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!)

Bizarre!

2006-01-16T12:56:00.000+05:30

It's bizarre that at times I keep humming some musical tune in my head and I have no control over it. I can't stop that from being repeated in my head/brain or whatever. Most of time the song/tune that keeps ringing is not even worth mentioning they are boring and mundane stuff. It happens that songs have recent memory imprints in a sense I have watched it on television or heard it over a radio few days back. This keeps repeating for a day or two and later dies down.

It's puzzling to realize that I have no control whatsoever on the song that I keep hearing. One thing I noticed is that it's language independent.

I wish I could have this feature on visual front also, before the exams glace at all the formulaes etc and replay it in the exam hall!

Pongal-O-Pongal

2006-01-13T12:38:00.000+05:30

Thamizhar thirunal vazhthukkal!

Pongal thirunal vazhthukkal!

Pongal -O- pongal!

I remember reading somewhere that there are three unique identity for tamilian, they are Tamil, Murgan and Pongal. I can't agree more to it.

May this Thai Pongal bring you lot of happiness and prosperity for you and your family.

S.Karthikeyan

Bihar calling

2006-01-06T14:15:00.000+05:30

Happen to see this feel good ad for Bihar. The ad is termed Bihar Calling . The ad telle all the points that are frozen in time. (Bihar is India's first republic, place of Buddha, Asoka, Chandragupta etc ..) The ad is primarily targetted at the investors (why not tourists !) with the assurance given by Nitesh Kumar, the new kid on the block.

But will explain the unfortunate incident of buring five human beings of a family becausee the head of the family complained againts the upper caste people for stealing his buffalo. The persons burnt alive are his wife and five children. This happens on the start of new year 2006.

Nitesh need not do the same mistake as BJP did with India Shining propaganda, instead of cheap media tricks he should make good governance first which other's can see and feel. I think there is a lot of time before Bihar truly calls!

What is your dangerous idea?

2006-01-03T18:27:00.000+05:30

Feel the Dangerous Ideas at Edge!

I think rampt use of genetic modification will be the dangerous idea for the man kind. GM immaterial were it is used may prove to be very dangerous with un anticipated outcomes.
Already there are cases were GM foods proving to more uncontrollable than previously thought.

Unquestionably, people don't need more reddish and bigger tomato, they will be satisfied with what ever mother nature offers. Also I am frightened at the idea of "Designer babies". Parents can give wish list that may include say the color of eye, color of skin and go on make genetic makeup for the yet to born baby!

Another new year

2006-01-02T18:09:00.000+05:30

Another new year, an another opportunity to improve!

Happy Holidays

2005-12-28T12:56:00.000+05:30

01010111 01101001 01110011 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01110110 01100101 01110010 01111001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110000 01110000 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110000 01110010 01101111 01110011 01110000 01100101 01110010 01101111 01110101 01110011 00100000 01101110 01100101 01110111 00100000 01111001 01100101 01100001 01110010 00100000 00110010 00110000 00110000 00110110 00100001

01010011 00101110 01001011 01100001 01110010 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101011 01100101 01111001 01100001 01101110

Software Engineering

2005-12-26T17:27:00.000+05:30

Some of points from Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering by Robert L. Glass.

Facts

The most important factor in software work is the quality of the programmers
The best programmers are up to 28 times better than the worst programmers
Adding people to a late project makes it later.
The working environment has a profound impact on productivity and quality
Hype (about tools and techniques) is the plague on the house of software.
New tools/techniques cause an initial loss of productivity/quality.
Software developers talk a lot about tools, but seldom use them.
One of the two most common causes of runaway projects is poor estimation
Software estimation usually occurs at the wrong time.
Software estimation is usually done by the wrong people.
Software estimates are rarely corrected as the project proceeds.
It is not surprising that software estimates are bad. But we live and die by them anyway!
There is a disconnect between software management and their programmers.
The answer to a feasibility study is almost always “yes”.
Reuse-in-the-small is a well-solved problem.
Reuse-in-the-large remains a mostly unsolved problem.
Reuse-in-the-large works best for families of related systems.
Reusable components are three times as hard to build, and should be tried out in three settings.
Modification of reused code is particularly error-prone.
Design pattern reuse is one solution to the problems of code reuse.
For every 25 percent increase in problem complexity, there is a 100 percent increase in solution complexity.
Eighty percent of software work is intellectual. A fair amount of it is creative. Little of it is clerical.
One of the two most common causes of runaway projects is unstable requirements.
Requirements errors are the most expensive to fix during production.
Explicit requirements “explode” as implicit (design) requirements for a solution evolve.
Explicit requirements “explode” as implicit (design) requirements for a solution evolve.
There is seldom one best design solution to a software problem.
Design is a complex, iterative process. Initial design solutions are usually wrong, and certainly not optimal.
Designer “primitives” (solutions they can readily code) rarely match programmer “primitives”.
COBOL is a very bad language, but all the others (for business applications) are so much worse.
Error-removal is the most time-consuming phase of the life cycle.
Software is usually tested at best at the 55-60 percent (branch) coverage level.
100 percent coverage is still far from enough.
Test tools are essential, but many are rarely used.
Test automation rarely is. Most testing activities cannot be automated.
Programmer-created, built-in, debug code is an important supplement to testing tools.
Rigorous inspections can remove up to 90 percent of errors before the first test case is run.
But rigorous inspections should not replace testing.
Post-delivery reviews (some call them “retrospectives”) are important, and seldom performed.
Reviews are both technical and sociological, and both factors must be accommodated.
Maintenance typically consumes 40-80 percent of software costs. It is probably the most important life cycle phase of software.
Enhancements represent roughly 60 percent of maintenance costs.
Maintenance is a solution, not a problem.
Understanding the existing product is the most difficult task of maintenance.
Better methods lead to MORE maintenance, not less.
Quality IS: a collection of attributes.
Quality is NOT: user satisfaction, meeting requirements, achieving cost/schedule, or reliability.
There are errors that most programmers tend to make.
Errors tend to cluster.
There is no single best approach to software error removal.
Residual errors will always persist. The goal should be to minimize or eliminate severe errors.
Efficiency stems more from good design than good coding.
High-order-language code can be about 90 percent as efficient as comparable assembler code
There are tradeoffs between size and time optimization
Many researchers advocate rather than investigate

Fallacies

You can't manage what you can't measure.
You can manage quality into a software product.
People.
Programming can and should be egoless.
Tools and techniques: one size fits all.
Software needs more methodologies.
To estimate cost and schedule, first estimate lines of code.
Random test input is a good way to optimize testing.
The way to predict future maintenance cost and to make product replacement decisions is to look at past cost data.
The way to predict future maintenance cost and to make product replacement decisions is to look at past cost data.
You teach people how to program by showing them how to write programs.

I wish to know if you also have same opinion as Glass. If your proffesion is not software then also you can comment on simillar ideas in your stream of work.

SMS Bible

2005-12-22T14:33:00.000+05:30

In da Bginnin God cre8d da heavens & da earth. Da earth waz barren, wit no 4m of life; it waz unda a roaring ocean cuvred wit dRkness. (Genesis, chapter 1, verses 1-2).

God luvd da ppl of dis wrld so much dat he gave his only Son, so dat evry1 who has faith in him will have eternal life & neva really die. (John, chapter 3, verse 16).

U, Lord, r my shepherd. I will neva be in need. U let me rest in fields of green grass. U lead me 2 streams of peaceful water. (Psalm 23, verses 1-2).

Wrk hard at wateva u do. U will soon go 2 da wrld of da dead, where no 1 wrks or thinks or reasons or knws NEting. (Ecclesiastes, chapter nine, verse 10).

Respect ur father & ur mother, & u will live a long time in da l& I am givin u. (Exodus, chapter 20, verse 12).

The Bible soceity at Australia created SMS bible designed to allow church goers to spred the word of God via Cell phone. The group translated Bibles 31,173 verses into text messages, which can be downloaded to cell phone.

Tailpiece:
"I'm so pleased with with my cellphone. I can tell my psychiatrist how unhappy I am from anywhere"

Meanwhile, court rejects "Intelligent Design" in science class. More

Remembering Ramanujam.

2005-12-21T14:37:00.000+05:30

Srinivasa Aiyangar Ramanujam
22/Dec/1887 to 26/Apr/1920

More info on the genius at Wikipedia and History of Mathematicians

Haikus

2005-12-20T18:42:00.000+05:30

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
so beautifully.

With searching comes loss
and the presence of absence:
"My Novel" not found.

Three things are certain:
death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

A file that big?
It might be very useful,
but now it is gone.

Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.

Errors have occurred.
We won't tell you where or why.
Lazy programmers.

The code was willing.
It considered your request,
but the chips were weak.

Printer not ready.
Could be a fatal error.
Have a pen handy?

This site has been moved.
We'd tell you where, but then we'd
have to delete you.

ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have.
You ask way too much.

The Web site you seek
cannot be located but
endless others exist.

A crash reduces
your expensive computer
to a simple stone.

Yesterday it worked.
Today it is not working.
Windows is like that.

Having been erased,
the document you're seeking
must now be retyped.

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.

By Catherine French.
Via : Embedded Muse

Shame

2005-12-19T15:01:00.000+05:30

It's shame to watch those tailor made news in Jaya TV. They belive they can spred the disinformation through television channels. Pity them there are plenty of other windows to show the truth.

Chromatic Aberration

2005-12-13T16:28:00.000+05:30

Recently there was a news in th Jaya TV about the meeting between Kalaingar and Bill Gates.
The news reader said that Kalaingar said that Bill Gates has vistied him and asked for money.
Then they aired even the clippings, in it one of the news reporter asks Kalaingar why did Bill Gates visited him, to which he sarcastically replied "Panam vanga vandhar". Roaring laugh!

Jaya TV and to an extent Sun TV stand for Chromatic Aberration of news! Jaya TV news makers are definitely over working and at the same time being creative also!

Absolut Bliss

2005-12-09T15:55:00.000+05:30

I am listening to music that's a mix of Illayaraaja, Rehaman, Beatles, Eagles, Eric Clapton and others. The player is in shuffle mode. I keep hearing at random and suddenly I hear this song from Illayaraja Kunguma Manjalku suddenly I can sense some soothing change in me. Peace prevails and all confusion is cleared and I am mesmerised by Raja once again!

This feeling should be experienced and no words of explanation will do justice to this supreme feeling. Belive me!

Visible structures in poems

2005-12-05T12:06:00.000+05:30

I am seeing/reading something of this sort for the very first time.

I am completely amazed by the creativity of A.K.Ramanujam. Read on Hindu Literary Review.

a spinning top
motionless and still
spinning on one leg
at top speed like
a crane at rest
awake now
and then
likely to
topple
if
t
o
u
c
h
e
d
.

Science is provisional

2005-12-02T13:51:00.000+05:30

Yesterday I watched a program on Natural Selection that was aired on Discovery. In the program one of the gentleman made a statement that "Science is provisional".

How true, one can't agree more on that. What I like about the Science is that none of the ideas is treated as dogma. If tomorow we find a better explanation for relativity supported by proof, we are not ashamed of dumping Einstein. In science it is expected that people challenge the existing ideas which generates more new ideas and makes the place fertile for future growth.

I also wonder if Mathematics is provisional or not, what if mathematics is provisional, I think it will be a disaster. I also have this very fundamental question on mathematics. Is mathematics invented or discovered ?

This is more of philosophical in nature. Amen!

World AIDS day

2005-12-01T14:10:00.000+05:30

Today is world AIDS day and I am thinking what would be the consequence if mosquito acted as carrier for AIDS virus. This one thought prepares me to belive in GOD.

Tailpiece

I was wondering why is that most of bloggers turn on the word verification on, even though it is bit of hinderance for the genuine commentor. Of late I keep getting spam comments on my blog which goes like this

2 comments:

free software downloads said...
Good Day Blogger.I am searching for information on computer software when I came across your site. Although this post was'nt exactly what I was looking for it got my attention and made an interesting read. I was really after information relating to computer software. However I'm glad I stopped by - thanks for the read.

buy and download software said...
Hello Blogger. I was looking for some information on email software and came across your site. Not really what I was after but I found it very interesting. I was looking for email software related information. Glad I found your site even though it was not exactly what I was after. Keep up the good posting - thanks

I am already wondering what is computer software and email software!

I should turn on word verification, I am spamed and I am happy that now I am famous! Being curious I googled for the url and checked the cached page which says

Create Your Own Software Program in 30 Minutes or Your Money Back
This startling new invention (Patent Pending) creates an infinite number of high-demand software programs which you can sell royalty-free at any price

Also a lot of testimonies like this one here.

"In less than 20 minutes from the time I got the download instructions for 'Make Your Own Software' I had already created a fully-functional, working piece of software. I don't even know a single line of programming code and I created professional software in a matter of minutes. Simply amazing!"Jason Oman#1 Best-Selling Author of "Conversations with Millionaires"

from : www.jasonoman.com

If you are more interested check this cached page here and have some fun!

Building software is no childs play. I am serious read this and you will appreciate the fact.

Software bugs

2005-12-01T13:21:00.000+05:30

Reproduced from wired news. Just to reconfirm that software can kill.

Last month automaker Toyota announced a recall of 160,000 of its Prius hybrid vehicles following reports of vehicle warning lights illuminating for no reason, and cars' gasoline engines stalling unexpectedly. But unlike the large-scale auto recalls of years past, the root of the Prius issue wasn't a hardware problem -- it was a programming error in the smart car's embedded code. The Prius had a software bug.

With that recall, the Prius joined the ranks of the buggy computer -- a club that began in 1945 when engineers found a moth in Panel F, Relay #70 of the Harvard Mark II system.The computer was running a test of its multiplier and adder when the engineers noticed something was wrong. The moth was trapped, removed and taped into the computer's logbook with the words: "first actual case of a bug being found."

Sixty years later, computer bugs are still with us, and show no sign of going extinct. As the line between software and hardware blurs, coding errors are increasingly playing tricks on our daily lives. Bugs don't just inhabit our operating systems and applications -- today they lurk within our cell phones and our pacemakers, our power plants and medical equipment. And now, in our cars.

But which are the worst?

It's all too easy to come up with a list of bugs that have wreaked havoc. It's harder to rate their severity. Which is worse -- a security vulnerability that's exploited by a computer worm to shut down the internet for a few days or a typo that triggers a day-long crash of the nation's phone system? The answer depends on whether you want to make a phone call or check your e-mail.

Many people believe the worst bugs are those that cause fatalities. To be sure, there haven't been many, but cases like the Therac-25 are widely seen as warnings against the widespread deployment of software in safety critical applications. Experts who study such systems, though, warn that even though the software might kill a few people, focusing on these fatalities risks inhibiting the migration of technology into areas where smarter processing is sorely needed. In the end, they say, the lack of software might kill more people than the inevitable bugs.

What seems certain is that bugs are here to stay. Here, in chronological order, is the Wired News list of the 10 worst software bugs of all time … so far.

July 28, 1962 -- Mariner I space probe. A bug in the flight software for the Mariner 1 causes the rocket to divert from its intended path on launch. Mission control destroys the rocket over the Atlantic Ocean. The investigation into the accident discovers that a formula written on paper in pencil was improperly transcribed into computer code, causing the computer to miscalculate the rocket's trajectory.

1982 -- Soviet gas pipeline. Operatives working for the Central Intelligence Agency allegedly (.pdf) plant a bug in a Canadian computer system purchased to control the trans-Siberian gas pipeline. The Soviets had obtained the system as part of a wide-ranging effort to covertly purchase or steal sensitive U.S. technology. The CIA reportedly found out about the program and decided to make it backfire with equipment that would pass Soviet inspection and then fail once in operation. The resulting event is reportedly the largest non-nuclear explosion in the planet's history.

1985-1987 -- Therac-25 medical accelerator. A radiation therapy device malfunctions and delivers lethal radiation doses at several medical facilities. Based upon a previous design, the Therac-25 was an "improved" therapy system that could deliver two different kinds of radiation: either a low-power electron beam (beta particles) or X-rays. The Therac-25's X-rays were generated by smashing high-power electrons into a metal target positioned between the electron gun and the patient. A second "improvement" was the replacement of the older Therac-20's electromechanical safety interlocks with software control, a decision made because software was perceived to be more reliable.

What engineers didn't know was that both the 20 and the 25 were built upon an operating system that had been kludged together by a programmer with no formal training. Because of a subtle bug called a "race condition," a quick-fingered typist could accidentally configure the Therac-25 so the electron beam would fire in high-power mode but with the metal X-ray target out of position. At least five patients die; others are seriously injured.

1988 -- Buffer overflow in Berkeley Unix finger daemon. The first internet worm (the so-called Morris Worm) infects between 2,000 and 6,000 computers in less than a day by taking advantage of a buffer overflow. The specific code is a function in the standard input/output library routine called gets() designed to get a line of text over the network. Unfortunately, gets() has no provision to limit its input, and an overly large input allows the worm to take over any machine to which it can connect.

Programmers respond by attempting to stamp out the gets() function in working code, but they refuse to remove it from the C programming language's standard input/output library, where it remains to this day.

1988-1996 -- Kerberos Random Number Generator. The authors of the Kerberos security system neglect to properly "seed" the program's random number generator with a truly random seed. As a result, for eight years it is possible to trivially break into any computer that relies on Kerberos for authentication. It is unknown if this bug was ever actually exploited.

January 15, 1990 -- AT&T Network Outage. A bug in a new release of the software that controls AT&T's #4ESS long distance switches causes these mammoth computers to crash when they receive a specific message from one of their neighboring machines -- a message that the neighbors send out when they recover from a crash.

One day a switch in New York crashes and reboots, causing its neighboring switches to crash, then their neighbors' neighbors, and so on. Soon, 114 switches are crashing and rebooting every six seconds, leaving an estimated 60 thousand people without long distance service for nine hours. The fix: engineers load the previous software release.

1993 -- Intel Pentium floating point divide. A silicon error causes Intel's highly promoted Pentium chip to make mistakes when dividing floating-point numbers that occur within a specific range. For example, dividing 4195835.0/3145727.0 yields 1.33374 instead of 1.33382, an error of 0.006 percent. Although the bug affects few users, it becomes a public relations nightmare. With an estimated 3 million to 5 million defective chips in circulation, at first Intel only offers to replace Pentium chips for consumers who can prove that they need high accuracy; eventually the company relents and agrees to replace the chips for anyone who complains. The bug ultimately costs Intel $475 million.

1995/1996 -- The Ping of Death. A lack of sanity checks and error handling in the IP fragmentation reassembly code makes it possible to crash a wide variety of operating systems by sending a malformed "ping" packet from anywhere on the internet. Most obviously affected are computers running Windows, which lock up and display the so-called "blue screen of death" when they receive these packets. But the attack also affects many Macintosh and Unix systems as well.

June 4, 1996 -- Ariane 5 Flight 501. Working code for the Ariane 4 rocket is reused in the Ariane 5, but the Ariane 5's faster engines trigger a bug in an arithmetic routine inside the rocket's flight computer. The error is in the code that converts a 64-bit floating-point number to a 16-bit signed integer. The faster engines cause the 64-bit numbers to be larger in the Ariane 5 than in the Ariane 4, triggering an overflow condition that results in the flight computer crashing.

First Flight 501's backup computer crashes, followed 0.05 seconds later by a crash of the primary computer. As a result of these crashed computers, the rocket's primary processor overpowers the rocket's engines and causes the rocket to disintegrate 40 seconds after launch.

November 2000 -- National Cancer Institute, Panama City. In a series of accidents, therapy planning software created by Multidata Systems International, a U.S. firm, miscalculates the proper dosage of radiation for patients undergoing radiation therapy.

Multidata's software allows a radiation therapist to draw on a computer screen the placement of metal shields called "blocks" designed to protect healthy tissue from the radiation. But the software will only allow technicians to use four shielding blocks, and the Panamanian doctors wish to use five.

The doctors discover that they can trick the software by drawing all five blocks as a single large block with a hole in the middle. What the doctors don't realize is that the Multidata software gives different answers in this configuration depending on how the hole is drawn: draw it in one direction and the correct dose is calculated, draw in another direction and the software recommends twice the necessary exposure.

At least eight patients die, while another 20 receive overdoses likely to cause significant health problems. The physicians, who were legally required to double-check the computer's calculations by hand, are indicted for murder.

Little pleasure

2005-11-24T16:32:00.000+05:30

It's still fresh in my mind. On how even small things would bring an immense sense of joy to me in my childhood days. Non event things like watching a favourite television show, wearing new dresses, eating my favourite dishes or going out for that matter was really interesting and fulfilling.

I was wrongly thinking that as an adult, I have over grown on all those silly feelings till last week. SriSivan completed one year on planet earth this november 21st. To us SriSivan is a remainder of all the good things in life. My wife insisted that we send his photo for Sun tv's Vazhalthalam Vanga (?) program so that we can see his photo on television. Eagerly I uploaded SriSivan's photo on Sun tv's website and waited for the day to arrive. Finally the day arrived were everybody at home was sitting in the front of the idiot's box and waiting in the bated breath only to find that Sun tv did not show SriSivan's photo. I was totally depressed but at the same time I am happy that child in me alive and kicking. He still finds pleasure in small things.

Finally, I have made up my mind to enjoy even the smallest things that life has to offer from hereafter. (It's sad that SriSivan fell ill and we did not celebrate his birthday on November 21st.)

Absolut Narcism

2005-11-23T14:42:00.000+05:30

Recently, I was creating a series of posters for this blog. This is one of them, your comments on this poster is valuable! Now this is what I call Absolut Narcism!

An ad for this blog. Original photo from Treakearth.com. Photoshoped by Me

Comic strips

2005-11-18T16:18:00.000+05:30

In recent times I sometimes read comic strips in newspaper first, then digest the main news. I think this is a very healthy habit as I start my day with upbeat note. (Whatever! Meanwhile the other news are going to make you sick any way!)

My favourite comic strip are:

Calvin and Hobbes
Beetle Bailey
Garfield
Hagar the horrible
Dibert

I haven't listed them in any particular order of merit and good part is they are available in most of the newspapers getting published in Bangalore. Finally there are bunch of science cartoons that I enjoy in New Scientist, Scientific American and American Scientist.

Here is a sample of S.Harris cartoon. You thought that Einstein is a tough nut to crack ?

Portrait

2005-11-18T13:56:00.000+05:30

Occam's Razor

2005-11-15T15:31:00.000+05:30

The Occam's Razor principle states that one should not make more assumptions than the minimum needed. In other words given two equally predictive theories, choose the simpler.One should try to apply this prinicple in everyday life for a better living.

Here is an example of application of the principle.

When I watch those tearjerkers in television, like Kolangal serial, I used to theorize why these characters in the plot are so dumb and inane? To arrive at satisfactory answer, i used to speculate lot of different ideas like , the director incompetent, is it the mass behaviour that we like tearjerkers etc. Finally with the help from Occam's razor I have reached the conclusion.

I watch Kolangal because, I am dumb and inane!

Children's Day

2005-11-14T11:27:00.000+05:30

Today is children's day. Let their smile be there for eternity.

Apropos to the Gp's reply to my previous post

2005-11-11T13:31:00.000+05:30

Apropos to the Gp's reply to my previous post.

It's raises an interesting paradox. Is the loss of information is an information by itself? I think it's not. Black signifies there is no colour information and it doesn't make black a colour by itself.

I remember a paradox in physics that I read pretty long time ago, the one relating to Einsteins relativity theory. Consider a brid flying at the speed of light. It's flying over a horizontal plane which has verticle wall over it. Now the shadow of bird is also travelling at the speed of light. Now when the bird crosses the wall the shodow of the bird travels at a very higher speed over the wall. If the speed of the bird is speed of the light then the speed of shadow is much greater than speed of light when it crosses the wall. Does this violate Einsteins relativity ?

Einstein need not worry about this because the shadow is absence of light, therefore absence of information. Which means no information can faster than light. The black colour of electron also falls under this category.

I really liked Gp's way of thinking out of the box and coming out with a trump! There are still four of my questions begging for an answer.

Writer's Block!

2005-11-10T14:15:00.000+05:30

This is with respect to the post in Dilbert's blog. It's about writer's block. The irony is that even I was under the impression that my intellectual work is blocked it. Henceforth I will try to write whatever that comes to mind!

No more writer's block syndrome. How are you feeling :-) or :-(

Now for my asynchronous thought process!

What is colour of electron?
How does the sunlight smell?
How come Indian cricket is reaching great height?
Why I always write with fountain pen?
Why is that I always get stuck in traffic?
Why people watch those crappy mega serials?

Palikudam a.k.a School

2005-11-09T22:24:00.000+05:30

Schools play an important role in development of India. Especially the ones in rural villages. I found childrens really intrested in attending schools and there is a mid-day meal scheme that helps the poor children.

Compare this with schools in cities like Bangalore. People are shelling out sum greater than 50K rupees to get their kids admitted in pre-kinder garden.

Flash news :-)

2005-11-09T14:11:00.000+05:30

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw this one. How about you ?
Flash News : Google and E-bay are merged!

I hope you know some Kannada slang!

Must read.

2005-11-08T23:57:00.000+05:30

If you are a programmer, then these two articles by Edsger W. Dijkstra are a must read for you.

1.The Humble Programmer
2.Go To Considered Harmful

Out of the world!

2005-11-08T10:43:00.000+05:30

"Global warming: does it affect our region?" - New York City radio station

Were is New York by the way!

?

2005-11-03T18:16:00.000+05:30

Image source: calacademy.org

ShouldExist

2005-10-28T22:36:00.000+05:30

Every television or music system remote control should have a lock and unlock feature. I can't watch television program when my toddler is playing with the remote.I hope that lock and unlock feature just like in mobile phones will solve a lot of headache for parents.

I have posted this idea at ShouldExist.org , a place for Idea exchange and news of the future.

Check out Planet PDF for all those great books. Absolut free!

Kavithai

2005-10-28T11:12:00.000+05:30

Savuvatham oru kalithan!
Yarukum thondharavu tharamal
Uthirum elai!

- Makudeswaran

(From : Vikatan Deepavali Malar 2005, Original Photograph by Me)

And finally a from Jaya news.

"Amma indru edi mazhaiyaiyum porulpaduthamal sattamandram sendru natu nadapai patri arindhar."

Hmm..

Dilbert

2005-10-27T14:49:00.000+05:30

People who are trying to decide whether to create a blog or not go through a thought process much like this:

The world sure needs more of ME.
Maybe I'll shout more often so that people nearby can experience the joy of knowing my thoughts.
No, wait, shouting looks too crazy.
I know - I'll write down my daily thoughts and badger people to read them.
If only there was a description for this process that doesn't involve the words egomaniac or unnecessary.
What? It's called a blog? I'm there!

The blogger's philosophy goes something like this:
Everything that I think about is more fascinating than the crap in your head.

The beauty of blogging, as compared to writing a book, is that no editor will be interfering with my random spelling and grammar, my complete disregard for the facts, and my wandering sentences that seem to go on and on and never end so that you feel like you need to take a breath and clear your head before you can even consider making it to the end of the sentence that probably didn't need to be written anyhoo. If that doesn't inspire you to read my blog, I don't know what will. You can find the Dilbert Blog at Dilbert's blog!

Fate

2005-10-27T10:06:00.000+05:30

Bangalore has been getting record breaking rains now. It's really pitty to know how people have lost their life due to this rain.

A person , while searching for his lost footware gets washed away in overflowing drain. The other on his way to heart hospital in Banaglore (from Hosur) dies due to heavy traffic jam .

Fate plays in a cruel ways.

Pudhu Velai ..

2005-10-26T17:27:00.000+05:30

Pudhu velai, pudhu office, pudhu computer. Pramadham!

Everything in amidst of heavy Bangalore rain!

Satisfying Experience!

2005-10-24T11:25:00.000+05:30

Last weekend I visited Dhalavahalli, a small village in Dharmapuri district Tamil Nadu. During the visit , I was happy clicking few photographs, then suddenly this gentle man approached me and asked what I was clicking.

Periyavar : Yedha padam pudikiringa ?

Me : Indha maram ..

Periyavar : En thenai marathai pudingu parpom, nalla varutha parkalam.

Then I shoot and show him the picture on the LCD of my digitial camera. He is really thrilled and exited and then I ask him can I photograph him. He is all exited and asked me if he will come good in the photograph and started to correct his shirt and veti. Then I photographed him and showed his portrait and said that how good it is. After that i could see his smile and excitment on his face and he was very grateful for me. His smile made my day.

No matter how old we age, the child in all of us is still alive and clicking. I had similar experience with a bunch of kids also, that will be my next post.

Kahlil Gibran

2005-10-19T13:49:00.000+05:30

Hmm.. all these days I was under the impression that Kahlil Gibran was some medieval poet. Now I know that he belonged time that I can relate to. It's all so interesting to know that he was a painter and stayed in America for period of 20 years and started to write even in English.

Surely, Ignorance is bliss, indeed!

One of Kahlil's work with profound thoughts.

Said the Eye one day, "I see beyond these valleys a mountain veiled with blue mist. Is it not beautiful?"

The Ear listened, and after listening intently awhile, said, "But where is any mountain? I do not hear it."

Then the Hand spoke and said, "I am trying in vain to feel it or touch it, and I can find no mountain."

And the Nose said, "There is no mountain, I cannot smell it."

Then the Eye turned the other way, and they all began to talk together about the Eye's strange delusion. And they said, "Something must be the matter with the Eye."

After a short hiatus

2005-10-18T12:03:00.000+05:30

After a short hiatus due to Dasar, I am back to blogging days!

I have been to Hosur recently and few of photographs taken at Hosur are available at my Flickr.

Nostalgic moments

2005-10-11T15:02:00.000+05:30

Original photo S.Prabhu

Gone are the days when I used to walk to school and run back to home!

Candid opinion on new template

2005-10-11T10:51:00.000+05:30

I have changed the theme for my blog and I want to know if it's good, bad or ugly!

Give your candid opinion.

FabMall Grocery, Adieu!

2005-10-10T17:02:00.000+05:30

I was shocked to see this message at grocery section of www.fabmall.com .

"We are temporarily unable to accept grocery orders online. The inconvenience caused to our regular grocery customers is deeply regretted.
Please feel free to visit our other categories on Fabmall.com however, to shop for other products.
We will inform you as soon as we are ready to start accepting grocery orders again. "

I was introduced to Fabmart by a collegue some five years back. Since then it's been more than four years of hassle free shopping of grocery for me, thanks to Fabmart. Today I find that the online stores are no more. I had called Fabmall to find out when it will be up and running only to find my calls getting hopped to someone next in the chain. Finally a lady took my call and said that they are not taking any orders over the net or on phone. Pity this should happen.

I was expecting this to happen someday or the other, as the online stores dropped from the list and only Bangalore was surving for some time and I think MSN had some stake at Fabmall, the senior managers were not to be seen.

I feel a sense of personal loss for me.

Riemann hypothesis and SriSivan

2005-10-10T11:53:00.000+05:30

The Riemann Hypothesis is one of the problem of the millennium that is yet to be cracked.

Paul Erdos once said all babies (he used to call them epsilons, because babies are really small!) remeber the solution for Riemann Hypothesis. The only problem though is that they tend to forget everything once they reach the age of six month.

Recently SirSivan turned six month and I was lamenting to my wife that, SriSivan would have forgotten the precious solution for Riemann Hypothesis but I wish to belive that he is an exception and indeed he still remembers the solution for Riemann hypothesis.

Good feeling!

2005-10-07T16:55:00.000+05:30

Feeling good after a long time!

It's yucky world out there!

2005-09-28T13:08:00.000+05:30

How can one eat in these restaurant!

There are more photos of the restaurant with toilet themes and I am too disgusted to post all them here.

Yuck :-(

Non-stop entertainment

2005-09-27T10:46:00.000+05:30

Now a days for non-stop entertainment one has to simply tune into any one of the 24 hour news channel be it english or hindi. Satisfaction guaranteed!

Handbook for Bloggers

2005-09-26T12:05:00.000+05:30

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/new.html

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents (in multiple languages; 2005), by Reporters Without Borders (HTML and PDF at rsf.org)

Alaipayuthe

2005-09-23T14:44:00.000+05:30

Now who wouldn't be tranced by the Alaipayuthe song/poem ?

Kaashyapeya has post on Alaipayuthe here and is looking for word to word translation of the work. If anyone can translate it or already have translated version please help him.

Fun at Google!

2005-09-22T12:37:00.000+05:30

http://www.google.com/microsoft

Sudana Vadai

2005-09-21T17:51:00.000+05:30

These are few precious things that one can cherish on his travel by bus to Tamilnadu from Bangalore.

1.Stop at hotel near Krishnagiri.

2.Gana songs.

3.Answering nature call.

4.Sudana vadai/bajji.

5.Popcorn.

The effect is more prominant on night travel. Simply mesmerising.

Original picture by S.Sathiyan, PS effects by Me

Infidel Quotes

2005-09-20T16:21:00.000+05:30

As nations improve, so do their gods.
[G. C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799) German physicist, writer]

Why is it when we talk to God, we're said to be praying - but when God talks to us, we're schizophrenic?
[Lily Tomlin (b. 1939) American comedy actress]

Your DNA may be destined to mingle with mine. Salutations!
Richard Dawkins

More

iPod nano

2005-09-19T15:23:00.000+05:30

I keep drooling over cameras at JJ Mehta, that apart now one can buy the coolest gadget out there, the Apple iPod nano from JJ Mehta. Prices start frim 10.5 K to 13.25K indian rupees.

Tangram

2005-09-19T14:59:00.000+05:30

I saw this terrific puzzle named Tangram from my colleague. It's an ancient chinese moving peice puzzle consisting of 7 geometric shapes. One has to make various shapes out of these seven peices. The game will help to improve the problem solving skills, observation skills, visual perception, eye-hand co-ordination and creativity.

Over the net I found this website on Tangram, which gives you a peek into the games history and great downloads.

Try it, you won't be disappointed!

Punnagai / Smile

2005-09-19T12:00:00.000+05:30

Let the first post to this blog start of with a big smile.

The original photo was taken by S.Prabhu and I have used some PS filters to get this dramatic photograph.

Links

2005-09-19T11:23:00.000+05:30

Blogs that I frequent much.

My Photography Links

Flash Slideshow