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Yet another Self-Important Blog.
Rohit Singh
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Wed, 22 Aug 2007
Why Don't I Have "The Knack"!
I'm an engineer, no? At least, I used to be one.
At IITK, one of the frequent things that happened with people in their first summer back home was a greater expectation that they'll be able to, you know, fix stuff. I mean, what's the point of being an electrical engineer if you can't fix the fan.
Tue, 14 Aug 2007
Mon, 13 Aug 2007
The Sum Of Node-Degrees Is The Same For Either Part Of a Bipartite Graph
By appealing to some very sophisticated math, researchers demonstrate that guys
and/or girls lie about how many people they sleep with (the former
overstate it, the latter understate it).
And you thought all those surveys about sex in various magazines were actually onto something.
Thu, 09 Aug 2007
Cool...
...turns out,
running around in your birthday suit in space is a bit like scuba diving.
Okay, the article was about being without a space-suit in space, but being in your birthday suit covers that, doesn't it?
Mon, 06 Aug 2007
Perl does give you enough rope.
Fri, 03 Aug 2007
You Can't Make This Up
Jindal Aluminium has a CXO-type position open. Take a look at the job ad
(via IndiaUncut):
Candidate aged around 35 years would stay in companys colony having all facilities and must be able to handle senior people executives intellectuals etc. whose habit is to make excuses followed by arguments instead of admitting and improving thus wasting time and energy.
Do they even realize how stupid this looks? And since this is a CXO position, the ad probably has been reviewed by fairly senior people. Feel bad for the guys who apply for the job.
Talking about Indian jobs, here's a rant about how distorted Indian salaries are in some areas. It's clear to me that some correction is in order--- the relative pay scales of different professions (e.g. doctor vs. software engineer) are totally out of whack. See this post about how US startups are finding the labor market in Bangalore (and rest of India?) too tight. The hope, of course, is that the Indian salary correction happens by an increase in salaries for doctors rather than a decrease in salaries for software people.
Thu, 02 Aug 2007
Watch This...
Two Indian Ads. The first is a poignant public service ad. The second's just fun.
Regarding Indian TV in Afghanistan
Following up on this previous post, the In-house Economist educates me about Prerna. If you've any doubts as to the quality of the serial, please try making sense of the plot "synopsis" on the Wikipedia page I've linked to.
Wed, 01 Aug 2007
Afghans are Watching TV
... and they are watching dubbed Indian serials like Tulsi, Prerna
(haven't heard of this one), and KSBKBT (look it up).
If I could speak for all Indians (except my mom, who has an inexplicable love for these serials), I'd like to say to the Afghans: We're sorry. Please don't judge us too quickly--- we also have some good stuff on TV.
Tue, 31 Jul 2007
Jesus Christ and the Deathly Hallows
Somebody thinks that, far from being Satanic, Harry's a
bit like Jesus. In particular, they draw a parallel between Jesus'
resurrection and Harry's rising after the
Adava Kedavra (he's done it twice now, 2 more times than anybody
else) and then killing Voldemort.
While talking of the Boy Who Lived, I've been impressed how much more well-balanced --- racially and gender-wise --- the HP books are than, say, LoTR. While LoTR is a better constructed fantasy world and better written, the joy of discovering a series of HP's quality and scope as it is being written is incomparable. Not to mention that it was a genius idea to set the magical world right in our midst and our time.
Sun, 29 Jul 2007
The Secret To Lower Violence: Fewer TV Reruns of "The Titanic"
Apparently, romantic movies may lead to more real-world violence than,
say, "Live Free or Die Hard". However, this claim probably does not count violence directed towards the makers of the aforementioned film.
This and other fun stuff from Tim Harford, the author of the Undercover Economist.
Wed, 14 Feb 2007
Betas Anonymous
Finally, a category for people like me. The In-house Economist claims it is the size, or the lack of it, of our kitchen that renders it off-limits to me. But I know better.
Interestingly, most of the alpha cooks in the article are men (I guess women being condescending towards male culinary skills isn't news). Go Female Lib!
Wed, 07 Feb 2007
Serendipity
I was thinking about having to file taxes and then this song came up on
my music player.
Mon, 05 Feb 2007
The T-1000 of Corporations
Colbert on the funny history of Ma Bell and the Baby Bells:
Fri, 02 Feb 2007
Watch This!
Lovely stop-motion clay animation of a day in the life of a Mumbai Taxi
Driver. Very cool:
Fri, 26 Jan 2007
Car and Computer Analogies
Saw a petition floating around to discourage analogies comparing a
computer to a car. I thought it was funnily hyperbolic-- surely
car-computer analogies can't be that bad?! This comment makes me rethink
that assessment. The poster is arguing that anybody who doesn't firewall
their computer is an accessory to crime.
Fri, 29 Dec 2006
25 Great Calvin and Hobbes
25 Gems, in somebody's opinion. Many of these are worthy of being called Great, but the list-creators were careful to not call it the "25 Top"-- and rightly so! The collection doesn't have the "reality continues to ruin my life" strip. And the one about Calvin telling Rosalyn's boyfriend about his poor taste in girlfriends. And the one about...
Tue, 19 Dec 2006
It's the Holiday Season...
...We bring you 3 different renditions of a holiday classic (courtesy
Youtube, of course). BTW, this is the classical rendering of the
classic.
Tue, 12 Sep 2006
New Theory For Why We Haven't Found Any Trace of Life Outside Earth
CERN is building a new particle accelerator that should
really smash things together at tremendous speeds, so high that
miniature black holes are created. Theoretically, these black holes
should go away almost immediately, and not grow to gobble up the earth.
This theory is supported by the observation that cosmic rays (which
often are way more powerful that CERN's latest efforts) haven't
managed to black hole us to an alternate universe. Still, it's an
untested theory and you never know...
And that engenders the second-funniest speculation I've heard about why we haven't yet found evidence of life outside earth: just when alien civilizations figure out enough science to start looking beyond their home planet, they inadvertently do something stupid (like create a black hole that gobbles their planet up) which destroys them. Hence, we haven't heard from them. Seen on Slashdot.
The funniest speculation about why we haven't heard from aliens? Aliens are so smart, they have stayed away from us.
Fri, 08 Sep 2006
Heh
Found in this blog's referral pages: a Google search for "carjacking in
urdu". The funnier thing is, this blog's the second (or third) highest
hit. Go Google!
So continuing in the spirit of an old blog posting, we proudly present more terms to ensure and further enhance this page's relevance when searching for Urdu translations of vehicle acquisition terminologies: "urdu car jacking", "jack urdu car", "vehiclejack urdu", "kidnap car urdu", "urdu car vehicle kidnap".
In case you wonder if this strategy works, I dare you to first read the above-mentioned old post and then Google for "hot pics of Sonia Gandhi."
Sun, 03 Sep 2006
Funny stuff
A WaPo guy ranting about obesity:
"You don't have to go hungry anymore; we can fill you with fats and carbs more cheaply than ever. You don't have to chase your food; we can bring it to you. You don't have to cook it; we can deliver it ready to eat. You don't have to eat it before it spoils; we can pump it full of preservatives so it lasts forever. You don't even have to stop when you're full. We've got so much food to sell, we want you to keep eating."
That last point is particularly pertinent; it's amazing how large portions are at restaurants, far in excess of what a normal meal should have. The article is here.
Tue, 30 May 2006
Truth, Fiction, Strangeness and all that...
India's gonna give the Saudis centres of excellences. Might as well just
move the IITs etc. there. It's not like Arjun Singh wants any centres of excellence back in India, right ?
Tue, 02 May 2006
Heh
Multi-Marrying Men. And just when I was beginning to think South India was less medieval than North India.
So how is property divided among the offspring of these multi-marrying men ? Clearly, the law allows for only one wife (and corresponding set of offsprings). Interesting...
Sun, 02 Apr 2006
The bad thing about doing a PhD is that...
...it doesn't matter that the rest of the university is on Spring Break.
Or is that a good thing? After all, it also doesn't matter that the rest of the university is not on Spring Break.
Tue, 21 Mar 2006
Strange Bedfellows
Newsweek writes, about a nascent movement to decriminalize polygamy:
"if Heather can have two mommies, she should also be able to have two mommies and a daddy."
Quick, where are the polyandrists ? Heather better be able to also have two dads and one mom. Of course, she might prefer having just two dads. With so many choices, I wonder if Heather would even be interested in having just one dad and one mom. Too boring, no?
Polygamists are pushing an argument based on their right to privacy, along the lines that gay-marriage advocates are pushing. (I presume it's a non-issue that most polygamists think gays are sinners and gay rights advocates don't like the polygamist movement either). Now, supporting gay marriage should be an easy call-- not that anybody has asked me. After all, it's none of my business if two gay dudes want a piece of paper that legally sanctions their fight over who'll do the dishes. If anything, gay divorce rates might well be lower: they won't fight over the toilet seat's position.
By the same token then, the polygamist's argument also has some merit, however. Thus, we have an interesting philosophical dillemma: if I am allowed a say in outlawing others' lifestyle choices-- and most democratic societies have mechanisms that enable this-- how should I decide? Requiring only public safety would end up setting a very low bar. Requiring others to be just like me would set a very high one. An argument based on claims to a right to privacy would set the bar somewhere in-between. But will that bar still be too low ?
Also, this reminds me of the another recent pairing of strange bedfellows, this time in India: commies and some extremist Muslims. Clearly, Marx couldn't have been thinking about Islam when he said religion is the opium of the masses.
Mon, 20 Mar 2006
Word Play
Some interesting expressions I've seen today:
- "If you don't want to do anything, make sure you have everything to do." Here.
- "...We should e-egg and e-tomato the reporter..." In comments of this blog post. This one's etymology is particularly interesting-- the fellow first translates a Hindi idiom ("sade ande aur tamatar phenko") into English, and then tacks on a web-ifying 'e-' to them.
- "Nothing is more sincere than cash in advance." Here. Okay, this one is a quotation and not an original from the author. But still, it's cool.
Thu, 16 Mar 2006
Happy Holi!
The in-house economist and I were missing India on Holi. These Banarasi guys seem to be having a lot of fun, though. They also seem totally stoned!
There was an interesting story CS profs at IITK mentioned once. Might not be completely true, but is juicy. Dr. Chaand (not his real name) of the CS dept was leading a group going around playing holi in the IITK faculty quarters area. The faculty quarters were in a serene, quiet area of the campus, away from the hostels. Students were rarely seen and the uncouth, unruly world outside the campus was far far away. Nice cocoon. Anyways, so Dr. Chaand was a big holi fan and went around. Some other prof, also a holi fan, had a pot of milk mixed with bhang. People were invited to partake of it. The brave took a few sips. Dr Chaand waited for others to have their sips. Then he took the pot, gave it a good swirl, and drank straight from it. The quantity alone wouldn't have done him in-- he is quite a big guy. No, it was that the bhaang had not been well-mixed and quite a bit of it had settled down. So Dr. Chaand got a really potent dose, and quite a bit of it. He ended up at the campus hospital.
Tue, 14 Mar 2006
Cool Proverb
"If you wish to die, do not torture yourself with shallow water". Bulgarian
proverb. Call me impolitic, but doesn't this really sound like
something that could only come from somebody who's suffered one too many
bitterly cold East European winters?
Maybe I'll become similarly acerbic if I stay in Boston for too long. Seriously, why couldn't Puritans land somewhere further south. Like Florida.
Mon, 13 Mar 2006
What Is Your Soul Exhorting You To Do?
Mine wants to play more GTA.
Craziness Personified
Saw this on Outlook India's messageboard. This is just plain crazy and disgusting:
NOTE TO "INDIAN" MUSLIMS: You got your share at Partition: Pakistan. In India, you should INDEED know your place.
The bloody moron who wrote it was from Southall, UK. Really, some of us displaced desis are batshit crazy. Distance not only makes the heart grow fonder, but it also seems to make you less sane at times.
Interestingly enough, that message was in response to this Outlook article, which typifies Outlook's apologist tendencies towards the *other* extreme- that let us not be so impolite as to ask the muslim community to do some self-policing.
As an aside, this is heartening-- a real fatwa against bombings. And this is even more heartening-- cricket in India seems to be blissfully unaware (thank God!) of religious issues.
Also check out this cool blog, hosted by a bunch of expat Indian Muslims, writing about things from the Indian Muslim perspective. I hope they'll get some heartland Muslims to pitch in too. The perspective would be very valuable.
Sat, 11 Mar 2006
California...
California is one of the most amazing places on earth. Just the weather
would make it that-- just go to San Diego once. But as Ron Popeil would
say, "wait, there's more!". Great restaurants, tons to see, tons to do,
the chance to hang out with all those smart people from all the great
universities, good jobs to pay for all the good food and the stuff to do,
sweet cars and lots of scenic roads to drive them on, and finally, the
sensory overload called Vegas is just a stone's throw away.
But even if California didn't have all this, it'd still be one of the most amazing places on earth. You see, it is a socio-political nuthouse like no other on earth, and I mean that with all the fondness in my heart. The "socio" part of that claim is for later. I'll just defend the "political" part now. Exhibit (1) would be this LA Times article, which says that one of the current raging debates in CA state assembly is which wine should be California's state wine (Zinfandel is being pushed). It's worth noting that California already has a state soil, so wine would be a natural next state symbol to deliberate on. Exhibit (2) would be the same article, where the author ends with saying he's glad his elected representatives are keeping busy with frivolous stuff, because their record with non-frivolous stuff is much scarier. Exhibit (3) would be Fareed Zakaria's book "The Future of Freedom", where he talks at some length about California being an example of People Power gone too far-- all the various voter propositions mean that even if Californians manage to elect themselves good representatives, those representatives really can't do much. I could go on...
Yesterday, the Sloan Indian Business Club organized a panel discussion where a bunch of IP and Corporate lawyers said lawyerly things about the minutae of starting a business (for example, a H1bee or a F1-opt can't start a S-Corp, he can only start a C-Corp. Don't ask me how the two differ). At some point, there was discussion of employment contracts, non-compete clauses and so on. One of the lawyers pointed out that non-compete clauses in employment contracts are illegal in California. His colleague chimed in, with a poker face, "nothing's legal in California."
Fri, 10 Mar 2006
Dilbert on Arranged Marriages
Well, at least Wally approves of them...
Introverts
I can never make up my mind if I am just an introvert or am also shy-
the two being different concepts. Amit Varma points to this funny write-up about
introverts and caring for that special introvert in your life.
Amazon has books about how introverts can make themselves into good salesmen. I am tempted to buy one.
The Dreader, The Dreamer and The Perfectionist
Different kinds of procrastinators. I am all three, in that order. MSN Careers has an article about
procrastination and how us procrastinators can get stuff done. For
example, if you
have trouble starting stuff because you don't know where to start, the
article says just put in 15 min and once you've started, you'll get in the flow of things and
accomplish a lot more. My little experience with this technique says
that generating enough willpower to put in those 15 minutes gets
progressively harder- the brain is a hard thing to fool, after a while it knows that
"15 min only, dear" stuff is a trap.
For some reason geeks and academics seem to be particularly conscious of their procrastinating nature. And geeks, in particular, keep trying to come up with different techniques to get around this issue. Check out this website dealing with what they call life hacks.
Tue, 07 Mar 2006
Who Knew...
When you google for Sholay dialogs, specifically "sholay dialog soorma
bhopali", this blog is either the 1st or the 2nd hit (alternating with
IMDB's Sholay page). Noticed this when I, err, came by the site
statistics.
Wow, my blog's a veritable pop culture reference source now. Yay! Here's the old Sholay post.
Sun, 12 Feb 2006
People heart Mathematicians
A 6-month old Nature piece on Mathematicians and how they are actually
reasonably well-liked, despite their own perceptions that they aren't:
"... they celebrate mathematicians as pure intellectuals who, unlike physicists, biologists or chemists, are untainted by applications of their work. For even though mathematics is eminently useful, its application barely features in its public reputation. Disciplines that are traditionally inclined to disdain pure theory \u2014 biology springs to mind \u2014 should take note of the success with which mathematics, this most theoretical of disciplines, has haplessly bungled its way into people's hearts"
They make mathematicians sound almost like helpless puppies.
Wed, 08 Feb 2006
What About Nonobvious Bralessness ?
San Bernardino County imposes dress code on its workers. Body piercings
are out (except ear-rings), tattoos are out, and so are jeans (except
for sanitation/land-fill workers). Lots of hulla-gulla at these
draconian new laws (the jeans rule does seem a bit stiff)
Other counties have more nuanced dress codes, specific to each department. Thus leading to gems like [no] "tshirts that offend a reasonable person" and [no] "obvious bralessness".
Ahh, the joy of working in tech-heavy field. Dress codes are one thing you don't have to worry too much about...
Mon, 06 Feb 2006
Pop Quiz
Which of these countries has a greater percentage of obese kids?
- USA
- Iran
- UK
- Brazil
It's not what you would've guessed! Click here for the answer. (source: ForeignExchange.tv)
Sat, 04 Feb 2006
More Funny Videos
Here's one about a comedian doing a Bush impersonation. And here's a parody of ...well... see for yourself.
Tue, 31 Jan 2006
Video from IITK kids
Here (via Google Video). Strikingly well-made. OK, maybe my assessment is influenced by nostalgia
but still, it's a good video- go watch it.
Some things change- more girls, more motorcycles, more people with computers at their rooms, swankier eateries, cellphones. Others don't- the bloody dhobi waking you up for cash, peacocks, and cyclists in the corridors (despite the administration's deep dislike). I wonder if the FacLounge's paneer pakoras are still any good...