nis(h)peak

Drunken Rant 2

2008-06-10T20:43:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another episode of drunken rant. Today I don't have anything to blog about, so I am going to rant about five random things I have encountered in life so far.

1. I have learnt to make few indian dishes and I have started to enjoy cooking . Here is something I learnt from a friend of mine, it is difficult to cook Basmati in a pressure cooker. When you cook Basmati in a vessel, add a teaspoon of spoil or vinegar it doesn't let the rice become sticky.

2. I sometimes see guys in the mens rest room, lowering their pants to take a leak. I wonder, why was the zip invented guys??

3. The one liner enjoyed recently was from the movie 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall', it goes on like this "If God was a city planner he would not put a playground next to a sewage system!". Well here's my explanation to it, so thats where most of the time your unborn kid is going to go either to the play ground or into the sewer.

4. I believe that men can make similarities about totally random things and can convince themselves that the events are not random. Now, that you have read this blog entry, draw your own parallels and prove the world that the four points are not random but decided in advance ;-)

Cheers

Drunken Rant - 1

2008-04-18T14:29:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my first ever drunken rant. Yes, I am going to rant about few things tonight. If you have something important like saving the universe from super villains, who wear bright color under garments over tight pants, READ NO FURTHER.

I am going to rant about totally disjoint things, so be prepared. Joining me today on my rant is distinguished guests Mr. Mojo Risin', who is playing in the background and Mr.Glenfiddich, who is a good spirit to lift my spirits up.

I go through this once in a while, few things keep coming my way even though I didn't expect it to be found there. In my case it was Stanley Milgram, he is famous for coining the term 'Six degrees of separation'. He has conducted several interesting experiments on human behavior and the results are shocking at times and very interesting. One such experiment was mentioned in the paper 'Perils of Obedience' (The complete paper is around 12 pages).

The experiment involves two individuals randomly selected from a group, one acting as a student and another as a teacher. The teacher's job is to train the student and when the student makes a mistake he can give electric shocks as punishment. The level of electric shock raises gradually to lethal levels as the student makes more mistakes. The teacher can quit the experiment any time. But according to the experiment a majority of the participants didn't quit the experiment when the student was screaming in pain. With little persuasion you could make the teacher administer lethal shock to the student.

Human beings part of a system have been trained and are being trained to obey authority. According to the experiment, even the teacher always had the option to quit he continued and he tortured the student because he was more interested in training the student (he wanted to be more obedient) rather than accepting the fact that the student was actually suffering. Imagine this, if there was a serious threat to the teacher if he doesn't complete the job, he won't mind killing the student. This probably is the reason behind normal human beings committing some of the heinous crimes against fellow human beings.

The more you become a part of the system, you will obey authority and won't even think of revolting against authority, even when you know, what you are doing is something wrong. Those who stand up for themselves against the system either get destroyed or destroy the system.

If you liked the above experiment, also read about Zimbardo's Stanford Prison Experiment.

An interesting aspect of religion is the concept of heaven and hell. Humans can dream and according to me heaven is a universally accepted dream. Think about the all the things said about heaven, you will be eternal, won't be hungry, white angels, good looking males and females, clean white clothes, etc. Wait a second, doesn't this sound like fantasy.

Lets come to the topic of hell, sometimes every human feels he or she is wronged or cheated by other fellow human being and couldn't set it even before they die. So humans came up with this imaginary universal concept of hell, where in you want the other person who cheated you to suffer. It is such an universal theme is pretty much accepted in all societies. Isn't it just unfulfilled wishes taking shape.

According to me there is no heaven or hell, if it exists it is here on earth and thats when you live and how you live.

Want to read more about religion read "Who Knows?: A Study of Religious Consciousness" by Raymond Smullyan.

When few things are over done, it just pisses me off. Flash, is a very nice technology from Macromedia/Adobe. But all the website designers just over do the site with flash, pop up ads, they suck big time guys. Stop doing that sh**. I am mostly listening to some song when I visit your site, ask me before you play the damn audio in your site, don't autostart that damn thing.

If you want to save your state of mind and bandwidth go install flashblocker plugin for firefox. Now, that you are in control, all flash animation will play only when you click on it.

Spice up your desktop

2008-04-18T11:17:00.000-07:00

Even though, I like a slick and clean desktop without any windows theme, once in a while I find a really nice wall paper which lures me into spicing up desktop. I found one such wall paper recently from 'Dark Roasted Blend' blog entry on fractals (Url: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/04/most-beautiful-fractals.html). Wow, fractals are beautiful. Find the screen shot of my desktop below, if you like it go ahead and grab so many other fractals. I am running MS Zune theme with 'Wildfire' fractal as the desktop wall paper and the calendar is from Rainlendar.

If it is a work desktop and you want to conserve every bit of computing power but still want a simple and clean looking wall paper, switch to classic windows theme and try the blue pattern below (remember to tile it).

For more wall papers for your win/mac, visit interfacelift.com, it has some neat wall papers and of course it is free.

Conversations in the Concrete Jungle - Part IV

2008-04-16T14:47:00.001-07:00

War Pigeon (WP): Hey peace, haven't seen you for a while, how have you been ??
Peace Eagle(PE): I am doing fine. Just a lil tired WP.

PE: Hey WP, why do humans fight so much among themselves ?
WP: Thats an interesting question. Most of the humans think that, what he/she says is right. They can't accept disagreement.

WP: Don't you think I am right??
PE: Yes, you are my friend.

Conversations in the Concrete Jungle - Part III

2008-04-01T23:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome to another edition of conversations in the concrete jungle.

Otter 1: Yo, whats up ??
Otter 2: Not bad

Otter 1: Bro, my religion says sex before marriage is sin, eating meat is sin, drinking is sin.
Otter 2: so?

Otter 1: I am confused man..
Otter 2: dude, more men have died fighting for religion than for sex, money, drink and other earthly pleasures. Now it is time for you to think and decide. Peace be with you :-)

I will be back ...... sooon

2008-03-30T02:25:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone out there, the last couple of months has been pretty crazy and couldn't find much time to update the blog. Will be back soon with interesting topics.

Cheers
Nishanth

Ommadawn

2008-02-11T05:01:00.001-08:00

Seems today's theme is music and once again Ommadawn is my first Mike Oldfield album. The album has just three tracks Part one, Part Two and Horseback. Part one and Part Two are purely instrumental featuring beautiful guitar work, bag pipes and variety of other instruments. Horseback has lyrics and it is a slow melody. A very good start if you are interested in Mike Oldfield's works. For more info, read the wiki entry of Ommadawn.

Shpongle - Tales Of The Inexpressible

2008-02-11T03:17:00.000-08:00

Shpongle's 'Tales of the Inexpressible' is my first Psybient / Psy-trance album. The album name was intriguing and the mask was similar to the Pink Floyd's Relics album cover. I had no clue what Psybient was when I started listening to it but after listening to the entire album, it was definitely worth the time.

The variation in rythm and the way flute, synthesizers and other instruments are mixed is just brilliant. I have liked pretty much all tracks from this album.

If you like world music, trance, electronic music there is a good chance that you will like Shpongle. For a bigger and longer review of this album check out the link below. http://www.sputnikmusic.com/album.php?albumid=4087

Conversations in the Concrete Jungle - Part II

2008-01-01T09:55:00.000-08:00

Goat 1: I am terribly bored, tell me something interesting
Goat 2: Want to hear about one of the greatest conspiracies that goes on in this world ?

Goat 1: Never heard of it, what is that ??
Goat 2: Well, you might have been told countless times that old people are wise and you have to respect your elders, listen to their opinions, blah blah..

Goat 1: Yes, so whats with that ??
Goat 2: Here is how it started, almost all men want a sense of authority over others. The problem with holding a 'title' or 'respectable job' or any other thing that gives you authority is you are always in direct competition with someone and one day or other you will loose that authority.

Goat 1: so what ?
Goat 2: the wise guys needed something, that will always be there at their defense. There it was, time. Yes, all people grow older everyday and that was the best defense. Spread the word the older you grow wiser you are.

Goat 1: mmhm
Goat 2: The idea was so contagious, irrespective of civilization, religion, etc it spread like wild fire. No matter what you have done when you were young, once you grow older, you have to be treated with utmost respect, elders thoughts, ideas and opinions matter the most.

Goat 1: How do you know that ??
Goat 2: Because I am older than you and I am wiser than you.

Billa 2007 - movie review

2007-12-27T07:55:00.001-08:00

Sometimes you have to trust your instincts and if you don't, you pay a heavy price. Today was a bad day for me and I didn't trust my instincts and ended up watching...NO NO staring at this movie.For those who don't know any background of the movie, this is the remake of famous hindi movie 'Don'. It was remade in tamil in late 70s or something into a Rajnikanth starrer 'Billa'. Since Amitabh's 'Don' was remade recently starring SRK, some wise guy in Tamil filmdom came up with the idea of remaking Billa. Wow, isn't that innovative and creative.

Seems everyone in the movie crew was infected with Madras eye or Conjunctivitis. Everyone in the movie had to wear sun glass religiously and I believe the movie definitely made some optical store profitable. Wearing sun glasses is another regular ritual that has to be followed rigorously in a gangster flick and this movie is no exception. And wearing big sun glasses helps the actors too, you comfortably shield the eyes and half the face and there is very lil they have to express. May be I am living in some 82nd dimension, I don't understand Haute Couture.

Another interesting thing in the movie is that you can see many co-actors to acting as Human Statues (??) or Body guards. Having Malay body guards and damsel with weird hairdo doesn't raise the standard of movie. In total the movie was more like ramp walks by the lead cast in blazers and sun glasses than acting.

This movie proved once again the time tested theory that villains are morons, they go in groups when there isn't any need for it and when someone is going to meet someone they go at it alone and without even proper backups. I think thats the reason they are international gangsters and I am a code monkey.

The songs were absolutely pathetic and I don't see any reason why I should even mention it. The song 'My Name is Billa' reminded me of some one pulling a patients rectum through his mouth without administering anesthetic. Ripping OST of Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions for the background music doesn't make a Tamil Movie close to a Hollywood flick. This is surely one of the worst scores from YuvanShankar Raja.

Since I had seen the old flick couple of times during my summer holidays as a kid, there wasn't anything to look forward to in the movie. Only thing that this movie proved was Nayantara has a good Mid Riff and she doesn't mind showing it. The movie comes close to B-Grade hollywood flick and fails miserably. Stay away if not suffer.

Formality Freaks

2007-12-25T08:43:00.000-08:00

Traditional Indian marriages, apart from the happy bride and groom and tasty feast is a place where great many beasts lurk and if you get a chance to attend one don't miss it. Because this is the time very many unsuspecting creatures come to life. Apart from ghostly aunts/uncles (the overdone makeup puts the ghosts in movies to shame), walking jewel houses (you don't have to go to the jewelery shop to see the latest designs, you can see them all here), there is one beast which lurks in the venue unsuspectingly and paralyzes the host who have arranged the ceremony. Yes, I am talking about 'Formality Freaks' (FF). Any victim of FF will tell you countless nightmarish tales of FF's exploits. Having been a victim of FF recently let me sketch some of the tactics used by FF.

1. FF waits and stalks the host for the right opportunity, the moment guest arrives and the guest is seated, FF will send you a signal through someone to serve the guest. Yes, he won't check with you earlier whether you have Some snack or something to drink handy so that you can serve the guest. Didn't I tell you surprise is the favorite weapon of FF. Another interesting twist in the story is, the guest is usually a FF. If you fail to ask him or fail to serve him, you are damned to flames of hell. FF will have his revenge my friend.

2. Irrespective of where the FF sits, you have to locate him and serve him even if he had sneaked and mixed into the crowd.

3. FFs will give you instructions at the beginning of things and will never tell you what to do at the end. Isn't it a joy to see you stressed out in all the melee.

If you come across this beast be wary of them and maintain a safe distance for your own sane mental state. If you know any exploits of FF do leave them in the comments section.

Gabriel Hennessey

2007-12-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

Another random post, was lost in the web and came across Gabriel Hennessey, a photographer from Romania. He has a nice web site with photos from his shoots. Here is a sample if you are interested.
http://www.gabrielhennessey.ro/

Conversations in the Concrete Jungle - Part I

2007-12-19T00:58:00.000-08:00

Being a primate who can't control his ear muscles and shut the ear drums and living in the same tree with other species, overhearing things is a part of life here. Like me, the characters living in this concrete jungle have a character of their own. Unlike the stereotype wise ones, one of the wise one living in the concrete jungle is a young chameleon who leads a normal life of hopping around branches, eats insects, reproduces when he finds a mate, watches the concrete jungle with curiosity of a child using his big eyes. One day a rabbit was talking with the chameleon and the conversation is as follows.

Rabbit: Except a few of my friends, not many are in touch with me.
Chameleon: If you want to meet someone, you will find the means. Mu.

Rabbit went away hopping around in the concrete jungle and chameleon caught a juicy dragon fly.

Jigarthanda

2007-12-10T09:08:00.001-08:00

Madurai has the famous Meenakshi Temple and if someone asks me what else is famous in madurai, this drink is definitely on my list. It might have a strange name JigarThanda which is a combination of two hindi words Jigar (Heart) and Thanda(cold), so it roughly translates into heart cooler. I have no idea whether it actually does it but it does taste great.

There are several places in the city where you can buy this drink but if you want the authentic and want to try the original recipe, head for 3rd or 4th shop on Manjanakkara Street, Madurai and ask someone for the old Jigarthanda shop and they would point you to a one room shop which sells this delicacy. This shop is run by a family member whose family has been traditionally selling this drink for generations. Be aware of the fake imitations which sell the same drink on push-carts on the road.

So what is this drink actually made of, none i have met so far knows the original recipe, but it is a mixture of edible sea algae, cold milk, Sarsaparilla syrup or nannari syrup, and ice cream made of boiled milk in a clay-charcoal oven. This is sure favorite among the people of madurai during summer, when the temperature is scorching and this what you need to cool you down. If you are in madurai and if you get a chance, don't miss Jigarthanda.

Your own South Park Character

2007-12-06T10:01:00.000-08:00

If you like South Park, South Park Studio lets you create your own South Park character. Played around a bit and created myself and this is how i guess i may look like in the world of South Park.

Hello Cthulhu

2007-12-05T09:56:00.001-08:00

Cthulhu might be one of the most dreaded and famous characters created by H.P.Lovecraft, but what will happen to Cthulhu if you put him into the universe of Hello Kitty, the result Hello Cthulhu.

It is funny to see the most evil thing in the universe struggle and sulk against innocent hello kitty and other characters. Even though the site is not updated regularly and the last update was in 2006, the available strips are really funny. Check out Hello Cthulhu from the following link http://www.hello-cthulhu.com/?date=2006-11-21

One more funny take on cthulhu can be found here on, Tales of the plush cthulhu http://www.logicalcreativity.com/jon/plush/01.html

Want to meet more devilish creatures created by H.P.Lovecraft check out
http://members.shaw.ca/csstrowbridge/Tulzscha/Information.htm
http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=88885

Misal Paav

2007-12-03T09:17:00.000-08:00

Unlike its cousins Vada Paav and Paav Bhaji, Misal Paav is not well known outside Maharashtra. Having met two self confessed misal fanatics and having tasted it along with them, it will be gross injustice to misal, if I don't blog about it. Mmhm the word misal brings back several old memories of brunches and afternoon naps on the weekend.
So what is Misal ?? Misal is Manna to some and spice bomb to some. You decide which side you choose. Misal is a mixture of Farsan (Mixture) with rasa (Usal) made of sprouted green or black gram or pea or any of the seasonal varieties served with a layer of oil base called Kut or Cut. It is spicy and if you are not used to spicy food, stay away but carry the guilt that you are going to miss a delicacy savored by many. It will take a seasoned Cook to make the Usal and with the right consistency. If you become a master misal eater you can devour up to 3-10 paavs with one misal. Pune has some famous places to try misal, here is my partial list.

Tulsi Restaurant - This restaurant situated on Baner Road, near the symantec office serves consistently good misal in taste. Decent place and must try place if you enjoy misal.
Ramnath - Located on Laxmi Road, this is a very small but very famous place in Pune to eat misal. The menu board says 'Java Marg Misal' and this is definitely not for the faint hearted. If you have guts you will gain glory. The drawbacks about this place are (i) The place is small and crammed, you might have to wait (ii) they serve misal only with bread no paavs my friend :-(
Swaad - This is a small shack located on Shivaji Housing Society adjacent to Pyramid Mall and ICC. There isn't much to write about this place but the misal served here is just okay.
Bedekar - This is located somewhere near Appa balwan Chowk (ABC). Lot of people like the misal served here but I didn't like it that much. The farsan was thick variety and the usal or bhaji was just too thick for me. Once again this place also served misal with bread ..darn it. Try it for name sake.

Finally, the link to misal recipe
http://www.recipesindian.com/indian_recipes/indian_snacks_recipes/Spicy-Misal.html

Misal Paav

Motorcycle Diaries OST

2007-11-20T09:37:00.001-08:00

There are few albums which will leave a lasting impression after listening to it, this is certainly one such album. If you have seen the movie, you will see the gentle blend of music and screenplay working together perfectly.No wonder you will start searching for the OST after watching the movie. Most of the tracks feature guitar and the music is hauntingly beautiful. The whole album lasts a little more than one hour and pretty much all tracks are instrumental except one or two. The album has a good variation in moods. De Usuahia A La Quiacav is just amazing. Music knows no boundaries and if you appreciate good music you will love this album.

Radhika - Bengali Restaurant, Pune

2007-11-13T02:50:00.000-08:00

If you are looking for bengali food in Pune at very reasonable price, Radhika restaurant on Senapati Bapat Road is worth a try (They also have another branch on the mini chowpatti?? on the end of SB Road). The menu has a combination of both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. One item that caught my attention is the Mughlai-Egg parotta. It is strictly not for the calorie conscious but it is surely a delicacy served with aloo-bhaja (Potato-curry) and diced onion. The interiors are clean and they have these wall hangings painted on winnowing fan which catches your eye instantly once you enter the place. They also have a wide variety of bengali sweets to complete your meal. Worth giving a try if you are a foodie.

Inglish - Indian English

2007-11-11T10:14:00.000-08:00

I didn't know until recently that living in a housing society in India makes you a inmate instead of a tenant or a resident. Check out the notice that was put up in the housing society where my friend was staying.

Chewie or Lion ??

2007-11-11T03:20:00.000-08:00

When things go wrong the results are annoying most of the times, but sometimes the result can be surprising. I saw this painting sometime during Navaratri on a Navratri Rath, this is supposed to be a lion, but looks more like Chewbacca (wookie).

GoodLuck Cafe - Pune

2007-11-11T03:19:00.000-08:00

Good Luck Cafe is one of the old style Parsi or Irani coffee shops that is still operational in pune and it has a loyal crowd in Pune. It is located at the junction of F.C. Road with Bhandarkar Road and the restaurant is so famous, the corner is called Goodluck chowk. Even though it is named as a cafe it is more of a restaurant today than a cafe. They have a huge and wide variety on their menu and they serve both vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. The food is tasty and pretty much all items on the menu are worth giving a try. One of the delicacies of Goodluck cafe is Maska (Butter) Bun and Chaai (Tea). The bun is fresh and you can smell the aroma as you dip the bun in the tea and eat it. Yummy!!! Whether you want a quick bite or want a complete meal, this is a must visit place if you are a foodie in Pune.

Tribal Crafts froms Orissa

2007-11-11T03:18:00.000-08:00

It is a long break and need to be a lil more committed towards updating the blog. So let me start, it is festival time and you want gift something to your friends and family, and if you are confused about to what to gift. Fear not comrade, there are options for you. The Indian government has started an initiative and has launched shops in several states featuring Indian tribal art and craft for sale. They have a website too. Check out www.trifed.nic.in or www.tribes.nic.in . Got a chance to visit their shop in Senapati Bapat Road, Pune and they had a decent collection of tribal crafts in clothes, wood, terracotta and metal. Here is a sample terracotta musical Ganesha, it is made by some tribes living in Orissa. I liked it much more than the overpriced and factory products sold in several gift shops. Happy Holidays :-)

Killing time with MS Powerpoint

2007-09-30T05:37:00.000-07:00

Boredom can do a lot of things to people and (un)fortunately i started meddling with PowerPoint to kill time (I don't do it all the time). Anyway the results have been so far encouraging and am planning to keep improving on it when I find time. Here are some sample screen shots from the PowerPoint file. I didn't use any tool to create the effects, it is plain old PowerPoint, you just need to do couple of more mouse clicks to achieve these effects. If you want to see more designs, get the zip file from my esnips folder http://www.esnips.com/web/nishpeak.

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

F1 Japanese GrandPrix 2007

2007-09-30T05:23:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a great way to start my Sunday morning. In a all wet race track, after multiple collisions and retirements, near zero visibility the race started. The Ferraris where at the end when the race started and I had given up hope on Ferrari for a podium finish. What a race it turned out to be, Kimi and Massa hunted down all the other drivers ahead of 'em. There were several great moments in the race, one of the greatest moment was when Kimi overtook David Coulthard. Classic Kimi Raikkonnen. The fight between Massa and Kubica at the end moments of the race was another classic. What a great race it has been, two more races in this calendar year, can't wait for 'em.

Why do I use windows ?

2007-09-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

Why do I use windows ?? I know it is a very difficult question to answer, but J.D. Illiad of userfriendly had a brilliant answer in his comic strip userfriendly this month. Here's the strip

Travel Advisory - Mumbai

2007-09-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

This is a neat trick which the taxi drivers in Mumbai have mastered. If you are new to Mumbai or travelling to Mumbai be careful about this trick. I know, when you are landing in Mumbai you are totally disoriented and exhausted by your travel. So here's how the trick works,

1. You are getting out of your bus or airport or railway station or bus stand. A group of taxi drivers throng you and start shouting were you want to go. If you decide to go with one of these guys, you have made your first mistake my friend. - Never take the taxi from taxi drivers who are waiting outside the place were you are getting down. Walk for some distance and take one.

2. Now that you have decided to go with this guy to his taxi, he will take you to his taxi and you will find another driver in the taxi waiting for you. This is another mistake. - Never take a taxi which has 2 drivers and if there is one don't take it or insist that the other guy get down immediately. If you don't , its going to be the crucial mistake.

3. From the place where you are heading to, the driver and other guy would have figured out whether you are a native or an outsider.

4. Time to get down and you hand over the money and you are about to leave the taxi. The trick starts now, the driver will say the notes that you gave him are torn. (TIME TO GET ALERT!!!)

5. Chances are high that he won't give the note back to you and he will have it in his hand or on the seat. - WAKE UP MY FRIEND, GET THE NOTES IMMEDIATELY, ELSE YOU ARE IN DEEEP DEEP SH***.

6. Now you are caught unaware, new place don't know where to get new notes from.

7. The driver now starts manipulating you and as you are about to give him fresh notes he will start juggling notes between you and him, saying the notes that you are giving him are torn too.

8. Now you will be looking carefully at your wallet, while the other guy is closely looking at your wallet and how much money you have. He will start insisting that you haven't paid the driver yet or you have paid only part of it. This guy is just there to manipulate the situation. IGNORE HIM AND DON'T TALK TO HIM.

9. As you are looking at your wallet for fresh notes, the driver would have slipped two or three notes somewhere. If you have lost count of the notes that were juggled, sorry my friend you have fallen for this trick and the money is gone.

So remember the above things if you are travelling to Mumbai and be careful with the taxi drivers. It is just not Mumbai, it can happen to you anywhere.

Now that you are in a situation like this what can you do
1. Get all the torn notes from the driver <- Most Important step
2. Make a note of his taxi number and ask for his name -> This is enough to scare them
3. If a lonely taxi driver does this to you, say that you are going to your place to get some money and leave him. Don't get him the money and let him come to you. When he comes to you, insist that you paid him. He'll create a ruckus, you shout equally and pay him later after making a note of his name and taxi number or better don't pay him and ask him to come with you the police station or say you are calling the police.
4. After getting the notes, if you find a traffic constable goto him immediately and explain him and he'll deal with the taxi driver easily.

One final note, you are not the only one who is a victim to this trick, there have been hundreds and thousands of people out there even natives of Mumbai have been victims. Key to handling a situation like this is staying alert and calm, even after a tiring journey which is a difficult thing.

Happy Journey Amigos and pleasant stay in Mumbai.

-/\/ishanth

The Motorcycle Diaries

2007-09-23T06:15:00.001-07:00

Another lazy Saturday afternoon and as I was flipping the channels I saw 'The Motorcycle Diaries' on one of the movie channels. This movie had been in my radar for sometime, decided not to miss it and saw the whole movie.
This is one fine movie, I have seen after a very long time. The screenplay is one of the finest and all the characters are so real and natural. The movie captures the escapades of Guevara and Granado as they travel across the length and breadth of South America.
The movie captures beautifully the transformation that was happening within Guevara during this travel. The background music, the scenery, the characters are definitely going to leave an impression in you at the end of the movie.
One good movie, that you can watch on a lazy afternoon sleeping on the couch and end of it feel satisfied that you haven't wasted your time.

Quake-style command prompt for Windows

2007-09-14T11:45:00.001-07:00

Was reading lifehacker other day and stumbled across this, Quake-style command prompt for Windows. The steps were fairly simple and the Console looked AWESOME!!!. If you don't believe me see the screenshot below.

http://www.instructables.com/id/E3P6UG6F5Y3KZFT/?ALLSTEPS

Frank Frazetta - Fantasy and Sci-Fi Artist

2007-09-10T10:19:00.001-07:00

I have always wondered at the fantasy and sci-fi pictures that were on the cover of various fire crackers that I used to get for diwali (Thanks mom and dad for all the good times). It seems I have finally found the answer. I stumbled across it while looking at the cover of Wolfmother. The person behind some of the creations is Frank Frazetta.

Mind blowing is the word to describe his creations. Check out the wiki and google around to find more of his creations. The two pictures listed below are from Unofficial Frank Frazetta Art Gallery. This site has a good collection of Frank's masterpieces. If you like fantasy art Frank is great starting point.

-/\/ishanth

Tafiti search - review

2007-09-10T09:15:00.001-07:00

Tafiti is another showcase project from Microsoft to demonstrate Silvelight capabilities. I came across it while reading a blog entry by Jim Glass (A developer at M$). The interface of tafiti was was impressive and had a nice feature to save the previous searches in a small post-it note like icons on the right hand side. Looking at if for the first time, I was impressed. But I felt there was something wrong. Lets dig further

1. My first problem was the layout chosen to display the search results. I believe most of us are accustomed to reading rectangular blocks of text. So when you are reading the text from the search results you can easily be tricked into reading next search result without even realizing you are reading next search result. I don't know whether it was intended but I found it confusing. If you don't get what I mean, see the pictures below

2. I believe a considerable number of computer users today have a scroll mouse. The scroll bar in the search results doesn't move with your scroll wheel. - meh, One good reason to avoid tafiti

3. The choice of colors also seem to be a little funny. In the search results, the Web Page title has a light blue shade and the URL has a light green shade. This is very much similar to some of the Google-ads that are displayed on blogs and other sites. Unless you look carefully, you are most likely to ignore this.

I have discussed only the UI part of tafiti. Will keep the performance and accuracy comparison of google and live search for another blog entry

Cheers
-/\/ishanth

Becoming an good C programmer

2007-06-13T21:33:00.001-07:00

C is quirky, flawed and an enormous success - Dennis Ritchie

C is one of the most successful programming languages of all time. Even though C is very popular, C (sea) has its own murky waters. To be a good C programmer it takes a lot of time, practice and patience. Even though there are several books on C programming, these are few of the books I consider worthy of mention and I believe would help you become a better C programmer.

C Programming - A Modern Approach by K. N. King
I have never read this book completely but I have read excerpts and comments about this book. Overall this is a good book for beginners and there is new a edition of this book due for release in 2007. Check out K. N. King site for more info. One thing I noticed about this book is that, this has operator precedence table which shows postfix increment (++) and postfix decrement operator (--) having an higher precedence than prefix increment and decrement operator. This is true, if you read the ANSI standard. Some old operator precedence table have both postfix and prefix increment / decrement operator together with other unary operators which can confuse few programmers who are new to the language while evaluating a simple expression like *p++.

The C Puzzle Book - Alan R Feuer
Now that you have read beginners book on C programming lets put your knowledge and understanding to test. C puzzle book, is a very nice book just for that. I own this book and is one of the nicest books to test someone's understanding of the C language. Good puzzles and excellent explanation. It was out of print but I managed to excavate it from an old books shop.

The C Programming Language - Brian W Kernighan, Dennis M Ritchie
The C Answer Book - Clovis Tondo, Scott Gimpel

Now that you have read books from people who have used the language, it's time now for you, to learn it from its creators. K&R the bible of C programming. Must have in your book shelf if you are a serious C programmer. The C answer book is also good choice to learn C programming by reading good code.

The C Programming FAQs - Steve Summit
As the name says it contains some of the most Frequently Asked Questions related to C programming. Even though, you can get the latest C-FAQs for download, some times the book comes in handy. I would recommend a print out of latest FAQs than buying the book. The questions contained in it strike the mind of all newbie C programmer and it is a good reference for experienced C programmers. Highly recommended reference which every C programmer must read and have.

Expert C Programming - Peter Van Der Linden (PVLD)
This is one of my favorite books. IIRC, the book is around 300 pages and I managed to read it in 10 days. The book is written by a seasoned programmer (Solaris kernel developer) and contains good explanation and provides lot of tips. The book also has a nice column called 'software dogma' which details software failures, fun facts, etc. Thoroughly, enjoyable book on C programming which takes you around the murky waters of C without giving you a feeling of being lost or confused. Reading this book won't make you an expert programmer (its not kryptonite!!) but it is certainly a step in the right direction.

C Unleashed - Richard Heathfield, Lawrence Kirby
I normally don't recommend or buy 'Unleashed' series of books, but this book is certainly an exception. Written by experts Richard Heathfield, Lawrence Kirby, et. al this book is a great book on C programming. This book also covers a wide variety of topics which are not usually covered in many books on C programming. If you are not convinced by my review, read the replies to questions in comp.lang.c by Richard Heathfield, to know more about the authors knowledge of the subject. I was pointed to this book by richard himself while i was discussing some stupid 'C' interview questions which I had to answer in an interview. Thanks Richard for the book, fish and everything ;-)

C Traps and Pit falls - Andrew Koenig
This book is based on a paper circulated inside AT&T during the beginning days of C language. This book helps you identify some of the most common mistakes which most of the C programmers make during their initial days. Short and sweet book, just around 140 pages. Read it and remember it, it will help you avoid the traps and pitfalls.

C A Reference Manual - Harbison and Steele
This is an excellent reference book on C language ( C language ! = C programming). You should seriously consider buying this book if you are working on embedded systems and using different compilers. This book explains what is ratified in the ANSI standard and provides details about which are compiler dependent, etc. You will most likely see this book with a 'language lawyer' in your organization than with a programmer.

The Standard C Library - P.J.Plauger
I haven't read this book, but from the reviews and various resources in the Internet, this book is an excellent resource for learning about standard C libraries.

Some final words, even though reading the above books can help you, only patience and practice can help you become a good programmer. So write lot of code, initially you may write bad code but as you read learn from the books mentioned above, you will improve. Adios, Happy programming :-)

emacs v22.1.1

2007-06-13T20:45:00.000-07:00

Emacs had a new release v22.1.1. downloaded it and tried it, I liked it. I have been using emacs for some time and every time I use it I like it more. I have dabbled with several Linux boxes and I have always found vi to be strange and to some extent the key mappings of vi not intuitive. I don't want to start emacs vs Vim war here. It is my choice and I decided to choose emacs, may be one day I will learn emacs-lisp and program my editor.

Now to the itchy part, for some reason xpm4.dll was not bundled with M$-Windows version and had to install it manually. Emacs has several plug-ins and I would recommend the following plug-ins if you are a developer

ECB - Emacs Code Browser
Color theme
Highlight current line
Speedbar

The screenshot shows emacs with ECB, highlight current line and color-theme-pok-wog (white on gray).

emacswiki is good web site if you are new to emacs and wishing to learn more about emacs
http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/wiki

types of tie-knots

2007-05-28T01:22:00.000-07:00

Even though I am not comfortable wearing a tie, I have never imagined that there are so many types of tie knots. Check out the link below, which contains pictures of various styles and how to tie them, there are few videos too
http://www.bensilver.com/style04/knots_home.htm

If the link goes down here is the list of tie-knots to remember

Cross knot
Four-in-hand
Half-Windsor
Windsor
Prince Albert
Small knot

My 2 cents about typography

2007-05-24T23:36:00.000-07:00

Font selection is a very tricky thing, the font can convince a reader or it may detest him at the very beginning. So when you have to decide on a font, there is one important thing to remember "What is the presentation media, going to be"

For resume choose fonts which look good on screen and on paper like Arial, Verdana.
For slideshow use san-serif fonts like Arial, Verdana.
Helvetica is another good font to use for Logos and it is one of the most widely used fonts for logos. Microsoft Logo uses Helvetica font.
Serif fonts like Georgia, Garamond & Times look good on paper and are easy to read huge volumes of text.
Monospace fonts like consolas, courier are good for viewing source code. Infact, consolas is much better than courier. Get it from M$ website or google.

M$ has done a commendable job with 'Georgia' being a serif font it looks good on screen and even in italics. Bloggers default font while editing a post in IE7 is Georgia.

The fonts I frequently use and recommend on Windows XP are

Arial
Verdana
Garamond
Georgia
Consolas

Arial - The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
Verdana - Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz
Georgia - The five boxing wizards jump quickly

Caution: While choosing a font ensure that you select a font that will be available on the computer in which your document or slide show will be opened or viewed. If the font is not available, it may be substituted with some default font.

P.S. - Pangram (noun) - A sentence or other short text using every letter of the alphabet

Cleartype tuner for windows XP

2007-05-24T23:26:00.000-07:00

Most of those who use windows XP may not be aware of a Windows XP power toy called Cleartype tuner for Windows XP. Use this tool to increase the readability of the fonts in windows XP.

Get the Cleartype tuner for windows XP from http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx

Joel has written a blog entry on the font rendering in WinXP and Mac OS. Follow the link below for more information
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html

Here is the excerpt from Joel's blog

Apple generally believes that the goal of the algorithm should be to preserve the design of the typeface as much as possible, even at the cost of a little bit of blurriness.
Microsoft generally believes that the shape of each letter should be hammered into pixel boundaries to prevent blur and improve readability, even at the cost of not being true to the typeface.

rainlendar - desktop calendar

2007-05-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

When i told my friend that I have found a new calendar software, he wondered that there are people working on calendar software these days. As the saying goes there is always room for improvement.

Rainlendar is definitely worth a mention, it is a nice desktop calendar and also provides you with a events & to-do list. The calendar sits prettily in the desktop and doesn't interfere with your day-to-day work. The calendar is skinable, so you can download and use one of the several skins available in the Rainlendar site. What i like most about Rainlendar is the number of mouse clicks saved, in order to reach the calendar and navigate it. I wonder when will M$ add the next month and previous month button to its calendar. Its a pain to use the default drag down list in the M$ calendar. Hope its updated in vista, till then we have Rainlendar to save the day. Get it from http://www.rainlendar.net/cms/index.php

Captain Emotion Chart

2007-05-04T03:15:00.000-07:00

Was going through some website and found Steven Seagal Emotion chart, thought why not make something for our own captain who out performs Steven Seagal. So here I present to you Gaptan and Steven Seagal emotion chart.

Hackers and Painters

2007-01-29T09:22:00.000-08:00

Paul Graham is known for his essays and articles on software technology, software development, etc. I read his essays first and then decided to try his book. The book didn't let me down. The book has pearls of wisdom and careful advice which worked for Paul.

The other thing about Paul is, he has been there and done what many people dare to do these days. The book gives you a good insight into what it means to start your own business and run it. Paul is a programmer and doesn't give you all the Mgmt. BS. Paul has been practical through out the book. The book is light and easy to read.

If you are tired working for someone and interested in starting your own venture which is going to harness the power of internet, this book is a must for you. Paul's ability to foresee the power of internet and come up with an idea like 'Viaweb' reflects the genius inside him. Paul discusses a lot of topics in this book, his childhood, his views about schools, his initial days at viaweb, selling it to yahoo.

Paul's website is http://www.paulgraham.com/ and has good collection of essays.

IMO, really nice book about a guy who has done things and also explains how he managed to do it. If you want to just do it, just buy it.

The Peter Principle

2007-01-29T09:03:00.001-08:00

Its one of the most difficult job in the world to have a clear idea and convey it. Laurence J. Peter is a genius in this regard. The book 'Peter Principle' is a must have in every programmers book shelf. Yes, this book is not even remotely concerned with computers but it helps you understand the people around you and how hierarchies work in an organization.

If you are a programmer this book definitely helps you and in fact it insulates you from the 'Corporate BS' that goes around you. After reading this book you will smile a lot at work 'coz you know what is coming your way. Thoroughly enjoyable book. In just 192 pages Peter enlightens you.

This is book is must read not just for programmers but for anyone, who wants to understand hows hierarchies work and how not to reach your level of incompetence. If you get a chance to read this book..read it and get enlightened :-)

iWoz

2007-01-16T11:14:00.000-08:00

Another new year and another interesting year ahead. So here it is the first blog of the year and its about a guy who always wanted to be the first and was always the first in many ways. Yes is it is none other than Steve Wozniak.

iWoz. I was always interested in the duo behind apple and this book is just the right thing I was looking for. To give my verdict in one line "Steve is an engineer and he does his job in this book too".

Steve Woz or "The Woz" or "Wizard of Woz" or "TV is Wakezone" or "OK a new size TV" is a phenomenal guy and this book is just an reflection of his ingenuity. The book starts with Steve's childhood, his parents influence in life, his views on ethics. Steve's brilliance is sprinkled throughout the book and his pranks are really enjoyable. He tells about his childhood and being part of electronic kids, and home brew computers club, college days. The book also tells about his first job as a calculator designer at HP and how he decided to join Steve Jobs and start apple. Why he decided to leave apple and start CL9. He also discusses his personal life and his kids but doesn't get to personal to bore the reader. The US festival he organized and the plane crash are other topics in this book. The last 20 pages are really worth it and they deserve a mention in this review. The last 20 pages is for those people who are passionate about technology and what they want to do in life. There were just two topics which were unclear to a n00b like me (it dwelt a lil deeper into the design of apple-II which i have never seen in my real life, except for photos)

In fact after reading the book i started thinking about some pranks and I got some pranks too. Do watch out. The book is light i managed to complete the 300 pages in 3 days.

If you are passionate about technology and what you do in life, go grab this book.

Ruby with emacs

2006-12-29T00:29:00.000-08:00

A blog entry after a long time. Off late I have been a big fan of emacs and ruby. I like emacs for its amazing capabilities and easy to remember key strokes. Ruby is a breath of fresh air in programming language and it's quiet interesting to learn. So i decided to customize emacs to use it with ruby.

Install ruby on windows then, follow these instructions from
http://math.claremontmckenna.edu/ALee/emacs/emacs.html
to install emacs on M$-windows XP. Once your done with that add the following to the end of _emacs file

(setq config-rubyelispdir
"doc/ruby/ruby-1.8.5/misc" )
; get the installation directory
(setq config-rubydir
(substring
(shell-command-to-string
"ruby -rrbconfig -e 'puts Config::CONFIG[ \"exec_prefix\"]'") 0 -1))
; add the emacs lisp directory so emacs acan find it
(setq load-path (append
(list (expand-file-name
config-rubyelispdir config-rubydir))
load-path))
;; define autoloads
;; from inf-ruby.el
(autoload 'ruby-mode "ruby-mode"
"Mode for editing ruby source files" t)
(setq auto-mode-alist
(append '(("\\.rb$" . ruby-mode)
("[Rr]akefile" . ruby-mode))
auto-mode-alist))
(setq interpreter-mode-alist (append '(("ruby" . ruby-mode))
interpreter-mode-alist))
(autoload 'run-ruby "inf-ruby"
"Run an inferior Ruby process")
(autoload 'inf-ruby-keys "inf-ruby"
"Set local key defs for inf-ruby in ruby-mode")
(add-hook 'ruby-mode-hook
'(lambda ()
(inf-ruby-keys)))

This is ripped off from
http://wiki.rubygarden.org/Ruby/page/show/InstallingEmacsExtensions

I don't know much about emac extensions, no queries about how it works. It is tested with ruby-1.8.5 on windows which comes as a one click installer.

If you face any problems, please inform me , I will try to modify the blog and update it.
More on future posts ...till then happy holidays who ever you are and where ever you are.

-/\/ishanth

difference between a driver and dll

2006-10-31T03:40:00.001-08:00

I don't know where I read it..juss to keep it handy ..i am posting in the blog.
Difference between a driver and dll?

The difference between a MS Windows driver and a DLL, is what libraries they link against. The NT drivers (SYS files) link against ntoskrnl.exe and HAL.DLL while Win32 PEs (DLL/EXE) link against kernel32.dll and ntdll.dll.

what is nis(h) peak ??

2006-10-29T08:54:00.000-08:00

Well, I had to name my blog. I had to come up with a unique and something 'ORIGINAL', thats right something original. Could have just said 'nishanth on something' or rambling of nishanth, but nis(h)peak sounded different..Kinda liked it. So here goes the reason behind nis(h)peak. In short, 'nishanth speaks' => 'nis(h)peak'

Adios
Nishanth

To blog or not to blog

2006-10-29T08:51:00.000-08:00

Blogging is getting interesting everyday..spoke to a couple of friends during the holiday season, some had tried their hands on writing blogs, after a couple of posts they have stopped. Let me see how far I can go.

-Nishanth

"Hello blog!"

2006-10-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

whoa..my first blog :-).."Diwali day" and wht a great day to start my first blog. "Happy diwali" to all of you. More in my future posts.