You are not remembered for doing what is expected of you
Want to understand how the average American thinks?
Go here.
Now place your cursor in the center of the map, and drag it to the left or right.
Keep going.
Yep – there is nothing there. Not even a detail-less outline of the rest of the world.
Nothing.
For the average American, there is nothing outside the USA.
Does it therefore surprise anyone that they re-elect a president who is the single biggest reason for the destruction of world peace?
So I decided to declare yesterday as the Unofficial Star Wars Day.
Why?
Because I could – it is unofficial, after all.
And to celebrate the event, I plunked myself into bed, grabbed my trusty old Thinkpad, my AKG K240DF headphones and my Official Starwars Trilogy DVD set, made sure that there was plenty of food and fluid within arm’s reach, and watched all three movies back-to-back, and then, for good measure, watched the 2 hour Star Wars documentary DVD as well.
I finished at 1:00 in the morning, and vowed not to drive a car for the a week – I didn’t think that would have been such a hot idea.
I own the original VHS tapes as well, and have managed to wear them thin over the years, and was therefore able to really appreciate all the extra stuff on the DVDs. The attack scenes during the climax of Episode 4, or the first appearance of Jabba the Hut that was never shown in the cinemas or tape, and all the extra little scenes, sounds, colours and other updates. Gorgeous.
I am an unabashed Star wars fan. Which naturally means that I hated Episodes 1 and 2 (the prequels).
Episode 3 (out this summer), will be the last one of the series unless George Lucas can manage to gather enough energy to do the rumoured three sequels as well (7, 8 and 9).
Join me, as I go down on my knees to pray to the Almighty that Lucas manage to do a better job than Episode 2.
And no – you cannot borrow my DVD set. Not unless you are someone really special.
[Update:] Next Weekend, I think, shall be “Unofficial Startrek Weekend”. I’ll have to start on Saturday – 10 Movies to watch. 
My final year project in engineering was the development of a model hovercraft, designed by my project mates and me, and built according to our specifications by us, using a variety of locally available materials.
We met with a lot of failure – the damn thing just wouldn’t work, i.e. it wouldn’t float. We were told by our professors to change our project and do something regular, like a furnace or something (we were in mechanical engineering), but we stuck to our guns.
But frankly, we were beginning to get really worried. On the morning of the 2nd of February, 1985, we had a discussion, and decided that if we didn’t manage to get it working over the weekend, we would give up.
That night, one of my project mates and me worked till late in the night on the model, but it wouldn’t work. Totally disheartened, we slumped onto the floor of my room, and my friend tapped the model, whose motor was running.
Reached Calicut on Saturday morning after an uneventful train-journey. Amazingly, I had GPRS connectivity almost throughout the journey, so was able to web-browse and do email till late into the night. Technology rocks!
On reaching Calicut, was collected at the station and taken to the NIT guest house to freshen up. Met up there with Shanu, who had arrived a few hours earlier by bus (and had some exciting stories to tell .
The NIT guest house is *amazingly* comfortable. Great rooms, nice airconditioning, great food – and WiFi! Man, I’ll come here anytime they call!
Afternoon session started off with a bang – literally. The projector went out to lunch and didn’t come back. A new projector was procured, and Shanu took to the stage, and proceeded to tell people why they should be using BSD instead of Linux. It was nice to see how comfortable he is on stage now, and was able to address many points clearly and convincingly. What a change from the shy, skinny lad who came to Bangalore in November 1999.
After Shanu, I took to the stage and proceeded to trample all over people’s (mis)conceptions about Free and Open Source software. I started with an introduction of FOSS, and ended with an overview of FOSS in India. Hopefully, I will have made things clear enough to people to get them excited and (more importantly) involved. Lots of questions after the talk, so I am hopeful that the talk was useful to the 100+ people in the audience. Slides are here.
Today, Shanu and I are in our respective rooms, relaxing like we are on a holiday, lazing around, browsing online, and listening to music. We leave back for Bnagalore this evening.
I am off to Calicut this evening, to speak at the NIT FOSS Event there tomorrow. Shanu is also joining me, along with a few more guys.
I have never been to Calicut before, though my connection with the place goes back a few years – friend Nikhil Datta and Manish Bhalla did their MBAs there at the IIMK, and while Nikhil was there, he “infected” the place with Linux, which has been going strong ever since. Nikhil will also be in Calicut (total coincidence) while we are there, for some alumni association meet.
I was originally scheduled to speak in the morning, but since my train arrives only mid morning, I will now be speaking in the afternoon session. Which is good – Swaroop and Pradeep will have morning-dew fresh audiences to unleash their Python stuff on.
I return to Bangalore Sunday night.
However, this trip does have a bad side to it – actually TWO:
And I get to miss both gigs. 
IAC, those of you with 100 bucks to spare and some room in your heart – make it over to the St.John’s Open Air Theatre this evening at 6:30pm, contribute your bit, and enjoy great music. More details here.
Many thanks in advance!
What’s in a name? A rose is a rose by any other name?
Xerox used to be the name of a technology company before it became a generic document-duplication process they helped popularise (“I’ll just take a Xerox of this document using my Ricoh photocopier here”).
Thanks to the media, hackers, who used to make technology go beyond its perceived limits, are now jail-bird material who brutally break into systems to steal, maul and destroy. That is because every dyed-in-the-wool yellow journalist knows that the act of hacking (envision blood, gore and the swinging of an axe) makes so much better headline material than the actual term (which is “cracker” – which sounds like a bisquit).
And when things go stale, I can’t open Windows to freshen and improve things, because I might get a call from Microsoft’s lawyers.
Clearly, I have a problem with names (and tags, and labels, and…). And it is causing me some consternation as I try to achieve something else.
Allow me to explain:
Did you know that I am a great Phil Collins fan?
Not only does he create great songs – he never holds back when it comes to calling a spade a spade.
Here is an example (you can guess the context):
![[Poster]](http://wearephenom.com/images/woc-150.jpg)
Phenom is participating in a show to raise funds fro Tsunami relief. The show is on January 28th (Friday) at 6:30pm at the St.Johns Amphi-theatre. Donor passes are Rs.100.
The other groups are Galeej Gurus and Zebediah Plush, plus a few acoustic groups. All performing groups are doing so free of charge to maximise net funds collected. The event is associated with ActionAid.
If you like good rock music, or if you would like to do your bit for tsunami relief, or both, then be there and show you care.
More details on on this poster.
I don’t want to sound cynical, but….
Has *anyone*, *anywhere* in India, got a BSNL Broadband connection installed?
After much hoo-haa and lots of advertising, I have yet to hear about anyone getting a connection.
Has anyone at least been contacted about the application that they have made online ?
Specific to Bangalore – which exchanges are supposedly BSNL Broadband enabled? And does anyone have any information about when they plan to give connections?
If you have any information about this, please let me know.
(OK, so I do sound a bit cynical, don’t I?)
Heh. Finally. Phenom releases my favourite from their album – CAP 5101.
Nice, rocky song, great chorus, and I totally freak on that rousing solo at around 2:26 into the song – it gives me the feeling of a 100 piece orchestra going into full blow.
The song is apparently autobiographical – the group is basically singing about itself.
I love this song – it’s the kind of stuff I would have loved to do when I was much younger.
Give it a listen – click here.