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[Jul. 18th, 2008|02:18 pm] |
Today's XKCD
See how in the first rectangle the chairs have wheels. I wonder what stereotyping this implies. |
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[Mar. 19th, 2008|01:08 pm] |
Arthur C Clarke dies at age 90. His short stories and novels are so awe inspiring and wonderful. But most of all i liked that most of this stories also dealt with morality.
The story of an brilliant engineer who wants to construct a stairway to the heaven from a mountain which also houses a religious leader. The story of idyllic settlement of earthlings. The story of how humanity goes for the stars when sun goes nova.
Of course 2001, and the Rama series is also a very good read.
I hope the perspective Clarke offered in his writings inspires/prepares us for a better future. |
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[Nov. 30th, 2007|12:24 pm] |
Danish Kaneria was soon on, though he came with gifts for Dravid. With a cover drive to bring up India's fifty and a lovely, wristy late cut in Kaneria's first two overs, Dravid quickly announced that he was wearing the trousers in this relationship.
From Cricinfo's report of Test match at Eden Gardens. |
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| Shopping season |
[Nov. 30th, 2007|12:10 pm] |
You know its Christmas shopping season when XKCD comic strip prods its readers to buy big flat screen TV.
I have ordered few XKCD t-shirts from the store. Its been more than 2 weeks since the 'order shipping confirmation email' was sent. I have not received anything as yet! :(. I just hope the t-shirts are worth the wait.
UPDATE: I did get the t-shirts today. Took more than 3 weeks. I did not find the quality of the prints on the t-shirt very good. But I am happy. The t-shirt has this comic strip written on it. |
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| The enemy's gate is down! |
[Oct. 10th, 2007|11:16 am] |
Yes, I have been reading Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game. Came to know about the book via the awesome xkcd comic strip.
Despite some skepticism expressed a good friend and collegue, i picked the book up during my weekend trip to Crossword.
I am very glad I bought the book. It has been long time since a compulsive read has kept me stay up late. I have not yet got to the end of the book, so hold back the spoilers. I love the characterization. The book reads very easy. Although it does not evoke sense of wonder that Sir Arthur Clarke's books, its a damn good read.
Update:
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[Aug. 10th, 2007|11:03 am] |
Dileep Premachandran on crickinfo writes :
Oh, for a jelly bean: One person who could have benefited from an assortment of jelly beans was Matt Prior. At least, a boiled sweet that made the gloves sticky might have helped him gather a ball or two. The dropped chance off Sidebottom with Tendulkar on 20 made you wonder what might have happened had a certain Steve Waugh been at the crease - presumably a jibe that included the words "You", "series" and "dropped" in a particular order.
Oh, I wish this becomes true, for Sachin's sake. I hope he goes on to make a big score and seal the series victory! |
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| Meaning of life |
[Jan. 15th, 2007|12:02 pm] |
The meaning of Life
...is to not find a new internet information search engine. But I am very impressed by the quality of results produced by factbites.com for the given query.
*****
While looking at Wikipedia description for Meaning of Life, came across this snippet that made a lot of sense.
But, like philosophy, science doesn't rest when it comes to asking and answering questions, and scientists have tackled each of the five interpretations of the meaning of life question head-on, attempting to answer each from the perspective of what exists, or in relation to the human being (for which science itself serves), offering empirical answers from relevant scientific fields...
<snipped/>
The questions "What is valuable in life?" and "What is the purpose of, or in, (one's) life?" are staples of the social sciences. These questions are explored by scientists every day, from the perspective of the life forms being studied, in an effort to explain the behaviors and interactions of human beings (and every other type of animal as well). The study of value has resulted in the fields of Economics and Sociology. The study of motives (which reflect what is valuable to a person) and the perception of value are subjects of the field of Psychology.
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[Nov. 23rd, 2006|11:28 am] |
IPTC is standard specification to store meta data in a JPEG photograph. Meta data is the information other than the photo itself, like location at which this photo was taken, whether flash was used while taking the photo etc.
Now a part of location definition is also the country codes. IPTC follows the three letter country codes that are arrived at by the ISO.
Apart from using those codes, IPTC also uses the following extra codes for locations where no formal designations exist (sic) :
XSP : SPace
XSE : at SEa
XIF : In Flight
I found it very presumptuous and funny; although for the purposes IPTC addresses this may be very practical. |
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| Cricket |
[Nov. 22nd, 2006|10:39 pm] |
It is so good to have cricket back on ESPN. No more 5 ball overs.
Tendulkar looks just so much better. On the other end Kaif looks so un-gainly..
Hoping this turns out to be a good match. |
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| Driving |
[Nov. 20th, 2006|08:34 pm] |
So you are driving in your car, indicating you are going to make a left turn half a mile before you actually do; and right when you are about to make the turn a bike squeezes past you from the left.
The car in front of you is going agonizingly slow.
There may be some exasperating moments that frustrate you to no end while you are driving. I am sure every one of us has his own pet peeves and favorite horror stories of driving experiences.
I have often wondered why so many people are so on the edge and unforgiving about the strangers they share the road with. Majority of people would be lot more courteous when they meet strangers 'outside'. This is not just the case with Indian road users. I think may be the reason is that all us consider Driving to be an 'art' that each of us mastered. A lot of people that has been driving for some time thinks they are a good driver. (I am excluding people that drive for a living, professional drivers from the 'people' i am talking about)
There is implicit expectation of Quality we come to expect from other drivers, and when they violate this contract we get angry. I am not talking about the Quality that is measured when one applies for a license. This Quality i am talking about here is kinda like "Show me how you drive, and I will tell you what kind of a Man you are".
Ok, I did have a point when started writing this .. :). The darn point is driving is supposed to be fun, a means of getting from one place to another. So next time you are on the road do not be so critical of the stop-start car thats infront of you. If you are driving in Hyd, and that car is a Swift, the driver of the car could be me! |
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[Nov. 20th, 2006|12:02 pm] |
Martin Scorsese makes English look good. Go watch The Departed. If you like The Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction you will love this movie.
There are some amazing scenes, but the one i liked most is one where Leonardo bullies the shink into giving him a prescription.
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[Nov. 18th, 2006|02:06 am] |
Milton Friedman died today.
He is the author of one of the books that formulated what I value in Economics. His book also illustrated how simple and far reaching theories in Economics are. |
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| Eye in the Sky |
[Nov. 10th, 2006|08:45 pm] |
Eye in the Sky by Philip Dick has to be the best of his novels I have read so far.
Like many other of PKD's books, the story feels very weird and deals with alternative realities. How would your world be if you were the God of it ?
Eight characters in the books meet with an accident that triggers series of visits to the worlds in which each of the characters is the master. Each of these 'realities' are palatable to some while replusive to others. The ending just leaves you gasping. |
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| Koti bookshops |
[Nov. 7th, 2006|08:51 am] |
Just read in the news that the bookshops in Koti, Hyderabad are brought down by the Municipality. Reason given is that these businesses were taking up the footpath. I hope they do not ban the sunday book market that happens in the same area. I can honestly say that these bookshops and the Sunday market have let me discover books that affected my choices in life. Be it Rand or beauty of a Fourier Transform.
Now anyone that has studied in Hyderabad would remember making annual or bi-annual trip to these bookstores to buy/rent out the text books. It was such a hassle free experience, you just show up to the bookstore and you do not even have to pronounce the author names but the guy will magically pull out the book from pile. Sometimes you could even ask the guy for a more approachable indian alternatives of classical and hard to understand prescribed ones.
These bookshops are typical example of contrasting style of ameteur business Vs organized 'professional' bookSTORES. (See what i did with the shop and store thing..hehe :)
During my 4 years of graduation,as i remember my trips to these bookstores; most of the times it would be first of the very few times i browse the contents of the book that i was renting out. I remember how i would always promise to myself that this semester it would be different and i would get myself to solve those end of chapter questions. There have been occasions where in spite of evey thing my professors would do, I would be drawn to a subject and end up keeping the well written text book.
Its a shame that these shops have been pull down, while nothing is done about the monstrous malls that not only occupy the footpath but some part of the road as well.
Update : These books shops are shifted to another location near the 'Subway'. |
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[Nov. 6th, 2006|10:14 pm] |
Vengeance is a lazy form of grief.
Now thats a noble and a very christian thing to say. I am not religious but i do value life. I have never experienced a scale of grief that motivates revenge. But the play of the words almost seems like a cliche... |
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[Oct. 15th, 2006|08:49 pm] |
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So India won the first match in Champions Trophy. It was good fun listening to Munaf Pantel in his Man of the Match speech. |
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| Acquisitions |
[Oct. 9th, 2006|10:18 pm] |
Apart from a new car that is named after a very fast moving Ape Man, I am really excited about three Science Fiction books i bought recently.
- Star Maker : Olaf Stapledon
- Eye in the Sky : PKD
- Confessions of a crap Artist : PKD
This is what the back of the book says about Star Maker:
'There is nothing else in all of literature quite like Stapledon's two cosmological novels. Every few pages contain all the material of an ordinary science fiction novel condensed to something like prose poetry; and their profound view of our place in the scheme of things is a joy to experience.'
Wow! Hope the book lives up to the promise.
Wonder if the second of the cosmological novel by Stapledon is this one ? |
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| Flow my tears, the Policeman said |
[Sep. 28th, 2006|12:31 am] |
What music Indian Google Talk users are listening to ?
Jeez, you guys! Get off Floyd already.
[Disclaimer : I have not asked GMail to take a peek at what music I listen to. And Oh! The blog title has no relation with content. Thats just the book i have finished reading.] |
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[Sep. 2nd, 2006|04:36 pm] |
So walking back from office i noticed this ad on billboard that says.
"The best of the conversations are when she listens to what you are not saying" (or something like that, this is not verbatim).
There is a picture of cozy couple below who are obviously in love..Aawww!
The is ad is for a... Bank, the ad then goes on to say "We understand Relationships, we have been in relationships for past 163 years.."!
I wonder if i can take a picture of this and send it across to Jay Leno, or Jerry Sienfeld. |
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