Give/Gave/Cave/Cake/Take

Things People don't admit in Life

2008-12-28T15:00:00.009+05:30

After a long hiatus, here is my rehash on life:

People expect you to lie. Not sure if it is the satisfaction of dragging you down into the gutter with them and rejoicing over their new found company. Getting Credit cards, Government IDs, Loans, Sending your resume, Preparing status reports .. it's all out there.

People expect you to be dumb. It's counter-intuitive, but more people appreciate it when you are just as dumb as they are. Nobody likes a smartass.

People are hypocrites. That's right: I'm not a hypocrite. It's easier to tell you than to change myself. Sometimes, it slips from not being a total asshole.

People expect you to be patient. You have to suffer enough until someone decides you can take up bigger, better things in life. It's a conspiracy from all the way down to all the way up.

People expect people to be good. And by People I refer to everyone, and by people I refer to everyone except you. People won't be part of the change because you aren't going to change, even if people were to change.

People won't tell you they screwed up, even if they did. It would be totally offensive to get someone to admit they did, and they were going to fix things up. It's always your problem if you get affected by their mistake, not theirs.

people will blame you if you screwed up though.

People will tell you you're not good enough, but they are just dumb and manipulative, expecting you to fall. Ignoring them and living well is the best revenge.

People always play hard to get because it sounds more 'exclusive' than the easy-go people. Apparently there is no real value difference. And many people don't realize it this today.

People are afraid of becoming a lost-cause.

People always start with making you happy until they can get close enough to cut your throat.

People always drive the inefficiencies in our lives.

People always point at people's weaknesses. But it is a matter of time before they find they are no better.

Is Free Software really Free? (A case of Google Android and Java)

2008-07-06T14:59:00.006+05:30

Update: Google has open sourced Android and I will take back what I said. If you still wish to read the post, you may do so.

A lot of people have asked me why anybody would want free software, because there is no support or commercial licensing usually. Let me define what free is supposed to mean: "The freedom given to a user to execute the program; to modify the source code, compile and execute the modified program; to be able to redistribute the modified source code and the modified program."

We are not here to discuss if everybody is giving you a false free software promise, or if being "good" is essential for our life, but only to discuss a particular false software promise by organizations like Sun and Google.

Let us take a classic example: the Java platform. While Sun has been (for years) trying to free Java, they still can't push in just enough to make it completely free. And when they did GPL their OpenJDK (which at the moment, is probably mostly unhindered except for the SNMP provider), Google decided that vendors should be given enough choice to "lock in" on their implementations, and based their DalvikVM off Apache Harmony.

Not that I don't respect Apache, but partially the reason they came up with their VM was because Sun wasn't really going to give away their Java without a fight from competitors. And when they sensed a threat, Sun were like, "we wanted to free Java for a long time. Freedom to the masses. Yay!". Nobody bought it. The real reason Sun didn't want to free Java was probably not because it wanted the community to fork, but because they wanted to keep it to themselves and all the monopoly that came with it.

Now it is Google's turn. While Google says it is part of an "Open Handset Alliance", it hasn't made the specification for the DEX format and source code for the DEX compiler open yet. And the vendors wouldn't be expected to reveal it, either. Google doesn't want to go the Sun way of JavaME either, although as of now, "PhoneMe" is supposedly a free implementation. So what does Google do here? "Lock in" Android applications from being accessed by everybody.

Is Google really going open in Android? I don't think so.

So when openness is a question, where do we expect to find the freedom we discussed above? And how do users expect to run applications in a closed platform locked in by vendors who claim to be "open"? The answers are: nowhere and there is no way.

One suggestion for users is that they should protest against these platforms and say: "Hey, we aren't going to buy your mobiles unless you tell us everything about it. Are you living up to your open promise or was it just false marketing on your side?"

Katradu Kanippori

2008-03-23T20:00:00.003+05:30

I watched the movie Tamizh (Tamil) M.A. I liked the movie immensely for style, but I was also stimulated into expressing my thoughts here.

We start with the burning questions:

Why don't post-graduate students with a degree in History, Sociology or Tamizh make money like hey used to?
Why have IT companies made those graduates lives worse? And Why do IT fellows get paid for doing almost nothing?

Now for the explanation:

We have to realize that population is the first reason why everybody is struggling for getting noticed in society. So a 10th standard student in those days had more value compared to one today. Post-Docs will lose their value in the future. Maybe then a triple-Ph.D. + Post-Doc would
be noticable.

The second reason I would like to quote is value. We have to realize that value of a certain field is what makes it attractive to money and people. The value of every field certainly reduces with time, and it's specializations are what count after that time.

The third point is, things always work based on the volume of people affected by it. Food, for instance, has never lost its value over time: Be it a road-side idli shop or a pizzeria.

The society does see a field's importance based on its impact on surrounding society around that point of time. IT serves a huge amount of society much like its other partner, Communications. Why is it so?

Every bank transaction you do is fed into a computer. Every detail of your existence is fed into a computer. Every thing you buy is accounted by a computer. The government knows you exist because it has your details on a computer. This works by sheer volume.

The next point I want to emphasize is IT is not responsible for hiking rates of rent. The problem is society and greed. If we all owned land, why do we have to hike land and building rates when a hospital or school opens nearby? We don't have to, but we could always make more. But should
we?

The next thing I want to move on is about taxes. The whole bunch of people working everywhere pay 20 to 30% of their earnings to the country. Where does this money actually go to? If all this money were to be fully utilized, we would have a higher standard of living, better jobs, better infrastructure, lower cost of living. We might even be able to give out taxpayers money to
the unemployed. In an utopia, the government gives you a house when you are a major. No rent, just keep it and live happily with your family.

For that matter, a lot of people see value in media for some reason. The movies they make for 60 crore rupees are tax-waived. Tax-waived! But why should they? If people all talked about value, do you feel that media deserves the value it is given today? Unfortunately, people fail to look at themselves before they pose that ugly question on other fragments of society: Why do you earn so much? People do see value in you, so try helping them. If they didn't, nobody would as much care
to watch just about any movie being screened out there.

The next thing is about work and living. The best IT companies actually take good care of their employees. It was always possible in all those 60+ years after independance that many Indian companies could have done that for those employees. They didn't do so even if they did have the money. The mainline IT companies dont really care what happens to their employees, again. Here's a fact: $100 per hour per employee is close to what these companies earn. They get paid even if you don't work. What do they pay you? $0.028 an hour. Why, I ask? Answer: Greed. What do you lose? Answer: People who see a better living everywhere. Not just for making more money, but the money you have failed to give them though you could.

The final nail I would like to drive is this: don't mix passion with profession. Although it would be great to do both and even get paid for it, why can't we accept the fact that we can pursue what we want, when we want and wherever we want. We should be willing to take up professional education, improve our livestyle and yet do what we like to (Tamizh, for instance). This compromise can give us the best of both the worlds. Why can't we accept that society does appreciate art but does not need art? Because you are society and if nobody can feed your stomach because they only taught Tamizh, would YOU even bother?

Language is a medium for communication. Communication is very much important for our living. But, it's what we do with communication that matters, not just communication in itself. If nobody used the telephone for anything useful, we wouldn't be paying a lot in our telephone bills, would we?

In conclusion: Reason the truth yourself. Stop spreading F.U.D.

A word to those campus interview goers...

2008-01-16T14:54:00.000+05:30

Well, this post is mostly about the flip side of campus interviews and how you should deal with them mentally.

Many companies play hard to get with their eligibility criterion. They may never give you a chance to sit for aptitude tests if you're not the right discipline, or don't correct your papers if your CGPA isn't high enough, or maybe just toss you out after a few rounds of reckless interviews if you're not the right discipline. This is besides the regular process based on talent, discipline and CGPA. So don't get bogged down by these: They aren't worth your time or emotions.

We need to realize a few facts here. The HR department is just whacked up, made up of mostly non-techies who can place safe bets on a person with a good CGPA and discipline. They are answerable for your productivity after you join the company. So if they were hiring you otherwise, they might get fired; According to them, they are doing a very good job. But here's the catch: they also don't realize the significance of job profiles and how good many people actually fit for one or two job profiles. Like, if they are going to test a person for his competence in many areas, there are high chances he isn't going to work on all of them at the same time. He might be shifting to another project in the company, but they don't realize that a lot of practical learning comes with the job, not with the degree. Also, if your CGPA is low, they just assume you're insincere. But that's not an excuse to not give the guy a fighting chance in a technical interview.

The next problem is with traveling from a company all the way to some distant university to hold these things. Although they are going to get paid for it and all, travel is very hectic and their project schedules are way off. They would mostly be focussed on coming back and getting things right on track. They just want to finish it off early, and concentrate on a few number of 'quality' students.

If you're thinking that you've ruined your entire university life because you didn't get a dream job or any job at all, think again. There is a lot of opportunity given in your life to work hard and come up. There will be people undermining you all the time; You need to learn to fight back and give things your best shot at any point of time. Tension has an immense effect on productivity. You must never let it get to you.

Life isn't some sort of race. Someone else you know may get ahead and you might feel bad that you couldn't do it. But not that they haven't any problems. Even the ones who deserve to get ahead may end up dying prematurely or catching some illness, sometimes making you wonder why life is so unfair to even those who deserve better. So are you any better or happier? It's not a happy thing to laugh about, but a good consolation to not feel any worse.

Life isn't unfair, it's just our way of looking at it. We do know that all of us will get a hard cut in our life and die; That doesn't make it any harder than it is. And we needn't get depressed about it either. Knowing that it will be hard at the end, why not learn to enjoy the trail while it lasts?

Open Up Gaming!

2007-10-26T15:30:00.000+05:30

When I talk about Gaming, I refer to Computer Gaming. I define Gaming as the process from conceptualizing the game, to designing it, implementing it, testing it and releasing it to a community, which makes further modifications (Mods) and makes it even more popular.

The problem is, with people's needs for employment, money and popularity, game developers have forgotten the fact that a game is about having fun, rather about licensing, legal documents thrown around and finally, restricting the user's choice on what he can play it on.

Let us look at the current bitchin' (real bitches) issues in gaming:

1. Halo3 is developed exclusively for the XBox 360. To increase the sales of the 360.
2. DirectX 10 is exclusively Windows Vista only. So Microsoft could put 'Windows just got better (again!)' and increase Vista sales. Sites like this advertise that by moving to Vista, they can get better quality graphics. This is a lie, and Microsoft did not backport DX10 to XP/2000 not because it was hard, but because they want to force Vista on you.
3. DirectX is a Windows only API (and maybe the XBox*), and people who develop on it are restricted to give Games on Windows only. This is a problem for Mac/Linux/*nix users, because it's hard to get 100% Windows API emulation on these platforms, even with commercial versions of Wine (like Cedega/Cider/whatever)
4. Steam games are not available for Linux, primarily because the games they do now use DirectX rendering. Their older games used to work natively on Linux because of the OpenGL backend; I do hear that Steam games are available for the PS3, in that case they could consider releasing static binaries for Linux/*nix.
5. Ever noticed that Apple's been bitchin' about a closed iPhone platform, bricking people's unlocked iPhones? They prevent people from developing mobile games on their iPhone platform. I am sure that they've got similar ideas for their OS X as well, and maybe they'd have to get a share of the profits if you start developing and releasing games for OS X as well.
5. Valve developers claim that Apple doesn't support them well enough to port Steam for OS X. For one, I am sure that porting a game to a POSIX operating system with OpenGL wouldn't be hard; Apple hardware is usually standard, and there is usually no missing vendor-extensions to OpenGL.
Are Valve devs BS us?
6. OpenGL is a standard set of APIs, used since the 80s. The problem is that while maintaining backward compatibility, they don't really have an easy API to get around it, and each vendor while claiming to have full compliance with a rececnt OpenGL standard makes his drivers only to make Quake run at *-fps and nothing more. So development on OpenGL is a good thing, but there's nobody implementing these standards well enough.
7. Talking about physics, companies like Ageia are trying to push their own PPUs in the market, and APIs like Havok trying to tie up with nVIDIA to get these things done on their newer GPUs. I'm sure it probably wouldn't open it to the general public either; There is no real production quality open physics API which can take advantage of current hardware (CPUs, GPUs and PPUs) without any licensing issues. When Intel bought Havok, I'm sure they are looking at selling it with their future flagship Octa/Hexadeca core CPUs..
8. Talking about Sound, although people are trying to standardize things with OpenAL, it's becoming a real issue having these APIs licensed to consoles.
9. What about console licensing, huh? Most Console makers offer their SDKs at a very high price; Partly because they also give development hardware, but really because they are getting 'Money'. I am sure that cross-compilers aren't unfamiliar today, and it wouldn't hurt to test apps on a console you buy off the street.
10. Supporting input has been a pain again. I am aware of no real platform which provides cross-platform low latency input to a variety of input devices with force-feedback support.
11. The last issue is in integrating all this into the same development API; like DirectX, except with the openness to other platforms added.

So the basic analysis of why this is, yields that:

1. Hardware manufacturers want to make money with their whatever hardware and closed source drivers. Whatever they can't do in hardware, they kludge and that becomes their strategic advantage (in terms of manufacturing cost); The end user doesn't care a damn and all he sees is the jazzy graphics on their websites and thinks he should buy the supposedly next best thing tm.
2. Software corporations, like Microsoft, Apple all want a share of the money if you're developing games for their platforms.
3. Console manufacturers, who basically integrate the hardware, their software want to license their SDKs so they can make money.
4. Any combination of the above restrict people from developing games on the other platforms because of money.

So this has led to these things:

1. Independant game developers, Homebrew software makers are not able to develop useful, supposedly free applications/games on any of these platforms. Only the people who have the money can develop. Pay up or die.
2. If you're supporting open-source software, and having a great 3D engine, you can't license it to people for consoles because of the money factor. Take Ogre3D, for example.
3. If you're a game player, you'd have to buy Vista to run Crysis, or the 360 to play Halo.
4. If you're running a DirectX game, you'll have to buy Windows. But you're not interested in Windows, just the game. You have a computer and someone tells you, "Well, you've got a fast computing machine, but it's a brick. Not because it can't run the game, but, well, we've got other priorities and we won't make it run on your machine"
5. Only game corporations with a lot of money can make any real games and license them. You're dead otherwise, practically.

So, when it boils down to this point: have money or don't make games, what should you choose? Should you throw away your interests because some guy decides it isn't worth it? Or should you be part of a movement which rebels against this and ask for a open gaming platform and for all manufacturers to support it?

By a open gaming platform, I mean a OS and the userland API. They should be open source, "free" software, and you can add on drivers for it if you wish people to use your hardware. Your drivers should ideally be free too, so you can run your hardware on hardware platform X, for all values of X. The whole OS and userland must be freely distributable.

The next step comes in licensing games; When people develop games for your console, make a good console or die. Support the open platform, encourage indie game development. Don't expect that if your game maker doesn't get a license for distribution, his game won't sell. If an indie game-dev makes a good game, publish it and make some money. You anyway earn for the services you offer and the consoles you sell. Why exploit the developer, then? And why restrict your user if he wants to develop a game for your platform?

When this comes up, we can expect the barriers to gaming completely removed; If you're a game developer and fear that your people will lose their jobs, you're wrong. Hire indie developers who are talented; Make money from software like you do now. If you encourage modding, chances are that you'll be more popular than otherwise.

I hence put this up expecting that the future of gaming might change; You could be a part of this, making that change.

The meaning of Life rev2

2007-10-17T02:29:00.000+05:30

Just a few days ago, there was this article on parallel universes. Let me now explain why I think we are all numbers.

You will understand this article if you are aware of how they are represented using the binary notation. If you're not the mathematical kind, just try to follow the non-geeky explanation.

It also might give you an idea why I think the inverse of infinity is not zero, but a number which doesn't exist, called the no-number.

First, there was no-number. And then it split into the alternative, the number.

Then were two numbers: 0 and 1. 0 represented non-existence, 1 represented life.

When we say that non-existence is there, I'm saying it doesn't exist, but things do go on in there, but they'll never be like us because they don't exist.

I believe the next division occurred when God was there and life existed, and wasn't. Again, 0 and 1.
Now we have three numbers:

1 <- Life
01 <- Life without God
11 <- Life with God

Now, it basically goes on, adding 0s and 1s to the left hand side of this number when or not an event occurred.

How do we represent numbers which have three states? (and not two or four)?

if (-)
else if(--)
else

The answer is, split the three states as this:

if(-)
else {
if(--)
else
}

i.e. 0, 1.

add 1 or 0 to the left of this 0, and we get:

10
00

the 11 is not taken, we shall ignore this. but doesn't this contradict that there must be exactly
3 possible states? which means all things always happen or don't happen. there's no thing which never can happen (11).

So, constructing our life as a number leads us to this:

Our universe exists, where we realize it's existence and where we apply this theory of existence to it, and I exist, I blog, and you exist and you're reading this.

Therefore, this leads us to construct various universes where many things don't happen/happen, and in the non-existent plane as well.

Of course, there could be a particular order in which the divisions occurred, but it is possible to construct more views of universes by simply changing the order of these divisions.

Infinity is the number of universes that exist, and the no-number is what makes it possible, and not zero. When it itself split into a number and no-number, came the large number of universes. The number became infinity. If there were not enough numbers at all, 0/1 would be the theoretical equivalent of infinity, which isn't really a no-number.

Ever thought of what numbers are? They are empty, different states theoretically possible just like we are.

Some implications (non geeky part):

Either you read this, or you don't, but not here.

If you're poor here, maybe you're wealthier elsewhere.

You exist here, and you don't elsewhere.

You're forking the universe into many different states when you toss a coin (and if it lands on heads or tails, or on none, or lands on both.)

You think I am crazy here, and you don't elsewhere.

In Loving Memory

2007-03-20T23:51:00.000+05:30

I met him during that fateful trip to Techkriti 2004. We spent a lot of time together since then.

He taught me how to use scp. How much I remember him. In my last semester, I was graduating. Then in my first semester, he was graduating. We couldn't talk much then. Now we can't, if we tried. How ironic life is.

As I write this down, I cherish the memories we shared, the moments we had. Kapil, I'll miss you very much. Rest in peace.

Shine on, you crazy diamond.

In loving memory of Kapil Jamkar, 06-05-1984 - 19-03-2007.

Why I hate the W3C (or) Why I hate Blogger (or) Why I hate both

2007-02-01T10:43:00.000+05:30

From the W3C site:
"The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops interoperable
technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) to lead
the Web to its full potential."

Blogger is what you're reading this page on. It publishes your thoughts through the Web, so a lot of people can read them.

Now that I have formally introduced both of them, I will talk about the problems I have with both of them.

Problem 1

When I try to hit a newline in blogger, it assumes i'm a noob (newbie) and inserts a <br/> in place.

Now, when I happen to insert a few newlines (\n) in a list for my own readability, it converts them to something like:
</li><br/><li>

which isn't really okay with the W3C XHTML transitional validator. Hmmmph! Now how about that?

Problem 2

The blogger templates are written sometimes with <p> so according to the W3C, there are problems nesting block level elements in it. Now I being a normal user introduce a paragraph because I think that would help people read my posts better. And I also want lots of people to be able to read it. I assume that the system works well by default. According to the W3C, some browsers are stupid, and would fail to render your document if it doesn't follow the tree structure. Especially mobile browsers. Now this is so messed up.

Problem 3

The conversion to XHTML has typically been an Arab and Camel story for me. So, being a kind arab, I have often tried to keep quiet when the W3C camel discouraged me from using <center> and <b> tags: the two tags that could make all the difference to me, in HTML. I haven't fought back when it said I couldn't arbitrarily nest elements. I mean, browsers and DOM!! WTF?!!!

Now, the camel came into the tent and told me I had to escape links with queries in them:

<a href="http://www.google.com/search?q=XML+CDATA&oe=utf-8">
XML CDATA
</a>

and that's when I got pissed off and decided to kick the camel.

Life just got a li'l harder

2007-01-21T02:12:00.000+05:30

After dusting off the cobwebs off this blog, I write today. (Why do I feel like using the word: sabbatical?)

I just feel that life keeps getting harder for people as they grow older. Especially because of the learning factor.

Now, I start with my theory:

People usually learn a lot of stuff when they are young. It's like their brains are formatted and you've got all of your hard disk to use. It's like you can keep putting data in forever. The catch is, you can't archive your old data into tapes nor remove them. And you've got to put up with bad inode information as well. And plain old stupid data. :|

Example: I still remember something about Oxygen and symmetric sigma orbitals outside of pi orbitals in a valency diagram.

But as you keep stuffing things into it down the years, it eventually becomes full. So you try harder and harder to squeeze in more data, as your environment changes; People expect you to upgrade yours OS files once in a while. Or at least get the old programs to work with newly acquainted data. Unfortunately, the problem is SPACE. So, you try to relate the new data to the older ones, and basically compress the data (much like the LZW algorithm used in Zip files of today!) The major difference is you try to compress it as much as you can. You don't usually relate it to the last 3 years of information only. It could even be something you learned 10 years ago. So, you perform extremely greedy compression.

And, as more data keeps pouring in, more space is filled, more the need for compressing the data better, more the data to be searched, and eventually more effort in storing it. If it's something you have learned, it won't be stored (because it already was stored)

So, it's harder to learn new things as things keep piling up your unerasable hard disk.

I think that this degradation in one's ability to learn at a particular rate is inverse exponential with respect to time. Here is a simple mathematical curve I plotted to show the relation:

I feel that I'm on one of those years where I haven't got much space in my hard disk. I might probably find a treasure trove if i go back through time. Who knows! ;)

Computing Freedom

2005-08-02T05:22:00.000+05:30

DRM. Digital Rights Management. The one word that's meant to protect the rights of the publisher, at the cost of the consumer. It is a scheme that employs cryptographic measures to prevent people from copying/distributing media content, especially music.
What DRM can do for you:

You'll be asked to Pay-per-use of music, video, software that you already bought.
Allows the content producer to disable your rights to the published content through hardware measures, including permanent hardware disability, any time they wish to. Which means the music you bought, or the DVD your purhased may not be usable tomorrow, whenever the producer decides to do so.
Discourages indie content publishers from making content, because of the royalty involved. Which means sending people the video you shot or the music you composed or the software you wrote could cost you a fortune.
Curbing the freedom of the consumer, and milking him, by pushing him to pay a lot of money for a commercial service, though an alternate free service may be available. The latter may not be functional once the DRM comes in.
The law might, in the view of protecting the producers may enforce mandatory DRM, which means that your old DVD player or PC might become illegal, and owning it might equal a criminal offense.
The rights of the conniving capitalistic regime, who have the money to make content VS The rights of people like you and me.

And now, after Slashdottin', I read this article today, on Apple implementing a protective system (called TCPA) on their new hardware. Which means that the customer may not be able to install free operating systems like Linux, FreeBSD or Solaris and may be forced to BUY and install OS X or Windows Vista. This doesn't stop here. The customer might be forced into buying propreitary hardware, software and services by the respective hardware vendors.

And the vendors have made it very clear.
Make hardware to run only DRM enabled software. Make software run only on DRM hardware.

Which means that all future software, with futiristic capabilities, advanced features, and all the goodies will be signed with a DRM-2048-bit-key and will only work on DRM-enabled hardware, and not on your current PC or Mac. And those who fail to realise this shall purchase a new DRM-enabled PC or Mac, hence killing all the independant hardware/software manufacturers, in the quest for relishing the state-of-art in today's technology.

Which again proves my point. The system is BOGUS. A damn cruel, selfish scheme meant to quash the competition, using unfair oligopolistic means and political muscle. Do you want to lose your consumer freedom? Think again. Voice your opinion. Fight for freedom.

Against TCPA!

The meaning of Life

2005-07-23T05:16:00.000+05:30

At last! I've discovered it. At least I think I do.

I didn't run butt-naked on the streets shouting "Eureka!", but it was nevertheless, a realization for me. Before I tell you the meaning of life, a few words:

The whole world runs on faith. If you have faith in my words, it shall probably make you a happier person. I'm not asking for money, or anything. I'm not asking you to ditch your religion or culture. I'm not asking you to do anything exotic. All I need is just your faith. With that, this might be the religion of the future.
I'm not promising you a better life, or anything for that matter. You may probably get peace of mind if you follow what I say, or anything, or nothing as far as that goes.
This information is being passed as-is and without any warranty of any kind. So if you don't find what you're looking for, DON'T SUE ME.
I could as well put the whole propaganda into a book, into TV, advertise it online.. Whatever. I'm not going to do that. A blog is the perfect place for it to be: the best things in the world come for free.
You aren't probably going to get eternal salvation after reading this.
You may probably have known it, but you thought it was meaningless.
If you are just looking for plain old fun, read it. ;)
If you think that I've gone mad, keep your thoughts to yourself.
If you don't like any of this, don't do anything. But, If you want to pass this on, for ridicule or otherwise, you are free (and welcome!) to do so.

The meaning and purpose of life, our very existence is: to endure it. That's right: No other reason. We can't get away from the shackles of existence, till we die. Though it may sound religious, it's true that we are reborn again, and again, and again.

We aren't born to accomplish anything. We were born with absolutely no work in hand. Because accomplishment was never meant to be static. As you accomplish something, you go on.. that's what happens in life. There are lots of things happening in life and you know that. But you don't know all of what's happening out there. As you try to learn, more things crop up;

But life never changes. It evolves constantly. But then, we get trapped into thinking that we are supposed to be working towards betterment, which we already are into doing. So this doesn't mean that you stop innovating, but it means that it's time we looked back into what we were meant to do. The more we want to get involved in the real world, the more we think, the more we worry, the more we struggle and the more we think of doing it, the more we get whipped by the lashes of ignorance.

Do your job, love people, work hard, be right, be creative! That's the secret of enduring existence. Good luck!

The Lazy Life ...

2005-06-26T13:14:00.000+05:30

... a.k.a. I'm Lovin' It!

My typical day begins at 10 AM. I wake up, and mom makes the bestestestest filter coffee! Then bath, then eat (mmm.. BURP!). Then TV+siesta! Then go out. Then come back, eat dinner (uff.. mommah, i'm becomin' a baloon!) TV+Sleep. What a busy schedule!

When it comes to food, I never complain at home. My mom's been an ACE COOK, and have never stopped relishing her food. I am eternally thankful to the almighty for the same.

Mention TV and think CAS. CAS is the root of all evil. FTA channels are ohhkayy, but I'm missing out on all those nice movies and soaps thanks to CAS. Have started tuning to VH1... It's cool, plays some wonderful music. and no CRAP! So, there was this show called The Fabulous Life of the Hilton Sisters .. I was all like: "Wow! These two are this spoilt that they decided to make a whole series out of it!" but then, some time later, after watchin J-Lo's fabulous life, I decided that the Hilton sisters weren't all that fabulous after all. Heh heh. Then there's always POGO and ANIMAX; Watch Shaktimaan and Ghosts in the Shell: Standalone Complex.

Where there's a vehicle, there's a way. So there's my mom's Kinetic Honda (Curse the petrol price hike!) and I'm on it.

Going on a short trip to Kanyakumari. Shall be back and fill you guyz up on the details.. Happy hols, keep blogging!

All good things usually come to an end...

2005-06-18T19:04:00.000+05:30

So has my PS 2. It's official now, I'm leaving for home.

Last weekend, myself and Sandeep had a great time. We went to Shirdi and had a darshan of our beloved sadguru, Sai. Our stay was very blissful, and a welcome change from the city life. We also went to Shani Shinganapur, Nashik Sangam, and Trayambak, and came back...

Last week was very sentimental, as we said goodbye to our colleagues at our practise school, Polaris Software Labs Ltd.

Today, I saw Anniyan in Fame, Malad. (Expect a movie review soon!) I plan to pack up tomorrow and Monday, I shall be boarding the train to Chennai, and with that I bid farewell to Mumbai.

King Size Life

2005-06-06T17:32:00.000+05:30

Last weekend was AWESOME!!

This Saturday, myself and Sandeep went to Adlabs IMAX, the only IMAX Dome theater in India. There are only three IMAX theatres in India, the other two being in Hyderabad and Ahmedabad respectively (both are flat IMAX 3D theatres). There, in the gaming arcade, we zipped on a nice bouncy ride in Thrillarium, in a short film called "Mazy Mine". Then we got to play a real game of Pong, and we tied at 6 each. Then after a quick bite, we went to see Robots.

First, we were overwhelmed by the IMAX (Think big) experience. IMAX supposedly features a projection system that's very powerful that it can use the moon as a screen, and a sound system that delivers a whopping 12KW of power output; Cool! We were greated by an intro IMAX movie of A. R. Rahman's Maa, Tujhe Salaam ... it filled us with an immense sense of national pride to see our tricolor on the magnificent dome screen.

Second, we loved the movie. The story features a young robot named Sparky who grows up to pursue his dream of becoming an inventor. As he moves on to Robot City, he discovers that the times have changed for the worse, thanks to the villains. A charming story, woven with brilliant humour and screenplay, ends with an action-packed climax and Sparky saves the day.

Third, I loved the graphics, and as realistic and complex as it can get. The animation was quite smooth and had a lot of elements to the scenes. Blue Sky Studios have done a lot of work, and CGIStudio has apparently grown since Ice Age. (And watch out for Ice Age 2!!) It is interesting to note that CGIStudio uses a renderer which can use direct 3D equations to generate the mesh/patches rather than polygons, resulting in better, easier, faithful modeling of the real world.. (the other renderers use simpler primitive polygons!) Making these movies involves a lot of effort, including Model sculpting, Rigging, Material creation, Volumetric effects, Dynamic Lighting through raytracing, Virtual Cameras and then Animation. Rendering each frame (1/24th of a second), calculating IK, multiple passes, post production and storage can take hours on a renderfarm (with hundreds of fast computers!) Blah this, Blah that! So there ... i've proved that these things can be very complex!

There are a few more excellent animation studios, and they are releasin' some nice movies this summer ... I can't wait to watch Cars by PIXAR and Madagascar by Dreamworks Animation SKG.

On Sunday, we picked up some trinkets at Big Bazaar in the MovieTime mall, Goregaon. After tucking in some Russian Salad and Pasta (mmmmm, Yummy!), we went to watch our second weekend movie ... D.

It's a very realistic story about how a man once lovingly called "Deshu" became the biggest underworld don ... the D. It's a very violent movie, and strictly not for kids. The movie was quite straightforward and fast, though I somehow felt that they squeezed the climax. The introductory "All characters ... are fictious. Any resemblance to ... is coincidental" made us laugh, but then ... you gotta make a movie legally and what not.

Overall, a smashin' weekend, and had lotsa' fun!! :)

Last W33k3nd

2005-05-24T13:35:00.000+05:30

20 years of darkness. 7 days of hell. No one could survive it. We did!

This saturday, we watched NAINA. A nice movie, for one. Gave us a jolt of the BHOOT experience. Urmila plays the role of Naina Shah, who gets supernatural eye-sight after her eye operation. So that's what the movie is all about... A few observations/conclusions:

Indian thriller movies are special in their own way. They rely more on silly things like falling objects, illusions, darkness and sounds. The THX surround sound system always adds on to the effect.

Indian movie physicians are exceptionally trained to transplant the choiciest of organs into the Hero/Heroine.

People who recieve eye-transplants don't usually watch TV/go out with da hunk hero the very next day (as it happens in many movies). It was well depicted in this movie. Kudos!

Indian movies always revolve around conventional ghost technology for thrillers. It's time we got ourselves updated on that.

An Indian movie without filmi dance/music is usually not-distracting and worth every buck you spend.

Don't get interested when movie ads use any or all of these keywords: inspiration, musical, love story, classic, epic, passion and fear. Go for the more practical movie.

In general: Don't judge a book by the movie. Don't judge a movie by the trailer.

Enough said, here's a colourful pic of Urmila for you to drool about ... (from the movie!)

Then myself and Sandeep went to the Bandra Bandstand. We played in the waters for a while, and saw a very lovely sunset. Also noticed that this was an official public-display-of-affection-place, coz people come over there to do nothing but just that. :P

Then we went to the Marine Drive, and sat on the rocks beside the sea. The experience was enthralling, and the sea-breeze was fantastic! Then we hitched on to Mani's Lunch Home in Matunga, where you get authentic South Indian cuisine. I felt like I had never eaten food in years. We ate and ate until our bellies started paining ... Home is where the stomach is.

Controversy sells more than Fact

2005-05-09T13:00:00.000+05:30

I am a common man. My sources of information are the daily news, the hoardings and the biz. What I get to read, feel and percieve is what they write, and needn't be what is, or what should be. Which is why I am writing this.

What I get to read everyday is nothing more than plain "controversy". So, there are a hell lotta' things happening in and around the world I live. However, the ones who feel the brunt of the media aren't the Joe and Jill somebodies. Only when you are popular, rich or when the media can make some money outta' using your name, do you make it into the media, the Page 3.

So, this article doesn't, in any way mean that media is all about making money. But media is about making money too. What you get is written by people and not by machines. Which is why we should treat news with caution and discretion.

Simple example: Britney Spears makes it to the headlines, and your friendly neighbourhood pickpocket doesn't. Not unless he's committed quite a few crimes and has got away with 'em. Who cares a damn what happens to any celebrity, when It is definitely more practical and meaningful to know about your own locality. I think that newspapers ought to realize this and print more "meaningful, practical and useful" material than "stuff that sells".

Comments, please?

The deeds of Shiva - Elephanta

2005-05-08T16:12:00.000+05:30

So, Sandeep and I decided to go out this Saturday... First, we went to the Mahalakshmi mandir, and took a darshan of the beautiful, ever merciful goddess of wealth.

From there, me went via Churchgate, to the Gateway of India. From there, we hitched a ferry on to the Elephanta island. It was the farthest I had gone on sea.. and the cruise was magnificent!

The island got its name from an elephant statue which welcomed the first Britishers on these islands. Before that, It used to be called Gharapuri, or the island of caves.

It's a bane that tourists get milked and exploited so much, in India. First you have to pay to get in, and pay to see the caves, and pay more to drink water, eat food and what not ... Well, after paying enough, and a small uphill trek, we could get a glimpses of those caves. It appeared to us, as a half-constructed Shiva temple, with lots of nice statues and lingas. Most of the statues were destroyed, thanks to the ignorant firangees before us, who supposedly broke these down for fun and amusement... what a shame!

Then, we went on the back side of the hill, climbed up to see the mighty bandhuks on the Cannon hill. The view was breath-taking from the top! It kinda' reminded me of playing Age of Kings. Well, we were quite tired after that. We climbed down and waved goodbye to the enchanted island and it's marvellous relics...

Quality of Life

2005-05-06T17:13:00.000+05:30

So, all along, we have been making our processors faster, software more portable, rockets fly higher, stock markets zippier, food more efficiently and money more fluid...

But how many of us have made our lives any simpler and qualitative? When have we ever sat back to relax, to take a break, to give our life more meaning as "a whole"? All along we've been doing TQM and Six Sigma to our products, our processes, our office.. Doesn't our own life count?

Let me explain this: So, beyond a limit, no matter how fast your processors run, no matter how your money flows through your assets, there are always things in life that need you. Without you, they just don't make sense. So, if all you need out of your PC is just being able to hook up to the net, listen to music or type a few documents, you don't bother if your PC is a P3 or a 64-bit Duron. You are there, things happen just the way you want them to, and nothing else matters to you. Right? Just like that, if all that you require out of your life is a job, a family, some wealth and nothing more, you should learn to be satisfied with your life and make fuller use of it.

Why make more than what's required? Beyond a certain limit, what you make out of technology or research becomes probably a wonderful concept in science, an achievement.. but nothing more. So, if you know that you have reached that limit, why push furthur? I mean, you haven't certainly haven't seen that many innovations in ear buds, have you? Because ear buds are "just right". You don't need to add a tooth pick and call it "ear pick" or "tooth bud" .. it never works. Rather, you find ways of packaging ear buds, selling them, making money out of them.

Now that i've said what i've wanted to say.. Think, Live a better life!

Mumbai, through a lens

2005-05-05T11:45:00.000+05:30

Well, my father came back here after a period of 36 years, and was flooded with memories ... nostalgia. He noticed quite a few things: The Trams around the Flora fountain are not there anymore; Marine Drive, supposedly the Queen's Necklace, lost it's even-sized buildings to some of the recently constructed skyscapers.. now all that remains of this necklace are the street-lights; The Chaupati has gained (rather, lost) in filth, pollution and erosion; The VT renamed into the CST; BEST is as reliable as ever; Shopping Malls such as Inorbit, have made it easier to eat, shop and watch a weekend movie; Malad is a big work-in-progress; Women ... no comments!! ;)

Beyond the Sea

2005-03-03T14:19:00.000+05:30

This saturday, went to see the Juhu chaupati, a very colorful place to see, especially in the evenings. After I dipped my legs into the Arabian Sea, I felt like I had crossed both the eastern and western ends of India .. Paradoxically, it didn't remind me of dear old Bessie at all. As I looked onto the deep waters, I was reminded of one wonderful Robbie Williams song.

This sunday, I went to work in the office for a change.. Tried to participate in the Code Jam, but the stupid server didn't work. Just my luck. I reached home late night.

My Last Weekend

2005-02-26T16:07:00.000+05:30

So, the last week was very eventful.. I went to visit my friends in Pune .. It's a 3 hour train journey from Mumbai, in the Intercity Express. So, I reached there at 10:00AM. My friend n wingee, Chowki a.k.a. Arun picked me up at the station. We headed for having our b'fast somewhere in Raastapet. Then we surfed the net for sometime near Koregaon Park Road ..

Afternoon session, we walked all the way upto the station, where we had our lunch. I ordered one South Indian Special Masala Dosa, which was actually a combination of paper+masala+coconut+onion+cashew dosa (and a whole spoon of butter!!!!) .. It is the best one I have ever had, so far..

Post lunch, we went up to E-Square, where we met up with Anand, Divya and Sandhya. After sinking into one whole Guava lava, I picked up this book at Crossword..

Then, we went on to Inox, one more multiplex.. I shopped at the Pantaloons there. After meeting with my friend there, we went on to have some grub in the nearby McD..

That night, we saw The Aviator. It's a movie par brilliance.. The dialogues, story and action.. very well knit together.. I wouldn't be surprised if it bagged all the Oscars it was nominated for.

That night, I stayed with Alok, Pankaj, Karthik and Sabya .. It was a very hospitable stay and the next morning, we went out to see BISIL. After that, we did some shopping in the FC and JM roads. Then we went to the mandir.. the view was magnificent from the top!!!

After that, we were joined by our friends KC and Subashini.. We had our dinner in an restaurant in Aundh and then took a cosy Volvo back home to Borivali.

It was the best time of my life!!!

My Days of Boredom

2005-02-18T23:11:00.000+05:30

I am just lazing my time. It feels very empty when you have almost nothing to do.. very recently, have started a big kill time spree on

It's a nice online community, probably the best way to stay in touch with all of your friends. It's the perfect substitute for instant messaging. You can meet people who share the same interests as you do... If you haven't joined it yet, do mail me. I shall send you an invite.

Judgment Day

2005-02-15T09:32:00.000+05:30

For me, yesterday was something far from what people celebrate as V-day.. First, I had to catch that BEST bus, far from what it's name implies :( There was a big traffic jam near Andheri and I had to walk all the way upto SEEPZ. Then, to top it all, there was a heck load of work. I left office at 9:15 PM, and was starving when I reached home. Eating was the only sane thing that happened in my life ATM. So, that's all from my corner for now.

How to dismantle an atomic bomb

2005-02-14T13:31:00.000+05:30

This weekend passed away unusually quietly. I wanted to see BLACK, but did not go out. First, after a long time, I was doing some Allegro hacking.

Second, I spent time to listen to U2 - How to dismantle an atomic bomb. The music is quite good, and the songs are just flow like little drops of heaven... My current favorites are "Yahweh", "Man and a woman" and "Vertigo".

Imps and Manhacks are eating me everyday!!!

2005-02-11T15:48:00.000+05:30

It's quite droll after I return from my office .. These are two of my favourite games:

Doom 3 is quite a scary game. So, if you turn of all the lights, have surround speakers (and a high volume), be prepared to have a very scary experience.. Technically, the lighting and shadow effects are spectacular (especially in the Tomiko Reactor DM level) .. It's a game that you have to play in parts so you don't get overwhelmed ...

Half-Life 2 is a game beyond brilliance. It isn't quite as scary, but it features immensely wonderful gameplay. It's physics system is one more reason as to why the game plays so incredibly well, and believeably. The AI is top notch; In spite of all the realistic graphics, this game can run on a very low end system. It is the most enjoyable FPS I have ever played till date.

An eventful week

2005-02-08T13:19:00.000+05:30

First, and foremost, feast your eyes on this:

I'll tell you what it is: I own this thing. My faithful old video card, based on an nVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64 had a sorrowful death. I have purchased an nVIDIA GeForce FX 5700 LE based XFX card. Now, it isn't as slow as many people claim it to be :P It has a nice CineFX 2.0 engine, with support for VS2.0+ and PS 2.0+. It's a very very stripped down version of a FX 5900.. The only down point is the memory and GPU clock speed, but then, this is an amazing overclocking card with the lowest TCO. It's quite good, worth every buck, and i'm very satisfied with it.

Next, we went to see this Shabd movie at Thakur.. We learnt a valuable lesson that trailers are often over-hyped. I will give it a 2.5 stars rating!! Nothing more. Watch at your own risk.

Next, I'm happy to announce that I've moved my web page onto BAFsoft. Here is my new site: http://guilt.bafsoft.net.

The cream of life

2005-02-01T16:55:00.000+05:30

Mumbai has a lot to offer, when it comes to food. The best part about this city is, one can choose to live life as he/she pleases. Extravagant or affordable, It's all there. For example, there is this Park View restaurant, where we eat. Opposite to that, I found one very interesting ice cream shop. The best thing is, it's all made right before your eyes, the way you want it. Rose Falooda and Fruit Salad are the chef's specials there;If he likes you, you'll get another full scoop to wash down. You wouldn't wanna spend a mini fortune eating ice creams in Park View. Get the point?

Page 3

2005-01-31T11:18:00.000+05:30

We (Abhijit, Maho n myself) went to Thakur Cinemas yesterday to see this brilliant movie!! Reality bites, big time. There is a lot of irony expressed in this movie: A hero who goes on to preach about safe sex meets the girl he impregnated by .. oops! Then there's this thing about a Bollywood funeral, where the "Who's who?" come in to pay homage for other reasons .. End of the movie, the girl returns back to become a heroine, losing her respect and dignity (realizing that's all she has to lose now ;)

The movie has wonderful humour!! All of us lauded the wonderful policeman who gives out dialogues like: "Arrey Tom Cruise ..", "Be an Indian. Then be Western." and "Excuse me .. what did you say? .. This .. vernacular policeman .. is a masters in literature!!"; Then, there is this instance where Pearl hits back on the man who picks on Anjali; Then, when all the car-drivers sit out and discuss on what's hot and what's not :)

Overall, it's a must see for every person out there!! 4.5/5

And the SEEPZ SEZ long haired freaky people need not apply!

2005-01-29T13:16:00.000+05:30

Today, I'm gonna talk about SEEPZ. It is in East Andheri. It is a place which has a lot of offices. They are in what are called Standard Design Factories, or SDFs. So, Polaris has offices in SDF-5, SDF-2 (where I am) and SDF-6. To enter into SEEPZ, or leave it, a gate pass is compulsory. Failing which, you can be (mis)handled by the long arm of the law, very severely. It has lots of ATMs and Canteens. Now .. they are also working on something called SEEPZ ++ ..

Jai Hind!

2005-01-26T19:18:00.000+05:30

I am no president of India, but I wish all of my countrymen a Happy Republic Day!

Practice School

2005-01-25T11:22:00.001+05:30

There are many things about practice school.

First, if you are in a city like mumbai, you'll spend one fifth of your time in travelling. It gets worse when you get bussed for as much as two and a half hours in the mornings.

Second, if you really have nothing to do, then start a blog.

Third, if you really like your work as much as I do, then work hard. It pays off in the long run. You'll end up feeling like you have achieved big things in a day.

Fourth, it's not a rhetoric evaluation thingie where you keep writing diaries and reports. The focus is on the job.

Fifth, enjoy life! You are probably going places, so why not have a good time? ;)

Mumbaiyya Life

2005-01-23T13:22:00.000+05:30

This is the best life! Ever since I entered this city, my life has been going very well. It's quite hectic, all right.. but one can get used to it very well!! The place has the best people i've ever met.

My place is in Borivali, East. One has to do some trekking to reach my place. If one is lucky, one might spot a few leopards on the way;

My everyday life starts at 6:30 in the morning. Have a bath, dress up, walk upto national park, take a bus to Kandivali Police Station, catch the company bus, go to SEEPZ. This can take upto 3 whole hours!!! Overall, I'll end up looking like a pig at the end of the day, it's that weary.

It's a simple life, But I enjoy it.

Swades

2005-01-18T22:49:00.000+05:30

This is a wonderful movie!!! I'm not going to give it an unbelievable rating and all ... But it quite reminds us that we as Indians ought to be thinking about our country seriously. The music is quite nice, and sparkles with "Yeh Tara Woh Tara" and "Yun Hi Chal". The characters are well wowen, be it the Postmaster or Mohan Bhargava. This is not a review. So please watch the movie and you shall agree with me.

Signed up today!!

2005-01-15T12:42:00.000+05:30

Well,

So many people are blogging nowadays; Why shouldn't I? This is my second blog. (my older blog ID is deprecated!)

Apart from my web page, http://www.geocities.com/kkgoesnuts, I'll be keying in some of my finest cuts and emotions into this place...

So sit back, have a nice cup of coffee, and enjoy!