Monday, November 26, 2007

Me and the law of the land


Me and the law of the land just doesn't seem to be going hand-in-hand.I seem to always fall into trouble with the cops,especially on the road.

Most of the people know that I am quite rash rider,but only on the NH or outside the city.I have never even tried to break the helmet rule as far as I could.Neither do I overspeed,do stunts or jump traffic signals.But as a human being,everyone is susceptible to errors.

My first experience comes with the Indian Railways.At that time,the Ernakulam Jn station was undergoing major construction with a new entrance being built at the east side,from where my house is 5 mins walking distance.The situation was my friend going to his home during the Onam vacation of the 1st year.He called me to return some of his cds and also give him a company as he was new to the place.My entry was naturally thru the unfinished side.Soon after sometime,a few ppl came running towards us asking abt platform tickets....he had I didnt.I didnt have a single paise with me,so he paid my Rs.290 fine.Thankful for that,but I was not at fault there coz the side I entered didnt have the counter...who hears??

The second one occured again by sheer bad luck.It occured when I was taking my friend to a shop,wich was midway a one way.So while coming back,I pushed the scooter till the main road.And by my misfortune I started it just within that road...right behind a cop,who on turning back found me in that awkward situation.No amount of argument could settle him down.Another 100 bucks gone down the drain.

The third was sort of funny and quick.That occured on an evening when I was going to the temple,my father called asking me to come and pick him up after 30 mins.Usually I neither take my wallet nor vehicle to temple.So I foolishly took the scooter as it is.And while enroute to the pickup spot,I was quite sure that I wud be caught if I had not brought the helmet wich I keep in the scooter itself.On seeing a patrol I checked the cabin to find tat someone had kept it inside the house.Then I just rode past that patrol wen they caught someone....only to be caught a team led by an SI further along the road.Got a notice for 100 bucks,and father didnt turn up in time too..so had to return home and later pick him up and then paid the fine at the station...whoa...wat a day...

Well,tat was day before yesterday I think...today occured something of higher magnitude...my friends forced me to drop them...a triples....and as my luck wud have it...I didnt get into the public road wen a patrol came on the other side.Had it...
Then followed a long session of arguments and we tried to avoid the big fine he wanted to impose.That cop was the same one in the station...he was giving talks on how bad mileage their vehicle has..blah blah...bloody hell...greed was in his eyes...I tried my best by putting up a sorry face while my pals made maximum excuses,and finally he said he will call me later and take the money..the constable was going to take the money without a notice.and the amount??..believe it or not..Rs.290..surely it is going into their pockets..we will see...anyway my mother has seen it only as part of earlier problem...so far so good...donno wat ma father has to say....and nice scene it was for the neighbours and passersby...I am quite known as a decent,calm,sensible...etc.etc..gud things...hm...life is abt taking chances..I wud tell them if they ask me abt this..heeh...

Everything happens for the best...and with each encounter..I hope for the best...

Friday, November 23, 2007

The Last Samurai

A few words about one my really favorite film.
This is just an isolated posting,because if I start writing about each movie I wud need to .....sit for hours and days remembering scenes and thigns ....i will go mad.


OK.I want all people reading this to have seen the movie or see it soon.Its really nice.Its the story of West meeting East.The story revolves around Japan in the beginning of 20th century or end of 19th century I presume.The main hero of the story is a captain in the American army,Captain Nathan Algren(played by Tom Cruise).The guy has left his job behind and is conducting stage shows on his exploits during the skirmishes against the native Americans.
He seems a sensible man when people are enjoying the prepared narration of how he killed them,because he speaks his mind there.He describes the carnage and the savagery of the skirmish.

Algren is presented with an offer by Omura (Masato Harada), a rich and powerful Japanese businessman, to travel to Japan and “Westernize” their army in the ways of the new American warrior. Once there, Algren learns that his responsibility is to train the troops in order to defeat the Samurai, Japan’s ancient warriors who are opposed to the Emperor’s Westernization of Japan. During their first battle with the Samurai,Algren is taken prisoner, his life spared only because Samurai Leader Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) saw what he believed to be the courageous Captain in a vision. Taking refuge in the Samurai’s remote mountain village during the winter months, Katsumoto does not imprison Algren, but instead has his sister Taka (Koyuki) nurse the Captain back to health. During this time, Algren is allowed to roam (for the most part) free in the village, and in doing so, begins to see the honor and nobility in the way of the Samurai, which helps him come to terms with his own mental demons. Once he is returned to the Americans, Algren is torn between following what he knows in his heart to be honorable, and his military duty.




This leads to many fights and interesting twists.I liked the samurai fight and the way the western mind started viewing the power of the eastern ways.The strategies used in the numerous battles are worth mentioning,especially the one involving burning the haystacks.The superiorly armed foreign force(3-4 battalions) fight against a few battle hardened samurai warriors and lose out in terms of courage.The battle is breath taking and also heart breaking.The horrifying carnage involved the battles is also filmed perfectly.Altogether a perfect mix of action,melodrama and story with a moral.

One part I really liked was the last part when the Emperor comes to know of his mistake in allowing foreign countries to remove the trace of Japan's rich heritage.
The part "but we cannot forget who we are!!" in Japanese accent sounds heart rendering and I hear it in a corner of mind sometimes.hehe...call it aftereffects...

My favorite characters were Katsumoto,Algren and son of Katsumoto.

tats all for now.....

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Internet Tools---Google wins

This can be seen as the continuation of my first post on Google!!!

This time I am posting coz I am overwhelmed by the range of tools that I am using as a netizen.

First among those are as usual Google tools only.


Gmail is my most trusted and fav mail service.I have a/cs in many major services,but only gmail prevailed,Yahoo! also prevails,but its interface is heavy.I like Yahoo! services now,they are luking gud and will make improvements.

As for groups,I had few groups in Yahoo!,now shifted to Google Groups 2.Its slick and easy interface that allows listing msgs together is rather cool,compared to Yahoo! provided.I am hoping for Yahoo! to follow suit and make rapid improvements in that field too,coz I noticed the implementation of msg stacking and complex listing methods they are trying,nice..Yahoo! keep it up.

I have this one blog and another tech one,so I am interested in keeping track of visitors,the sources and all kinda info.Google Analytics rock...truly.The plethora of tools and data that is provided by that single tool can leave u customizing ur pages and understanding possible trends.Yahoo or another service wont come near it.Sitemeter is kinda ok,but not near google's counterpart.

Google Webmasters tool is also looking great.I have added my sites there and will check how the crawling is happening and wat kind of optimisations can bring in more visitors to my content(wich i am trying to upgrade in terms of originality and frequency).

Now I have to refer to the page "My Account" to find the services I am using,such a long list.

aah..Orkut.What to say about this revolutionary social networking site.Its the news in every part of the world.The name and the brand google says it all for it.Compared to other services provided by Google,this lacks serious professional attitude from the designers,I have felt that for long.But now many steps have been taken to remove those "doughnut" things and speeds have increased.The idea to integrate flash videos and album customization has gone long way in bringing back old fans.The reply from ur scrap feature is really cool.The updates listing is something less expected at intial times of orkut,but now ppl have competitions of writing attractive profiles(though compared to other services,customization is at lowest point).Communities have also become more sensible and cool with polls and all..orkut is surely moving up the popularity and quality graph once again.Customization is quite a deterrent from making orkut superb compared to the likes of Facebook,Myspace etc..wich are really gr8 luking in terms of eye-candy and functionalities.The large Indian mass hanging onto Orkut has made it a place not many can leave forever as most of frndz and contacts prefer to stick to orkut(sigh...these ppl don't adapt to changes fast).

Another thing is the integration of one of my fav tools ,Yahoo! Answers with orkut.Though not integration,the similar service has started new time pass things.
Btw yahoo answers is a really cool thing,u learn and also enjoy the whole process.
Ppl refer to sites and compile data to make replies,that nice to get integrated answers,but then ur question shud catch the attraction of dedicated answerers(u must see their number of ans and best ans...u will wonder wat other jobs these guys/gals have!!)

I also use online photo albums,I had Yahoo! photos,now Flickr...really nice ....like I said Yahoo is upto gud things now.I am not so satisfied with Google Picasa that needs the tool to be present on the system.I am no-no for tat kinda service.

Another really great tool that I use quite often is Google Docs.This is simply revolutionary by all standards.C'mon how many services allow u to use Word,Excel like interfaces on the net,free of charge???Doc makes sharing my projects,seminar notes,and all kinds of things that an engg student needs,such a simple thing.Sharing with collaborators and also viewers..its really a cool thing all in all.

I am also a fan of gtalk while being in Windows and I rely on Pidgin messenger of Ubuntu to integrate my Yahoo and Google accounts.Nothing beats that!!Yahoo has started its messenger online,its ok,but i prefer tat on my system.

I have also signed up with Google Adsense.Though not much earning(abt $5 only),the idea is nice.I can atleast I earned tat much.:D

As far as the blogs are concerned,the wide variety of tool that blogger has provided after integration with google is simply breathtaking.This has allowed amateurs like me to venture into blogging.Videos,polls,adsense integration....really cool..the templates provided also are great luking.

Another new tool of Google:Google Image Labeler
Its a sort of game you play with another player in random.Both play at giving labels to the image they show.Matching causes u and partner to get points.This is meant to refine their search ability and also understand the possible sequence of thoughts that a user has on giving an image query.This is surely gonna be subject to Data Mining to obtain intelligent decisions for their algorithms..way to go Google.Try it at


Basically my net activities are like this:
1)Mail check(gmail and yahoo only)
2)Chatting(Gmail,gtalk or pidgin)
3)Tech probs(Digit forum,yahoo answers,google search which means all sites are open)
4)browsing all kinds of media and topics(google and wiki rock)
5)Online videos of songs,speech,games,trailers..etc.(google video and youtube also many new services)
6)Anime and game music(search galbadia hotel in Google)
7)Torrents activity--Mininova,Torrentz,isohunt,desitorrents(dead) and demonoid(dead??)..clients being utorrent,azureus,now fav is deluge.
8)P2P music downloading---Strictly Limewire
9)Blogging---only blogspot


After saying all this ,I must say one tool tat i use mostly is google search and all google products.Advanced searching in google is really powerful,thought the methods might be slight complex...the stuff is the best u get....

yet another rotten egg (or tomato)

Data Comm....sigh
Gone with the wind.....
Worst exam I have ever written so far in all these years.DSA is the next worse.
In the latter I finished half hr ago and left coz i didnt know wat to write....such a bad condition,but gassed up all 5 questions...
With DC,time cheated me out of that ceremony as well...so i might consider it as the nails struck on the coffin....

DBMS ahead...will be back with more blogs..i have missed a few news coz of lack of time..will do it also...soon!!!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Its tough to just blog

Hm...the sequel to my last blog.

I really screwed up the exam today.I forgot even the simplest things.By god I was so furious.....
I don't know why I am behaving so.....irresponsible...
Coming to the topic....why blogging is so tough.
I get lots of topics while thinking(which is either done when I am sitting to study,lying on bed for sleep,sitting in veranda )...I even create plans to either write(formerly) or blog.But just as I enter the computer room and face the screen and sit..the creativity seems to have gone for tour or something..I never get a reply for all my calls for it.I feel the emissions from the screen could be the reason(wondering???I see such relations always) for this irritating phenomenon.

Writing also doesn't work because when I want to write...its hard to do so...and even if I do,to make changes I tear out pages and destroy whatever books I am writing on...so not much logic in doing that.

Or the reason for all this could be my introversion.I am quite alone at home and my senses have quite taught me to survive by observation and so I believe in the idea that there are lots of patterns in and around any object(don't ask for details...abstraction is my right!!) which might be spatial like a table or box or on a time axis(this is quite hard to explain).

I regard the example of people who have lost any particular sense using the remaining ones to a very high degree of precision and perfection.Its not quite possible for a normal person brought up in normal conditions to train and use his/her ears(mainly I like the idea of supreme sight that eyes don't give).It is said in many ancient texts that warriors who lose sight(or lack) in battles have supreme power of hearing,with which they can even guess and tackle their opponent's quick and complex moves.How they perform this,what they listen to...what pattern are these guys tuning themselves too???Ooh...these questions really energise and rise me up...I have been partially able to decode the energy flow of 'Chi' through our bodies on concentrated exercises done in perfect tandem with breathing.The breathing is supremely important as it seems to be co-ordinator,the manipulator of the power within.

Mallus may remember "Yodha",a super hit film of Lalettan....one of 'bestest' favorites....I simply love the mix...martial arts,mountains,orient and of course Lalettan.

Let me stop....patha hee nahi chala..kidhar sey kidhar pahoonch gaya mein..zindagi bhi tho aise hee hai...

INSHA ALLAH

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

S5 almost over...trascending into S6

I have been thinking of updating my blog for such a long time.But either I lose the interest or never get apt topics to do it.Now it seems I post every two semester or so.

Anyway,at present I am having s5 university exams.Language Processors(CS501) and Software Engineering(CS502) over.Next one ahead is Microprocessor(CS503).I donno why I am wasting my time exactly at this point of time....
MuP(short of microprocessor) is not so easy as to ignore it completely.But let's just say,the wish to blog...just came back ..as with most things about me...not tied down by rules ....just instantaneously spontaneous.People around me are seriously studying at their homes.
The placement seasons are coming in 2 months maybe.Our placement cell has started its official work.We already had lots of class test and batch tests as mock for the real ones.This reintroduced the concepts of C language,some forgotten and unknown mathematical concepts and of course, a plethora of new words,usages etc.All these have increased my knowledge level.

As far as the test goes,I seem to be very weak in Aptitude section,which comprises maths and logic.I have try out lots of problems and learn few things if I have to clear cut offs in this section.Technical goes average for me.I do not take risks in answering even if there are slight doubts...in that manner I have saved many negatives as well as lost some marks.Verbal section is quite ok for me...I am learning while doing.

By the way,I have joined TIME(Triumphant Institute of Management Education) for Super Long Term Course for CAT 2008.It does take away my entire sunday,but anyway I dont have much chores on a sunday(read useful chores).

Though many of the maths classes are boring,the language and some other classes are really informative and helpful in many ways...like GD,Interviews...all these give a new viewpoint into various matters and helps us face the exam confidently.


Also,I am on a new rig now.It sports a dual core AMD Athlon AM2 4000+ processor,1 gig of RAM at whopping frequencies.Also attached are a 250 gb Seagate Hard Disk and a Sony DRU-190A dual layer supporting dvd-rw.The board is Asus m2n-mx SE.Cool na?
I am also retaining my old 120gb Samsung Hard disk ...so thats about 343 GB of space.