Me within Me

Up.. Up... And Awaaaaayyyyy.....

2005-12-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

Took this quiz "Which Superhero are you?" and surprise.. surprise.. ;-)

Your results:

You are Superman

Superman		75%
Iron Man		60%
Supergirl		55%
Green Lantern		50%
Robin		47%
Spider-Man		45%
Catwoman		45%
The Flash		45%
Wonder Woman		40%
Batman		35%
Hulk		30%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

FOSS dot IN

2005-12-13T00:41:00.000-08:00

Isn't it lovely when you are sent by your organization to various conferences and expos. Memories of the IndLinux developers meet are still fresh in my head. Close on its heels is the latest one on Free and Open Source Sofware, in Bangalore, called FOSS.IN.

FOSS.IN was a four day event with techinical lectures, turorials, philosophical talks, talks on open source, Open source and India, X and Open source, Y and Open source, Localization, Birds of a Feather, and so on and so forth... (See here fore schedules)

Day 1

Reached Bangalore at around 8am. After convincing the pesky auto-wala that three guys and a girl with all their luggages will not fit into an auto and asking him to leave us alone, we caught a taxi to our appartment, Diamond district (company sponsored ofcourse ;-)

If you think traffic in Bangalore is bad, then you are mistaken. Its horrible. Let me illustrate, our taxi ``reached'' our appartment by around 9am. Well... actually we were in the opposite side of the road and had to take a U-turn to reach our appartment. And thats what we did. Unfortunately, it took us more than 45mins to do that!!!

While on the road I saw some guy sitting in his car reading a novel... whats wrong with it, u ask? Well, HE WAS IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT!!!

We finally reached our appartment, got freshened up and left for the event. It was almost 12 noon when we reached Bangalore Palace, the place where the conference was held. Actually, it was held in the Palace GROUNDS and the palace itself is not... well, a typical palace. Atleast not like the one I had in mind. Anyway, I was glad to see a lot of familiar faces in the conference.

We split up as we can attend more sessions that way. I attended one on Google and Open Source... Not a very interesting one I should say. A lady was speaking about what Google has done for open source. Most part of her speech was on Google's "Summer of code" project. Next, I turned up for a couple of sessions on Debian by Jalder Vyas. A fair, Indian-looking guy with a western accent. I saw him at the IndLinux stall before the session and thought he must be a malayalee. I dunno why but that was my first guess. May be it was his short pony tail or the ''pattai'' in his fore-head. Anyway, I was wrong. He is a Gujrati, a hindu priest by profession, a big techie and a Debian Linux freak (aren't all Debian users freaks?)

After the conference we went for some bowling @ Amoeba in that famous road of B'lore and munched some burgers before that. Later, we had dinner at a resturant which had Amitabachan film posters all over it and a dummy Well (yes the one you take water from) dead center of the restaurant, all in the name of ``ambience''.

Reached the appartment late and the four of us decided to paly some cards. This went on till about 1am the next day before we decided to crash in to our beds.

Day 2

The most productive day. Attended a couple of sessions by Rasmous Lerdorf (hope I got that right!) of Yahoo!. He is the creator of the PHP scripting language. Both his sessions were really very good, though he was unable to best present his first lecture due to lack of a network connection in a presentation that dearly needs Internet.

The day drifted with some window shopping at Forums and munching burgers (again!) at McDonald's. The night was again dedicated to cards... only now it was almost 2 am before we called it quits.

Day 3

Spent most of the time at IndLinux stall giving a demo or working on the Google quiz.. oops.. I almost forgot. The people at Google gave us a puzzle paper and the winner will get a iPod nano among other prizes. I got the form on the first day and was doing it in parts whenever I found the time. But today was the last day and I had one big problem outta 5 that I was tuck with... after a breaking my head and finally asking the help of my frens (who had already solved it, somehow), I still couldn;t finish it. Whathaheck... I just submitted it.

Attended a few sessiosn.. nothing interesting for moi. The best part of the day however was the Fedora BoF (Birds of a Feather). The great Alan Cox, one of the lead developers of the Linux Kernel and currently working in Redhat, was there. And some of the people I already knew from Redhat India were also there. Had a good discussion with the group and got my self snapped with the big guy himself!!! (@karunakar: Where is my photo???)

Our next stop was Leela palace. It was a seven star hotel but still had a very bad traffic system inside it!!! Sheez. We went for some bowling and pool at Amoeba inside it. After the game (I had a horrible one) we left for dinner (to another palace... what is with these Bangaloreans... everything is a Palace!)

A friend our ours joined us. Her car was parked inside the hotel's parking lot, which by the way is huge.. something like that of Spencers. But unlike Spencers where to exit you bring the car form the top floor to the ground floor, here it is the other way around. As I had said, the traffic was horrible even within the hotel's parking lot. Cars were inching slowly and that too in many palces with a inclination. Now the fun (really funny!) part!

Our car broke down. There were many cars before us in the narrow one-vehicle lane of the parking lot and lotsa cars behind us. And... and... the road was inclined upwards!!! We let our friend be in the wheel and pushed this battered Maruti 800 against the inclined road. After some effor and realising that it is a long way to go before we can find any flat surface, we called for help. One of the driver from the cars behind us offered some help. Still we had to push the car but the cars behind us were asked to wait. Once we covered enuf distance , we let go of the car as it rolled back the driver tried to start the car. After a few tries and exhausting pushes the car roared and left Leela Palace

Had dinner at another palace... went to the appartment... played cards... crashed.

Day 4

Attended a sesion of Indic tools and Javascript IME, something that is used by the application build be me and Vignesh. We had taken that tool, customised it heavily and used it in our translation tool. Another session was from a guy from Germany, who was telling how to hack a Motorola mobile with Linux on it.

We left a little early... did not attend the Rock show that was going to be held. Packed our stuff and left for the good, ole H.Y and D.

G S 2 - 4 7

2005-11-16T00:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to post this long back but I was unable to do so coz of lack of the t-factor. Just thought that if am gonna post it, then it is either now or never.

Warning : If Mathematics makes you puke the this post is NOT for you!

What is GS2-47?

Well, it is a special number, mathematically and otherwise.

2 4 7

2 + 4 + 7 = 13.
13 is a very special number as it is sum of squares of two consecutive numbers, 2 and 3.
13 = 2² + 3²

And I have derived tens of other mathematical combinations for 2,4,7 and G,S,2,4,7. But I think I will spare the readers and list only a few here in me blog.

247 stands for hard work and dedication. Why?
247 => 24 x 7 => Twenty-four hours a day and seven days a week. It is a representation of work that is not time-bound, work that is dedicated and free of distractions.

In the list of alphabets in English, A...Z, the middle alphabet is 'M', in the 13th place.

The alphabets 'G' and 'S' are equi-distant from the central alphabet 'M'.
13 - 6 = 7. The alphabet at 7^th position is 'G'
13 + 6 = 19. The alphabet at 19^th position is 'S'

2² + 4² + 7² = 69 ;-)
Yes folks, it is 69 the symbol of Khader, the "69er". It is there in my blog (khader69.blogspot.com), my email (khader69@...) and a whole array of stuffs. It is after all the gift of my birth, it is my Zodiac symbol. Confused?

This 69er is a Cancerian, born under the moon sign, which has a symbol that resembles a tilted "69".

Now for the best one...

The number 247 (Two hundred and forty seven) is the product of sum of its individual digits and the sum of the mirror reflection on the last digit of its individual digits.

Wanna break your head? Jus hold on a second. This is what it means,

247 = (2 + 4 + 7) * (2 + 4 + 7 + 4 + 2)

Voilà... Damn I love maths!

Now you may ask, "why 247 or GS247 or whatever crap?".

Well, when I first joined my office at Hyderabad, I was allocated a cubicle but was told that it wud take a few days for me to get a comp. In the mean time I thought I wud sharpen my skills and started reading some books on Linux and stuff. But it wasn't intellectually challenging especially since I did not have a Linux box to try the stuffs I kept learning. So I started doing some excercise to keep both sides of my brain active. This was one.

My cubicle number was GS2-47. Ground floor, South petal, 2nd block, cubicle 47.

I always had this tendency to play around with numbers, trying to compute, in split second, the recursive sum of the numbers in number plates of different vehicles while travelling. My inspiration was the great Ramanujam himself. I once read in a book that Ramanujam disputed with some one who said that 13 was not a ``good'' number. He argued that 13 was a rather a peculiar number which was the sum of two consecutive numbers 2 and 3!

As my tribute the this great man my number-play with 2,4,7 begins with what inspired me when I was just a school-goer. 13 = 2² + 3²

Life is full of changes. A few weeks back I lost GS2-47. Not the number and its special nature but just the cubicle. I got a new cubicle, a new number GS2-44.

Hmm... 2-4-4 recursively add to numnero uno! wow!!! (here I go again!)

What Me Likes

2005-10-23T23:54:00.000-07:00

Inspired by the 'back-bencher-for-life', a4avaiz, I thought I wud let everyone have a sneek-peek in to moi favorite activities.

So here are my top 10 favorite activitiezzzzz.... (in no particular order)

1. Go out with friends... movies, bowling, pool, or simply drive around and/or hang out...
2. Have fun and make others laugh out loud
3. Put a smile on my parents face :-)
4. Eat out with frens... birthday parties, new year parties, long-time-no-see parties, etc.
5. Shop for some nice clothes.
6. Read a mystery novel... in solitude
7. Solve some puzzles. Damn. Its been eons since I did that. Now don't remind me of So-Do-Ku. Its monotonous and at times boring.
8. Watch horror movies and sit-coms (both make me laugh)
9. I love to learn a lot of things... but its just that I have a lazy ass. But still I enjoy the thrill of doing something new.
10. Experience nature at its best.

Google's Next Center!

2005-09-29T05:42:00.000-07:00

Google is hiring people crazy!!!

Not suprised! Then you have company.

Google has plans to build a massive center in the very near future. Based on a working model constructed by Google co-founder Larry Page from Lego® Mindstorms™, the facility features compact living quarters and a state of the art server farm that are co-mingled to maintain a delicate bio-technical balance. The design and location itself would represent Google's reach in the search engine industry.

The complex will house 35 engineers, 27,000 low cost web servers, 2 massage therapists and a sushi chef formerly employed by the pop group Hanson.

Google says "This center will provide a unique platform from which Google will leapfrog current terrestrial-based technologies and bring information access to new heights of utility."

The Google Copernicus Hosting Environment and Experiment in Search Engineering (G.C.H.E.E.S.E.) is a fully integrated research, development and technology facility at which Google will be conducting experiments in entropized information filtering, high-density high-delivery hosting (HiDeHiDeHo).

Inside sources reveal "Once the facility is built, the real work begins. Google will be exploring a number of exciting research projects that have the potential to advance search science to a new frontier."

The good news for all of us is that Google Copernicus Center is hiring! and they are hiring crazy. So you may very well be the next person that Google has ``found''.

Now for those of you who are wondering as to where this new center is and how should I apply for it here are the details.

Regarding the location, all I can say it is not a strange location. I'm sure you must have already seen the place atleast once. No... it is not our very own India but some place we were transported as a little kid while having "nelachoru" every night. If you still have not guessed it then you are not fit to work in Google's new center in the Moon! Thats right 'The Moon'.

Google says it is interviewing candidates for engineering positions at its lunar hosting and research center, opening late in the spring of 2007. It later added that this unique opportunity is available only to highly-qualified individuals who are willing to relocate for an extended period of time, are in top physical condition and are capable of surviving with limited access to such modern conveniences as soy low-fat lattes, The Sopranos and a steady supply of oxygen.

With the establishment of the Copernicus Center, Google's mission has grown beyond "organizing the world's information and making it universally accessible and useful." Google says its new goal is to "organize all the useful information in the universe and serve it to you on a lightly salted cracker." Isin't that wonderful news for us Earthlings.

With this step we can clearly say that "Google has gone where no search engine has gone before". We wish Google the very best of luck.

FULL STORY

A year that was

2005-09-27T06:31:00.000-07:00

This day, last year was my first day at office.

It was a wonderful experience to know and feel that a part of you has grown up, that you are no more a ``KiD'', that you carry responsibilities now and that you have entered the next stage of life.

The journey till date has been amazing! The two-month training at Trivandrum is definitely a highlight. Had loads of fun there... every body did. Nicknamed "paid-vacation", some called it a "paid-honeymoon", the training was more like college than corporate. If songs, dances, mid-night birthday bashes dominated the weekday programme, it was vacation time every weekend. Munnar, kovalam, Kanya Kumari (Cape Comarin) are some of the places we have been to. Classes and tutorials were more often "who is gonna sing next" sessions. The excitement of a first job was written in every face I saw and in every mirror I saw.

It was followed by a dream project with an amazing scope to learn and grow. What more can a fresher ask for? Office was not as fun-filled as during the training but I still enjoyed it. With many hurdles in the path and equal number of people to lend me a helping hand I knew I can only move up! My biggest achievement was when I gave a presentation to the CEO of my organization.

With one year passing by, I stand reflecting the many memories I have had. Some unforgettable, some otherwise but all equally enlighting.

Thank you God for everything you have given. Thank you for everything.

Mumbai Xpress to Baba

2005-09-18T22:16:00.000-07:00

Warning : This is not a movie review nor does it have anything to so with cine actors!

For those who are not aware, my work for the past ten months is on Indian Language Computing. We (moi team) develop tools to facilitate computing in Indic languages with primary focus on Telugu. There are many such teams all over the world that are working to provide computing support for their language and all are bound by the common passion... Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS).

Indic Developers Meet
A meet of the FLOSS developers from India was held at the Homi Baba Center for Scientific Education (HBCSE), Mumbai from the 12th to 15th September. A couple of my team mates and I were scheduled to attend the conference to share our experience and learn from the experiences of others.

The Journey
My organization was sponsoring our travel expenses and so gave us our train tickets for the journey. We were scheduled to leave Hyderabad on Sunday 11th afternoon to reach Mumbai the next day. But things did not go as it was planned. To cut the long story short, let me just say there was a lot of miscommunication and as a result we missed our train to Mumbai. This despite the fact that we reached the railway station more than an hour before the time of departure! But what's the point being early if the train is not gonna stop in that station!!!

We later managed to get a partial refund of our tickets and booked a "Volvo Semi-sleeper A/C" bus to Mumbai leaving that evening. It's not the same as a A/C Sleeper in a Train but we did not complain too much... well not until we saw our seats!

While booking our tickets the agent listed all the features of the bus... "Its Volvo saar... semi-sleeper with A/C saar... this is the bus saar (pointing to a picture of the bus; like we give a damn of how it looks from the outside)". But at the end he added something like a fine print "Its the last row saar". Hey, as long as the bus has all the features you (the agent) say it has then last row will not be an issue, we felt. It was only when we saw our seats we realized that we were cheated. It was a Volvo-Semi-sleeper-A/C bus alright, all of it but for our seats. The seats lacked almost everything that the others had, no leg rest, very little push back and little leg space. On picking up an argument with the agent, we were told that it is "common knowledge" that last row seats are always like so. When things looked like it will not calm down he offered a Rs.50 refund per ticket and we felt we have had enough for one day and called things off.

The Meet
The 4-day meet saw a confluence of minds. People from Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Oriya, Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi and Telugu (represented by my team) localization teams were there. There was also a team for Nepal representing Nepali language. The entire group was a mixture of students (one or two), free software enthusiasts and professionals from TCS, IBM, Redhat, Novell, CDAC, HBCSE, Sarai-IndLinux and so on.

Full-size with names

I think I will skip the technical details in this blog but I must say it was a wonderful experience to share knowledge with some ``freaks''. The only sad point was that the meet extended well past 8pm every day and since we were quite far from the central Mumbai, we did not get an opportunity to go for ''site-seeing''. Still we managed to go out one day, about seven of us went to a restaurant-cum-bar close by and while everyone had beer I settled for a Sprite!
Hey.. Free Software is more about philosophy and so is my abstinence, I argued.

I must definitely compliment the facilities at HBCSE. Good accommodation, great food and wonderful facilities made us feel at home. We concluded the meet with a roadmap for the future.

It was time to say good-bye and after all the formalities we made sure we were at the right place (read railway station) at the right time.

Mumbai Trains
I have heard before about the sub-urban trains in Mumbai but seeing is believing, trust me. I boarded a sub-urban train form HBCSE to Mumbai Coastal. The train was packed but nothing new for a guy who has been in tighter spots (read Chennai city busses). It was only when the train stopped at one of its major stop that warning about these trains flashed before me. People around me warned that the crowds would literally carry you in or our of the train and that's what happened. When the train was about to stop (but still moving though) one could hear screams of tens of people. The screams grew louder as the trains speed dropped slowly like a omen foretelling what is to come. And all of a sudden the entire crowd started moving out of the train like water exiting fire-man's hose. They had to. The train stopped only for a few seconds and more than half of the train's passengers had to exit. I was happy that this was not my stop; it would have been very difficult especially with all the luggage.

Home Sweet Home
Though I miss Mumbai a lot, I am happy to be back in Hyderabad. A lot of work that was started or discussed in the meet now must be completed. With renewed enthusiasm I begin my work here.. but not before writing me blog ;-)

My Date with the CEO !

2005-09-04T21:26:00.000-07:00

It was by far one of the biggest achievements for me in my short career so far. On Saturday 3rd September 2005, I had the opportunity and the privilege to meet the people in the top most rung of the corporate ladder.

When I got the news that the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of my organization, Tata Consultancy Services, Mr. S. Ramadorai was going to visit my office and my department (Advanced Technology Center, ATC) in particular, I was very excited. My team was informed by my PL that our project has 30 minutes with the CEO and we should make the best use of it. A CEO does not go around checking on every project in his company, especially if its as big as mine. So naturally we were upbeat.

A couple of days after the news was delivered, I called for a team meet and discussed the plans with my team. I did not want to assume anything for the big day, I wanted clarifications from my project seniors about all aspects of the presentation that we were planning for Mr. Ramadorai.

We started our work the next day, preparing a complete PC to showcase our work in Indian Language Computing (my project). While we were working on that, we also had a discussion with our PL. That was when the important question came up, "Who is going to take the presentation?" I volunteered immediately; I was confident of doing it and the pressure did not affect me too much, well, at least not at that time anyway!

With that I started my preparation for the presentation cum demo. Starting a few days before the big day, I was giving a demo-presentation every day to everyone from a senior associate at ATC, my PL to the Executive Vice President, who heads my department ATC.

My preparation was in full gear, they also gave me a laptop (I will have to return it today :-( ) to prepare for the presentation. I had already given about two informal and one semi-formal demo-presentation before the big day, all this only increased my confidence level.

D-Day
Reached office early... well my PL was already there before me but 8.20am read early in my watch. While exchanging greetings and pleasantries with him, he told me that I will have to give another presentation before the actual one. This time it was to an Executive Vice President for Bombay who will be with the CEO.

I asked my team mate to start up the laptop and set it up, and while he was doing that I thought I might practice my presentation one last time but this time all alone. So I went into the men's room, stood in front of the giant mirror and began my speech a la "Mudalvan" (the movie) style.

The presentation with the EVP from Bombay stretched for a longish duration. Mostly because he was examing every inch of it and assessing every possible business potential in it. When that was over my PL and the whole team just relaxed ourselves with some coffee and a bit of humor.

The time I begin my presentation, 12 noon, was fast approaching. Only then I realized I had not had a proper break-fast. The trouble with me is that when I become hungry my ears get blocked and it would be really irritating for me, especially if I want to listen or speak to some one else. I had only 15 minutes left, ran hurriedly to the nearest snack bar only to find nothing was available, not even biscuits. Settled for a cup of coffee, which did not solve anything; but something was better than nothing.

The Presentation

Inside, the conference room was not very big. I was big enough to seat a dozen people (a lot more if the expensive furniture are removed). It had a huge V-shaped table with a screen a few feet from the edge of the "V". After setting up laptop, we were ready to go. My PL started off first with a short "Impress" (Powerpoint) presentation. His whole 10-minute presentation was split equally into two parts one before my demo-presentation and the other after. He completed the first part and enter Khader Abbeb.

The audience, apart from a three of my team members, consisted of the CEO and MD, Mr. Ramadorai and seven Executive Vice Presidents!!! Whew... This is the top-most, decision making and highly powerful people in TCS.

My presentation went great... It was fabul-o-awesome. During most of the presentation, I was looking directly at the CEO. All I can say is he is a careful listener. There were a few questions from the EVPs present and the whole presentation was quite interactive.

The whole presentation (my PL's and mine) finished on time. Checked my watch which showed the smaller hand past 12 and the longer one exactly vertical and pointing downwards. These guys value every minute and we did not want to piss them off.

From the body language of the audience, I can emphatically say that they were very impressed. And surely they were, as most of the EVPs came up to my team and said that the presentation was really good. One of the EVPs actually came to me and said "Your presentation was really good". I replied with a warm "Thank you, sir" and a smile but inside I was jumping around and pumping fists much like Brett Lee... "Yes, Yes, Yes!!!"

Coming out the conference room, team members and my PL said that my presentation was perfect and had a good flow. My PL then invited the whole team for lunch and we left office, all 6 of us including my PL, cramped into a small car to taste some special Hyderbadi Biriyani.

I was still tasting something else... "Yes, Yes, Yes!!!"

T-I-M-E O-U-T

2005-08-27T02:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry folks for not updating but have been very busy and will be so for atleast another week. But there is some great news at the end of that and will let u guys know abt that pretty soon. Hope it turns out great as I hope it to be....

So I am taking a time out now, gtg

Chennai Damaka

2005-07-27T00:21:00.000-07:00

It was an eventful week last week. I made a long trip to Chennai with a tightly packed schedule and had a lot of things in mind.... getting my Letter of Recommendation from my College professors and Transcripts from my University, meet family and frens, movies... to name a few. But smack down in the middle (literally) of my vacation was the main purpose of my trip, mein Geburtstag ("my Birthday" for the uninitiated).

17th July Sunday : The vacation has jus started and I happy to meet some of my frens after quite some time. I also had to forcefully pull out some of them from their (MBA) classes and went straight for a movie, only to be bombed. "Sorry sir, no tickets" was what we got.
Big deal!, we thought, now we have some thing better to do, Foosball ! ! !. We drove straight to the our favorite (and only) Foosball hang out Du Bowl, only to be bombed once again "No Foosball sir, its not working". Having had enough of this we jus left for Cafe Coffee Day (formerly 'The' hang out place, but now it's losing its sheen). After some chit chat and some bird watching we headed to play some Pool at Pot Shot. The evening was brought to a close with the *famous* sandwich-around-the-corner.

18th July Monday : Spent most of the day at Madras University (it took more than 2 freaking hours to get a single D.D.). And after running helter-skelter from one block to the other I was finally able to submit my application for Transcripts. Phew!!! Talk about things being unorderly, talk about Madras University!

19th July Tuesday : Bought my mom a nice pair of earring and a saree. Did a little shopping for myself.

20th July Wednesday : My Birthday! - spent the day with family... with special breakfast, even more special lunch and I-had-enough-specials dinner. The day went by talking to and mailing frens, reading their wishes and spending quality time with meine Familie apart from a little shopping again. A Saturday night party with frens was also planned.

21st July Thursday : Nostalgia! Back to college. Spent the better part of the day there getting my recos, meeting professors and having a snack at the ole bunker..err... canteen! Nothing's changed here so I headed back home.

22nd July Friday : Met a lot of relatives, grandpa, grandma, aunty, uncle, cousin... etc... etc... After all that I needed some time to chill. It then dawned on me that one important intent of my visit was still unfinished! So I decided to call some of my frens and headed for Satyam theaters.... the movie - Anniyan.

It was nostalgia again... this time the fun of watching a movie with Avaiz (aka wtfdude). I almost forgot how he used to scream and joke during most of the movies I have seen with him, I clearly recall his antics during Matrix Revolution and it was fun. Every thing came back again when he started screaming ANNYIAAANNNNN now and then and I cudn't help but laugh. Of course I can't blame him, I made him watch a movie that he has already seen umpteen times!

23rd July Saturday : Another day another movie. This time it was the movie "Sarkar" with Ajay and Deepak (aka Alpha) at Mayajaal where I also met a very close school buddy of mine, Idhris. The movie was really good as wtfdude had said in his blog. It was really fast paced and deviating from the usual Indian masala movie it did not have any song-and-dance sequence. Another point is that unlike the usual movie plot where the first half is jus laying the foundation of the story and the second half is all drama, in "Sarkar" felt I like it did not have any typical first half. It was all action and drama right from the word go.

Next was party time.... at Mainland China. It was great to have a mini get-together of frens. It's been a long time overdue. Although I missed "Hog-king" Shafi, I was glad to see Zuber after a long time. And of course the long time contender for the "Hog-King" title, Avaiz was more than happy to fill Shafi's shoes. As the lone vegetarian in the group Deepak had some troubles. His "Veg-XYZ-ABC Noodles" was untouched by others, so was his vegetarian side dish which Ajay described to be a vegetable salad only a little wet! I tried it and concurred with Ajay. Tariq still dressed in formals (effects of Great Lakes institute) had his eyes riveted on the birds in the neighboring tables. As they say 'A bird in the bush is better than none in hand'. Jus kiddin Tariq ;-)

After a filling dinner I was surprised by the guys when they brought to the table a birthday sparkler and a cake! But there was another surprise awaiting me and it was truly the icing on the cake....literally. And the icing was me! This is when Avaiz shoved my face into the beautiful cake while I blew the candle. To add sweeteners over the icing, Ajay took eons to take a snap with the whole population at the restaurant laughing and gigling at yours truly!

I crashed into my bed well past midnight and by the next day my vacation will officially be over.

24th July Sunday : Relaxed for some time with the help of my idiot box and started packing off to the wet and windy H.Y.D. On the train there was this newly wed couple sitting straight opposite to me. I concluded them to be newly web based on inference of their behavior and nothing else. Dam... more often that not I jus wanted to shout at them "Get a room!!!" I tried to focus on the book I had and not be distracted but people shud know what is acceptable by the Indian public and more importantly what's not!

Anyway I am back to my office after a long break and got some new things on my hand right away. Catch u guys soon!

Whats been happening?

2005-07-03T23:24:00.000-07:00

Long long ago... well that's the time between my last post and this one.

Whats has happened so far? Is there not anything happening thats Blog worthy?
Lots actually. A lot of things have been happening like FSF-IIIT, new project(module), YOGA, Wind River, Study, MS, Univ selection, research, research, research... Needless to say that the last few items here took most of my time.

Free as in...

Lemme start the proceedings with Free Software Foundation(FSF) meet at IIIT, Hyderabad.

There was this two-day FSF meet at IIIT. Three of my project mates who are alumina of IIIT were involved in organizing it apart from giving a presentation during the event.

We have all attended some meet or symposiums or sumthing of that sort during our college days. But we were students then. Here I was in a meet with an overwhelming majority of students and I was "a guy form the industry". hehehe

It was different (slightly funny too) when I was introduced to some of the other "industry people", I can see all the eyes in the crowd shifting its focus. Mind u these industry people are not fresh bloods like me. I was interacting with bigshots for the Geological Society of India, Life Insurance Corporation India, Professors for top univs and the likes. (And I wasn't even dressed for the occasion!!! I wore a dress that was more casual than a college dude! Hey after all it is FREE Software workshop ;-) )

The event itself was very successful. Was interacting with the students and everyone is very impressed. They should be after a stupendous presentation from my colleagues. I am not saying this jus coz they are my frens but it is the fact. Their presentation was undoubtedly the best part of the two day event.

Deja vu. OD or On Duty. Something we all wanted when we bunked classes in College on the pretext of doing some world-saving-work.

I was given OD for attending this event ;-)

It was a break from the mundane office routine. I badly needed it.

Time for another break

Buoyed by my new found energy (I realized I felt better whenever I missed office on week days... dunno why...hmm...), I already needed more. And things couldn't have been better.
1. An invitation to my PL attend a product launch by Wind River Technologies
2. My PL asks his team members to go.
3. Wind River are in to Embedded Systems (I like that) and their product is over VxWorks and Linux (I love that)
4. A break from office with a definite OD ;-)
5. Lastly, the product launch was at a 5-star hotel. It included Lunch (Hurray!!! .. decent food after a long..long..time. Ppl eating canteen food EVERY DAY wud know)
Mind u reason 5 was NOT the reason I went there but it was a nice addition ;-)

Again, in less than a week, I am an "industry guy" meeting other "industry people". My company brand attracted a few people (who are marketing this product). I was a neophyte trying to talk like a pro and did a good job at that. (Dam... I lost a few points when I did not have my own visiting card... but there will be other meets, I felt).

Its All in Your Head

Back to Office work. I wanted to add a post here some time back abt the work module I was allocated. Its not that it is a better-than-building-Mars Rover type of work but it is something I had told my peers a few months back that I will not be able do it as it a bit complex involving a language (NOT programming lang) that I did not know. And I started working on a different module.

Some of my frens (Deepak aka Alpha) advised me that it will not be all that difficult once I got that prejudice off my mind. This thought has always lingered in my my mind and I wanted to tell the guys that I will give it a shot if they need me.

One day without me asking, I was asked if I can take it up again. I immediately replied in affirmative.

Ok, so whats the big deal about that you ask?

Well this work that I was scared of initially was so easy that I finished the first half (my major work) of it in TWO days!!! Come to think of it, now I can't justify why I refused to take it up on the earlier occasion.

I now realised in any task that we do the biggest obstacles are those created by the mind. Once u overcome those its pretty much smooth sailing from there on.

Yo! ga sa nam

Did u know that Kapalabathra improves your concentration, invigorates your brain, stimulates brain activity?

Did u know that Sarvangasana helps ur digestive organs - ur pancreas, stomach and intestine?

Did u know that Ustrasana helps ur vertebral column and strengthens your lower back?

Did u know that I have been attending Yoga classes for the past one month but still can't sit in Savasana (a supposedly relaxed posture)?

Did u know that I am flummoxed when my instructor starts speaking purely in terms of Asanas and for most of it I don't know one Asana from another?

Phew!

But alas all is not lost, there is hope for guys like me. I have learnt a lot in this one month. I have jus started to discover the wonderful practice of Yoga! And already I can feel the effects of it in my body.

If only I can kick my lazy ass to practice it every morning it would have been even better!

Time Eater

@Avaiz: Yeah dude I shud have updated my blog but the thing called univ selection is a lot time consuming that I thought.

The more clearer I get on the course I wanna take the more univs I have got to throw off my list and go look out for new ones! I have to finalize the list before approching for my recos in a couple of weeks. And yes I would be dropping by at Chennai pretty soon.

Got some plans to watch Chandramuki, Anniyan, etc... My (tamil) frens and roommate here have seen the Telugu dubbed version of Anniyan, "Apparichidu" twice. But I am adamant to watch it in Tamil. Hope I can get some time shuttling between college and Madras univ for my apps.

Catch ya soon

[EDIT] Happy Birthday America. Hope to c ya soon [/EDIT]

Forwards DO pay!

2005-06-20T03:16:00.000-07:00


This post was removed on readers request.


-Khader

My OS, my personality!

2005-06-06T22:42:00.000-07:00

Hmm.....

I have used only two major OS so far. Like many I started out with Windows which came bundled with my PC. Windows is simple and easy. Simple because you can't do a lot with it and easy because you can't do a lot with it. As a beginner I never realised that and was happy and content within the world of Windows.

But things were not always rosy. The more you use Windows the more unorganised your PC becomes. Not to mention the loads of viruses and spyware that are ``part and parcel'' of Windows and ofcourse the one that takes the cake the Blue Screen of Death.

About a year ago (jus after college) I saw light and it was wearing a Redhat. I moved to Redhat Linux. I started with RHEL at home and at work I use a Redhat 9. Needless to say my experience with them were amazing!!!

Linux is no walk-in-the-park OS atleast for a NooB. But the pain is the pleasure and the pleasure is in the pain. Linux swept me off my feet and is my favorite OS till date. Apart for Redhat I have tried Mandrake (now Mandrivia). Its very user friendly and my recommend for any noob.

Coming to main crux of this post, I just happened to take a quiz in BBSpot. Its was titled "Which OS are you?"

Don't misinterpret this to be any kind of *techie* quiz. It focuses only on your personality and gives an OS that best suits yours.

The questions were a mixed bag. Some of them went like this.


When going to a party I usually wear?
   Au naturél
   Jeans and a t-shirt
   Member's only jacket and my Adidas
   Black tie, tails
   Bling-bling!

If you were a villain who would you be?
   Ming the Merciless
   Darth Vader
   Khan!
   Charles Manson
   Mojo Jojo

Anyway I answered all these and a few more questions to know what OS suits my presona.

And the award goes to... (drum rolls)...

I was always keen on using a Mac but cudn't get my hands on one. May be the time has come for me to
"...go on be a Tiger"

Star Wars III

2005-05-30T04:04:00.000-07:00

When I went to watch the 3rd prequel of Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith, I did not go with too many expectations. The reviews of the first two prequels were mediocre and all that was expected from this last edition was loads of graphics and special effects.... and I was not disappointed on that account.

I got to admit, I am a Star Wars virgin!!! Never seen any of them. But I did not go for the 'Revenge...' totally ignorant. I had read about the series (very briefly, if i mite add) and had an overall idea of the complete story. But still never seen the action on the big screen.

Though my expectations weren't sky high, I was looking forward to it. And then it all started.

"Aaarrrgggg.... OH MY GOD!... What the heck is this...." These were my reactions on the first 15 or so minutes of the movie. It was simply 'cartoonish'. Another friend of mine, also a first timer, called it a video-game!

Thats what it was, the good guys swing their lazor beams and the droids fall apart with absolutely no resistanace or struggle whatsoever. It was far too simple. It was pathetic!

With almost nothing to loose or gain I sat in the comfort of my seat to watch the remaining of the movie. The story moved rather well after the rescue operation of Chancellor Palpatine (that took place in the first 15 min of de movie), there weren't too many *action scenes* but nevertheless I started feeling like watching an actual movie. Slowly but steadily the movie gathered steam and was for the first time "interesting".

The film is filled with special effects and amazing graphics. This was very much expected form the movie and the viewers were not disappointed. Inspite of the modern tecniques (probably) used the film retained its classic touch on screen which was really.... classy! The prelude given at the start of the movie and the background music was nostalgic.

By the latter half of the movie I was glued to my seat, the plot thickened, the character's resolve strengthened, the essence of this episode was coming alive.... Anakin's premonition of the death of his love, his mental struggle between the good and evil, his final transition into the dark side in order to save his love, his battle with the Jedi council, his losing the battle with his master Kenobi and finally his rebirth from the "ashes". The birth of Darth Vader.

The climax of the movie was well scripted and choreographed excellently. The movie in the end was a treat to watch. Like the rebirth of Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, I was transformed for a critic to a fan by the movie. Now all I wanna do is rent out the other episodes of the movie and watch them back to back. I am sure it will be worth it.

May the force be with you.

Discover me... Discover me Blog!

2005-05-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

Today, I *pen* my first blog.

According to Astrology, this is a year of introspection for me. hmm.. Well, so far from the look of it, I guess the prediction is spot on. All through this year I have thought about one aspect of my life more than any other, My Career!

If it was only that simple I could have made a decision months ago. The fact that the path I vote for today will dictate, altleast in the foreseeable future, my career hugelu increases its importance. After see-sawing with my choices and weighing the pros and cons, I had finally decided a few weeks back on my path. Phew! what a relief. But the task is only half done. Now I have to ready myself for the tough path I had opted for and hopefully will be a victor at the beginning of my new venture.