Absolut Blog

WordPress

2006-05-25T17:27:00.000+05:30

Started a new blog at WordPress.
Things I liked are categorization, clean themes, pages.
Things I missed is posting through email, improper html rendering.

www.yeskarthi.wordpress.com

S.Karthikeyan

Laws of Software Development

2006-05-23T11:52:00.000+05:30

There's always one more bug.
Any program will expand to fill 100.5% of all available memory and disk space.
Just because you wrote it out doesn't guarantee you can read it in.
Any interface that is stable and well-documented is already obsolete.
There is no such thing as a "standard configuration".
Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle.
"Undocumented" is short for "isn't tested and doesn't always work".
Antique software will be run on state-of-the-art hardware, and vice versa.
Source code is not documentation.
Never underestimate the user's ability to ignore the obvious.

Anthem

2006-05-17T12:21:00.000+05:30

I am captivated by IBM's new Anthem spot. It's so much refreshing from
their old Help desk format. The ad really motivates me, now I have
already thinking about what makes my blog so special ! So much for
narcism.

Taking no chances!

2006-05-16T17:07:00.000+05:30

Found this piece of disclaimer in my camera's manual (Fuji FinePix).

"We (Fuji) take no responsibility for loss of income resulting in use of this camera.."

How can be one more safe than this!

Auguries of Innocence

2006-05-15T15:17:00.000+05:30

To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.

http://www.artofeurope.com/blake/bla3.htm

-William Blake

Imagine

2006-05-12T13:07:00.000+05:30

Imagine a coalition government by DMK and AIADMK front in Tamil Nadu. Led by versatile Karunanidhi for the first two and half year and Jayalalitha for next two and half year. Won't it be beautiful ?

Sri Sivan

2006-05-09T12:12:00.000+05:30

Portrait of Sri Sivan
Who reminds us of all the wonderful things that life offers.

A Mathematician's Apology

2006-05-05T18:14:00.000+05:30

A Mathematician's Apology - G.H. Hardy

I tried to buy this book only to find that there are no prints available. After a long search on net. I am happy to find this book online at this site. I have finally found nirvana!

A must read for everyone. Go grab it.

Mana nashtam

2006-05-03T14:05:00.000+05:30

These days every body is filing a mana nashtam vazhalku. For example Vaiko has filed a case against Kalaingar for one crore Indian rupees. Dayanidhi Maran has filed a case against Vaiko for the same amount.

Indha manam keta manidharin manam oru kodi endral, manam ulla makkalin velai enna va irukunam ?

On Nokia's user interface design

2006-04-28T12:52:00.000+05:30

Developing the user interface (UI) is a difficult task and if it is targeted at mobile segment then it becomes much more Herculean task.

According to Joel Spolsky the UI can be called success when it behaves as the user expects it to behave. Coming back to my experience with Nokia design I found that every consecutive push on mobile takes me to a logical steps as given below.

Menu->Messages->Text Msgs->Create Msg->Send->Search->First entry->send

For some reason auto key guard did not work, I had my mobile on my pant pockets at the end of travel to my office I realized that I have sent some 15 sms to my friend whose number was the first entry in my mobile.

After burning my finger twice I add the following address entry Aaa NULL with no number in it. Now on continuous clicks results in a message number not found. I am saving on my mobile bills now. So much for user interface design. Nokia needs to learn a lesson or two IMHO.

Election learning's

2006-04-25T20:11:00.000+05:30

It's fun to watch all those election news/programs etc on Tamil media. They offer real entertainment value to the viewers. These are some of my observations.

Chidambaram excels has a very very good orator, he doesn't utter nonsense like Vaiko, T.Rajendar, Sharathkumar etc. Has very good command on Tamil, has very good sense of humor.

Kalaingar his playing it safe, I wonder what's the need to address Sonia with all those chromatic titles.

Vaiko and T.Rajendar should be sent to asylum immediately. They switched roles and I can't stop laughing.

Both Sun and Jaya are manipulating the news. Jaya comes first and Sun distance second. I loved the report in Jaya where the camera zooms on person's wrist watch showing 10:00 pm and then Kalaingar giving speech. The news is Kalaingar is violating the code of ethics by continuing the Pracharam even after 10:00 pm. Tell me how hard is it manipulate the time in watch?

I have found the new comedian in Sharathkumar. Pity that he can't excel Ravi Bernad.

Finally, I am missing Vijayakanth a.k.a Captain. He doesn't get covered by any media and I wish he wins atleast a handful of seats this time. I think he deserves to win .

ACC

2006-04-21T16:17:00.000+05:30

Saw this advert in television for Maruti SWIFT. It seems the car has Automatic Climate Control in it. Wonder what those scientist are doing in met labs!

Maruti can loads of money by selling the automatic climate control alone than selling Swift. IMHO :-)

Unhelpful gravity

2006-04-20T16:26:00.000+05:30

"Walking on a ceiling is very different from normal walking," Stanislav Gorb of the Max Planck Institute for Metals research in Stuttgart, Germany, says in a press release, "because gravity tends to pull an inverted insect away instead of pressing it to the surface." Thanks for the insight.

src : www.newscientist.com

Serene

2006-04-11T13:57:00.000+05:30

Unbelievable

2006-03-13T12:23:00.000+05:30

Unbelievable. Namba mudiyavillai ......

Kapaleeswarar Kovil

2006-03-09T17:36:00.000+05:30

Last weekend happened to travel to Chennai after a very long time.This time around I was able to visit the Kapaleeswarar kovil at Mylapore for the first time. I will blog more on my recent chennai visit in future posts. For now I am posting one of the photo that I took. I am really happy about the reviews I got for this photo at Treakearth.

Short history of the kovil from Indian Heritage

The Kapaleeswarar Temple in Mylapore, Chennai is a very ancient temple. The original temple was submerged under the sea & the current temple structure was a later construction. The Moolavar is Kapaleeswarar & Amman is Karpagambal. There are separate sannadhis for several deities such as Vinayagar, Annamalaiyar, Murugar, Saneeswara. There are several other deities such as Durgai, Dakshinamurthy, Chandikeswarar located within the main Sannadhis of Kapaleeswarar & Karpagambal. The temple tank lies opposite the tower.

Karpagambal is said to have worshipped the Lord in the form of a peacock (Mayil in Tamil) & hence the area came to be called Mylapore.

Thirugnanasambandar, is said to have brought back to life the maiden Poompavai, daughter of Sivanesa Chettiar ( a Siva devotee) who was desirous of marrrying him, at Mylapore. The saint poet Tiruvalluvar lived here. The bronze idols of the 63 Nayanmars, the saints who were devotees of Lord Siva are placed in the Kapaleeswarar Sannadhi. Every year the Arupathumoovar festival is conducted & the 63 nayanmars are taken in procession.

Thanmana Singam!

2006-03-06T12:56:00.000+05:30

Now it's domain names :-)

2006-02-17T14:03:00.000+05:30

My last post was all about selecting the ringtones wisely. I will follow it up with domain names. See how you mess with the meaning if you are not careful enought.
[This one is via www.newscientist.com]

www.whorepresnts.com : Who Represents ?
www.expertsexchange.com : Experts Exchange ?
www.penisland.net : Pen Island
www.therapistfinder.com : Need a therapist ?
www.molestationnursery.com : Mole Station Native Nursery in S.Australia
www.powergenitalia.com : Power Gen Italia

If you stumble more, illuminate me.

Ringtones

2006-02-17T12:44:00.000+05:30

This one is about ringtones a.k.a how to shoot oneself in foot :-)

One should wisely choose ringtone for his or her mobile phones. They should be even so very careful when they select the ringtone that the dialer listens. It's becoming very common these days to select a song from the movie and play it to the dialer (Dil ki bath sunakar tho dekho).

Very recently I happend do a telephonic interview and when dialed the candidate I was greeted with loud voice singing "Salamu Namasthae, Salamu Namasthae...". The candidate had already made some opinions about him even before speaking a word.

I am against using fancy ringtones when you are using the mobile for some professional purpose. People are about to make impression even before you lift your phone and speak and as far the candidate is concerned. It's "Salamu Namasthae...."

Tailpeice:
I wish to use the default ringtones that come with the phone. Some of the ringtones from Mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Illayaraja are ok with me. I prefer strictly instrumental in these cases. Let me know what kind of ringtones you prefer?

Nostalgia

2006-02-15T18:23:00.000+05:30

After a pretty long time, I was able to shoot this portrait of kids at Kanchipuram. I was really happy with the result. This image brings fond memories of my school days.

Udayakumar and Vigneswaran are studying in eigth standard in government school at Kancipuram. Used to have few friends who used to frequent the temples during the exams it's true that faith can do wonders!

Symmetry

2006-02-02T17:29:00.000+05:30

I am currently reading Dan Brown's Angels & Demons novel. The novel is easy read and doesn't tax my brain. Very recently I finished reading Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum and I yet to understand the whole plot of it. It seems that I should read atleast three times to grasp the essence of Eco.

Dan Brown takes his artistic liberty in the way he uses science in the novel and that at times looks silly. If you want to read what happens at CERN then you should read book Story of W and Z by Watkins, P. It traces everything from start to finish of the discovering the W and Z bosons by team headed by Carlo Rubia.

But the artwork in the book i.e. anagrams in the book by John Langdon amazed me. There is perfect symmentry in the work he did and they are beautiful. Anything that is symmentric must be beautiful isn't ?

Some fun:
Do you think you know the password for Penn and Teller website? Let me know if you find the password and if you did the method.

Rules from the Garage!

2006-01-30T16:54:00.000+05:30

This is pretty old stuff but still makes a lot of sense to me. Here is the HP Way {Rules from the Garage}

Believe you can change the world.
Work quickly, keep the tools unlocked, work whenever.
Know when to work alone and when to work together.
Share - tools, ideas. Trust your colleagues.
No politics. No bureaucracy. (These are ridiculous in a garage.)
The customer defines a job well done.
Radical ideas are not bad ideas.
Invent different ways of working.
Make a contribution every day. If it doesn't contribute, it doesn't leave the garage.
Believe that together we can do anything.
Invent.

Telemarketing!

2006-01-30T13:12:00.000+05:30

Tricks of telemarketing.

I get a call from lady saying that she is from Standard Charted (SC) bank and this call is involving my pending balance on SC credit card. Now I was taken by surprise as I do not own a SC credit card or a card from any other bank. I express my concerns to her to which she replies if you do not have credit card from SC then why not opt for an other credit card from .....

I kindly say to her that I am not at all interested in credit card and politely disconnect the phone. I wonder why people lie to their potential customers at all in the first place as lot of reputation is at stake.

New clothes

2006-01-23T11:15:00.000+05:30

The emperor's new clothes.
Looking forward to your candid opinion on the new banner design.

Common Sense!

2006-01-20T16:31:00.000+05:30

Just when people were hell bent on getting the artificial intelligence into our day to day life, there is Pattie Maes who insists that machine consciousness may not be a matter of replicating total human thought capacity. It may come in several small, specialized parts. She terms this as Intelligence Augmentation instead of Artificial Intelligence.

The core idea is pretty simple and it is plain common sense. In a group every person may have unique intelligence gained by his or her experiences. If people augment each others intelligence then the group's intelligence is much more than the sum of the individual. I believe this is the corner stone of any team building exercise. One for all and all for one should be the motto.

The idea Pattie Maes pursues is to built a IA software that learns by inputs given by the user and collates the information. The idea is there are no new problems and it is already solved by others. (Think of cut and pasting the code from internet!). So if I want to buy a car I will use this IA system and give my preferences and priorities then IA sees the how others have solved this problem. (This may include the price comparison, dealers etc.) Over a period of time the system becomes self regulating and will be able to solve some of the simple problems in life!

The other example is the Backrub algorithm designed by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page. As an example take Absolut Blog. It’s worth to know who all link to this blog (for this blog it doesn’t matter to whom it links till becomes really famous). If there is link to this blog say from BBC then it carries more weight the one coming from my alternate Flickr page link, and this simple plain common sense! Backrub is baptized as Google now. No marks for guessing how much Brin and Page made just by following common sense route. I may be over simplifying things here, but that's ok. If its complex then it is not matured enough.

Having said about Google, I should point Cyc here. (You can find the open source version here) It's going to be available for public this year. It's promised that search engine based on Cyc will give Knowledge-enhanced search results.

If you are interested in making the next big thing then looks no further. Take some common sense behavior and give generic shape and you may be raking in a billion dollars!

(Note: This is first time I have typed some thing this big for a blog, this it self is an achievement for me. Kudos!)