tales from the woods

The real Opus Dei

2005-08-25T01:58:00.000-07:00

I came across a nice article in Newsweek about the real Opus Dei, as opposed to Dan Brown's dramatized version of this organization. Very often, we tend to throw the baby along with the bathwater when it comes to secretive cults like the Opus Dei, the Freemasons, or the Osho movement. However, there's a lot to be learnt from the basic philosophies of these groups, due to which they attract members in such large numbers. For example:-

So there's no "Opus Dei plan," as some speculate, to infiltrate the European Parliament in Brussels?
Based on my experience, moving around in this world, I just don't think it works like that. I just don't think there's an Opus Dei plan for European politics or anything else. I think there's a sociological reality, that the kind of people attracted to Opus Dei tend to be extremely hard working, tend to be pretty smart and pretty talented, and tend to be conservative, theologically and politically. Put these together and it's no surprise.
Why is work so important to them?
The prime directive of Opus Dei is the sanctification of work … they’ll use that work as a means of redeeming the world, bringing a distinctively Christian approach to law or politics. Part of what that means in their approach to things is a real emphasis on meeting the highest standards of excellence in whatever occupation they’re in because you can’t redeem a work if, in the first place, you don’t do it well.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7288539/site/newsweek/page/2/

Now, how many modern Hindu cults or organizations have you come across that lay such a strong emphasis on plain old hard work, eh?

Our sensitive lives

2005-08-24T08:15:00.000-07:00

You know, the more i read stuff on the internet, the more i feel that we've become i little too "sensitive" or "politically correct" for our own good. We elect our presidents over issues like gay marriage or foreign-origin. We worry about weighty issues such as giving spare change to beggars as if we're "aiding and abetting" the beggar Mafia.

Perhaps, just perhaps, in the name of being sensitive and tolerant to all possible cultures, genders, and religions, we've become over-sensitive to the extent that we self-sensor every word that we utter. The basic assumption that i'm challenging here is the underlying thought that by default, we're all predjudiced and hateful towards each other. After all, this is why we feel the need to watch what we say or do, isn't it? I simply don't buy that!

In my opinion, the average common man or woman will have a certain reluctance towards anything that is different. This can mean the reluctance that a Hindu feels when bringing home a non-Hindu (heck, even from a different caste) or a white American bringing home a person of a different colour. The discomfort we feel is because we do not completly share our social rituals with the person, due to his/her belonging to a different religion, skin colour, or social strata. Make a conscious effort to deemphasise these social rituals, and we begin to tear down the walls of our predjudices.

Think also for a moment of the fundamental reasons why you chose your "friend" or your "lifemate". Did it have anything to do with your religion? Did it have anything to do with your monetary position? While it's understandable that most of your friends will belong to the same social segment as you, the only reason for this is that bonding and friendship is a probability game. Due to your reliance on your social rituals, you will naturally be surrounded by others who share the same rituals. What we forget is that this social compatibility is only a peripheral requirement for any kind of relationship.

Given this fact, why do we really need to be so careful in what we say or do in front of others? An innate dislike for an entire segment of society is a patently illogical idea, for there is no cause and effect. If we really don't dislike a religion, skin colour, or gender, why the need to be politically correct in the first place? Is it simply because of our stupid habit to bitch behind people's back just so we can get some brownie points with the bitch-session group? Is this some kind of an alpha-male contest where the leader of a group is defined not by his/her real power, but by their capacity to hate and to be snooty, even if there's no logical basis for this hatred?

the girl who laughs like a telephone ring *

2004-07-12T09:13:00.000-07:00

* direct translation of a Mani Ratnam song title

a.k.a. Why oh why...

1. do Indian techies bend over a multi-directional mike in a conference room when it really doesn't improve the sound quality one bit? The importance of a call can often be judged by the distance of the cranium from that ubiquitous starfish lying around in most meeting rooms.

2. does the volume of a telephone conversation in India vary with the distance of a call? Local calls merit a dignified bellow, inter-city calls are awarded with a sonic boom, and trans-continental calls require the calling parties to replace their vocal cords with a Queen Elizabethesque foghorn. Of course, this also increases social bonding as all neigh-boors get instant status updates on little Johnnie K's herpes zoster problem, when poor old green-card holder Janakiraman Kuppuswami starts bawling his guts out to his momma. Sordid, and way too much information, you say? Believe you me, this is the lifeblood of Indian matrons in co-operative societies. God is in the details.

3. do Indians never ever switch off their cell phones in a movie theater or even in a meeting? To add insult to injury, most people:-
a. Pretend as if it's someone else's phone that's ringing. This usually happens others can't pinpoint the origin of the ring.
b. Shamelessly start talking, albeit with a hand covering the cellphone.
c. Walk out of the meeting/theater to attend the call! In movie halls, this would be the person sitting farthest away from the aisle or the exit.

One incident that epitomizes this was when this training instructor asked us all to switch off our cell phones, and ceremoniously proceeded to switch off his own. Halfway through the meeting, his phone started ringing! Turns out that he had only pretended to switch off his phone!

latrine detail

2004-07-07T15:38:00.000-07:00

or the graveyard shift. Same difference. It's 4 am here and i'm still at work trying to resolve issues. sigh..

Today has also been a slow news day. Wired, slashdot, k5, yahoo, and google-news don't really have too much to say. Looks like the whole world is taking it easy today. Except me and my latrine duty, of course. I'm tired of polishing these turds, i tell you!

The urinals beckon me, and off i go to my calling.

until the next flush,
asli

old whine in a new bottle

2004-07-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

Not content with my erstwhile hand-hacked site design, i decided to embrace populism and a mass produced blogger template. One welcome feature of the new blogger templates is built-in support for comments. However, since i've been using enetation comments since the not-so-user-friendly blogger days, i'll be maintaining both enetation and blogger comments for some time. Hey, the enetation comment template is also hand-hacked by yours truly.

Geek talk aside, i shall be resuming blogging from now on. Lots of change during this hiatus. Moving to a different (and hopefully, more kickass) department in the same company. 2 month trip to the U-Ass on the cards. Buying a new hatch. Planning to learn aikido in 'lyons fronsay (yes, i insist on writing french the way it's supposed to frickin sound)

More updates later.

gmail, here i come!

2004-05-03T06:06:00.000-07:00

To my amazement, google considers me a frequent user of blogspot and has decided to give me a luscious 1GB gmail account! Whoooppeeeee!!

Just for that, i shall have to blog more frequently ;-)

First impressions for now: Gmail's look and feel, especially the colour scheme reminds me vaguely of yahoo mail. Gmail has a fairly clutter-free layout. Most importantly, it doesn't have ANY annoying banners or popups. A very cool feature is that e-mail chains are represented as "conversations", not unlike a message board thread. Although it's too early for me to comment on the usability of this feature, it is a refreshing change from the other e-mail services. I tried baiting gmail's "ad-sense" program to display text ads that has generated so much controversy on a product that has not yet been launched. Here's my bait:-

Reading the DaVinci Code, i realized that it was better than popping Viagra, coding in .NET, or even opening a bank account! Manic depressive that i am, little do i remember to switch on my XBox or operate my Nokia. This is not a time for grief but a time to do some online shopping. E-Commerce and M-Commerce being the catch-phrases of the day, i shall have to throw in the towel and jump in the bandwagon too. This ad-sense bait shall hopefully beat google's famed AI and generate some funky links on the right. There's a time for theory and a time for action. Action, it is.

Unfortunately, google's AI has me beat and no ads were displayed for the above e-mail content. However, i shall make more valiant atempts to crack the system. Time will tell.

jar-gone

2004-03-30T14:26:00.000-08:00

As i punch in these words, i realize that i'm no longer whiling away my time, waiting for my US counterparts to come in. Instead, i'm now waiting to "touch base" with them. Of course, to do this, i have to setup a "one-on-one" meeting with them to discuss my "deliverables" and "thrash out" the "opens". There is a chance that the issue might get "escalated", in which case, a "tiger team" would have to be formed and would "brainstorm" on the "burning" "showstoppers". Have i become a jargon spewing machine, you ask? Am i on the "fast lane" to managerial stardom, might you argue? Sadly, no. Has this global fetish for verbing nouns, nouning verbs, and using "action phrases" taken over the Indian corporate work place? YES!

Little do people realize that this pestilence can only be rivaled by that other glorious import: congress grass. Nowadays, a meeting is rarely concluded without the cameo appearence of several such catch phrases. I'm not even getting into TLAs here (Three Letter Acronyms), only phrases and bastardized words. Is this what they don't teach you at Harvard Business School, i wonder.

The funny thing is that this can prove to be quite a weapon, if wielded correctly. Many a useless document have i filled and many a customer have i placated with this jargon dump (demonic laughter ensues). "At the end of the day", however, i hark for the simpler daze when a lunch was a verb, and did not have anything to do with "power" or a "brown bag". "Communication" and "Customer" were not the holy grails to which you had to spend half your life, whoring away. Is the advent of this jargon an urban meme that has evolved to provide "suits" and "techies" with an identity, an "exclusivity", if you will? Is this instead the result of an evolutionary defence mechanism, a shield with which to ward off the evils of over-work, daily pressures, and job threats? Or is it simply a sign of creeping dementia on the part of yours truly?

Since these questions take us back to the more basic argument of form vs substance, let us define (defile?) our work ethic today. A modern employee is now expected to be more productive, sacrifice his/her personal life, demonstrate loyalty towards one's company, AND pander to the management fad of the day. Another well known fact of today is that one's work output mostly does NOT speak for itself. One has to speak for it, trumpet it around, and generally wake one's managers by sending electronic mails to them with Carbon Copies to sufficiently important people. "Techies" have to keep throwing sufficient amounts of technical-speak at one's managers and customers. "Suits" have to verb sufficient nouns and keep abreast with the hot and crisp management fads to keep sounding like a suit. These deliberate obfuscations work in a very subtle way. If the receiving party of the communication deciphers the basic message, it suddenly feels a sense of acheivement. Not at the message itself, but at the ability to decipher it. One suddenly feels included to the "inner circle", so as to speak. The real message has already been forgotten. This talent really keeps our job secure, and brings food to our table, dammit!

As i see my snarkiness and my posting evergy levels dissipate, i realize that this malaise has no cure. To repeat another aphorism, "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em".

Hope you had enough of a "take home" from this post. If not, "shoot" me a "note", and i'll get back to you "yesterday".

back to the digital pseudo-literary landfill

2004-03-25T08:05:00.000-08:00

Surprisingly, i didn't feel like blogging until today. It's not because i'm bored out of my wits, nor is it because i had a sudden urge to spew verbiage on a reader posse of probably 5 (yes, that includes YOU). I am simply trying to key in the first thing that come to my head. Yes, action without reason or motive. Isn't it delicious and oh so zen like?

Trolling being my favourite pastime, i can't help but feel that it can truly become an art form, as long as the "rules of engagement" are maintained. I'm not trying to compete or compare with the (in)famous troll gods of Usenet, but trying to formulate a strategy for the lesser brethren: blog trolls. First the categorization:-

1. Clueless neandrathals: This troll category typically comes armed with an IQ slightly higher than asphyxiated lichen, and a lot lower than an inverted mollusc (look ma, i remember my chemistry). Steeped in mindset, and hidebound in it's conservative beliefs, this category becomes the rally point for all other categories to rail against. One mainstream comment, and off the radicals go. Don't these primates feel out of place in this blogspace full of nature loving, progressive thinking evolved beings? Do they not see the light? Even if it is the headlamp of the onrushing train?? O tempora, O mores.

2. Clueless chameleons: This section of blog-not-so-rati is the glowing product of the prime moving force our our times: peer pressure. This is the "in" crowd, the "connected", the "happening", the "insert your verb here" specie. Unlike the neandrathal, this category has cracked the Darwininan code for survival. Throw them in sub-Sahara and they'll evolve a hump. Throw them in a destitutes' asylum, and they'll grow a bleeding conscience. This category has a lot more to be said, but that happens tomorrow, if i happen to think about it some more.

more timepass

2003-11-21T03:02:00.000-08:00

Many folks have heard about the internationally famous arm wrestling championships regularly held in Petaluma, but there is another chap who lived in relative obscurity in a small, nameless town, yet who has a unique claim to fame nonetheless. He was the perennial arm wrestling champion year after year until one fateful day when he lost his wrestling arm in a terrible accident. This put the man into a deep depression, forlorn at the prospect of never again competing at the sport he deeply loved.

A world-class surgeon in a nearby town heard of his plight. Moved with compassion he offered to perform restorative surgery, but with an unusual twist. He reasoned that if a pig's or baboon's heart could so successfully be transplanted into humans, he would transplant a huge grizzly bear foreleg to our poor arm wrestling champ, giving him another chance to complete.

The surgery was a huge success and the man soon re-entered competition, soundly beating anyone who dared to challenge him. He so quickly and bruisingly dispatched his opponents that they banded together and appealed to the United States Arm Wrestling Committee, claiming that this man's transplanted arm gave him an unfair advantage. They wanted him disqualified and barred from any further competition.

The committee's answer was swift and brief. They noted that it would be a gross violation of this man's civil liberties to forbid him from competing. They called particular attention to the fact that every American citizen clearly has the constitutional right to bear arms.

[By Chris Cole]

The perils of religion

2003-11-14T09:03:00.000-08:00

can be summarized by this shaggy dog:-

[unknown author]

A new young monk arrives at the monastery.

He is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices, however, that all of the monks are copying from copies, not from the original manuscript. So, the new monk goes to the head abbot to question this, pointing out that if someone made even a small error in the first copy, it would never be picked up. In fact, that error would be continued in all of the subsequent copies.

The head monk says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuries, but you make a good point, my son."

So, the abbot goes down into the dark caves underneath the monastery where the original manuscript is held in a locked vault that hasn't been opened for hundreds of years. Hours go by and nobody sees the old abbot.

The young monk gets worried and goes downstairs to look for him. He sees him banging his head against the wall. His forehead is all bloody and bruised and he is crying uncontrollably.

The young monk asks the old abbot, "What's wrong, father?"

With a choking voice, the old abbot replies, "The word is 'celebrate'."

Monday morning blues

2003-11-10T03:09:00.000-08:00

A while ago, i used to maintain a mailing list called the Monday Morning Blues. Since these dreary mondays seem to be repeating themselves week after weak, i'm restarting the MMBs. If only to preserve my sanity.

Here's a song by Phish called "Fee".

In the cool shade of the banana tree
On the rugged trail toward the balcony
A child of the twentieth century
A dried up Goliath and a weasel named Fee

Far away in another place
A fading beauty named Milly Grace
A gospel singer with pocks on her face
And a bamboo cane to help her keep the pace

Fee was a Buddhist prodigy
Long past the age of maturity
Someday he knew it would set him free
Like it did for Floyd the chimpanzee

Oh, Fee, you're trying to live a life
That's completely free.
You're racing with the wind
You're flirting with death
So have a cup of coffee
And catch your breath

Fee first met Milly in a bar in Peru
His heart was jumping like a kangaroo
Like a beast in a cage in an old Dutch zoo
It was hopping and thumping in wooden shoes

But Floyd was jealous and alone
He wanted Milly for his own
A desperate craving in his bones
"Their love", he said, "I will not condone."

Then one day on a ship to Quebec
Floyd found Milly on a lover's trek
He picked up a bottle and broke off the neck
It sliced through the air, and Fee hit the deck

Oh, Fee, you're trying to live a life
That's completely free
You want to stay with Milly
Until you're dead
But you just got a bottle
Upside your head

Milly turned and began to scream at Floyd
She said "You think you're pretty mean"
And though she was as thin as a small string bean
She slammed him in the face with a nectarine

Floyd fell back over the edge of the ship
Till he hung from the rail by his fingertip
Milly said, "Floyd I'll make you lose your grip
With this tiny piece of paper I can make you slip"

So Milly took that paper and did the deed
Floyd hit the water with astonishing speed
And as the sharks circled and began to feed
Milly knew her weasel was finally free

Oh, Fee, you're trying to live a life
That's completely free
Floyd is dead; he's nothing but a ripple
Cause Milly took that paper
And sliced him on the nipple

Indian blogging

2003-11-07T11:55:00.000-08:00

seems to have come to age. Not only do we have the No-bull awards, we even have the igNoble awards! Do i hear a certain inventor of the dynamite turning in his grave? Or, do i see the prices of bananas skyrocketing? Alas, only time and a flamewar will tell.

people with long beards

2003-11-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

who speak good english, wear khadi and generally look intellectual can get away with anything. One such creature accosted me on my way to work. No sooner had he hopped on to the backseat of my bike, the NGO schpeil started. Dressed to the part, he started telling me about his "ashram" where he helps destitute women and the homeless. He poured his heart out on my ear while the other was listening to the traffic. He had even sold off his house to start the ashram, my ear signalled to my brain. On finally getting down from the bike, he asked me suavely for money to buy sweets for the children in the Ashram. Oddly enough, i gave him a hundred bucks without any hesitation. I even gave him my card and promised him that i would organize a drive to collect old clothes in my office and give it to him.

A month later, when a lot of water and 5000 lines of code had flown under the bridge, i get a call from the reception that someone was waiting for me. Mr. khadi beard had made an appearence again! After asking him how he was, i cut to the chase and asked him what he wanted. "One hundred rupees for the ashram", came his reply. Suddenly something clicked in my head and i saw him in all his fakeness. I glared at him and asked him to bugger off. Pat came his reply, "How about 50 rupees then?". I just walked off, too stunned to imagine that i had given this lowlife a lift AND given him a hundred bucks. Awright awright, you can all kick me now. damn.

Real tech support

2003-11-04T09:01:00.000-08:00

Taken from userfriendly:-

Michael sent me this little message, and I swear that I spluttered my coffee when I read it:
I am tech support for a Portland based ISP. Just thought I would pass along some real questions I have been asked this week.
1) Telling a customer to enter a phone number for their dial up connection they asked "Do I need that in caps?"

2) Received an email asking us if Netscape would cost them more to use on the net than Explorer.

IT pseudo-babble

2003-10-31T08:16:00.000-08:00

Of all things, i saw an ad for mPhasis on the back of a bus. The message goes something like "Archtecting value..". Since when did "architecting" become a real word?! As Calvin puts it, "verbing wierds language". Micro$oft does this a lot. Everybody in IT does this a lot. I think i've discovered the secret weapon that will help me bullshit my way to the top of the corporate food chain.

yeeeeeha

Mavalli Tiffin Room

2003-10-31T06:27:00.000-08:00

Yes, MTR for short. That's where we decided to have lunch before our Diwali shopping. Although i wasn't too thrilled about going to yet another Udipi restaurant, it turned out to be quite an adventure. After getting stuck in a traffic jam for an hour, it took us another half to locate the place. Here i was expecting to see a big signboard or neon, and there it was, a small old building with the words "Mavalli Tiffin Room" engraved on top. For a restaurant that's world famous in Bangalore, it really didn't look like much. Entering the place changed all that however.

Greeted by a couple of genlemen neatly clad in white dhoti and shirt, we were warned that only "meals" would be served. After paying up at the cashier, we were escorted deep into the bowels of the restaurant. The place is at least thrice as big as it looks from the outside, i tell you! Although the rooms were extremely spartan, i felt that i had been transported 50 years into the past. The effect is only enhanced by fading black & white photographs that provide the only form of interior decoration. Then the food started coming!

First came a glass of grape juice in a small silver "tumbler". Barely had i sipped at it, when the serious business of serving a "thali" started in all it's earnestness. Bisibele-bath, raitha, an assortment of subzis and various other items were served at a speed that would rival a Mac anyday. The thrill of being waited on by over 10 waiters never ceases to amaze me. Their co-ordination and timing is so spot-on that it's almost as if they're telepathic or something.

Another first: this has to be the only place where the waiters literally force you to eat the food! After demolishing the bisibele bath, chapathis, subzees, rice, sambaar, and god knows what, i was ready to fall on the floor. Just then, this guy brings a sweet roti kind of thing with ghee to go along with it. When i refused to have it, he tells me that it's pure ghee and plonks a couple of those on my plate! Heck, this place is almost like my home! Hospitality redefined.

After i had eaten more than Somalia's capital city, we were asked to leave from the kitchen as the front gates had shut! It has to be the cleanest hotel kitchens i've ever seen. Suitably impressed, i finally understood why this unassuming hole in the wall is so famous and still existing 80 years after it opened. Damn, i want to go there again.

work.. woik.. woink.. oink.. oink.. gone

2003-10-30T07:02:00.000-08:00

In the last couple of months, I've been working for over 15 arse a day. Hence, no posts.
Hope this project finishes soon enough :-)

Here's an interesting something i got from somebody:-

"...the Gender Genie uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author...."

Communication II: Death of the dialog.

2003-09-29T09:29:00.000-07:00

Today, i write this post on my computer. I click a button when i'm done, and magically, it gets published to a billboard that the whole world can see! Hey, it gets better. Not only can the world see my communication, it can even interact with it. Is that the coolest thing since dry ice or what? Add to that the ability to talk to anyone anywhere, the power to keep abreast with world news on an hourly basis, and the ability to access any kind of information at any time, and we begin to understand the progress that we've made.

Strangely enough, the problem that we face today is not a lack of information but an excess of it. Today, we're constantly bombarded by more information than we can possibly handle. Our adaptation to this assault is that we now sift through information rather than probe it. A high level understanding of a topic is often considered sufficient. For details, we can always refer to google, can't we? At the same time, the transfer of information (communication) rather than it's scrutiny and application becomes more important. It is the death of the dialog.

A dialog that we used to have with others or with ourselves. A dialog that helped us relate to the information that we received, and convert it into something meaningful. Simply the act of discussing an idea or a thought helps us define it in our own way. We discuss it with others if we're extroverts or simply discuss it with ourselves if we're introverts. It is the time lapse between communication that's important. Reduce this time and you also reduce the power to understand.

Even in today's complex and hyper-hectic life, i get the feeling that most of this complexity and sense of urgency is of our own making. Today, we're expected to reply to emails, SMSes, cell phone calls, pager calls almost instantly after we receive them. Considering that most of these gadgets never leave our persons, most of our work or our communication has actually degenerated to become a set of reactions rather than actions. Instant decisions have become the order of the day.

Are all these never ending emergencies really emergencies? Are we simply scared of slowing down? I don't know many of these answers. In fact, many of these arguments are also subjective and may not even apply to all. What i do know is that i will not let the pace of my life be dictated by technology. Communication is a form of art that allows us to interact with our environment. Let me rephrase that. Art is a form of communication that allows us to have a dialog with our environment. Simply creating a better paint brush does not ensure a better painting.

It's been a while...

2003-09-26T07:57:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since i've posted. The reason for it is another story for another day. Co-incidentally it's also been a while since my mobile phone has rung/vibrated. It seems to have died of old age. Life is definitely peaceful without cellphones. The modern human need to be perpetually connected is taken care by my office where i seem to be spending three quarters of my life anyway. They give me telephones and a computer with a broadband inertnet connection. They also give me free dialup accounts/DSL connections to enable me to stay connected in the one quarter of non-connectedness. There seems to be an unspoken conviction in most people that connectedness == contentedness.

Suddenly, we're beginning to be concerned about the bandwidth of our human interactions. Do we tick off a checklist of gadgets before we leave home/office every day? Do we have an electronic address book of all our possible acquaintances at all times? Do we typically make over 3 phone calls before we meet someone on a date: once to let them know that we've left the house, the second to let them know that our ETA is 5 minutes, and the third 5 minutes later? In spite of all this faaltoogiri, do we still start off conversations with old school/college friends accusing each other of not "keeping in touch"?

There can be several reasons why this need suddenly become such a powerful factor in our lives. The first argument is simply that technology has now enabled us to communicate better. Let's try and challenge the basic assumption here. Yes, the tools to communicate have become ubiquitous and more efficient/inexpensive. Has that however made our communication "better"? I think not.

My reasoning is that humans attach value to things only based on it's scarcity/availability. If diamonds were found on every street, their worth would be the same as ordinary stones. (Of course, it doesn't lessen the inherent property of a diamond but we're talking about perceived value here, not inherent value.) Hence, when communcation was scarce and expensive, communication was highly efficient. It was meaningful, crisp and usually achieved the same goals as it does nowadays. On a corporate level, communication over snail mail would be restricted to important annoucements and would be only sent to the employees who are affected. On an individual level, letter writing was an art form in itself. A person receiving a telegram would also know that it was something important. In those days, communication was expensive but effective.

In today's world, communication has become more of an end rather than the means. We keep in touch with each other just for the sake of keeping in touch. The very strengths on which modern communication has become popular, namely ubiquity and cost will be it's downfall. To be continued...

a spitting image

2003-09-05T09:13:00.000-07:00

Today, in office, i wanted to measure a certain distance (say 10 cm.)
Since i didn't have a scale handy, i tried googling for the image of a scale that i could print to paper and use like a normal scale(really!). I couldn't find a single image that was in true-scale. Why? I think there's potential in a image-bank site that specializes in true-scale images.

Another thing: If i do publish true-scale images, there is potential for the image to get distorted with scaling. What i mean is, if it's originally a 200x200 image, it can be resized with photoshop or even when displaying it in a html page.
My question is: Is there any way that while creating the original image, we give it say a background pattern from which we could make out that the image is distorted? In other words, can we simply look at any distorted image and clearly say that it's been distorted?

Let's break this down into 3 cases:-
1. An image is either stretched or compressed horizontally only.
2. An image is either stretched or compressed vertically only.
3. An image is either stretched or compressed in equal proportions in both the horizontal and vertical directions. In other words, the image is scaled.

Common sense tells me that the first 2 cases should be much easier to detect than the third. A gut feel also tells me that it IS possible to detect the first 2 cases. For example, a face clearly looks distorted when stretched horizontally or vertically. But then, a tree may not. So, what is it in a face that enables us to determine reasonable mutations in it's proportion? Is it symmetry? Or is it our expertise in human faces (we stare at them for pretty much our entire lives)? Or is it something else like an innate sense of proportion itself?

This problem now defines itself as a problem in understanding human congnitive ability. Since i'm a layman in this field, i can only use my common sense to try and solve this problem. A simplistic solution that occurs to me is using a pattern of 45 degree angled lines (say diamonds) as the image background. If the image is distorted horizontally, the angle would change. Since we're reasonably accurate at judging a 45 degree angle, we should be able to determine if the image has been stretched. We could even use circles instead of diamonds. Does this solution make sense?

There should be more and better ways to solve this problem, but it's not coming to me right now. Let me know if you can think of something too.

elephant storms

2003-09-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

I came across this interesting article that talks about the weight of clouds! It seems that a small, humble cumulus cloud weighs.. hold your breath.. 550 tons! Blow this up to a big rain cloud and it's weight goes up to millions of tons! No wonder Chief VitalStatistics was always afraid that the sky would fall down on his head one day.

Jobs in 2003

2003-09-03T10:02:00.000-07:00

A friend forwarded this URL to me about a job opening for an American tech company. The funny thing is, even after reading it, i can't figure out if the employer is indeed a tough guy or just a phony. It's pretty interesting reading, so check it out.

Google censoring

2003-09-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

Wired hosted this article a few days ago about google getting sucked into RIAA's fight. It was a very inocuous little article and the content just mentions that following a court ruling in favour of RIAA, Sharman networks (the owner of Kazaa has asked google to "delist" 15 sites that are in violation of the DMCA).

For those who don't follow internet wars, DMCA is this new law passed in the USofA that gives a stupidly wide range of copy protection to companies or individuals with intellectual property. The RIAA, or the recording industry has succesfully used the DMCA to put file-swapping networks such as Napster out of business.. blah blah. What's interesting though is the ease with which Google has succumbed to these delistings. Remember, we're no longer talking about a search engine but virtually the face of the internet. It's fast, it's accurate, and most importantly, it's become the de-facto way to access information on the internet. The question to be asked here is, do they now wield enough power to effectively control (or screen, if you will) the internet?

Conversely, do they now have a *moral* obligation to list all search results in an unbiased manner? No matter how offending or illegal the content?? Historically speaking, google has been sterling in it's unbiasedness. It seems to give one hope that the trellis of modern day infociety is beyond reproach in it's fairness and accuracy. However, this requires that it be supported by the law in it's effort. Would google risk a lawsuit by questioning the delist list of sites that another site has submitted. Maybe not. If so, then what prevents a site from screwing up their competitors this way? How different are we then from the Medieval ages when the common man would not be give access to books or libraries. I only hope that these flash-in-the-pan incidents do not become a future trend.

Addendum:
Jivha just pointed out that he had posted an article on exactly the same topic earlier. Since i didn't gain inspiration from his previous work: Bappi Lahiri style, it's quite a remarkable co-incidence! It's also deliciously ironic as my post on copyright violation might actually be a copyright violation of Jivha's article, according to the DMCA ;-)
To add, his article is very well written too, and can be found here.

goan feni

2003-08-30T05:45:00.000-07:00

Am in Goa.
I guess if i'm posting this shit from Goa, i'm hooked to blogs, eh?
It was quite a depressing start as it started raining almost immediately after i arrived. However, a couple of drinks did the trick, and the rain clouds disappeared after 2 Goan fenis had gone down the gullet. Donnie, who matched my fenis with compensating quantities of beer wanted to check out some wildlife of the femme kind in Goa. So, we're now off to the so-called happening beach "calangute" to do some big game hunting. Cheers, hic.

Template change

2003-08-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

I seem to be spending more effort in design than content :-)
Hopefully, i shouldn't get bored with this one soon.
Design/usability suggestions are most welcome. Let me know if this page doesn't render properly in your browser.

wake up!

2003-08-25T15:08:00.000-07:00

You know, i'm sick and tired of reading about all this political bullshit. We'll rant and rave till we become blue in the face and it will make not the slightest difference. Jivha, for example has raised this issue several times in his blog. His current post about the government trying to ban cow slaughter is a well written deconstruction of the idiocy that prevails in Indian politics. Yes, politicians are epitomes of corruption. However, i put the blame for this squarely on the shoulders of people more than the politicians. These politicians will get away with anything, as long as nobody stops or questions them. The question that begs to be asked is why we're letting them get away in the first place?

The basic premise behind a democracy is that the junta is capable of choosing it's leaders with responsibility and intelligence. Unfortunately, we have become a nation of irresponsible dolts who don't even know what's good and bad for us. We, as a people, are so irresponsible that we shrug off a couple of thousand deaths or simply ignore scams that rival the GNP of several small countries. Instead of holding our politicians responsible for pesticide in water, we'll get concerned about a godforsaken temple or mosque. We'll worry about "vegetarian tuesdays" or our "5am prayers" more than our supply of electricity or water. Why go about blaming them, when we only have ourselves to blame. These politicians are just a side-effect of this bigger disease called stupidity.

Multiple bomb blasts in Mumbai

2003-08-25T05:35:00.000-07:00

Between 1pm and 1:30pm today, two successive bombs went off in Mumbai. At least 40 people are feared to have been killed by the blasts, though this number is feared to rise. What's really disturbing about this incident is the use of taxi-cabs to deploy the bombs.

A well known fact about terrorism is that it attempts to disrupt a way of life by means of terror. Mumbai is also one of the few Indian cities where civic infrastructure actually works. The recent terrorist strikes seem to be well organized and intelligent enough to attempt a disruption of this well-oiled machine. One can only rely on the innate mental toughness of Mumbaikars to shrug off these events and continue their normal way of life.

drowned in work.. glug glug

2003-08-21T06:51:00.000-07:00

The project that i was working on for the last 6 months got released this week. Since then, life has been one never-ending bug-fight. I checked my mailbox yesterday after a 10 hr bug-slug-fest, and realized that i received 700 mails in one miserable day. gleeps! So much for the breather, back to the struggle for now.

India's Independance day?

2003-08-14T12:17:00.000-07:00

A billion people live here. Out of a total of 24,000 languages that exist or existed, India contributes to 16,000. A democratic and secular country which lays claim to being the biggest democratic country in the world. A population that is roughly 80% hindu, 15% muslim and the rest being Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Christians, Zoarastrians (Parsis) and Jews. The birthplace of Hinduism and what many consider to be sub-sects of Hinduism - Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism.

An interesting thing is the outcry caused when India is referred to as Hindustan. "Hindu-stan" is commonly understood to translate to "place for Hindus" in Hindi (the national language). For obvious reasons, this is often a sore point for Indians that practise other religions. The funny thing is that this translation is actually wrong. The word Hindustan was coined thousands of years ago by Persians traders who refered to India as the "land east of the river Indus". Hence, the word "Hindu" in "Hindustan" actually refers to the river "Indus" and not to "Hindu", the followers of Hinduism!

This is quite a strange country we have. We lay claims to greatness and acheivements, though they almost always have to do with our past. We talk about our potential to suceed but we never do. We take pride in our progress in IT and advanced technologies when half our population lies below the poverty line. If our success is so little and our progress so stunted, why do we still live peacefully? Why do we never see open revolts by the hungry, or instability in our governments as it so often happens in most African and Asian countries? What's the secret behind our stoicism that enables us to endure unimaginable hardships?

The secret is that deep down, most Indians, even if they're dirt poor, don't link happiness to material wealth. Over thousands of years, the concept of maya has permeated into the very fabric of our culture. Unlike the western culture that lays emphasis on morality and rules, the Indian culture encourages an understanding of this world as a whole. Maya defines the world as an illusion, an impermanent and fluid screen that blocks us from seeing the bigger picture. Although, human suffering cannot be ignored, there is infinite strength when we believe that this is of little consequence.

It never ceases to amaze me when i see the children in slums who look more cheerful than the yuppie kids. I'm overawed when i see 70 year olds trekking across India for their pilgrimage. It moves me when i see families living on the edge of poverty managing to give a part of their meal to a saadhu (mendicant). Yes, 46 years ago, the British left us alone. However, i maintain that Indians were always independant.

the gods are hungry. bring forth the offerings!

2003-08-13T14:24:00.000-07:00

This is my new blogchalk:
India, Karnataka, Bangalore, Indira Nagar, Hindi, English, arun, Male, 26-30, pulp fiction, art rock. :)

blog chalk

2003-08-13T14:23:00.000-07:00

I decided to create a blog chalk that will encapsulate my life graphically in a 20x20 image and my personality in under 255 characters. If only god had 8 bit limitations in creating our personalities, there would be lesser wars and more blogs :-)

Blog chalk has asked me to create a post with my blog chalk summary. I, like a dutiful servant, ensnared by the wiles of information technology, shall dutifully comply. Hail to thee, o posessor of the wiliest of charms. Accept my humble blog chalk offering. Instruct your mighty bot to feed on it, digest it, and accept me as one of the microbial organisms living under your shelter.

Om shantih shantih shantih.

god and his clueless minions

2003-08-12T16:24:00.000-07:00

Came across this comment by Tom Coates about the existence of God.
Here's what he has to say:-

[snip]
With regard to the point about absolute proofs for the non-existence of God, I think it's fair to say that I couldn't say with total logical conviction that there is no god. That's for the same reason that I couldn't say that there aren't invisible penguin militia walking down my street at the moment - that it's not logically possible to prove that anything doesn't exist. And more to the point, why on earth should we even believe that the burden of proof lies with the atheists anyway? It's the believers of the ludicrous who normally have to convince everyone else...
I choose to treat the concept of God with the same respect as I treat the other infinite possible invisble, intangible things that could exist in the universe (and which do so without leaving any evidence whatsoever, while going against all the evidence that we actually do have). And when I say I treat them with the same respect, I mean to say that I accept that they're all pretty much totally irrelevant. I simply refuse to accept that there's anything distinct and different about "God" that makes it different at a conceptual level from Mind-Control Cheese from Denver - ie. it's basically ridiculous. I do not consider myself 'agnostic' about Mind-Control Cheese. I do not think that the existence (or not) of naked invisible porno monkeys deserves to be considered an 'unsolvable question' worth serious debate. We give too much credit to these stories purely because a lot of people believe in them. That's not good enough.
[/snip]

You can also read the full article here

[On a lighter note]
The counter argument can be found in this page that contains 300 proofs that god does exist!

Reading these article got me thinking in a different (but slightly related) topic. Hence, I'll create another post out of it.

silence

2003-08-11T16:31:00.000-07:00

How i love it. One of the advantages of working the graveyard shift. Even the central A/C has been turned off. All i hear is the low hum of the hard drive, and the sporadic clack of my keyboard. I'm almost done here. Even the Americans are calling it a day now.

The drive back home should be fun. At 5 am, all i get to see are the 5 gazillion stray dogs and the 20 odd early morning types. 20 is quite a large number considering that Bangalore is quite chilly in the mornings. The drive will last 20 minutes to cover a measly 10 kms, even with zero traffic. Since Bangalore is supposed to be the IT hub of India, i guess everything here is virtual... even the roads.

signing off for now...

new kid on the blog?

2003-08-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a really long time since i blogged. I've been actively following Jivha's blog, Anvita's blog, Jon's blog and Shyamal's photo blog among others. They've been posting some pretty neat stuff, and reading their blogs has become my daily morning activity.

I gave this blogging thing a try a few months ago but somehow, i ran out of steam after a few posts. I guess it was difficult for me because i'm not much of a diary person (especially an online one!) and felt a little naked when my thoughts were exposed to the world. Reading and commenting on the other blogs however has encouraged me a great deal to start blogging again :-)

a.b.c.d...

2003-05-06T07:15:00.000-07:00

Yet another book by an indian expat. The author does have an interesting outlook in life though. Should be an interesting read when it finally lands up in india. Or maybe the movie might arrive first, for all you know!

remembering douglas

2003-04-30T08:54:00.000-07:00

One hyperlink led to another and i came across the transcript of a speech by the late :-( Douglas Adams at Cambridge. This is the same Douglas Adams who has written the genre bending The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Douglas Adams is truly one of the most original thinkers that i've known of. His speech is surprisingly nice too!

the comical

2003-04-29T07:58:00.000-07:00

Nothing like a mindless troll of the net to cure those blues. One such chance encounter led me to this neat site that hosts various web comics. Most of the comics are quite serious, even to the point of being depressing. They're also in a story-board format and quite unlike the regular Joe newspaper strip. The one that caught my eye was about The Jain's Death. It's really well done, both in terms of story and illustrations.

2003-04-24T09:13:00.000-07:00

tum tudum dum trum trum
laa dee laa laaa deee laaa
hmmm mmm gmmmm bgmmm
jink tajink pachink tachink
plinky plonky dink taBLAT

damn, i went out of tune

2003-04-24T09:07:00.000-07:00

faces in the sand
we all are
waiting for the wave

garbled thoughts

2003-04-23T07:14:00.000-07:00

As i look outside this windowless room, i realize that the best view is not to be found outside, but inside. To study others and see your reflection in them is the greatest pastime of all. I guess we all do this, only in different ways. Most do it at a subconscious level, when they have social inteactions with others. The rest study their social surroundings deliberately. This act that we all do raises an interesting dilemma though.

My belief is that the mere process of interacting with my social universe alters it in varying degrees to suit my personality. What i mean is that people cannot be categorized into a compartment. The very person who acts in a harsh or rude way to another might very well be polite and kind to me. This is also the reason why i hate categorizing anybody. The reason for this change of behaviour is often because most people react to another person in a way that they expect the other person would react to them. The dilemma that arises here is to look into another person or social mechanics itself without altering the subject. This is where the Cave comes in.

The Cave is the state of physical and/or mental self where one is isolated from everything else. It's quite literally a cave where all other distractions are absent. There are two ways to sit in the cave. You can either look outwards or you can look inwards. Looking outwards gives us a view of the world as a whole. It fills us with awe at the fact that so much energy is being spent at just maintaining and perpetuating the system. We scurry about like the self-important ants that we've become, neither stopping to smell a flower or even wonder at the complexity of it all. Among this maze of social interactions that we've come to call life, we don't even understand the goddamn way it works!

The other way to sit in the cave is facing inwards. All we see is darkness. A black mirror that reflects only the state of our mind. Here, we view our technicolor dreams and hear our memories. This is the artificial world that we've created. Staring at these images and hearing the voices, we also get a gut feeling that this world too is as artificial as the other. As we try to quantify these thoughts, we construct what we call our personality. This is what we project to the world and keep fine-tuning it based on our views and the feedback we receive.

And then, we snap out of it and exit the cave. What we're left with is only laughter. All the more ironic because we can't even decide if we should laugh at others or at ourselves.

social puzzles

2003-04-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

Ah, my very first blog post.
What do i write about? My thoughts? My beliefs? Is this to be treated like an online diary? If so, why should i let anybody else read it? Or, should this be my personal website... a synopsis of what i am (or what i want to project to the world). Maybe, this should be just a collection of inane humour and excerpts from the Net. Duly copy pasted and presented in all it's pristine glory??