Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Spreading the Word! Eh?

After a very tense and hectic week Tatha managed to manufacture his first Latex document. Some of the detractors who wanted it to be written in MS Word, would be severely dissapointed.

During the process of debugging the code, I must have read through almost all of it. But, I do not have any idea what the paper is about. Does Tatha?

Sunday, August 28, 2005

Here is one for our amateur psychologists

I had a dream. Maybe, a nightmare. OK, it was at about 9 am. But, what the hell does it matter? I slept till 11 am. Anyway, lets get on with the nightmare.

It started off happily enough. I walked into a building, a hybrid between South Point and St. Xavier's. Anyway it had classrooms, teachers and a strange collection of my friends, both old and new.

Everything seemed normal, but somehow, I got the idea that the people were being replaced by duplicate one. They looked the same, but still there was this spooky feeling. Those who were trying to make sense of the matter were also being replaced one by one.

What do our amateur psychologists have to say about this?

Monday, August 22, 2005

Compu is dead

I have/had two computers, the older one had the hostname "compu". It was my first computer. It actually meant a lot to me.

It had worked many years beyond its life expectancy. It's CD and Floppy drives had failed long ago. But, it ran a copy of Unstable Debian GNU/Linux and ran it well. Unstable, being a gross misnomer, never displayed any lack of stability.

So, all was fine until the HDD started making strange noises. Its was at that time that I got this new machine. Transfered all my data over LAN. I remember, someone was very paranoid. He wanted to transer all the data in an encrypted form. He said, "You never know, someone might crack the network, sniff the packets, blah, blah..." All, that was meant meant by the "network" was Sayam's own cross-crimped cable, directly connected at both ends to my own computers. Now, who would hack into that?

Sayam? Maybe! You never know.

Today I wanted to boot up Compu again. But it did not respond. I opened it up. I tried out everything that came to my mind. At last, I came to the conclusion that its beyond repair.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

I need a break

I fainted yesterday! I didnt even need to be knocked out by a punch or kick! I just fainted out of tiredness. So, I come to the grand realisation that I need some rest. So, I'll be staying at home and sleeping a lot. I might not be posting for a few days.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

tenara shob dekchen

"tenara shob dekchen...tai na?" -- Apoplexy

Judge yanks a few of Carnivore's teeth
US District Judge James Robertson has responded to a suit brought by American watchdog outfit the Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC) regarding the FBI's e-mail snoop apparatus Carnivore, by giving the Bureau ten working days to set a schedule for delivering records under expedited Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) handling.

In its application for a temporary restraining order against Carnivore, EPIC charged that the FBI and the US Department of Justice (DoJ) have violated the law by failing to act on its request for fast-track processing of its FOIA inquiry.
Maybe someone is watching BIG BROTHER too!

Sunday, August 14, 2005

Ogling at books

My friend Shamashis seems to be a bit depressed. But, Sayamindu and I wont let it continue. We'll either kill his depression or kill him.

So, we called up Tathagata and Sutanuka, and the five of us decided to meet at Crosswords at 5:15. Sayam (please note the m, not to be confused with n) claimed that he didnt know the place, so he would travel with Shamashis. Tatha (he is my neighbour) and I were supposed to pick up Suto on the way.

Before we even got to the Metro Station, Shama and Sayam had reached Elgin Road and started threatening us, wasting precious mobile talktimes.

Now, for two years, the Metro Railway has been my chief mode of transportation. So, I was the self-appointed guide. We got down at some station. I convinced myself that I had made a mistake. Then, I realized that it was the right one.

After the usual ogling at books and crying over the prices, we started fighting over the eternal question, FOOD! Started with Phuchka (by the roadside) and ended with Gulab Jamun (at Haldiram's) with everything that comes in between.

Here are the pics from Sayam's cell.

Me, shooting Sayam, sitting diagonally opposite to me.

Suto, looking very happy, sitting beside me.

Sayam's Food

Me, trying to rob Tatha, sitting directly opposite to me.

Coming Soon, pics from Suto's cell, seen in my hands.

Clarifation from Sayam "I was utilizing the free Hutch to Hutch talktime that I have."

Saturday, August 13, 2005

I'm back

Aabar she ashiachhe phire.

My exams are over. But, the real exam begings now. I have great talent at messing things up. It seems that whenever I want something desperately, I seem to falter.

Anyway, after the exam, I went to BCL and got a book on Partial Differential Equations, for my upcoming presentation. Met Kirtiman and Suto at BCL. Then Suto and I went to the Oxford bookstore. Suto got about 5 kilos of books. I got The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins. His earlier book, The Selfish Gene, has been one of my favourites.

Speaking of The Selfish Gene, it introduced the concept of a meme. Or should I say, the meme of a meme? OK, enough of recursive statements for my friendly neighbourhood computer scientists. If memetic evolution sounds interesting to you, do read up The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore. I think I have seen a copy at BCL.

Friday, August 12, 2005

I'll be back

Even as I type this, there is a book on my lap. I have an exam tomorrow! After that I'm free, at least for a few days. I'll surely beat Hallar Raja at shouting Chhuti Chhuti tomorrow.

But, for now, I have to recall the resistance which needs to be attached to the base of the transistor to make it work as a NOT gate. Just noted that resistance may be an anagram for a nice tress.

Anyway, anagrams are not my business, let Dan Brown worry about them. I better worry about my exam tomorrow.

I wanted to end this post with, I'll be back, Schwarzenegger-style. But Jibonanondo put it better...

Abar ashibo phire.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

A sneak peek at my life

So, what is this guy doing at 3:26 AM? He is working on his report which he has to submit tomorrow. What does that tell you about him? Is he a bit too hard working? No, he is too lazy to start writing the report in time.

Anyway, lets get to business. I had been working on a model to describe traffic flow on a very simplified road. I'll try not to bore you with the equations and numbers but you can see the pictures.

OK, the red lines are the starting values and they evolve into the green lines.



Here are the traffic waves!



And some stationary ones too!