Once again, the clouds have done their Chappar Phaad Ke act and screwed up life in Mumbai again. Thankfully, things aren't nearly as bad as the fateful Tuesday - and it's a Sunday to boot, so most people weren't at work. Still, there was flooding in some parts of the city, and the delivery of supplies and other relief materials was messed up. To top it off, schools have been closed for tomorrow, and I heard on the news that exams scheduled for tomorrow have been cancelled as well. Looks like Mumbai will never look upon the rains in quite the same way again...
It's a nice holiday for all us lazy bums, but there are so many unfortunate people who suffer terribly every time this kind of thing happens. Busybee once wrote that the difference between the rich and the poor in Mumbai was that the former enjoyed the rain and the latter hated it...
Ah, Nature - the great leveler...
This is probably my shortest blog post ever. That's the second broken record - the first was that I've already posted thrice about the rains - what other topic enjoys so much coverage in Mumbai these days? As my dad remarked today, we've turned into Englishmen - whenever we meet, we discuss the weather...
Sunday, July 31, 2005
Saturday, July 30, 2005
The aftermath...
One of the things I was going to mention in this post was a small factoid: Mumbai now holds the record for the most amount of rain received in 24 hours. Unfortunately, Thite beat me to the punch by saying this in a comment on the previous post. Feel free to check that out for the numbers...
Turns out the city hasn't yet moved on - a sizable number of people still don't have water or electricity. As usual the authorities are taking their own sweet time getting things fixed up - calling each other names, playing the blame game, and diverting attention away from their sheer incompetence seem to be at the top of their to-do lists...In that respect, things haven't changed - not even this kind of disaster could manage that...On top of that, the bureaucracy is going to waste a huge amount of time in completely useless paperwork - time that could have been spent on relief operations. To paraphrase a wise man, "The government is an ass."
The news shows that people in the affected areas are getting increasingly restive. They've been blocking roads, letting the air out of bus tyres and causing whatever havoc they can, all in the hope of speeding the relief process. Hopefully this will make the authorities sit up and take notice. I have a better idea, though - send the local corporator, MP or whoever a warning - say that the entire neighbourhood/ward/whatever will summarily vote for the opposing candidate in the next election unless things are made to work within 24 hours. If that doesn't work, nothing will...
Still, any canny politician knows the ancient maxim: Public memory is short. Let's hope that doesn't apply in this case - this is not something that should be forgotten quickly.
Thankfully, the agitations are completely run by ordinary people. As of now, there are no demagogues taking political advantage of this tragedy. The average Indian politician is of no help - they have neither the wit nor the wisdom to lead or act effectively. As Dune says, "A leader is he who keeps a people from becoming a mob." Out here, a leader is a person who knows the buttons to push to rouse the rabble, and is sly enough to realise that he might get something out of it...
Star News was showing videotapes of the flooding, made by people shooting from windows and the compounds of their buildings. That really brought home the extent of the floods - all this time I had a sort of academic understanding of it - no real first hand experience.
There was one video taken from a great height, that showed it all - no roads visible at all - just one huge lake, with trees incongruously placed here and there, and stalled cars and trains, as well as people trudging resolutely through waist deep water. In some cases water went as high as 10 feet. No wonder they called in the navy...
At least 800 people are dead. That is not a small number. But as Stalin once said, "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a thousand is a statistic." Sad, but true. Just hearing numbers like that desensitizes you. You have to really think about what the number means before anything vaguely resembling an emotional response comes out.
Hats off to the good samaritans who did what had to be done - hundreds of them did a great job distributing water and biscuits to people struggling to get home. These are actions that save lives. Dumbasses with political power, take note.
The sad reality is that Mumbai's disaster management began and ended with the aforementioned heroes(and that's exactly what they were - contrary opinions, bugger off). While no one envisaged anything like this, surely a sensible disaster management group could have adapted plans for other eventualities to this situation. As it turns out, there was no disaster management group, or any plan of any kind. Words - that's all they had - empty words. I tend to be a little verbose at times, but at least I know that words are supposed to mean something. The people in charge don't even act like they're trying - all they do is talk. WTF??!!
Ok, so this post has turned into a full blown rant...Hell, a situation like this deserves a rant. Rant away, Mumbai bloggers!
Turns out the city hasn't yet moved on - a sizable number of people still don't have water or electricity. As usual the authorities are taking their own sweet time getting things fixed up - calling each other names, playing the blame game, and diverting attention away from their sheer incompetence seem to be at the top of their to-do lists...In that respect, things haven't changed - not even this kind of disaster could manage that...On top of that, the bureaucracy is going to waste a huge amount of time in completely useless paperwork - time that could have been spent on relief operations. To paraphrase a wise man, "The government is an ass."
The news shows that people in the affected areas are getting increasingly restive. They've been blocking roads, letting the air out of bus tyres and causing whatever havoc they can, all in the hope of speeding the relief process. Hopefully this will make the authorities sit up and take notice. I have a better idea, though - send the local corporator, MP or whoever a warning - say that the entire neighbourhood/ward/whatever will summarily vote for the opposing candidate in the next election unless things are made to work within 24 hours. If that doesn't work, nothing will...
Still, any canny politician knows the ancient maxim: Public memory is short. Let's hope that doesn't apply in this case - this is not something that should be forgotten quickly.
Thankfully, the agitations are completely run by ordinary people. As of now, there are no demagogues taking political advantage of this tragedy. The average Indian politician is of no help - they have neither the wit nor the wisdom to lead or act effectively. As Dune says, "A leader is he who keeps a people from becoming a mob." Out here, a leader is a person who knows the buttons to push to rouse the rabble, and is sly enough to realise that he might get something out of it...
Star News was showing videotapes of the flooding, made by people shooting from windows and the compounds of their buildings. That really brought home the extent of the floods - all this time I had a sort of academic understanding of it - no real first hand experience.
There was one video taken from a great height, that showed it all - no roads visible at all - just one huge lake, with trees incongruously placed here and there, and stalled cars and trains, as well as people trudging resolutely through waist deep water. In some cases water went as high as 10 feet. No wonder they called in the navy...
At least 800 people are dead. That is not a small number. But as Stalin once said, "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of a thousand is a statistic." Sad, but true. Just hearing numbers like that desensitizes you. You have to really think about what the number means before anything vaguely resembling an emotional response comes out.
Hats off to the good samaritans who did what had to be done - hundreds of them did a great job distributing water and biscuits to people struggling to get home. These are actions that save lives. Dumbasses with political power, take note.
The sad reality is that Mumbai's disaster management began and ended with the aforementioned heroes(and that's exactly what they were - contrary opinions, bugger off). While no one envisaged anything like this, surely a sensible disaster management group could have adapted plans for other eventualities to this situation. As it turns out, there was no disaster management group, or any plan of any kind. Words - that's all they had - empty words. I tend to be a little verbose at times, but at least I know that words are supposed to mean something. The people in charge don't even act like they're trying - all they do is talk. WTF??!!
Ok, so this post has turned into a full blown rant...Hell, a situation like this deserves a rant. Rant away, Mumbai bloggers!
Friday, July 29, 2005
Mumbai falls to its knees...
This was going to be a long rant on the devastating rains a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, the comp unexpectedly restarted when I was writing it, so I'm gonna be writing the whole thing from scratch. To save time, I'll just give a blow-by-blow description of what happened to myself and the rest of my family, followed by a little something on the rest of the city.
Let's start with me. Having set my priorities right, I decided to bunk college after lunch for a TopCoder SRM. This decision turned out to be providential - there was only a light drizzle at the time I reached home, but shortly after that the heavens unburdened themselves and blasted the city. In less than an hour, my building compound started flooding. The roads followed suit in minutes.
Anyway, I was sitting pretty and doing the SRM, pretty happy that I'd escaped the deluge. Just before I was about to submit the room's fastest 250, my net went down. My reaction: WTF!!! Luckily it came back a minute later, but I'd lost the first place and had to be content with second. I started up the 500 and finished coding it up faster than the rest of the room. I'd just finished testing and was making a minor change before submitting, when BOOM - my net was down again...My mom was reluctant to let me use dialup for fear of blocking the phone lines, but that idea went down the drains(which were already filled to their limits) when the phones went dead a couple of minutes later. Having no choice left, I went off and watched TV for about 15 mins, giving up the SRM as a lost cause.
My mom had been trying to get through to my sister in college for quite some time, but the Orange network went down soon after it began pouring. Eventually my sister got through to me and told me that getting out of college was impossible - the entire area was flooded. She planned to wait it out. What eventually happened was that a big group of about 5-6 people went wading through knee deep water to her friend's place, and ended up staying overnight.
Meanwhile, the ground floors of all the buildings in the area were flooding - people living there were moving upstairs in a hurry. Worse still, power failed a little while later - and remained gone for about 24 hours. The net was gone even longer, more's the pity...
More horror stories:
I ended up missing my TOEFL, which was scheduled for Wednesday. There was no way I could have actually reached Saki Naka under these conditions, but we found out later that there had actually been a land slide somewhere there. Once again I am miraculously saved - though of course, it only looks that way in hindsight.
Schools and colleges have been declared closed for 2 days. This leaves only Friday, and most people have decided to give it a miss, just in case something happens again...and for other, not so cautious reasons...like another TC SRM!
Things are returning to normal, but all is not yet well in Mumbai. It's gonna be a few more days yet...still, the legendary Mumbaikar spirit will pull through as it always does. Just goes to show - Nature's blind, insane fury can destroy us and our creations, but it can never permanently defeat the combined power of the human spirit and human intellect. Nature, thou shalt be humbled yet!
Let's start with me. Having set my priorities right, I decided to bunk college after lunch for a TopCoder SRM. This decision turned out to be providential - there was only a light drizzle at the time I reached home, but shortly after that the heavens unburdened themselves and blasted the city. In less than an hour, my building compound started flooding. The roads followed suit in minutes.
Anyway, I was sitting pretty and doing the SRM, pretty happy that I'd escaped the deluge. Just before I was about to submit the room's fastest 250, my net went down. My reaction: WTF!!! Luckily it came back a minute later, but I'd lost the first place and had to be content with second. I started up the 500 and finished coding it up faster than the rest of the room. I'd just finished testing and was making a minor change before submitting, when BOOM - my net was down again...My mom was reluctant to let me use dialup for fear of blocking the phone lines, but that idea went down the drains(which were already filled to their limits) when the phones went dead a couple of minutes later. Having no choice left, I went off and watched TV for about 15 mins, giving up the SRM as a lost cause.
My mom had been trying to get through to my sister in college for quite some time, but the Orange network went down soon after it began pouring. Eventually my sister got through to me and told me that getting out of college was impossible - the entire area was flooded. She planned to wait it out. What eventually happened was that a big group of about 5-6 people went wading through knee deep water to her friend's place, and ended up staying overnight.
Meanwhile, the ground floors of all the buildings in the area were flooding - people living there were moving upstairs in a hurry. Worse still, power failed a little while later - and remained gone for about 24 hours. The net was gone even longer, more's the pity...
More horror stories:
- My cousin walked from Juhu to Bandra in what he claims was 'neck-deep' water.
- My dad got home the next day at around 2PM - apparently they got to Vile Parle in a colleagues car, which they had to abandon since the roads were blocked by cars left behind from the previous day. The owners had apparently decided that walking was more practical and left their cars behind wherever they could. Since it was pouring terribly and the street lights were out(there were power outages all over the city), they didn't exactly park by the curb...So my dad and his friends ended up walking from Nanavati hospital to Bandra.
- My aunt took 7 hours to get from Colaba to Bandra. I thought this was some kind of a record, but listening to the radio disabused me of that notion when someone mentioned that it was the 21st hour of his commute home...
- My other aunt couldn't even get home to Andheri - the roads are still littered with cars so it's pretty difficult to get through.
I ended up missing my TOEFL, which was scheduled for Wednesday. There was no way I could have actually reached Saki Naka under these conditions, but we found out later that there had actually been a land slide somewhere there. Once again I am miraculously saved - though of course, it only looks that way in hindsight.
Schools and colleges have been declared closed for 2 days. This leaves only Friday, and most people have decided to give it a miss, just in case something happens again...and for other, not so cautious reasons...like another TC SRM!
Things are returning to normal, but all is not yet well in Mumbai. It's gonna be a few more days yet...still, the legendary Mumbaikar spirit will pull through as it always does. Just goes to show - Nature's blind, insane fury can destroy us and our creations, but it can never permanently defeat the combined power of the human spirit and human intellect. Nature, thou shalt be humbled yet!
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
The pillars come crashing down...
This has got to be the strangest TopCoder SRM I've ever been in...What follows is a short description of what happened, as seen through the eyes of yours truly.
Halfway through the match, we lost the ability to compile code - people who talked to the admins were told that the servers were experiencing load problems - a little later there was a broadcast about this matter. A bit later, testing became slow, and a couple of times my compile requests also timed out.
A bit of background about my position - I'd gotten off to a bad start on the 500 - while the C++ coders simply used the famous next_permutation() function and waltzed through it. Planning to write my own version for later matches now...Anyway, I came up with a workaround, and got to work on the 1000, which was around when the problems started.
A little later, my connection to the arena was lost - this used to be pretty routine earlier, but a few days ago my ISP finally decided to come to its senses and fix it. I wasn't expecting to see it again, so I was slightly bugged, but not too much - the fact that my 1000 had an odd bug wasn't helping either...
I logged back on, and noticed two things:
A minute or so later, it started up again - unfortunately, I had chosen that very moment to head for the loo, not expecting the admins to fix things so soon. Of course, unlike some people, I didn't log off in sheer frustration...
Got back in, tried in vain to do the 1000, and then sat bored throughout most of the challenge phase.
Eventually the admins sent out a broadcast apologizing for the inconvenience. The good news was that they weren't going to rate this match - no prizes, no rating changes - zilch. Got an email a few minutes ago that said the same thing...
All in all, it was a very odd experience - definitely going down in TC history...
That wasn't all of it - after the match I was lurking in the arena and chatting with a friend, when I noticed that the System Testing readout was actually changing - they were testing again! The word was that there was something wrong with their solution of the Div 1 500 - causing widespread failures in systests...After that ended, it started again, about five mins later - as my friend commented - "Systests have gone into an infinite loop...."
Ah well, it's pouring outside and I've decided not to go to college...Time to do something useful...
Halfway through the match, we lost the ability to compile code - people who talked to the admins were told that the servers were experiencing load problems - a little later there was a broadcast about this matter. A bit later, testing became slow, and a couple of times my compile requests also timed out.
A bit of background about my position - I'd gotten off to a bad start on the 500 - while the C++ coders simply used the famous next_permutation() function and waltzed through it. Planning to write my own version for later matches now...Anyway, I came up with a workaround, and got to work on the 1000, which was around when the problems started.
A little later, my connection to the arena was lost - this used to be pretty routine earlier, but a few days ago my ISP finally decided to come to its senses and fix it. I wasn't expecting to see it again, so I was slightly bugged, but not too much - the fact that my 1000 had an odd bug wasn't helping either...
I logged back on, and noticed two things:
- Instead of the usual 5-10 people in the chat room when you enter, there were dozens - and more were pouring in every minute. The place was filled with urgent sounding messages in at least 5 languages.
- I went to click on Active Contests > Enter - and it was grayed out! My reaction is aptly summarized as: WTF??!! About a dozen other people expressed similar sentiments in exactly the same way...
A minute or so later, it started up again - unfortunately, I had chosen that very moment to head for the loo, not expecting the admins to fix things so soon. Of course, unlike some people, I didn't log off in sheer frustration...
Got back in, tried in vain to do the 1000, and then sat bored throughout most of the challenge phase.
Eventually the admins sent out a broadcast apologizing for the inconvenience. The good news was that they weren't going to rate this match - no prizes, no rating changes - zilch. Got an email a few minutes ago that said the same thing...
All in all, it was a very odd experience - definitely going down in TC history...
That wasn't all of it - after the match I was lurking in the arena and chatting with a friend, when I noticed that the System Testing readout was actually changing - they were testing again! The word was that there was something wrong with their solution of the Div 1 500 - causing widespread failures in systests...After that ended, it started again, about five mins later - as my friend commented - "Systests have gone into an infinite loop...."
Ah well, it's pouring outside and I've decided not to go to college...Time to do something useful...
Friday, July 15, 2005
Sleepy ramblings...
Our time table sucks. And I mean big time.
Four days a week, 8AM to 4 or 5PM. Only 2 hours of college on the 5th day, but that's still too much. The only saving grace is that we have Monday off - that's supposed to be project day...The upshot of this is that my class is full of sleepy people - and I'm one of them...
Something seems to have put the fear of God into my college people - or at least the Computer Department - someone in high places seems to have made it clear that they aren't very happy for some reason. Consequently, things are rather different from the usual beginning-of-term experience - no cancelled lectures, no missed practicals - everything is running in high gear from day 1.
It's almost pathetic to see the way the teachers reacted - they seemed to understand what was behind the decision, but we weren't able to get much out of them - one of our teachers said, "The reason is that there is no reason!" And no, she doesn't practice Zen Buddhism, that was just a very badly formulated sentence - not surprising really...
It never ceases to amaze me how transparently servile some people are. One of the big shots is angry, so word goes around - "Tighten things up, we want a tight ship - chop chop!" It's so bloody obvious that they're trying to appease someone. I always find this sort of performance disgusting. I've said it before and I'll say it again - so much for subtlety...
Why do I find this so repellent? Probably because I don't have much humility - I find it utterly impossible to defer to my so-called 'superiors'. I can feel admiration or respect on the basis of skill, knowledge, character, and so forth, but I feel nothing at all for people who just happen to be above me for some random reason. It's a stupid world, after all - not many of them deserve to be where they are...
Because of this weird bent of mind, I don't know how to beg, grovel, blah blah...Can't figure out how people do it. This thought always brings to mind Howard Roark from the Fountainhead - in the passage where he's begging Guy Francon - the man just can't do it, and the begging turns into an insult to Francon - now that's cool...Of course, Howard Roark was incredible, but what's wrong with that?
Ok, so I'm bitching around because I'm rather drowsy, but there's usually a lot of truth in my perceptive complaints...And I'm modest too.
Been reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance again. Might just be an illusion, but I seem more receptive to it now than I was earlier. And as I've said to at least a dozen people, the book doesn't say much about Zen Buddhism, nor is it much of an authority on the maintenance of motorcycles...
It's got me thinking about all sorts of things - the old 'being vs doing' thing that I mentioned in earlier posts, Paul Graham's views on art and hacking, and some recent thoughts on the nature of excellence, the fact that all men(and women) are not really equal(except before law, God and the usual yada yada...), the nature of excellence, and so on. Maybe I should consider becoming a professional philosopher...
Also got my hands on book 2 of Tamora Pierce's Daughter of the Lioness trilogy - Trickster's Queen. Pretty good stuff. Maybe I should read other stuff by her. One thing really interesting about her universe - the gods don't really care about humans suffering or dying - they just think of them as tools for the satisfaction of their desires. They're pretty alien in that way - you can't blame them for not being worried about humans - it's just not relevant to them. Of course, they aren't really omnipotent, or even omniscient - just enormously powerful. Plus they fight each other and stuff like that - but the implication seems to be they can't kill each other. All they can manage is to kick each other to the other side of the universe - and the only reason that is undesirable is because the millennia it'll take to come back will be very boring...Even the power to do that depends on the victories of their worshippers...weird, but at least it's believable. Presumably they weren't responsible for the creation of the universe either...
Really should be getting some sleep now or I'll end up hallucinating in class...
Four days a week, 8AM to 4 or 5PM. Only 2 hours of college on the 5th day, but that's still too much. The only saving grace is that we have Monday off - that's supposed to be project day...The upshot of this is that my class is full of sleepy people - and I'm one of them...
Something seems to have put the fear of God into my college people - or at least the Computer Department - someone in high places seems to have made it clear that they aren't very happy for some reason. Consequently, things are rather different from the usual beginning-of-term experience - no cancelled lectures, no missed practicals - everything is running in high gear from day 1.
It's almost pathetic to see the way the teachers reacted - they seemed to understand what was behind the decision, but we weren't able to get much out of them - one of our teachers said, "The reason is that there is no reason!" And no, she doesn't practice Zen Buddhism, that was just a very badly formulated sentence - not surprising really...
It never ceases to amaze me how transparently servile some people are. One of the big shots is angry, so word goes around - "Tighten things up, we want a tight ship - chop chop!" It's so bloody obvious that they're trying to appease someone. I always find this sort of performance disgusting. I've said it before and I'll say it again - so much for subtlety...
Why do I find this so repellent? Probably because I don't have much humility - I find it utterly impossible to defer to my so-called 'superiors'. I can feel admiration or respect on the basis of skill, knowledge, character, and so forth, but I feel nothing at all for people who just happen to be above me for some random reason. It's a stupid world, after all - not many of them deserve to be where they are...
Because of this weird bent of mind, I don't know how to beg, grovel, blah blah...Can't figure out how people do it. This thought always brings to mind Howard Roark from the Fountainhead - in the passage where he's begging Guy Francon - the man just can't do it, and the begging turns into an insult to Francon - now that's cool...Of course, Howard Roark was incredible, but what's wrong with that?
Ok, so I'm bitching around because I'm rather drowsy, but there's usually a lot of truth in my perceptive complaints...And I'm modest too.
Been reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance again. Might just be an illusion, but I seem more receptive to it now than I was earlier. And as I've said to at least a dozen people, the book doesn't say much about Zen Buddhism, nor is it much of an authority on the maintenance of motorcycles...
It's got me thinking about all sorts of things - the old 'being vs doing' thing that I mentioned in earlier posts, Paul Graham's views on art and hacking, and some recent thoughts on the nature of excellence, the fact that all men(and women) are not really equal(except before law, God and the usual yada yada...), the nature of excellence, and so on. Maybe I should consider becoming a professional philosopher...
Also got my hands on book 2 of Tamora Pierce's Daughter of the Lioness trilogy - Trickster's Queen. Pretty good stuff. Maybe I should read other stuff by her. One thing really interesting about her universe - the gods don't really care about humans suffering or dying - they just think of them as tools for the satisfaction of their desires. They're pretty alien in that way - you can't blame them for not being worried about humans - it's just not relevant to them. Of course, they aren't really omnipotent, or even omniscient - just enormously powerful. Plus they fight each other and stuff like that - but the implication seems to be they can't kill each other. All they can manage is to kick each other to the other side of the universe - and the only reason that is undesirable is because the millennia it'll take to come back will be very boring...Even the power to do that depends on the victories of their worshippers...weird, but at least it's believable. Presumably they weren't responsible for the creation of the universe either...
Really should be getting some sleep now or I'll end up hallucinating in class...
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Back to the rat race...
So college is on again. Not really happy news - it's mostly a boring waste of a lot of time that could have been profitably wasted instead...Case in point: I'll end up missing my TopCoder SRM tomorrow, because we have an 0800 lecture, and this prof is not the kind of person who turns up late. Looks like I've been reduced to just the weekend matches. Darn it all...
Note to Thite: All the best for your first SRM - just don't oversleep and miss it ;-)...Your notorious lack of punctuality might also work against you - be sure to be there at least 10 mins early - registration for an SRM ends 5 mins before the match begins.
I've made a couple of changes to the comment system - it always bugged me that comments could only be viewed on a new page if you were reading the main page. With a little help from Blogger Hacks, I've fixed it so the comments will kinda unroll when you click on the link...Be sure to gimme some feedback on it!
Looks like we've got Digital Signal Processing and Advanced Microprocessors this semester. Bad - I really don't like the electronics related subjects so much - software is still my major interest. I hear DSP is mostly maths - hope that's true, because I don't have much of a memory for circuit diagrams.
Began writing a little Java program this afternoon to do the Mumbai Mirror's daily Sudoku challenge. I've got it deducing things to the point where it correctly fills up about half the grid - the only problem is that it can't go any further. Looks like my friend Sagar was wrong - as far as I can see, there isn't enough information in the problem to uniquely determine each grid value. At some point, you probably have to guess and see if things work out that way...Of course, the other option would simply be to use a brute force combinatorial approach - generate all possible grids, and pick out the one that matches the puzzle data - but where's the fun in that? At least this way I'm still using logical reasoning - I've just outsourced the details to my computer. Maybe there's some kind of reasoning that I can't put my finger on just yet....
Hmmm....Wikipedia says that the general Sudoku problem on an n x n grid is NP complete - luckily, the simple case of n = 9 can be managed using state machines, so at least I'm not wasting my time...
This is interesting...Turns out that Sudoku is a variant of graph coloring problems - no wonder I kept thinking vaguely of graphs while I coded...Maybe I can use this - and it'll be a good excuse to read up on graph coloring and other such stuff. Will report future progress in a few days...
In other news, I have the TOEFL scheduled in 2 weeks time - not that it should be too much trouble, but it never hurts to be prepared...
And now to sleep, perchance to dream...
Note to Thite: All the best for your first SRM - just don't oversleep and miss it ;-)...Your notorious lack of punctuality might also work against you - be sure to be there at least 10 mins early - registration for an SRM ends 5 mins before the match begins.
I've made a couple of changes to the comment system - it always bugged me that comments could only be viewed on a new page if you were reading the main page. With a little help from Blogger Hacks, I've fixed it so the comments will kinda unroll when you click on the link...Be sure to gimme some feedback on it!
Looks like we've got Digital Signal Processing and Advanced Microprocessors this semester. Bad - I really don't like the electronics related subjects so much - software is still my major interest. I hear DSP is mostly maths - hope that's true, because I don't have much of a memory for circuit diagrams.
Began writing a little Java program this afternoon to do the Mumbai Mirror's daily Sudoku challenge. I've got it deducing things to the point where it correctly fills up about half the grid - the only problem is that it can't go any further. Looks like my friend Sagar was wrong - as far as I can see, there isn't enough information in the problem to uniquely determine each grid value. At some point, you probably have to guess and see if things work out that way...Of course, the other option would simply be to use a brute force combinatorial approach - generate all possible grids, and pick out the one that matches the puzzle data - but where's the fun in that? At least this way I'm still using logical reasoning - I've just outsourced the details to my computer. Maybe there's some kind of reasoning that I can't put my finger on just yet....
Hmmm....Wikipedia says that the general Sudoku problem on an n x n grid is NP complete - luckily, the simple case of n = 9 can be managed using state machines, so at least I'm not wasting my time...
This is interesting...Turns out that Sudoku is a variant of graph coloring problems - no wonder I kept thinking vaguely of graphs while I coded...Maybe I can use this - and it'll be a good excuse to read up on graph coloring and other such stuff. Will report future progress in a few days...
In other news, I have the TOEFL scheduled in 2 weeks time - not that it should be too much trouble, but it never hurts to be prepared...
And now to sleep, perchance to dream...
Saturday, July 09, 2005
Got into Infy!
So we had the Infosys placement yesterday, and guess who got in...
This was supposed to be a rather in-depth look at the interview process, but I'm a little tired right now, so let's skip the details and go to the gist of things...If this seems a little below my usual post standard - chalk it up to fatigue and boredom...
As interviews go, this was a bit of a deviation from the norm. Of course, Infy is a deviation from the norm as far as companies go, so this just reflects that. There's this huge emphasis on puzzle solving and creativity, which is great, at least as far as I'm concerned. This eliminates a pretty sizable amount of people - but that's hardly a bad thing.
Speaking of the people that Infy seems to pick up - only a handful of them were toppers - by and large, the lot of us were pretty good students, but not excellent ones. Supports what I say about the imperfections of our system.
The aptitude test was pretty good - actually had me scratching my head in a few cases. Fell victim to bad policy - should have answered everything, not just those I knew, since there was no negative marking. Anyway, I made it past their cutoffs, so I'm not complaining...
The really fun thing was their HR interview - there was the standard HR spiel, but it was spiced up with some real interesting questions and puzzles - one puzzle in my case, but up to 3 in some other cases...I'll save the questions for another time...suffice it to say they dealt with stuff like planning and high level strategy, project management, leadership skills, etc. No dirty details, just zoomed out, big picture stuff...
They ended up picking up about 22 people from my college, 7 or 8 of whom were from my class. Apparently, these guys really follow through on their mantra of "We hire for potential." So even guys who are studying Civil/Auto/Production Engg can and do get through.
In other news, I nearly won my room in the last TC match - and lost it when my 500 pointer failed because I misunderstood the problem statement. The really sad thing is that if I had read it properly, I would have actually ended up in the match editorial for the fastest div 2 500 solution...The upside is that my rating went up anyway! Go figure....
Really sad thing now - college begins tomorrow morning, which means I'm gonna miss some TC matches for sure unless Wednesdays and Thursdays have sensible time tables...Worse, I'll have to start getting up early routinely, and there's no more chance to goof off - not that I had much time for that - what with placements and CS GRE stuff. The only consolation is that the CS is enormously stimulating - but now time is really going to be an issue...
Time to sleep - should manage 5.5 hours or so...and then the rat race begins again...
This was supposed to be a rather in-depth look at the interview process, but I'm a little tired right now, so let's skip the details and go to the gist of things...If this seems a little below my usual post standard - chalk it up to fatigue and boredom...
As interviews go, this was a bit of a deviation from the norm. Of course, Infy is a deviation from the norm as far as companies go, so this just reflects that. There's this huge emphasis on puzzle solving and creativity, which is great, at least as far as I'm concerned. This eliminates a pretty sizable amount of people - but that's hardly a bad thing.
Speaking of the people that Infy seems to pick up - only a handful of them were toppers - by and large, the lot of us were pretty good students, but not excellent ones. Supports what I say about the imperfections of our system.
The aptitude test was pretty good - actually had me scratching my head in a few cases. Fell victim to bad policy - should have answered everything, not just those I knew, since there was no negative marking. Anyway, I made it past their cutoffs, so I'm not complaining...
The really fun thing was their HR interview - there was the standard HR spiel, but it was spiced up with some real interesting questions and puzzles - one puzzle in my case, but up to 3 in some other cases...I'll save the questions for another time...suffice it to say they dealt with stuff like planning and high level strategy, project management, leadership skills, etc. No dirty details, just zoomed out, big picture stuff...
They ended up picking up about 22 people from my college, 7 or 8 of whom were from my class. Apparently, these guys really follow through on their mantra of "We hire for potential." So even guys who are studying Civil/Auto/Production Engg can and do get through.
In other news, I nearly won my room in the last TC match - and lost it when my 500 pointer failed because I misunderstood the problem statement. The really sad thing is that if I had read it properly, I would have actually ended up in the match editorial for the fastest div 2 500 solution...The upside is that my rating went up anyway! Go figure....
Really sad thing now - college begins tomorrow morning, which means I'm gonna miss some TC matches for sure unless Wednesdays and Thursdays have sensible time tables...Worse, I'll have to start getting up early routinely, and there's no more chance to goof off - not that I had much time for that - what with placements and CS GRE stuff. The only consolation is that the CS is enormously stimulating - but now time is really going to be an issue...
Time to sleep - should manage 5.5 hours or so...and then the rat race begins again...
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Here be dragons...
During the Wimbledon finals match, I happened to be channel surfing and ran into Hallmark's adaptation of Earthsea. With Federer demolishing Roddick with consummate ease, I didn't get to see the whole of it, but I managed to catch a bit of it in the breaks and during the drizzle...The following rantings deal mostly with Earthsea, language, sorcery and coding, and so on...
A bit of background on the Earthsea universe: Magic in Earthsea is done by speaking words of the True Speech, which was the language used to create the world. In the True Speech, word and deed are not separate, and words are more than just sonic representations of things. The great wizards(or mages, to use the correct term) are highly versed in the True Speech, and know the true names of things. Knowing a true name gives a mage power over the thing(or person) that the name represents. As a result, the inhabitants of Earthsea go by another name for practical purposes - use-names, as they call them. True names are hidden and told only to those who one really, really trusts.
BTW, parents don't know the true names of their children either - the names are given at around the age of eleven by a wizard who can sense the child's true name. Thereafter, the child may choose who he will tell the name. No one ever asks you for your true name - you decide to give it to someone. The Master Doorkeeper of Roke(the Isle of the Wise, where gifted students are taught magic) is the only person who asks for a true name - no wannabe wizard gets through the doors of the School without revealing his true name.
The first book of the trilogy - A Wizard of Earthsea - is about a young goatherd from the island of Gont, who eventually becomes both Archmage(the big boss man of Roke island) and a dragonlord. The guy's use-name is Sparrowhawk and his true name is Ged. Unfortunately, in the Hallmark version, they've turned this around - apparently they thought that 'Ged' is not a fitting name for "One who may become one of the great wizards of Earthsea". So everyone calls him Ged throughout the TV version, and he ends up telling the Master Doorkeeper that his true name is Sparrowhawk. Sad...And their idea of the Master Doorkeeper was a bit of a let down - he was nothing like the character the book showed - he looked like a bored court jester. Nothing like the wise and serene old chap from the book.
To top it off, Ged enters and runs into Jasper, an aristocrat and fellow student who proceeds to ridicule him in a highly arrogant tone - "You have the honor of addressing Jasper of Eolg, of the house of Havnor..."
Ok, so the guy in the book is a jerk too, but in a slightly different way - he doesn't actively put down Ged - it's just that his manner is subtly superior, without actually shouting it from the rooftops. It grates on Ged because Jasper has the manners of a royal courtier, and he is a goatherd from a little village, with rough manners and no style...It's the kind of insult that the British manage superbly, but Americans have never quite got the hang of. Like it says at the top of the page - so much for subtlety...
The Archmage Nemmerle isn't true to the book either - he's supposed to be a withered old man - one of the oldest of Earthsea. Instead, he's a pretty vigorous elderly fellow with a long beard. Worse, he doesn't die saving Ged(for more on that - read the book), but ends up merely fainting after spending all that power. Add to that the fact that Jasper betrays them in the TV version, while he just vanishes into obscurity in the book, and you've got a pretty screwed up piece of work.
After that they screw up the timing of the Kargish invasion, neglect to mention the fact that the Kargs distrust and shun magic, and turn Tenar of Atuan into a perfect contemporary of Ged. She must have been at least ten years younger, if not twenty.
Didn't see what else they messed up though - it was too much fun watching Federer trounce Roddick.
Here come the abstractions - as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I'm actually drawn to this magic business because of coding...This really solidifies the analogy - just as a mage uses the True Speech to manipulate the world, a coder uses a programming language to manipulate a computer. The real difference, of course, is that we have dozens of languages, at different levels, with different goals and uses.
Those who know me well are familiar with my weird brand of laziness. On the one hand I hate doing some things, and will keep on putting them off. On the other hand, I can spend an infinite amount of time and energy working on something really interesting - as long as it's mostly mental. Just yesterday I sat up till 2 AM trying to figure out a recurrence for a problem. The painful thing is that I wound up proving no such recurrence existed...
How does this tie in with wizardry, coding and computers? Computer languages are like the True Speech in another way - doing and saying are really the same thing. For a lazy bum like me, this is ideal. Unlike other types of engineers, I get to work with thought-stuff - no heavy lifting or sweaty work for me...To paraphrase the Qu'ran, I need only say 'Be' and it is. Anyone like me, with a closet hankering for superhuman powers, can't resist being the God of his own private universe. Of course, the architecture of my computer determines the extent of my powers, so the analogy isn't exact - or is it? After all, we've never seen any real miracles, and there isn't any real evidence that any of the famous ones really happened. To the best of human knowledge, there isn't any breakdown in the laws of nature - nor has there ever been one as long as we humans have walked the earth. Is God's power limited by the architecture of the machine he's running our Universe on? That's something for a future blog post...
And here's another interesting allusion that just popped into my head...The Flash ROM on the motherboard that sets the ball rolling when you switch on the computer basically contains a bunch of machine instructions. As they say in the Bible, "In the beginning was the Word."
Here's the last bit - the dragons of Earthsea are not animals like the typical Hollywood variety. They are a far older species than humanity(there is a twist to this tale in book 5), and speak the True Speech as their native tongue. Plus they can fly, breath fire, and are so terrifyingly powerful that only the most powerful mages can kill them.
When I read this bit, I had an obvious question - Are dragons taught the True Speech? This wasn't answered until I polished off book 5 today, and it's a pretty interesting answer.
Human beings are unique among all animals for one reason - we have the power to choose a course of action. Because of this, we have concepts of morality and good and evil, and we can measure someone by his actions. Animals don't do - they just are. It's the same with the dragons - speaking the True Speech is not something they do - it's what they are. As Ged mentions, as he gained wisdom and became Archmage, he learned to choose to do only what he had no choice but to do.
Remember how I mentioned Federer's apparent lack of intensity in the previous post? Let's take a look at the match through the lens of the previous paragraph.
Roddick was busy acting - he went madly after the ball, he fought as madly as he could, struggling to do something, to make the right choices so he would win. But he kept on doing. Against a lesser opponent, that might have worked - it would have then been a battle of two mages, and the one with greater skill would have won. But Federer went through the entire thing without really doing anything - he was just being Roger Federer.
And that's why Roddick couldn't have touched him - not as long as he kept doing what he did. Because as far as tennis goes, Federer is not a man.
In tennis, Federer is the dragon.
A bit of background on the Earthsea universe: Magic in Earthsea is done by speaking words of the True Speech, which was the language used to create the world. In the True Speech, word and deed are not separate, and words are more than just sonic representations of things. The great wizards(or mages, to use the correct term) are highly versed in the True Speech, and know the true names of things. Knowing a true name gives a mage power over the thing(or person) that the name represents. As a result, the inhabitants of Earthsea go by another name for practical purposes - use-names, as they call them. True names are hidden and told only to those who one really, really trusts.
BTW, parents don't know the true names of their children either - the names are given at around the age of eleven by a wizard who can sense the child's true name. Thereafter, the child may choose who he will tell the name. No one ever asks you for your true name - you decide to give it to someone. The Master Doorkeeper of Roke(the Isle of the Wise, where gifted students are taught magic) is the only person who asks for a true name - no wannabe wizard gets through the doors of the School without revealing his true name.
The first book of the trilogy - A Wizard of Earthsea - is about a young goatherd from the island of Gont, who eventually becomes both Archmage(the big boss man of Roke island) and a dragonlord. The guy's use-name is Sparrowhawk and his true name is Ged. Unfortunately, in the Hallmark version, they've turned this around - apparently they thought that 'Ged' is not a fitting name for "One who may become one of the great wizards of Earthsea". So everyone calls him Ged throughout the TV version, and he ends up telling the Master Doorkeeper that his true name is Sparrowhawk. Sad...And their idea of the Master Doorkeeper was a bit of a let down - he was nothing like the character the book showed - he looked like a bored court jester. Nothing like the wise and serene old chap from the book.
To top it off, Ged enters and runs into Jasper, an aristocrat and fellow student who proceeds to ridicule him in a highly arrogant tone - "You have the honor of addressing Jasper of Eolg, of the house of Havnor..."
Ok, so the guy in the book is a jerk too, but in a slightly different way - he doesn't actively put down Ged - it's just that his manner is subtly superior, without actually shouting it from the rooftops. It grates on Ged because Jasper has the manners of a royal courtier, and he is a goatherd from a little village, with rough manners and no style...It's the kind of insult that the British manage superbly, but Americans have never quite got the hang of. Like it says at the top of the page - so much for subtlety...
The Archmage Nemmerle isn't true to the book either - he's supposed to be a withered old man - one of the oldest of Earthsea. Instead, he's a pretty vigorous elderly fellow with a long beard. Worse, he doesn't die saving Ged(for more on that - read the book), but ends up merely fainting after spending all that power. Add to that the fact that Jasper betrays them in the TV version, while he just vanishes into obscurity in the book, and you've got a pretty screwed up piece of work.
After that they screw up the timing of the Kargish invasion, neglect to mention the fact that the Kargs distrust and shun magic, and turn Tenar of Atuan into a perfect contemporary of Ged. She must have been at least ten years younger, if not twenty.
Didn't see what else they messed up though - it was too much fun watching Federer trounce Roddick.
Here come the abstractions - as I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I'm actually drawn to this magic business because of coding...This really solidifies the analogy - just as a mage uses the True Speech to manipulate the world, a coder uses a programming language to manipulate a computer. The real difference, of course, is that we have dozens of languages, at different levels, with different goals and uses.
Those who know me well are familiar with my weird brand of laziness. On the one hand I hate doing some things, and will keep on putting them off. On the other hand, I can spend an infinite amount of time and energy working on something really interesting - as long as it's mostly mental. Just yesterday I sat up till 2 AM trying to figure out a recurrence for a problem. The painful thing is that I wound up proving no such recurrence existed...
How does this tie in with wizardry, coding and computers? Computer languages are like the True Speech in another way - doing and saying are really the same thing. For a lazy bum like me, this is ideal. Unlike other types of engineers, I get to work with thought-stuff - no heavy lifting or sweaty work for me...To paraphrase the Qu'ran, I need only say 'Be' and it is. Anyone like me, with a closet hankering for superhuman powers, can't resist being the God of his own private universe. Of course, the architecture of my computer determines the extent of my powers, so the analogy isn't exact - or is it? After all, we've never seen any real miracles, and there isn't any real evidence that any of the famous ones really happened. To the best of human knowledge, there isn't any breakdown in the laws of nature - nor has there ever been one as long as we humans have walked the earth. Is God's power limited by the architecture of the machine he's running our Universe on? That's something for a future blog post...
And here's another interesting allusion that just popped into my head...The Flash ROM on the motherboard that sets the ball rolling when you switch on the computer basically contains a bunch of machine instructions. As they say in the Bible, "In the beginning was the Word."
Here's the last bit - the dragons of Earthsea are not animals like the typical Hollywood variety. They are a far older species than humanity(there is a twist to this tale in book 5), and speak the True Speech as their native tongue. Plus they can fly, breath fire, and are so terrifyingly powerful that only the most powerful mages can kill them.
When I read this bit, I had an obvious question - Are dragons taught the True Speech? This wasn't answered until I polished off book 5 today, and it's a pretty interesting answer.
Human beings are unique among all animals for one reason - we have the power to choose a course of action. Because of this, we have concepts of morality and good and evil, and we can measure someone by his actions. Animals don't do - they just are. It's the same with the dragons - speaking the True Speech is not something they do - it's what they are. As Ged mentions, as he gained wisdom and became Archmage, he learned to choose to do only what he had no choice but to do.
Remember how I mentioned Federer's apparent lack of intensity in the previous post? Let's take a look at the match through the lens of the previous paragraph.
Roddick was busy acting - he went madly after the ball, he fought as madly as he could, struggling to do something, to make the right choices so he would win. But he kept on doing. Against a lesser opponent, that might have worked - it would have then been a battle of two mages, and the one with greater skill would have won. But Federer went through the entire thing without really doing anything - he was just being Roger Federer.
And that's why Roddick couldn't have touched him - not as long as he kept doing what he did. Because as far as tennis goes, Federer is not a man.
In tennis, Federer is the dragon.
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Federer conquers!
The title says it all, really...Federer took the Wimbledon championship in straight sets, and I managed to watch almost the entire match. Roddick put up one hell of a fight, but Federer was inhuman - such mastery of the game is insane - and therefore a great pleasure to watch...
Here's the lowdown on what I found interesting...If I begin rambling on about seemingly unrelated things, please put up with it - as all my friends will testify, I'm the kind of guy who says, "That reminds me..." and brings up a topic that no one else can connect with the current subject. Sometimes the weirdness of the connections frightens me, but I suspect it's just normal associative memory in the hands of a somewhat flamboyant mentality...
The first item to note is (obviously)Federer's devastating skill. No matter where you put him on the court, he usually has an answer for anything anybody can throw at him. And he does it with such ease...eerie. It's impossible not to admire such talent.
This relates directly to the second item on the agenda - the contrast between Roddick and Federer.
Anyone who's seen Roddick play knows the way he barrels around the court, leaps in exultation, and clearly displays frustration. Even his returns are characterised by manic energy, and he leaps clear across the court to get impossible shots. He even took a shot from underneath his leg at one point, like a young show-off might...except with him, that kind of response is a natural reaction.
Federer, on the other hand, is moderation itself. His expressions of emotion are few and far between, usually reserved for the real big things. In today's final his expression barely changed throughout, but at the final stroke, he fell to the ground in sheer exaltation. He even broke down for a minute or so - and since this is his Wimbledon hat-trick, I don't blame him. Otherwise, he's as cool and collected as Mr. Spock.
While Roddick rushes all over the court, Federer is practically somnolent. Instead of rushing to meet the ball, he's magically in the place where it turns up. Hell, he practically strolls over while the other guy is cocking his racket to take the shot. The man is economy in motion - no wasted movement. When he returns, it's just a casual movement of his racket. Only the 'killing stroke' seems to have some kind of intensity.
To really see the contrast, you need to see a close up of a slow motion replay. Watch the eyes of both players as they follow the ball. Roddick gave me the impression of a zealous tiger, preparing to spring upon his unsuspecting prey. Federer's eyes don't project that kind of intensity - they seem...lazy. Like watching the ball is as natural as breathing.
Wow - there's a comparison: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Just about sums up the two players. In fact, a quote from the same movie comes to mind - "True skill comes without effort."
Roddick makes real great comments, though. Probably comes of being American...Loved his famous one about the kitchen sink and the bathtub last year.
So why do I happen to find tennis so interesting? There's a certain ephemeral quality - not confined to just tennis - that draws me. And then, of course, there's Maria Sharapova and the bevy of Russian babes...
Seriously though, I'm not exactly sure what the quality is - it's there in Halo to some extent. Football has it too, but not in the same degree as tennis.
Just had a sudden epiphany - this ineffable thing is related to outmanoeuvring the opponent. That's why I think of it when I sidestep an Elite's melee attack and counter with one of my own, followed by a barrage of bullets into his skull. Or that time when a well placed plasma grenade forced a stupid Elite to jump right off a bridge to escape. Too bad they don't scream on the way down...It's the same thing when Federer casually sends the ball past Roddick, who ends up wrong footed and unable to take the shot. There was this really cool rally where Federer forced Roddick into one corner of the court. By the time Roddick figured out what was happening, the ball was whizzing into the other corner...
Of course, this leaves me with the question of why outmanoeuvring someone is so much fun...
Time to get some shut eye...tennis fans, drop a few comments...
Here's the lowdown on what I found interesting...If I begin rambling on about seemingly unrelated things, please put up with it - as all my friends will testify, I'm the kind of guy who says, "That reminds me..." and brings up a topic that no one else can connect with the current subject. Sometimes the weirdness of the connections frightens me, but I suspect it's just normal associative memory in the hands of a somewhat flamboyant mentality...
The first item to note is (obviously)Federer's devastating skill. No matter where you put him on the court, he usually has an answer for anything anybody can throw at him. And he does it with such ease...eerie. It's impossible not to admire such talent.
This relates directly to the second item on the agenda - the contrast between Roddick and Federer.
Anyone who's seen Roddick play knows the way he barrels around the court, leaps in exultation, and clearly displays frustration. Even his returns are characterised by manic energy, and he leaps clear across the court to get impossible shots. He even took a shot from underneath his leg at one point, like a young show-off might...except with him, that kind of response is a natural reaction.
Federer, on the other hand, is moderation itself. His expressions of emotion are few and far between, usually reserved for the real big things. In today's final his expression barely changed throughout, but at the final stroke, he fell to the ground in sheer exaltation. He even broke down for a minute or so - and since this is his Wimbledon hat-trick, I don't blame him. Otherwise, he's as cool and collected as Mr. Spock.
While Roddick rushes all over the court, Federer is practically somnolent. Instead of rushing to meet the ball, he's magically in the place where it turns up. Hell, he practically strolls over while the other guy is cocking his racket to take the shot. The man is economy in motion - no wasted movement. When he returns, it's just a casual movement of his racket. Only the 'killing stroke' seems to have some kind of intensity.
To really see the contrast, you need to see a close up of a slow motion replay. Watch the eyes of both players as they follow the ball. Roddick gave me the impression of a zealous tiger, preparing to spring upon his unsuspecting prey. Federer's eyes don't project that kind of intensity - they seem...lazy. Like watching the ball is as natural as breathing.
Wow - there's a comparison: Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Just about sums up the two players. In fact, a quote from the same movie comes to mind - "True skill comes without effort."
Roddick makes real great comments, though. Probably comes of being American...Loved his famous one about the kitchen sink and the bathtub last year.
So why do I happen to find tennis so interesting? There's a certain ephemeral quality - not confined to just tennis - that draws me. And then, of course, there's Maria Sharapova and the bevy of Russian babes...
Seriously though, I'm not exactly sure what the quality is - it's there in Halo to some extent. Football has it too, but not in the same degree as tennis.
Just had a sudden epiphany - this ineffable thing is related to outmanoeuvring the opponent. That's why I think of it when I sidestep an Elite's melee attack and counter with one of my own, followed by a barrage of bullets into his skull. Or that time when a well placed plasma grenade forced a stupid Elite to jump right off a bridge to escape. Too bad they don't scream on the way down...It's the same thing when Federer casually sends the ball past Roddick, who ends up wrong footed and unable to take the shot. There was this really cool rally where Federer forced Roddick into one corner of the court. By the time Roddick figured out what was happening, the ball was whizzing into the other corner...
Of course, this leaves me with the question of why outmanoeuvring someone is so much fun...
Time to get some shut eye...tennis fans, drop a few comments...
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Of stuff, nonsense and other things...
Time for another set of disconnected, incoherent rantings from yours truly. Here goes...
First up - I always thought that people as dumb as Joey(from Friends) could not exist. Was proved wrong yesterday. Apparently people can be that dumb, at least in some areas of their lives. Ironically, Joey himself revealed my sister's mathematical dumbness to me...A dramatic reenactment of the scene follows:
(Sis and I just finish watching Friends. Conversation begins - the subject being - you guessed it - Friends.)
Sis: Remember what Joey said to Phoebe's brother a few episodes ago?
Me(quoting Joey): "You're 28, she's 44. When you're 56...she's gonna be 88!"
(Aside: Joey is trying to convince Phoebe's brother not to marry a woman 16 years older than him...In the process, he displays mathematical stupidity...)
Sis: That's wrong - what he said was, "When you're 36, she's gonna be 88."
Me: What? But that kills most of the joke then!
(Getting an idea of what's going on...)
Me: Hang on - just what do you think is funny about that statement?
Sis: He tries to figure out their ages and does it wrong! It's funny!
Me: Yes, but he doubles their ages - that's why it's so funny!
Sis: No, if he doubled their ages then he would get it right. That's why it's 36, not 56.
Me(laughing helplessly on the sofa): !!!!
So there you are. Some of my friends have heard me complain about my sister's lack of mathematical skills, but they never seemed to believe me. Here's the proof...11 years of studying Maths and this is what she thinks. No wonder I contemplate suicide whenever her Maths exams come around - guess who has to teach?
Moving on...A couple of days ago I was pondering the religious mindset. People with a strong belief in religion seem to think that there's some kind of cosmic balance, and that Nature is essentially good, but will respond terribly to the "crimes" of humanity, punishing the wrongdoers with terrifying fury.
*ANTI-RELIGION RANT BEGINS*
Let's take a look at last December's tsunami. Dozens of religious leaders and theologians worldwide showed themselves to be consummate idiots when asked about the tsunami. The majority of them said something about "divine retribution" and "punishment for our sins", or words to that effect.
WTF?! We're supposed to believe that a bunch of unfortunate tourists, fishermen, and villagers died horribly as a result of divine retribution? Or that this divine fury chose to kill several innocent children, orphan even more, and lay waste to the homes and livelihoods of people who have no inkling of why they were 'punished' so brutally?
Apparently, no one had the nerve to go up to one of these dumb believers and say, "There's a little Thai girl whose entire family was killed in the tsunami. Her village was completely wiped out. In one stroke, she has been orphaned and rendered homeless. And she hasn't even learned to speak yet. She has no sins to speak of. Why did this happen to her?"
God moves in mysterious ways? Oh please...God, please repeat after me, "You do not punish the sinless, and you don't punish a person for someone else's sins."
Pretty elementary concepts of justice. You'd think a perfect being would have figured it out by now...
So what's my answer? Why did the poor Thai girl have to suffer?
Chance. Wrong place, wrong time. That's all there is to it. Bad things happen, but not necessarily to bad people...they're just random events. Nature is blind. She blunders along, with nary a thought for the creatures that suffer and die in the process.
Just take a look at natural history. Thousands(probably hundreds of thousands, but I'm no biologist) of species have been wiped out over the 4 billion years of Earth's history. The only reason is that they failed to survive as things changed. For most of their lives they were locked in a struggle against the elements and each other, competing for food and room to reproduce. Cruel, painful, and seemingly pointless...
So the ones who survived were the real badasses - the ones tough enough to take whatever conditions came their way. The ones right at the top - the predators - they survived because they could kick butt.
And eventually, from a long line of such hardy survivors, came an ape who decided that standing on two legs was where the action was, and the trees weren't that much fun after all.
This chap and his relatives still weren't human. The first human came a little later, when one of these apes looked around him, realized that things really sucked, and yelled "It's not fair!" and set out to do something about it.
And from the loins of this band of discontents came the deadliest predator in the history of the planet - the human. The other creatures only had claws, teeth and speed. What we had were brains(and as Sagar pointed out, spears) and an insane wish to make things fair and just, even though they weren't.
So remember this - whenever someone complains that people are trying to impose their will upon nature, take a moment to think about the difference between nature and human will. Eventual death after a painful struggle to survive - or a driving desire for fairness and justice, an unwillingness to submit and the power to do better.
Take your pick. I chose long ago.
First up - I always thought that people as dumb as Joey(from Friends) could not exist. Was proved wrong yesterday. Apparently people can be that dumb, at least in some areas of their lives. Ironically, Joey himself revealed my sister's mathematical dumbness to me...A dramatic reenactment of the scene follows:
(Sis and I just finish watching Friends. Conversation begins - the subject being - you guessed it - Friends.)
Sis: Remember what Joey said to Phoebe's brother a few episodes ago?
Me(quoting Joey): "You're 28, she's 44. When you're 56...she's gonna be 88!"
(Aside: Joey is trying to convince Phoebe's brother not to marry a woman 16 years older than him...In the process, he displays mathematical stupidity...)
Sis: That's wrong - what he said was, "When you're 36, she's gonna be 88."
Me: What? But that kills most of the joke then!
(Getting an idea of what's going on...)
Me: Hang on - just what do you think is funny about that statement?
Sis: He tries to figure out their ages and does it wrong! It's funny!
Me: Yes, but he doubles their ages - that's why it's so funny!
Sis: No, if he doubled their ages then he would get it right. That's why it's 36, not 56.
Me(laughing helplessly on the sofa): !!!!
So there you are. Some of my friends have heard me complain about my sister's lack of mathematical skills, but they never seemed to believe me. Here's the proof...11 years of studying Maths and this is what she thinks. No wonder I contemplate suicide whenever her Maths exams come around - guess who has to teach?
Moving on...A couple of days ago I was pondering the religious mindset. People with a strong belief in religion seem to think that there's some kind of cosmic balance, and that Nature is essentially good, but will respond terribly to the "crimes" of humanity, punishing the wrongdoers with terrifying fury.
*ANTI-RELIGION RANT BEGINS*
Let's take a look at last December's tsunami. Dozens of religious leaders and theologians worldwide showed themselves to be consummate idiots when asked about the tsunami. The majority of them said something about "divine retribution" and "punishment for our sins", or words to that effect.
WTF?! We're supposed to believe that a bunch of unfortunate tourists, fishermen, and villagers died horribly as a result of divine retribution? Or that this divine fury chose to kill several innocent children, orphan even more, and lay waste to the homes and livelihoods of people who have no inkling of why they were 'punished' so brutally?
Apparently, no one had the nerve to go up to one of these dumb believers and say, "There's a little Thai girl whose entire family was killed in the tsunami. Her village was completely wiped out. In one stroke, she has been orphaned and rendered homeless. And she hasn't even learned to speak yet. She has no sins to speak of. Why did this happen to her?"
God moves in mysterious ways? Oh please...God, please repeat after me, "You do not punish the sinless, and you don't punish a person for someone else's sins."
Pretty elementary concepts of justice. You'd think a perfect being would have figured it out by now...
So what's my answer? Why did the poor Thai girl have to suffer?
Chance. Wrong place, wrong time. That's all there is to it. Bad things happen, but not necessarily to bad people...they're just random events. Nature is blind. She blunders along, with nary a thought for the creatures that suffer and die in the process.
Just take a look at natural history. Thousands(probably hundreds of thousands, but I'm no biologist) of species have been wiped out over the 4 billion years of Earth's history. The only reason is that they failed to survive as things changed. For most of their lives they were locked in a struggle against the elements and each other, competing for food and room to reproduce. Cruel, painful, and seemingly pointless...
So the ones who survived were the real badasses - the ones tough enough to take whatever conditions came their way. The ones right at the top - the predators - they survived because they could kick butt.
And eventually, from a long line of such hardy survivors, came an ape who decided that standing on two legs was where the action was, and the trees weren't that much fun after all.
This chap and his relatives still weren't human. The first human came a little later, when one of these apes looked around him, realized that things really sucked, and yelled "It's not fair!" and set out to do something about it.
And from the loins of this band of discontents came the deadliest predator in the history of the planet - the human. The other creatures only had claws, teeth and speed. What we had were brains(and as Sagar pointed out, spears) and an insane wish to make things fair and just, even though they weren't.
So remember this - whenever someone complains that people are trying to impose their will upon nature, take a moment to think about the difference between nature and human will. Eventual death after a painful struggle to survive - or a driving desire for fairness and justice, an unwillingness to submit and the power to do better.
Take your pick. I chose long ago.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
