The Blog

of names

2006-11-13T06:48:00.000-08:00

Though Shakespeare (rather who ever) said what's in the name; we always associate a lot to the names and surnames. Back in the old times when Doordarshan was not eclipsed by hundreds of cable TV channels, a super serial "Surabhi" was telecast. It touched so many hearts that people started naming new-born movies by the serial's name.

Another wave hit the coast in the early 90s when Aishwarya Rai won the Miss World (or MIssUniverse?). Several new born babies were named 'Aishwarya'. Here is a story of an 'Aishwarya'. A young girl named 'Aishwarya' was always asked by her friends, school-mates, relatives whther she is named after Aishwarya Rai. Her answer was 'No'. Many kept silent on this answer. Some further asked if she was named after the Queen Aishwarya of Nepal. This kept going on for days. Finally, one of her teachers guessed the true meaning. 'Aishwarya' means wealth, prosperity. The girl was indeed very happy to find meaning of her name appreciated.

Such is the sentiments with names. The latest I heard was a new serial that is going to start. It is named "Ravan". Need I say which wave is going to hit us?

quotes

2006-11-06T22:54:00.000-08:00

"There is no branch of mathematics, however abstract, which may not someday be applied to the phenomena of the real world." - Nikolai Lobachevsky

"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties - he integrates empirically" - Albert Einstein

Current reading: Alice in wonderland by Lewis Carol
Current Music: Yeh Honsla - Dor

fact?

2006-08-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

Read the complete source from: Pune Caught in a Whirlpool

"Mumbai, the economic capital of the country has a population of 170 lacs has 11.5 lacs vehicles.
Pune has a population of 30 lacs and has more vehicles - about 13 lacs."

Current mood: Melancholy

ah Mumbai

2006-08-21T06:22:00.000-07:00

Few years back the Mumbaikars displayed their utter ignorance to Science by offering milk to Ganesh idols in the city. One would wonder how a large number of people believed that the idols are drinking milk. There was reason to believe that this could happen once. Alas, it happened again when people started to believe that dues some Godman's grace the water of Mahim beach has turned sweet. I am absolutely disappointed.

Current reading: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

random thought

2006-08-10T02:44:00.000-07:00

Being very practical is not always practical.

humour?

2006-08-04T11:08:00.000-07:00

Mr. recruiting consultant,

This is with reference to your mail about the excellent opportunity in your company. I am facing extreme trouble controlling my emotions. I do not want to waste more time of mine and wish to convey that stop bugging me. You are absolutely not going to get my updated profile.

--
MS.

Mr. Recruiting consultant wrote:

Hi soud

we have shortlisted your cv and wanted to see u in person if u are intrested send me your updated profile to discuss in detail

thanks

of gaps

2006-08-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

I have observed one thing since childhood. The obituary for celebrities always says that the gap created by the person's death would never fill up completely. Most of the times I could not see the gap. I would not go into specific cases for the dead ones not come to haunt me. As I grew up I realized that there were some gaps. One such gap is Kishor Kumar. Today's his birth anniversary and Radio Mirchi has been kind enough to play his songs for an hour.

***********************************************

It is said that both Fidel Castro and his brother Raul Castro are not seen since last few days. Despite US being so strong and everything the Castro have been able attract lots of media attention for years.

***********************************************

Current Music: Kaate nahi katate
Current mood: sleepy

sudden memory

2006-08-02T10:32:00.000-07:00

Few years back a very hillarious TV serial was aired on to the idiot box called "Dekh bhai dekh". The eldest member of the family was a peace loving person who talked the least. One episode was focussed him where he suddenly starts creating poems. Nobody in the family appreciates much though. I suddenly remembered one of them, which goes like:

bhor ke ujaale mein;
apne ghar ke baade mein;
ek kabutar dolta hain;
kaano mein kuchh bolta hain;

world e-book fair

2006-07-25T22:49:00.000-07:00

http://www.worldebookfair.com is hosting a month long book fair. One can download some of the ebooks from there.

Fermat's last flight

2006-07-25T02:35:00.000-07:00

Taken from a post by Steve Simmons (scs@iti.org) in alt.folklore.computers:

Some famous mathematician was to give a keynote speech at a conference. Asked for an advance summary, he said he would present a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem--but they should keep it under their hats. When he arrived, though, he spoke on a much more prosaic topic. Afterwards the conference organizers asked why he said he'd talk about the theorem and then didn't. He replied this was his standard practice, just in case he was killed on the way to the conference.

*****************

Current reading:

Scientific American
Red Dragon by Thomas Harris

science and human feelings

2006-07-20T01:48:00.000-07:00

A reader of "Time" writes:

"Science has ruined everything for lovers and poets. The moon is no longer the silver symbol of love, but a pockmarked ball of dust. And love? It is no longer a many splendored thing, but a slosh of dopamine over a caudate nucleus."

How true. Colors are nothing but light reflected from different surfaces with varying wavelength; intepreted by the human brain as colors. Too much of anything is bad. And science too qualifies as one of those 'anything'.

football

2006-05-30T03:40:00.000-07:00

Totti is going to wear number 10 for Italy.

what's happening

2006-05-25T23:34:00.000-07:00

1. Radio Mirchi now runs upto 1 AM in the night.

2. Today is Black Day

3. Mohammad Kaif's memory - "he is a batsman" is back.

4. An interesting thought: Curiosity may have killed a whole cat, but Schrodinger only killed half.

JFTSOB

2006-05-07T22:48:00.000-07:00

Three statisticians go out hunting together. After a while they spot a solitary rabbit. The first statistician takes aim and overshoots. The second aims and undershoots. The third shouts out "We got him!"

brown dwarf

2006-04-06T22:21:00.000-07:00

The good old understanding of stars and planets that we know from school days is getting obscure. Read here

"Gollum, Gollum!"

Last book read: Harry Potter and the Half blood prince
Current reading: A prison diary by FF8282 (Jeffrey Archer)
Current mood: Accomplished/Anxious

poem

2006-03-21T02:48:00.000-08:00

When the black breath blows
and death's shadow grows
and all lights pass,
come athelas! come athelas!
Life to the dying
In the King's hand lying!

LOTR rocks!!

quotes

2006-03-15T01:17:00.000-08:00

"Where there is matter, there is geometry." - Johannes Kepler
In science there is only Physics, rest all is stamp collecting - Lord Kelvin
"Integration by parts is always good, even if it does not get you anywhere you still feel good." -Dr. Kent Goodrich
Calculus has its limits.
The direction really doesn't have to be normalized.

happy holi

Last read: Scavenger hunt by Christopher Pike (Recommended for horror lovers)

next in series?

2006-03-08T21:38:00.000-08:00

Who would be next in the series (These are Golden ball winners)

1982 Spain Paolo ROSSI (ITA)
1986 Mexico Diego MARADONA (ARG)
1990 Italy Salvatore SCHILLACI (ITA)
1994 USA ROMARIO (BRA)
1998 France RONALDO (BRA)
2002 Korea/Japan Oliver KAHN (GER)

quotes

2006-03-02T06:38:00.000-08:00

Interesting quotes:

"Have you ever seen a girl with beautiful mind ?"

"Have you ever seen a beautiful girl with mind ?"

"Have you ever seen a girl with mind ?"

For the sake of whatever I am avoiding to quote the originators of these quotes.

Current music: Aap ke kamare mein
Current mood: zonked

quiz

2006-02-22T22:55:00.000-08:00

1. Why do we have round poles for telephone wires and "I" cross section poles for wires used for transmission of electricity?
2. Why is Red color use to indicate stop (traffic) signal?
3. Why fog lights are Yellow?
4. One can see Cable TV wires that run from terrace to terrace in the neighbourhood. If these adjacent terraces are as apart as 60-70 feet, how do they put these wires in place from one terrace to another. (Helicopter - is not a valid answer)
5. You are stationary and an object comes towards you travelling 'p' times the speed of light what would you see?

Edit: Answers posted in comments section.

Last reading: Lord of the rings (Part I)
Current reading: Harry Potter - The order of the phoenix

unhappy?

2006-01-31T22:53:00.000-08:00

Would a batman be unhappy after scoring 53 before getting out? I think Salman Butt might be. because his score of 53 is the lowest of the 7 batsmen who got out in the 2nd inning.

God: Can it start raining in Karachi and continue for 2 days? Please, treat this as urgent.

sher-lock holmes

2006-01-31T05:01:00.000-08:00

How many brothers did Sherlock Holmes have? Are there other relatives too?

nagpur trip write-up

2006-01-23T04:33:00.000-08:00

Visited Nagpur last month. A write-up was in order and here it is:

1. The train for Nagpur was to start from Kurla Terminus (officially, Lokmanya Tilak Terminus). Being from Bombay, I underestimated time, and managed to reach the terminus gate arely 2 minutes before the departure time. Before I could get out from the auto-rikshaw few touts gathered there and started saying "howrah express na? abhi do minute pahle chali gayi, chinta mut kijiye, gaadi mil jayegi, 300 rupaye lagenge!" (You want to catch Howrah express, right? It just left 2 minutes back. But don't worry, you will get the train. It would take Rs. 300 for that). I knew it was just 2 minutes to the departure time. Still there was a possibility that I could fall prey to their trap. But thanks to an article in DNA, I knew the modus operandi of these touts. So I told them that I don't care if the train has left and started running towards the plaform. The train was very much there, waiting for me. Running hard, I reached my compartment, settled down and took a deep breath, the journey was just starting.

2. As the train approached towards Nagpur, I found that pigs in the region are under-developed. Not that I am very smart to observe this. But I had heard this and verified the same. (Experts are welcome to come up with reasons)

3. Nagpur streets are its USP. Streets are wider than current requirement and well laid out. Unlike Pune where vehicles and walkers share common co-ordinates, streets in Nagpur actually have pavements.

4. Nagpur is a small-small city. One can actually make a circular trip in an hour or so. While we went from one place to the other, we came across same junctions again and again. Also, roads are straight and flat. There are hardly any hills in there.

5. Stay away from Nagpuri Auto-rikshaws. They charge Rs. 25 for minimum. But it is hard to stay away from them, no city buses.

6. The thought could never even touch me in my dreams, but two different persons connected me to foreign land. One asked, if I am an Indian? and the other asked when did I return from US?

7. People really worship Babasaheb Ambedkar like a God.

8. Headache is also known as "Zandu Baam" in slang.

9. One can find all kinds of beggars in an 12+ hour train journey. All kinds, I mean it.

10. Santra burfi from Haldiram rocks.

11. We have a habit of bribing. A co-passenger was caught without a ticket. He bribed the ticket-checker Rs. 100 and got no receipt. After couple of hours another ticket-checker appeared on the scene and extorted another Rs.100. Happy bribing.

12. If a train is late by 20 minutes, then the announcement happens only after scheduled time + 20 minutes.

random

2006-01-19T04:11:00.000-08:00

"Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" is an easy(?) way to remember the BODMAS system. It stands for Paranthesis, Exponent, Multiplication, Division, Addtion, Subtraction.

In the mean time read this: 42 puzzle.

Current Music: Rang De Basanti
Current mood: obscure

songs

2006-01-16T22:07:00.000-08:00

Here are few nice songs (in no particular order) that I like to hear once in a while:

Akdam Bakdam - Hanuman
Panga na le - Makdee
Aiya mere papa ko - Shool

leggie

2006-01-09T21:21:00.000-08:00

Q. What does a batsman feel when he gets clean-bowled on an Anil Kumble leg spinner?
A. Cheated

protest

2006-01-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

The blogwriter strongly protests the TV ad showing comparison of Harry Potter flying racing with a bike. The ad shows Harry Potter out of control and his broom crashing on the wall. This is absolutely insulting to Harry's image, who is an star Quiditch player. I repeat, I strongly feel the ad should be banned. Whole of magical community should raise voice.

It is a muggle world.

cycle is complete

2005-12-20T05:34:00.000-08:00

It is a common site to see various blogs referring to articles in newspapers and magazines. Bloggers often give links to other online articles, blogs. Now it is time the print media is taking a note of blogs. Blogs of Rashmi Bansal and Gaurav Sabnis have found a mention in the print media¹. They have been congratulated for their good work. The cycle is complete, lets wish that the media in total remains connected and brings up relevant issues at relevant times.

¹ "Chatura" supplement of Marathi newspaper Loksatta, dated, 18th December, 2005.

broken Vaas

2005-12-19T00:45:00.000-08:00

The word was on the streets that Gambhir was the happiest to hear that Vaas was down with fever.

Last book read: Malgudi days by R. K. Narayan

+ve side

2005-12-11T20:17:00.000-08:00

I heard that the only positive side of Neil and Nikki is that the film gets over within 2 hours.

tradition

2005-12-08T21:25:00.000-08:00

There is a pretty old famous book store in Pune. The construction time of the building where this store resides, goes back to pre-independence time. The store still maitains the tradional look and feel. The place is really one of the best with a huge collection of books. People visit the place for books and not for any decorations. The entrance of the store is relatively small, like the entrance door of a house. The entrance also hosts a threshold, also called a doorsill. Many of the visitors are unaware of its existence and their toes often get hit on the threshold. Now, it is unusual for a shop to have such a threshold. However, at times the tradition takes over all other things.

practice

2005-12-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

I had read this one long back. It is written in context of a classical singer. But I think it can be applied elsewhere too.

Missing practice for one day lets you know the difference
Missing practice for two days lets the critics know the difference
Missing practice for three days lets the audience know the difference

Source: Unknown

any chance?

2005-12-07T21:47:00.000-08:00

Is there any award from mail.yahoo.com for using 0% of the mailbox size for consecutive xyz years?

Many times Left is not right

2005-11-27T22:19:00.000-08:00

Left parties keep doing their work. The work done by them is block the work somebody else is trying to do. And it is many times some good work that would help the country to progress. Now it is the turn of modernisation plans of Mumbai and Delhi airports. These plans have already reached a stage where bids have to be evaluated and projects need to be allocated to the worthy people. And their leader in Rajya Sabha says, "Even at this stage, we will like the government to abandon its privatisation plans". The protest comes with a reason that government should rather spend the money building new airports to support the exponential growth in air traffic. A party supporting the government should be able to put positive pressure to get both the things done. But it has always been Left's way to block things. Most of the times Left is not right.

Last book read: Dead man's folly by Agatha Christie
Currently reading: Da Vinci code by Dan Brown [Too late too start on this one!!]

Goblet of fire

2005-11-21T01:04:00.000-08:00

Harry Potter: Goblet of fire is released and Rediff review very aptly says that it is not for muggles.

Football quiz

2005-11-03T22:20:00.000-08:00

1. Who was nick named "Spiderman"?
2. Who has scored maximum goals representing England?
3. Which technic in Football did Diego Maradona applied very rarely?
4. What is the term "Halfback" commonly referred to as?
5. Which goalkeeper had the unusual expertise of free-kicks?
6. Which country is going to host the 2010 FIFA world cup?

sports

2005-11-02T22:06:00.000-08:00

South African cricket team may just get blessed with a successor of Lance Klusener. I am ready to bet on Justin Kemp for being the man.

Cricket is exciting, so is Tennis. But Football keeps even the spectators on their feet. Nobody sits down to watch a football match. There is so much action in the game. Technology is still kept largely out and the refrees still have all the control over the game.

Current music: Justuju jiski thi (Umrao Jaan)

"We are going around the leaf"

I hate it

2005-10-27T00:36:00.000-07:00

I hate it. You get up in the morning before the newspaper arrives. Wait for it. The newspaper arrives without making much sound. You pick it up before your roomies can. All this to find that the communists' party is demanding right to go on strike for IT sector employees. This is one sector where people don't have to shout loud to get things working, abusive language is not used, people talk politely about their problems. IT companies have been outperforming the traditional markets. And now comes the strike option. So political parties get a chance to get into these companies. Each company would have number of unions connected to different political parties. And the effect? Employees of a BPO go on strike stopping the critical support work of their global clients. And the whole world knows about it. They know that outsourcing work to India has more side effects than the cost advantages.

Current music: Hum kisise kum nahin
Current mood: Paranoid

Akdam Bakdam

2005-10-24T22:31:00.000-07:00

Preparing presenations and writing documents has been slowing down my brains over the week. Writing code remains the most mundane task. Even though we are sure that the code one is writing is going to be buggy, it is ok because we can see some action. Few things would work and few would not. Then you can use your debugging skills and make it work. It makes you happy when it works (though, you know that it should have worked in the first shot).
--
Sachin Tendulkar is back in action and with a good half century. While I sit and write this, I think that I would have better done watching his inning.
--

Current music: Akdam Bakdam (Hanuman)

enter winter

2005-10-19T02:42:00.000-07:00

Since early morning I am feeling that the winter is going to start soon. A chill could be experienced as soon as I woke up. (It caused me to sleep some more).

Degenerate

2005-10-16T23:42:00.000-07:00

In mathematics world, there are situations when we reach a degenerate solution. It means that while making way to the real solution we have reached a state from where we cannot proceed to find the real solution. In real life, some people reach such degenerate state and commit suicide. These people have either reached such a state or they think that they have. I have always found it difficult to understand the state of mind, in which a person can think of hurting himself. And especially when I have seen/known the person.
--
On a lighter note, the super test match between World XI and Australia has ended in a tame result. Australia, though weaker than before, has displayed that they have sorted out the winning strategy better than anybody else. The concept of having a World XI team has lost meaning.
--

joke

2005-10-13T05:05:00.000-07:00

A popular bar had a new robotic bartender installed.

A fellow came in for a drink and the robot asked him, "What's your IQ?"

"150," the man replied.

So the robot proceeded to make conversation about Quantum physics, string theory, atomic chemistry, and so on.

The man listened intently and thought, "This is really cool." The man decided to test the robot. He walked out the bar, turned around, and came back in for another drink.

Again, the robot asked him, "What's your IQ?"

The man responded, "100." So the robot started talking about football,baseball, and so on.

The man thought to himself, "Wow, this is really cool." The man went out and came back in a third time.

As before, the robot asked him, "What's your IQ?"

"50," the man replied.

"So, you gonna vote for Bush again?" the robot asked.

qotd

2005-10-06T22:39:00.000-07:00

You can know the name of a bird in all the languages of the world, but when you're finished, you'll know absolutely nothing whatever about the bird... So let's look at the bird and see what it's doing -- that's what counts. I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.
-- Richard Feynman

Keano

2005-10-06T01:05:00.000-07:00

Roy Keane may quit Manchester United at the end of the season. It will be slightly unfortunate if he does so. He has been playing good, and should be able to continue.

Zoke

2005-09-28T22:38:00.000-07:00

Can one tell about a person by the kind of jokes he/she likes? Following is one kind I like:

A group of organic molecules were having a party, when a group of robbers broke into the room and stole all of the guests joules. A tall,strong man, armed with a machine gun came into the room and killed the robbers one by one.The guests were very grateful to this man, and they wanted to know who he was. He replied: My name is BOND, Covalent Bond.

tagging

2005-09-27T21:32:00.000-07:00

I tag Indrajit and Mukul.

tagged

2005-09-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

I have been tagged by themanwhowrote. I am not sure whether he tagged me physically or biochemically. This tagging movement on blogs spreads rapidly, across continents. Last time it was books and readings. This one is getting more personal. Answers marked with a asterik(*), are efforts to answer as genuinely as possible, hiding some private facts. These facts can be discussed in a more appropriate forum, at an appropriate time.

5 Favourite toys:
My Nokia 3350 - mobile-cum-hammer, it has some features which were not there in many of the contemporary costly mobiles. Bajaj M-80, with which I have had few memorable trips and adventures. This sane vehicle has at times carried 3 people without any complaint. Cooking gas stove: Plenty of times it has enabled me to cook Maggie and perform some experiments in cooking (thanks to all the living and other guinea pigs). My desktop of course, where I do all the work and write this blog. The Camlin comapss box I had in school, besides storing writing material, I would use it to play like drum.

5 Greatest Joys:
Italy wins any football match. It is a cloudy day. I am able to get into the local train. I meet an old friend at an unexpected place and time. Going for a long walk.

5 favourite TV shows(*):
Tom and Jerry show, Malgudi days, TWTW (The world this week) : The news were never like this before, Neev, and Byomkesh Bakshi.

5 things I would never wear in public(*):
lungi, sleeveless t-shirts, tight clothes, bright yellow trousers, transparent (Akbar Ilahabadi style) clothes.

5 places I would run away to:
$HOME, Mumbai, any beach, a hillstation, a horror movie show.

5 things I would do with $100 million(*):
buy a private jet; employ a pilot, and roam around to see the world.

5 Snacks:
Wada paav, Bhel, Thalipeeth, Chakli and shrikhand.

5 Bands I know all the words to:
while (true)
Please repeat the question;

Yesterday:
I went for shopping and selected couple of shirts after going through 10s of shirts.

One year ago:
I was not writing blog and human kind was not getting to read some high quality reading material. I worked on IE and Bhindows.

Five years ago:
I was grappling with the first semester course work of my post graduation. It was first time that I was staying in hostel. I learnt to eat anything, yes, anything which is served in the plate.

Ten years ago:
I was younger and was learning the art of getting into the 'Mumbai Local Trains'. I played lot of 'galli' cricket. Most of my time was spent doing nothing. Then there would be exams and I would rush.

shoot

2005-09-21T22:25:00.000-07:00

A number of vehicles keep going on the wrong side of the road. They may get killed anyway. These people should be shot down before they kill others.

Current mood: predatory

account/passwords

2005-09-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

The good news is that one can use his gmail login for orkut.com. Reduces some effort to remember account logins and passwords.

Current music: Aap Ke Kamare Mein Koi Rehta hain
Current food: sabudaNa khichaDi

2005-09-18T22:59:00.000-07:00

Horoscope for the day says: "Minor stomach disorder cannot be ruled out if you do not stop eating out."
What am I to do?

Last book read: Parker Pyne investigates by Agatha Christie (Need I say more?)
Last song heard: Kalaa kauva kaat khayega (repeatedly, without choice)

sick one

2005-09-14T21:13:00.000-07:00

A person is suffering from a psychological problem. He has a habit of talking to himself all the time. Today he is totally quiet. What happened?
Ans: He had a quarrel with himself yesterday.

chini

2005-09-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday night we went for dinner with a bunch of foreigners. The host for the dinner was Chinese and a closely authentic chinese restaurent was the venue. However of all this, the element of of surprise was that the host ordered food for all. She knew the details of Vegetarian and non-Vegetraian eating habits. And our job was simple, we just kept eating the items that got place in the plates in front of us. The dishes were very diffrent, we had 5 starters to start with. We would have never ordered these kind any day. One of it was spinach fried with sesame seeds and some sugar. In all, it was a diffrent experience from the usual Indian Chinese food.

Never argue with a child

2005-09-08T23:46:00.000-07:00

A little girl was talking to her teacher about whales. The teacher said it
was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human because even
though it was a very large mammal its throat was very small. The little
girl stated that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. Irritated, the teacher
reiterated that a whale could not swallow a human; it was physically
impossible. The little girl said, "When I get to heaven I will ask Jonah".
The teacher asked, "What if Jonah went to hell?" The little girl replied,"
Then you ask him".
__________________________________________

The children had all been photographed, and the teacher was trying to
persuade them each to buy a copy of the group picture. "Just think how
nice it will be to look at it when you are all grown up and say,' There's
Jennifer; she's a lawyer,' or 'that's Michael. He's a doctor.'"
A small voice at the back of the room rang out, "And there's the teacher.
She's dead."
__________________________________________
A teacher was giving a lesson on the circulation of the blood. Trying to
make the matter clearer, she said, "Now, class, if I stood on my head,
the blood, as you know, would run into it, and I would turn red in the
face." "Yes," the class said. "Then why is it that while I am standing
upright in the ordinary positions the blood doesn't run into my feet?"
A little fellow shouted, "Because your feet aren't empty."
__________________________________________

The children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Catholic elementary
school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. The
nun made a note, and posted on the apple tray: "Take only ONE. God is
watching."
Moving further along the lunch line, at the other end of the table was a
large pile of chocolate chip cookies. A child had written a note, "Take
all You want. God is watching the apples!"

luck

2005-09-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

You are having good luck when you are standing in a queue and people ahead of you just move out of the queue, saving your precious time.

ashes...

2005-08-29T01:09:00.000-07:00

At the time when Indian cricket is falling down to new lows, Ashes series has been a eye-candy for all the cricket maniacs. Match no. 4 was no different. With just 129 runs to win and plenty of time, England team was well poised to win comfortably. And that is when Australia showed why they have been the champions so far. Playing aggresively against Casprowich was a strategic error from England. They could have kept picking few runs off him and keep him bowling. They just scored 12 in one over and Shane Warne was in right away. Mr. Warne started picking up wickets right in the first over. Brett Lee soon join the party. Thanks to a useful partnership between two Not-Typical-Englishmen (NTE), Flintoff and Peterson; England were well positioned and went on to win the match despite losing few more wickets.
-----
Went to see a movie on weekend, but had to return back. "No Entry" was written at the entrance of the cinema hall.
-----

bull market

2005-08-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

The IT job market in India is on a bull run. Jobseekers have plenty of options to choose from. Companies are bending like Beckham to lure them. Job consultants are doing their best to get hold of the good resumes. They would call you on your mobile and ask for a suitable time for discussion about the new opportunities in the market. They would send mails about these opportunities and the first sentence would be:
Thanks a lot for opening our mail and giving us the opportunity to explain the reason and benefits of this mail.
It is definitely a job-seekers' market.

questions

2005-08-16T01:25:00.000-07:00

Why does Kevin Peterson drop catches often on Simon Jones' bowling? Why is Michael Vaughan so reluctant to give enough bowling to Simon Jones? Why didn't Billy Bowden give the pretty straight forward LBW decision against Bret Lee? Is bodyline (is it one word or two?) back? How come Aussie captains play great innings 'on demand'? What happened to well-mannerred English fans of the 70's?

--

Watched "The Rising" on Friday. I don't want to write anything about it.

first day, 'n'th show

2005-08-11T23:24:00.000-07:00

Going to watch 'The rising' today evening. There is so much hype about it. This is also the first time, I will be watching a movie on the first day.
--
Recent Supreme court statement says that the list of communities in the backward class category should become shorter and shorter with time. Also, the Apex court has directed not to use the word 'minority' in case of religious groups. Remarkable decisions indeed.

Halting problem solved

2005-08-11T23:19:00.000-07:00

Recent Results in Theory of Computing - I

"The Halting Problem is Solvable"

A fundamental question in the graduate computer science curriculum can be
posed as follows: Given an average grad student doing a Ph.D, will the
student ever complete his dissertation? This problem has been termed the
"Halting Problem," and it has been an open problem thus far. In the
following, we show that the halting problem is solvable. Furthermore, the
problem can be solved within the time stipulated by the Graduate College
for Ph.Ds or, in the worst case, with only a constant number of petitions
for extensions.

The halting problem was first formulated by Alan Turing, who observed a
number of his graduate students being apparently busy all the time but
never graduating. Turing tried to solve the problem by first stopping all
assistantships after the sixth year and then by purging all games from the
research computers. Needless to say, his efforts were fruitless. Later,
Church almost succeeded in solving the problem when he placed notices in
grad students' mailboxes indicating attractive jobs in industry with
several orders of magnitude higher remuneration. The so called Church's
thesis was that the halting problem is solvable, given enough financial
motivation. Church's idea backfired when grads found out that they have to
actually work to earn money in the outside world. Thus, far from solving
the halting problem, Church aggravated it (After this, we are not sure
whether Church himself graduated). Recently, Cook et al have shown that
the halting problem falls under a new complexity class, "NP Hairy." (NP
hairy is the class of hopelessly complicated problems with no known
solutions. The hardest problem in NP hairy has been shown to be the
problem of trying to claim standard deductions in the 1040 form).

In the following, we show that the halting problem is indeed solvable. For
this, we assume the existence of a "Super Grad," who is capable of working
in any area in CS (except possibly numerical analysis). For notational
convenience, we call this super grad, S sub G sup i,j sub * (written using
a funky theoretical CS font). The property of Super grad is that, given
the description of any grad (mostly in terms of the number of newsfiles
he/she reads every day) and a description of his/her thesis topic, Super
grad will either halt with a dissertation or keep publishing technical
reports indefinitely. Now, we give Super grad a description of himself and
his own thesis topic. If Super grad halts, we are done (and so is he)
otherwise we get a stream of technical reports. But by the "fundamental
research theorem" of CS Departments (refer to the graduate study manual)
any five arbitrary technical reports on unrelated topics can be compiled
into a Ph.D thesis. Thus, we are done in the second case too.

Finally, how long does it take for a dissertation to be completed? The
time is either less than or equal to the duration allowed by the Grad
College for the completion of a Ph.D or it is greater. In the latter case,
infinite number of petitions can be filed for extensions. Since the Grad
College never remembers previous petitions, the total number of petitions
received by the Grad College is always one, a small constant. (QED)

(from rec.humour.funny)

dusara

2005-08-02T09:02:00.000-07:00

I shifted back to Linux six months back after using Bhindows for long. Today I installed WindowMaker. WindowMaker gives much better look and feel. It leaves lots of things to be customized, which means lots of setup time. But end result is good. It is said to be a light-weight GUI. Of course, in the age of Pentium IV, gigs of RAM, I am not sure how good would that stand. The Yahoo messenger for Linux, unfortunately, is pathetic. Given the kind of usability Microsoft provides, it is going to be hard for Linux to reach many home users.
--
[Subject of this posting merely says this is second post of the day. Nothing related to Cricket.]

rains

2005-08-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

All the postings made last week on this blog were washed out due to heavy rains in Pune and Mumbai. Reader's loss is regretted. In future, all the postings will carry a raincoat to avoid any further loss.
-- by order

Ashes

2005-07-25T22:51:00.000-07:00

The first test in the Ashes came to an end as the Aussies bowled out the Englishmen cheaply. At the end of the 3rd day's play, England had lost 5 wickets with Kevin Peterson guarding one end. It took merely 61 minutes of play on the rain afftected 4th day to finish of with the tame English tail. The only entertainment was provided by the aggresive Kevin Peterson. He played some beautiful shots against the otherwise dominating Shane Warne. The Aussies are back close to their best. The bowling attack is not as good with Jason Gillespie being the weak link. It is now to the Englishmen to take advantage of it to come back in the series. The second test starts on 4th August in Birmingham. Stay tuned!

good writing

2005-07-22T01:30:00.000-07:00

I read an article on writing good blog. The most useful part was:

No matter what your audience size, you ought to write as if your
readership consisted of paid subscribers whose subscriptions were
perpetually about to expire. There’s no need to pander.
Compel them to re–subscribe.

Sarkar

2005-07-19T22:49:00.000-07:00

Went to see 'Sarkar' on a rainy Monday evening. I had heard that the theme was based on the Mario Puzo's Godfather. While some plots were clearly taken from Godfather, they were well Indian-ized. I thought the appearance of 'Sarkar' (lead character in the movie) carries some impact from Shivsena Chief's personality. Amongst other things, a clear factor different from Godfather was the number of people that you can see on the screen. In every other Bollywood movie one can see hundreds of people, creating a crowd for one reason or the other. The population problem is becoming serious, even in the movies.
--
Ash visited 'Siddhivinayak' temple in Mumbai. It became a news along with a pic. She has become so much more important, even more than Tajmahal.

early morning

2005-07-07T21:54:00.000-07:00

Overheard this from an auto-rickshaw while waiting for a traffic light to turn Green.

Passenger X: Why have you stopped?
Autowalaa: Traffic light shows Red.
Passenger X: (puzzled) But others are still moving!!
Autowalaa: So? The light shows Red and we stop. That's all!!
(Last two lines repeated one more time)

[Cut!!!]

Bravo, Mr. Autowalaa!! We need more like you.

sad but true

2005-07-07T03:30:00.000-07:00

Ayodhya is back in news. Very few people would know the motive behind the attack a couple of days back. However, the incident brings back some sad memories. For a developing country like India, the last thing needs to happen is any more riots. I think it is important for us to ignore such small incidents and not to spread any fear. Unfortunately, many political parties and religious groups are busy telling public that they have a feel of after effects of the recent attacks. Media should play its role by downsizing the amount of material that gets printed on this matter. If media restrains itself to publishing incidents only, it would not give rise to anger against anybody. I think that opinions of various leaders etc. on this matter should be suppressed by the media. It is these opinions that give further rise to anger in common man. Having said that, in a democracy like ours it is hard to enforce such constraints on the media. We can just hope that people behave "sensibly".

2005-07-05T01:41:00.000-07:00

I am back.

Blog moved to

2004-12-10T01:47:00.000-08:00

For some reasons, I have shifted my blogs to http://www.blurty.com/users/namoona.

Please read from there.

--

first blood

2004-11-26T06:24:00.000-08:00

Thought of joining the blog bandwagon. I will start by quoting by some of my favourite blogs: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/, http://sidin.blogspot.com/.

Read up a blog about Pune Times. The articles truly said how useless PT is.. However, it is important enough that people spend time writing about how bad it is.