Noob's perspective

O My Dear Cricket Fan! Where art thou?

2012-02-03T10:26:00.000-08:00

A guy can change anything. His face, his home, his family, his girlfriend, his religion,his God. But there's one thing he can't change. He can't change his passion...
- "The Secret in their eyes(2009)"

We humans are a fickle lot. Our fickle minds can be as predictable as the waves in the ocean. Amidst this sea of predictability, if one were to look for a phase in our lives, where we just followed our hearts, then one of those phases is definitely as a passionate fan of sport. In this period of time we lose reason, we stop being angry, we follow our hearts. We rally behind our teams, even if they were the midgets of the sport. Our teams are personified as Davids fighting biblical battles with Goliath and even when there is a loss, we brush it off and look forward to the next battle. We live hoping for that rare miracle that would bring joy to our hearts. A joy that is unparalleled in comparison with the other joys of our life. For this is the only time we come close to being happy for somebody else, for this is the joy that we all celebrate in unity, for this is something that fills our mundane lives with hope and with a sense of pride.

Today as I pick up some remnants of my writing(on a very pedantic note, I would say typing), I realize it's the same fan in me who urges me to pen(er...key?) down some thoughts. Thoughts that I wish every other fan will echo. As an individual in his mid-twenties I realize that growing up in India was very eventful. Our generation can be looked at as the missing link between the India of the old and the India today. We were born before the liberalization era started. Some of us spent most of our teenage lives without the World Wide Web. We were close to finishing our undergrads when the mobile phone and Internet boom shook us.

Amidst all these changes, if there was a change that was talked about more often than anything, then it would be the rise in fortunes of the Indian Cricket team. We grew up watching a young 16 year old, taking on the world with his fearless batting. Touted as the "special one", he started winning matches for the country single handedly. He took the burden of expectations with a head that was as calm as a sage who had drunk deep the ocean of knowledge. For almost seven years he was alone, he carried the hopes of a nation. We all cried when he failed, were ecstatic when he succeeded. His joys were ours. He represented a resurgent country. A change in fortunes, an icon and more importantly a genius who was human. Cricket like all other games is a team game. A single player cannot win you any game. It is a combination of 11 players who sweat and toil to achieve victory. Just as we thought that this little champion would play the rest of his career as a lone warrior, emerged a bunch of players, who under his shadow started blossoming. We knew that something special was happening. We pined our hopes suddenly not on just one individual, but a bunch of steadfast players who had the gumption to fight. Our fathers would have witnessed meek cats, but we were part of a resurgent Indian team that had tigers. Suddenly when we thought all was going well, a scandal hit us before the new millennium could begin. Few of our countrymen were involved. The captain of the team was the main culprit. The team suddenly lost it's leader. A radical change meant that one of the players from that performing bunch had to become the captain. His exploits as a batsman were always going to be spoken about, but it is his term as a leader that changed the way we Indians played cricket. He was called the "Royal Bengal Tiger" and it is under him that our team started winning. We suddenly realized that the strong leader could rip his shirt off in the hallowed balconies of Lord's, which is the mecca of cricket. We joined him for we knew that the golden era had begun. The era of the "Famous Five" in Indian Cricket had begun. The Genius, The Bengal Tiger, The Wall, The Very Very Special One and Jumbo, were they called. Many a victory was forged at their hands. It was the time for us to hold our heads high and stand behind our teams. We came close to winning the world cup in 2003. We started conquering peaks that were never supposed to be conquered. We fought against the invincible Aussies and gave them a fight.

It was roses, roses, all the way,
With myrtle mixed in my path like mad:
The house-roofs seemed to heave and sway,
The church-spires flamed, such flags they had,
A year ago on this very day.

The air broke into a mist with bells,
The old walls rocked with the crowd and cries.
Had I said, "Good folk, mere noise repels---
But give me your sun from yonder skies!"
They had answered, "And afterward, what else?"

But life is not a bed of roses. These great men were growing older. Their reflexes were becoming less quicker. They were not immortals but humans who would grow old. The Royal Bengal tiger soon grew old. He had to be sent out ignominiously. A great general he was. The treatment given was lesser than that what a peasant could recieve. He roared back like the tiger he always was.He fought till the very end, but the end was always going to be bad. A sacrifice had already been made. The great bunch was broken, but their wills weren't. They came back even strongly. A comeback that put kids 20 years their juniors to shame. Young at heart they were told. But not even these great men can stand the ravages of time. Time is all conquering and as they reach the fag end of the twilights of their careers, they suddenly realize that passing on the mantle is not easy, for these great men have walked a great distance. As they turned back to see, they realize that there aren't any young people behind their backs and they are stranded alone. But they have to go. With no young blood to support them, they realize that victories aren't going to happen. Their careers are not going to be the swan song that we all thought it would be.

But, as these great men lie stranded in shores afar, some of my fellow fans have started baying for their blood. It seems the whole world has forgotten their contributions. How can one forget the 2001 Kolkata Test, where greatness was achieved. How can one forget memories like Adelaide 2003, World Cup 2003 and many more till the crowning glory World Cup 2011. Have we forgotten that there is not a supply of young blood that could take the reins of these great men. Do we realize that the young blood that we all are supporting now did not have the same bravado as these men had a decade ago? In a utopian world I'd know that these great men would again show semblance of their greatness before passing on, but then this is the harsh real world. They would not end their careers on a high, but would rather be pushed into oblivion. Among all this chaos, when they take guard probably for the final time, their question to the fan would be, What have I done to deserve this fate? Have we all stopped being true fans? Or as is oft said, you are only as good as your last match. As Robert Browing, ever so sadly in his poem The Patriot wrote:

I go in the rain, and, more than needs,
A rope cuts both my wrists behind;
And I think, by the feel, my forehead bleeds,
For they fling, whoever has a mind,
Stones at me for my year's misdeeds.

Thus I entered, and thus I go!
In triumphs, people have dropped down dead.
"Paid by the world, what dost thou owe
"Me?''---God might question; now instead,
'Tis God shall repay: I am safer so.

PS : Thanks to Jayanth for reminding me that quote from The Secret in their eyes.

The Middle Class

2011-11-09T07:59:00.000-08:00

This post is partly inspired by the usage of the term "Middle Class" by a friend of mine who is now at Microsoft. I guess he must have forgotten this by now.

One of the perks of being a Computer Science student is understanding the process of Abstraction. Well simply put abstraction is knowing something on a need to know basis. One of the best examples is a light switch. We all know that if we turn on the switch, the bulb glows. We certainly don't have to know what processes are triggered when we turn on the switch or how the electrons flow from one place to another or the so.

My definition of talent is sometimes abstracted to only two levels : 1)The middle class, 2)The Wunderkind. The Wunderkind is an enigma. He can be the basis of the theist rebuttal argument to the atheist. He can achieve what he wants and the achievement will come as no surprise to anybody. His successes are awe-inspiring. Everyone aspires to be him, but it ain't that easy. The crests and troughs in his brain are wired for greatness. Add a few qualities like hard work, discipline and commitment and hey presto! you have a machine whose output is always correct. Talking about him is only redundant for you all have seen him somewhere in your life.

I now go to The Middle Class. In the line PQ, if point P is dull and point Q is genius, our hero will stand at the mid point, i.e (P+Q)/2. He is at a certain advantage here. He surely knows that he has to move forward thereby increase his proximity to genius. He also knows where a fall back would lead him. Surprisingly enough! you would see that in life it is Middle class that struggles much harder than anyone. Nothing is given on a platter to him. He needs to work hard and even harder. The Law of Equivalent Exchange is only for Physics and Chemistry. Life does not work that way. He faces constant failures but his endeavor to succeed never ceases. By Hook or Crook he shall try to move a rung up in the ladder of success. The Wunderkind has genius in him, but the Middle Class has fortitude in him. It is this fortitude that carries him forward. It is this fortitude that allows him to scale heights. It is this fortitude that inspires his fellow Middle Class to work harder. He looks in awe at The Wunderkind and tailors the ethics to suit his needs. In life he has a higher percentage of survival and success thanThe Wunderkind. Oh! if you look around you would see that he is not affected by any criticisms. He has a sound mechanism to block it and carry on with his work.

Now why did I write this post? It is because I also came across What it takes to be great?. Oh yeah I guess I must have posted this long ago somewhere else too, but then one shouldn’t forget the article, not because it gives the hope to an otherwise dull mind, that it has all the ingredients in it to aspire for greatness, but because it motivates the same dull brain to come with, at least a percentage of work that is considered better than ordinary :-).

The Trophy

2011-06-16T22:23:00.000-07:00

“Ok guys! That’s it for the day. Have a nice weekend! Make sure you are all safe and keep yourselves fit for our match on Tuesday”, hollered out the Captain to all his boys.

The Knowledge Systems Incorporated had recently announced a Cricket Tournament to raise the mood of its employees. Around twelve teams had registered for the tournament and Ram A’s Team was one among them. His Captain, Venky P had a lot of faith in his boys and believed that they could go the distance this time, provided everybody practiced a lot. He was the most enthusiastic as well. Venky P was the fast bowler of the team , not to be confused with his namesake, ex-Indian player Venkatesh Prasad who bowled some of the slowest leg cutters, Venky.P was express fast. In the practice trials his raw pace had knocked out one of the organizers cold. The tall frame of the Captain bowling reminded him of Curtly Ambrose striding in with his sweat bands. The rest of the team wasn’t a pushover either. Their senior most player, a research scientist, who was named after his parents’ favorite OS Ubuntu, was a very good fast bowler. In addition to these known faces, there were a lot of enthusiastic new joinees, who were keen to prove their worth. The ground that day was certainly filled with a lot of employees sweating it out, perfecting their back-lifts or trying to bowl express fast deliveries. Some of the enterprising folks were also working on their fielding skills.

Ram A , was a die-hard cricket fan himself. Gone were the days when he could play really well. As a young kid, he cherished the hopes of becoming a cricketer, but then so does every other kid in the country. This tournament presented an opportunity to regain some of that child like enthusiasm. I am growing older, so why not have some fun when there is the opportunity.

“Enjoying it aren’t you?” asked Siva excitedly to him. He was the organizer of this tournament. An idea conceived by him, which had received the whole hearted support of the entire corporation. Siva somehow had convinced the top brass to award prize money to the team and had also got a handsome trophy, worth a huge sum for this particular tournament. The amount of cash spent for the tournament meant that there was a lot of seriousness around, and that every other team wanted to place their hands on the coveted trophy, which in itself was worth a little fortune.

Ram A had a careful look at the trophy the previous day. It was a gleaming silver cup on a golden pedestal, bearing no inscriptions. His colleagues who caught him gazing at the cup longingly, chided him playfully for wanting it so much. Ram just looked at them and smiled.
Suddenly realizing that he had important things to do, Ram turned to Siva and asked him rather casually,

“Ohh Siva! do you have a Facebook account?” .

“Dei, Who doesn’t have one?”, A bemused Siva replied and handed Ram his id.

Finding a new Facebook friend was a norm in this Internet era. If you had a new acquaintance, you’d be more likely to add him on Facebook, sooner or later. That’s how the brave new world of social networking worked. It had started with the popular website Orkut in the early 2000s and slowly moved to Facebook. As you know Facebook makes the world a smaller place. Through status messages you could post what’s on your mind and all your friends would see that. In addition there were features also to let people know your location and also what you are doing currently. Status messages like Bought a wonderful new car, Finally proposed to my girl!, I ate Pasta at Pizza Hut now and it tasted yuck, My house is burning like hell now!... was common parlance, and everybody wanted to beat the other one in show casing their inanities. On top of it, you could also post your photo albums with nice captions. This was a new world indeed, albeit virtual.

On his way home, Siva was lost in his own thoughts, Oh! I have to update the trophy’s picture. I’ll get a picture of it from my terrace and upload it tonight. And how can I not show the glossy gift vouchers? How can they be left alone? League of Champions sounds a good album name.

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

He called himself The Dark Knight. Yeah! After a tiring day as a Software Engineer, he always figured out that night time was the best to carry out his activities. He considered himself a freak! An aberration! He thought that his name was very ironic, since he was probably somebody who did more wrong than right. He slipped into the thief mode only during exigent circumstances. Nobody ever figured out where little things were lost, and the police also couldn’t easily find a motive. Random people losing house hold items that cost in thousands don’t really raise alarms every other day.

Siva has accepted your friend request.

He looked at the notification with a wry smile. Let me click on info.

Siva has added new photos to the album “League of Champions”.

There was more information that made him smile. He realized that it is going to be his day after all.

Siva is attending a “All night party at XXXX-Café”.

Casually he went through the album. Any other person would have wondered on why he spent so much time looking at each photo in detail. But he likened his activity to a kid who fills in a jigsaw puzzle. Aah there is the first piece. Sure enough, there was a picture of Siva holding the trophy in his hands. Ok before any suspicions are raised, let me ‘like’ it.

You and 75 other people like this

He decided that a like was not enough. A comment to show his keen interest in the trophy seemed harmless.

*Sigh*, I wish the trophy were in my home now :).

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

The thief decided that he had enough of fooling around and focused on the remaining pieces of the jigsaw. Ohh look! A Hotel near his house. This is going to be a cake walk. Sure enough, Google gave him the location of the hotel. These days it’s so easy finding an address, he thought. Luckily for him the city he lives in was covered by Google Street View. All he had to do was to key in the address, and behold, a a panoramic view of the entire street was presented to him . With a few clicks, he was able to spot the house which would be the scene of his crime.

The night was young, and so was the thief. He entered the house without any trouble, and was inside in a jiffy. The absence of alarms or security systems ensured that he had no troubles whatsoever. The trophy gleamed even in the dark. I’ll allow him to keep the vouchers, he thought benevolently, looking at a set of vouchers beneath the trophy. He opened his bag, got some tools, and with the dexterity of a master, dismantled the trophy. Each of these parts is going to be worth something.

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

The pawn broker at XXX-Street wore many hats. One of them was buying stolen goods from petty thieves and maid servants in the city. Many a time he would end up paying much little for the stolen good than it was ever worth. Today, as he was ruminating on the lack of customers, a young man entered the shop. The pawn broker recognized the familiar face, and beckoned to him. The young man took the rusty chair available and spread out his wares on the table. A smile ensued from the lips of the pawn broker. The bargain was then stuck and money was exchanged. The young man bade the pawn broker good bye and went on his way.

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

The police registered a case in the morning. What was lost would not cause a ripple in the bustling scene of crime in the city. They were sure that the thief would never be found, but they still had to do the paperwork and the other formalities, not to mention the false assurances.

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

Ram A was very excited on that day. His team had won the Cricket Tournament. Both the teams in the final had fought really well, braving the heavy rains that lashed the city on that day. The tournament went on despite the fact that the trophy was lost. After all the presentation ceremony was over, when everyone was trudging along, Ram found Siva, sitting alone in melancholy, ruminating over probably the lost trophy and losing in the finals. Ram thought it was appropriate to console him. “You played really well Siva, I am sure you can win the trophy next time”. Siva gave a weak smile and said, “But we can never get the company to sponsor us for a new tournament again, all because of my mistake”. Ram A consoled him and walked towards his departing team members. As he ran, a wet slip of paper fell out of his pocket without his knowledge, and the name “Ramchand Jain-Pawn Broker...” could be made out from that worthless piece of scrap.

PS: If you have read this not-so-good piece till here, thanks a lot :)

Face-ing your future

2011-06-15T22:57:00.000-07:00

A lot of you are absolutely aware of what Web 2.0 means and what change that has brought about. Among the plethora of changes that it continues to offer, the rise of Social Networks and the way it permeates into each of our lives is no longer something new. To be fairly honest, articles talking about the rise of Social Networking and the way people interact on Facebook these days sounds trite and contrived. Yes they exist, but how do they transform computing in general? I haven't found a lot of articles that talk about what is in store for the next two years in terms of computing and in terms of what to do with the wealth of information that these networks dish out to us and what techniques are used to tackle them.

While a single glance at a Facebook page, one can really predict the type of the user. *This applies to any human who just looks at the profile and the Wall updates, along with the frequency of updates*. While I am not going to discuss on the updates that focus on how a single great looking female's inanity has been appreciated or how a certain celebrity's foolishness has been applauded, I am certainly looking at how these obscure status messages can turn into potential business goldmines.

Coming to the crux of the situation. A seemingly innocuous status message like "My dream!" along with a picture of a "Porsche Cayenne" gives an indication that the poster is concerned about or even likes that car. If Chaos Theory can argue that the fluttering of a butterfly's wings can cause an earthquake on the other side of a world, surely a status message can prompt a lot of businesses to latch on to the opportunity. While not everyone might want a "Cayenne" but surely a lot of us might want Xboxes, Wiis, Cameras, Mobile Phones, Kindles and what not? Enter Natural Language Processing. For decades AI researchers have talked about how NLP can be used to understand text. While most of these projects were really academic and served as interest to a lot of scientists and researchers, their true test comes out in this age of the unstructured data. A system with even 50% of accuracy, when run on a set of 100,000 status messages can give you a substantial idea on what people are talking about. Why then, these businesses can utilize this to directly talk to the user, probably come up with offers and go one step ahead in the marketing of the product.

Even as we are talking a lot of people are looking at this problem and are figuring out ways to solve them. One of the greatest challenges in building such a system has been the way in which such a system can be show-cased to the client. While Human Beings can be inane, nothing can take away their brains from them. So where are the stumbling blocks to processing this?

1)How do you understand the domain that the user is speaking( Even if the domain is resolved, how can the machine evolve and learn? Can parsers co-exist with ontologies? Is an ontology based parser probable? If we claim that the brain has an internal wiring and then assuming that ontology is the poor cousin of the brain, can we parse?

2) How do you present it as a sell-able product? What kind of examples do you show case the client? This is definitely the biggest challenge. The challenge arises from the fact that the client here is definitely presented with a virtual goldmine hidden in some treasure chest and the problem is that he does not know how do get to the goldmine. More often than not the client might get the wrong assumption while looking at an application. The way he tests it should be on the same lines that the program was tested. How can both the business user and the application developer align their thoughts? Very critical as it makes or breaks your product.

3) Finally how do you scale the system?. Scalability is always the question in many applications, but in my case I'd rather say, how easy is it that the system learns new patterns. Can it apply the patterns from one domain and use the same to extend it to another domain? Would that be a worthwhile route to take?

Loads of questions, very little and diverse answers, the future, probably is not bleak, but then there are tough times ahead for products which don't embrace the power of Social Networks.

A verbal thought (Literally)

2011-02-07T04:35:00.000-08:00

Wrote this in my company blog today and since this space keeps languishing every once in a while, I thought I'll update it here

How does the human brain process speech? How does it understand the semantics of language? If there are ambiguities, what mechanisms does it use to resolve? For example lets have a look at these sentences, He is a man of simple wants and He wants money.

Admitted this might be more for people who are interested in Artificial Intelligence or probably wonder how to build systems that understand text. In one of the scenarios that I was working, I came across something fascinating. The words need and want are very interesting. As a noun they really don't require an ~~object~~ action to finish the sentence. They themselves become synonyms. For example look at the sentence He is a man of simple needs. Assuming a machine can process that needs is almost a noun here and can identify the underlying meaning behind needs, you have an absolutely great semantic engine.(I'd use the word semantic as it makes more sense :-) ).

Now here are two interesting sentences :

I need a camera.
I want a car.

In both the cases the verb is a simple verb and requires an object i.e camera or car to complete the sentence. Processing them is a breeze for some of the systems today. Heck! even a rudimentary system developed by us can process these kinds of sentences.

Lets get into a more specific scenario. Now the goal is to understand how verbs like need and want behave. Lets introduce a bit of anarchy (literally) and see if these words behave just the same?.

I need to purchase a car
I want to buy a house in Chennai.

Notice anything different? At first glance you see that there are two new verbs introduced purhcase and buy. Well both of them essentially means the same. You could also add construct to the second sentence. Now you have two verbs in the same sentence. How does your brain resolve? Do these steps happen?

1) Decide that need takes in an object to complete it's meaning.
2) Looking for an ~~object~~ action, come to purchase a car, buy a house.
3) Realize that purchase and buy are two verbs which in turn require an ~~object~~ action to complete their sentence. One cannot literally say I want to buy. There is always the question of ~~What~~ action that follows the verb.
4) Then decide that want to purchase actually points to a desire to verb. i.e desire to purchase.

Essentially when faced with words like want, need, a system cannot just process them alone. It has to look for the other verbs in the sentence which aid in their meaning. So the secondary verb is of more importance or is the deciding factor in the sentence. If any of you can help me figuring out much complex situations, you are welcome. I just am pouring out my thoughts here.

One should marvel at the wonders of the human brain. All of us could handle these sentences even in our first standard. In trying to mimic the brain, I just am stumped at how the brain handles complex things in such simpler steps. As for me, I think finishing the Wren and Martin book again, with a deeper understanding of each of the parts of speech is something that cannot be put down for ever :-).

Correction:I had written this in my company internal blog and Rb corrected me at the parts where I have crossed the text. This is his comment :

In my view it is "I need to act" and that action could be "run" or "purchase a house". The What is not mandatory. The "house" to me belongs to the action of "purchase" and not of "need".

Though "I want to purchase a house" is semantically similar to "I want a house"; they cannot be treated the same. Examples of the form "I went to purchase a house" or "I want to sell my house" show the tie-in of the "house" to the "action" and away from the "want".

That sense of Awkwardness

2010-11-13T05:51:00.000-08:00

Awkward : socially uncomfortable; unsure and constrained in manner; "awkward and reserved at parties"; "ill at ease among eddies of people he didn't know"; "was always uneasy with strangers"

Have you ever been in an awkward social situation? How do you react to that? Do you get carried away by the moment? Do you really reflect on it? Do you later on try to view the situations with your inner eye? How much of what people say do you really care about? What do you do in the following situations:

The Sudden meet: So you have great friends. As friends you hang out together, you make plans for weekends, you make fun of each other and all the normal things that friends do. There cometh a time when the friends move on especially when they find potential life partners. Their lives become different then. The luncheons become progressively lesser, meets rarely do happen. The times become hectic. Suddenly out of a blue you meet each other. Both of you have nothing to say. What happens next? Awkwardness

The Repartee : So you for a long time bear the brunt of teasing in your group. One fine day you just happen to joke on one of the others. The person receiving it takes it so badly that sometimes the accusation of negativity drops on you. What do you do to reply? Every other day the person would have been taking their liberties on you, making fun of you with all and sundry. All this takes a negative turn when you give the joke back to them. The next moment all you feel is plain Awkwardness.

The Worker : You bug your best friend to do a lot of work for you. He might be better than you at certain computing tasks. You get all your work done from him. You have the audacity to disturb him and go to the extent of even getting upset since he does not finish your tasks. After everything gets over, suddenly you vanish. You become more important. You have everything now. The next time when he calls you, you ask your office colleague to pick the phone for you. How would your friend react next? Awkward

The Accusation : So you have your certain set of interests. You have your ambitions. You love doing certain things. What happens when somebody says that you do the very things to satisfy somebody else or to be approved by a group. The next moment your whole life flashes behind you. You look at yourself moving through time and then take a moment to get back. Another gem of an Awkward moment.

Life is a roller coaster ride of little moments. One cannot be his best at every given point in time. One aspires to be. Sometimes, the best of them would lose track in the constant barrage of negative cannons thrown at them. Obviously one has to take it. Because only in falling can we rise up again

PS : I really don't know what to write on a rainy day. These were just reflections of a mind which is tired.

The varied streams of reasoning

2010-10-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

A daily quiz question mail-list sent a question with three pictures, asking us to give a connect between the three. I found that the first two pictures just gave away the connect. The first was a picture of Stephen King, second was a picture of Rita Hayworth. To anybody who has watched The Shawshank redemption, this would be a piece of cake. I guessed the third picture to be Frank Darabont, which was probably inferred from the fact, that I know Stephen King and Rita Hayworth connect only for this movie and the other closest connect I can find is Frank Darabont. It turned out to be right when I verified my thoughts.

What exactly triggered my brain to give the answer as Frank Darabont. At a mathematical level I'd say that the intersection of {King,Hayworth,The Shawshank Redemption} can lead me to certain connects like {Morgan Freeman,Bob Gunton, Frank Darabont,...}. Now I know that the third picture is not Bob Gunton or Morgan Freeman because I know how they look like. So the only possible connect here was Darabont. While we can mathematically eliminate a set of choices, the visual recognition also plays a huge part in the final elimination here. Yesterday's question was similar. I had to look at an epitaph of a young poet to figure out whom the epitaph belonged to. The young poets I knew, who died early in life were {Keats,Wilfred Owen,...}. I decided to look at the date of his death. Now that leads me to only Victorian Era poets. Here the only Victorian Era poet who died and closely resembled the epitaph was Keats. That turned out to be the answer. What amazes me is the fact that so much stimuli are hit upon when our brain is asked to process or deduce an answer. The cognitive processes that follow deal with visual recognition, context understanding, elimination of other choices.

These are minimal observations from somebody who also is a budding practitioner of Artificial Intelligence, but the questions these observations throw are mind boggling. How do I for example build a simple reasoning engine which can also accumulate knowledge. From the previous examples the accumulating knowledge part was how Frank Darabont and Keats get added to the brain. Now they are stored permanently in my brain and probably would serve for future knowledge gathering.

As Steven Pinker put it, The main lesson of thirty-five years of AI research is that the hard problems are easy and the easy problems are hard. The mental abilities of a four-year-old that we take for granted – recognizing a face, lifting a pencil, walking across a room, answering a question – in fact solve some of the hardest engineering problems ever conceived.... As the new generation of intelligent devices appears, it will be the stock analysts and petrochemical engineers and parole board members who are in danger of being replaced by machines. The gardeners, receptionists, and cooks are secure in their jobs for decades to come

The analogy of a Human Brain

2010-10-04T18:08:00.000-07:00

No great content ahead folks. So I just did a Brain.rand(MyBrain) to come up with something.What turned out were highly unusual. I thought my brain was just another empty shell but it's seemingly decent storage capacity did return a myriad of content. So here goes a few random thoughts.

I was leafing through A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle where for the first time he introduces Dr.John.H Watson and Sherlock Holmes, the greatest fictional detective ever. Watson is piqued at the fact that Holmes knows nothing about the earth or the sun or even anything about Poetry and Carlyle. Did a google for the exact text and I got it...

"His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth"

This really set me on the contemplative mood. How can Sherlock Holmes to whom knowledge and perfection is of paramount importance can not be aware of this basic fact? Why was he not too keen to update his knowledge?So many questions just raced through my mind with each one trying to win the race. The next few paragraphs cleared my questions. Surprisingly enough they made me look at learning in a different perspective. Just read the following extracts from the novel and you'll get a wind of it.

Sherlock Holmes : "You appear to be astonished," he said, smiling at my expression of surprise. "Now that I do know it I shall do my best to forget it."

Watson: "To forget it!"

Sherlock Holmes : "You see," he explained, I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."

Watson : "But the Solar System!" I protested.

Sherlock Holmes : "What the deuce is it to me?" he interrupted impatiently: "you say that we go round the sun. If we went round the moon it would not make a pennyworth of difference to me or to my work."

Looking back, is Sherlock Holmes not right? Should we also limit ourselves to what is useful for our line of work? Or the skeptic in you says the brain has every right to store any kind of information. I reflect on the above paragraph and feel Mr.Holmes was probably right. What do you think?

The travails of being a Programmer

2010-10-03T08:35:00.000-07:00

Wrote this in my company internal blog sometime back. Had nothing to post and just thought that I could post it here.

The last traces of a human company in my floor just vanished now. I just stood up to see that I was the sole occupant of an entire floor. Studying for certifications can be a boring task. Especially if you have a running nose the entire day. I still don't know why I should be studying something called ITIL, when there is a pressing need for me to learn Computational Linguistics. But what I have here is an incident that happened to me yesterday. I'd really like to share it with you folks. The great Larry Wall once wrote about the three qualities of a programmer. So why do I bring this up now?

Yesterday, I had to meet my Big Boss to clarify certain things. Well it was something entirely personal and nothing to do with the official work. He was immersed in his work and asked me to wait for a while. I Hung around** for a while. My eyes scanned the space emptied by the occupant there and so I had to trouble the the other team mates. This is the place where I realized, how important those prophetic words of Mr.Larry Wall were. One of the senior folks was actually working with a XML file. The XML file was generated with some blank spaces between tags. Her task was to remove these blank spaces and generate a clean XML. To illustrate the problem, her XML tags looked like StartTag(loads of blanks)some_string EndTag . Now all she had to do was to remove the loads of blanks. To folks well versed in notepad++ and TextEdit, this would have seemed trivial. A simple find and replace would have worked. TextEdit for some weird reason was not working. I looked at her and asked if she would consider writing a program to do it. She was not interested as ..it would take more time to write a program. So she was manually removing the spaces. I said I'll write a java program.(These days I am familiarizing myself with Cygwin and so I thought I'd as well try the powerful tools in the Unix shell). She was very apprehensive and inspite of her sweet denial I could figure out that she was really not so interested in the task.Well it would have required only two lines in java. Assuming there were only blanks or spaces. All she had to do was this :


String a = //The string from the XML file
String b = a.replaceAll("StartTag\\s+", "StartTag");

Probably that's not the best way to do it either. There might even exist a simpler way. Thankfully today I realize that there might be some traces of the laziness that Larry Wall spoke of. Oh! Btw you should have also thought about the immutability of Java strings if you viewed the above two lines of code.

This might be just me. Some folks would still love doing the manual way. I have no qualms about that. But, I wonder if the creative spark in me would die a slow death. Will I start imitating my seniors and shed the remnants of any creativity that I have? I get reminded of the movie Idiocracy where the protagonist lands in a future where the humans have become totally dependent on machines and cannot think for themselves. Hmm.. I really don't have an answer to the question now.

I just remembered a beautiful poem by P.B.Shelly called Ozymandias. It talks about the crumbling of mighty empires and the ultimate destruction of any civilization, however great it might be. Here is the poem:
I met a traveller from an antique land Who said:
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert.
Near them, on the sand, Half sunk,a shattered visage lies,
whose frown And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains.
Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away

Yeah! I just hope the creative thinker in me doesn't have the fate that Shelley has put forth in fine verse. I hope that he lives on for at least 20 years from now.

(**Pardon me,I think the purists would not agree to such a usage. I'd rather use it for the descriptive purposes :D**)

**Goes back to listening songs from the evergreen movie Abhimaan and decides to call it a day**

For whom Time stands still

2010-04-24T19:13:00.000-07:00

Time! on whose arbitrary wing
The varying hours must flag or fly,
Whose tardy winter, fleeting spring,
But drag or drive us on to die

-Lord Byron

This weekend, as is the case with any other weekend, I was cooling my heels at home. Words can be misleading for Chennai is essentially a hot cauldron for the first few months of the year. It would be rather apt to say “I was burning my heels at home”. Unmindful of the sweltering heat, I chose to sit down and from the heap of books strewn across, picked one and was immersed in it. My reverie was rather abruptly broken by a familiar voice in the streets. Why would I not recognize it? After all it’s been the same distinct loud voice, which I have heard for ages and which mouths the same two lines over and over again.

Paper, Old paper...

Unmindful of my observations, my mother called out to the owner of the voice. She asked him to come over. This was my cue. Over the years I have dedicated myself to making sure that my mother is not made to work hard for every little thing in house. This makes her feel happy and most of the times it is her smile and her silent acknowledgment that matters. I ran over to the other room and immediately began stacking the old pile of newspapers in a jute bag. The door bell rung and I was ready. The man looked at me. The glint in his eyes suggested a trace of faint recognition. A small smile ensued then in his lips. I acknowledged it and we both were into the act of shifting papers in his weighing machine. Just when a little stack remained, he looked at me, and asked me, “Son, what do you do now?”. In a low tone I told him I work. Me naming the company, which most of the educated urban lower, middle and upper class would instantly recognize would not bring the same sense of recognition in his mind. I spared him the name and tried to keep the conversation going on. I asked him how things are going on for him. He looked at me and said, “Son, it’s all the same, I do the same old work, collect papers and try to eke out a living. That has been my life for almost 20 years now”. My heart went out to him. I could not reply back. The words might have stung me. Here I was in my home making rapid strides in my life moving step by step to a place of higher recognition, whereas there was a fellow human being, who in all fairness has struggled more than me but life never has changed for him.

He gave me two soiled fifty rupee notes for the newspapers. I gave back one fifty rupees to him saying he could use it to buy something cool and drink. I guess he was overwhelmed with surprise for there were tears in his eyes. He thanked me profusely, blessed me and carried on with his work. I sat down again with my books. My mom, used to my ways asked me to keep the fifty rupee note. She was apparently happy for the house looked cleaner without the strewn newspapers around. My mind was rather engrossed in the inequalities of our lives. How many times in our lives would we hear elders asking us to work hard, for the fruits of hard work are sweet. Wasn’t that man doing the same thing? Every day he had to shout till his voice grew hoarse. The fury of the Sun will not stop him from venturing out for the pangs of his hunger are a much bigger driving force in his life. Time is a deceptive illusion I realized. For me it was the measuring factor of my achievements and age, whereas for him it was all about counting yet another grey hair while his life always remained the same. I suddenly realized I was sweating and switched on the fan. A cool wave of air spread through the room giving me temporary relief from the Sun’s fury. The voice outside became fainter. I realized he would soon move on to the next street. I wondered if I would see him ten years from now, would he still be the same. I wished he would go to places. I wished somebody would give him Redemption for the hard work he has done all these years. But these I realized were Utopian thoughts of a mind which has some solitude and loneliness. For that man though “Time will always stand still”.

In that journey called life... with those people who are Friends...

2010-03-27T10:19:00.000-07:00

The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch swing with, never saying a word, and walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you've ever had.

If there is one word that can summarize my existence on earth then that would be colourful. I tend to view it as an unfinished painting and I think of myself as the expert artist. The artist starts off as a dabbler, blissfully unaware of his skills and as time progresses his strokes get bolder,the melange of colors that he creates acquires another dimension. He realizes that in his hand is the fostered child of silence and slow time. A slice of life that, perhaps would serve as a window to his world in the ages to come. When the strokes of the artist's brush come out of a clarity of thought he is well on course to create his masterpiece.

The bolder strokes in my life would be some of the hardest decisions that I have taken. Yes not all creative ideas are successes and the same reflects in life. We realize that Experience means failing the test first and then learning the lesson. Trust me, nothing can be harder than that. I often hear the adage greatness lies not in falling, but in rising everytime we fall. Many a time getting up requires that extra effort which can only be provided by another set of hands. The set of hands that pull you out. In the artist's world, probably the vivid hues that bring life to his masterpiece.

What is a masterpiece without colors? The vivid hues add another dimension to a piece of canvas. A dimension that perhaps the solid canvas would not have offered had it stayed white. If ever my life is hailed as a masterpiece, then probably it would be because of those beings, whose unwavering support and immense belief served as an elixir to my unquenchable thirst. In times of low self belief it is their belief that holds me through. Words may seem redundant to the supporting shoulders that they offer.
Every other day when the entire world seems against you and starts doubting you. When you yourself cannot decide if what you do is correct, it is then that their belief carries you through.

Not only to those folks who provide support in terms of spite, but also those folks who stay on with you every day, listening to your irate ramblings, to your quixotic ideas and to your promises that would stay on unfulfilled. I see them everywhere. My life would not have been colourful without you folks. The masterpiece is not yet complete. Yeah it's not yet reached crossed even Quarter of what it has to be. But the vivid hues inked have surely been etched for ages :-).

*Phew atlast finished it..was contemplating for too long I guess*

PS : A thank you to Prazy, Harsha, HRH Anu(I'd be killed for this), Deepti, Shanky, Mayuraa , Sanz and of course a late thank you to Gody, Avi and Janani :D. Many a time I just felt energized after just speaking to you folks. Of course my heart is beating funeral marches to the grave but thanks to you folks I still think there is space in this world for my footprints to be etched :-).

Indian 'Hypocrite' Media

2010-01-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

So a few days ago in Tirunelveli,Tamil Nadu, a police officer lay battling for life after being hacked by certain bad elements of the society. It was played out on all Indian Media channels and most of you would have come across it. To sum it up. Vetrivel the police officer was knifed,bombed and hacked by certain unlawful elements and he was lying down in a pool of his own blood. The dear Dravidian Party ministers and their cahoots arrived at the spot just in time. The dear ministers were just plain afraid to even get out because there was a bomb threat? (What a joke!!). Ok the others like the secretary were also afraid. The cop begs for water, pleads for help. Not even one single person is ready to take the dying man and give him treatment. Instead the ministers call the Ambulance and by the time the ambulance arrives, the hero has bled to death. Now the questions raised by the media were very accurate. Let me put it up for you :

1)Could the ministers allow such a thing to happen? If the situation was reversed wouldn't the cop be helping the ministers out without any fear to his own life?

2) When somebody begs for water what would you do? In particular if the person in need of the elixir is actually dying. The disgusting scene of the secretary pouring the water on Vetrivel's head was shown. How untouchable is that man? Aren't the elected members from the same Dravidian party movement that years ago fought for eradication of that evil?.

Ok now for the pertinent point. The entire thing was captured on Television!! So what was the media doing? Can't the politician ask back? If the politician could not help the person, why not the Media in particular the cameraman, instead of filming the event go and help the dying person? Where were the morals of the great Indian Media? They were happy to point fingers on the politicians, whereas they weren't ready to clean their own mess. Ohh all the news channels played it again and again. Disgusting to say the least. In all a life was lost. That life would be insignificant in the World's Grand scheme of things, but would remain a lamp that just faded away instead of lighting up the house it was required to. I for one hate the so called Indian Media Boom.

(500) Days of Summer - A movie review

2010-01-09T06:11:00.000-08:00

This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know up front, this is not a love story

What would you do if you were in a failed romance? Are you searching for something that would get you out of the unpleasant past? Then you must surely talk to Scott Neustadter, co-writer of this brilliant movie. The story is based on his true experiences with a girl in the London School of Economics. Ok now back to the review.

When was the last time that a romantic-comedy-drama movie really fleshed out characters as if they were just you and me. The so called romance movies usually have a story line, where a desperate or a loser kind of guy falls in love with an absolute beauty or probably where a guy is ditched by somebody and he meets this warm person and grows on eventually to love her. Add a bit of comedy and variations and you get a love story. My problem with these movies is that, though they are enjoyable, don't connect to the audience. The audience are not fools. We know the things portrayed on screen cannot happen.

(Before the breakup)
Tom:[Montage of Summer] I love her smile. I love her hair. I love her knees. I love how she licks her lips before she talks. I love her heart-shaped birthmark on her neck. I love it when she sleeps.

So where was I? Yeah now Tom played by Joseph Gordon Levitt falls for a girl Summer played by Zooey Deschanel. The story is presented in a non linear fashion for us. The narrator every now and then pops up with annotations. The movie starts reverse from the 500th day. The beginning of each day is highlighted in the movie. So Tom works in a greeting card company and Summer is the new assistant to his boss. During a party, his drunk friend blurts out to Summer that Tom has fallen for her. From the word go she makes it clear that she is not looking for a boy friend but she is ready to have all other things that comes with love :D(Seems hard to believe eh?). Tom obviously being a guy falls madly in love with her. The two date, go around as a couple, shout in parks, frolic around in each others houses. Tom and Summer really seem such a cute couple together. In spite of the different perspectives in which each of them views the relationship, Tom thinks she is the girl of his dreams and Summer believing that there's no such thing as true love, they carry on. We get to know that Tom is actually a talented architect who probably landed up in the wrong job. They have a breakup after watching the great Dustin Hoffman movie "The Graduate". Tom is unable to cope up with this and life goes on in a downward spiral. Summer drops in and out of his life and the scene they have towards the end of the movie is perhaps the defining moment. Tom has quit his job and he goes pursuing his dream. The last scene is perhaps the most memorable for me :-). He meets this really hot girl and when he later asks her name, she replies Hi, My name is Autumn and so the story continues.

I hope I haven't given too much of details into the movie's plot. Probably not the best reviewer in town. You definitely should watch this movie. I would rate it as high as The Graduate,Annie Hall, Serendipity, As good as it gets. The characters are so adorable in spite of their obvious flaws. It's been nominated for all major awards this year. Both the actors are amazing. Zooey Deschanel is just so natural. What do I say about Joseph Gordon Levitt. He's surely one the best actors I have seen in a long time. He just gets into the part with ease. So I'll end it now. Go watch the movie folks. You won't be disappointed.

(After the breakup)
Tom::[Montage of Summer] I hate her crooked teeth. I hate the way she smacks her lips. I hate her knooby knees. I hate that cockroach shape splotch on her neck.

PS: Special Thanks to my friend Silky ;-) who made me watch this movie and to Karadi who gave me his copy :-).

Ressurecting myself from the Rubble of that Past...

2009-11-14T02:57:00.000-08:00

Finally I got a new PC. My third machine and yeah this time my kid bro assembled it himself. Specs are not important. It just made me realize the value of my lovely Flinstone aged P4 PC. My kind bro did not delete anything from that PC and so one of the first things I did was to take a backup of all my resources. Well of course a 1TB external hard disk comes in handy :D. So going through the ruins of that PC I found a curious text note called links and I was momentarily stunned!!!. It brought back fond memories of a day when I never knew how to operate a machine and how to grapple up terms like C/C++ and Java. Looking back in retrospect I feel that I had a greater sense of direction then than I ever had in my entire life. Life had a purpose then. The goal of learning for learning's sake and not for achievement was imbibed in my veins. Each and every vein responded in sync to that single desire of learning something new. Achievements never mattered. Hell who cares whether I win or not? Is it not the fact that I learnt that I could use pointers to traverse arrays today when I was using subscripts yesterday more gratifying?.

Thank goodness I found that out. Waking to life is the most important thing that was required for me. From a stress filled day to think about what I achieved!!!,is it not better if I start piecing the links and go ahead. At least I shall cover some ground instead of sitting tight :-). Thank you my dear old PC, you have truly woken me up :-). It was then I realized that in pursuit of something called success I truly forgot what was more important. Self realization dawns and Longfellow comes to my rescue.

Not for enjoyment,Not for sorrow
Is our destined end or way
But to act that each tomorrow
Finds us farther than today..

Yeah he was right :-). Life is not always about that success. It is about that experience. It is about living for the right things, for living without hurting others and for helping when they need your hands and not regretting it later. It is about going forward as a underachieved human being than a successful monster. It is about cherishing those wonderful moments from which we learn and piece together an entirely new puzzle in this amazing world. And finally it is about the joy that comes out of Learning for learning's sake.

Landmark Quiz at Bangalore (Nov 2009) Prelims

2009-11-07T22:10:00.000-08:00

Ohh yes, The Noob has been loitering in and around quizzing competitions for ages now. So the day was the Rajyotsava and as goes tradition, The Landmark Quiz 2009 Bangalore edition was held at St.John's Auditorium in Koramangala. We had Dr.Navin Jayakumar as our host. The enthusiasm was palpable. The entire crowd was brimming in confidence. Me and my team mates also saw the usual QFI and the KQA folks and then we realized that definitely we are not going to make it any big there. Of course that doesn't stop us from learning new things or trying out our luck in these quizzes. I'll just post the questions from the Quiz for a lot of folks who did not attend them. These were the prelims questions. Mind you, some questions are not in order. For the nth consecutive time I forgot to bring my quiz notebook and yeah I did feel bad. Of course two tissue papers came to my rescue :P. Thanks to Transit at The Forum ;-). Hmm without further ado, here are the first fifteen questions from the prelims. I'll post the remaining in some time from now.

1) The question was about a treaty that formally came to effect on November 1st 1993 by some European Countries. Treaty of European Union as it is known officially. Also some details were given. My team mate cracked it the moment he saw November 1st. I took some time to decipher that. But we both got the answers right :-).

Ans) MAASTRICHT Treaty

2)After Taj Mahal this monument is the second most visited place in our country and has the second largest number of tourists visiting it. Name this monument.

We got confused by the 'word' monument in the question. The answer was so obvious.

Ans)The Mysore Palace

3)This American sitcom has an ongoing narrative revolves around four children—Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormick—and their bizarre adventures in and around the fictional and titular Colorado town.

The name Eric Cartman was enough here :D

Ans) South Park

4)The question was about a variety of grain which could be stored for decades and was made famous by the Arabians and the Mediterranean Muslims. Some more lines describing the trivia of the grain was also given.

Obviously I know only how to eat and not to think about the food stuff. Turns out that the answer was actually easy if we had guessed properly.

Ans) Durum Wheat

5)What new words were added to the constitution of India during the 42nd Ammendment by Indira Gandhi?

Yeah we found this out. It is not so dificult

Ans) The words were Socialist,Secular

6)Theatrum Orbis Terrarum was a book published in 1570 and first introduced a word in the English language which perhaps was the best word for what was published in the book. The book was published by Gerard cramer. Some more trivia also was there.

We thought it was Encyclopedia

Ans)Atlas and Gerard Cramer was Mercator

7)How do we celebrate Hockey Legend Dhyan Chand's birthday?

Ans) National Sports Day. Also the Arjuna Awards are announced on the same day.

8)This sweetmeat got the G.I ( Geographical Indicator Tag) for it's uniqueness. I have forgotten the exact wording.

Ha ha ha.. I got this answer right. Thanks to Priyanka. Her quiz at the office had that question and so pat came the answer.

Ans) Tirupati Laddoo :-)

9)In 1883, when a printer in Cheyenne, Wyoming working on a regular telephone directory ran out of white paper. What did he do?

Of course you need not be Einstein to figure this out. :D

Ans) Yellow Pages

10)In nuclear weapons, a ________ occurs when the testing of a nuclear bomb fails to meet its expected yield. The reason(s) for the failure can be linked to improper bomb design, poor construction, or lack of expertise. All countries that have had a nuclear weapons testing program have experienced this. What is the one word used to describe that low yield.

Ans) Fizzle

11)This question was related to mythology about an Avatar of Goddess Earth who actually killed Narakasura when Krishna fell asleep just for a moment.

Ans) Satyabhama

12)The question about a species of Elk which was named after an American President.

Ans) Roosevelt Elk named after Teddy Roosevelt :D.

13) Hmm I forgot what question this was.

14)A question about the Hugo award for 2009 and how it was inspired from "The Jungle book".

Ans) The answer is Neil Gaiman for "The graveyard book"

15)The domino effect suggests that some change, small in itself, will cause a similar change nearby, which then will cause another similar change, and so on in linear sequence, by analogy to a falling row of dominoes standing on end. This was the Domino Theory of the United States referring to the growing Communism in Asia. Where did it all start?

Ans) Vietnam

I'll post the rest of the questions in some time folks. Needless to say I did enjoy the Landmark quiz as always. Yeah waiting eagerly for the Chennai Edition next year :-).

Ah she does it again!! Chronicles of Rakhi Sawant!!!

2009-09-21T00:06:00.000-07:00

This one is for all the folks who tuned in to watch the infamous "Rakhi ka Swayamvar" on TV with great eagerness. The show was an absolute facade!!! Ohh yeah the bharatiya naari Rakhi Sawant has managed to pull it off again. This time she has called off her engagement with that Canadian based guy. Guess What?? Thanks to the media boom in our country almost all the news channels will soon have this piece of shit as "Breaking News" and the so called Sabse Tez channels will have 2 hour shows asking questions like "Rakhi ne aisa kyun kiya?", "Kya Elesh aur Rakhi ke beech mein pehle se daraar tha?" etc etc!!!. Yeah right when the whole country is burning with issues like drought and less rains and looming recession our so called educated media has to offer us only this!!. Looking back I reflect on the media boom and the astuteness of Rakhi to use this as a tool to keep her in the limelight. Any publicity is good publicity and with that publicity comes in a load of opportunities to make good money.

Chronicling Rakhi Sawant might be a really good case study in finding out how the Media creates a somebody out of a nobody. A good for nothing Item girl, she starts her tryst with the television in various reality shows. Makes a name for herself by being foolish!! and yet rakes in a lot of money. Aah how she must be rolling on the floor laughing at the poor folks who watched her on television saying,"Ha ha ha,I fooled you" (*South park style dialogue*). This is what she does, selects a set of folks who have enthusiastically applied to become her husband. Makes fun of some of them very badly on Television. Chooses another guy and then happily calls off the marriage. Yes not before making another show with the guy on how they live together!! Wow. I really should learn a lot from this woman. She sure does know how to make money. I really feel bad for the Indian Public. Do the channels feel that the entire Indian public is foolish or do they thrust in shows like these so that we are left with no choice. I am reminded of the movie called Idiocracy which shows a dystopian future where the entire world has become so foolish and a person of average Intelligence tries to help it. It is so prophetic to watch that movie if you see so many people in this country watching Miss.Rakhi.

No offence meant to Rakhi though. She knows how to still be in the limelight and still make fools of people who watch her. Aah will the entire world listen to a minority of sane voices. It never has and so she will still continue. "And that's the way it is". *Signing off in Walter Cronkite style :D :D *.

We Game!!! Yeah Right I have been spammed!!!

2009-09-19T10:42:00.000-07:00

"Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, baked beans, Spam, Spam, Spam and Spam"
-SPAM(Monty Python 1970)

Yeah the word SPAM actually meant processed canned food in the U.K which was the only food product that was not rationed during WWII days. This I believe led to the fact that in every house this dish used to be a regular. Ok now this was parodied in the popular Monty Python sketch that I have mentioned and towards the end Mrs.Bun shouts I HATE SPAM

So you would have guessed that in the early days of Usenet groups some set of folks as usual referred to the junk mail as spam and hence the name.

So much so for history. Here goes the details. I recently received several mails from Wegame.com telling me that XXXXX sent you a photo. Obvoiusly XXXX is some friend of mine. I set out eager to open(of course friends showing off in their photos is not a uncommon thing is it? It happens to me also :P..I love being photographed and then making others look at it also..poor folks :D). Now the site that I went into asked me for a very simple registration process and then later on went to the next page. Now here is the catch. The site seems legit but they ask for your gmail id. Now the comical thing was that I entered a different gmail id. Not the one that I went to the site from and even then it did not verify the email. Now obviously suppose my friend Jack wants to send me a photo, he would send it to my email id 123@xyz.com. Now assuming that is my email id, if WeGame wants to send me more photos should it also not check for the fact that my email should be 123@xyz.com and not 456@zyx.com. Ok so first sign of a spamming site. What was more convenient was the fact that it asked for my gmail id and password. Ha ha ha how easy? My password??? and for what reason do you need my password??( I was skeptic even with LinkedIn asking for my gmail password to check my address book :D :D ). Yeah at this stage I was wary. I typed out "WeGame spam" in google and guess what? I have a lot of folks complaining about it in the blogosphere and any forum that they can rant. Apparently it sends a spam mail to all the users in the address book. Woaa that seems pretty harmless for a site that asks you your email password :D.. Nways I turned my gmail filter on for this new WeGame spam. I hope those who have read this blog shall not surrender to the WeGame spam. :D. Hopefully the mails should stop here. Aah yes "All's well that ends well"

UPDATE: They have still not stopped :-(. Had to make sure that my filters included the mail addresses wegame@wegame.com,mailmaster@wegame.com and what not. This time it is some of my friends who have added me on wegame it seems!!! Gosh when does this end?

Here is the video from Monty Python that talks about spam :-)

Of Indian Movies and that thing called originality!!!

2009-07-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last you create what you will

-George Bernard Shaw

I recently saw the trailer of a yet to be released so called action flick named Luck. What I saw in one of the trailer scenes told my brain that I am not going to watch this movie,come what may. That one of my favorite hero's kid is playing a part does not add any value to the movie. Indian Cinema has some very very good film makers like Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Mani Ratnam, K.Balachandar, Adoor Gopalakrishnan and these days Kamal Hassan. Their cinemas had a distinct charm and of course that thing called imagination and originality. Sadly it is not the same with all the movies that come out. Most of the movies usually rehash the ideas of a very well known Hollywood movie and package it to the Indian audience. Now I am not against remakes. As Kamal Hassan says even the writing of Ramcharitamanas is a blatant remake. :D. But then in that case we call it Tulsi's Ramayana or Valmiki's Ramayana or Kamban's Ramayana. Whereas in this case the film maker who creates the remake doesn't even make a single mention about the person from whose movie he has blatantly copied.

Coming back to the movie Luck.It talks about a betting syndicate being run by Sanjay Dutt and how lady luck smiles on different folks. Well the trailer scene showed me a picture which is something similar to the pic below

This pic is from a French movie named 13 Tzameti 13 Tzameti is a wonderful French movie which even has a English remake in the progress titled as 13. The previews of Luck never attribute this fact. The director does not even mention any name of this movie. I really don't understand what the director is trying to achieve? Does he think the entire Indian population is so dumb that they don't notice his blatant copy? This trend with Indian Cinema is wide and deep rooted. Some of the remake movies never do well. For instance take the example of a Bollywood movie Chocolate. Very badly ripped of from the classic movie The usual Suspects, this movie was so badly done that it never had a decent run in the box office. Even the latest movie Kambaqt Ishq is a remake of the Tamil superhit Kamal Hassan movie Pammal K Sambandam. The packaging has been good in the bollywood movie. Bring in two Hollywood biggies. Even ask a rapper to sing a song for you and that's it. The movie would be hailed in all the news channels with interviews to foreign actors asking them how good Akshay or Bebo is in the movie. :D. Aah some of them don't even know the names of the Bollywood movies. Ohh here I forget to mention movies like God Tussi Great Ho, Partner which were blatantly ripped off from Bruce Almighty and Hitch. This makes me wonder,"What is wrong with our industry?". Is the talent pool short? Definitely not. Think of a great movie like A Wednesday. That defined how a movie should be taken. It was so wonderful that it prompted Malayalam superstar Mohanlal to ask Kamal Hassan to direct a remake.

Now this trend of rehashes is not going to affect the large Indian population as most of them would not have seen the movie 13 Tzameti. But definitely it brings a slur on Indian Cinemas. The world will look at us as a copycat nation when it comes to original cinema. A nation which has no new ideas and no new scripts.This is definitely not true. We as a nation should stand up to them saying we can bring up more creative movies than them. I think it is time that we start promoting those beautiful movies in regional languages like Malayalam which have produced quality movies. Even Tamil cinema these days is moving towards originality in script. The world should know that Indian Cinema is just not Bollywood but much more than that. After all A.R Rahman and Mani Ratnam are not from Bollywood.. are they?Aren't there many like them who never get the recognition they deserve? Kamal Hassan? Mohanlal? Ohh both these heroes are versatile geniuses. Two folks whose most beautiful movies go un-noticed by most of Indian Media. I also am sad that A Wednesday which was such a beautiful movie never got the recognition it deserved. Well hopefully things change in the future.

Tada!!! Here I come :-)

2009-04-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

The vis insita, or innate force of matter is a power of resisting, by which every body, as much as in it lies, endeavors to preserve in its present state, whether it be of rest, or of moving uniformly forward in a straight line.

It took a great deal of power and persuasion to at last write something here. Blogging as I see is more of an art rather than incoherent thoughts just put up. As I sit down and key these words in the comfort of my home, I just wonder what it is like to come up with something on the mind that transfers itself to graphics on the screen through a bunch of key stroke combinations. Inertia is one of the most important characteristics that I would love to overcome at this point in time. As my title suggests I would go with the gaming lingo of Noob to describe myself. This I think is the best name that one could give me rather than anything else. I fail to learn anything that is thrown up to me. As I key here I think of the various experiences in life that I can post and that can be useful to a few fellow beings on this planet. Hopefully atleast somebody finds them interesting. As of now it is the end of the first post. Overcame Inertia. So folks.. Tada Here I come :-)