Giveaway of the Day..
http://www.giveawayoftheday.com/
this' a place where you can actually have that licensed software for free! and no strings attached.. :)
these guys really give you a licensed software free everyday!

now that is a cool idea.. and a really cool marketing strategy.. :)
hats off to the guys who thought about and actually pulled it off..

though it's not free as in freedom, but sure as in 'free beer' ;) oh yeah, that makes it only second to GNU.. but hey, I, for one, surely wouldn't mind a free beer :) particularly somethin as good as this one :)
(psst.. only metaphorically, coz I don't like beer :D )

there's a sister project called Game Giveaway of the Day.. but dint like it much.. they seem to giveaway quite a lot of the games I wouldn't wanna play :(

they've announced that they'd soon be givin out some of the popular titles for free! I sure am excited! :)

why's product development sexier?
coz of the kick you get when you see someone (apart from yourself of course ;) ) finding it useful and actually liking it :)
'tis about a plugin I wrote for IntelliJ..
[http://plugins.intellij.net/plugin/?id=1126]
someone liked it enuf to visit the page and rate it as well :) [I never told them to.. I don't even kno them.. honest!]
hmm.. feels good :)
guess 'tis motivation enuf to improve the plugin (n work on others I was too lazy to start on :D )

got a problem? find the reset button..
huh! I hate that.. why does it always have to be so?!

was downloading XNA Game Studio Express n found this instruction quite amusing..

1.1.3. Run Visual C# 2005 Express Edition at Least Once Before Installing XNA Game Studio Express

You should run Visual C# 2005 Express Edition at least once before installing XNA Game Studio Express. Otherwise, features of XNA Game Studio Express may be missing from the user interface. For example, the XNA Game Studio Xbox 360 item in Tools | Options dialog may be missing. If you encounter this issue, we recommend that you do the following:

1. Uninstall XNA Game Studio Express.
2. Run Visual C# 2005 Express Edition.
3. Exit Visual C# 2005 Express Edition.
4. Reinstall XNA Game Studio Express.

[http://msdn.microsoft.com/directx/XNA/gse/readme/default.aspx#ID2EWC]

'm not alien to such instructions n keep seein them quite very often, with quite a lot of the products that I use.. if it screws up, find a way to reset.. but huh, why?! when'll these people understand?

this instruction in particular is way too odd.. somethin fundamentally wrong.. is VC# Express Edition architecture so flaky? or were the XNA developers way too lazy to provide a utility instead to register XNA Game Studio with VC# Express? let alone fix the bug..

I'd xpect Microsoft to have all the best guys around.. nothing personal, but did noone there ever feel that such an instruction would look bad on MS?!

Mercora - Music Search
another nice net radio :) - http://www.mercora.com

I still prefer Pandora's slick interface over this one.. but Mercora gives me what I've always missed in Pandora - searching for and listening to specific tunes :)

Mercora gives you a nice interface too :) but not as slick.. and it has a Mercora Music Matrix, which's a blogthing you can put up on your blog.. haven't explored it completely..

there sure are other music search services like SingingFish.. but I happen to prefer Mercora..

one big downer for Mercora is that it requires you to install an extra plugin which plays Mercora music on the browser.. (they want to prevent you from downloading songs :P ).. but proabably that's still kinda okay since 'tis not that heavy..

if only somone could combine Pandora and Mercora :) that'd be great..
but even now, Pandora to discover music n Mercora for specific tunes is probably okay :)

[psst.. do u think it's a coincidence that both the music services I like have rhyming names?! Pandora, Mercora.. and even the same string lengths! hmm..]

am I too fanatical?!
k.. you were supposed to say no ;)
well, the context revolves around Eclipse n IntelliJ.. and when it comes to choosing between the two, well, honestly I don't really see a choice over there :D it's just IntelliJ, IntelliJ, IntelliJ and that's about it :P

happened to stumble across this entry which tries to tell you the 10 reasons why Eclipse is better. alright dude, I'll give you all that.. but honestly, you've never used IntelliJ for pro development.. I'll avoid counter-commenting over each of your points (though it's way too tempting not to :D )..

but here's why I prefer IntelliJ over ANY other IDE on the planet (across all the languages).. all the other IDEs help me write code, but IntelliJ helps me solve problems.. IntelliJ knows what I'm thinking.. and that really makes a big difference.. with IntelliJ, my focus almost completely is taken off the nitty-gritties of code which I definitely don't have to be bothered about..

coming to Eclipse, oh I definitely don't hate it.. and honestly, I respect it over many other IDEs (xcept IntellliJ of course ;) ).. but given that, it's nothing more than an IDE.. sure it's free.. and has a very xtensible plugin architecture and everything.. but it loses because of that very point.. it's so generic that it complicates building anything specific around it..

the fundamental differentiator from my point of view is usability.. I think Eclipse has serious usability issues and it's usability sucks big time! alright, it uses SWT, but that only makes it kinda blend with other applications.. from nowhere do I see Eclipse looking pretty because of SWT! alright, I kno I might be a lil biased on that bit.. n that's xactly why it's my point of view (which's fairly twisted btw :D )..

and ah! the open architecture! can't wrap up without mentioning that.. ever tried writing an Eclipse plugin? I did.. long back.. and I gave up.. sure, there's a LOT of documentation around for Eclipse.. and very little for IntelliJ OpenAPI.. but still, I found myself writing an IntelliJ plugin without much (read: any) hassle (ignore the fact that there was a T-shirt for incentive ;) ).. oh, the Eclipse API isn't really bad, but 've said it earlier, it tries to be too generic.. too many details to pay attention to for a small task.. and too much documentation to read thru..

with IntelliJ, you won't find much documentation.. and that does become a major pain in the ass at times.. despite that, OpenAPI is pefectly usable, coz most of the things in there make perfect sense.. definitely OpenAPI isn't the best around.. I've got a 100 improvements to suggest and others'd have a lot more.. but with Eclipse, I just haven't got the time and energy it takes to explore and use it's API to do anything practical..

k.. all these mainly have to do with the power that IntelliJ gives me.. it's code browsing features are simply the best I've seen for Java.. my favourites: Ctrl+N and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N, Ctrl+H, Ctrl+Alt+H.. with IntelliJ, I'm up for tampering around the most unfamiliar codebases in an instant :)

oh and since it's my blog, I thought I shud mention my IntelliJ plugin.. 'tis called Jump To Usage (alright, 'tis a silly name).. quite a trivial plugin.. but nicely fits into my style of coding :D

ironic..
just thinking about my next project.. and hey, howcome I dint notice it earlier?!

funny, but the fact's that I'm gonna go in as a consultant to a company that rejected me in my campus interview! and they pay my company a lot more than what they'd have otherwise paid me! :))
what's even more ironic is that my job over there's supposed to be helping out their people with XP and Coding practices, and probably refactor out their code to make it look pretty n more manageable ;)

r u wondering what's so ironic about it? well, the only reason they had for not taking me was my aggregate, coz I cant remember an interview that I dint do well.. and in fact they bagged a good number of our toppers..

hmm.. so, r u thinkin the same that I'm? LOL!!! :))
so, now they're okay with having a low aggregate to help their toppers?! oh well, probably they forgot to ask my company for my aggregate ;)

ha ha.. really can't stop laughing when I think of that.. :))

sometimes, life can be soooooooo mean, soooooooooo ironic.. ;)

UPDATE:
well, maybe someone heard me ;).. the plan's changed (for good) ;)

computing..
Heroine: Computer, show me the files with details about <blah blah blah>..
Computer: Beginning search thru One million <whatever-silly-number-after-that> files now..
Heroine: (smiles) Cancel search..

some flick I can't remember.. it's inna spacecraft and the miss is tryin to get some confidential info from the craft supercomputer.. the supercomputer of course understands natural language ;) (n divulges any kinda details to anybody who asks for it without any kinda authorization :P )
watched it when I was in college, n the thing that impressed me was the file count thrown by the computer.. it sure was impressive then..

today I'm backin up my data, n find that my recent Workspace alone has over 98000 files! n it's just supposed to be holdin my mini projects/stuff related to them!

yeah, sure my laptop's a lot better than what their conceived supercomputer then was.. but damn! what pisses me off is that it still can't understand natural language! ;) well, my point isn't to compare my laptop wit a supercomputer.. neither to complain about it's understanding capabilities :D

it's just that I always wonder why doesn't computing quality increase wit increase in computing power.. I've seen CPUs with 3 digit LEDs on them to indicate speed in MHz with a generally shorted MSD to show a decently high number! :)
it was just around my XI std. that people thought a 400 MHz Pentium III was impressive.. and a color monitor was a luxury :P

around my III sem, Sidda's Celeron of about 1GHz was better than most.. and when I bought my P4 HT with 2+GHz @ around my 5th sem, none of the systems I knew came closer! :) well, that was the closest one could go to having two processors on a desktop..
around my XI std. a dual processor machine would've been a dedicated server to be touched by the privileged few! but today I run a laptop with dual core, which's as good as two physical processors! and Intel's Quadro's about to be out!

well, it's been about 8 years, and after so many leaps in raw computing power, the softwares that I use everyday don't even come close to what I've come to expect from those of this generation.. the way I manage my data isn't drastically different, n I still feel the pain of searching thru it.. I'm still using the same kind of UI, same kind of software but only with minor visual improvements, and I've to bear with the reasoning that all my computing power goes into getting those minor visual improvements!

I definitely don't agree with Vista's ridiculous system requirements after having seen what it gives me.. oh I love Vista and it's quite jazzy UI.. but I just hate what it shamelessly demands of me for those minor touches..

I've heard stories of people who finished an entire machine simulator without a single error, that too in octal! hmm.. well, can't remember a story more impressive than that.. what happened to computer engineering?!

there're not many softwares that come close to doing what's expected of them.. two that I like the most: IntelliJ coz it knows what and how to do what I want to do.. it thinks the way I think :)
Mathematica for it's.. well, I dunno why I like it.. but I think it's a pure display of arrogance ;) [just my personal opinion] and probably that's why I like it.. or probably it's the kind of backing that Mathematica enjoys..

there're a few more that I like but can't remember, and probably a few more that're good but 've never used.. but the sad thing's that they're so very numbered.. :(

does everythin happen for good?!
that's bloody hard to believe in.. call it an attitude problem, but honestly, 'tis like tracing the silverline of the darkest cloud onna pitch dark night..

loooooong time, no b..
..log
haven't written in a looong time.. sometimes busy, sometimes decidin against writin some things.. huh! anonymity is such a bloody privilege.. and a fickle mind doesn't help either.. write somethin, and it feels silly tomoro :(

but well, guess I'm back.. even if it's for a short while ;)

the Oracle
[DISCLAIMER: this's got nothin to do with Oracle the corporation or the product.. nor is this a How to on horoscopes or numerology or anythin such.. so hit the back button now if googlin gave u a wrong(?) result :D]

remember the Oracle from The Matrix? how hard do u think it could b to build one like her?
theoretically, it shud be quite simple ;)

well, here's an idea.. scraped directly off the Adaptive Signal Processing theory.. now just for those who dunno, it talks abt making blocks which dynamically adapt to a particular pattern of input and output..
here's a lil block diagram.. might not help much without a lil explanation :D [skip till next image if you're not interested in Adptive Signal Processing theory (or, if u're allergic to any badly explained theory for that matter ;) )]

the idea is that you have an input signal and you do some processing on it to get an output signal.. you want the output to be like something, which's your desired signal.. but the processing block deviates the output signal from the desired one while processing.. the difference between the output and the desired is the error signal.. now don't tell me that you're thinkin of directly sending the desired signal to the output, coz it doesn't exist :D.. if it did, then we'd have been spared of a subject :))

k.. the simplest case would be to add the error signal back to the input n you'll get the desired signal at the output.. simple math isn't it? but it aint so straightforward coz the processing system needn't be linear, or rather needn't be like the one producing the desired one.. so it's passed back to the processing system after being passed thru an adaptive algorithm which, I suppose, accounts for the nonlinearity..

[for more details on the subject refer to the Adaptive Signal Processing book by Bernard Widrow and Samuel D. Stearns.. Or try googling]


simple enuf? k.. here're some applications of such an adaptive system.. Oracle wud be the one in fourth quadrant..

the Oracle is supposed to predict a system.. which's basically telling what's comin up before it happens :)
but to achieve it with an adaptive system, I need a desired signal.. and as you might guess, I don't have one, coz if I did, I wouldn't be writin all this (don't argue abt the horoscopes plz :D).. so I start off with some seed input, which I expect to come out as is after a while.. that's like sayin I'll tell you today what's gonna happen tomoro, n you'll tell the same back to me tomoro..

what's a good seed input? how bout the good old sayin that tomoro's weather's gonna b the same as today's.. of course with 70% accuracy, which's no good.. so I slightly change my input..

I'll tell the Adaptive Filter, both what happened yesterday and what happened today.. the job of the Adaptive Filter is to adapt itself to give me today given yesterday.. sounds more like lookup doesnt it? I guess, it's okay for it to be a lookup to start with.. it'd later evolve towards pattern recognition.. (or simply towards an efficient way to lookup a humongous hash table :D) finally it shud end up learning enuf to be the smart oracle which tells you exactly what's gonna happen tomoro (or the next minute if u wish :D) by doing what could be called a dumb n brainless job of matching today against a looooooooooottttttt of yesterdays :D

theoretically, it's a possiblity since you keep accumulating a lot of yesterday's.. so many of them that your today shud match at least one of the yesterdays.. and once it matches, your tomoro shud be the next day of the matched yesterday..

hmm.. how bout a lil zap of reality? there's one major hurdle that I can think of.. representation of the information.. how'd you tell to the system what happened today? NLP? Audio? Video? it'd be a lil hard to process any of those, at least for now considering the current (pathetic?) situation of software where things like Voice Recognition are still considered among the cutting edge technologies and technical luxuries after all these years of software evolution..
and the next hurdle, which's kinda tied-in to the problem of representing the information.. the programming language of choice.. can't think of any for now which'd allow me to build such a system easily without by itself being an obstacle to my thinking.. Ruby? Prolog? or somethin else.. haven't tried Prolog yet.. hope it has some way to express this kinda information n also allow me to infer things based on that without makin me worry too much abt variable types and such silly issues..

this reminds me of Smith, according to whom we shud already have the right kinda programming language.. but well, he doesn't exist and his existence would've proved that he's right.. so let's wait till we see either a Smith or an Oracle :D..

oh.. I lost a Scorpio :D..
u're given 15 days to secure a simple application n there's a Scorpio for gettin it right.. what'd u do? start on it from day 1? well, not if u're me :D..
guess a Scorpio wasn't enough to motivate me.. or probably I was being overconfident :D.. the problem was quite easy too.. easy enough to make me overconfident..
so, due to various (silly, nonsensical) reasons, I started on it at abt 5 hours prior to submission deadline :D.. at abt 6:30 PM on a Monday with the deadline being midnight that day.. as u can tell, I couldn't finish it :D.. submitted the solution with a lot of obvious security bugs.. I shud've realized that nobody gives a Scorpio for a task that can be done in 5 hrs ;)..

it's been well over a month since the results are out.. but havent been able to write abt this since then.. I broke my leg (now don't ask me how'd that prevent me from bloggin ;) ) followed by my shoulder.. my shoulder's still to get an okay from the doctor.. neways, now that I decided to write somthin, this was the most logical entry to make.. n this' also for the ppl who bugged me for the final results :P ..

generally, the contest was quite easy.. probably coz this was the first time.. spend two hrs online and u clear the first two stages.. spend another two-three days and u can easily get thru the final stage (now, I really mean this part.. it's not my overconfidence again :D ).. the application to fix for the final stage was quite easy.. not much of a hassle to fix it.. the best part of the contest's that the prizes are accumulative :) .. still dunno who got the Scorpio.. but I got an 80G xternal HDD (for bein in top 100), a voucher to get a Microsoft Security Certification (for top 500), a book on Secure Code Writing (for top 1000) and a junk CD containing nothing that I could find useful (for top 5000) :D..

hurray! I cleared Stage II.. =D>
was eagerly waitin till midnight just to know the results.. and.. .. ..

I made it thru the Stage II of Microsoft Security Shootout! :) =D>

I'm too damn happy to be among the top 100.. dunno how to express it :D
eagerly waitin for the Stage III code to arrive..

the Microsoft Security Shootout..
(cough, cough.. clear throat) hey all, I made it through the Stage-I :) =D>
the contest started abt a month back.. and the results for stage 1 were out on yesterday.. find the contest here -> http://www.microsoft.com/india/security/securityshootout/
actually, it doesn't feel that great.. coz the quiz wasn't that hard.. n coz 999 others too have made it through this round.. moreover, I wonder how many did actually take part.. coz I dozed off while answering the questions n the contest timed out :D.. so I ended up answering only abt half the questions, n still I'm cleared thru?! huh..
neways, Stage-II's gonna be difficult coz just 100 contestants can continue after that.. wish I could clear that as well :D

wish I could..
lose all responsibilities..
lose my past..
lose all contacts..
lose evrythin..
escape somewhere far far away..
n start afresh.. start from scratch.. start all over again..

uh.. the bloody thought is so damn tempting..
but can't give in to it.. not yet.. gotta wait..

my bike.. finallyyy..
yoohoo! after waiting thru a whole damned month, I got my bike..
an Avenger.. blue one..
it bloody took a whole damned month for me to get it! booked it on 1st March and recieved it on 31st.. and I had no other options coz these guys (Khivraj Bajaj) are the bloody only authorized dealers in Bangalore for Avenger! that was the worst part.. but after getting the bike, I just love it :)

first realization about the bike, well, it is really as heavy as it looks :D a massive 285 Kgs! whoops! too heavy.. for me that is ;)..

next realization, it's gear system is real weird! 1N2345 in order.. i.e. for first gear, you push forward and for others, you push backwards.. takes a while to get adjusted, coz the other bikes have all gears in one direction.. i.e. N12345 or 54321N..

and the next one, I'm gonna learn riding on this bike!

the final realization, which happens to be a resultant of the previous ones, is that (at least) for a while, I may really be feelin like God¹ while ridin it ;) .. until I get comfortable with the bike :D..

and as long as I continue feelin like God while ridin it, my mom wont certify me okay to ride it out.. :( (in fact, I rode it out on a road with scanty traffic, but had to stop arguin wit my mom after that :D )

---

¹ well, er.. it's somethin like this.. for God, it's his road, n other ppl (usually) make way for him to ride.. generally ppl don't wanna mess up with him, now that they're given so many options between messin up and not messin up with him ;)
in that sense, one can also attribute the word Road King to my bike while I'm ridin it (at least till I begin to control it, instead of the other way around, which's the case now) ;) I ride at my best when I have the whole road for myself :D

The Martin Fowler event
we (ThoughtWorks India) are conducting a seminar @ Bangalore and Hyderabad titled "Agile Development for Fun and Profit" under the ThoughtWorks Master Class Series..
main feature of the event being the talk by Martin Fowler (which's the most interesting part of the event for me, but that is, provided I get to attend the event :( )..
entry by invitation only..
interested? go to http://events.thoughtworks.co.in/ and register for the event..

mathworld

mathworld - one place for all (well, almost ;) ) mathematical questions..
nice place to brush up ur mathematical concepts/learn new ones..

checkout the Recreational Mathematics section.. quite interesting..
evrything's been sorted, cross-linked n maintained well.. what more? well, u can search the entire site n it works pretty well! (not a usually found combination ;) )..

why are there any rules?
"Look, that's why there's rules understand? So that you think before you break 'em.."
- Lu Tze to Lobsang (his apprentice)
in the Thief of Time - Terry Pratchet

a Microsoft Technology Roadshow
been to a Microsoft Technology Roadshow last Friday (20-02-2006).. despite Venki's suggestion that there won't be much to learn, I took a day off to attend this one.. but I really do regret that decision.. a whole damned day wasted! left the hall feeling ridiculous about the whole damned session..

what went wrong? well, maybe I should rephrase that to be 'was there anythin that went right?'.. can't remember a thing that was right, but with exception of the food, which was more sensible than that in the Visual Studio 2005 Launch Tour..

there were two parallel tracks.. one for the web developer and the other for the mobility developer.. I chose to attend the mobility track coz I xpected to learn somethin form the session.. there were 3 presentations wholly.. two before lunch and one after that.. first two basically covered Symbian vs .NET for developin mobile apps.. some general awareness stuff..

I was late to the first presentation, but dint really miss a thing.. that guy was explaining about some features like a Windows CE mobile (Tablet PC etc..) being able to sync up with a Microsoft Exchange Server and some cool features like getting notifications about ur mails etc.. as n when ur Exchange Server receives em.. honestly, that's not the coolest tech I'd like to hear abt.. it's fairly standard, so please don't bug me explainin how it works.. show me an actual application demonstrating how to use that thing.. anyone with half-a-brain could use the net n find out how it works.. it's definitely not worth a presentation.. in fact, anyone wit half-a-brain could also find sample apps on the net, but then that's where I'd like to see the differene.. I usually xpect to learn some tips/tricks form the demos they'd give on stage.. somethin like that's not available elsewhere, or at least the approach, coz it's pretty difficult to find a thing that's missing from the net n present it here :D

next presentation was a lil interesting, but got a lil annoying later.. it was the usual Microsoft vs the-best-rival-to-Microsoft-technology thing.. in fact, even the previous one was Symbian vs .NET, but let's leave it there.. this one was J2ME vs .NET.. hmm.. it's not that I hate .NET/Micrsoft.. in fact my current project is an ASP.NET app.. but then, there should be limits to where you draw the comparison.. the competitors were J2ME with the JTWI standard (which endorses MIDP 2.0 with CLDC 1.0) vs .NET CF.. hmm.. for me, not very sensible.. I dont wanna elongate this entry getting down to details.. but in short, there were some valid points.. but the whole thing was a futile attempt, justifying the existence of .NET CF for mobiles and tryin to convince us of it's superiority over J2ME/JTWI..

I was tired already.. they were so boring.. I'm a dev guys and I came here coz u labelled it a Technology Roadshow with a track for the Mobility Developer.. show me some code! I can read the reviews and get to kno more abt the features n evrythin.. but don't waste my precious time shootin bullshit at me.. I'm here xpectin somethin more technical.. not for ur product review..

I thought I shud leave, but before leavin I thought I shud xpress my opinions to one of the presenters.. I told pretty much the same to him (well, same words wrapped around with some politeness that is :D ).. he said the initial presentations were to create awareness.. the one after lunch would have some code to demonstrate.. so I decided to stay for the latter part..

but this one happened to be a worser bullshit.. it was called the storage side story.. the demo was xtremely frustrating.. at least for me.. he gave some intro abt the SQL Server CE, during which I had a nice nap :D.. for the demo, he created a new Mobile application.. imported a Northwind DB, SQL CE version.. dragged and dropped a table from there to the form, which became a DataGrid.. huh.. who was the demo for? for a 10 year old kid?

well, I'm not much xperienced when it comes to Mobile app development.. but the others in the room seemed to be from the stream.. when I feel the demo was bullshit, do u think the demo was worth anythin for an xperienced pro?! still, I held on to my patience, tellin myself that there'll be somethin worth learnin comin up.. that this demo was just for the complete novices.. convincin myself that the demo was intended to start off simple.. then the presenter came to the last slide, givin some links, includin one for the great demo that was just shown!

for the lack of stronger words, I'd just say that I was simply pissed off! a leave wasted for no reason at all! this happened to me even in the VS.NET 2005 Launch Tour.. I xpected somethin big, n all I got were some nonsense presentations.. their explanation for that was that it was merely an awareness event.. well, granted.. but what abt this Technology Roadshow?

I've decided never to attend another Microsoft Technology Roadshow again.. neways, my only request to the event organizers is to brand their events properly and make their intent very clear.. if you'd please call your marketing events as just that, instead of branding them Technology Roadshows, I'd be glad to stay away from those, n you'd be helpin many like me.. well, thanx in advance if any of u happens to consider my request..

what would an hour of idle time yield?
read on, but only if you could find nothin better to do :D

You Are 32% Abnormal

You are at low risk for being a psychopath. It is unlikely that you have no soul. You are at medium risk for having a borderline personality. It is somewhat likely that you are a chaotic mess. You are at low risk for having a narcissistic personality. It is unlikely that you are in love with your own reflection. You are at medium risk for having a social phobia. It is somewhat likely that you feel most comfortable in your mom's basement. You are at medium risk for obsessive compulsive disorder. It is somewhat likely that you are addicted to hand sanitizer.

How Abnormal Are You?

The Movie Of Your Life Is A Cult Classic

Quirky, offbeat, and even a little campy - your life appeals to a select few. But if someone's obsessed with you, look out! Your fans are downright freaky. Your best movie matches: Office Space, Showgirls, The Big Lebowski

If Your Life Was a Movie, What Genre Would It Be?

Your Birthdate: December 23

You're not good at any one thing, and that's the problem. You're good at so much - you never know what to do. Change is in your blood, and you don't stick to much for long. You are destined for a life of travel and fun. Your strength: Your likeability Your weakness: You never feel satisfied Your power color: Bright yellow Your power symbol: Asterisk Your power month: May

What Does Your Birth Date Mean?

What Your Face Says

At first glance, people see you as strong willed and stubborn. Overall, your true self is passive and thoughtful. With friends, you seem logical, detached, and a bit manipulative. In love, you seem intelligent and a bit intimidating. In stressful situations, you seem selfish and moody.

What Do People Think Of Your Face?

How You Are In Love

You fall in love quickly and easily. And very often. You tend to take more than give in relationships. You tend to get very attached when you're with someone. You want to see your love all the time. You're secretly hoping your partner will change for you. You stay in love for a long time, even if you aren't loved back. When you fall, you fall hard.

How Are You In Love?

Your Love Life Secrets Are

Looking back on your life, you will only have one true love. You're a little scarred from your past relationships, but who isn't? You prefer a quirky, unique person to be your lover. You're easy going about who you're with, as long as they love you back. In fights, you are able to walk away and calm down. You are able to weather the storm. A break-up usually comes as a shock to you. You always think things are going well.

Your Love Life Secrets, Revealed

You Are Homer Simpson

You're just an ordinary, all-American working Joe... With a special fondness for pork rinds and donuts. You will be remembered for: your little "isms" and philosophies on life Your life philosophy: "Weaseling out of things is important to learn. It's what separates us from the animals ... except the weasel."

The Simpsons Personality Test

a lil Photoshop'ing
here's some modern art I did when I was a kid ;)..
hmm.. can't believe it? neither do I :D
this isn't some painting, but just some scrap made out of remaining water colours after the actual painting was done.. if I remember correctly, the actual painting was for some assignment, possibly for the infamous Mr. Sharanappa (a.k.a. ... well, u wouldn't wanna kno)

somehow, my mom chose to preserve this one.. she says it looks nice..
neways, just wanted a subject to play around with Photoshop.. so here're the results..

This one's after the original painting (?) was brough into Photoshop, smoothened out and made a lil nicer.. all other images are after applying some filters over this one..


After Chrome Filter..


Added some Texture..


Some filter called a Graphic Pen Filter.. the name doesn't make much sense tho..


Another one called the Note Paper Filter..


And finally, the original crap that I created.. :D

completion of one great year! =D>
today's the day I complete an year @ ThoughtWorks :).. exactly an year ago, I started as a Thoughtworker with the first official 'Bootcamp' (as it was called ;) ).. I started with so many dreams.. and started very unconfident.. wasn't really sure if I was good enough to be a thoughtworker.. sometimes I thought it's a mere coincidence of events that I got in.. (the year hasn't changed much of it tho :D )

it's great to complete an year because I never thought I'd stay here for an year.. in fact I never thought I'd stay in any company for an year :D.. well, it's coz my words, before being placed in TW were, - "I wouldn't settle down in any company for at least two years, and would change at least 4 companies before I'd settle down in my dream company" :D.. that makes it a company every 6^th month! hmm.. maybe I wasn't being very realistic then.. maybe was just a lil overconfident.. but then, maybe I'd have really done that if I were in any place other than TW :D.. after getting into TW, I stopped even attempting for any other company..

in fact, I feel a lil bad about not attempting for another company.. well, the reason being my egos.. couldn't tolerate it when someone got into some biggie and rejected that offer, but then roamed around bragging that he was the only one capable of gettin thru that.. huh.. I felt I should've at least attempted it, even if it was just to reject the offer.. but well, that's another story

I never really thought I'd make it into TW.. it was my dream company.. don't really know why.. first time I heard about TW was when Manju mentioned it, sometime during my 6^th sem.. (I still wonder how, but he even said I'd definitely make it into TW and suggested me to wait till TW comes to the campus! I dunno his reasoning, but he for sure didn't kno abt TW then..) somehow, over time, TW settled in my mind as my dream company.. the place where I'd settle down (of course after switching 4 companies :D ).. even when I wrote the TW test, I was pretty calm n relaxed.. one reason being the pretty decent offer I had.. but mainly coz I thought I can't make it and would be writing it again in another year.. couldn't really believe myself as I cleared through every stage of the process.. (most surprising part being that I was the only one to clear it :) )

well, honestly it's a great place to be in.. it's the work environment, the people around, friends and (to a certain extent) the work itself that makes TW so fascinating to work for.. the cubicles in my friends' offices seem so repelling.. I really don't kno how (and if) I would ever survive if I happen to get out of this place :D.. of course there might be (and of course there will be) companies where the work environment is so friendly, and the people around so bright.. but at least I haven't been able to find one..

this year has been pretty good.. well, in fact I can't really decide if it was good or bad :D.. this's the year that has left me the most confused.. it's only now that I realize I'm not really sure of whatever I'm doing.. this's the year that has taught me a lot, beyond what I can grasp, both professionally and otherwise.. the year when I've swayed between complete extremes.. from some of my happiest moments till some of the most hurting and embarrassing moments.. from the most hopeless moments till the brightest ones.. (guess the extremes go hand in hand with XP ;) ).. this's the year when I've been the craziest, most insane ;) done acts that're the most stupid and nonsense (which I hope I'd never repeat again :D ).. this's the year that has changed me a lot (another XP thing? ;) guess I blend into the eXtreme Programming model pretty nicely :D )

to sum it all, an experience that I can never forget (even if I wish to)..

The Mensa test
finally, the much awaited Mensa Test was today (hmm.. that's 12-02-2006, Sunday n not the posting date.. clock ticks past midnight twelve and it's the next day already.. huh!), conducted by Mensa Bangalore..
much to my surprise, there were no mathematical questions! every other IQ test that I've seen gives some mathematical problems.. neither were there any verbal questions! that was quite surprising to me after seeing many other IQ tests..

all the questions were diagrammatic/visual or whatever you call them (there's a term for that but I don't remember).. it's kinda reasonable coz they wanna be fair to everyone.. missing math questions can be attributed to the reason that not everyone could be good at math.. I mean that the Science/Financial stream guys would be more comfortable with math than the Arts stream ppl.. but I couldn't see a reason why there were no verbal tests.. well, there could be one reason.. ppl might not be very good at some language, the language in this case being English.. hmm.. thinking that way, I can even argue that ppl might not be good at solving pictorial sequences coz of some reason.. well, that kinda sounds dumb tho.. neways, that way, the test should've had the verbal and mathematical questions.. doesn't matter if that appears biased.. coz if you really try to be fair, then you'll have to eliminate every other question ;) so I think it'd be better if they follow the standard format..

there were no explicit logical reasoning questions either, but solving the pictorial sequences involved enough logical reasoning to justify not having a dedicated section labelled Logical Reasoning :D

I think I didn't do well in the test.. wasn't much prepared.. but neways, the result'll be out in 6 weeks.. (dunno why they've to take 6 weeks to evaluate, say around 250-300 papers)

I remember reading somewhere that a proper IQ test should assess all your abilities and each one of these tests is for one of those abilities.. so after the test, I left the hall feeling a bit of incompleteness.. neways

Shift+F6 (F2?) Bangalore -> Bengaluru
hell, I missed out writing my opinions about this.. haven't been very regular with blogging u see :D.. I'm not even sure if it's the right time.. maybe the renaming is already done.. (honestly I'm not sure coz I usually don't go past the comic strips in the newspaper, which're on the second page btw.. :D )

neways, the people in my mind while writing this opinion are the shitheads who've managed to snatch some votes from the stupid voters.. btw, I'm not in the stupid voters list ;) I have never voted till now.. Sidda argues that it's people like me who let the 'bad guys' win by not using our powers.. but well, I've a different opinion.. u can vote for someone if u want him/her to win.. but what if every candidate is just another shithead? would u like to vote for any of them? Sidda again argues that not evryone is bad.. I agree.. but it so happens that there's a good guy Mr X from the party XYZ, whom I'd like to support, but his local representative for my area is just another loser.. or maybe the other way around.. my local representative for the party XYZ is good, but supporting him would mean supporting another loser fighting for a higher position.. a Catch-22 situation? no matter whom do u vote for, u end up being the loser.. the only way to win is to get into the dirt and play games to snatch votes for urself.. in other words, enter the filthy world of politics, even thinking of which makes me sick..

neways, I just went off-track.. that's not what this post is abt.. coming to the renaming, I'm against it.. here's why:
Bangalore isn't just a name that someone could choose to change at his will to satisfy his whims.. more than a name, it's a brand.. and when you rename a well known brand, there are always repercussions..
how's Bangalore a brand? I think I don't have to explain this.. but still.. I've heard that (not so recently), the word Bangalore was added as a verb to some dictionary along with Google, Fed-Ex etc.. Bangalore to mean outsource, with the usage somethin like 'we bangalore'd our work'.. not sure about the authenticity of the news, but it's sensible nevertheless.. my point here is that the word Bangalore is very well known, but Bengaluru isn't..

one more thing I'd like to quote is a simple usability rule.. of course, the primary intent in designing something usable is to make it as user-friendly as possible.. but suppose you've pushed something not so user friendly to the user and the user finally has become comfortable with it (obviously after going through a steep learning curve), it's preferred that you don't change it.. maybe you think your new idea is really mind-blowing which would revolutionize the way user would use your product and make it hell of a lot easier.. but for the user it's just an added confusion and the frustration of unlearning all that on which he's spent so much time to become comortable with.. if it's so for a mind-blowing idea, I don't think I've to be explicit about changing things for reasons which can't even be justified, leave alone the mind-blowing part which simply isn't there :P

one name that comes to my mind when it comes to renaming is Borland.. one of the few companies I like for the quality of their products.. Borland used to be good (and still is good, but I'm speakin of the past here :D ), until Microsoft came into the arena with it's aggressive marketing strategies which took down Borland's products.. QBASIC taking over Turbo-Pascal, Access and FoxPro taking over dBase and Interbase.. well, after that Borland changed it's name to Inprise in Nov 1997, and many think that was disastrous step to take.. Inprise never really caught up.. so much that they chose to revert to Borland in Jan 2001.. That goes with my branding point.. don't try to change a well known brand name.. the cons are far worser than the pros, which in this case are invisible to me, or at least far beyond my comprehension..

finally, let's take up a hypothetical situation to analyse how'd it be to have Bangalore renamed.. let's take someone who doesn't know abt the rename.. now don't say evryone will be kno abt it, coz that'd leave me without companions :D what'd be his reaction when he hears abt Bengaluru? well, a city that kinda sounds like Bangalore, but just another city nevertheless.. similar to New York and Nu Ark (both of em somewhere in US).. but now even though later he might kno that they're the same, first impressions are harder to be overcome.. I mean it takes a little while to digest the change.. it's not something impossible, but pricey for sure..

so what'd be the advantages of this rename? hmm.. as I said, the people who're planning this rename are simply some superior species whose way of thinking just beats me ;) that's why the reasons seem pretty transparent to me (i.e. invisible or in other words, not existing, if you ask me :D ).. but based on what they say, it has something to do with saving our culture.. hmm.. well how'd a rename save my culture?! wonder who comes up with these brilliant ideas.. I've to accept that I can't understand them.. isn't it simply wonderful that a simple renaming saves your culture?! never in the history of mankind have I heard of such a case.. that's the reason I consider them among the superior species..

saviours of the culture.. hmm.. or is that savages hungry for power? playing just another game in their political life, which if succeeded would mean a few thousand more votes for the heroes who saved our culture..

neways, I feel like puking when I think of these filthy barbarians who lack even the most basic of the manners.. people who never seem to have any other rationale behind their actions apart from saving their position.. saving their positions just to dump another lump of the national wealth to their personal accounts..

DBC - Design by Contract
this one's another idea in Software Engineering.. the basic idea being that any object/routine has to satisfy certain rules at all the times for it to be accepted as working properly.. i.e. you specify the contract for the object/routine which says the conditions just before and after the usage/execution of the object/routine that it must satisfy.. the objects/routines that satisfy the contract ensure that the software does exactly what it's supposed to do.. and in DBC, we start by defining the contract and then we write code to satisfy the contract..

I see some concepts of TDD lurkin in there, only they're a lil better.. in TDD, we start by writing a test that tests the behavour of the object/method once it's in place.. in DBC, we specify the contract which's pretty much the same except that it also ensures the conditions that must prevail before an object comes into existence for the object to satisfy the contract..

I kinda liked the idea.. first impressions are pretty good :) but I'd like a combination of TDD and DBC.. call it whatever ;) but write tests and the contract both and make your code pass them.. of course it's extra effort, but I the quality of the software generated makes it worth the effort..

there are problems that I could see abt this.. say for example, it's not always feasible/easy enough to describe the contract succinctly.. theoretically, one might say that the class/method shouldn't exist if it's purpose can't be defined crisply.. but in practical situations, it's a bit hard to say so :(

but then the same applies even to TDD.. it's not always possible to start off with a good test for the code you're writing.. well, theoretically it's possible, but practically, at times the effort for the test overshoots the effort you put to write the code for you functionality.. but then, that's not the point of TDD right? all these practices that we ('re supposed to) follow are for the code quality and to help us in the long run while modifying the codebase..

neways, the arguments and counter-arguments can always be made.. but I think both are good practices and believe that a combined approach would be far better..

one major problem I see with DBC is that all the material I found has been Eiffel centric :( Eiffel provides certain constructs which make it easy to do DBC.. maybe we can write external tools for other languages.. just like JUnit/NUnit etc.. but I'd prefer a builtin language construct for that.. hope Microsoft guys integrate all these in the next release of C# (a.k.a C# 3.0) :) or maybe we can use the C# attributes to do all these stuff, in a pretty clean way.. but not sure how clean would that be..

follow these links for a nice presentation describing DBC (using Eiffel of course ;) )
http://www.eiffel.com/developers/presentations/
http://www.eiffel.com/developers/presentations/dbc/partone/player.html?slide=
http://www.eiffel.com/developers/presentations/dbc/parttwo/player.html?slide=

a possible SQL injection victim?
check out this page: http://indiavilas.com/indiainfo/pincodes.asp
I suspect this one's vulnerable to SQL injection.. this has some useful info.. lists all the PIN codes in India..
but well, seems very vulnerable.. I dint try to get any 'confidential' stuff out :D in fact I dont even think there's any ;)
but you can get real nasty wit it.. I suspect you could do some stuff like... well, lemme try to be a lil creative..
hmm.. nope.. a lil correction.. I meant destructive >:)
guess you could ask the DB to drop some tables/databases and I expect it to obey you ;)
I'm not giving any ideas, am I?
n btw, I havent checked it in a long time.. maybe they've fixed it by now coz I informed them about my suspicion.. it's been well over 15 days since I informed them.. but well, if they havent fixed it, then I think the site aint worth its life >:)
my only sentiment against getitng nasty is that it has some valuable data and it hurts to think abt destroying it :D couldn't find a better collection of PIN codes elsewhere..

My new Diary :) ...
well, back to blogger after quite a long time :D
a lot to write about, but no time :(

here's my new diary.. it's been over a month since the new year n I'm gettin my diary now :D
(lazy as usual ;) )

liked the art on the cover page.. it's nice, isnt it?

(Photo courtesy: my phone :D )

a thinking machine
found this @ http://turbulence.org/spotlight/thinking/chess.html
a nice chess game.. fun to play..

AIGAMUXA
this's a funny (?! maybe not so much for the victim ;) ) god from Africa.. here I quote the lines from the original site:
"
Man-eating monsters from Africa. Don’t panic too much because their eyes are in the soles of their feet. They can’t see you during a chase. They have to stop and lie on their backs with their feet in the air. So just keep running and zig-zag a lot.
"
taken from: http://www.godchecker.com/gotw/016_halloween_nasties.php

a Chicken Powered Nuclear Bomb ?! ;)
so many elements are recorded in history, for various reasons.. but some of them get into history for weird reasons..
well, the story s abt a nuclear bomb named Blue Peacock, but otherwise known as the Chicken Powered Nuclear Bomb..
apparently, the bomb was a nuclear landmine designed by UK, supposed to be planted at prime locations of Germany during WWII.. but it got it's name because of an interesting proposal made during the design of the bomb.. the designers proposed to have a casing which could house chickens :O and the chicken housing was proposed to keep the internal electronics warm and functioning (using the body heat generated by the chickens!)..

wow! I feel compelled to appreciate the genius behind the idea [LOL]
add to that, this news was revealed to the public on an April 1^st!

checkout the following to read more about this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_powered_nuclear_bomb
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=342#more-342
http://www.joe-ks.com/archives_apr2004/Chicken_Nuclear.htm

damn interesting...
checkout http://www.damninteresting.com/..
true to it's title, I'd say :)

deemed guilty of ignorance..
well, officially I've been suspended from TopCoder since Friday :(
here's the (tragic?) story..

I created my first account in TopCoder abt an year back.. I never took it seriously n dint compete in anythin.. but I registered for a component development competition n then dint submit the solution since the submission required a lot of documentation n UMLs.. n I HATE WRITING DOCUMENTATION :X k.. later on I discovered that not submitting a solution for a registered competition affects ur reliability rating.. hmm..

recently, for no reason at all (or for one I dont remember/kno, as it usually happens :D) I found TopCoder interesting.. somehow I was pretty confident of winning somethin over there.. now, since there was this reliability rating crap, I decide to start off afresh with a new handle..
TCO 2006 has started n there're a lotta component n algorithm competitions goin on.. I'm more interested in component competitions n this week, I choose 3 components for development, n had a fairly concrete idea for their implementation..

Thursday there was an algorithm competition.. I dont like them because ur score depends on how fast u solve the problem n that for me means writin quick but dirty code.. I dont like writin dirty code, so I usually dont participate.. (moreover there's a lot of competition in them :D ) but this time I decided to participate for the first time n I did.. got a pretty decent rating.. somewhere around 1600 - a green.. not bad for a first attempt, I thought..

next morning, I wakeup happily n go online.. GTalk notifies me of a mail from some Ryan FairFax.. I ignore it coz I dunno him.. I go to TopCoder n try logging in.. damn! it says my account is locked! same for my other handle :( now I check my mail n there's one shoutin - Rules Violation - from Ryan Fairfax - Algorithm competitions manager, TopCoder.. The mail says that acording to the TopCoder Terms of Use, I've been banned forever from TopCoder for cheating in the previous day's competition!

now I see their Terms of Use page tryin to find somethin that makes me a cheater.. n there's somethin! basically, having two handles in TopCoder is illegal! wtf?! that's nonsense isn't it? never heard of another place with such a restriction.. usually if a site has such restriction, they enforce this during registration rather than allowing u to regster n crib later (as it happed here).. moreover how am I supposed to even kno that unless I R_eadT_heirF_uc*inM_anual? how the hell can they expect all their users to read thru that stupid lookin, long list?

neways, the mistake is mine n so I requested that guy to reactivate my account telling him that I dint kno abt the rules.. but he finally agrees to reducing my banishent to suspension but not to forgive my first mistake :(
as of now, I'm suspended from TopCoder for 3 months n I'm not allowed to participate in any major tournaments for an year! that's mindless! (or rather mind-blowing - literally ;) )..
but this wasn't the right time nor the right reason to suspend me! if I intend to cheat, I'll cheat, no matter what.. this time I dint even have the slightest idea of cheating.. that's why both my handles were pointing to the same mail id n had same details too! n that's how I was caught :( I'm not (yet) that stupid to try n cheat using two handles with cloned details.. after all, how tough is it to create a fake identity on the net n become a new person altogether? hardly an hour's job..
worst thing is, I had a pretty good design ready for 3 components.. maybe I'd not hav won any, but it'd hav been a great start.. moreover, this week, I'd hav got a day extra than usual to complete the solution! ah! absolutely the wrong time to get banished :(

neways, considering that they giv u real money if u win, maybe the rule's sensible.. but relying on the users to read thru the manual to kno all the rules - that's definitely stupid..

finally that makes me an outlaw for not R_eadingT_heirF_uc*inM_anual :D