Me - Run - Yes. You Join?

Me, my friend and the monkey-man will be running in the 4.5 km section of the 22nd Pune International Marathon, day after(this Sunday). Please come see us blaze the tracks. Congratulate the guys who'll win, and we'll wish you back in return.

And if you're a 20 something girl, satisfying all the frequently mentioned criteria, and really impressed by us - then remember, the other two guys have girlfriends.

(PS: All this running enthu is thanks to Dhammo. You've inspired me for ages.)

(PPS: Just for the record, my target is to complete the distance in 1 hr.)

(PPPS: If you're wondering if you're reading the right Abhishek's blog - the one who would sit around, reading books and watching movies, imitating a hibernating bear - then don't go anywhere. This is the Abhishek. I'm just trying to improve!)

Jigrii Dushman - The return of the Killer "Local Author"

One of the best parts of the new "independent" regime at COEP, has been forwarding of subjects ahead by one semester, thereby cramming Automata theory in second year, and Computer Organisation in the 5th semester and suchlike. Today, friends, Romans, Countrymen - I'm going to write the last paper of this semester in about 4 hours. Why, then do you ask, I'm writing this in spite of cramming as much as I can into my short-term memory banks? The answer? Nostalgia.

Nostalgia, can make you do strange things - and now as I'm writing this, I'm least bothered about trivial matters like "doing well" or "getting good grades". These things happen to me, rather than any conscious effort on my part.(rarely of course) What I am bothered about, is the fact that owing to the aforementioned prefetching of future subjects, my next semester is virtually free. Sure, there is the pesky project(which I aim to do with utmost sincerity, O lord of project guides!) and the stupid elective(which is very likely to be "Advanced Entrepreneurship Development" mwahahaa!) - but it basically means - no day-to-day college! Sure, this has been my routine anyway for at least the last two years - but gone will be the burden of using all my charm and diplomatic abilities to ensure that I do not attend and still stay relatively safe. I must say, that it came very close this semester - but it seems like I'll make it.

Anyway, the nostalgia is basically that this will be my last turbulent stream that I will cross with the help of my trusted Nirali (ok, ok it's TechMax today, but you get the drift). As it sits in the corner, horribly used, edges frayed, line after line highlighted(all by some chap called Vikram Kamble, His Noodly Appendage bless his soul!) staring at me - all I can say is thank you! You have given me the confidence to step into today's "Advanced Computer Architecture" exam, having no freakin' idea what separates a Vector Processor from a Scalar processor. Sure, I know 10 points of differentiation, and am hoping this question will feature in the paper - but if by some freak chance my future employers put me in charge of the "Vector/Scalar Processor" department of their company (ah, choose this boy, he had good ACA grades) I will have no chance of facing my juniors with a straight face.

And what is important, is that, this has been pretty much the pattern of my whole undergraduate study. I've technically studied Computer Networks, Automata Theory, Compiler Construction and Digital Signal Processing. Tomorrow, when I go out to work in the domain, it will be on the basis of such extremely volatile education - which is brilliant, because my employers are anyway going to erase my easily destroyed EPROM and program me to their requirements. Now you know why COEP engineers are so much in demand!

Anyway, I want to end by basically saying thank you -- thank you to all you "Godse-Bakshis", "Bhutiyani-Joshis" and "Prasad-Prasads". You guys are no less than any super-hero combo!

(PS: Coming Soon! The Sequel : Killer Local Author in "The Revenge of the Firgans" )

(PPS: This post was supposed to go online with the entire contents at 11 am today, but thanks to blogger quirks on Konqueror and my Firefox being down, it goes up now)

Emergency, so what?

When people in India talk about the 1975 Indian Emergency imposed by Mrs G, it's always in hushed tones - or at least with some degree of caution. It was, and I'm basing this on the reactions of these people - a huge thing. The biggest thing to strike India since the 71 war.

Now unfortunately I have not read either fact or fiction which is based in the time, so all my evidence is hearsay. But my closest encounter was via Amu (v.nice film - go drool at Konkona in her arty-best.) There was general terror, head-chopping in Delhi, places were majorly closed. Of course, how places far from the capital, like say Gadchiroli or Bidar were affected is another matter to explore - but it would be safe to say that a certain sense of commotion mixed with fear prevailed.

Now - lets come to the current Pakistan situation. I'm assuming here that the legal provisions of the emergency are pretty much similar in both cases. But - apart from that fact that they've caught poor Imran Khan again - life on the street seems pretty much normal. Pervez had a huge send-off party, he threw to himself, where he himself cried at how much he was going to miss himself in an uniform. People around were generally hoping (pun unintended) that they would be rewarded for their troubles by hutta-gutta Peshawari gosht and chicken biryani. A dude I heard on the telly was pretty happy saying that "Musharraf sir ne vardii to utaarii hai, lekin ab aage kya karte hai dekhna padegaa". You strip-teasing-pervert! Shouldn't such guys be put behind bars - immediately? Isn't the emergency hugely bigger than the Rowlatt Act?

When people's freedoms are supposed to be curtailed, Nawaz Sharif - who's been enjoying Saudi belly dancers all these years, is permitted to enter the country. Benazir too drops in to see what the fuss is all about. "Oh, how lovely, emergency! This is something I have not seen. Babu, book my ticket on the next BA, will you?"

Life elsewhere continues as peacefully (or violently) as usual. Shoaib falls sick again, and political wrangling continues.

It's time these guys realised the value of an emergency. "Do din mein khatm hogaa, tab pataa chalegaa, keh detii hoon!"

Yesterday

The eyes they closed
And off I dozed
On what seemed a sunny day
But it was cold outside
And it was cold inside
In a stupid, magical way

Eyes wide open
Eyes wide shut
No place where I could stay
They all came to see
Then they showed to me
That lonely yesterday.

I stared at me
Me stared at I
Eyes seemingly cast away
But I couldn't be
What I couldn't see
Until my dyin' day.

And then she said,
That she's afraid
That it turned out this way
But, can't you believe
She just couldn't leave
Her things on my byway.

The silver spoon
That filled my room
Had nothin' more to say
And I couldn't find
With enough money inside
A purse that would make her pay.

Eyes wide shut
Eyes wide opened
A place where I did stay
Showed to me,
what I couldn't see
What came to me today

'Twas Another face, In another place
To pass the rest of my days.

'Twas Another face, In another haze
To pass the rest of my days.

Injured playmaker - no cookie for you.

At least not today.

And if you thought this was sport, think again. You won't be getting any footage/videos from the Led Zep reunion concert because it is now postponed to the 10th of December.

Why?

Jimmy Page's injured, that is why!

Few will care but,

Verity Lambert dies at the age of 71.

Saved from the trenches of RFC 822

Lots more good stuff here. Esp this ravenous discharge.

Dir Straits

I want my
I want my
I want my FTP

Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do it
You get the files from the FTP
That ain't programming, that's the way you do it
Programs for nothing and the code is free
Now that ain't programming, that's the way you do it
Let me tell you those guys aren't pissed
Maybe break a nail on your little finger,
Maybe get some numbness in your wrist

We've got to install operating systems
Custom software delivery
We've got to move these manual pages
RTFM those RFCs

See the little user with his gifs and the jpegs
Yeah buddy he's got root
That little user got his own workstation
That little user got his own disk to boot

We've got to install operating systems
Custom software delivery
We've got to move these manual pages
RTFM those RFCs

I should've learned to run xarchie
I should've learned to play them games
Look at that mama, her gif is sticking in the monitor
Man we could have some fun
And he's up there, what's that? Orgasm noises?
Playing sound files like a grade-school geek
That ain't programming that's the way you do it
Get your programs for nothing get your code for free

We've got to install operating systems
Custom software delivery
We've got to move these manual pages
RTFM those RFCs

Now that ain't programming, that's the way you do it
You get your programs from the FTP
That ain't programming that's the way you do it
Programs for nothing and your code for free
Programs for nothing and code for free

Original Joke of the day

Why did the judge sentence Ekta Kapoor to death?

Because she was a serial killer.

We bow down t to thee

Verbatim: My college Sysadmin

Hi, there is a particular, unmonitored way by which you can send an email to all COEP students, via an alias. There are absolutely no restrictions - and anyone, using any ID can do so. As I predicted sometime back, ICICI bank has come to know of it, and soon will IMS, Career Forum and anyone looking to target college students. In fact, they would even be ready to pay for this.

Anyway currently, the misuse is mainly by college students to wish us a happy diwali, send us marriage proposals and offer free mobile phones. Finally - the giant called the sysadmin woke up. Here is the strict action he has taken

"It has come to my notice that a lot of students are misusing the college email id, especially the ---------@coep.org.in email address. I would like it to be known that this email address is for the sole purpose of making important announcements by the staff or secretaries of the various clubs in the college. It has been observed, that students are creating profile on social networking / matrimonial sites using this account. Please let it be known that the college has not provided you with email addresses for such frivolous activities. If you must register with social networking sites, do so using your personal email Id and not -------@coep.org.in. Furthermore, students are now spamming this id with emails promising free mobile phones. This is a HOAX. Please refrain from such blatant misuse of the college id in future.

System Administrator "

The new Force India livery.

Thought you would like to see.

You have to

check out the new uniforms of the ICL. No more comments.

Hat Tip : greatbong

Abhishek's Law of education.

If I ever teach a class this is the first thing I'm going to tell them

"No matter how good or interesting a professor or a course is, over a period of time, formal education is boring."

Anyone agrees?

Bacon No 4 - here I come!

The director if Alliance Francaise de Poona, Monsieur Jean-Jacques Scaerou is an interesting personality. He is short, slightly rotund, always wears a smile on his face and is a connoisseur of music and art in general. I've seen him make fun - and in general entertain us often during boring phases of my study towards my Diploma. I must however add, that Alliance Francaise as an institution is as badly managed a place as I have ever seen, probably on par with COEP. But anyway, lets blame "the system" and move on.

So, the point is this. I was watching "A Mighty Heart" mostly interested by all the brouhaha created during the filming in Pune. So imagine when I see Mr. Scaerou playing the role of the French Ambassador(i think) in Karachi, Philippe Scaerou. He even has a couple of lines with Ms.Jolie.

Here is a screenshot.(some goof-up here. Will put correct shots later.)



Anyway, so Mr.Scaerou now has an IMDB page, and more importantly a Bacon number of 3.

Ok gotta go now - I've got to convince him to appear on a home video with me.

***

In parallel reading, you might want to check out A Mighty Shame, Asra Nomani's take on movie. She was one of Daniel Pearl's closest friends in Pakistan, and was with his wife during her ordeal.

BTW, loved Archie Punjabi who plays her in the movie. Dunno why, something was attirante.

"Whodunits" - BCQC November Open 2007

Ramanand is doing a quiz this weekend at the BCQC. Should be fantabulous.
Quoting his post here from his blog.

*******
I'm doing an open quiz this Sunday called "Whodunits". The detectives theme is more than incidental and seems appropriate for an intellectual exercise such as quizzing. Anyway, I think it might be fun (mostly), so drop by even if it goes against your better judgement. All the details, complete with noir poster, below:



The BC Quiz Club will be organising an Open General quiz on Sunday, the 4th of November, 2007.

The details:

"Whodunits"
Date: Sunday, 4th Nov
Venue: Dewang Mehta Auditorium, Persistent Systems Ltd. (see this link for directions)
Time: Prelims start at 1 pm sharp, so please report by 12:45 pm
Flavour: General
Who can participate: anyone; it's an Open quiz; Entry is free
Format: Prelims + Playoffs + Finals for 6 teams
Team Size: 2 per team
Conducted by: J. Ramanand
Prizes sponsored by Landmark, Pune
Contact:
email: contact@bcqc.org
phone: Ramanand (97642 58560), Harish (93733 04910), Salil (98231 12258)