Disclaimer: The following are my personal views on events, people or places and don't reflect that of the organization I am currently affiliated with. Links are provided to the original sources related to the topic. Also, excuse petty typos. Attributing it to lack of time, I don't usually proofread what I type before posting.
Posted on 2008-11-19 03:03:38 As an acquaintance pointed out today: - Permalink
If you're at Dartmouth (and/or another Ivy in the New England area), you'll get it.
Posted on 2008-11-17 07:33:51 Simple Scalar. - Permalink
For my computer architecture project we are studying the effect that cache sizes have on sorting algorithms. So, cutting to the chase, we're going to vary the data size we wish to sort as well as the cache size and hopefully see something interesting. So we're going to be using the popular, almost standard tool used, Simple Scalar.
The point of the post is, that after almost most of the day in the lab, and changing some part of gcc 2.7.x (yeah!) and building the damn thing, it finally is working. So, Google for some nice notes, I remember coming across something good in some places (the actual website doesn't have anything useful if you're going to be installing it from scratch...you'll have to configure/make everything with all the required flags etc). Good luck. More when we get some results.
Posted on 2008-11-17 05:37:21 Finally! Kudos Duke! - Permalink
Duke will now require agencies like the aforementioned entertainment cartel enforcement organisations, “to provide evidence of copyright infringement before forwarding pre-litigation notices to students,” says the school’s Duke Chronicle.
I can only hope that all schools follow suit. Recently there was an article on Dartmouth's page about its students being involved.
Posted on 2008-11-16 04:06:36 Thank you! - Permalink
I'm not a pro at marketing but I really believe that for anything that has to do with entertainment (this includes eat outs/restaurants, movies, pubs, gadgets etc) one of the things that brings that initial crowd is word of mouth. If that mouth is on someone famous, it does help. I mean consider, you have a website, and if some famous celebrity says that he/she digs the website -- boom! The hits will soar. Actually, it doesn't need to be anyone that famous, but I'll save those alternative Milgram-like-social-analysis for another post. Till then, you guys are definitely doing your bit! Check this out (this is from summer up until now):
What can you look forward to? Well, pretty much the same, maybe comments (or not :)), a blogroll of the things I like on the internet (although they are scattered over this page if you can't wait) and more of the good, hopefully limited boring/personal posts and who knows, guest posts?
Posted on 2008-11-15 22:00:34 Old vs New - Permalink
I was just thinking of my time at the graduate students housing on campus (North Park). I (and my friends) had some awesome times there, with the regular set of soirees every now and then and the things that happened at those gatherings followed by pulling their leg (or getting mine pulled) the next day.
To the good times!
Posted on 2008-11-13 21:41:12 Some As for the Qs - Permalink
Alright, so I've been asked a couple of times, on why I don't have comments enabled on my blog. Here's why:
There are like 4 (modest) scripts which run this thing. I have written them. And more importantly I am a Computer Science student, so I think I am required to say something like, "I have work to do, all the time!" (even if that's not true, always). Now coding that thing up isn't going to be, say, more than half a days work I guess. I mean my initial idea is to include an exec in my publishing script which calls mkdir with the argument which has the timestamp of this post followed by the string "comments" and write to the index file in that directory, the comments that you would include in a form right below the post. But really, "I have work to do, all the time!" :)
Secondly, I'm sure some of the posts piss some hot (red) headed people off and I don't want abuses on my blog, because I don't really like profanity and also some of my family members like to read my blog to know what I'm upto, so when they comment, I don't want the young ones to go like, "Mom what is that word with starts with 'f' mean?". And while the cure to that is simple - I just moderate your comments, I'm then going to be wasting more time, ain't I?
Let this be. Mail me your comments and if they're interesting enough, I'll include them, somehow, in my next post.
[kettle:~] 6) sudo yum install superscalar
We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System
Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:
#1) Respect the privacy of others.
#2) Think before you type.
#3) With great power comes great responsibility.
Posted on 2008-11-10 04:15:33 Tsk tsk. - Permalink
Linux blues. Don't get them too often, but when I do, honestly, it's worse than the issues I get with Windows. So here's the dirt: I have a HP Pavilion dv6000 laptop and the screen went black (yeah, mine too). The obvious next step is to connect my laptop to an external monitor -- works fine on it. BUT, only on Windows, with Linux, I get rgb colors splattered all over the screen with nothing legible. This is with the gui terminal, if I go to tty0 or something else, the text is fine, albeit with a number of glitches (the cursor doesn't move to the right places and the text isn't displayed as how it is supposed to be). Then I tried rebooting into Ubuntu to get that the root fs has a number of bugs I need to manually fsck it. So I proceed and by the end of it, when I relogin it tells me that X can't be started because of "some errors" and using tty0 I can't see ~anuj directory as well. I just hope those files are on disk, otherwise the Ubuntu community is going to be losing a fan...no seriously. I had less problems with Fedora. Sure, they give us aptitude, but really, yum I hear has surpassed all underestimations. More rants, as they come.
Posted on 2008-11-09 22:53:28 Of meeting an unknown, yet well known person. - Permalink
So, today Randall Munroe came to visit us, here at Dartmouth. Among all the hustle bustle, I was taken aback to see somebody who was, no bragging here, just like us! Seriously! Which got me thinking...is the success of xkcd attributed to the fact that a geek took up the job of actually publishing jokes which we would exchange, and again no bragging intended, on a frequent basis, say at a bar on Friday nights?
Chew on that, but in any case, kudos! Good humor and, well, whatever you say, it worked!
Posted on 2008-11-08 08:37:07 Did we make the right choice? - Permalink
Hell yeah!
Posted on 2008-11-06 22:40:18 Predictions. - Permalink
So Obama won. Yay! Now here's what I predict on what's going to happen: The country will celebrate the next week, for change and its actual incarnation. Then, people will soon start judging Obama by raising questions on how he's going to handle some impending situations, the most prominent being the economy. The young and social will bicker about this. I will be interested too for a while, after which I will give up the whole hoopla and say something like "oh come on...stop bickering, and go do some work!" Let's see if I'm right.
No no, don't judge me. Don't give me your know-how on any other party. I'm not open to discussion. Sure, individually your opinion matters and so does mine, but really if you call me up now and rant away about how disappointed you are about my choice (and I then proceed to defending my choice), we're going to be wasting time. May the best man win, and hope that the overall effect on lots of things, is positive.
Hold on!
Posted on 2008-11-05 07:36:14 Should I vote? - Permalink
Posted on 2008-11-04 06:59:52 Nah, it's not that simple. - Permalink
After reading this and hearing one of the Principal Architect of Windows talk on campus, I just sat in the lab and came up with this in the hope of getting somewhere. On the course, I obviously realized some things which weren't clear at first and well that their product is just that, a product! And cannot be a script that some CS student came up with in half an hour! So from what I've heard: Vista pages, big time! Also, the attached device vs disk page time needs to be known before actually paging to the device, or does it already know that it's flash memory? Plus there's the whole encryption thing that happens before the page. You can read more about it on the aforementioned wiki page. Anyway, this script works pretty much the same on linux if you want to use a flash drive as a swap space. Really simple - some standard commands put in the form of a script! Sample session is shown below
anuj@slackbot:~/src/python$ su
Password:
root@slackbot:/home/anuj/src/python# ./red -m
Detected device /media/PHOENIX with available space 3102940
Proceed? (y/n)y
Creating swap space on /media/PHOENIX
Too much space available, using 1000
1000+0 records in
1000+0 records out
1024000 bytes (1.0 MB) copied, 0.0357275 s, 28.7 MB/s
Setting up swapspace version 1, size = 1019 kB
no label, UUID=e5469591-fe8a-4e44-bf1b-4ebc1cef37bf
root@slackbot:/home/anuj/src/python# cat /proc/swaps
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda6 partition 6140920 34764 -1
/media/PHOENIX/swap file 992 0 -4
root@slackbot:/home/anuj/src/python# ./red -h
red: A script that tries to emulate what ReadyBoost does (but not quite).
RUNNING
#./red [-mrh]
OPTIONS
m: make cache on attached device
r: remove cache on attached device
h: help (This message will be printed again)
root@slackbot:/home/anuj/src/python# ./red -r
Removing cache/swap space from /media/PHOENIX/swap
Done removing /media/PHOENIX/swap
root@slackbot:/home/anuj/src/python# cat /proc/swaps
Filename Type Size Used Priority
/dev/sda6 partition 6140920 34764 -1
Posted on 2008-11-04 06:53:32 I like it! - Permalink
This has become a habit of late, where I like to disassemble some code and see if I can understand what's happening in assembly level. But then again, there's work to do every now and then. The following is a push operation in a linked-list emulated stack:
Posted on 2008-11-02 06:15:15 Post Halloween. - Permalink
Halloween was not-too-bad. I was not in the mood for anything last night -- thought I'll get some work done and feed the antisocial in me a bit, but my friends insisted I come, and I'm glad I went.
Besides the cliche witches, Frankensteins among others, there was a Palin and my personal favorite, the Joker. Awesome!
Unprepared as I was for the event, I ended up wearing a labmate's beard on my head and a cap with skulls. Coming close to something like this:
Pretty scary huh? Actual picture, coming soon.
Posted on 2008-11-02 05:50:53 Weird! Or is it? - Permalink
"The Washington Death With Dignity Act. The ballot initiative, modeled on Oregon’s, would let mentally competent, terminally ill adults obtain a doctor’s prescription for a lethal dose of medication."
This makes Washington, if passed, the second state to make euthanasia legal. Is this a trend? Are other states and other countries too, going to follow once the trend seems to spread? Are you against it? Why? It is wrong to let a terminally ill person, with perfect mental faculties choose the way he/she dies?
I don't have an opinion. Not yet.
Posted on 2008-10-31 19:00:41 And tomorrow... - Permalink
Ubuntu 8.10, aka Intrepid Ibex, will be available. Upgrade time tomorrow. Considering the traffic, I'm not sure how long it's going to take. Watch this space for more, on some of the apparent changes I notice in the newest offering of Ubuntu.
Before I came to Dartmouth for my MS, IIRC, I think I had 7.04 installed and it was a while before I finally upgraded to 8.04 LTS. And some of the changes, even with the apps were something that was welcome, so I'm definitely looking forward to upgrading to a newer offering.
Posted on 2008-10-30 04:48:58 You live, you learn. - Permalink
From "The Merchant of Venice":
What, must I hold a candle to my shames?
They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light.
Why, 'tis an office of discovery, love.
And I should be obscured.
Time, among other things, teaches you to appreciate previously-assumed-weird things like Shakespearean dialect.
Posted on 2008-10-29 07:49:04 What's another year(?) - Permalink
You think its "hip" to be doing this? It's 9 AM. Hanover's fall is on its way out, with it being gloomy. 36 F. Another year. I'm probably going to get that haircut that everyone has been "suggesting". Catch up on some sleep. Probably drinks in the evening. Wait for tomorrow, in the hope of avoiding awkward/fake "oh my god"-moments.
Posted on 2008-10-27 18:33:17 Why not? - Permalink
I have a lamp right next to my bed. When I have a hard time sleeping, or \{enter some reason here\}, I'd like to take a book and read, with the option of being able to stretch out my hand and switch the lamp off -- but I accidentally bought a lamp of 60 W, when my lap "strongly suggests" that I limit to 40 W tops "to avoid fire". Why can't the damn things come with aluminium foils or something, considering that they have a melting point of 1200 F! Why?
Posted on 2008-10-23 05:32:38 Candidates Dilemma. - Permalink
Consider this: O and M are two political candidates running for President of some country. The political campaigning for the same, involves spiting each other on every comment they make. Now, say P(O) and P(M) indicate parties that the candidates belong too. If M/O comments (obviously negative) on something that an old politician from P(O)/P(M) did in the past, the other party has the option of either: a) Disagreeing and explaining why, what the old politician did was actually right, in contradiction to the claims of the opponent candidate OR b) Agreeing, that the opponent party is right about something and providing a fix up on the unanimous blunder of the older politician. I guess what's most common is option a) as far as I can remember. How often and when has b) happened? (Think: Privatizing Social Security, for example.)
Posted on 2008-10-22 21:58:37 Voting: The youth. - Permalink
Read this on why you should care about American Politics if you are going to be living in this country in the near future. Some generic comments though: it's good to care about it on specific basis, ie, get the reasons for your concern right, make sure they're well worth your time and the people in your group, who you'll probably discuss these sort of issues with.
My interest in Politics is dampening. I think what best describes my interest is that American Politics is something I wasn't really aware of when I was back in India, so that got me curious about what it was all about. Then came in the tax issues (all of this is probably discussed below, I'm too lazy to reference it all here).
Quiet. It's 04:32 (don't believe the time stamp below the post, the server is in India). Just wrapped up the Architecture homework. Walked back in 34 F. Class at 10:00. Long paper to read at 11:30. A cross-day in the life of a...oh well, grad (CS) students don't have lives.
Posted on 2008-10-22 13:57:24 And they pull another one... - Permalink
Posted on 2008-10-21 23:20:11 Will the real candidates, please stand up. - Permalink
After the Alfred E Smith Memorial Dinner and the many chuckles the candidates gave us, it's back to putting-the-other-one-down. While the latter, is sure more important, I'm beginning to question the length of the entire process involved in American Politics.
Of course, I have lots of other things to do than stalk the candidates every move, after all I am a CS student (if you're one too, I can see you going "aah! been there"), but every morning when I open the Times or any other daily, all I get is this. Sure, there is Slashdot, BoingBoing, Wired too...okay, I'm going to stop. Back to work. You shouldn't be here too!
Posted on 2008-10-21 23:16:11 Over over over??? - Permalink
Posted on 2008-10-20 10:46:38 The IDE matters! - Permalink
IDE, with some nifty color coding and text complete is something I'm now addicted to. Gone are my undergrad days where I would fire open vi to write something. I still do fire it open, but it's probably for a small script to probably test something. Other than that, I need a decent IDE! It just lets you concentrate on your code more than other petty things.
PS Too much coffee and no sleep, makes me feel woozy too. Damn, I'm human.
Posted on 2008-10-20 09:35:40 Hurray (?) - Permalink
Just got done (I hope!) with the project I was working on for the last couple of terms. Time to let off some steam. Can't really talk about it, besides that it's a custom search/retrieval system funded by GM.
Posted on 2008-10-19 05:39:47 That's just bad! - Permalink
"Software Engineering" is not just jargon. I had to, in the not so recent past, deal with code written by another individual and while it did some amazing things, I had a tough time understanding what the heck was going on. Some of the things that annoyed me particularly were:
1. Too many large files. Some basic utilities could have been put in a different file. This comes under modularity. I don't have to deal with the entire task in one file!
2. Coding conventions. Personally, I like the JavaBeans coding convention. I try and use the conventions in other programming languages as well, unless they have their own conventions. This possibly falls in "reusabilty" and "clarity".
3. Indentation. This could be a subset of the previous requirements, but I'm really more concerned with python. Somehow I prefer a tab to a space (or two spaces) for indenting. It's a pain to understand. But I guess this would have been offset if it was modular and I didn't have to scroll down all the way.
4. Documentation. I think a sample output is a good idea and instantly tells the programmer what the code does. This helps in unit testing as well.
Those are obviously known, but my two cents anyway. More, when I face something I don't like (hopefully in the distant future).
Posted on 2008-10-19 04:36:58 Return of the giant flame. - Permalink
Yep, it's homecoming weekend at Dartmouth (Oct 17-19) with alumni back on campus. In Dartmouth tradition, what they give everyone is the live version of the towering inferno. Yeah, don't believe me?
And plus, it's a Friday night!
Posted on 2008-10-17 23:22:51 En route. - Permalink
I'm sitting in the back seat of the college bus which transports not only students, but also other people from the community, with dim lights and the damp smell of the rain that just ended. Like returning home after a trip (but in that case, hopefully a long day of fun!), you see the street lights glaring on people who are tired. A man on the stairs smoking a cigarette. People on the bus, with the oil of the day reflecting off their foreheads. With the circles under their eyes a little deepened. Mexicans, Indians, Americans, Chinese, all of them. Is the lure of wealth that powerful?
Posted on 2008-10-17 19:31:27 To correlate or not to correlate. - Permalink
Who is better for the stock market, a Democrat or a Republican? I'm interested to see if there is any correlation and this sheds light on it. Or does it.
Posted on 2008-10-15 08:32:20 Tomorrow will look like? - Permalink
Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase were told they would each get $25 billion; Bank of America and Wells Fargo, $20 billion each (plus an additional $5 billion for their recent acquisitions); Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, $10 billion each, with Bank of New York Mellon and State Street each receiving $2 to 3 billion. Wells Fargo will get $5 billion for its acquisition of Wachovia, and Bank of America the same for amount for its purchase of Merrill Lynch.
And DOW closed like:
Tomorrow? Day after? Day after day...(?)
Posted on 2008-10-14 08:25:26 Making life, a little easier. - Permalink
Throw the following in a file. Place the file in the directory containing images which you want, shrunk. And run. The shrunk images quality is rather sad, at least in comparison to the result that GIMP gives you. So I try to use that for some pics, but of course, it gets tedious when you have a lot of pics.
#!/bin/bash
for i in $(ls -A1); do
echo Shrinking $i...
convert -resize 50% $i $i
echo "done shrinking."
done
Posted on 2008-10-14 08:13:30 On lines similar to the last post. - Permalink
Here's one of those brilliant Krugman analytical articles which I remember coming across earlier this year. See what I'm talking about? Clarity of thought and learned peoples' opinions put together brings healthy reading! Yeah, that's the phrase, "healthy reading".
Posted on 2008-10-14 04:16:11 I actually read his opinions. - Permalink
Paul Krugman has won the Nobel Prize in Economics for 2008. Hearty congratulations to the Professor.
You're probably wondering why I'm mentioning Krugman's Nobel specifically. Here's why: He is one of the few Nobel laureate whose words I've read. I don't go read about particle physics on a daily basis (I do get to hear about it though, thanks to Dad). No, I haven't been going through his publications either but back in India, my family subscribed to two dailies - The Times of India and The Hindu. The latter was my choice for the most part, but ToI (as they are popularly abbreviated) had Krugman's column present. His opinions on matters surrounding economics were always accessible even to me, considering I have never even taken a course on economics. Here's a link to his blog on NYtimes where he references the announcement, in what can be best described as, his way. :)
Posted on 2008-10-14 02:37:30 On career fairs. - Permalink
Last week, I was told "Anuj, the career fairs are pretty boring. It's all the same, go, give your resume, talk about stuff. Next stall. And the cycle repeats." So, as much as I like socializing (!), I wasn't looking forward to the whole thing, not too much, in all honesty. But, now that it's over, I have a different take on the whole thing.
These fairs are there for a reason, and talking about things whether it's related to your career or if you're just inquisitive about what the company does. It definitely clears up some smoke. But what I really like being a techie, is the fact I got to know of some really cool technologies out there and of course the group that runs the entire thing. I'm going to refrain talking about companies specifically, but be assured I got a peek into companies which I hadn't heard of before, but are working on some really, really cool things! I wish I could come up with ideas like those! For now, I just hope I get picked up by one of them. :) Watch this space.
Posted on 2008-10-09 00:20:28 I'm playing, again. - Permalink
Ever since my last year of undergrad which involved the project, final exams, grad school applications and research, I've not been playing the guitar. Not until now. The other day, I went down to a colleague's office in Sudikoff and got my hands on a Fender Strat (yeah!). While my fingers had lost that ease of quickly being able to shift from one chord to another, I finally decided it's time to get back to it. So I did. I have rented, for a month, a Seagull acoustic guitar. It's really soothing, and refreshing to play music and while the piano will be on my to-learn list for eternity, I guess, the guitar will gently weep. :)
Posted on 2008-10-05 03:36:37 Applause needed/deserved. - Permalink
Okay, this is cool. Really cool. Uber cool. The whole idea about making comics based on user requests is awesome! A lot among us (I was going to type "of us" :) ) have a brilliant sense of humor and sharing that isn't just worthy because of the "let me share happiness"-factor but also, neat, for lack of a better word.
For those who are wasting time on frivolous things, I'm talking about Request Comics. Kudos to Ben Heaton. I'm doing my bit by linking to the page (branching factor, rise!).
Posted on 2008-10-04 10:22:28 Well put and worth a read. - Permalink
Posted on 2008-10-01 00:53:05 Observation - Permalink
I came across a paper in which the authors were estimating some parameter related to random graphs using computer simulations. Random graphs are, in simple words, graphs in which edges are present between two nodes with some probability. Now that's fine, really. But the parameter that was being estimated wasn't. An estimation out of a random graph generated by using a (pseudo)random number generator to generate the edges is like multiplying two negatives all the time. You can't really deduce something valid of a parameter when the edges itself are changing with each run. I've sent a mail asking my question. Maybe I missed a point. Maybe not. You'll know. Soon.
Posted on 2008-09-29 07:08:22 Hanover, Architecture and Recruitments. - Permalink
As you might have guessed, I'm back in lovely Hanover, NH for what is going to be my second year in grad school. After a nice break in Bangalore, I'm back to doing what I did all of last year -- work. However this time is going to be divided into by the recruitments happening this time. Yes, I am going to be looking for a job. This has got me thinking about what "kind" of job I want/suits me. I guess the most important thing for me is solving something interesting. Seems simple, doesn't it? It may not be easy, but it sure is simple. But really, that is it. I need to know I'm going to be solving something in order to look forward to coming back to office the next day. Anyway, more of this later.
In other news, I've signed up for Computer Architecture, the graduate level course. Seems interesting with a new edition of a textbook, quite a bit of assembly programming in store, some epic papers, and a project in the end. Lot of work with a midterm and final included, but should be fun. I've also signed up for two research credits this term hoping to refine my problem statement and get my thesis proposal out by December.
If you've been visiting this blog in the past few weeks, you would've noticed the last two entries have been removed. My blog, my database, my commands! Live with it.
Posted on 2008-09-26 17:11:59 On some new hangouts in Bangalore. - Permalink
So, as my stay comes to an end in Bangalore and I get ready to put my grad-student hat back on, I guess it's only fair I mention some of the new places I heard before I came here, and eventually checked out.
Couch - A lounge with dimmed out lights, good food and some trance music. On a Saturday night, the music is usually louder -- this is even the case if no one is dancing (that stupid ban!). Overall, if you want to catch up with someone for a drink and aren't fond of the rock 'n roll music, this place is for you. Not to harsh on the pocket either.
Kosmos - Another lounge and a full blown outdoor diner attached makes this place accessible to people of different ages, young and old, but who want to have a good time, drinking and eating. Portions of food are small though and the prices for those portions -- a little steep. Nonetheless, worth a check out.
Hard Rock Cafe - The world renowned chain comes to Bangalore and doesn't disappoint! Old and almost gothic-like building with sleek modern interiors and music that keeps your foot tapping all the time. This place is my new favorite in town. The drinks are crisp, relaxing and have just the right mix of things. The food, ambrosial. The service, prompt. The crowd, fun. The prices, worth it. The location, on MG Road! Ideally, I'd say go on a Friday/Saturday night, at around 8 pm and stay there till it shuts.
Posted on 2008-09-20 09:45:40 NIN: Another reason, for my choice. - Permalink
It's not just the psychedelic techno-rock music that keeps me listening to NIN, or because of the fact that it's just awesome to do work when you have NIN on the background, it's also because of this. From the article:
For the interactive portions of the show, all the onscreen video is rendered by Moment Factory's custom rig, a trio of Linux-based devices collectively known as "the brain."
Check out the article for that awesome, futuristic ensemble of gadgets they have.
Posted on 2008-09-19 08:56:12 Is Facebook the new Blogspot? - Permalink
I log into Facebook to find some of my friends writing about their views on the election, the state of the economy, some technology related issues and the inevitable personal confessions. With the Notes application suddenly getting all the attention, I see myself less hooked on to some of the blogs I would otherwise follow, which got me thinking about this. After Orkut vs Facebook, as social networking sites (I personally think it has to do with the user interface more, seriously apps aren't the thing!), I'm guessing it's Blogger vs Facebook. And with the added advantage of getting all the recent posts by your friends at your "home" on Facebook (I'm pretty certain, I'm among the few that use aggregators/planets to keep track!), it helps! But I guess Blogger has the advantage that you can simply use RSS/Atom to keep tract of people with interesting views, who are _not_ your friends on Facebook. I think we'll just have to wait and watch.
Posted on 2008-09-18 10:02:09 Worth a look. - Permalink
Read this if you're a customer of one of the three companies going through, to put it nicely, a "bad phase". If you're the impatient kind, you'll probably want to look at this instead.
Quit ranting. After a lot of poking around, and also trying ntfs-3g to get my FreeAgent working with Ubuntu, I did what I always thought I'll end up doing -- reformatting the damn thing to ext3. Works. I now have a "pen drive" the size of my laptop. Keep those files coming...
You know what's a pain? Mounting devices manually on Linux. Especially when you don't know the fs on the device. After two HDDs (Seagate and Maxtor), dmesg(s), mount(s), forums I've got to say this -- fsck or something on those lines.
Posted on 2008-09-15 18:02:55 On Hindi. - Permalink
I'm no expert at Hindi, but I do fluently communicate in the language to fellow-Hindi-speaking-people and the other day, I was reminded of the beautiful language and how different it is, for me at least, than English and since Hindi is the only other language I speak fluently, I thought it'll be apt to express my thoughts on the same.
Hindi has this inherent ease of combining daily lingo with metaphors with profound meaning. It's the ease that differentiates itself from English. With English it always sounds "pressed upon" to use a metaphor. Very Shakespearean, if you will. With Hindi, it just sounds right on the ears. This oddity becomes apparent in songs or poetry. While I don''t read too much of Hindi poetry, I do come across Hindi songs on almost a daily basis. The depth of the meaning gets dampened when you translate it to English in order to say, for example, explain the meaning of a lyric to a friend.
I'm sure people speaking in other languages, English included, feel the same way. It's great to hear something different. Different is good. For now, here's an excerpt from one of my favorite Hindi songs.
मैं जिंदगी का साथ निभाता चला गया
हर फिकर को धुएँ में उडाता चला गया
बरबादियों का शोक मानना फिजूल था
बरबादियों का जश्न मनाता चला गया
हर फिकर को धुएँ में उदा...
जो मिल गया उसी को मुक़द्दर समझ लिया
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Posted on 2008-09-15 08:19:55 The first, post selection. - Permalink
Republican VP candidate and Gov. of Alaska, Sarah Palin gave her first interview post the selection by McCain, which is going to be aired tonight on ABC News (link: here). I saw excerpts on AC360, CNN (which by the way is one of my favorite shows -- quality) and I''m really looking forward to seeing the rest of it. I am not impressed. I guess it''s important for me to stress that I''m not biased towards the Republicans, Democrats or even Independents. I used to follow American politics just as little as three pages in the International Section of my news daily in India. But ever since I moved to the US, one can not help but take part in this "ceremony" of sorts of electing the next President. So, don't get all excited and shout, "this guy must be a Democrat" or anything on those lines.
Palin, in my humble opinion, is trying to reach out to the people by being the person "everyone can relate to". God forbid, I don't want a person that _I_ can relate to, to run the country! I did not like any of her answers on the war against terrorism, the comments on "keeping an eye on Russia" when asked about her views on Georgia becoming a member of NATO, or the whole "act of God" thing. More, after the interview airs.
Posted on 2008-09-12 09:01:23 Aren't we all? - Permalink
Posted on 2008-09-11 10:47:45 Shoutout: RSS and permalinks. - Permalink
Some improvements over the blog -- at least those that you can see :). First, RSS feeds. Click on the above RSS link to get feeds. It isn't RSS compliant totally, because that would involve me making more changes which I don't consider worthwhile. The immediate disadvantage is that it can't be used for aggregators or planets. But, no one is going to do that with my blog anyway. It should let you keep track in a more easy/lazy way of my blog entries, both new and old and straight from your browser, as shown in the image below:
Second, are the permalinks which let you link to a particular entry in my blog. You could do this if you want a friend to read something I've written, or if you want to discuss something here, on your own blog and want to link to it. All the blogging sites provide these functionalities, so I thought I'd pull a "DIY" if you will. :) Happy reading!
Posted on 2008-09-10 12:14:35 A few hours from now... - Permalink
The first beam will be circulated in the LHC. Read here for more. Will God's particle be unveiled? Or will we get something more like...
As they (the atheists) say, "In God, we doubt."
Posted on 2008-09-10 08:33:50 Opinions opinions. - Permalink
With the war on South Ossetia behind, the US is apparently donating $1 billion to repair Georgia. Read here for more on some opinion on the matter. It sure is food for thought, but I find it a little incomplete. Maybe the US has reason to fund and befriend Georgia. Maybe a history with the nation. Maybe it's because to piss off people on the other side. But that's not discussed. I, however, agree with the opinion of the talks at both, the DNC and RNC and the lack of mentioning what the priority is! Here's something I found funny on the whole campaigning scene:
You go rant, at your blog.
Posted on 2008-09-09 21:38:57 Numbers. - Permalink
No way, I'm going to talk about the show -- it sucks! If you're looking for that, your favorite search engine left you at the wrong place. Move along.
This entry is about some numbers (no math here -- sorry to disappoint). I'll try explaining on the "whys" for some:
* 3 has been my favorite number from a very young age, no reason for this. I guess it was probably because it's the smallest number that brings the significance of odds in -- its a little more work than 50:50.
* 2 - has something to do with my name. Lame stuff.
* 13 - just to annoy those phobics out there.
* 30, 29, 4187 - numbers I used to bug someone with by saying I didn't know their significance.
* 25.8069758 - the ingenuity of my seniors, the root of all evil. Go figure.
* 42 - this one is banal beyond words. Not a favorite. Well, no longer.
* 404, 403 - seen these all over the place.
* 41, have a "No Entry" sign on my bedroom door. Probably my parents most annoying number.
That's it for now. More, as they come to mind.
Posted on 2008-09-07 09:09:00 The Week Remains - Permalink
'I _really_ can''t wait more for this. After a rather disappointing last album, Metallica claims to have gone back to the roots -- yeah, old-school! The album is called Death Magnetic. Hold your horses for this one!\r\n \r\n
Check out Youtube for some previews of the song, of the lot "The Day That Never Comes" sticks on.
Posted on 2008-09-05 14:13:06 A decade up. - Permalink
Talk about coincidences. I mentioned a comic followed by Chrome, only to see a comic explaining Chrome :). This followed by the search "view update" yesterday to hear that Google completed a decade today. Yes, read this, for some interesting statistics.
This whole rivalry business is as stale as...oh well, I can't think of anything else that is _this_ stale. Get over it!
Posted on 2008-09-05 08:48:14 On search - Permalink
Recently, I visited live.com to check out their interface and results. I have to say, I was quite impressed. I like change, and I really don't like monopoly in any sector -- it sort of stagnates things and there's very little talk about other potentially hip technologies and as a result, awareness about them. I tried Cuil too, which came out recently and wasn't too pleased to see some results, or actually not see some results. My search usually starts of with something I'm usually doing, like say an issue with a bug or some technical glitch that I'm facing. Another decent way is to search for people I know personally, but don't have much of a web presence. So, I think Google and Live are pretty much up there with the results I get for my test (yeah, a vanity search too :)).
I also think its about how soon that crawler comes and indexes those pages which have a smaller branching factor than the popular webpage. However, keep those search engines coming y'all.
Posted on 2008-09-04 14:03:51 Change first? - Permalink
With both conventions coming to an end today and Palin giving her speech on the issues of tax (not to forget the never ending showers of praise for McCain -- the whole thing of him seeing evil in the face in Hanoi somehow reminded me of Batman. The White Knight, anyone?) got me thinking about their income tax proposals, considering that by next year I'm probably going to be earning myself. So, current situation is that (note: this is all with respect to what I'm probably going to face) for a single person earning between approx. 32k-79k you'll have to pay 25% tax and for between 78k and 164k you'll have to pay 28% tax. [1].
So, what are the contenders offering us. From [2], Obama's plan is:
Obama started his campaign saying his plans would not increase taxes for people earning less than $250,000. But he found himself in an apparent contradiction by saying he would tax all income to fund Social Security, not just income up to $102,000, as is now the case. So now, Obama's plan calls for no Social Security tax on income between $102,000 and $250,000, but all income above $250,000 would be taxed for Social Security.
Posted on 2008-09-04 10:50:03 Return of the browser war. - Permalink
Google Chrome beta is out. Already there is talk about how Microsoft's IE will compare, but I'm more interested in seeing how Firefox will do once Chrome is out. If you're on Windows, you can try the beta out and for other OS users:
Quoting
This is just the beginning -- Google Chrome is far from done. We're releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We're hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.
/me waits patiently.
Posted on 2008-09-02 08:50:36 Refresh. - Permalink
You know something is wrong with the world, when your fifteen year old cousin tells you about a comic meant for PhDs. I remember the time that phdcomics and XKCD used to be the stuff that a few of us used to read avidly and exchange "comic trivia" with each other in the canteen or at the local cafe. Like a cult, we though we were uber cool to know the latest in geek talk or the esoteric jokes on say, the LHC being used to kill mosquitoes. Then came the "blogosphere" and everyone knew everything. "Oh yes Anuj, that one's stale!" or "But have you heard about..." or "So I don't really know about X, but I'm sure it's funny!" et cetera. br />
But come to think of it, I (along with the people who told me, or even blogged about it) are part of that ever spreading plague. Coming to my point and being yet-another-link in that plague: BOASAS is a pretty funny comic that I often read. Here's a random comic:
Spread the...you know this anyway.
Posted on 2008-09-01 15:30:28 "Pardon my French" -- Not for this person! - Permalink
Imagine Mrs. Bush, the First Lady, headbanging with Metallica to tune of "Ride the Lightning". Hilarious isn't it? Well, this is not Mrs. Bush, but news has it that the First Lady of France, Carla Bruni is going to do just that! This is awesome.
Posted on 2008-09-01 13:48:49 Movie bite. - Permalink
Just saw "Mumbai Meri Jaan" the other day and I really liked it. It's one of those rare movies -- probably just 2-3 movies come out in a year that let me keep my faith in the cinema our country has to offer. The movie delivers the real world as it is and is also preachy, but in a real way, not the kind that show us as fanatic patriots who take on all the worlds evils single handedly. Paresh Rawal does an excellent job, as always. I think he's one of the finest actors we have today.
From the west, nothing good lately. I saw "Wanted" which reminded me of a Ranjnikanth flick, only with better effects (and a protagonist -- Anjelina Jolie vs Rajnikanth?! I know who I'd go in for ;)). Also saw "What Happens in Vegas" which really should have been left in Vegas, only. Luckily this one was on the flight and I had a choice of changing my movie :) (albeit half way through).
Posted on 2008-08-31 22:52:51 Research - Permalink
Since I didn't mention it here, and I'm being asked the dreadful question every now and then about my thesis -- I'm working on it! I'm working on natural document clustering, a problem where documents can be organized in an automated fashion by using properties which are inherent to those documents.
Clustering is a well studied problem and a number of methods are adopted to cluster data points which are, in some way, representative of the data being analyzed (for eg. similarity scores between two feature vectors of documents). You've probably heard of k-means and support vector machines which are used as classifiers, all the time!
I don't want to give away too much about our approach, but I'll just say that it is graph based in the approach. How generic was that? :) It basically uses a statistical property used by physicists. Once something is finalized, I'll divulge the details here. Yeah, I'm sure the "excitement is killing you."
Posted on 2008-08-29 09:05:12 Looking forward to all of this... - Permalink
See here. This should be interesting. I really like the Fall term -- with the new incoming students, there's always this hustle-bustle that goes around which even the seniors can have fun with or make use of. This includes great talks, a whole ton of events, and the all important free food! Yeah, I like the fall term.
Posted on 2008-08-28 16:20:41 Act 1, Scene ...bah! - Permalink
Okay, I love Bangalore. Sitting on my terrace, with Radiohead's "No Surprises" and reading my last post, I reached this: You can let go of people, luckily the places are still there and so are the memories with those who move on and a souvenir of those good times, are those places.
No more contemplating over undecidable issues. Like that smart alec said, "Ignorance is bliss". I like all the places I've spent at least a year at! EOS.
Posted on 2008-08-25 13:32:11 Act 1, Scene 1: Enter Uncertainty. - Permalink
Yesterday, I was with friends, sipping on some fine tea in one of my favorite hangouts in the city. The place, I probably spent half my after school hours during my undergrad days. I was with old friends. Yeah, the good times!
In the middle of the chitchat, one of my friends popped the age old question asked to any Indian who's studying abroad, "So you think you'll come back soon after our MS?". If this question was asked to me before I landed in Bangalore, I would almost certainly say "Yes. I just need to make some cash. Maybe a year, or two, tops and then I'm back. This is home! No place like it." But, it is not the case now. Yeah, go ahead, judge me.
Which got me thinking, what do I have in Bangalore? The first thing that comes to mind is, people! Why? Because, for me, people define moments. I remember things because of people I do those things with. I remember the tea place because I've had some really good times there. Some funny conversations some serious stuff, general stuff, even grad school talks, yada yada yada. I'm not a sucker for places. If you move these places to say Boston, I think I'll have just as much fun as I did in Bangalore. This is corroborated by my recent trip to Chicago. I met some old college friends. New city, old friends and boy, I had fun!
I'm reaching the limit of "number of characters", I guess, so more later (hence the title).
Background: Four years ago, Verizon Communications embarked on an ambitious and expensive plan to run fiber optic cables, which can deliver ultra-fast Internet service and dozens of high-definition video channels along with old-fashioned telephone service, past 19 million homes, roughly half its territory.
And now the speculation is:
Everyone understood that the copper wires of the phone system were being left behind by the faster networks of the cable industry. But why spend so much money on new wires when cellphones are becoming ubiquitous and profitable? Verizon rejected cheaper alternatives and decided to build the fiber system at an estimated cost of about $4,000 for every customer.
Fiber optics vs wireless is an almost worthless argument! If you think otherwise, mail me!
Posted on 2008-08-19 22:13:06 Nothing to say here. - Permalink
It's always great to be back home. Really. The comfort of a place which you've spent most of your life. The familiar colors, smells and sounds bring back to mind, the best times I had. My Mom made sure that everything I used was still in its place. The blanket, my cds -- everything. Even my phone is the same.
I met up with old friends the second day of reaching here. And on my way to the place, I took out the old CD, that I used to play when I was last here. Everything was the same, except for some things. It's weird how I look for things that I know will do me no good, now. But, that's me. That's what I do. I need to go through everything -- good, bad, even ugly.
I really can't ask for more. I love Bangalore!
Posted on 2008-08-14 08:32:48 Some people... - Permalink
...drive you to a decision which you will regret, and then, blame you for it. I know such a person.
Posted on 2008-08-07 11:25:10 Not earphones, not exactly headphones... - Permalink
but, neckband phones! Awesome. Just picked up this Philips set and it's amazing!
Say hello to awesome sound, a pounding bass line and no noise.
Posted on 2008-07-23 07:57:23 Note to self. - Permalink
If you're like me, busy with work or just lazy, or don't like spending too much time front of the stove, read this on: How to make rice in a microwave. Looking forward to some Indian food. Alas!
Posted on 2008-07-06 06:32:07 How does Facebook store images? - Permalink
I've always wondered on how they store images, across different sizes for thumbnails, album overview or the full picture itself. Here's a link explaining how Facebook stores all those images. Makes for an interesting read.
Posted on 2008-06-25 22:49:06 I can relate to this. - Permalink
It's around 4 am EST. Why does the screen look blur?? Zzzz...I wish.
Posted on 2008-06-22 13:05:40 Current state of affairs. - Permalink
Cartoons seem to be more serious lately. Good.
Posted on 2008-06-22 07:20:10 Watch what you say/mail? - Permalink
From this, it's clear that fraud and the stupid use of technology will get you and probably your company too!
Posted on 2008-06-22 07:07:56 A must see set of pictures. - Permalink
Posted on 2008-06-21 20:09:29 What a win! - Permalink
Read this. 41-0 win for Dartmouth. A true, "whoa!" moment.
Posted on 2008-06-21 03:17:55 The magic of Franz Kafka. - Permalink
To those who are not familiar with the name, Franz Kafka is the best writer _you've_ never heard of*. Be it his works or even about him. Kafka is an artist who starting with daily observations, transforms them into the most bizarre and most creative, intense "events". The choice of words is simply fantastic. And all this after just reading one of his works The Metamorphosis. Read it to believe it. More about Kafka himself, which is really worth reading, can be found here.
Behold, to be transported into a unseen world.
* I'm sure most visitors of this blog (if any) have heard of him, and admire him for his talent.
Posted on 2008-06-21 03:15:02 In search of a President. - Permalink
Back in my undergraduate institution. We had a notion of a "Principal". Somebody who would overlook the functioning of the school -- from facilities, to faculty related issues, to departmental level details. However, back there, I, or I can safely say "we" didn't have an idea of how such a person is elected or even if an election process existed.
Now, one might ask why I'm bothered about such things. Frankly, I'm not hunting around and reading biographies of people who are going to take care of such a thing. *BUT* you might be. Somebody else might be. Maybe I'm the odd one out. Actually, I'm not sure whether or not I should be concerned even at my current school. But things here are different. And, I like it.
We're flooded with updates from the school almost every night, telling us about the happenings -- be it about cultural events, student based activities, performances or even administrative related happenings. Here at Dartmouth, the search for the 17th President is on. And students, including myself, are well aware of the current stage in this big event. Things are different here. The board of trustees meet over months, with faculty, student bodies, the alumni association and a whole lot of other people, I'm sure. They form a "search committee" which will then probably go over the profiles of various eligible people from the academic community. (Read this for more. It's pretty interesting and of course, in good spirit. For students who are active in these circles, I'm sure it's an exciting time for them.
Phew, what a term! Spring at Dartmouth just ended with some hectic courses to handle. Summer, I'm going to spend (well at least most of it) in Dartmouth since I have amy thesis proposal to work on. August I'll be heading to the place I call home (go figure).
In the mean time, the weather at Hanover has become much better. It's always around 17-20 C during the days and around 12-16 C during the nights. Just the thing I like!
Oh and I will also be moving into my new apartment. I should put some pics up here.
More, later.
Posted on 2008-06-03 22:58:03 Nothing much, really. - Permalink
Course work and more course work. I really am waiting for this term to end. Interesting stuff, but really tiring.
Oh and since I can't blog too often because of the aforementioned reason, I have (re)started using twitter -- check the "home" page (right down at the bottom) for hopefully more frequent updates.
Posted on 2008-04-26 06:19:31 Spring is here - finally. - Permalink
When you feel the warmth of the sun and when the wind of just the right temperature hits your face -- you know it's here! Yes, spring is here. Also, knowing that the temperature is 17 C also helps. :)
The white is almost gone, giving way to the green. The campus going to get back to its awesome self and I can hardly wait. After winter, which was pretty sucky, this is definitely something far more worth looking forward to.
Posted on 2008-04-10 03:54:28 Two weeks in. - Permalink
Two weeks up and the pressure is on full load. Lots of assignments -- theory and programming. But I guess it should be fun -- I just hope this ends well.
My summer plans of heading back to Bangalore have been postponed since I have to work towards my thesis (and proposal before that). Nonetheless, the mood seems to be setting in, to do some quality work. Theory is especially interesting -- keeps one thinking before and after the class. Although during the class, it's a little intimidating :)
More on research, soon. I hope to find some interesting papers and discuss them with my advisor as well.
Posted on 2008-04-06 10:27:09 I'm not sure of my thoughts on this. - Permalink
From Feynman - Lectures on Computation:
Computer science also differs from physics in that it is not actually a science. It does not study natural objects. Neither is it, as you might think, mathematics; although it does use mathematical reasoning pretty extensively. Rather, computer science is like engineering - it is all about getting something to do something, rather than just dealing with abstractions as in the pre-Smith geology.
This one will probably require some thought than expected.
Posted on 2008-04-03 11:32:53 Spring Term - Permalink
So, this term is it. By that I mean, that if this term goes as per plan I'm pretty much done with course work -- and I really can't wait for that! This term I've taken some interesting, although demanding subjects (see here), one is all theory and the other is more like AI applied to bioinformatics- with programming of course (and I should mention that the language is python).
Research this term continues to be in the field of information retrieval. Only, this time there is going to be more "directed" than the last term. We're having weekly readings of some seminal papers related to two fields primarily -- QA methods and the Relevance Feedback in the TREC Legal Track. So, as some practice, you may see posts here about some of the stuff I'll be reading this term. Maybe you'll find it interesting too! Who knows, let's see how that goes.
Posted on 2008-04-02 12:48:01 A fresh new start. - Permalink
And an important note. I have now embarked on a new journey, for lack of a better phrase. Time is scarce, work is much, some good times, some bad times -- okay, why is this journey "new"? I guess, it is the "time is scarce, work is much" part which should be concentrated more on.
My blog posts will be less frequent than anytime before, and hopefully worth the wait. :)