At the moment...

....I want to start a Steven Seagal Haters club !

Ninja Hacker in Datacenter

Here is a story that i enjoyed reading, this featured in "The Daily WTF". There are definetely lot of good stories(rather experiences) revolving around the Datacenter, i guess the one in DailyWTF narrates it with a cool Ninja spin! Datacenter administration is one of the toughest jobs on earth, the more the number of 9's, the less the hours of sleep. But there is a workaround, if the administrator is smart, he/she can automate a hell lot of stuff and make sure that they receive notifications, that are triggered when any event happens. This site gives you some hints...

Update: Another similar story(500 mile mail) here, thanks Prash!

To (Spell) Bee or not to (Spell) Bee ?

As i was doing my routine channel surfing last night, i happened to come across this National Spell Bee contest in ESPN. I have heard a lot about these contests in newspapers.The first thing that struck me was why was this being broadcast in ESPN??Well, i wont categorize this under sports,what is there in contest of "Dictation words" (reminds me of those golden days in Primary school, when we had Dictation tests), it is more suited for Star World perhaps.As i watched the entire show, i realized that it had enough drama and action to come under the ESPN banner.There were pre-match interviews, where the contestants spoke about their special talents,preparation strategy and their seedings(?) this year.There were many immigrant contestants, especially from India and China.It was hard to believe that some of them had a personal coach to train them on spelling! The kids were amazing, they spelt all kinds of weird words(sample: 'Syringadenous','heiligenschein','maieutic').To be very honest, i had no clue about any of the words that were spelt during the contest.At times, this contest resembled more like the MTV Super Singer(the one hosted by Adnan Sami, some months back) as the parents got emotional when their kids struggled, the parents were more tensed than the kids!

Here is an interesting dialogue from this show:

Pronouncer: Here is your word @##$@$#$@# [well,not a swear word, i believe]
Kid: Okaaaaaaaay, Is this of 'Italian to French' origin?
Pronouncer: Well,may be, it is not listed here
Kid: Huh!

Interesting quote!

Here is an interesting quote by Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief mentor, Infosys, during a SPIN Talk:

Once a month I go and check the toilets in all the security gates. I get a report from the head of security about the cleanliness of the toilets once a week. It is the entry point of all visitors. First impression is made there. If you find it to be not good then if we make a big presentation, you will smile, listen to us, but you will not believe us.

Psenti Post -Part Un

Change. The very word scares me to some extent. What would life be after that? Will it be for good? Will I miss all the fun? There is this feeling of insecurity that comes naturally with any change, atleast for few days before and after the change.

Well, I am writing all this because Love Elephant will be leaving Bangalore for good next weekend. That means the last of the "Dinghian" company for me in the house is gone!

I met LE in Pilani, some 7 years ago, in the Hostel Mess. I first mistook him to be a parent of some student, considering the fact that he really looked like one and was wearing a Lungi. I still remember those days quite vividly; the day he blew condoms after a Beg-Borrow-steal event, the way he used to hunt for Pondy material in hostel rooms, the day we wrestled for taking possession of an empty ice-cream cup, the typical style in which he used to Ghot or ogled at the fairer sex...I still remember the day when he was shit scared about getting caught by warden, in an incident involving the "Little Pondy TT star" and a "white female". He did extremely well in academics, cracking courses at will and eventually becoming the topper in our discipline.

LE is famous for his wit and thought provoking statements, especially when he is "high". He is not a "non-stop-talk" kind of guy (unlike Woodworm of 'yesteryears'. Woodworm has become a lot more silent these days.), but he is famous for making some interesting punch remarks. His adventures during Goa trip and in Bangalore, after getting high are well known in "dinghy" circles! A good swimming partner, he was the chief motivation for me to join swimming ("What the hell?").I would miss those days when his Guitar gently wept...

There are a zillion of incidents involving LE which would evoke laughter.It would be another couple of years before we meet again. I am sure by then, LE would have scaled the Gates of Glory in his usual style. Good Luck Big Poppa, will miss you...

Now Playing : "Sacred Love" - Sting

Cargo Cult Science

Read this article by Feynman, very interesting! This reminds me of a story that i read somewhere long back. A scientist was doing some research on the behaviour of Frogs under various circumstances. He placed the Frog on a table, kept a match stick in front of it and said "Jump!". The frog jumped over the match stick and the scientist was happy. He then amputated one leg of the frog and said "Jump". The poor frog managed to jump. He then cut another leg and said "Jump". The frog still managed to jump with 2 legs. The scientist was delighted, he then cut one more leg and said "Jump". The frog pulled all its energy and jumped over the match stick, with just one leg. Finally, the scientist amputated the last remaining leg and said "Jump". The frog did not move. He kept shouting "Jump" but the frog never moved! So concluded his thesis with the following result: "A frog turns deaf when you amputate its legs".

Now playing: 'Miss Sarajevo" - U2

My Experiment, with Truth

Most of us would have encountered bad lab apparatus and materials while performing the so called "Practicals" in School/College. One of the blokes in Wisconsin got really pissed off with his lab results and he wrote this paper, check it out, absolutely hilarious!

Sketchup!

If you think it is some flavor of the normal ketchup, you are wrong! Yet another Google acquired product, powered by Indian Intellect, check it out here.

What's in a Name?

I happened to watch a show on Nameology (well, wikipedia doesn't have an entry on this topic!) in one of the popular tamil satellite channels. This piece of conversation that happened between a Nameology expert(who has a long list of Masters and Bachelors degrees in various fields) and his patient (rather, a victim ?) in that show was pretty interesting and thought provoking:

Nameology Expert: "What's your name?"
Patient: "Thamizhselvan"
NE: "What is your problem?"
P: "I dont have kids, Sir"
NE: "What is your wife name?"
P: "Shanti"
NE: "Well, the problem is not with your wife, it is with you"
P: "?"
NE: "Your wife's name has no problem. But when people call you as Thamizhselvan, it generates lot of heat in your body, and that affects the harmone activity in your body, which in turn affects the reproductive mechanism in your body. So your name needs to be changed, Meet me in my office, i will suggest you a good name, after which i am sure you will have many kids"
P: "Thanks a lot Sir"

What crap !

Compensatory On?

Tomorrow(Saturday) is a official working day, as the office was closed last Thursday due to some unavoidable circumstances. This would cause a lot of trouble to lot of poor souls who turned up for work last Thursday due to some deadline and still need to come again tomorrow. This would also cause pain to lot of people who had slogged hard to get a train ticket for travel on Apr 22,in the extremely busy Bangalore - Chennai sector.Also, working on a day when no people in US turn up for work, wouldnt make much sense. I have a suggestion for all those people who made the decision of announcing this Saturday as a working day. Instead of announcing a "full day" as a working day, why cant they add one extra hour work on regular working day, for some 8 days, so as to compensate for a lost day?