Infocratic

How long can you walk with your eyes closed?

2010-09-04T03:31:00.000-04:00

You walk every day. On a sidewalk usually. In a city. Or in a narrow hallway of a building. Go there when its almost empty. May be its late in night or very early in the morning. Walk, and after a while, just close your eyes. Then come back and tell me, how long could you walk there with your eyes closed?

Sociologists should do some experiments on this with human subjects. Might tell them a lot about the human nature; about our inhibitions, self-confidence, our risk-taking nature, and above all, our survival instinct. I wonder what will be the distribution of the time that people can walk with their eyes closed over a sample population. I find it hard to guess. On one hand, I think it could be that almost everyone falls in the same 5-10 second range. On the other hand, I don't know people. I only know me. It could just be that the brave ones can do it for almost half a minute (or may be more!!) and those who play it safe can only walk for 3 seconds? Who knows.

Me, I did 10 seconds once. That's my highest, and I almost hit the wall that day.

My Top 10 of this decade..

2010-01-08T11:01:00.007-05:00

I didn't give too much thought to this. There is an article on hindu that listed top ten bollywood movies of the year and I stole the idea from that. And came up with my own list in 10 minutes. Might have missed a few... please remind me if you think I have.. :)

Movies:

Dil Chahta Hai
Rang de Basanti
Omkara
Swades
Sarkar
Yuva
Bunty Aur Bubli
Darna Mana hai
Saathiya
Lagaan

A more interesting list is here, since I am an avid listener of bollywood music, and since music many a times defines a movie for me. But... err... I couldn't finish the top 10. Help me please.. Here they are.. the top 10 (7?) bollywood music albums of the past decade:

Music:

Omkara
Lagaan
Rang de Basanti
Yuva
Saathiya
Swades
Dil Chahta Hai
...

Facebook killed the blog

2009-11-22T23:33:00.000-05:00

I used to write blogs. Now I just update my status on facebook. Did facebook kill the blog?

2009-09-09T17:32:00.001-04:00

Paul Graham:

The main point of essay writing, when done right, is the new ideas you have while doing it. A real essay, as the name implies, is dynamic: you don't know what you're going to write when you start. It will be about whatever you discover in the course of writing it.

So true.

German Tank Problem

2009-09-02T17:13:00.003-04:00

A very interesting estimation problem I stumbled upon:

Suppose one is an Allied intelligence analyst during World War II, and one has some serial numbers of captured German tanks. Further, assume that the tanks are numbered sequentially from 1 to N. How does one estimate the total number of tanks?

Read this guardian article for the interesting story about how this was a real problem in World War II and how the solution helped Allies win the war. Read the solution on wikipedia or this blog. The intuition is that the maximum of the 'captured' serial numbers as well as the number of captured serial numbers can be used.

Fullscreen Flash problems in Ubuntu 9.04

2009-05-12T22:21:00.002-04:00

Recently I upgraded from Ubuntu Intrepid to Jaunty (9.04). Things are great, especially the boot time (my computer boots consistently in 15-20 secs since the upgrade). But somehow since the upgrade flash videos on websites like youtube, hulu etc have had problems with fullscreen view. The video becomes seriously choppy when seen in full screen mode and the usual reinstall of flash plugins didn't seem to make it any better. This was quite annoying especially since this issue didn't exist in Intrepid (8.10) or previous versions of Ubuntu.

After a bit of web search, I finally stumbled on the right solution. The solution, as usual, was on Ubuntu forms in this post and in bugs.launchpad.net here. In short, do "lspci -vv" and find the VGA output. Then find the right address to be added in the file /proc/mtrr. Apparently, the write-combining method of accessing the MTRRs has been affected due to a missing line in /proc/mtrr file. Adding the right range for write-combining lets the graphics card work much better.

I followed this method. Find the 'prefetchable' memory range and substitute in the 'echo' statement to the file /proc/mtrr.

And enjoy watching the daily show in full screen again!

Important day today

2009-04-30T00:10:00.001-04:00

wish me luck!

And I used an english word in my code

2009-02-25T23:24:00.003-05:00

Sometimes even a commonly used word seems so strange when we look at it in an unfamiliar setting. Today, I happened to use the word 'reason' in my python code [1] as a name of a class. And so, out of habit, I named it with the first letter in capitals - Reason(). And it looked strange. It felt like either the spelling was wrong or I don't know that word very well [1]. It looked so distant.

I guess the usage of a normal English word as a variable name in the code was unexpected. Having been looking at variables named 'curr_chan', 'curr_state', 'rcv_pkt' etc, a fully formed word like 'Reason' just seemed out of place. Such is the human mind...

[1] - No pun intended :)

The charm of Opera

2009-01-22T22:38:00.005-05:00

An aria named "Ah mes amis - Pour mon âme", sung by Juan Diego Florez.

Also watch this piece with Pavarotti and others enjoying themselves. His facial expressions are priceless, apart from the voice of course :)

Lala - the right way to do online music distribution

2009-01-17T17:27:00.006-05:00

My biggest gripe with online music stores have always been this -- its damn hard to discover new music if you are not willing to spend a lot. They usually put a listening limit of 30 seconds when you want to sample a song. This makes it hard to figure out if you really like the song enough to spend that precious $0.99 on it. A new music store is trying to solve this issue by doing the following two things:

You can sample a song for its full length one time. Yes, listen to the whole song once and then you can decide whether you like it enough to listen to it again... and if so, ready to pay for it.
You can also buy web-only playing rights to a song for only 10 cents. These web-only songs are available to you through lala.com from anywhere and from almost any browser, since it uses flash. If later you decide to buy a mp3 (yes, mp3, no drm stuff), the 10 cents is taken off the mp3 price (usually 89 or 99 cents).

And to top it off, they are giving 50 web-only songs for free if you register. Registration requires only email address and no credit card. More FAQs here. Their collection is also quite impressive. Classical, pop, Indian, bollywood, latin....

I am amazed at the simplicity of it all. Lala has become my stop for online music purchase from now on. Join in, if you want to try it too. And if you join because of me, I will get 5 web-songs for free also. So just register... for my sake ;)

Hap

2008-12-31T13:09:00.003-05:00

py New Year.

Courtesy: Abstruse Goose

PS: With all due respect to your cleverness Abstruse Goose.. the series in the comic is not quite right. It should have been 4, 2, 1, 1/2... :)

Another automatically generated paper accepted

2008-12-24T02:13:00.006-05:00

This is amazing. And this one was peer-reviewed and accepted in an IEEE conference! Quoting slashdot:

"Check out the paper Towards the Simulation of E-commerce by Herbert Schlangemann, which is available in the IEEEXplor database (full article available only to IEEE members). This generated paper has been accepted with review by the 2008 International Conference on Computer Science and Software Engineering (CSSE). According to the organizers, 'CSSE is one of the important conferences sponsored by IEEE Computer Society, which serves as a forum for scientists and engineers in the latest development of artificial intelligence, grid computing, computer graphics, database technology, and software engineering.' Even better, fake author Herbert Schlangemann has been selected as session chair (PDF) for that conference. (The name Schlangemann was chosen based on the short film Der Schlangemann by Andreas Hansson and Björn Renberg.)"

Sad, especially since I am a part of one such community. This is not such a reputed conference, but still shows the downside of the current review process. Their automatically generated (hilarious) abstract:

Recent advances in cooperative technology and classical communication are based entirely on the assumption that the Internet and active networks are not in conflict with object-oriented languages. In fact, few information theorists would disagree with the visualization of DHTs that made refining and possibly simulating 8 bitarchitectures a reality, which embodies the compelling principles of electrical engineering. In this work we better understand how digital-to-analog converters can be applied to the development of e-commerce.

Brazil...

2008-12-15T20:56:00.003-05:00

...... will I come?

The decision has been made. And in the next few days I will get to know whether I will get to go to Brazil next year or not.

Have kept fingers crossed so long that they are hurting.

Update: Sadly, no, this is not the year when I visit Brazil. May be next time?

What indians wanted to learn in 2008

2008-12-13T01:44:00.002-05:00

From Google Zeitgeist 2008, this is what I can conclude ;)

My countrymen are confused.

The top ten how-to lists has people trying to figure out "how to reduce weight" (#1) and (I can only assume) after reducing too much weight they started to search "how to gain weight" (#6).

Men were trying "to impress a girl" (#9), while women were trying "to get pregnant" (#4).

And everyone else wants to learn to play guitar, learn english, create a website, make money and kiss (in no particular order).

Mr Ritesh

2008-12-13T00:55:00.004-05:00

I have been getting daily emails from a stupid indian company regarding some supposed investments I have made in India. On opening those emails I found that they were sending me emails that we supposed to be sent to someone else (some other Ritesh). I ignored them initially, but after a few days of spam, I got pissed off and blasted an email to them regarding this mistake. No one ever responded, although I got an instant automatic email saying that:

Dear Sir/ Madam

This is an acknowledgement for the receipt of your e-mail. Please note that you query will be respond to within 48 hours.
Also, for a quicker response to your queries, please use the link provided here

You can also access this page from your Trader Terminal by clicking the 'Helpdesk' tab.

In case of any clarification, please contact us on 022- 4007 1000.

Warm regards,

Customer Service

Of course, I don't have time to use their link and get 'quicker' response. And anyways, I was supposed to get a response within 48 hours, so I decided to wait. The reply never came. Another email, another automatic response, no real response. And once more.

The sad part is that their emails disclose personal information about their real customer to me; like that guy's PAN number, his home address and his investment details (how much money he has invested in which stocks etc).

So "Mr RITESH MAGANBHAI BAMBHANIA [RITESHMB]" from Rajkot, Gujarat, please ask India Infoline Limited, Mumbai, to stop sending me emails meant for you. I tried telling them, but I don't think they are listening to me. And also, you should stop dealing with such careless businesses before they start giving out your personal information to every Ritesh in the world.

And if they don't stop in a few days, who knows, I might start doing that, right here, on my blog! Grrr

PS: According to the India info line website:

We are a one-stop financial services shop, most respected for quality of its advice, personalised service and cutting-edge technology.

Quite personal, indeed.

Why me?

2008-11-28T23:19:00.003-05:00

Setting down his pad he manages to croak: "This should have never happened to me."
The office worker's story, told from his bed in Mumbai's JJ hospital, is part of a largely hidden tragedy - that behind the headlines of wealthy westerners fleeing Mumbai's terror frontline it was ordinary Indians who bore the brunt of the bloody attack on this city of 19 million people.

The Guardian report, a different perspective by a western media on the sad events of past few days.

Youtube sensations

2008-11-11T22:18:00.004-05:00

Sneezing panda:

Dramatic look:

Numa Numa:

Laughing Baby:

Star wars according a 3 yr old:

Baby Beatles, Hey Jude:

Treadmill dance:

Evolution of dance (100+ million views):

We are different, but we are the same

2008-11-02T01:46:00.002-04:00

Wish you a very....

2008-10-30T00:24:00.005-04:00

The Muslim Issue

2008-10-21T23:50:00.003-04:00

I raised this question in an earlier post.

Whats sad/funny about the whole question of Obama being a muslim or not is that, why is that even an issue? ------ What's wrong with being a muslim? What happened to America's secularism? Are you proclaiming that it is okay to discriminate on the basis of religion?

Day before yesterday, Colin Powell endorsed Obama. And, for the first time, a senior political figure in America (other than Obama himself, as I pointed out in my earlier post), raised the same questions. Watch the video:

And the relevant part in writing:

Powell also spoke passionately against the insinuations by some Republicans that Obama is a Muslim.

"Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he's a Christian. He's always been a Christian," he said. "But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own party drop the suggestion, 'He's a Muslim and he might be associated terrorists.' This is not the way we should be doing it in America."

Colin Powell has gained enormous respect for himself in my eyes (not that it matters, I cannot even vote here) for bringing up this topic in limelight.

Change is coming?

Batman vs. The Penguin: The Debate

2008-10-16T20:04:00.001-04:00

It sounds so similar....

OMG!

2008-10-07T00:54:00.002-04:00

From NYT:

Speaking in Albuquerque on Monday, Senator John McCain attacked Senator Barack Obama on several fronts that by now have become familiar. But many of his charges relating to the economic meltdown, taxation and health care contained inaccuracies or exaggerations of his own position or Mr. Obama’s.

For instance, Mr. McCain claimed that “as recently as September of last year,” Mr. Obama “said that subprime loans had been, quote ‘a good idea.’” But that quote is taken out of context and reverses the intent of Mr. Obama’s remarks, which were clearly meant primarily as a criticism of practices on Wall Street.

“Subprime lending started off as a good idea helping Americans buy homes who couldn’t previously afford to,” Mr. Obama said in a speech to NASDAQ in September 2007. But, he added, “as certain lenders and brokers began to see how much money could be made, they began to lower their standards. Some appraisers began inflating their estimates to get the deals done. Some borrowers started claiming income they didn’t have just to qualify for the loans, and some were engaging in irresponsible speculation. But many borrowers were tricked into glossing over the fine print.”

O Valencia!

2008-09-30T08:26:00.002-04:00

Story in a song. By The Decemberists. First heard on NPR :)

Ready to lead?

2008-09-28T13:28:00.006-04:00

Fareed Zakaria says it best in his newsweek article:

Having stayed in purdah for weeks, she finally agreed to a third interview. CBS's Katie Couric questioned her in her trademark sympathetic style. It didn't help. When asked how living in the state closest to Russia gave her foreign-policy experience, Palin responded thus:
"It's very important when you consider even national-security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America. Where—where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to—to our state."

There is, of course, the sheer absurdity of the premise. Two weeks ago I flew to Tokyo, crossing over the North Pole. Does that make me an expert on Santa Claus? (Thanks, Jon Stewart.) But even beyond that, read the rest of her response. "It is from Alaska that we send out those …" What does this mean? This is not an isolated example. Palin has been given a set of talking points by campaign advisers, simple ideological mantras that she repeats and repeats as long as she can. ("We mustn't blink.") But if forced off those rehearsed lines, what she has to say is often, quite frankly, gibberish.

Read the article for more scathing remarks on McCain and his choice for VP.

The video of Palin's interview is here:

And a parody by SNL:

Just compare the real interview at 7:04 and the parody at 3:45. Funny, but sad too.

Interview

2008-09-16T04:47:00.004-04:00

And now watch this:

Frighteningly similar.......

Skirting some foreign policy issues:

McCain vs Bush?

2008-09-07T12:47:00.001-04:00

Speeches of Republican national convention 2008 and 2000 compared by The Daily Show.

John McCain: Reformed Maverick

2008-09-07T12:30:00.002-04:00

Garden State

2008-09-07T02:23:00.002-04:00

I stayed at a friend's place during my 2006 San Francisco thanksgiving trip. One night after getting back from all the roaming around, we, being the geeks that we are, were busy on our respective laptops. I was probably orkutting when he put on a song I had heard long back. I couldn't quite figure out where I had heard that song earlier, but I did remember that it was very catchy and very different, at least from what I was used to. So, as any curious kid will do, I asked him about the song.

"Whos the artist?"

"What?"

"Kaunsa band hai?"

"1 minute. Lemme reduce the volume. Haan bolo" (he has that habit of calling you by 'tum' instead of 'tu' etc)

"Which song is this? Which band?"

"Hmm... its a song from the movie Garden State"

"Oh ok, I have heard about the movie, didn't see it yet. Have you seen it?"

"Yes"

"Howz it?"

"Well.... its good.. but weird."

"Weird? How?"

After thinking for a moment, he added.

"Okay, theres this scene in the movie where someone gifts this guy a shirt. And the pattern on the shirt somehow matches with the pattern on the carpet of his house. So, one day this guy puts on the shirt and lies down on the carpet for a long time. This scene very much sums up what kind of movie this is."

"Hmm, yeah weird."

Weird indeed, I thought. But also intriguing. And different. I have got to watch this movie sometime, I made a mental note.

Secular?

2008-08-26T18:56:00.005-04:00

Just saw this video on indecision08:

Whats sad/funny about the whole question of Obama being a muslim or not is that, why is that even an issue? Why didn't Chris Matthews just ask this lady in the video that is this your reason for not voting for Obama. That, he is a muslim? What's wrong with being a muslim? What happened to America's secularism? Are you proclaiming that it is okay to discriminate on the basis of religion?

I have been following this election cycle from a long long time now, and I have never seen any media organization even daring the ask this question. Everyone has talked freely about race and sex of the nominees, but they just accept that a nominee cannot be muslim. Everyone was digging/debating the question about Obama being a muslim or not. No one questioned the relevance of the question itself.

Why?

Added:

Excerpt from Larry King's interview with Obama (link from his wiki page, emphasis mine):

KING: Considering that, though, there's a lot of e-mails going around. It gets rather terrible. A "Newsweek" poll shows that 12 percent of America believes that you're a Muslim and 26 believe -- 26 percent believe you were raised in a Muslim home -- a lot of misinformation.

How do you fight that?

OBAMA: Well, you know, by getting on LARRY KING and telling everybody I'm a Christian and I wasn't raised in a Muslim home and I pledge allegiance to the flag and, you know, all the things that have been reported in these e-mails are completely untrue and have been debunked again and again and again. So, hey, all you can do is just tell the truth and trust in the American people that, over time, they're going to know what the truth is.

One last point I want to -- I do want to make about these e- mails, though. And I think this has an impact on this "New Yorker" cover. You know, this is actually an insult against Muslim-Americans, something that we don't spend a lot of time talking about. And sometimes I've been derelict in pointing that out.

You know, there are wonderful Muslim-Americans all across the country who are doing wonderful things. And for this to be used as sort of an insult or to raise suspicions about me I think is unfortunate. And it's not what America is all about.

I am glad at least he pointed this out.

Reconnect

2008-08-25T01:05:00.004-04:00

I want to reconnect with long lost friends. Any thoughts on how to do it?

I know, its hard.

Yes!

2008-08-17T21:57:00.000-04:00

Most trusted man in america?

I don't remember

2008-05-04T03:31:00.002-04:00

A friend asked me what do I like to do in my free time.

I thought about it, and replied - I don't remember.

So sad.

Juanes - Me Enamora

2008-05-04T03:17:00.001-04:00

Again, a cool spanish song, not so great video.

Perfecta

2008-04-25T23:20:00.003-04:00

Weird video, lovely song by Miranda!

The results are out!

2008-02-26T20:24:00.002-05:00

Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early

Sexism

2008-02-18T17:54:00.001-05:00

This is how it works.....

Desperado

2008-02-18T03:08:00.003-05:00

ay! ay! ay! ay mi amor
ay! ay! ay! morena de mi corazón

Jose Gonzalez - Heartbeats

2008-02-18T02:52:00.002-05:00

Nice song!

The big picture

2008-01-07T22:43:00.000-05:00

Everyone's talking and hearing about it. The fiasco that was 2nd test between India and Australia at SCG. Here are my two cents, mainly about the big picture, since the details have already been well discussed everywhere.

I think the stakes were just too high for Ponting to ignore. Equaling (and saving the chance to break) the world record of most consecutive test wins is not a small achievement. And such opportunities don't come by every day. Imagine if they had failed this time. Once a lifetime opportunity would have been missed!

While excessive appealing and standing your ground when clearly out, are not illegal acts (with respect to cricketing rules) per say; they are against the spirit in which this game is usually played. To me it just looked like that greed blinded him, and he ignored the usual code of conduct.

Spirit of game is a small price to pay for getting your name up there in the history books.

No seriously

2007-12-26T16:19:00.000-05:00

No seriously, Jon Stewart, you need to come back! Its getting really boring out here. Please please please please....

Oh what... you are coming back! You heard my prayers!

Thank you so much! Now, just one last question. Do you listen to all my prayers?

Writer's strike

2007-12-25T22:20:00.000-05:00

He's just jealous because everyone's up in the attic listening to Stephen Colbert.

Bush vs Abraham Lincoln

2007-11-05T18:49:00.000-05:00

John Oliver is hilarious! :)

Happiness is a Warm Gun

2007-11-03T16:38:00.001-04:00

From the movie - Across the Universe. Sung beautifully by Joe Anderson (and Salma Hayek chips in a little) - originally by The Beatles. Gets better towards the end. :)

Pak pips India in arms-deal race

2007-10-01T22:35:00.000-04:00

... they say, as if its a bad thing (for India). Look at the statements that I marked bold. So funny. TOI's priorities for our country are really misplaced. I guess according to them we must win every contest.

---------
Pakistan, a country about a sixth of India in size, population, economy and several other metrics, has for the first time outstripped India in purchasing military hardware and software, notching up arms deals worth $5.1 billion in 2006, as compared to $3.5 billion by India, to be ranked the world’s largest arms shopper, according to a Congressional study released Monday.

According to the report, ‘Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations’, produced by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, Pakistan concluded $5.1 billion in agreements to buy arms in 2006, well ahead of second placed India with $3.5 billion in agreements and third placed Saudi Arabia with $3.2 billion, in the developing world. Venezuela ($3.1 billion), Algeria and Israel ($2.1 billion each), and Brazil ($1.1 billion) were the other leading arms purchasers.

India, however, figures right at the top if the 1999-2006 timeframe is taken, with agreements worth a whopping $ 22.40 billion. In this timeframe, China ranks second ($17.40 billion), followed by Saudi Arabia ($16.40 billion) and Egypt ($13.30 billion), with Pakistan coming seventh with $10.90 billion.

As reported by TOI earlier, India has topped the list in both 2004 and 2005, with agreements worth $5.7 billion and $5.4 billion, respectively, even overtaking China for the first time.
-----------------------------

Dogmas

2007-09-05T02:21:00.000-04:00

Its interesting to see how the world reacts to unorthodox point of views. Ridicule, sarcasm, anger and similar negative reactions welcome you when you hypothesize something new, something that is in complete denial of the current truth in fashion. Of course, people would not react this way if they could realize that what they think is true may not remain eternally so. Many 'facts' are considered true today only because there are no better explanations. Tomorrow, when a creative mind will come up with something different, this new idea will also be subjected to ridicule, sarcasm and anger. But after a while, when finally proven better, this new idea will become the new 'truth'. There is a pattern here which can be confirmed from the history of science itself.

It takes time to realize that some truths are not eternal. That they change with time. Thats why the term - truth in fashion. Paul Graham illustrates this well in his essay - What you can't say. Read it to find out if you really know the concept. I read this essay in a graduate networking class and it was time well spent. It starts as follows:

Have you ever seen an old photo of yourself and been embarrassed at the way you looked? Did we actually dress like that? We did. And we had no idea how silly we looked. It's the nature of fashion to be invisible, in the same way the movement of the earth is invisible to all of us riding on it.

What scares me is that there are moral fashions too. They're just as arbitrary, and just as invisible to most people. But they're much more dangerous. Fashion is mistaken for good design; moral fashion is mistaken for good. Dressing oddly gets you laughed at. Violating moral fashions can get you fired, ostracized, imprisoned, or even killed

I have no doubts that what he said is true (of course, I can't say that its eternally so - love the irony!). The question is what to do about it? May be if more people can read it, they will become more receptive to unorthodox views too? I have probably written this post in that hope. Although I think people who read my blog are already very accepting of unorthodox views. But still. It makes you think and thats what our minds are for. :)

Another reason why I am discussing this is because of a burning question I have had in my mind for a while. Its about orkut and my participation in its various communities. During my two years of orkut existence, I have observed an odd penchant of mine for discussions on smaller communities. That obviously has to do with the fact that larger communities are ungainly and harder to manage. But I realized that it is also because of the fact that larger communities had more people less receptive of unorthodox ideas. These large communities also had more people who act as repeaters of various popular ideas and dogmas in the discussions without backing up their arguments with logic and analysis. I discussed these people earlier in a post and if you have had any experience in online forums, you would know what I mean.

Thats not to say that I have never been a repeater myself. I remember my earlier days on orkut vividly, when I would vehemently argue on topics that I really had not much understanding of, and when I would ridicule most unpopular views just so I could mock others. And thats not to say that I don't do it now. I think I have changed, but I might still be unconsciously doing it sometimes. But the fact that I have realized I was so unreceptive earlier and that I have thought hard about this is, I think, a good first step. I wish more people take this step soon.

Repeaters are the nemesis of a good discussion. And thats not because of just what they do, but because what they do impacts the discussions in a very negative manner. What they do dampens creativity and independent thinking. It is not easy for someone to stand up against the face of ridicule to speak their mind. Especially if its a big gang of people waiting to get any chance to mock others to look better. Free, independent thinkers are necessary for any such online forums to prosper, and the repeaters act as an impediment to achieve this goal.

One can argue that the repeaters will finally realize what they are doing and become slowly more receptive to unorthodox thoughts. Thus, we should let things go on as they do and it will all be okay in the end.

I would oppose such a solution for the following reasons. One, the number of new repeaters entering a forum is much more than the number of repeaters getting transformed into free thinkers at a given time. Thus, I think, the repeaters will always be in majority. Thats not conducive for good discussions.

Two, while waiting for the transformation of repeaters to free thinkers or good receptors, we will lose precious time and energy in phony discussions. These discussions will be always impeded by the repeaters. Why not utilize this time in real good discussions among just the free thinkers (the already transformed ones)?

And Three, there is no guarantee that each and every repeater will eventually become more receptive of new unorthodox ideas. Some may remain dogmatic throughout their lives. Afterall, we have many examples of older and more experienced people with very highly dogmatic views. (Is that why I don't like conservatives?)

So, what is the solution? Next post should cover that up. Feel free to drop in a comment or two about a possible solution.

Blue Eyes

2007-08-16T02:39:00.001-04:00

By Cary Brothers. From the awesome soundtrack of Garden State. Also in Scrubs.

Happy 60th Birthday my country!

2007-08-15T12:40:00.000-04:00

और मेरे देशवासीयों को स्वतंत्रता दिवस कि बहुत बहुत शुभकामनाये

वंदे मातरम!

Laming of the Duck

2007-08-08T12:35:00.001-04:00

I found some videos on dailymotion titled "The Laming of the Duck" while searching for videos of jon stewart. The description says:

Freedom of speech takes back America. A documentary experiment consisting entirely of clips from the Daily Show, Real Time, The Colbert Report, Countdown and other comedy and news programs.

It got me interested, and I ended up watching the whole thing yesterday. I recommend everyone to watch it. It Its a 20-part video series with each video about 9 minutes long. So 3 hours of intelligent, funny and sometimes biting pieces of videos from various TV shows smartly stitched together. The subject matter varies from Iraq war to Osama search to Hurricane Katrina and 2006 elections. Whoever did this, kudos to you, my friend!

Posting part 1 here:

2004-2006: The Laming of the Duck - 1
Uploaded by infocomic

Somehow though, dailymotion only lets you sort the videos by 'most recent' and not the opposite. So I recommend starting from the last here and pressing 'previous' after each video ends to go to the next one.

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

2007-08-06T18:40:00.000-04:00

Jon Stewart on Crossfire

Posted Oct 15, 2004

Jon Stewart browbeats the Crossfire hosts for their "partisan hackery." Many suspect this now-legendary appearance prompted CNN to remove the show from their line-up.

Zimbabwe launches $200,000 note

2007-07-31T14:51:00.000-04:00

From BBC :
----

The new note, issued by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe from Wednesday, can buy 1kg (2.2lb) of sugar.

Food and fuel shortages have become common as the government relies more heavily on imports, pushing prices to new heights.

The official annual rate of inflation in Zimbabwe is nearing 5,000%.

In practice, this means the price of a loaf of bread costs 50 times more in cash than it did a year ago.

-----

WTF?

Colin Hay - Overkill

2007-07-28T02:05:00.000-04:00

From Scrubs - my latest craze.

Colin Hay - I just don't think I'll ever get over you

2007-07-27T13:58:00.000-04:00

An amazing song from I heard from the soundtrack of the movie Garden State.

India pegged way down in alcohol consumption...

2007-07-24T17:51:00.000-04:00

... they say, as if its a bad thing.

I am not a very good focus group / I am not an expert

2007-07-24T10:21:00.001-04:00

The Shins - New Slang

2007-07-14T18:00:00.001-04:00

Reading code written by others

2007-07-11T15:34:00.001-04:00

Its frustrating to try to understand code written by others. More so when they don't care about proper indentation and commenting. Can't really do anything about unwritten comments, but I can give you two tips to indent the code written by someone else:

Learn to use the command 'indent' (*nix only) if its a C code. Do 'man indent' and find out the options that fit the best to your taste. They have some excellent examples in the man page. For example, if you have learned C coding from the Kernighan & Ritchie book, you might like the option '-kr'!
If the code is in some other language, try this method. Open up the file in vi (or gvim). Press 'gg' (to go to the beginning of the file), then press 'v' (for visual) and then press 'Shift-g' (or 'G', to go to the end of the file). This will select everything in the file. Now comes the magic :) ... while everything is selected, press '=' and - voila! - your code is properly indented :). Of course, instead of selecting the whole document, you can select parts of it using some combination of 'v' and other keys and indent only that part.

And yes, you can be lazy too, and not indent while writing the code.. since you can always indent it later using these methods, but I wouldn't recommend it. That would be sacrilege.

PS: You can get the 2nd method working in windows too by installing gvim for windows.

Orkut feed updates

2007-07-09T16:42:00.000-04:00

FYI, orkut developers have started a blog. The latest entry talks about how you can add RSS 'feeds' to your profile to share them with your friends. While its a cool feature, I think it doesn't completely fulfill the purpose. Whats missing is the following:

How about getting a summary of updates from feeds of your friends? It would be cool if I can "subscribe" to RSS feeds added by my friends and then whenever I login I see all the updates to my "subscribed feeds". This is for purely convenience sake, since I don't want to go around clicking on my friend's feeds (their albums, blogs) to see if they have added new photos or posts etc.. it would be so much cooler if that information can directly come to my orkut home page (and I should have an option to dismiss this info, so that the dismissed updates do not reappear). Also, if orkut developers ever do implement this suggestion.... a word of caution, please I do not want to get feed updates of ALL my friends. I repeat.. not ALL of them, please! :)

Facebook has a similar feature and its almost indispensable now. I posted this suggestion on orkut google group. "Star it" if you want this too.

YubNub

2007-07-09T13:46:00.000-04:00

From Lifehacker:
------------------------
Web search utility YubNub is yet another example of the command line interface making its comeback. If you're a command line lover, chances are you use it in a desktop context - on your own computer or to control a remote server. But YubNub provides a powerful CLI to the entire web. Let's take a closer look.
.
.
.

YubNub essentials

After installing the quickie YubNub plugin for Firefox, take YubNub for a spin with its most basic and popular commands, like:

g: search Google, i.e., "g quilts". There's a wide variety of Google YubNub addons, such as "gdeff" (find definitions), "gim" (Google image search), "gde" (search in google.de), etc.
y: search Yahoo. There's also "tec" (search Technorati), ts (search TorrentSpy), "wp" (Wikipedia), "imdb" (Internet Movie Database), "yt" (YouTube), and "am" (Amazon).

There are 275 pages (!) of the most common YubNub commands, so here are just a few more for your searching pleasure: "gmaps" (searches Google Maps), "whois" (find out whois for a particular domain), "deli" (search del.iciou.us tags), "/." (searches Slashdot), "gread" (opens Google Feed Reader), "digg" (searches Digg), and a ton more. Just tack on your keyword(s) after the initial YubNub command and you're all set.

----------------------------

Neat! :)

Basic Keyboard Shortcuts

2007-07-09T13:28:00.000-04:00

Basic, but very important keyboard shortcuts. I learned them in my first internship 5 years back from a colleague there. If you didn't know these, you have been very very inefficient till now.

Please DONT vote for Taj Mahal

2007-07-02T04:30:00.000-04:00

Whats wrong with people? Why are they running a campaign to get Taj Mahal a place in a global sham? According to NDTV:

With six days to go for the UNESCO to announce the seven wonders of the world, Bollywood has got its act straight.

UNESCO? Where did NDTV the idea the UNESCO is organizing this voting? I don't see any mention of UNESCO on the website of this new seven wonders sham. From the wiki entry on this voting:

The New Seven Wonders of the World is a proposed revision of the Seven Wonders of the World, organized by a Swiss-based, for-profit corporation called New Open World Corporation (NOWC). The selection is being made by free and paid votes, through telephone or online.
.
.
.
Nagib Amin, an Egyptian expert on World Heritage Sites, has pointed out that "in addition to the commercial aspect, the vote has no scientific basis."^[7]

From the new7wonders website FAQ:

9. Do telephone calls and SMS generate revenues for New 7 Wonders?

Yes. We have, in partnership with our technical telephone partners, established the world's first global premium voting platform. A very small portion of the revenue from each call or SMS is goes to New7Wonders and will help to fund the entire project.

10. How many votes do I get with each telephone call or SMS?

With the international telephone numbers you get the opportunity to vote for two different candidates of your choice during each phone call.
With each SMS or national call you get one vote per SMS or per call.

11. Can I call or SMS and vote as many times as I like ?

Yes.

Umm, sounds like an Indian Idol sort of reality show. You can vote AS MANY TIMES as you like! What does that mean? It means that the top 7 that be chosen not on the basis of how many people support those monuments, but on the basis of how many rich people (who can afford to vote as many times as they want) support those monuments. Don't you see anything fishy here? Further proof that this is a sham:

6. I am a New7Wonders Member (already voted online) and I want to vote again ONLINE - can I?

No, we’re sorry, but you are entitled to one opportunity to vote for 7 different candidates as a New7Wonders Member. Please use one of the other voting methods—telephone or SMS http://www.new7wonders.com/index.php?id=316&L=0 voting if you want to vote again.

Hmm. I guess you can't vote again online... coz they won't earn money otherwise!

How can people be so stupid? Shabana Azmi, how can you be so naive?

Hindi transliteration feature in blogger

2007-07-01T04:44:00.000-04:00

http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=58226

I just can't believe my eyes!

Indian Pop Quiz

2007-07-01T04:27:00.000-04:00

Whats common in the following bollywood movies? Which is the odd one out?

मैं आजाद हु (Main Aazaad Hu)
फीर भी दील है हिंदुस्तानी (Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani)
नायक (Nayak)
रंग दे बसंती (Rang De Basanti)

I guess the first question's answer is obvious to anyone who has seen the 4 movies. They are political in nature, and talk about change in the political system, talk about more involvement of common man in the political process and, the part thats most important for box office success, they talk about revolution.

Umm.. so why is that only one of them has been a hit? (Theres the answer to my 2nd question). Why?

Can you remember any other movies that is similar in theme that I have missed?

High Speed

2007-06-19T04:42:00.000-04:00

Get heard

2007-04-24T04:21:00.000-04:00

"Only people who make noise get heard."

Is there any other way?

Opt Out

2007-04-22T06:26:00.000-04:00

If you live in US and have been bugged by the Credit Card / Loan / Mortgage spam that you receive in your mailbox (the real one, not your inbox), you can choose to opt out by simply filling out a form at this site.

Coldplay

2007-04-22T04:52:00.000-04:00

Recently discovered them, thanks to a friend. Hear for yourself and be the judge. I love 'em.

Shiver

Yellow

Recovering from root parition resizing goofup

2007-04-18T06:36:00.000-04:00

I haven't found a HOWTO for this particular problem that I am going to talk about and so writing it down for myself and anyone else facing similar problem.

Config: Dual boot laptop, with XP and Ubuntu installed. I also choose to leave the MBR intact and installed grub on the Ubuntu partition. This turned out to be helpful for me afterall :)

Problem: I had some extra unallocated free space (~1GB) just after the Ubuntu partition. I could have made that a windows partition, but I decided to increase the size of Ubuntu parition instead. The same issue can arise if you were a little stingy initially with the root partition size while installing Ubuntu (or any linux), but later on realize that you need to add more space. So I fired up my partition manager in windows and resized the Ubuntu partition to add the extra 1 GB. The software did its job and everything looked okay, except when I rebooted and choose Ubuntu from the boot menu, the next screen just said "GRUB" and didn't show me any of the options to boot from!

Solution: Okay, so I did get freaked out for a moment. Especially since my laptop doesn't have a CD drive, so I cannot boot from a live CD either to fix the problem. But I knew that my Ubuntu installation is sitting fine on a partition on the hard disk, its just that the pointer to grub in my boot.ini file is no longer valid.

The solution was something I learned when I was trying to install Ubuntu on this laptop without using the CD. To solve the problem I needed two softwares: a) Grub for DOS - a neat piece of art ;) which lets you get the grub functionality on boot by just copying a file to your windows C drive; and b) explore2fs - another neat piece of software, which lets you read (and copy) contents of your ext2/ext3 partitions from windows. Also, I think explore2fs is something every dual boot system should anyways have in their windows partition, its damn useful!

Here are the steps to recover your grub:
1) Copy the file "grldr" from Grub for DOS to your windows C: drive.
2) Add an option c:\grldr="Grub" in the boot.ini file.
3) Use explore2fs to copy menu.lst from your ubuntu partition. It will be in /boot/grub directory. Make directory c:\boot\grub and copy this menu.lst to it.
4) Reboot and choose "Grub" from the boot menu.
5) My system did some fsck checks on my ubuntu partition (I guess, since I increased its size) and asked me to reboot. I did and chose Grub again. This took me to my Ubuntu login window :)
6) After logging in, do a grub reinstall. I followed this method (here x is some number like 0,1,2 etc):

$ sudo grub
grub> find /boot/grub/stage1 =>outputs (hd0,x)
grub> setup (hd0,x)
grub> quit

7) After setting up grub, we need to update the boot sector file in the windows drive. Do this:

$ sudo dd if=/dev/sdaX of=bootsect.lnx bs=512 count=1

again on the terminal and copy the resulting bootsect.lnx to your windows C: drive (or use some other means to store and forward if C: is ntfs).
8) Reboot and either change your boot.ini to boot from this new bootsect.lnx or replace your old bootsect.lnx with this new one.
9) That should do it!

There could be variations of this method which I am not aware of, or there could be easier ways to solve this problem. But all I know is that this method worked for me :)

Feel free to suggest changes to make it better!

Tech news

2007-04-16T14:32:00.000-04:00

I have almost fully switched to Ubuntu now (for those of you who don't know, Ubuntu is a kind of linux, a distro). Have been using some version of it since past 2 months now and have finally decided to stick with it. Of course, I still have windows on my machines, for mainly three reasons:

a) Some applications are still not supported well enough on linux. E.g., webcam works but barely. So for video chats, I reboot to windows. I dont play games, but I used to, so if I decide to give AOE a try again sometime in future, I guess I'll need windows. Game support on linux is still not upto the mark.

b) MS Office still rules. Openoffice is nice but not good enough yet.

c) Any problem with my laptop and I must switch back to windows if I hope to get any help from the Customer Support guys. Tip to everyone out there: never tell them that you have linux installed.

Ubuntu's next release is due this thursday (april 19th). I have already tried its beta version and its just awesome. Try it out. Download their iso and burn it to CD (yes CD, its that small) and boot from it. Its live CD, so you wont have to install it to try it. Just boot from it and see how it feels! If you like it, install it. For those of you with bad download speeds, they even offer free shipping of these CDs. Yes, free (no shipping either)! Order them from Shipit.

Also got Beryl to work on ubuntu. You have to see it in action to believe its power! The video can give you a preview, but its just not the same as doing it yourself!

Believe me, this is great stuff! I have a Vista license from school and I have tried it well for a week or so. Its eye-candy is nothing in front of Beryl's power. And Beryl is highly customizable. I also dont see any performance penalty. The laptop works just the same way it would without Beryl.

In other news, they renamed Gaim. Its called Pidgin now. Umm.. why? Read it on their home page.

Are you there yet?

2007-04-05T03:16:00.001-04:00

Courtesy: the very awesome xkcd.com

Day 3

2007-01-12T02:16:00.000-05:00

Day 3 (flickr set) was a bad pic day. And on top of it, the grand Grand Canyon was a grand letdown (atleast to me). It was grand, no doubt, but not that beautiful really. Since it was winter time, we didnt have the guts or the time to hike down the canyon and camp down there at the base. People say that thats the real fun part.

Anyways, so we reached there at the south rim at sunrise (north rim is closed in winters) and found a lot of people already waiting there. And no marks for guessing, since it was christmas time, most people visiting were Indians (and chinese).

We stayed at the canyon till noon, saw all the different view points (the view was mostly the same everywhere) and then started driving towards Bryce Canyon to get as near as possible to the national park so that we can catch the sunrise there for the next day!

And thats how we ended up in a small town called "Hatch" (in Utah) with a population of 403 and hardly any hotels. We found something after some searching around, but I must say we were very lucky.

That ends Day 3. Looking forward to writing about Day 4! It was awesome! :)

Day 2

2007-01-10T23:23:00.000-05:00

Roadtrip, Day 1

Day 2 was pretty boring as compared to Day 1. And pretty much uneventful. Again, I created a set on flickr with the pics and the captions to tell the whole story.

We got up late, since we had slept late the last night, and frankly speaking.. we were in no hurry. The plan was to see Hoover dam (wiki) on the way and then drive as far as possible towards Grand Canyon for sunrise the next day. After checking out of the hotel, I realized that my car needed an oil change and and so we had to roam around in the streets of Vegas for a while in the daytime. And look what we discovered ;)

LOL. Even the newstands in Vegas are fake.

We had coffee in starbucks at around 1'o clock in the afternoon and all the employees there still looked very sleepy (I guess they too had a long night). While sipping the coffee under the desert sun we wondered how awesome would be the life of people who live in Vegas.

After the oil change we reached hoover dam.

The dam also marks the border of Nevada and Arizona.

Overall it was nothing great. The dam is huge.. but well.. huh, I just came back from Vegas. Got a nice shot of colorado river from one of the view points on the way towards Williams, Arizona - where we will make our night stay.

After driving for another few hours we finally reached Williams, AZ. Its a small town just 1 hour away from Grand Canyon.. almost perfect for a cheap but not too far stay from the great Grand Canyon National Park's south rim (north rim is closed in winter). Thats almost it for Day 2.

One tip though, if you ever plan on traveling during the Christmas time, make sure you have some food supplies with you! Bad for us, we didn't get this tip (actually, its common sense). Almost everything was closed on Christmas eve and Christmas day, we had a hard time feeding ourselves. So be prepared!

What is Intelligence?

2007-01-09T01:10:00.001-05:00

What is Intelligence? Is it a measure of one's ability to be logical? Is logic the most important (if not the only) factor out of those which make up this property called Intelligence? Or are there other factors? If yes, what are they?

Certainly, knowledge is not an indication of intelligence. Knowledge is important to succeed in today's world, but what about the future? Imagine every person in the world connected to the internet with a wireless chip in their mind such that the chip directly interfaces with the brain. In such a world, knowledge will be a petty commodity. So I don't know the capital of Poland, big deal, I'll just google it. [Personally, I have a pet peeve with 'knowledge', I guess since I myself have a bad memory]

Is wisdom a part of intelligence? Or is it that you become wise only if you had been intelligent for a while? Of course, experience plays a big part in achieving wisdom. You become wise only after you have seen the world, but does being wise make you more intelligent?

Are creative people necessarily intelligent? Or are intelligent people necessarily creative/original?

What about witticism? And eloquence? People who can speak better are probably also better in organizing their thoughts. Are they more intelligent than otherwise similarly capable people with not so good spoken abilities?

Isn't intelligence just a measure of the capacity/capability of your brain? Given the same complexity, if your brain was bigger, wouldn't you be more intelligent? In that sense, is it a measure of how fast you can compute (in a general sense, not just mathematical)? So, is it like the processing power of a computer (adding the RAM)? Then, is your memory like the hard disk of a computer?

Day 1

2007-01-07T02:09:00.000-05:00

Just uploaded the pics of day 1 on flickr as a set. Better to directly go and see those pics (27 of them) and the read the captions for the whole story. Somehow flickr people stupidly decided to not show the captions in a slideshow.. so I dont recommend that.

The day started bad. I was supposed to get ready (empty my room, fill up the stuff in my car and leave my place) by 6 AM on 23rd Dec. But as always, I got late and instead left at 8 AM instead. Not before almost losing my car keys (imagine what would have happenned if I lost my keys just before going on a roadtrip, I had no idea wheres the other spare key among my packed stuff!). Anyways, picked up chao and left at around 8:30 for Los Angeles to pick up Matthias from there. Somehow in that 1 and half hrs of drive I learned more about Chinese political system than I ever hoped to (I was the one asking him questions). Got to LA by 10 or so and picked up Matthias (could see Hollywood sign from his home! yay!). Then we went to Santa Monica beach to fulfill Matthias's wish of getting a pic at a pacific ocean beach. He plans to take another pic at an atlantic ocean beach when he gets to NY to signify the fact that we drove coast to coast :)

After leaving from Santa Monica beach, we encountered heavy traffic on I-15 (the interstate from LA to Vegas). That sucked. And it lasted all the way till we hit the Nevada border. And how did we know that we have hit Nevada state border? Well, we saw a casino ;). The only interesting thing we saw (and were waiting to see) was the unusual Zzyzx road sign on I-15. For more info check out the wiki page.

Reached Vegas by the evening. We checked in Sahara Hotel and relaxed for a while. The room and the hotel/casino was overall nice for a cheap price. Then found a bus to Freemont Street. I had read about Freemont Street earlier, some people had called it must see, to us it was not a must see.. but not bad either. It was different. In short, it is a few blocks of street covered on top by a huge warped screen. They show something on this 'largest screen in the world' every now and then. And for the remaining part there are other small performances going on with lots of shops and casinos on the way. We also discovered the best feature about Vegas in Freemont street, and that being the fact that you can take your drink out on the street - its legal! :D. On Freemont street there were a few 'bars' on the sidewalk too, like this. Here's the small video I took of the big screen:

Next we hopped on the bus again to get down at the casinos on 'the strip'. We walked all the way down from start to the end, stopping on the way sometimes to try our luck or click photos or eat or drink and be merry ;). There's nothing much to say for this part... except that I found some good luck on the slot machines at The Venetian casino :)

The best fake part out of all the fake paris, new york, venice etc was this one:

Inside the Venetian Casino and Mall. It was night outside but daytime inside! They lighted the roof in such a way as to give it a feel of daytime. Loved it! Here fake paris, fake new york and fake egypt:

Finally took a cab back at the room at 3AM. Tired, happy (I won, remember?) and sad (leaving vegas). One of us will sleep on the sleeping bag and other two will enjoy nice comfi bed, and prepare for the next day.

New York Express (via Chicago)

2007-01-05T20:20:00.000-05:00

So, I am back to Stony Brook now. Safe and sound. The road trip is over. :(

How do I feel? Well, I didnt have time to feel much till now. When I reached here on 2nd, I was homeless. Saw a few places through craigslist and contacted a lot more that evening in a frenzy to get a place as soon as possible. Nothing worked out till the night, so I slept in the lab ;). And just when I got up next morning and was thinking of going to the school gym to take a shower, I got a call from my old roomie. Apparently he has another room in the same house empty and he had posted an ad on craigslist to which I had replied (not knowing that its him). He was laughing all the time during the call and said just one thing - dude come on over, the room is yours! And so with this nice quirk of fate, I am back in my old house (although in the basement now) with the same nice roommate, and my immediate worries gone for now. Now, I can write my 'journal' about the road trip in a more relaxed manner.

I'll try to jot down all I remember from this 11 day trip in 11 posts with pics etc, more so for myself that anyone else, as a memory. So where all did we go? Heres the list of major places:
1. Las Vegas
2. Grand Canyon
3. Hoover Dam
4. Bryce Canyon Nat'l Park
5. Arches Nat'l Park
6. Denver
7. St Louis
8. Chicago (Milwaukee for me). Dropped Chao here.
9. NYC. Dropped Matthias here.
10. Stony Brook

Had plans to spend more time in Utah but an oncoming snow storm changed our plans. Also we planned to visit Washington DC before getting to NYC, but our timing coincided with Gerald Ford's funeral, so we skipped that.

I also started calling this trip as New York Express since at least two people pointed out to me that my last post was so much like the Kabul Express trailors.

Hmm.. I am so tired. Still.

Hey Oh

2007-01-04T15:23:00.001-05:00

I love this song.

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T23:54:00.000-05:00

Nav Varsh ki Hardik Shubhkaamnaye

Road Trip

2006-12-22T00:56:00.000-05:00

Going soon on an International trip! Well, the drive will only be in USA but when an Indian, a Chinese and a German drive cross-country in America, you gotta call it an International trip!

Leaving San Diego on 23rd Dec 2006. Should reach New York around 3rd Jan 2007. If you don't hear from me by 4th Jan, start getting worried! :)

Happy Holidays and have an awesome New Year everyone!

Update: Here's the complete and more accurate google map.

The Man Who Sold The World

2006-12-21T12:44:00.000-05:00

Courtesy: gocomics

Trips

2006-12-18T01:47:00.000-05:00

Past one month has been a traveling month of sorts. I think I have never traveled so much in such short time as I did this last month, and if things go fine, a lot more is to come soon! :)

This post is about showing off (as are most other posts about). I thought I should show off a little since I bought a new cam. ;) Its a Sony DSC H2. Nice superzoom cam.. with 6 Megapixels and 12x Optical zoom. The choice was between Canon S3 IS and the Sony H2, and finally I went for the Sony only because I had an extra 1 GB memory stick which can go easily with the Sony while for the Canon I would have to buy some SD card. They are both otherwise similar in raw power they offer, which is why the decision if based solely on merit would have been difficult. Still thinking what if I had taken the Canon, would the pics have come out better? I guess I would never know the answer to that question, since the next cam will definitely be a Digital SLR. Its just been one month since I bought this cam and I already feel limited by the manual control it offers. Don't get me wrong, its a great cam and if offers pretty much everything that you can expect from a cam like this, but I just feel that I need more control.

I got the cam just before I made the trip to San Francisco, Bay Area and the surroundings during the thanksgiving holidays. Three days of pure fun, meeting old friends and traveling a lot of places to test the camera. Selected pics are on flickr and a lot on picasaweb.

Along with the company's new joinees Utpal and Patrick, I then made a weekend trip to Death Valley National Park. Awestruck with the raw beauty, we could not find words to compare the experience. It was not just the beauty, but also the fact that the whole place was so devoid of any form of life that you don't help but call it an out-of-world experience. Well, more like an out-of-earth experience, since the barren valley and the mountains made it look like we were on Mars or the moon. Sometimes we would just don't move and make any sound -- the resulting 'pin-drop' silence was an experience in itself. Again, some selected pics on flickr and a lot more on picasaweb. The picasaweb slideshow will be long, but I have added comments on each pic which will describe our whole journey. The pics don't do justice to what we saw there, may be thats the reason why I suddenly urge for a much better cam (and anything better than this has to be a DSLR).

Also been roaming around in San Diego (pics) on the weekends when didnt have any other plans. Had plans to go to Vegas, but didnt work out.

And the big news is that if what I am planning does work out well, I will soon drive cross-country from the west coast to the east coast, about 3000+ miles. Now that will be awesome! :)

Babel

2006-12-03T02:07:00.000-05:00

Babel is the best Hollywood movie I have seen in many years (although, I concede, I haven't seen a lot). Its a masterpiece, at least according to my dictionary.

Recently have started going to movies every weekend. Have seen Stranger than Fiction, Borat, Don, Casino Royale, The Departed, Dhoom 2; and liked them in that order. Few words about each of them.

Stranger than fiction was, well, true to its name. Its a fairy tale and a good one. Its a mix of comedy and seriousness. Many people in the movie hall really pissed me off when they kept laughing on the serious parts in the movie. I wish I had seen the movie alone in my living room without any distractions. I might have like the movie more then. But still, its good. Rating: 3.5/5

Borat is 1/4th hilarious, 1/4th disgusting, 1/4th disgusting and hilarious, and 1/4th boring. It was good, overall. Rating: 3/5

Don was good! I was surprised myself that I liked it. But kudos to the director Farhan Akhtar (DCH fame), he did manage to entertain me. The bad part was that there were just too many characters and too many stories intertwined. But he still pulled it off. Priyanka Chopra looked hot. Kareena was useless. Shahrukh was okay. He managed not to ruin the movie for me. Rating: 3/5

Casino Royale was nice. It was better than most bond movies in the sense that it was more realistic. The action scenes were good. The scenes between Mr Bond and his counterpart lady (Eva Green) were very good. She looked hot! Rating: 2.5/5

The Departed is touted as the best movie of the year. Should be taking many oscars home. Many people absolutely loved it. I didn't. I thought it was okay. Infact, I came out laughing, while people were shell-shocked at what they saw on the screen. I think many people must have thought I was a madman or something like that. People with me must have been embarrassed. But I was couldn't control my laughter. The whole climax was really funny. And the climax ruined it for me. Otherwise direction, acting and everything else was good. It was definitely no Goodfellas. Rating: 2/5

Dhoom 2 was a let down. I guess my expectations were high, since they publicized it as double the fun as Dhoom part 1. I think it was not even half the fun as Doom 1. The first part was pathetic. The only reason I could sit through the movie was because people with me were also like me.. and so we had some fun by laughing out on how stereotypical the whole movie was turning out to be (in every aspect). Of course, my dear aish's entry changed the whole movie. It was awesome, in a every sense. I was staring the whole time with my mouth open. She looks very very hot in the movie. Totally worth $8. Rating: 5/5 (aish's), Movie rating: 2/5

Babel, rating 4/5

Letter from the future: About death

2006-12-02T02:48:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone,

This is me again, Ropolo.

Now I want to talk about some questions that have kept philosophers busy for over 4000 years. But before that, I must pay tribute to these great thinkers (we don't have many in our time). Its because of philosophy that science has progressed so much. Philosophers are the ones who started doubting everything which was considered normal in their times. They are the ones who asked questions for which there were no answers in their times. Science flourished because scientists tried to find answers to these questions. Without these questions, there would not have been answers to look for. I salute these free thinkers!

What is the one thing that people in your time fear the most? From what I gather, it is something what you people call Death, or the event due to which your life will cease to exist. There are not many issues on which human philosophers agree a lot, and the matter of death seems to be one of those few. I have heard that some of the greatest philosophers have said things like 'Death is the ultimate truth' and 'The only certainty in life is its end' etc. Of course, its not their fault, they just didn't realize that science can win this fight too, just the same way it has won so many before. But what is more interesting is that so many people living in your time still believe in the veracity of such quotes. It seems that people still don't really have much faith in science and technology. Even though everyone knows about the possibilities science offers, they doubt it a lot. Which is puzzling to me, afterall Star Trek was a huge hit, right?

We, in our time, have a hard time grasping the concept of fear of death. Which is also, kind of, understandable as we don't really die. Although I can understand if you fear your own death, but in general, I wonder how can your people say that death is the ultimate truth when such scientific advancements like cloning and computing were made in your time. By telling you about us, I hope to make you realize that death is NOT the ultimate truth. Well, at least not for your future generations.

Death, as you know it in your time, does not exist for us. Nobody dies, unless they really want to. In your times its called suicide, but in our times the only way to stop existing is by killing yourself (or by taking VRE, Voluntary Retirement from Existence, as we call it). And its completely legal, as long as you have taken care of all your business and signed some papers (if not, you are forcefully revived again to sign them).

Aging was completely eradicated in late 24th century. Now the technology has developed enough for us to choose to stop getting older at any age. People usually choose mid-20s, but I chose 32. So, in that sense, my body has aged like a 32 year old male in your times; or I am 32 years old, although I have lived over 200 years now - my birthyear was 3033. By the early 27th century, medical science advanced enough to stop any deaths due to medical reasons. While these took care of natural deaths, people still died due to unnatural causes like accidents, murders, killings and so on. Finally, in late 27th century, scientists perfected the art of brain mapping and uploading. This enabled people to upload and save snapshots of their brain map on computers. Combined with cloning, this method gave humans a chance to say a final goodbye to death.

Today, in my time, when people go about their daily routine, smart brain scanners periodically (and silently) scan their brains and save a snapshot of it on secure remote servers. Whenever a man's body is destroyed due to some unnatural causes, the 'refurbishers' come to his home, collect DNA samples and other data, produce a clone of his body (that takes a few hours) and upload the last saved snapshot of his brain to the new clone's brain. Taking into account the upload time, the whole process gets completed in about 6 hours and the man is back in his own body, alive and kicking! -- except that his last memory was of the time when the brain snapshot was taken.

So, you see, you cannot not defeat death. And the way to do it is not rocket science either!

Can you think of what effects this had on our society and how those effects would make our society different from yours? Let me give you some examples. Think about crime. Some of you might imagine that crime rate must have jumped after we eliminated death as a factor in life -- afterall, the criminals don't have anything to fear now? But, it is equally true that the victims of these crimes also have nothing to fear about now. Police, guards and the security forces also don't have anything to fear about now. An average citizen in our times usually easily gathers up the courage to stop crimes when he sees them. As a result, we have almost no violent crimes in our times.

Since the time humans conquered aging, there have been some other drastic changes in the our social structure. For example, when I see a teenager now, I do not assume that he is younger than me or more immature than me. I cannot. For all I know, he might be 50 years older than me. Similarly, its common to see some 200 year old lady with a 20 year old guy, because the lady's body has aged only 20 years.

Life without the eternal fear of death has been very different.

Lessons

2006-11-30T03:09:00.000-05:00

The best lessons in life are the ones we learn on our own.

The strongest beliefs in life are the ones we realize on our own.

Thinking

2006-11-10T00:05:00.001-05:00

We all think alot. All the time. So much so that sometimes the brain stops to cooperate. Anyways, so among all this thinking ever thought of this?

When did we humans start thinking?

I mean did we use to think before we invented language? Or is some form of language necessary for any sort of thinking? Try this: imagine you dont know any form of language, forget all the words that you learned till now for a while. Now try to think - about anything.

How does it feel?

Got what you deserve?

2006-11-03T00:24:00.000-05:00

If you don't deserve what you've got, you'll lose it sooner or later.

Letter from the future

2006-11-02T13:10:00.000-05:00

Hello friends,

I am a human from your future earth.

I arrived in your time a few weeks back to study the ancient human society, and happened to meet your friend here, Ritesh, the owner of this site. Nice chap! (although a little boring). Anyways, I didnt want to communicate much with people of this time, but he really insisted that I share some of the insights about future with you all. I figured that as long as I dont talk specifics (like whether Saurav Ganguly will make it back to the Indian cricket team or not), it should be fine. So, here I am.

Let me first introduce myself. My name is Ropolo-82-manisto Trafo-3036-ganulakum. I understand thats an unusual name for your time, but believe me, such names are very common for us. You see, with the kind of human population we have in our times its hard to keep a name unique unless one uses alphanumeric characters and keeps it atleast that long.

If you are wondering what year I am from, that too, well, is a little hard to explain. You see, in our times, we travel so much back and forth in time itself, that we dont live in one time frame alone. But, yes, the year according to my hometime currently is 3273 BCE. Think of it as the way you guys travel on earth. People live in one place and commute for work to other places (or sometimes make business/leisure trips to far away places). We live in one place and time, and commute for work to another place and time. And sometimes, like this time for me, we travel far in time for our work/leisure. (Pardon the usage of 'time' so many times, your vocabulary is quite limited in ways to talk about time travel but I am trying my best). Just like most of you consider your permanent place of residence or your birthplace your 'hometown', we consider our birth-timeframe our home-timeframe. So if I had not ever travelled in time, I would be living in year 3273 BCE right now, which is why it is the year of my hometime.

Of course, we have some rules for time travel, actually only one rule (temporal prime directive, if you will), other are just ettiquetes. All commercial time travel machines come factory-configured with the rule, but the geeks always come up with a hack soon enough :) (thats how I managed to come here, to your time).

The first time travel machine was invented in year 2817 BCE. By the year 2850 they were already commercially available, which is when this rule was imposed by the government (and many time-travel terms like 'hometime' coined). The rule is simple. One can only travel between the time when time travel was invented (i.e., year 2817) and one's own hometime. Basically one cannot travel in future (w.r.t one's hometime) and to non-timetravel capable time. Travelling before 2817 is prohibited, I guess, to avoid awkwardness of non-time-travel capable people dealing with time travellers. And travelling after one's current hometime is prohibited, again I guess, to avoid the awkwardness of a person dealing with his/her own future. Anyways, just like all governmental rules and laws, this rule also doesn't make a lot of sense and people break it very often.

Time travel, of course, had an enormous impact on human society then. It was all very chaotic for a while, but things settled down slowly. Ritesh showed me a few of your movies about time-travel. You guys worry a lot about people going in the past and changing it to affect the present and future and all that crap. Well, that would have certainly made things very interesting, but sorry to say, nothing like that happens. Just like "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas", "what happens in year 3090 stays in year 3090". Btw, that Back to the Future movie was pretty funny, hehe. Your parents not dating in the past makes your siblings disappear from the photograph in your hand! Wow! Magic! hehe.

Getting serious again, the interesting thing that did happen as a result of time travel is that 'past' became smaller and smaller and everything from year 2817 to one's hometime became 'present'. May be the analogy to a current phenomenon in your time will be apt here. Think about how 'globalization' has changed your perception of this world. Air travel, fast trains, ships, cars etc have left no place too far, right? Every part of the world is becoming dependent on other parts and the differences in living standards across continents are dropping, right? Something similar has happened to our time. Its becoming harder and harder to say that a particular time in 'history' was richer or better. And all the timeframes are becoming dependent on each other. You outsource work to other countries, we outsource work to other times!

I, myself, have frequent appointments in other timeframes to give lectures and take classes etc. My students, knowing that I am from future, always ask me about how will they perform in the exams, or what will they become in the future etc. And I tell them the truth always, if I know the answer and they really insist. Does it affect anything? Not really. They still do the same that they would have done otherwise. Somehow their future remains unaffected. Scientists, psychologists, socialogists (excl me) and many other are still trying to solve this mystery.

Another thing that might interest you (inferring from your sci-fi movies) is the way we handle awkward situations due to time travel. Awkward meaning, well, suppose I happen to bump into my own self from another timeframe in the supermarket. Thats a little awkward, right? First of all, he should not be roaming around in the supermarket, he should be doing his job for what he is in my timeframe, but anyways. In such cases, its understood to just say a polite 'hi' to your other self and part ways. Because, frankly speaking, there is no use talking to each other. It will only result in waste of time and nothing productive.

Oh yes, a little about how exactly is time travel done. Anyways, going by your movies, it seems that you think a person can travel 1000 years in a split second. Well, sorry to burst the bubble again, but thats not how it happens. I mean, come on, when you travel in the other 3 dimensions it takes time, right? So just coz the 4th dimension itself is time, doesnt mean that travelling in it doesnt take time. If you think about it, its just like travelling on ground. The most fundamental travelling scheme is by walking -- one foot at a time. But we humans developed faster ways to travel. Bicycles, cars, trains, airplanes etc are all different modes of ground travel with different speeds. Very similar machines exist for time travel too, some fast and some slow.

Do you realize that everyone (including you) actually does time travel all the time already. Dont believe me? Well, tell me how much time passed since you started reading this letter? Didn't you travel from past to present and now travelling to future already? :) Granted, its a very slow mode of travelling, one second per second, but the fact is, its the basic truth and most people dont realize it very easily. Now think about it. How would time travel work? Yes! By changing this rate of normal time travel from 1 second per second to maybe 1 month per second (to travel in future) or -1 month per second (to travel in past) and so on. Exciting, isnt it? Well, my favorite rates are between [0-1) second per second. Just imagine, at 0 second per second rate, nothing in this world is happening, everything is standstill! Its an awesome experience man, I wish I could show you!

Hmm, so this was about time travel. I will write another letter soon. And I am going to talk about 'the death of Death' in that letter. Look forward to it :)

Hope you liked your future. Any questions, please leave comment, I'll try to answer as much as I can without giving out too much information. Thanks for bearing with my english.

Regards,
Ropolo-82-manisto

Awesome!

2006-10-26T02:06:00.000-04:00

Awesome is such as awesome word, dude! :)

Awesome!

Psychology for me

2006-10-19T04:25:00.000-04:00

I think that our lives are mostly predestined (but, may be, with a touch of randomness). Predestined, not due to a supernatural force like God, but due to our own pasts.

Everything that happened with you in the past -- every small incident, every little influence and every single person you interacted with -- has, in together, resulted in your arrival at this page at this exact moment.

Every single moment in our past affects our present, and in combination with every single moment in this present, it shapes our future. Some things affect us more and some things less, but everything does.

I think that one day, when the science of psychology has progressed enough, computers will be able to predict a person's behavior, his/her future and the choices he/she will make when faced with a decision, if the computer can access this person's complete life history. And, it will be fairly accurate when the mathematical models of human behavior and psychology are robust enough.

It is random who gives birth to you and when you get born and where you get born. But, from then on, your life is more or less predictable. Except, may be, some pockets of randomness here and there, e.g., when the probabilty that you will choose one option over another is 50% when making a decision. Or when a person with whom you will interact is facing such an equal probability decision.

There is a reason behind everything that we do. But most people dont know reasons behind most of their own actions. I think we can understand ourself the best if we try to find these reasons.

Psychology for me is finding these reasons. Psychology for me is to find out what happened in my past which made me think the way I am thinking right now and do what I am doing right now.

Maturity

2006-10-15T02:52:00.000-04:00

Ever heard the words - "He/she is too immature" or "He/she is the mature one in our group" or something similar? Of course you have. Either you have said these words or someone else has said them for you.

So what really is maturity? Who is a mature person and who is not? I mean, sexual maturity aside (I know some perverts read this blog!) :)

I always used to think that maturity is about your thinking. Its about your mind. Have you grown enough to make rational decisions? To understand logic? To be practical? Are you serious about important things in life? Or do you get lost thinking about anything worth thinking? Can you make decisions - sometimes, always or never? The following chart is a very interesting assessment of the various stages of a person's intellectual maturity. Do read it. It makes sense, but I am not sure -- may be I haven't reached the final stage yet ;)

Well, I used to think that this type of maturity is all that matters. An intellectually mature person is mature. Then, when I faced the real world, I realized that people give a lot of importance to behavioral maturity. Meaning, how do you behave in public? Do you become silly sometimes or always act adult? Are you always in control of situations or you panic easily? Always in control of your emotions or sometimes lose it? Do you follow the social ettiquetes or act rebellious? How do you behave when you meet new people? Can you make a good small talk or are you the Ayn Rand type?

What I find strange is that if you google about it, all you'll find are data and studies about kids and teenagers. Or sometimes about boys vs girls (read the comment!). But I have a feeling that even adults face these problems. Many adults are, what the psychologists call, pseudomature. They try to act mature, because people expect them to, but in reality they are not. May be that's why alcohol is so prevalent among young people, it lets them become what they are, as the world excuses their immaturity when they are drunk. And of course, geeks are usually immature in this matter. Its obvious, the less social you are, the less you will learn.

[Digression] Apparently there is another kind of maturity called, psychosocial maturity. A paper defines it as:

(1) the capacity to function adequately on one's own, (2) the capacity to interact adequately with others, and (3) the capacity to contribute to social cohesion

They are looking at behavioral one from a different point of view, but anyways.

I am sure there are other aspects of maturity which I missed here, please point out if you remember something. Like how about guys trying to flirt with girls on these online communities? With cheesy pickup lines! Do girls like it? Are they both immature? :) [end Digression]

Digression apart, so, is it true that age brings maturity? Yes, of course. Experience might make you more prejudiced, but it also makes you more mature. E.g., me making up my own quotes, it might look immature to the mature folks, but what do my immature friends think about it? Assuming age does bring maturity, then why do people say things like "she is more mature than her elder sister"? Well because, maturity is relative. You will become more mature as you become older, but that doesn't mean that you are more mature than anyone who is younger than you.

I recently realized that I am damn interested in human psychology. Well, I was interested earlier too, but our psychology professors in college killed the interest (we had one course at kgp). So, anyways, expect a few post. Oh and yes, what do you think about this post? Agree with everything? Disagree with something?

sudo

2006-10-08T01:24:00.001-04:00

Are you a linux user? If yes, read this...

Oh God! I can't stop laughing!!!! LOL

Courtesy: xkcd

More:

Just discovered these comics through StumbleUpon. And I already have some favorites:

If only James Bond was that smart:
http://xkcd.com/c123.html

Matrix:
http://xkcd.com/c117.html

I do this all the time! :
http://xkcd.com/c85.html

Every blogger's story:
http://xkcd.com/c77.html

Remember Poisson's formula? :
http://xkcd.com/c12.html

This was a little too smart (read the description of the pic by placing ur mouse over it)
http://xkcd.com/c18.html

and the warning:

"Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."

LOL!

PS: Dont forget to check out the description of each cartoon by placing your mouse over the pic. This guy is smart!

Future

2006-10-05T00:57:00.000-04:00

When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.

Tharoor and India's UN aspirations

2006-10-04T20:56:00.000-04:00

Excellent article on rediff about our experience at the recent UN Secretary General elections (though not over, the decision is already out). I am almost completely in agreement with Ambassador Sreenivasan here. In particular:

The compelling factor for India's candidature was the availability of an exceptional candidate in the person of Shashi Tharoor. His impeccable reputation as an international civil servant, his stature as a thinker and writer, his deep commitment to UN reforms, his care and concern for his motherland, despite his long residence abroad made him an ideal candidate.

Many members of the UN, including some permanent members, encouraged him to enter the race. It would have been unconscionable for India not to offer such a candidate, when it was Asia's turn to provide the next secretary general. Clearly, it was a gamble, but it was worth the risk. India entered the race with no illusions either about its own acceptability or Tharoor's chances.

and

If anything went wrong about India's quest for the post of UN secretary general, it was the undue expectations that the candidature raised in the minds of the Indian people, leading to charges of illusions of grandeur, wrong policy and inefficacy of our diplomatic machinery. The media lapped up the ebullient, media savvy, articulate and photogenic Tharoor and declared him the winner.

If his candidature was projected as India's offer to the world as the best candidate it had, without making it appear as though India had a great stake in his success, Tharoor's performance in the elections would have come more as a welcome surprise rather than as a disappointing setback. India rose solidly to support him, but it did not have even one vote.

I have read Tharoor's book, India: From Midnight to the Millenium, and I liked it. Keep going Mr Tharoor and good work!

Expectations

2006-09-23T15:34:00.000-04:00

Found these quotes on Expectations. Pretty varied views. I liked this:

"Expecting the world to treat you fairly
because you are a good person
is a little like expecting the bull not to attack you
because you are a vegetarian."

Above one is hilarious and true at the same time.

Then there are these set of quotes which advocate one thing:

"Whatever we expect with confidence becomes our own self-fulfilling prophecy."

"Treat a man as he is, he will remain so. Treat a man the way he can be and ought to be, and he will become as he can be and should be."

"If you think you can, you can. And if you think you can't, you're right"

"What we see depends mainly on what we look for."

"Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway."

And on the other side, there are these ones:

"As I know more of mankind I expect less of them, and am ready now to call a man a good man, upon easier terms than I was formerly."

"Expect nothing, live frugally on surprise."

Which side is right?

Naina

2006-09-21T01:16:00.000-04:00

naina thag lenge
.
.
bhala manda dekhe na paraya na saga re
nainon ko toh dasne ka chaska laga re
.
.
naina raat ko chalte chalte swargan mein le jaave
megh malhaar ke sapne dije hariyali dikhlave
nainon ki zubaan pe bharosa nahi aata
likhad parakh na rasid na khaata
.
.
bin baadal barsaaye saawan saawan bin barsaata
bin baadal barsaaye saawan naina baanwara kar denge
naina thag lenge - 2 thag lenge naina thag lenge

Awesome song with some very meaningful and pure hindi lyrics, well sung too.
Listen on raaga. Gulzar saab, aap God hai!

Define Job

2006-08-01T12:23:00.000-04:00

Job: A work that requires you to do things you'd rather not do, and so in return you are payed.

:)

When views become rhetoric

2006-07-21T21:13:00.000-04:00

Very few people in the world have views, others just act as repeaters.
-R M

How many times has this happened to you, that you heard a view or an opinion, an argument from someone who is damn convinced that it is true. And then, when you retort with a fallacy in the argument or another possible, seemingly plausible, opinion, they are not able to defend their position!

That happens because in most cases, these views/opinions/arguments are not their own. People borrow opinions from others and act like its their own to boost their ego or improve their standing in the friend-circle -- to show off -- as if they are very much aware of the "issues" and they too have views about them. They too can take a side.

And the worst part is that some of these arguments spread like fire. You'll see many people using the same arguments again and again, to a point that it becomes frustrating to make them see the fallacy. They have listened to these arguments so many times, that they become damn convinced that it cannot be wrong. (Happens, you know, if a person dreams forever he might start believing the dream as reality) They stop listening to logic. And all your replies are met with more repeated hollow arguments. That's when these views attain the status of rhetoric.

Oh, I so hate rhetoric in a discussion. They turn me off!

Experience brings prejudice

2006-07-18T19:10:00.000-04:00

Thought of the day:

Experience brings prejudice. The more we know, the more prejudiced we become.
-- Ritesh Maheshwari

Lets find and embrace again that innocence we lost when we grew up.

This may not be true universally, but pretty much true for this world we live in. Some people manage to remain innocent and unprejudiced even when they grow old (Some of them are called immature, some end up in mental hospitals and others become great people). I dont know how they manage to do it (remain unprejudiced, not end up in mental hospitals), but I want to know.

I do have some clues though. I guess the key is not just to know, but to understand. Just gaining knowledge without proper understanding will definetely lead to prejudice.

What else can we do?

PS: Dont laugh at me for making up my own quotes, you prejudiced fools!

:)

Fanaa and Gujarat's arrogance

2006-05-29T14:50:00.000-04:00

Okay, I don't mean the whole of Gujarat when I say 'Gujarat' here. But then we haven't seen any sane voice from the state about the issue too. So, may be, I mean the whole state. Anyways, thats besides the point.

BJP is really deteriorating man! They can't control their own party members. It seems as though there is whole another BJP in Gujarat functioning on its own and the central leadership doesn't even dare interfere.

Apparently, bollywood is also finally coming in support of Aamir for his right to voice his opinion. Better late than never, I guess. But if they really want to show solidarity with the actor, you know what they should do? Tit-for-tat. Yes, thats what they should do. They should tackle arrogance with arrogance. High-handedness with High-handedness. Sometimes people need a little spanking on their a**es for them to realize that they are living in a democratic society.

Now, what exatly does tit-for-tat means here? It can mean alot of things. But the one action that will really hurt them bad is "putting a ban on showing any movie in Gujarat". Yeah, I said it right. Bollywood should not release any movie in Gujrat. That will teach them a lesson! Lets see how long would the Gujarat government be able to handle the pressure from the theatre owners. Lets see how long would the theatre owners be able to handle the losses in standing up for their right to be arrogant (and stupid). I know, pirated CDs/DVDs are always there. But lets see how long would the Gujarat junta keep watching crappy-quality movies recorded in theatres imported from UAE/Pakistan?

I wish our bollywood industry was united enough to do that. I know they are not. Everyone's greedy.

More about my point of view on this issue here on orkut.

Fanaa

2006-05-07T17:33:00.000-04:00

My thoughts about this upcoming movie are pretty confusing.

The music is okay. The cast is great. But what worries me is the director and the story. There doesn't seem to be much of a novelty in the story -- which is not really a necessity for a movie to be good, but when its not original, the movie needs a good director to make it a good movie. Kunal Kohli's claim to fame - Hum Tum - a remake of When Harry Met Sally didn't really excite me. Hum Tum doesn't even deserve a mention in my list of good bollywood movies. It had bad direction written all over the movie reel. So I don't expect much from him.

But then, on the other hand, theres Aamir and Kajol. And the good thing is, Aamir always interferes in the direction of any movie he acts in. Theres still some hope :). Its also Kajol's comeback movie and I always loved her acting. So if nothing, we will atleast see some good acting.

Lets wait and watch.

PS: Apparently Aamir and Kajol didnt get along very well during the shooting of the movie :(

Bombai Nagaryia

2006-04-05T00:13:00.000-04:00

This song from the movie Taxi No 9211 is one of my favorites nowadays. Good lyrics, nice music and most importantly a fresh voice!

Fresh voice, did I say? Turns out that the song is sung by none other than our own old star - Bappi Lahiri saheb! What can I say, except that good you took a break from Music industry Bappi-sir (I dont know if you really did). Your voice sounds great again...

What made Vishal-Shekhar approach Bappi-saab is one of my latest curiosity nowadays. Or was it the other way around? In any case, waiting to listen to you again Bappi-sir, hopefully with some more good music directors. The list doesn't include you though. Yes, yes, you gave us Disco Dancer and Namak Halal - no, still not you! :)

Parliament fight

2006-03-30T01:16:00.000-05:00

Watch the video:
http://www.wimp.com/government/

Does anyone remember when did this happen, and what was the issue?