the champions and that is all that matters.
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Greece, underdogs, who were not expected to make it past the first round of matches ended up winning the title. They are now the kings of the Europe./P> | Andy Roddick seemed to be in a hurry. He played with a great intensity and i would say dominated the court.It seemed that Roger Federer would not be able to successfully defend his title. But in the end, Roger held his nerve and his title too. | I dont watch much of F-1. But this man, Schumi, is a living legend. |
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Understatement of the century
"I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386 (486) AT clones." - This was what Linus Torvalds posted in a Usenix group in August 1991. 13 years down the line, Linux is the kernel of GNU/LINUX,one of the leading Operating Systems of the world!
Saturday, June 26, 2004
SMART Minds Are Recursive Thinkers.
Do we think recursively? Or is language recursive in nature and hence leads to recursive thought? By the way, what is language? See this link. - Human uniqueness, learned symbols and recursive thought -James R Hurford.
PS: There is this blogger who claims that he thinks recursively. I doubt that he thinks, recursion is a far cry ;)
PS: There is this blogger who claims that he thinks recursively. I doubt that he thinks, recursion is a far cry ;)
Friday, June 25, 2004
Long Time No Blog.
Well, 2 weeks since i last wrote a blog. And 2 weeks since i last came to office. Quite an interesting coincidence isnt it? :) ;)
I wonder what i missed more, writing new posts or reading others blogs and commenting. Whatever be the case, blogging is great time pass. It breaks the monotony of life (specially office life), gives us some time to think(about the monotony), a few moments of introspection , a few minutes for us to search the web for information related to what we are writing about(and to see if any company is hiring people for their blogging skills) etc etc.
Bloging is addictive. And like all drugs it gives the blogger a "kick" :D
And it is enjoyable to read other's blogs and comment on them, sharing ideas and opinions.
So, here I am back @ active blogging and for the "kicks" and other payoffs. I can only hope my boss doesnt see me blogging. If he does, i am going to get "kicks" of a different kind.
I wonder what i missed more, writing new posts or reading others blogs and commenting. Whatever be the case, blogging is great time pass. It breaks the monotony of life (specially office life), gives us some time to think(about the monotony), a few moments of introspection , a few minutes for us to search the web for information related to what we are writing about(and to see if any company is hiring people for their blogging skills) etc etc.
Bloging is addictive. And like all drugs it gives the blogger a "kick" :D
And it is enjoyable to read other's blogs and comment on them, sharing ideas and opinions.
So, here I am back @ active blogging and for the "kicks" and other payoffs. I can only hope my boss doesnt see me blogging. If he does, i am going to get "kicks" of a different kind.
Friday, June 11, 2004
Tardus-Depressus-Infurmus
The Olympic flame comes to India. A reason for celebration. A time for recognition to be given to the sportspersons who have represented the country in the event.
I consider that getting to hold the olympic flame to be a honour reserved to the best sportspersons of the country. But if one has a look as to who were invited to hold the flame then one could see something was not correct. Imagine....
Aamir Khan: the most he has been associated with sports to my knowledge has been 2 movies about cricket. One flopped miserably.
Aishwarya Rai: if catwalking is a sport then...ok. no comments
Rani mukherjee: Hamming is not a sport. nor is crying in movies or gyrating to songs
Bipasha Basu: some of her movies have had some very hot steamy scenes. may be she's acting out the "world's oldest sport" as a TV commercial used to say.
Vivek Oberoi: atleast i could comment on the others. No comments. :D
What is the logic behind inviting these people? Star attraction? Maybe,since a kid said that she had come to see the actors and knew nothing about the flame. Unfortunate.
With such people coming, why should rahul dravid come under fire? Atleast he is a sportsperson. Cricket is also a sport. And Olympics is about sports and the spirit of healty competition not about specifics as to which games are in the
olympics and which are not. And what makes people think cricket was NOT in the Olympics? See:
http://www.fact-index.com/o/ol/olympic_games.html AND http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Summer_Olympics AND http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_at_the_1900_Summer_Olympics.
No i am not defending cricket. Prakash Padukone, All England champion, Ramesh or Ramanathan Krishnan, some fine tennis stars, PT Usha, the most famous Indian track and field athlete, Geet Sethi/Michael Ferreira etc were not invited. Why?
Don't their contributions however small, deserve recognition. If the Indian Olympic Committee itself doesnt think about these people, will the sponsors? And the next question, "why sponsors?". does the flame need to be commercialised?
For india, the flame was not citius-altius-fortius. it has been Tardus-Depressus-Infurmus.
I consider that getting to hold the olympic flame to be a honour reserved to the best sportspersons of the country. But if one has a look as to who were invited to hold the flame then one could see something was not correct. Imagine....
Aamir Khan: the most he has been associated with sports to my knowledge has been 2 movies about cricket. One flopped miserably.
Aishwarya Rai: if catwalking is a sport then...ok. no comments
Rani mukherjee: Hamming is not a sport. nor is crying in movies or gyrating to songs
Bipasha Basu: some of her movies have had some very hot steamy scenes. may be she's acting out the "world's oldest sport" as a TV commercial used to say.
Vivek Oberoi: atleast i could comment on the others. No comments. :D
What is the logic behind inviting these people? Star attraction? Maybe,since a kid said that she had come to see the actors and knew nothing about the flame. Unfortunate.
With such people coming, why should rahul dravid come under fire? Atleast he is a sportsperson. Cricket is also a sport. And Olympics is about sports and the spirit of healty competition not about specifics as to which games are in the
olympics and which are not. And what makes people think cricket was NOT in the Olympics? See:
http://www.fact-index.com/o/ol/olympic_games.html AND http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900_Summer_Olympics AND http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket_at_the_1900_Summer_Olympics.
No i am not defending cricket. Prakash Padukone, All England champion, Ramesh or Ramanathan Krishnan, some fine tennis stars, PT Usha, the most famous Indian track and field athlete, Geet Sethi/Michael Ferreira etc were not invited. Why?
Don't their contributions however small, deserve recognition. If the Indian Olympic Committee itself doesnt think about these people, will the sponsors? And the next question, "why sponsors?". does the flame need to be commercialised?
For india, the flame was not citius-altius-fortius. it has been Tardus-Depressus-Infurmus.
Thursday, June 10, 2004
So much for tolerance!!!
Hinduism is considered the oldest religions of the world. Hindu thought distinguishes itself by strongly encouraging tolerance for different beliefs.How else can one explain the fact that Hinduism allows one to be an atheist, theist or whatever "ist" you want to be.
The first Christian community in the world, that of the Syrian Christians, was established in Kerala in the 1st century. It was welcomed by the local Hindus and Christians there were always allowed to practise their religion in peace. Islam has flourished in India, we have a Muslim President now and Muslims are free to practise and preach.
Will Pakistan have a Hindu head of state? Unlikely.
In the morning it is the Azaan that wakes me up. Nobody objects to it in India. But if i were in foreigh land and were to play the Venkateshwara Suprabhatam at 5 30 in the morning, i think i will have to face one of the 2 consequences:
1) death
2) get sent back to India(at least i didnt lose my life)
Today the world's two biggest monotheistic religions still think their God is the only true one and it is their duty to convert everybody. Hinduism is probably the only religion in the world which never tried to convert others, or conquer other countries to propagate their own religion.
Why am I writing all this??? Follow this Link : timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/727538.cms
Has a company ever tried to put the image of christ or an image of the shrine at mecca on shoes and undergarments? Or has any company tried to write any scriptures from the bible or the quran on the same? I doubt.
The Om symbol is used like some kind of a fancy tattoo without knowing the importance that it has to Hindus. It is the "pranava mantra"(the primordial mantra). Om(Aum) which consists of 3 sounds, embodies the essence of the hindu trinity in my view.
This is obvioulsy NOT the only incident. The movie Eyes Wide Shut supposedly had verses of the Srimad Bhagavath Gita in the background in the climax, featuring a group sex scene. (See this link ). Disgusting!!! Why? Didnt Kubrick get any verses from the Bible? The Gita speaks about the righteous way of life. It tells us our duties, irrespective of whether we believe in God or not.
Such audacious disrespect to religious symbols.
Now, some one who is reading the article will follow one cliched argument "Hinduism gave us scriptures like KamaSutra, see the Kajuraho carvings, phallus worship is practised" etc etc etc.....
Phallus worship is practised not in India alone. Just because the Kama Sutra was written in India, it doesnt mean that the Gita needs to be read in a orgy scene; read the Kama sutra itself!
Belief and disbelief in religion is left to oneself. I accept and respect that. But disrespect to someone else's beliefs is defenitely unacceptable by any standards.
I am proud to be a HINDU and Proud to be an INDIAN!
The first Christian community in the world, that of the Syrian Christians, was established in Kerala in the 1st century. It was welcomed by the local Hindus and Christians there were always allowed to practise their religion in peace. Islam has flourished in India, we have a Muslim President now and Muslims are free to practise and preach.
Will Pakistan have a Hindu head of state? Unlikely.
In the morning it is the Azaan that wakes me up. Nobody objects to it in India. But if i were in foreigh land and were to play the Venkateshwara Suprabhatam at 5 30 in the morning, i think i will have to face one of the 2 consequences:
1) death
2) get sent back to India(at least i didnt lose my life)
Today the world's two biggest monotheistic religions still think their God is the only true one and it is their duty to convert everybody. Hinduism is probably the only religion in the world which never tried to convert others, or conquer other countries to propagate their own religion.
Why am I writing all this??? Follow this Link : timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/727538.cms
Has a company ever tried to put the image of christ or an image of the shrine at mecca on shoes and undergarments? Or has any company tried to write any scriptures from the bible or the quran on the same? I doubt.
The Om symbol is used like some kind of a fancy tattoo without knowing the importance that it has to Hindus. It is the "pranava mantra"(the primordial mantra). Om(Aum) which consists of 3 sounds, embodies the essence of the hindu trinity in my view.
This is obvioulsy NOT the only incident. The movie Eyes Wide Shut supposedly had verses of the Srimad Bhagavath Gita in the background in the climax, featuring a group sex scene. (See this link ). Disgusting!!! Why? Didnt Kubrick get any verses from the Bible? The Gita speaks about the righteous way of life. It tells us our duties, irrespective of whether we believe in God or not.
Such audacious disrespect to religious symbols.
Now, some one who is reading the article will follow one cliched argument "Hinduism gave us scriptures like KamaSutra, see the Kajuraho carvings, phallus worship is practised" etc etc etc.....
Phallus worship is practised not in India alone. Just because the Kama Sutra was written in India, it doesnt mean that the Gita needs to be read in a orgy scene; read the Kama sutra itself!
Belief and disbelief in religion is left to oneself. I accept and respect that. But disrespect to someone else's beliefs is defenitely unacceptable by any standards.
I am proud to be a HINDU and Proud to be an INDIAN!
Tuesday, June 08, 2004
What is on the other side?
I happened to be reading The Emperor's new Mind by Roger Penrose.
Penrose talks about the big bang being considered the start of the universe (Chapter: Cosmology and the Arrow of Time). He says that the Big Bang and the subsequent expansion of the "universe" created the space that we call the universe(This he represents pictorially as an expanding balloon). And it is an accepted fact that the universe is expanding continuously.
So my question is "If i were on the edge of this expanding universe, then on one side is the universe as we know it. What is on the other side?"
any Answers?
Penrose talks about the big bang being considered the start of the universe (Chapter: Cosmology and the Arrow of Time). He says that the Big Bang and the subsequent expansion of the "universe" created the space that we call the universe(This he represents pictorially as an expanding balloon). And it is an accepted fact that the universe is expanding continuously.
So my question is "If i were on the edge of this expanding universe, then on one side is the universe as we know it. What is on the other side?"
any Answers?
Monday, June 07, 2004
Deccan herald Web site talks about toxic dust that accumulates on monitors and the related health isues. I dont know how true it is, but if so, it is one more the list of illnesses that PC users are prone to. :(
Open Source-Open Trademarks too?
Vollwaschmittel is a detergent popular in German speaking countries. The company does not use Linux as a technology term and has been immune to legal action from Linus.
More Linux trademark trivia:
Trademark SN: 1916230 is owned by Linus Torvalds, registered for "Computer operating system software to facilitate computer use and operation." The assignment of the trademark to Torvalds occurred after an attorney, one William R. Della Croce, Jr, in 1996 began sending letters to various Linux distributors claiming to own the "Linux" trademark and demanding 10% royalties. The distributors rapidly pooled resources, appealed the original trademark assignment and had it reassigned to Linus Torvalds. The licensing of the trademark is now handled by the Linux Mark Institute.
Friday, June 04, 2004
Shoulder Surfing
This is in a way a sequel to LoudMouth's article titled Amnesia or what. To put it in more apt terms it is actually more of a "cause-effect" relationship.
CLAIMER : This is NOT a fictitious article. It is hence not a figment of my imagination. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely intentional. I am writing this with the cleanest of conscience. What I say is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
What do you do when you are tired of working for a full day? Well you read a blog. And LoudMouth had shouted at the top of his voice (through email) telling us of a new post.
So that is what I did, read LoudMouth's latest post.
Shoulder surfing. For the uninformed, it is the act of standing behind a person and seeing what the person is doing, simply, by following the content on the monitor. Not a very gentlemanly(or lady-ly) act.
My browser was showing text in a small font and I was tired of staring at the stupid CRT screen the full day. Hence, I increased the text size to 120% and sat back to read. Little did I notice that I had fallen victim to shoulder surfing. One person, a female colleague of mine had followed the post and its comments(including mine).
The re-reading (of my comment) was interrupted by a single question "who is that?". Assuming that the "who" meant taran (who had posted a pretty stupid looking photograph of himself), I started telling about LoudMouth. "No no, who is the person that this LoudMouth is describing? Who is that guy?"
Knowing who "the guy"(a fellow blogger) was, I hit "the guy"'s blog. I then had to stop work while my colleague read through most of "the guy"'s posts on my computer.
I then proceeded to show a close up photograph of "the guy", showering praise on him and his intellectual abilities, his research publications and his fan following.
What I saw next amazed me and left me and another colleague of mine shocked. There seemed to be a blush on the cheeks, a glow in the eyes. The facial expression said it all.
LoudMouth had played match maker unintentionally( and I had played my part too). And all it took were one post by LoudMouth, an idiot who could not watch his back and a few posts by "the guy". This was not love at first sight , it was love on first "read".
Shoulder surfing, it seems, had bridged hearts.
I don't write as well as "the guy". I am hoping against hope that someone would read my blog (including this) and maybe, just maybe.....
CLAIMER : This is NOT a fictitious article. It is hence not a figment of my imagination. Any resemblance to any persons living or dead is purely intentional. I am writing this with the cleanest of conscience. What I say is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
What do you do when you are tired of working for a full day? Well you read a blog. And LoudMouth had shouted at the top of his voice (through email) telling us of a new post.
So that is what I did, read LoudMouth's latest post.
Shoulder surfing. For the uninformed, it is the act of standing behind a person and seeing what the person is doing, simply, by following the content on the monitor. Not a very gentlemanly(or lady-ly) act.
My browser was showing text in a small font and I was tired of staring at the stupid CRT screen the full day. Hence, I increased the text size to 120% and sat back to read. Little did I notice that I had fallen victim to shoulder surfing. One person, a female colleague of mine had followed the post and its comments(including mine).
The re-reading (of my comment) was interrupted by a single question "who is that?". Assuming that the "who" meant taran (who had posted a pretty stupid looking photograph of himself), I started telling about LoudMouth. "No no, who is the person that this LoudMouth is describing? Who is that guy?"
Knowing who "the guy"(a fellow blogger) was, I hit "the guy"'s blog. I then had to stop work while my colleague read through most of "the guy"'s posts on my computer.
I then proceeded to show a close up photograph of "the guy", showering praise on him and his intellectual abilities, his research publications and his fan following.
What I saw next amazed me and left me and another colleague of mine shocked. There seemed to be a blush on the cheeks, a glow in the eyes. The facial expression said it all.
LoudMouth had played match maker unintentionally( and I had played my part too). And all it took were one post by LoudMouth, an idiot who could not watch his back and a few posts by "the guy". This was not love at first sight , it was love on first "read".
Shoulder surfing, it seems, had bridged hearts.
I don't write as well as "the guy". I am hoping against hope that someone would read my blog (including this) and maybe, just maybe.....
Friday, May 28, 2004
Meese Mama
This article is a tribute to a friend of mine.
The moustache,(derived from Greek mustax, mustache, upper lip) is a symbol of manhood in many cultures. Matter of fact there is a saying in kannada "jaTTi biddarU mIse maNNAgalilla(The wrestler fell but his moustache did not get soiled). A way of saying "Down,but not out".Such is the importance of the moustache and the pride
associated with it.
Moustaches range in shape and size from the grand Veerappan style to the pencil line style of the screen heroes of the 60s-70s(That is the normally seen ones I mean, for other categories http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/Categories/categories.htm).The Guinness World Records mention a 11 foot long moustache. hmmm....
Not that the moustache has not had its fair share of controversies over time. Moustaches were considered eccentric, barbaric and often were forced by law to be shaved. More trivia at the Moustache Database
We have beauty contests for women, with young 18 to 20 somethings strutting around on catwalks. The men are not far behind though, with the beard and moustache competition for the men to show off the grandeur of their facial hair to the world.
This guy in my college (to whom this is a tribute) had the grandest moustache of all of us guys. His nick name itself was "Meese" and his moustache made him the target of quite a few comments (which he took very sportingly). Some of them being:
"Half his weight will be his moustache"
"His moustache is too heavy for him. That is why he is short. It is pulling him down"
"Will he fly away if his moustache were to be shaved off?"
A moustache can come in handy if u want to avoid being detected by your boss. If you dont know what I am hinting at, see the hindi movie Golmaal. The story revolves around a moustache ;).
Confucious said that "A man without a moustache is a man without a soul", "A kiss without a moustache is like egg without salt" goes an old Spanish proverb.But whatever be the case, it is the clean shaven lot like me who keep businesses like Gillette profitable.
Long live the moustache.
The moustache,(derived from Greek mustax, mustache, upper lip) is a symbol of manhood in many cultures. Matter of fact there is a saying in kannada "jaTTi biddarU mIse maNNAgalilla(The wrestler fell but his moustache did not get soiled). A way of saying "Down,but not out".Such is the importance of the moustache and the pride
associated with it.
Moustaches range in shape and size from the grand Veerappan style to the pencil line style of the screen heroes of the 60s-70s(That is the normally seen ones I mean, for other categories http://www.worldbeardchampionships.com/Categories/categories.htm).The Guinness World Records mention a 11 foot long moustache. hmmm....
Not that the moustache has not had its fair share of controversies over time. Moustaches were considered eccentric, barbaric and often were forced by law to be shaved. More trivia at the Moustache Database
We have beauty contests for women, with young 18 to 20 somethings strutting around on catwalks. The men are not far behind though, with the beard and moustache competition for the men to show off the grandeur of their facial hair to the world.
This guy in my college (to whom this is a tribute) had the grandest moustache of all of us guys. His nick name itself was "Meese" and his moustache made him the target of quite a few comments (which he took very sportingly). Some of them being:
"Half his weight will be his moustache"
"His moustache is too heavy for him. That is why he is short. It is pulling him down"
"Will he fly away if his moustache were to be shaved off?"
A moustache can come in handy if u want to avoid being detected by your boss. If you dont know what I am hinting at, see the hindi movie Golmaal. The story revolves around a moustache ;).
Confucious said that "A man without a moustache is a man without a soul", "A kiss without a moustache is like egg without salt" goes an old Spanish proverb.But whatever be the case, it is the clean shaven lot like me who keep businesses like Gillette profitable.
Long live the moustache.
Thursday, May 27, 2004
What do i know?
I am writing this in a highly confused state of mind. I hope to make sense of what i am saying...
..so here goes ......
Can one quantify knowledge?
I know something. But how much of it I know, that i don't know.;) What I mean is that if there is
a certain concept i know, I may not be aware of everything associated with it, say I know some bits and pieces of physics,not everything. If I were to know everything about things, I can be called perfect (to some extent). BUT, nobody is perfect(more on this later).
While that is on one side, there is another side to what i am saying. There are things I dont know. Say, I dont know to drive a truck. And I know that I don't know to drive a truck. Fine till here.
What about the things we don't know that we don't know? I don't make sense is it? Well, till the day I was told about the existance(or extinction) of the dinosaurs, I did not know them. I did not know . That is we are living in this world oblivious to a the existance large number of things.Since we do not know about it, we actually dont know that we dont know about it.
Right?
In this case, given the fact that i don't know what i know and also that i don' know what i don't
know, is there something i DO know?????
PS: I am not the only one facing this problem. See Sanjeeth
Inspired by what a professor of mine told once : "I don't know what I don't know"
..so here goes ......
Can one quantify knowledge?
I know something. But how much of it I know, that i don't know.;) What I mean is that if there is
a certain concept i know, I may not be aware of everything associated with it, say I know some bits and pieces of physics,not everything. If I were to know everything about things, I can be called perfect (to some extent). BUT, nobody is perfect(more on this later).
While that is on one side, there is another side to what i am saying. There are things I dont know. Say, I dont know to drive a truck. And I know that I don't know to drive a truck. Fine till here.
What about the things we don't know that we don't know? I don't make sense is it? Well, till the day I was told about the existance(or extinction) of the dinosaurs, I did not know them. I did not know . That is we are living in this world oblivious to a the existance large number of things.Since we do not know about it, we actually dont know that we dont know about it.
Right?
In this case, given the fact that i don't know what i know and also that i don' know what i don't
know, is there something i DO know?????
PS: I am not the only one facing this problem. See Sanjeeth
Inspired by what a professor of mine told once : "I don't know what I don't know"
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Identity?
It is not uncommon that somebody gets called a different name but my case seems to be bit unique. I regularly seem to be getting called names other than my own.I have been called quite a few different names like Ananthraman, Ananthkrishnan,Ananthapadmanabhan etc. And a few "high profile" and popular names like Ananth Kumar, Ananth Nag and even Aanthashayanam
Interesting to note is the fact that all the "high profile" names are of people who have been or are still involved in politics. Ananth Kumar is the sitting Parliamentarian from south Bangalore. Ananthashayanam Iyengar was the second speaker of the Lok Sabha after GV Mavalankar.
Ananth Nag is an actor and was a cabinet minister in the state. Unfortunately in the last two elections he lost badly;he couldn't recover his deposit :(.
Actually some of my relatives too dont remember properly. I remember an incident in school where all the "Ananth"s of 7th standard were called to the office because they had a visitor who did not know the complete name of the student.
By this time most of you would have probably guessed what my name is. If not keep guessing ;)
Interesting to note is the fact that all the "high profile" names are of people who have been or are still involved in politics. Ananth Kumar is the sitting Parliamentarian from south Bangalore. Ananthashayanam Iyengar was the second speaker of the Lok Sabha after GV Mavalankar.
Ananth Nag is an actor and was a cabinet minister in the state. Unfortunately in the last two elections he lost badly;he couldn't recover his deposit :(.
Actually some of my relatives too dont remember properly. I remember an incident in school where all the "Ananth"s of 7th standard were called to the office because they had a visitor who did not know the complete name of the student.
By this time most of you would have probably guessed what my name is. If not keep guessing ;)
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