A Tale of two cities

Rationale for the existence of this post:

"It's like my mother always told me - [snip] If you ain't got nothin' nice to say then don't say nothin...." However, the other day, I was having a conversation with a friend, and the topic of whether to be or not to be diplomatic sprang up. The specific example was something to the tune of whether it would be fine to say[recount] something bad[not nice] about another person who you've had a bad experience with. There were 2 separate lines of thinking from there on in. One of them said that the revelation would portray the person under question in bad light[possibly unnecessarily], and would prejudice the listener[in this case] against the other person. So, it would be better if the person were to form a 1st hand opinion of the person under question. The second one said that if you have had a bad experience with someone, and the person who you are currently in conversation with is someone who you possibly know, then it is right that you warn him/her by narrating the incident to him/her. This would possibly make the other person more aware of the former, so that when confronted with him/her, he/she is prepared to have his analytical cap on, and pass everything that is said through that, just so that he/she does not fall into the same trap as the other person did.

Whatever path you choose is entirely your personal decision, and possibly open to further discussion[maybe not]....
"Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
Theres still time to change the road you're on."
Notwithstanding, I have chosen to take the latter, and hence this post has come into existence.... Oh! the justification.... It's getting to me!!!! So, here goes nothing....

I've been living at Pune for the better part of 3 months now. I know that 3 months isn't a significant amount of time to be passing a judgement on anything non-trivial such as a whole city, but for now at least I would like to stick to this analysis of mine. How many times have you stayed at a place for while and thought that you are done with it????

Pune is where I work, and earn the cash I don't deserve ;-) Mumbai is where I come to, and on bended knees spend it all.... So, in that sense, Pune is the producer, and Mumbai is the consumer. For starters, Pune isn't as big a place as Mumbai. There are not as many things to do and places to see. Of course, if you consider Pune as a city in itself, then it's a really great place, especially if you take into account the fact that it is the 2nd largest city in Maharashtra; 2nd only to Pune. However, as it so always does turn out, the difference between the 1st & 2nd in a rat-race is so significant that the winner takes all, and the rest are left scrapping the remains. The situation is probably not as bad as this, but I guess you get the gist of it.

I generally tend to avoid comparing entities, such as cities, etc.... because each one of them is different in it's own little way, and has a charm of it's own, but since I've lived in both and found life quite dreary at Pune, I feel the urge to get it out of the system.

I believe that it's not the place, but the people that make up the city, and more so the spirit of the people therein. It would not be fare to say that it's the people of Pune that have made it boring or any such thing because all seas have their share of sharks.... It's just that living there(note the usage of this word!!!!) has been such a pain, and the things that I took for granted here in Mumbai like the bus conductors, and the taxi/rickshaw-wallas, etc.... are coming back to haunt me. People atr Pune are just looking to take advantage of you for any reason what so ever. More like the devil has taken it upon him to do the needful. The other day, I was on the station buying a packet of biscuits(GoodDay Cashew.... yummy!!!!) which adorned the printed price of Rs. 12.00/- However, the vendor felt otherwise, and decided to demand 13.00/-. I thought for a while and handed him over the extra 1.00/-. However, almost immediately, I asked him what the extra rupee was for. He mumbled something which I'm pretty sure even he didn't understand. Anyways, after a while of arguing, and constant pestering from my end as to who was charging this extra money, and who it would go to, he took the rupee, and handed it over back to me; almost as if asking me to shut-up and leave the place. This attitude is seen even in the rickshaw-wallas, who cheat you using the following means:

1. charge extra outright - demand for more money almost at random.


2. possess a refurbished copy of the fare/tarrif card.


3. tell you(and then expect you to believe) that the fares have
   signifiantly gone up overnight - without there being an outcry among
   the people....

Now, the reasoning given to me by the station vendor was that it was okay to ask for a rupee more since it probably didn't matter enough to me to be bothering about it, but it meant quite a bit for them. Firstly, the value of a rupee is the same no matter who is holding it. It's just the value to the person that is holding it that's changing from person to person. Secondly, if I were from outside of the country, then I probably wouldn't even know that I've been cheated, and once I did find out, it would leave a bitter taste in mouth, and these things do count in the larger picture....

I'm sorry to say that if a city needs to come up from the dirt, then the people of the city need to take action, make and be made aware of these happenings, and then do something about it. I don't see this happening because they are too stuck up in their own infinite life loops and people around them that they have become indifferent to the happenings around them. This is true about Mumbai too(and about any big city), but there exists a small difference as does between a smile and a grin. There is just so little that separaets them, but yet they differ by so much.... Another telling difference between the 2 cities is the public transport system. All the while that I was here at Mumbai, I kind of didn't realize that it was so great and well managed. It always so happens that you need to get to the interiors to appreciate the beach[literally even!!!!]. In Pune on the other hand, everyone has their own little carts which they thrust around, and get from place to place. It's just the non-locals that have to manage with the public transport which is not that great as compared to Mumbai.

All said and done, maybe it's just a case of me not being in the right place at the right time. Just maybe -- Pune is not for me right now, or I'm not for it. Maybe I'm not seeing it from the right viewport. It so happens that people would rather be at a certain place at certain times in their lives.... Again, I'm not ruling out the possibility that the problem is with me, and it's me who is the one who is stuck up, and is suffering from inertia of the older city.... And thus, another bitchuing session bites the dust ;-)

In any case, I can hear Pune singing out to me....
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/staind/righthere.html

Probability anyone?

I was checking out blogs today, and starting from my friend's blog, I started clicing the "next blog" link, and you won't believe, but 2 out of 3 pages I got weren't in English!!!!
Does anyone out there have any numbers as to what is the probability of getting a Blog in English when you click "next blog"????

My visit to Bangalore.

Hello everyone. I had visited B'lore on the 24th~27th of Feb, 2006 in relation to the Code4Bill interview for the internship @ M$. This post is with regard to that. You must be wondering why the post comes so later.... well, at best, it's a culmination of reasons including me being busy with college and project work.... So, here it goes:

I left from Mumbai on the 24th morning by Udyan Express from Mumbai CST. It's a 25hr journey to B'lore by train. It would generally suit me well, except I got bored during the day and slept for half the day. So much for catching up on my sleep. However, I did meet a few interesting people. 2 of them happened to be 2 girls from Germany who had come to B'lore for a year for Social Service to help out the street children better their lives. A truly noble cause.

I reached B'lore stn.[Cantonment] at 9:00am on the 25th, and was told to come at CMH Hospital from where I would be picked up by one of my hosts at B'lore, Chirag Patni. I was going to stay at Saurabh Ji's place & Chirag had arranged the stay. A heart thanks to both of them!!!! They made my trip really worth it. The first day, I was taken by Saurabh Ji to the Jain Mandir. It was a very quiet and peaceful place. Somewhere people would generally come to find solace. The next came Kamp Fort, and behind that was a HUGE, no MASSIVE Shiv ki murti. It was really great, and made me feel quite small actually!!!! And there was also this 12 shivling ka emulation(replicas) which were made to explain the significance of each one of them. It was really gr8, and the effects were quite life-like. After that we headed home, and Chirag was already there watching Tv. We all decided it was time to bujhao the aag in out pets(stomach), so we headed to this place (????) where we got really nice parathas and (????) I had onion & methi parathas, and they were quite filling. After that, back home, and off to bed. Dinner was on Chirag and that evening he took me out to show me the signts & sounds of B'lore. Areas of interest were Chinnaswami Cricket Stadium, VIdhan sabha(which looked quite majestic from far down the road), and Briget road. A lot of malls have cropped up at B'lore off late, and we visited a few of them. Then, it was dinner time and we had a light meal since neither of us were too hungry, and then headed off to Leelas, where we sat by the poolside and had a long chat. It was really peaceful place. We spoke a lot and really got to know each other. After that, it was time to have some coffee.... Coffee was great as usual, and then we headed back home. Saurabh Ji was watching the FilmFare awards, and we joined in. After some time, Saurabh Ji and myself felt quite sleepy but Chirag was still at it, so we left him to flip some channels, and retired for the day.

The next day I woke up at 6:00am(quite early by my standards) since I had to reach the M$ office at 8:00am. Chirag was woken up(in a very hasty manner) and he was sweet enough to have dropped me off on time, and he also told me how to get back. After the interview, I again found my way to CMH Hospital where I was picked up by Saurabh Ji this time.

Come evening, and Saurabh Ji dropped me off at the B'lore Cantonment Stn. were I caught Udayan Express back to Mumbai CST. I reached home at 9:30pm.... A very nice trip all in all. I would like to thank Saurabh Ji & Chirag once again for taking such good care of me.

And as is said: All's well that ends well ;-)

What I don't like about Microsoft.

Well, I think this has been long pending. I need to set some records straight and speak out why I don't really like M$. I personally have no problem with their OS(partly because I hardly ever use it. Mainly it's used when I'm forced to at college, but that's a different story). And I feel that M$ Office is one of the best products I have ever used.... However, there are a few areas where I particularly don't like the firm.

[1] Licensing being one of them. They have this massive EULA which probably has lots of undesirable clauses. Something that I would rather stay away from.

[2] Pricing. I got to pay for the software I use, even if it is for educational purposes!!!! I mean come on.... have a heart.... I use Linux at home, and am loving it. I switched about 3 years back, and have learnt more about computers, and programming that I ever did while I used windows for a much longer period of time. So in that sense too, M$ seems to be lacking. Lots of things are hidden, and not revealed, and that really hurts someone like me who wants to explore the internals of a system. GNU/Linux lets you do that to almost any level of detail that you please, and that too in quite an organized fashion.

[3] Number of APIs. Whow!!!! M$ has like zillions of ActiveX controls, and APIs for managing stuff.... and to top it, you can do the same thing in many diferent ways. This is one place where choice really hurts. I mean it's really overwhelming.... And the number of versions of a DLL and stuff like that just drives me crazy. Something simple like updating a DLL file might break something in some obscure place, and the whole thing comes down like a pack of cards. This is one area where IMHO Linux should try not to get out of hand. I agree it(Linux) is growing in complexity, but it has a beautiful POSIX interface, which is relatively small, and quite well documented. And it lets you do almost anything you would ever need to with the computer.

[4] On the 26th of February, 2006, I had been invited to Bangalore at the M$ office for an interview in reference to the Code4Bill contest I had participated in. It was a gr8 eperience all in all, though I didn't get thru ;-) I must say M$ takes a lot of care of their employees(or at least it seems so) and there are lots of recreational facilities available. That's all very good, but in the initial phase when we arrived, we were addressed by an employee who has been working for M$ for the past 16 years, and he was trying to sell M$ to us. Nothing wrong till the point when he started bad mouthing Free Software. He said somehing along the lines of: There is nothing like Free Software. They make you pay in one for or another. If not the software, you will have to pay for service & support. And he also mentioned that Open Software was just a flavour of the month, and it wasn't something that was here to last. I seriously wasn't expecting such comments from someone in a company like M$. I mean they have immense credibility, and such comments could only have been to deter the youth of the country from joining in Open Software, and contributing to it's growth because they see it as a potentially serious threat. With regard to the conments he made regarding Free software, I think he is blatantly wrong, because all the major distros of Gnu/Linux can be downloaded off the Internet for absolutely no cost, and there are loads of help pages, manuals, and How Tos to help you find your way around.... not to mention the numerous forums and usenet groups for newbies.... All in all, it was a very naive and uninformed statement made by an employee of the richest firm on the pace of this blessed planet.

The making of a computer cabinet....

Hello everyone. Today, I completed making a computer cabinet for myself! yep.... a home-grown chasis... only for myself. I needed more space for the 2 new SATA disks that I had just added to my existsing system which comprised of:

1. 2 ATA disks


2. CDROM drive


3. CD-writer


4. Floppy DIsk Drive

So, I needed power extensions, and more SPACE in the chasis. So, instead of purchasing one, which would cost me quite a bit with space for these extra disks that I had(and also taking into consideration the cooling reqired thereof).

I'll try to get hold of some camera, take snaps of the cabinet and upload them here. Along with it will be a detailed description of how I went about making the chasis.

Yeay!!!! I have a few snaps to share now.

Click here for the set of photos of my custom cabinet.

The making of a Tea/coffee cup holder.

Hello people... I've always wanted to have a tea/coffee cup holder to go along with my stool which I use to keep my mouse on. However, due to lack of funds(and otherwise), I never bought one of those things. Now that I have all the time in the world, I decided to make one for myself. This was triggered by the sudden discovery of a Meccano Set in my house, which originally belonged to my dad! I was like wow! This is probably just what the doctor ordered!!!!

So, I started designing, and like a typical hacker, that went out of the window once the implementation begun. The final product is totally different from the one designed, but it looks sexy, and can hold the weight of a full tea/coffee cup.

Once I get a camera from somewhere, I'll upload the pics. too. Till then, keep imagining what it must look like ;-)

Martrix RAID.... Just what the doctor ordered!

From wikipedia: "Matrix RAID utilizes two physical disks. Part of each disk is assigned to a level 0 array, the other part to a level 1 array. This product provides a safe area (the level 1 section) for documents and other items that one wishes to store redundantly, and a faster area for operating system, applications, etc."

Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks#Matrix_RAID

The only problem is that "Currently, most (all?) of the other cheap RAID BIOS products only allow one disk to participate in a single array." Which means that this is not possible in Hardware, though "Matrix RAID is a feature that first appeared in the Intel ICH6R RAID BIOS." Which means that it has initially been implemented in hardware. Now, only if this were available on my Hardware RAID controller, or even Software RAID on Linux.

Of DMA and southbridges....

After getting a new motherboard, Linux seemed to be running fine except that I kept getting this message on boot up:
VP_IDE: Unknown VIA SouthBridge, contact Vojtech Pavlik < vojtech@ucw.cz >

Later on, I realized that my CPU was being used every time I read/wrote anything to Disk. This CPU usage was very evident when I decided to burn a CD. It took up nearly 60% of my CPU time! Considering that this used to be about 5% on my older CPU,it is a 15 times increase over the previous value. This led me to believe that somehow the kernel has disabled the DMA, and all the reads/writes are being routed through the CPU.

I was wondering whether DMA is controlled by the north or south bridge of the computer, and I tried asking a few of my friends, but they were as clueless as me. I immediately opened my crappy text-book to see if they had any clues, but there were none :-( However, I did notice that the ATA/SATA connections go into the Southbridge(SB), and the SB is not directly connected to the CPU, but is to the NB. Wow! This made me believe that DMA is controlled by the SB. To confirm, a quick search on google revealed the following:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southbridge_(computing)


Which proved that I was right!

So much for that ;-)
Now it only remains to get a new kernel:d

Xmms bug-fix.

I had been wanting to fix this xmms bug for quite some time now... Was feeling really lazy. Got down to doing it today though.

What's the bug? If you enqueue many songs, and then clear the playlist, and the load a new playlist, then the "queued list" isn't cleared, and contains pointer to the old(now non-existant list). This causes xmms to crash when the currently playing song gets over. It tries to play a non-existant entry! Made it clear the queued-list as well, when the playlist itself is cleared. owever, I'm not entirely sure this is a 100% corrective patch, because it may still be possible to make xmms crash by removing that song which has been queued. I haven't checked if xmms removes queued songs rom the queued-list when they are removed individually from the playlist.

If you want a patch, mail me. It's only 2 lines worth though ;-)

The use[full/less]ness of Software Quality Assurance.

Today, I picked up my SE(Software Enginnering) text book, and decided to read the chapter on Software Quality Assurance[SQA]. Ok, let me put this straight; SE is a subject I don't agree with, and certainly do dislike. No, wait.... I hate it!

I was surprised to see the stuff about SQA written in that book. I just realized that the need for SQA arises only because people lie, and say something and do something else... which is basically lying explained a bit differently ;-) Also, current trends wherein work on software projects is outsourced needs to be checked for quality because of the above mentioned reasons. Hence, this model may not be ideal or even close to that for many not so big companies and software development centres. IMHO, even corporates have something to gain by looking at the other side of the picture....

Auto-Save in Blogger????

I was wondering if auto-save would be as useful in Blogger as it is in Gmail... Any ideas? I'm of the opinion that Blogger should include it sooner or later[better sooner than later though]. The Recover Post option is prosent, but doesn't really cut it, like Gmail's Auto-Save feature. Now, only if the guys at Blogger were to read this! ;-)

Even more hypocrisy.....

This time, it's Sony... A brand that is SO very much trusted around the globe. They have used LGPL code in their copy protection software(yes, the so very controversial rootkit), and have more mentioned it(as they are required to do so with any LGPL code).

The irony is that the copy-protection software(rootkit) is itself violating a copyright! Hilarious but true. I wonder if music protected this way is illegal to listen to! This just get more and more twisted....


http://dewinter.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=215

To RAID or not to RAID....

Comments required.....
Thanx in advance!

I'm sick of this whole artificial thing around me....

Last few days have not been very good for me, and have forced me to do some real thinking.... Life has not exactly been sweet to me, but hey it's not always fine and dandy.... You do have your ups and downs, and you should take them in your stride... I was speaking about this to my friend Aniket a few days ago, and I happened to mention "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." To which he gave me a really broad grin, and said "When the going gets tough, Gup-Chup baith jaane ka. which means Sit down quietly and try to maintain a really low profile.

This came across to me as a really practical piece of advice.

It's just that things have been so fucking screwey around here... I was going to write a lot, but Sandy called, and I had a nice chat with him... Calmed me down a bit... I was just soooo.. pissed with the sickness filled in people around me, and the hypocricy therein that I was so fucking pissed just to think of it... Like right from SOPs(Statement of Purpose) to shopkeepers, you have hypocricy and corruption, and we as common people just crib about it and fail to do anything about it. In fact, we even give fuel to it most of the time, knowing that we are doing the wrong thing. That just so pisses me off.

People should be more God fearing. Why do people visit temples? To ask forgiveness for any sins they may have unknowingly committed. However, in recent times, people think that visiting temples is like applying white paint over a tainted wall.. which is so fucking wrong. They will commit sins on purpose, and hurt people, and then visit temples, thinking that God is going to tear out the previous chapters of their lives. They are just fucking lying to themselves.

I say... Why not sin in the first place, so that you don't need to visit the temple. Don't do wrong, and you won't have to ask forgiveness. Only if more people could understand what I'm saying, the world would be a much better place to live in. I think we have over-complicated things... far too much for our liking, and it is hitting us hard now. I'll try to stick to the basics, and keep it simple... as simple as possible, but no simpler.

Should I be happy now?

It was a dark and stormy night. The rain was beating down my roof's top, and I could hear it distinctly as it it was trying to say something... Something very important; something that would change my life forver...

I was sitting a front my computer's screen, and writing as usual, some lines of code in C++, thinking about what to do next, and how to irradicate the errors from the program when... suddenly, out of nowhere, I hear the sound of bells ringing.. and it is a loud sound mind you. Numbed by the monitor screen, and contant exposure to harmless rays emiting from the monoitor, I fail to comprehend where it is coming from, when.... almost as sudden as thunder, it struck me that it was the phone. I swiftly swooped down my wings, and made a clean sweep. With the receiver in my hands, I had the liberty to speak into it... yes. The freedom of speech. I simply love it. I thrust the receiver into my stinking mouth and uttered the holy word: "hello". The person on the other side as if expecting the reply said "Namaste".

For a few seconds, I could not believe my ears. This word could only be uttered by members of one of Vasai's biggest gangs. It would not be wise to name them now. I was by then scared to death, but somehow mustered the courage to inhale a bit of air, and modulate my voice to say "yes". This is probably the only thing one can say to these people. They will generally not take "no" for an answer. He spoke as if in a very point-to-point and direct manner and said "stop coding"... For a few seconds I wondered whereby he knew of my ongoing activities, but then realized that these people had spies working for them in every nook and corner of the city. Before any more words could be exchanged, the phone clicked... He had put down the receiver. I had no option but to obey. Otherwise, I ran the risk of being executed.

After a few seconds, I pressed the dreaded keys, Ctrl-X + Xtrl+C. Emacs had been put to sleep... Rather a deep and unforgiving slumber. I could hear it telling me to have mercy, and re-spawn the process, but my life is quite dear to me.

Two days passed and still there was no call from anyone regarding when I could resume coding. I was getting restless. It's almost as if I had been kept hungry for a couple of days. That's when I went to the kitchen, eat the largest meal I've ever had, and decided; "I shall not eat of drink till I have resumed coding".

My resolve to confront these group of people who want to disrupt other people's lives was growing just as the bacteria multiply. It was growing in stature by the second; just a my hunger was gaining some serious momentum. That was when I decided... Enough is enough; someone had to stand up and sort out thing with them. I took the bold step to adorn my stupendous jeans and Google t-shirt, and put on my trusted footwear[a pair of floaters], and steped out of my house with only Rs 28/- in my pocket. Enough to purchase a return ticket to Vasai.

On reaching Vasai, I had no clue as to where I should begin looking for them. I tried asking some people for directions but I didn't know what place I was looking for myself. So, that plan failed miserably. Then a sudden flash of brilliance; as if magically enterd my bird-brain. I proudly walked up to the next person that I saw, and said "Namaste". I could see this plan also back-fire, when his face turned the palest of while, and he fainted on the spot. I was now convinced that I was dealing with a gang that had instilled death-like fear into the minds of the people living there. "This brutallity must be stopped", I said to myself.

Treading on fearlessly into the dark, I reached a solitary cottage, away from all known civilization. I figured this was the place, since there was no soul in sight. Standing a good 3 metres out the porch, I shouted out as loud as I could, gathering all my energy "Show yourself up, you fear-instiller". And out from the roof came a caped creature, with his frock blazing away with the wind. His outline was distinctly visible in the beautiful setting sun, which had just about a few minutes left to dissapear and appear on the other side of the earth, and shed light on their sorrows. He spoke in a very commanding tone and said "So, you have finally arrived, you greedy bandwidth seeking creature". I was taken aback at the way in which he spoke and the confidence he exuded. After all, he was wearing his underwear atop his pants. Pulling out his shimmering sword which shone brightly in the setting sun, almost blindig me, he uttered the following words which I shall never forget for all long as I live: "I am the ruler of the Dial-upers, and off later broad-band seekers have been infiltrating into our territory. I shall not allow this adultration to happen, and shall take ncessary steps to erradicate all high-bandwidth spots on this planet. You shall find yourself in dial-up hell after some time, miscreaeant". With that, and and one fell swoop of his weapon, I fell to the ground; unconscious, motionless.

When I awoke, I found these really sexy chicks around me dancing all around to the sound of holy rhythmis tunes being chanted in the background. I said to myself "yeah!". Then, I logged on to a computer which had my name on it. 4 CPU, AMD 64-bit, 64GB RAM, RAID-1, 3TB disk space, and loaded with all the possible songs I would have dreamt of. I fired up firefox, logged into gmail, and am writing this mail now. Btw, I now realized what that demi-god ment when he said "You shall find yourself in dial-up hell after some time, miscreaeant". I am in dial-up hell because we have 10mbps leased lines per user here! I am in broad-band heaven!

Humans - So simple, yet so complex.

Have you ever wondered what a complex mechanism the human body is, and how many facets it has? Well, I'm sure you have. Everyone has asked themselves this question sometime or the other, and has felt the hopelessness within due to the inability to answer it. One of my friends did notice something similar to what I experienced today. I was just doting upon one of our subjects in college - Computer Graphics [CG], and the different kinds of techniques and algorithms used to render 3D graphics on a 2D monitor. The complexity of these techniques is such that it would be impossible to study them without an external aid such as that of mathematics. The approach used is to convert a situation into a mathemtical model, and then apply some transformations to that model or set of equations obtained thereof, to get the final result in the form of equations or numbers, which are then interpreted accordingly, and displayed on screen.

Let us take a simple example such as filling a polygon or a figure having a random shape and orientation in space. This task is quite complicated for computer to perfrom, and during the course of the running algorithm, it has to perform various checks, and handle the situations accordingly. If on the other hand, you look at humas, we will be able to tell or at least imaging exactly what the shape will look like after filling has taken place. Testimony to that is that small children are first taught to do such filling operations on sketched out figures, and they are able to do so without much difficulty and little or no help.

However, the other side of the coin has somethinh entirely different to say. Consider the task of multiplying 1000 - 3 digit numbers together. It is a task solved within a fraction of a second by a computer, where as a human may take a few minutes at the least to perform the same operation!

So, the question that arises here is why are there such differences between seemingly smilar tasks and why humans are able to solve some very quickly and others not so quickly? And why do computers behave in a similar way? Also, if computers were designed to solve computationally intensive problems fast, why do they fail on some accounts? This question will probably be answered if we probe deeper into the birth of computers and really understand the basic thinking behind the forefathers of the computer.

Another question that arises because of the above line of reasonaing is: Will computers be able to solve the problems in the near future which they can not presently, and which humans solve with relative ease? A similar question can be framed for humans too. There are arguments both way. For example, we can argue that since the first computer was invented, they have come a long way, and can now perform tasks that seemed impossible at that time. In short, computers have evolved. However, huans have been on the face of planet earth for sooooo many years now, and they too have evolved, and this process is an on going one, and nobody know if and when it will end. I strongly believe that evolution [at least for humans] is a non ending process, and the moment the human race stops evolving, it will be doomed, simply because it will not be able to cope with the environmental changes taking place around it. So, the basic factor guiding evolution is probably the environment in which the humans live and thrive. So, does the environment for computers change similarly? The environment is guided solely by humans, and their environment changescontinuously, even without their knowing about it, so it should be quite evident that the environment for computers changes too, and that too at quite a rapid pace.

So, can computers 'evolve'? I don't think they can do so automatically! At least not now. Who knows what the future holds. There have been various novel and probably not so successful ideas and concepts such as AI [Artificial Intelligence], which I believe have been no close to failure. The best they could do is program a computer to beat the Chess Crand Master. That probably does not constitute AI as far as I am concerned. It is more of an exercise in super computing, and combinatorial logic. However, arrogant it may seem, it is probably the naked truth.

So, humans rule once more!
All Hail God

And a Solution :-)

Ok, let me without any further ado get straight to the point. How should one go about cleaning their computer? Well, firstly make sure that you have the confidence to open up that baby, and strip off it's clothes ;-) After you've gobbled down a few pegs, you will feel like man enough to do the needful! BUT, STOP, relax, and come back later. Let me assure you that you are in no position to open up your computer [unless of course you've decided to take up 'sanyas' and live the rest of your life in the Himalayas like a Sadhu, in which case you wouldn't need your computer anyways].

Oops, OT is my middle name! Grrrrrr. Ok, here's the deal. Every time, I deviate from the topic.... well, forget it. I won't bore you any further. Well, now once you have opened up your computer, removed all the various cards and the IDE connectors, carefully remove the CPU fan's cable, and then remove the CPU fan from atop the CPU [Do this carefully. If you screw up, don't coming running to me].

Now, you have 2 options. One is the dry way, and the other is the wet one. I used a hybrid. Here's what I did. I removed the motor along with the fan blades, and removed the dust from then using my vacuum cleaner, in high power blow mode. To remove the dust which was stuck hard on the heat dissipating alloy, I dipped in in warmish water, and then washed it under moderate pressure running cool water. This ensures that after the dust has become loose, we can wash it away using hydraulic power. Then, wait for it to dry. In the mean time, we can get down to blowing out the dust from on top the mother board [using a vacuum cleaner again]. Once that is done, check if the alloy is dry enough to be put back. If it is then, attach the fan to it, put it back atop the CPU, make the various connections, put on the casing and you're ready to use an overhauled computer! Now, isn't that simple :-)

My Computer won't work properly :-(

This is a more technical thing I'm gonna talk about now. Yesterday, I did a complete overhaul of my computer; in the sense that I cleaned up all the cobwebs that had been created on the various components like CPU and motherboard by certain 'spidery' creatures.

The main source of congestion was dust particles collecting on the CPU fan, and the Display card fan. What effect does this dust have? At first, you like me might think that it just spoils the aesthetics of the internals of the computer, but that is not the case! Surprised? You'd better be. Well, here's the deal. The dust formed on the CPU fan, and the heat dissipator[usually made of Aluminium, or some good headt conducting of Aluminuium] makes the dissipation of heat into the surroundings that much more difficult, so the CPU keeps getting hotter, and can burn if it becomes too hot. I use an AMD processor, so it does not turn off if it becomes too hot as compared to an Intel CPU, which powers down the computer to prevent damage to itself.[I have burnt out an AMD CPU this way, so trust me on this]. The official docs. say that anything <= 70 degreesC is a 'safe' operating temperature for the AMD CPU. The temperature should not cross 90 degreesC, when they mention that the junction breakdown takes place, and you are doomed! However, I have once operated the CPU at 120 degreesC [just for a few seconds though] without it being damaged. [Don't try this at home kids!].

Getting back to the point, if the CP gets too hot, and I started peforming CPU intensive tasks such as encoding wav files to mp3[using lame on Linux], the OS would just hang[because of the overheating], and successive reboots would not help bcause the heat would have not yet dissipated till the computer gets back up. Thus, the computer would also sometimes stall in the middle of a reboot. I began to suspect the temperature quite early on, but I got down to do the cleaning up much later on. When these things became commonplace, and I found it hard to even read .pdf docs on the computer because of constant hanu ups, I decided to open up the computer and do the cleaning myself. And you won't believe the results I ot after cleaning up the internals. The max. temp. of the CPU dropped from a 72 degreesC to a cool 61 degreesC[a drop of about 10 degreesC], which is always a welcome change. I no longer experience such hangups even when perfroming CPU intensive tasks continuously, such as interperting large perl scripts, and encoding music at the same time.

I shall describe in a later message[in detail], how I acuallly got about cleaning the internals of my computer.

Decision Making

What should do??? Decision making............

Have you ever asked why you are doing certain things that you are currently doing? Well, it surely must have crossed your mind some time or the other. Either you gave it a really hard thought, and gave up, or you did not think about it any further, or you got to some distance on it successfully, and got to a concrete decision. Well, I've gone a step further, and have put my bungled up thoughts on paper (rather on the public domain for everyone to have a look at). Maybe, they can relate to a few of my thoughts, and for those of you who have been tearing apart their hair (like me) on what to do when confronted with such a decision; well, maybe even all of you could help yourselves by reading this.

Sometimes, rather many a times I have in fact been confronted with such a situation, and most of the time I've thought this to be the best course of action. There is this basic theory that I've formulated, and I sort of use it as a basis for almost all decision making. I think it's generic enough to be applied in alomost all such cases. So, here it goes: "Do something that will directly or indiretly help you or others around you." Ok, they need not be 'around' you, but you pretty much get the picture...... A direct implication of this would be to refrain form doing anyting that has absolutely zero or minimal productivity value form a long term persective with relation to anyone concerned. Do what you feel is right when give two things that can be done at that point or instant of time. Now, here 'right' might not necessarily confirm with the notion of what 'right' might be to others around you or who analyze the situation form a different point of view. This is better understood than said. Do not, I repeat do not do anyting that might make you feel uncomfortable, and give you the label of a conformist. It's better to be a non-conformist, and do something that you feel is the right thing to do. After all, if what you do does not turn out to be the right thing to have done, then you will be the one responsible for your decisions. Consider the scenario when what you do might not be the right thing to have done: Then, you can very well say, ok after analyzing the situation, I think that here's where I went wrong, and I should have done this differently, or in a way that may have affected the final outcome of the decision in a different, or more positive manner. You will be able to confidently say this to yourself, only if that decision you took at that juncture was what you felt was the right thing to be done. If you had done something that you felt was inherently wrong or incorrect and still you went ahead with it, and you face a block somewhere along the way, you will always look back at that juncture and say to yourself: "I should have done that differently." This has at least two direct or indirect negative implications. 1. You might never be able to find the real cause of your failure, or to be more precise, you will never look back at the other junctures to see if you made a wrong turn somewhere else. There will be this kind of prejudice about that particular decision. 2. You won't feel like continuing with whatever task that you have undertaken, and the whole aim of beginning it will be a total waste. You will feel thoroughly disgusted with yourself, and it might even adversley affect youe health. In my opinion, worse than not undertaking a task is not finishing an already undertaked task. This statement has come about because of my own personal experiences. Maybe even you might have experienced some of this, or something vaguely similar to this...... or, maybe not...... The former path of choosing what you think is right will help you futher in making youeself stronger in the respect of making youeself even more conscious about the fact that you, and not some joe, not even the society is responsible for the decisions that you take, and which direcly or indirectly affect you and others around you. You have a certaing responsibility towards the society, or others, or whoever it might be; but, the final decision of anything is in your sole hands. So, choose wisely, so that you will not have to repent later on something that you felt that could have been better at some earlier stage. Also remember this: Life's too short, and there is no guarantee that you'll wake up tomorrow morning......

Are you living upto your worth?

Read on to fine out if you can make your life worth the while, or rather worth the life.......

Sometimes I feel "why am I here"? Its like what have I been sent here to do, and what entity am I? Am I actually here and living, or is it just a thought? Am I making a complete mess of my aim of life? Sometimes I feel that it would be better to just give everything up, and just be like a lifeless stone, but then almost immediately, I think of the power of ONE, and the difference that an individual can make to society, and I find the motivation to go on. Other times there are when I'm completely lost and life's like a huge burden which has been given to me to make others happy, and I say to myself its one of those days when nothing goes right for you. You get caught for not buying a ticket on train, and you loose your way, step into a hole, and hurt yourself, and try to blame someone else for it all. But, then, living life itself is an art in itself; be it for yourself, or for someone else. Then you feel that yes, you will have to let go of certain things, so that your near and dear ones are happy, and that in itself will make you happy too. The other day, I was coming home from college in the first class compartment in the local train, and I noticed an elderly, but well dressed man chewing on sugarcane, and merrily sucking it up. He seemed to be working in a bank from the looks of things. After he finishes, he put all the left-overs in a polythene bag, and very conveniently placed them under the seat, and left. You cannot imagine what I felt at that very moment. It was like a pool of words floating around in my mind. What my parents, my teachers, and others around had been telling me, my own thoughts, stuff I hear other people saying, and it was like this whole jungle of words, and I was lost in it. I felt like a helpless person caught in the middle of my own thoughts. I was thinkng of all the values injected in me by all the people that I have met, and how I cannnot not listen to what everyone has to say, but still act the way that I want. At that moment, I thought, what is the use of knowledge, and education if this person cannot even pick up his own crap and throw it away. What? let others do the dirty work for you, and that too your dirty work??????? Never. That is not acceptable. Definitely not. Then my thoughts got back to my role in my life. It might sound stupid at first, but you should think of your role in your life. We usually think of ourselves and our lives as one thing, but isolating them and then giving it a thought will really help. What have you been sent here to do? Are you achieving your full potential? Ask yourselves this question time and time again, till you strike at soomething. Then, I felt the urge to live, and live my life the way I want to, and the way it will make a difference to me and all around me. Life comes only once, and living it the way you want to live it is the right way to do it. I felt that by doing so, I'll be able to help out other people who face difficulties in the things that I enjoy doing. Maybe they were forced to do it for watever resason, that is beyond my control. But, I'm very much sure that if they were given a chance to live life in their way, they would surely have excelled their field. So, I consider myself really lucky to have been given that chance, and want to take the utmost advantage of this wonderful opportunity that had been bestowed upon me by God, and thank God for it. Yes, I can make the difference in this world. I can make it a better place for others and myself to live in. That's exactly what I have been sent here to do. I felt as if a huge burden was off my chest, and now I could live life how it was ment to be lived. I thank the Lord for giving me this realization. Elated I definitely was. By then, my station had come, so I quietly picked up the ribbish that that man had left, and got off, and threw it in the first waste bin that I saw.