Really thankful to George (my colleague in office), who lent me his bicycle to go around while I am here in US... That is a "real good" bike! (Not that I have much experience with other good bikes :) )
Am becoming more and more comfortable with its gears, and it takes very less effort to ride. Although, I am pretty slow as compared to other bikers I think...
After shifting to a new hotel (Best Western) closer to my office, had a trip to the "Concord center", and a little further up to "Lexington road". Lost way while coming back... so I must have ridden atleast 6-7 miles. Legs hurt a little, but, it was good. This is a perfect place to bike. Less traffic, beautiful houses, charming gardens, and cheerful weather!
My office is around 5 miles from here. I think I can bike to office, lest for the heavy laptop bag.
Monday, May 07, 2007
Sunday, May 06, 2007
A game of...
What is this heavy robust man doing with this thin-at-one-end-fat-at-another funnny looking stick? His expresisons and posture says he is doing something very respectable... and sporty... Ok, there is another man throwing a small ball at him... standing so close! They almost seem like playing a kid-game like... "gilli-danda"? Ok!... this is baseball! :)
Any baseball-lovers out there, no offence intended! But, honestly and innocently, that was my first feeling when I had a look at the baseball game being broadcasted on TV in the hotel.
Baseball is a famous game, and the baseball players are popular. This is so apparent in their body-language, but seems so odd to an out-sider (Perhaps the feeling will be same for an American watching cricket). I mean..., how can you take pride in that funny looking posture before throwing (pitching?) the ball, where you just raise your one leg! The stick looks so thin, the ball so tiny, and the ground so small... while the players look unnecessary heavy built. Ok, ok, I know the ball is heavy and its not easy to hit the ball... but still, this is a game which appears to me seriously out of proportions!
Anyways, I think I will watch the game a little more, now that I have looked up the rules on the net, and try to change my opinion about it :)
Any baseball-lovers out there, no offence intended! But, honestly and innocently, that was my first feeling when I had a look at the baseball game being broadcasted on TV in the hotel.
Baseball is a famous game, and the baseball players are popular. This is so apparent in their body-language, but seems so odd to an out-sider (Perhaps the feeling will be same for an American watching cricket). I mean..., how can you take pride in that funny looking posture before throwing (pitching?) the ball, where you just raise your one leg! The stick looks so thin, the ball so tiny, and the ground so small... while the players look unnecessary heavy built. Ok, ok, I know the ball is heavy and its not easy to hit the ball... but still, this is a game which appears to me seriously out of proportions!
Anyways, I think I will watch the game a little more, now that I have looked up the rules on the net, and try to change my opinion about it :)
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Best of Boston!
Had a trip to Boston today. Nice city... very beautiful, obviously...
All the places I have seen in U.S. are beautiful in their own way.
California was huge, groomed and modern. New york was commercial, busy and... majestic. Concord is simple, natural, and scenic. Boston is... historical..., commercial,... and very scenic. With the river flowing right in the middle, and beautiful bridges and office buildings around..., looks amazing... My bias for Boston also comes from the fact that I can roam around in this city without knowing how to drive! :)
Boston has a very good subway train network, which has red, green, blue, and yellow lines... someting like, central, western and harbour lines of Mumbai. Ofcourse they are relatively very small and less crowded. I took a "Charlie" ticket for 9$, which lets me roam around on the lines any number of times for the whole day.
My first destination was the Museum of Science. Saying "first", because I had expected many more destinations after this, but it turns out that I ran out of time, and the total was only two :-|
Museum of Science is a place where you can easily spend your whole day. They have science exhibits: nice little experiments, models, and science shows. I saw the "lightning" show. They have a "big" machine that produces lightning through particle acceleration. And, then a man will stand in a steel cage and show how the lightnng only remains on the outside of the cage :)
There are also special live shows, each of which costs 4$ and runs or 1 hour. I saw 2 of them. First a dome theater show on Grand Canyon. I had this feeling that I have seen this before (atleast a shorter version may be) in the IMAX dome at bombay! Chetan, is that right? :( But still it was good. Not a bad repeat for 4$. Second one was a planetarium show on Universe.
After this, I went to the "Prudential Center". This place hosts the "prudential tower" which was once the tallest building outside NY. They have a "skywalk observatory" at the top No, don't get swayed by the name, its nothing as adventurous. At the 50th floor (yes the ears just roll in the lift), they have an observatory from which you can see the whole Boston and its landmarks with an audio guided tour.
It was already 5:30 when I was done with the above. So, took a train back to concord, changing between green and red lines. I think I can almost count the "subway" as my third destination. Enjoyed the ride!
All the places I have seen in U.S. are beautiful in their own way.
California was huge, groomed and modern. New york was commercial, busy and... majestic. Concord is simple, natural, and scenic. Boston is... historical..., commercial,... and very scenic. With the river flowing right in the middle, and beautiful bridges and office buildings around..., looks amazing... My bias for Boston also comes from the fact that I can roam around in this city without knowing how to drive! :)
Boston has a very good subway train network, which has red, green, blue, and yellow lines... someting like, central, western and harbour lines of Mumbai. Ofcourse they are relatively very small and less crowded. I took a "Charlie" ticket for 9$, which lets me roam around on the lines any number of times for the whole day.
My first destination was the Museum of Science. Saying "first", because I had expected many more destinations after this, but it turns out that I ran out of time, and the total was only two :-|
Museum of Science is a place where you can easily spend your whole day. They have science exhibits: nice little experiments, models, and science shows. I saw the "lightning" show. They have a "big" machine that produces lightning through particle acceleration. And, then a man will stand in a steel cage and show how the lightnng only remains on the outside of the cage :)
There are also special live shows, each of which costs 4$ and runs or 1 hour. I saw 2 of them. First a dome theater show on Grand Canyon. I had this feeling that I have seen this before (atleast a shorter version may be) in the IMAX dome at bombay! Chetan, is that right? :( But still it was good. Not a bad repeat for 4$. Second one was a planetarium show on Universe.
After this, I went to the "Prudential Center". This place hosts the "prudential tower" which was once the tallest building outside NY. They have a "skywalk observatory" at the top No, don't get swayed by the name, its nothing as adventurous. At the 50th floor (yes the ears just roll in the lift), they have an observatory from which you can see the whole Boston and its landmarks with an audio guided tour.
It was already 5:30 when I was done with the above. So, took a train back to concord, changing between green and red lines. I think I can almost count the "subway" as my third destination. Enjoyed the ride!
Thursday, April 26, 2007
Let's talk America!
So, I am in US right now... observing things..., and... trying to get used to them? not so much... I have to return back in some days anyways :)
Still I have few observations about America, sharing here...
Still I have few observations about America, sharing here...
- There is so much space all around!
- Even the mountains look to be groomed.
- It is Christmas every day? Or everybody gets a jackpot ! So smiley!!
- You can see somebody "running" anytime in the day!
- There are no "wall clocks" nowhere! Probably they are worried about having to change their time twice a year...
- Most of the answers end up like questions.
- What's in the potatoes!
- What is GAS? Petrol.... ?
- People have defied the basic rule of nature... They don't drink "water"!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
how pipe works
I had a (slightly heated) discussion today on whether one should know "how pipe works". One of my colleagues was very upset after interviewing some supposed to be brilliant candidates who did not know (according to him the "most basic concept" of Unix OS), that "how pipe works". I was not very convinced with him that it was very shameful of him.
I was myself very fearful of these (according to me jargons) of Unix like pipes, fork etc. etc. which make such good interview questions, but one like me always forget them as soon as done with an interview. I always used to hate such interviews. And, used to come out flying colors from them, if and only if, I had read an OS book before them.
If I were an interviewer, I would surely like to have candidates which have these on their tips "without reading a book". But I believe that only people who have done real system programming can have these always current. You cannot expect that from everybody out of college, however good college it might be.
So, what should you see?
I believe the reason why companies prefer to go to "supposed-to-be" good colleges, not just because the students are most well taught, and hence they know-all. But because the students there are supposed to be smart, according to that college's admission criteria. To further that, the students with good CPIs are supposed to be smart by that college's gradation criteria. A company just wants to make sure that whoever it recruit is smart enough. Can learn and can get things done.
So, I believe it's not important to know "how pipe works". But it's important that the person should be able to understand it as and when needed. So, if you are interviewing a person who has done a multi-tasking project with lots of programming, which involves using pipes-and-stuff, and he doesn't know how pipe works, he is surely worth nothing. He did not learn when he was needed to.
But what the hell, pipe is just something which takes an input and put it to a output. I think there will be more to it. Otherwise, it isn't even worth asking. But that was all I ever needed to know. And, thank god nobody asked me this in an interview!
I was myself very fearful of these (according to me jargons) of Unix like pipes, fork etc. etc. which make such good interview questions, but one like me always forget them as soon as done with an interview. I always used to hate such interviews. And, used to come out flying colors from them, if and only if, I had read an OS book before them.
If I were an interviewer, I would surely like to have candidates which have these on their tips "without reading a book". But I believe that only people who have done real system programming can have these always current. You cannot expect that from everybody out of college, however good college it might be.
So, what should you see?
I believe the reason why companies prefer to go to "supposed-to-be" good colleges, not just because the students are most well taught, and hence they know-all. But because the students there are supposed to be smart, according to that college's admission criteria. To further that, the students with good CPIs are supposed to be smart by that college's gradation criteria. A company just wants to make sure that whoever it recruit is smart enough. Can learn and can get things done.
So, I believe it's not important to know "how pipe works". But it's important that the person should be able to understand it as and when needed. So, if you are interviewing a person who has done a multi-tasking project with lots of programming, which involves using pipes-and-stuff, and he doesn't know how pipe works, he is surely worth nothing. He did not learn when he was needed to.
But what the hell, pipe is just something which takes an input and put it to a output. I think there will be more to it. Otherwise, it isn't even worth asking. But that was all I ever needed to know. And, thank god nobody asked me this in an interview!
Thursday, May 25, 2006
A blog discussion on Sybase IQ
Came accross this:
http://www.rittman.net/archives/2005/10/sand_sybase_iq_and_columnbased.html
An interesting discussion about Sybase IQ, which points two things:
1. Most of the customers or people who benchmarked it were extremely impressed and satisfied with Sybase IQ performance.
2. They were amazed how they never came accross this technology when it existed since 90's !
My personal opinion is that Sybase IQ would have taken off in much brighter flying colors but for a lackadaisical marketing by Sybase.
http://www.rittman.net/archives/2005/10/sand_sybase_iq_and_columnbased.html
An interesting discussion about Sybase IQ, which points two things:
1. Most of the customers or people who benchmarked it were extremely impressed and satisfied with Sybase IQ performance.
2. They were amazed how they never came accross this technology when it existed since 90's !
My personal opinion is that Sybase IQ would have taken off in much brighter flying colors but for a lackadaisical marketing by Sybase.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Truly cosmopolitan
Somebody asked me some days back - "Where are you from?" After a significant deliberation over the question I replied - "What do you mean...?"
That I am an Indian, he obviously knows, it was difficult to zoom in further. My father is from Agra, U.P. My mother's father is from Agra too. But my mother was brought up in Cochin, Kerala. I was born and brought up in Sriganganagar, Rajasthan. My parents currently stay in Jaipur, Rajasthan. I am married to a Bombayite, and my in-laws are Maharastrians staying in Mumbai. So, probably the closest answer is Rajasthan... but then I cannot really call myself a "Rajasthani". Most of my older relatives (my grandparents etc.) stay in Agra and have a U.P accent. So probably U.P is closer. But then I don't have any specific accent. And, I do not associate culturally either to U.P., Rajasthan, or Maharashtra. I know only English and Hindi and none of local dialects.
Perhaps, like many of today's generation and cities, I am cosmopolitan too :)
That I am an Indian, he obviously knows, it was difficult to zoom in further. My father is from Agra, U.P. My mother's father is from Agra too. But my mother was brought up in Cochin, Kerala. I was born and brought up in Sriganganagar, Rajasthan. My parents currently stay in Jaipur, Rajasthan. I am married to a Bombayite, and my in-laws are Maharastrians staying in Mumbai. So, probably the closest answer is Rajasthan... but then I cannot really call myself a "Rajasthani". Most of my older relatives (my grandparents etc.) stay in Agra and have a U.P accent. So probably U.P is closer. But then I don't have any specific accent. And, I do not associate culturally either to U.P., Rajasthan, or Maharashtra. I know only English and Hindi and none of local dialects.
Perhaps, like many of today's generation and cities, I am cosmopolitan too :)
Reservations?
I wanted to stay away from this debate ... mainly because I thought I have not made up my mind yet. Infact, I was amazed how sure, about their stand, students/politicians seem to be.
Reservations is a complicated issue. Nobody can deny the obvious deprivation of the so-called lower caste, and a need for upbringing them. The important question is what is the right way of doing this.
The best thing will be to have so many good schools and colleges that there is no dog-snatching over the seats. Or atleast, the issue of "seat" is less emotional and critical. But, even if we suppose that this will eventually happen, it has not happened yet. And, we have to find some way that the current generation who was deprived gets an opportunity.
Reservation is one way. Unfortunately, it is the easiest and the most populistic one too. As a result, it has led the politicans to use this tool again and again for their own advantage.
My reservations with the current "reservations" are:
A. Their implementation lacks any kind of vision. Arjun Singh just shot a ball, and others are busy catching it in a defense fielding mode. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of this decision being based on analysis of effect of reservations so far. Infact, the politicians seem to hide from any such analysis.
B. The reservations seem to for ever. There is no planning of phasing them out. For example, there should be some rule like children of beneficiaries should not be allowed to avail reservations... or something along these lines. Politicians seem to be entirely silent on such important questions.
C. Reservations in education are still ok, but they don't seem to stop anywhere. They are in jobs, in promotions everywhere.
Reservations are right in principle and I respect B. R. Ambedkar for it. But, the way they are being used is dangerous. They have become an excuse for incompetence and lack of motivation for any real work by the politicians. They are never reverted or taken back from people who don't deserve them. I fear if it goes this way it will just result into taking spoon out from one's mouth and putting into other's.
Reservations is a complicated issue. Nobody can deny the obvious deprivation of the so-called lower caste, and a need for upbringing them. The important question is what is the right way of doing this.
The best thing will be to have so many good schools and colleges that there is no dog-snatching over the seats. Or atleast, the issue of "seat" is less emotional and critical. But, even if we suppose that this will eventually happen, it has not happened yet. And, we have to find some way that the current generation who was deprived gets an opportunity.
Reservation is one way. Unfortunately, it is the easiest and the most populistic one too. As a result, it has led the politicans to use this tool again and again for their own advantage.
My reservations with the current "reservations" are:
A. Their implementation lacks any kind of vision. Arjun Singh just shot a ball, and others are busy catching it in a defense fielding mode. There doesn't seem to be any evidence of this decision being based on analysis of effect of reservations so far. Infact, the politicians seem to hide from any such analysis.
B. The reservations seem to for ever. There is no planning of phasing them out. For example, there should be some rule like children of beneficiaries should not be allowed to avail reservations... or something along these lines. Politicians seem to be entirely silent on such important questions.
C. Reservations in education are still ok, but they don't seem to stop anywhere. They are in jobs, in promotions everywhere.
Reservations are right in principle and I respect B. R. Ambedkar for it. But, the way they are being used is dangerous. They have become an excuse for incompetence and lack of motivation for any real work by the politicians. They are never reverted or taken back from people who don't deserve them. I fear if it goes this way it will just result into taking spoon out from one's mouth and putting into other's.
Friday, March 10, 2006
It's a fine day today...
I start for office and find that it's a fine morning... I come down my building to the basket-ball court. The bricks washed up by the rains last night look redder than ever. I come out of the complex to see the washed streets, flowers from the trees have dropped down on the pavements. I cross the school, and a nice carol hit my ears. The washed up lawns of Daffodils where I used to stay earlier look more inviting than ever. I reach in front of my office buildings, and the white lilies (or are they some other flower?) outside "Deccan harvest" are blooming with enchanting fervour.
Wow! It's going to be a fine day!
Wow! It's going to be a fine day!
Monday, February 20, 2006
Government at its best!
Slowly, I have come to believe that the job of government is to harass people, make their lives a little more complicated at every step, and slow down whatever progress they want to make. That is why when I went to the registrar office to get my marriage certificate done, the government was at its best.
My father-in-law had been preparing for this hectic adventure since about a month. He had noted down all the neccessary documents needed, and arranged them. The day when we had to go to the registrar office arrived. And, we realised the first offence that we had made! None of us was a government employee. So, all our documents that were duly signed by the great authorities of India hold no significance, until their photocopies were signed by a gazetted government officer. With people going less and less for government job in Mumbai, it was no easy task to find an officer at home. Ultimately we found one, and went to the registrar office.
The office was in a dark, old building, and looking at it, it was easy to understand the mental state of employees working there. Anyways, we patiently stood at window for our turn. The lady officer there looked at us with an expression which seem to suggest "Why do you marry after all to increase our workload!". Then, she took the documents and said where is the file? One person ran to buy the file. Then she started examing the documents, and we stood waiting nervously, as a child waits when his father is examining his report-card. She threw some small small points which we handled successfully! At last she caught us! She asked "Photographs kahan hai?". We said the marriage photographs are there. She looked at us with a wining expression, and handing the file back to us said, "Passport size photograph chahiye sabka". It would have been an offence to say that it is nowhere written in the instructions. So, we meekly asked, kab tak la sakte hain? She said come by 1:30. Then, again returning to her-haughty-self said, "1 baje tak aa gaye to kaam hoga, nahin to nahin hoga". It was 12:15.
So, now all the private systems get their efficiency together to fight against the inefficiency of government. The auto-rickshaw person takes us home in 10 minutes. We collect the photographs. The Konicha photo labs give us a polaroid photo ready in 5 minutes. We get back in another 10 minutes, and phew, we are there at 12:45!
Thankfully, the proceedings start. Everything goes well, till we reach the desk of a person, who seems like a nobody but is bent upon impressing himself as the highest authenticating officer in the office. He takes our file, and goes through the documents very carefully again and again, reading each line. (Note that this has been done already by two people in line.) He stucks at my name, and says - "Write full name". I told him that my full name is as written - "Shweta Agrawal". He insists on writing father's name in between. But, I am afraid that if my certificate is printed with that name it may mismatch with my existing documents, esp. passport. Anyways, I agree and write the full name on the form. After doing some more time-pass, he takes out the certificate and signs it. (Note that the certificate was already done, and name was already there on it!).
Atlast, we reach the last desk, back from where we had started. She gives us the certificate, and says, "50 rs. for receipt and 200 more". Hmmm, so all this delay was to impress how important those additional 200 are. It doesn't matter that we had done more labour for the certificate than those people, and probably we deserved those additional 200. We give the money, and return back.
Happy, because at last we are legally married. Not so happy, because the "legally" comes from so drone a system...
My father-in-law had been preparing for this hectic adventure since about a month. He had noted down all the neccessary documents needed, and arranged them. The day when we had to go to the registrar office arrived. And, we realised the first offence that we had made! None of us was a government employee. So, all our documents that were duly signed by the great authorities of India hold no significance, until their photocopies were signed by a gazetted government officer. With people going less and less for government job in Mumbai, it was no easy task to find an officer at home. Ultimately we found one, and went to the registrar office.
The office was in a dark, old building, and looking at it, it was easy to understand the mental state of employees working there. Anyways, we patiently stood at window for our turn. The lady officer there looked at us with an expression which seem to suggest "Why do you marry after all to increase our workload!". Then, she took the documents and said where is the file? One person ran to buy the file. Then she started examing the documents, and we stood waiting nervously, as a child waits when his father is examining his report-card. She threw some small small points which we handled successfully! At last she caught us! She asked "Photographs kahan hai?". We said the marriage photographs are there. She looked at us with a wining expression, and handing the file back to us said, "Passport size photograph chahiye sabka". It would have been an offence to say that it is nowhere written in the instructions. So, we meekly asked, kab tak la sakte hain? She said come by 1:30. Then, again returning to her-haughty-self said, "1 baje tak aa gaye to kaam hoga, nahin to nahin hoga". It was 12:15.
So, now all the private systems get their efficiency together to fight against the inefficiency of government. The auto-rickshaw person takes us home in 10 minutes. We collect the photographs. The Konicha photo labs give us a polaroid photo ready in 5 minutes. We get back in another 10 minutes, and phew, we are there at 12:45!
Thankfully, the proceedings start. Everything goes well, till we reach the desk of a person, who seems like a nobody but is bent upon impressing himself as the highest authenticating officer in the office. He takes our file, and goes through the documents very carefully again and again, reading each line. (Note that this has been done already by two people in line.) He stucks at my name, and says - "Write full name". I told him that my full name is as written - "Shweta Agrawal". He insists on writing father's name in between. But, I am afraid that if my certificate is printed with that name it may mismatch with my existing documents, esp. passport. Anyways, I agree and write the full name on the form. After doing some more time-pass, he takes out the certificate and signs it. (Note that the certificate was already done, and name was already there on it!).
Atlast, we reach the last desk, back from where we had started. She gives us the certificate, and says, "50 rs. for receipt and 200 more". Hmmm, so all this delay was to impress how important those additional 200 are. It doesn't matter that we had done more labour for the certificate than those people, and probably we deserved those additional 200. We give the money, and return back.
Happy, because at last we are legally married. Not so happy, because the "legally" comes from so drone a system...
Friday, November 25, 2005
My last unmarried day at office :)
Yeah, that sounds like a big thing! The next time I come to office, I shall be a married lady. Will be writing "Married", instead of "Single" in marital status! Will be writing Shweta Vaity instead of Shweta Agrawal! (Hmmm.., probably, I will have to give some more thought to this last thing.) What about just getting up and coming to office in jeans-tshirt, hair all screwed up... People will now expect something more from me probably :( Lots of bangles and a big Mangalsutra with jeans, pretty trendy, yeah!
Monday, July 18, 2005
Socialism... and free market.
A nice article on Slashdot on importance of free market in America..
It has echoes of Ayn Rand of "Atlas Shrugged", Gurcharan Das of "India Unbound".
An excerpt:
America has to prevent socialism from paralysing their economy, and India has to cure it!
It has echoes of Ayn Rand of "Atlas Shrugged", Gurcharan Das of "India Unbound".
An excerpt:
Socialism scares me. The direction of America scares me. Patton said ``America loves a winner. America will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise a coward. Americans play to win. That's why America has never lost a war, for the very thought of losing is hateful to an American.'' I wonder if now this is no longer true; Americans love losers and cannot tolerate a winner. And it's sad, really, because Americans have the opportunity to become winners. We're just choosing to bring everyone down to the loser level, making sure nobody gets ahead, so that nobody will be left behind.
America has to prevent socialism from paralysing their economy, and India has to cure it!
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Those sounds of Ghungru...
I was looking around for kathak classes in Pune for long. Came to know of some, but they were far placed. Yesterday, I put an effort and went to the most famous one - in Deccan. Reached the Poona Coffee house in front of the Deccan Bus-stand. It was rainy. Was quite tired of driving till there after office, and was wondering where it can be near such a place. And... I heard those beautiful sounds. The sounds of ghungru being played in rhythm. Something happened! All the tiredness vanished. I was elated and moving in direction of the sounds. I climbed the stairs and reached the room. Yes! that was the place. I was quite happy, thinking that the effort was worth it...
But, the caretaker there turned me down... saying it was the class for seniors. I have to come again the next day to enquire about the classes. Came down quite dissapointed. Called up the classes in Bund Garden and confirmed that I will be joining them. And, earlier, I was not able to decide this since weeks...
But, the caretaker there turned me down... saying it was the class for seniors. I have to come again the next day to enquire about the classes. Came down quite dissapointed. Called up the classes in Bund Garden and confirmed that I will be joining them. And, earlier, I was not able to decide this since weeks...
Thursday, June 16, 2005
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
The HitchHiker's Guide to The HitchHiker's Guide
Found it here...
I am still half-way through "The HitchHiker's Guide to Galaxy". After some amount of lost of interest and delays in between, it has again caught my interest and attention. The guide does not probably have a continuously increasing graph of interest, but the intermediate triumphs are worth it.
My favorite quote in the book till now... In fact this was the one which lead me to start reading the guide. (Later discovered that it is the most famous one too...)
So long and thanks for all the reading. ;)
I am still half-way through "The HitchHiker's Guide to Galaxy". After some amount of lost of interest and delays in between, it has again caught my interest and attention. The guide does not probably have a continuously increasing graph of interest, but the intermediate triumphs are worth it.
My favorite quote in the book till now... In fact this was the one which lead me to start reading the guide. (Later discovered that it is the most famous one too...)
On the planet earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much—the wheel, New York, wars and so on—while all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man—for precisely the same reasons.
So long and thanks for all the reading. ;)
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
Linux for human beings
Yes, that's Ubuntu!
Installed it on my home PC last night. The installation was pretty simple and fast. Just one installation CD, and it does install most of the useful packages. The installer is not all that graphical, but still quite straightforward and easy, probably more than the Redhat graphical installer.
I have my PC next to my bed, and I was literally doing the installation half asleep. It was all very smooth, except that I formatted the wrong drive :-P
With linux at core, debian packing, gnome desktop, and open-office, it makes a good desktop solution. It can make shifting from Windows to Linux a bit more comfortable by small but useful offerings like
- installs firefox as the default browser rather than mozilla.
- gives small toolbar icons for "Browser", "Show desktop", and "Adjust sound" similar to Windows
- The default desktop settings make a clean desktop with a good look and feel.
Not that you cannot set all this up easily in other linuxes, but the good thing about ubuntu is that it gives you the desirable things without doing anything extra.
That's what I noticed on first shot, ready to do some experimentation with it and my iPod!
Installed it on my home PC last night. The installation was pretty simple and fast. Just one installation CD, and it does install most of the useful packages. The installer is not all that graphical, but still quite straightforward and easy, probably more than the Redhat graphical installer.
I have my PC next to my bed, and I was literally doing the installation half asleep. It was all very smooth, except that I formatted the wrong drive :-P
With linux at core, debian packing, gnome desktop, and open-office, it makes a good desktop solution. It can make shifting from Windows to Linux a bit more comfortable by small but useful offerings like
- installs firefox as the default browser rather than mozilla.
- gives small toolbar icons for "Browser", "Show desktop", and "Adjust sound" similar to Windows
- The default desktop settings make a clean desktop with a good look and feel.
Not that you cannot set all this up easily in other linuxes, but the good thing about ubuntu is that it gives you the desirable things without doing anything extra.
That's what I noticed on first shot, ready to do some experimentation with it and my iPod!
Thursday, March 31, 2005
My pink iPod!
My pink iPod!
How can somebody afford anything than just loving it! :)
It is so cute... I am sure that Apple has got one of the best creative designers in the world! (may be the best after google :), have to say this after using picasa and hello for posting this picture...)
But it is so good. It's cool! It just rocks!
So, let me see, here is a list of my most loved possessions:
- my pink mini iPod!
- my newly bought silver Honda Activa! (though the bank half-owns it yet)
- my nice and loved black Sony headphones
- my red "Easies" bag
- my LG-reliance mobile (just added it, don't love it that much though)
Hey, the thieves out there! don't take the alert!
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Why do you hate Windows?
Ok, so once again I face this question. Actually I have never given a
concrete answer to this to anyone. So let me attempt so.
First of all I do not "hate" Windows. Windows is all so pretty and
useful. And, I have all the due respect for the great brilliant
Microsoft guys who made it so :) And, for my father, say, I would ask
him to please stay away from linux, get his work done fast and happily
in Windows.
But for myself am irritated using Windows. And, it is mainly because I
have no use of most of what it offers. And, it does not offer many of
what I need and like.
Why I mainly login to computer
1. to work
2. to mail and browse
3. to listen to songs and maybe watch a movie.
I find linux and windows both pretty good for 2 and 3. (I don't play
computer games, if I did I would prefer Windows).
Now comes "work". And for that I need
1. A good command shell
2. A good editor (which I do not have to change for every language I work in)
3. Compilers and debuggers for the languages I work in.
And, for these I find only workarounds in windows but "the nice
solution" in linux. Lets say I want to do some C programming. Oh, I
will have to bring somehow and install Visual studio!
And, in Linux, gcc will be mostly there, or can be installed in few
minutes without much overhead. I can use my old practiced VI, no need
to learn a new editor! Similarly for perl, for python, anything that I
can think of, windows makes you buy (or pirate) for each and every
small thing you need. On Linux, it is just available!
OK, one thing that I may need is MS powerpoint or MS word. That is the
only thing for which I might go to windows. But I am not ready to
compromise on above fronts for document editing which is not so often
for me. I am ready to use workarounds for that!
And, above all I do not want to be dependent on a thing which I cannot
buy for my personal use, (or say do not want to buy) but only pirate!
Hmm, may be I missed some points, but anyway was not a bad attempt,
and totally my personal opinion and choices. There might be people,
who do not want a command shell, and who are happy learning and
installing a new editor/compiler for every language, and pirating as
long as it goes!
concrete answer to this to anyone. So let me attempt so.
First of all I do not "hate" Windows. Windows is all so pretty and
useful. And, I have all the due respect for the great brilliant
Microsoft guys who made it so :) And, for my father, say, I would ask
him to please stay away from linux, get his work done fast and happily
in Windows.
But for myself am irritated using Windows. And, it is mainly because I
have no use of most of what it offers. And, it does not offer many of
what I need and like.
Why I mainly login to computer
1. to work
2. to mail and browse
3. to listen to songs and maybe watch a movie.
I find linux and windows both pretty good for 2 and 3. (I don't play
computer games, if I did I would prefer Windows).
Now comes "work". And for that I need
1. A good command shell
2. A good editor (which I do not have to change for every language I work in)
3. Compilers and debuggers for the languages I work in.
And, for these I find only workarounds in windows but "the nice
solution" in linux. Lets say I want to do some C programming. Oh, I
will have to bring somehow and install Visual studio!
And, in Linux, gcc will be mostly there, or can be installed in few
minutes without much overhead. I can use my old practiced VI, no need
to learn a new editor! Similarly for perl, for python, anything that I
can think of, windows makes you buy (or pirate) for each and every
small thing you need. On Linux, it is just available!
OK, one thing that I may need is MS powerpoint or MS word. That is the
only thing for which I might go to windows. But I am not ready to
compromise on above fronts for document editing which is not so often
for me. I am ready to use workarounds for that!
And, above all I do not want to be dependent on a thing which I cannot
buy for my personal use, (or say do not want to buy) but only pirate!
Hmm, may be I missed some points, but anyway was not a bad attempt,
and totally my personal opinion and choices. There might be people,
who do not want a command shell, and who are happy learning and
installing a new editor/compiler for every language, and pirating as
long as it goes!
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
HTML docs and Tables :(
splurr, splurr, splurr
doc, doc, doc
table, table, table...
I have become a document generating machine. Am writing a new document almost every day, and that too in html :((. Escaped from Word, and resorted to use VI.
And, how much the managers love tables! Was forced to search around to find a right CSS format to define a table, and came to know how horrible and frustrating it can be. Even after years of standardization of HTML and CSS stuff, there is no good way to define or say freeze a table format. Added to it the discrepancies between different browsers. There are always some properties that have to be written in the table tag itself, if you want a pleasent (or better said as expected) look in IE as well as firefox :(
I had a very simple requirement 1px solid borders, some cellspacing, cellpadding, align and width.... Did it very badly. Sharing it here only in hope somebody would tell me a better way :).
#tbsolid {
border: solid 1px; }
#tbsolid td{
border: solid 1px; }
#tbsolid th{
border: solid 1px; }
table style="border:solid 1px" id="tbsolid" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5
align=center width=90%
If it doesn't get better, I may revolt and to dismay of my managers and reviewers, start floating around pdfs written in LaTeX :))
Current mood: Nostalgic
doc, doc, doc
table, table, table...
I have become a document generating machine. Am writing a new document almost every day, and that too in html :((. Escaped from Word, and resorted to use VI.
And, how much the managers love tables! Was forced to search around to find a right CSS format to define a table, and came to know how horrible and frustrating it can be. Even after years of standardization of HTML and CSS stuff, there is no good way to define or say freeze a table format. Added to it the discrepancies between different browsers. There are always some properties that have to be written in the table tag itself, if you want a pleasent (or better said as expected) look in IE as well as firefox :(
I had a very simple requirement 1px solid borders, some cellspacing, cellpadding, align and width.... Did it very badly. Sharing it here only in hope somebody would tell me a better way :).
#tbsolid {
border: solid 1px; }
#tbsolid td{
border: solid 1px; }
#tbsolid th{
border: solid 1px; }
table style="border:solid 1px" id="tbsolid" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=5
align=center width=90%
If it doesn't get better, I may revolt and to dismay of my managers and reviewers, start floating around pdfs written in LaTeX :))
Current mood: Nostalgic
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Software Code is Design
http://www.developerdotstar.com/mag/articles/reeves_design.html
Came accross this interesting article which says that "programming is not about building software, but about designing software". The author compares the software development process with a manufacturing process saying that the programmers are not the manufacture workers. That work is done by the compilers and linkers, and we rightly call it a "build" in a typical software development. The build in a software project, unlike a manufacturing process is pretty inexpensive. Most of the software project is "Design", and the ultimate design is the software code that we write. Testing as well as debugging is a part of design.
The idea is pretty controversial, but I tend to agree with him. What we typically call a "Design" in a software development process always seemed to me unsatisfying, incomplete, and the continuous pester of so called good software engineers to freeze it before coding, very unrealistic. The Software engineering Gurus seem to take pride in making the "Coding" the most unimportant and short part of the whole project.
I guess many have now realized that it is inconvenient and inefficient to make a design independent of a pogramming language. Languages like C++, Java etc support this trend. And, probably that is why we see the software development process moving from waterfall to spiral etc all evidences of slowaly making coding a part of design.
Came accross this interesting article which says that "programming is not about building software, but about designing software". The author compares the software development process with a manufacturing process saying that the programmers are not the manufacture workers. That work is done by the compilers and linkers, and we rightly call it a "build" in a typical software development. The build in a software project, unlike a manufacturing process is pretty inexpensive. Most of the software project is "Design", and the ultimate design is the software code that we write. Testing as well as debugging is a part of design.
The idea is pretty controversial, but I tend to agree with him. What we typically call a "Design" in a software development process always seemed to me unsatisfying, incomplete, and the continuous pester of so called good software engineers to freeze it before coding, very unrealistic. The Software engineering Gurus seem to take pride in making the "Coding" the most unimportant and short part of the whole project.
I guess many have now realized that it is inconvenient and inefficient to make a design independent of a pogramming language. Languages like C++, Java etc support this trend. And, probably that is why we see the software development process moving from waterfall to spiral etc all evidences of slowaly making coding a part of design.
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