Entries Tagged 'Random Thoughts' ↓

Now that we have been growing crazy about how the Sri Lanka players denied Sehwag his century, comes a pretty incisive analysis by the Yahoo! India editorial team on how the scorers and umpires actually screwed up.

Here is what happened, pure and simple: Randiv bowled. The umpire called ‘no-ball’. There is a reason the umpire calls it as soon as a bowler bowls one – it is to let the batsman know that there are no real penalties attached to having a go. A batsman, on hearing that call, knows he can have a swing without running the risk of being bowled, caught, declared LBW.

So Randiv bowled. The umpire called. Sehwag had a swing, and despatched the ball over the ropes.

That logically is seven runs added to the total – one to the team total as an extra, the other six to Sehwag, the batsman who was quick to seize on the opportunity. Simple.

This is where the idiocy of umpires and the ambiguity of the rule book come in: How could the game be over as soon as Randiv over-stepped? A ball, to be deemed bowled, has to be delivered; the batsman has to play/miss it; in the case of the former the ball has to be retrieved while the batsman runs, or not…there is no provision in cricket for declaring a result, and ending a match, at some intermediate stage of this process.

Thus, for umpires to declare that the game was over as soon as Randiv overstepped is plain folly. To understand this, consider a hypothetical situation: Randiv bowls. It is a no-ball. Sehwag decides the game is over, lets the ball go and walks off. Sangakkara collects and whips off the bails.

Is the batsman out? Of course he is. The extra run cannot be counted until the ball in question is officially dead; in our example Sehwag left his crease while the ball was in play, therefore he is out.

So, if his dismissal off a no ball counts, why were the runs he scored off that no ball not counted to his name?

via Fit to Post: Yahoo! India News » Blog Archive Sehwag Did Get His Century! «.

From: Yahoo! News at http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100811/od_yblog_upshot/behold-americas-educational-system-captured-in-a-single-photograph

I was searching for some nice free (could be free as in beer or free as in freedom) fonts for my Ubuntu system.

Found a nice set of articles at: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/typography/ and they pointed me to the awesome “The League of Moveable Type”

But been busy with some stuff.

The impetus to post this came from this posting “Indic transliteration on computers – brief history and now” on Shashikant Joshi’s blog – Practical Sanskrit. Its an interesting account of the old days of Indic transliteration – ITrans was my first introduction to Indic on computers. Thanks, Shashi

Interesting ad that I saw while browsing Slashdot. I just couldn’t resist juxtaposing the about window of my browser here (needless to say, I am running Firefox 3) :

I found this column on livemint.com to be pretty interesting, especially for its biblical references alluded to in a poetic manner.

The article is essentially about the extremely premature Nobel Prize that the current POTUS has been selected for. The article makes for a good read.

The Magi of Oslo nodded and said Barack, he be the One. God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good

via The Oracle from Oslo – Columns – livemint.com.

Oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two normally contradictory terms.

One I came across today was “approved for rejection”, as in “This Change Request was approved for rejection.”

Approved and Rejected, both in the same breath.

I love the English language

A friend forwarded a scary joke on the ramifications of the proposed “Unique Identification” for all Indian citizens. As as been widely reported, Mr. Nandan Nilekani quit Infosys to head India’s Unique Identification Authority of India, an agency that does not still have a web-presence

This  joke is right out of George Orwell's 1984 and makes for interesting reading as it points out some of the ramifications of an ill-conceived and improperly regulated identification system. I am not against a unique id, rather am for it, but would like that processes about controlling and regulating access to individual’s information be put forth before we even look into the technological issues. Technological problems are solvable, if not now, then with time, but a flawed access policy will haunt us forever …

Operator : “Thank you for calling Pizza Hut . May I have your…”

Customer: “Heloo, Heloo, can I order …”

Operator : “Can I have your multi purpose ID card number first, Sir?”

Customer: “It’s he…, hold on… 889861356102049998-45-54610″

Operator : “OK… You’re… Mr Singh and you’re calling from 17 Jal Vayu. Your home number is 22678893, your office 25076666 and your mobile is 09869798888. Today morning you landed in India at IG International Airport. Welcome back, Sir. Which number are you calling from now Sir?”

Customer: “Home! How did you get all my phone numbers?

Operator : “We are connected to the system, Sir”

Customer: “May I order your Seafood Pizza …”

Operator : “That’s not a good idea, Sir”

Customer: “How come?”

Operator : “According to your medical records, you have high blood pressure and even higher cholesterol level, Sir”

Customer: “What?… What do you recommend then?”

Operator : “Try our Low Fat Pizza. You’ll like it”

Customer: “How do you know for sure?”

Operator : “You borrowed a book entitled “Popular Dishes” from the National Library last week, Sir”

Customer: “OK I give up… Give me three family size ones then, how much will that cost?”

Operator : “That should be enough for your family of 05, Sir. The total is Rs 500.00″

Customer: “Can I pay by Credit card?”

Operator : “I’m afraid you have to pay us cash, Sir. Your credit card is over the limit and you owe your bank Rs 23,000.75 since October last year. That’s not including the late payment charges on your housing loan, Sir …”

Customer: “I guess I have to run to the neighborhood ATM and withdraw some cash before your guy arrives”

Operator : “You can’t, Sir. Based on the records, you’ve reached your daily limit on machine withdrawal today”

Customer: “Never mind just send the pizzas, I’ll have the cash ready. How long is it gonna take anyway?”

Operator : “About 45 minutes, Sir, but if you can’t wait you can always come and collect it on your Nano Car …”

Customer: “What!”

Operator : “According to the details in system ,you own a Nano car …, registration number GZ-05-AB-1107…”

Customer:  “???”

Operator : “Is there anything else, Sir?”

Customer: “Nothing… By the way… Aren’t you giving me that 3 free bottles of cola as advertised?”

Operator : “We normally would, Sir, but based on your records you’re also diabetic … ”

Customer:  “#$$^%&$@$% ^”

Operator : “Better watch your language, Sir … Remember on 15th July 2010 you were convicted of using abusive language on a policeman?”

Customer: [Faints]

Here, I am reproducing (with minor editorial and typesetting corrections and some hyperlinking), the second (and last) article I wrote circa-1999 while I was working at C-DAC, Bangalore. This was a contribution for an in-house magazine called “Environs”. This was an attempt to resurrect the magazine, but unfortunately that attempt failed and my fledgling hopes as a columnist died soon after. I wrote only two columns, the first one can be found here.

Hi, Folks! So, here I am back again. In the last issue I managed to scrape through my stuff through the hawk eyes of our esteemed E-in-C, simply because the venerable lady was not around. I might not get so lucky this time. But, anyway, a promise is a promise and I have to keep it. So, perforce I have to jot down something. Here goes …

At the outset, we in the Ed. Board of Environs are taken aback at the cold response to the first issue of the re-launched environs. We had hoped for a few bangs but merely heard whimpers, many of which did not even make it to the Ed. Board. Just one entry for the quiz and two for the crossword! Not a single Letter to the Editor criticising our stuff. Are we that perfect? We, as authors thrive on criticism. It tells us more about what we thought we had meant when we had said something! Personally,  I was expecting our readers to holler and flood our mailing system calling on our E-in-C to desist from publishing the musings of someone whose head definitely is not on his shoulders. But, I manage to get away by inflicting myself on you all. Whew, what an escape! But still, I personally want some criticism. It increases my self esteem – I am an arrogant brat (my favourite comic character happens to be Calvin) and makes me feel famous. After all, how many people knew Salman Rushdie before Satanic Verses was banned in India? Art thrives on controversy. No controversy, No Art! So, I beseech you ladies and gentleman to start up a healthy war on what material ought to be published in this journal.

Talking of war, some little time ago, the country was driven by a mass hysteria over Kargil. As India completes 52 years of her independence, we were again brought to the brink of a catastrophic war. But then, all modern wars are catastrophes. Gone are those days when war were fought for chivalry and valour – when two strong men stood face to
face pitting their wits and martial skills with each other. The days when duels were fought for honour are passe. Today’s war is a morass of agonising and screaming humanity.

Why then must we fight? Alas, the answer to that question seems to have eluded us for too long now. Probably, war is a way of letting our age-old hunting instincts rear their heads from beneath the veneer of civilization. For Man has always been a predator. I guess Agent Smith was not too far from the truth in “The Matrix” when he compared the human species with viruses. Ever since Man has inhabited this planet, he has tried to make it better. In the process of bettering it, many a time he has ravaged it and destroyed countless other species. He has trampled on complex and fragile eco-systems and destroyed many of them irreversibly.

Many of our follies are recorded as history, but not as many as should be. Because as most often happens – “History is written by the Victors” and there is a vast difference between who is right and who wins! Many a time we also tend to forget George Santayana – “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”.

But, does war have any benefits? Yeah, it seems to benefit many people – the big defence contractors and the arms dealers. The field of electronics as we know it now might not have existed were it not for the tremendous advances made during the Second World War.  ENIAC might not have been built had the US Army not wanted to calculate firing
tables!  For the period of a war, people of a country unite to make it a nation, gang up to fight a common enemy! War is a grim reminder that there is a common adversary to counter. After all, it seems that it is adversity which brings out the best in us. Also, as Thomas Hardy remarked “My argument is that War makes rattling good history; but Peace is poor reading“.

War also lets us revel in the human self. Though an expression of our baser instincts, it lets the qualities of sacrifice, valour and camaraderie shine through – some of those very qualities which civilize us. It lets mere men become supermen, hardens them to face the trials and tribulations of daily life.

So, though war be a dark cloud, it is not without its silver lining. But, is it necessary to kill and maim thousands, heap agony upon so much of humanity just to detect that silver lining? Many a time will come when Man will have to fight. He will have to fight to keep world order intact and preserve the world for future generations. But, at the same time, one has to remember not to glorify war, but rather look upon it for what it is – a necessary evil to be avoided like
the plague!

To save your world, you asked this man to die;
Would this man, could he see you now, ask why?

– W. H. Auden, “Epitaph for an Unknown Soldier”

On this note, I end these musings. There is lots to say, but the E-in-C is looking over my shoulder and is saying – “Come now, the Full Stop”.

[ The author of this piece prides himself on being a researcher, believing in the saying "To steal from one is plagiarism, to steal from many is research". The views, or rather the "foot in the mouth" is the author's. He specifically disclaims that any of this is C-DAC's view by paraphrasing Brian V. Smith (author of Xfig at LBNL)---I don't speak for C-DAC; they don't pay me enough for that.]

Here, I am reproducing (with minor editorial and typesetting corrections and some hyperlinking), an article I wrote circa-1999 while I was working at C-DAC, Bangalore. This was a contribution for an in-house magazine called “Environs”. This was an attempt to resurrect the magazine, but unfortunately that attempt failed and my fledgling hopes as a columnist died soon after. I wrote only two columns, the second one can be found here.

The other day in our cafeteria, I mistakenly entered into a conversation with certain “diggajs” in the field of the occult and the mystic. The conversation, as it inevitably does in these situations turned to the Zodiac – those 12 strange shapes in the skies which surprisingly seem to rule over the destiny of five billion plus souls on a small planet at the fringe of the milky way. One wonders what is it about the human race – a simple yet complex bipedal form made out of an agglomeration of Carbon with other elements that makes it think that it is the centre of all existence? Hell, we aren’t even at the centre of the universe! One feels that a reading of Douglas Adam is essential for the human race to shake itself out of the reveries that it is the be all and end all of, the reason for the existence of the universe! Why is it that so many, otherwise rational beings (yours truly included) turn to the astrology column in the newspaper to what the stars foretell — as if they do say anything! Even as I write this, I remember that I haven’t glanced through my fortune today. Well, I will get down to doing it, if and when I finish this long overdue piece, promised to the editoress of Environs in a fit of hasty and completely misplaced bravado. Only after committing myself, did I realise that alas, I suffer from a real bad case of “Writer’s Block”. Well, after having taken some paper and a pen in hand, I am trying to pen down some thoughts. If these words don’t make any sense to you, relax, neither do they to me!

Musings apart, turning to the subject of astrology, I try to remember what Carl Sagan (of Cosmos fame) once said. (It is a real long time when I heard this and Sagan is mercifully dead (mercifully for me, a great loss to the human race, he was a really profound thinker and scientist), so no fear of him bringing about a multi-billion dollar suit that his words have been twisted out of context). So, what did Sagan say? Yeah, what I remember he said was “If one is born is darkened room, where there is no way for the light of any planet or star to reach, how come those stars affect ones destiny and day-to-day life?” Thinking rationally, what he said was correct, but if there is one thing where the human race (otherwise rational in many things) acts irrationally is in trying to know the future! On reading Linda Goodman‘s bible on the subject, coupled with the daily fortunes, one comes to the inescapable conclusion that Ms. Goodman is an excellent psephologist and should be asked to analyse the “Great Indian Poll Tamasha” on TV! After all, if one collects a large enough sample of human kind born on various dates and analyses their traits, one is sure to find some common traits! So, she collects a large sample, analyses it and brings out the commonalities between various people born in a particular period, while subtly hiding the differences by couching it in something vaguely resembling bureaucratese! After all, that is the power of statistics! One can’t help but remember the gentleman who remarked “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics!“

Remembering this, one’s fickle memory goes back a period of time not more than a couple of days ago, when I was playing around with a statistical software package called XLDLAS, where the name does stand for “X Lies, Damned Lies And Statistics”. The X incidentally, but not surprising for those who do know me is because it runs on the X-Window System as opposed to something called Microsoft Windows.

Ah, now that I have managed to bring in Microsoft, I can bash them So what do we talk about? Yeah, I remember talking about those taglines that companies use to promote their products! So, do you remember some good ones? “The Network is the Computer” – Sun Microsystems;  “Everything’s Connected” – Novell; “Solutions for a Small Planet” – IBM; “Calling Planet Earth” – Iridium (or as someone told me, more recently “Geography is now History”). All these are something unique, a message for the consumer, telling him the strengths of the company, holding out a ray of hope for the future! But what about the software behemoth – “Where do you want to go today?” Hell, I am where I want to be today! Its not my today I have to be worried about, its the tomorrow! Anyway, what else can you say about a company whose product crashes daily! I guess the answer to their question is “Somewhere where Windows doesn’t crash!”

Whew, now that I have let off some steam, how about moving on? The other day, I was going along with a cousin of mine to Bannerghatta National Park (to see the lions and tigers there) – he on his scooter and self on my new bike (Though I say it, its a great bike!). But, whew, my cousin’s scooter had a flat tyre. Luckily, he had a spare tyre and I a set of tools. So, we started to try and change the tyre. We huffed and puffed, but couldn’t unscrew the tyre. It was then that we got a handy lesson in how to use a number 17 spanner properly from a good Samaritan who was passing by. The gentleman taught us the lesson “Its no use having tools, unless you know how to use them properly”.

Ironically, its the same message the inventors of Unix have been handing down to all users over the past 25 plus years of the OS’s existence. The philosophy of Unix, we are told time and time again is simply KISS! Now before this article is yanked out by the censor board, the acronym stands for “Keep It Simple, Stupid!” These four words sum up why Unix is so elegant! Each part complete in itself, yet merging seamlessly to make a greater whole! Each cog fitting neatly into its appointed place without malice, sacrificing its ego in pursuit of a common goal, enabling all to strive for greater heights collectively. If only the human race could learn something from its creations!

The point upon which one must ponder is how did this philosophy come into being? I guess the reason is that the makers of Unix believed that the user of a computer would be a guy/gal with some sense in him/her, not a moron who calls up Tech. Support to ask where the “ANY” key is?  A chap would would at least try to do something with the machine, rather than look as GUIs as the be all and end all of computing. Someone who would use the machine for something other than just as a glorified game console! Sure, Unix is user-friendly, it is just choosy about who its friends are!

Before I start extolling the virtues of Command Line Interface vis-a-vis those so called “intuitive Graphical User Interfaces” and my views on the “supposed net revolution” among other things, I ought to stop. Else someone will bang me on the head with an iMac, and leave me in a condition where I wouldn’t be able to write any more drivel!

Here’s hoping to see you soon, unless the editoress in a fit of shock doesn’t yank out this piece before its published, in which case adieu, for we might never meet on these pages!

[ The author of this piece prides himself on being a researcher, believing in the saying "To steal from one is plagiarism, to steal from many is research". The views, or rather the "foot in the mouth" is the author's. He specifically disclaims that any of this is C-DAC's view by paraphrasing Brian V. Smith (author of Xfig at LBNL)---I don't speak for C-DAC; they don't pay me enough for that.]