Oh, Well!

A little essay about driving in India

2012-02-12T00:54:00.001-08:00

It’s that time of year when foreign tourists flood into India. These days, many choose to drive on the roads.
Here is a little essay about driving in rural India that I’ve been working on.
Indian road safety;
I’m not going to say too much about the operation of the vehicle; I’m going to assume you already know about that.
But a couple of things about riding Enfield motorcycles;
They have the brake on the other side than most people are used to. GET USED TO IT!
I find keeping a toe on the brake pedal for the first day or two gets me straight.
Also, you will be driving on the left side of the road; for those for whom this is new, you’ll have to keep it on top of your consciousness for the first week or so.
This is your mantra, the most important thing you need to know about life and living. Repeat this in your mind as you drive; LEFT LEFT LEFT LEFT.
As you say this to yourself, concentrate on your left hand.
I’m not joking, this can save your life.
Other vehicles;
Under Indian road rules, when 2 vehicles approach a level crossing simultaneously, the vehicle on the right has right of way.
That’s just great as long as you know that the guy approaching on your left has no idea of this.
Generally speaking, everyone just slows down and waves each other through. Make no assumptions though! Sometimes [often] cars, busses, scooters, bicycles, will just barrel ass straight on through, possibly after a brief toot on the horn to let the world know.
Reality; larger vehicle has right of way. Expect vehicles to shoot intersections.
Pedestrians; especially in the middle of the day, pedestrians can be erratic. It’s hot out there, and he/she may have been at work since dawn. Do not assume they hear you and know you’re coming; in India, it’s polite to give a short beep on the horn to be sure.
I find that the people who are likely to be walking on the roadside [i.e. poor people] have great faith in god and vehicle drivers. They usually have more faith in me than I have; I wish they would turn to look or step off the road as I pass [in a large bus]. But they usually don’t. A big horn is good for everyone.
Animals; especially dangerous to bikes, but cattle in the road will do harm to anything less than a military truck if you hit one.
Pigs are the most dangerous for bikes in my opinion. Remember this and you might keep your tires [tyres?] down; if a pig starts running parallel to you, get on your brakes as hard as you can. The swine will break suddenly and cut across your path, and if you’re not decelerating hard, it will bounce your front wheel out from under you. You’ll be sliding down the road on your fanny. Take my word for it, I learned the hard way, twice. I also avoided many.
Dogs; if a dog looks at you, you won’t hit it. If he doesn’t look at you, blow your horn. He will look and see it’s a human on a motorbike and stay out of your way. The only critter that works for. Don’t think he will know to stay to the side of the road because he hears you. I’m a dog lover, but I know [from experience] they just aren’t that smart.
Goats;
Will mostly stay still as you pass by, but if you pass too close may be spooked and jump out at you while trying to avoid you. Goats are very thick.
That lesson hurt me some, and was much worse for the goat.
Cows / buffalos; singly, they’re easy. Just go around them slowly and they won’t alter their course [if walking]. They will always travel in the direction they are looking, so watch their heads, and you’ll get a couple of seconds notice of any course change. Also be careful of the horns, if they have long ones and may shake their heads...
In a herd, they are much less predictable. They like to crowd together, so you’re in good shape if they’re all on one side of the road; but if you have to split a herd, go dead slow, less than a walk. Talking to them quietly seems to help keep them calm.
If mating, they will run at full gallop in any direction. Two bovines on six legs could come out of the underbrush at any time, and I have no advice to offer on that one.
Chickens; ignore them. They usually miss you, and if they don’t then nothing will happen anyway [great cloud of feathers and a loud squawk]. They’re cheap to buy if you need to pay for one, much cheaper than an accident trying to get out of their way.
Monkeys are smart and will stay out of your way if you’re moving. If you’re parked though, they might try to steal your food.
If they try they usually succeed.
One guy I know had a monkey fall out of a tree onto him as he rode his bike below, but that was because of a fight with another monkey. The monkey was fine, my friend wasn’t. He had to get a rabies injection too.
The road itself;
Much is made of the potholes and poor surface. But remember this as well; it doesn’t rain for months after monsoon. The roads are very dirty!
This includes oily soot from diesel engines and cow shit, all dried and rolled out by the passage of many tires.
What I’m trying to say is, grip isn’t so good.
If there is an unseasonable rain, or the first rain of the monsoon, the roads turn to grease. I’ve had to drive on the muddy shoulder as it was safer than the road.
The old hands were all sitting in the bar, watching the first timers slide off the bend into the field one by one...
There are no roadside reflectors or lines on the sides. There can be buffalos lying in the road and your headlight is probably not very bright.
Insurance;
Is mandatory in India. I STRONGLY advise you to be sure you’re insured.
They don’t actually pay, but if you have an accident and you’re not insured, you are in DEEP shit; at the mercy of the police.
License;
Get an international license from the auto club where you live. It’s an amendment to your home state license that says it’s legal everywhere. Valid for 1 year.
Attitude; this is important...
You’re on vacation, mom is far away, no one is watching what you do.
There are few if any speed traps, fines are only a few bucks anyway. There are no breathalyzers, everyone’s having a good time, No one else seems to be paying any attention to traffic rules... it’s a blast to ride fast.
TAKE IT EASY! Shit happens, but it doesn’t have to happen to you. Just because you left all that’s serious on another continent doesn’t mean it’s ok to drive like there’s no tomorrow. There are other people on the roads, including children.
Having a bike accident is no fun anywhere, but even less fun when you’re in a place where it can take so long to get help.

Accidents; no one likes to talk about this subject, but it would be good to be prepared if it happens.
Each situation is unique, so what to do will always be a judgment call.
If you hit an animal, it’s your fault. Best to just apologize and pay for it if the poor creature is dead or badly injured, even though you may be in a state of discomfort yourself. If necessary, go back later and find the owner.
It’s up to you to keep everyone calm; people get excited and angry when nasty things happen, especially if there is human injury. Don’t raise your voice, make eye contact, and be sympathetic even if it’s not your fault.
If you’ve hurt someone, you will likely be charged with “rash and negligent driving”. That will be expensive and time consuming.
If it’s only property damage, consider paying on the spot. You are insured [right?], but who needs the hassle?
If anger is brewing and a crowd is gathering, flee if you can. This is legal in India [leaving the scene of an accident if you have fear for your personal safety due to riot]. But you have to report to the nearest police station immediately. This won’t be fun, but sure beats a riot with your name on it. If your vehicle is too damaged to drive, jump into someone else’s and shut the door. Tell him to drive; he probably will.
If you are injured yourself, people will almost surely be sympathetic, but you’ll still have to take charge if you can. Ask if anyone has a mobile phone, ask him or her to call someone for you, a doctor or hospital or the police. There is still no central alarm number for India.
If you’re in north Goa, keep this number handy; Vrindavan Hospital - Tel: 250022 / 250033
My qualifications; driving in India since 1971 [on a bicycle for the first few years], I have a reputation [no longer deserved] for being excessively exuberant on the road. I’ve hit most of the animals mentioned above, and maybe you don’t have to.
II hope this writing will help someone sometime. Have fun!

From the user "anjuna mark" on IndiaMike forums

http://www.indiamike.com/india/members/anjuna-mark-u4254/

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World in 2000 as Predicted in 1910

2012-01-22T22:47:00.001-08:00

Illustrations by French artist Villemard in 1910 of how he imagined the future to be in the year 2000.

In the 21st century, in order to control traffic jams in the air,
there will be more and more flying policemen.

Firemen will be equipped with “bat wings” to be able to easily access top floors and roofs.

Just one for the road…

Wars will be fought by “combat cars”.

Schools will be equipped with audio books.

Horses will be so rare that people will pay to see them.

You’ll be able to send mail just by dictating it into loudspeaker.

Heating with Radium.

Building sites will be equipped with automatic devices and machines.

Makeup will be applied just by pressing few buttons.

Hair salon.

Electric train from Paris to Beijing.

Rescue plane.

Tailor.

Airship. Literally.

Motorized roller skates.

Video-telegraph.

Police will use armored bicycles (motorcycles?) to chase down criminals.

Listening to an audio-newspaper.

Spy helicopters.

The avenue of the Opera, Paris. Year 2000.

via sadanduseless.com

Personal favorite - Videoconference

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If Logic Tells You Otherwise, Ignore Your Gut

2012-01-07T22:23:00.001-08:00

The brain, it turns out, is wired early on with an intuitive sense of logic, but we often ignore it to go with our gut reaction, which often means people let their stereotypes rule the action. When making these decisions, people still have a sense that something is off, but don't let logic prevail in the decision.

via lifehacker.com

Now will you believe me, Humans? Even Lifehacker does!

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The Eloquent Sounds of Silence by Iyer Pico (via @cmuravi)

2012-01-05T03:47:00.001-08:00

We have to earn silence, then, to work for it: to make it not an absence but a presence; not emptiness but repletion. Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands. In silence, we often say, we can hear ourselves think; but what is truer to say is that in silence we can hear ourselves not think, and so sink below our selves into a place far deeper than mere thought allows. In silence, we might better say, we can hear someone else think.

via hermitary.com

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Obi-Wan Kenobi's Home Planet Named After Jon Stewart!

2011-12-20T21:27:00.001-08:00

Lucas jokingly replied “This is one of the first things I wrote in the very first script. He comes from the planet Stewjon.

via thenextweb.com

A fitting tribute.

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The ONE guy in GOP that actually makes sense - Ron Paul

2011-12-12T23:04:00.001-08:00

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Man arrested at Large Hadron Collider claims he's from the future | CNET UK

2011-11-29T21:53:00.001-08:00

Mr Cole was taken to a secure mental health facility in Geneva but later disappeared from his cell. Police are baffled, but not that bothered.

via crave.cnet.co.uk

Nobody is bothered?!?!?!

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MUMBAI MERI JAAN!

2011-11-28T23:44:00.001-08:00

goosebumps :)

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ummm.......

2011-11-14T02:30:00.001-08:00

via fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net

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Magic Kingdom: Is Qatar Too Good To Be True? - Global Spin - TIME.com

2011-11-03T06:17:00.001-07:00

If there ever were a country that resembled a fairytale kingdom as imagined by Disney, it would be Qatar: A benevolent monarch and his beautiful queen rule over a peaceful populace, untroubled by the revolutions in neighboring lands even as they support those revolutions financially and through the modern-day equivalent of a magic wand: the government backed satellite news channel al Jazeera. They spend the country's wealth on the arts and sciences. They have built not one, but seven temples to education in what was once barren desert. The ever-blooming skyline of the capital Doha reflects a 2010 growth rate of 19 percent and the second highest per-capita GDP in the world. Unlike other insta-cities whose crystalline growth effaces cultural identity, thoughtful architecture negotiates the constant preoccupation of the Arab world: how to be modern without losing identity.

via globalspin.blogs.time.com

There's a reason i've always loved the place

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Fascinteresting - Comixed - 4 panel comic strip (yonkoma or 4koma)

2011-11-02T04:38:00.001-07:00

via comixed.memebase.com

All I can say is "

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Steve Jobs last words: Oh wow! That was a clever way to go...

2011-11-01T00:51:00.001-07:00

When Voltaire was on his deathbed, a priest asked him to renounce the Devil. He replied: ‘This is no time for making new enemies.’ And then, with perfect timing, he died. But, with such a good witticism under his belt, what if he had struggled on for another few days? The same goes for Oscar Wilde, who is always meant to have looked at the vulgar curtains of his cheap hotel, and then to have said: ‘Either those curtains go or I do,’ before dying.

via dailymail.co.uk

some of the smartest people in the indeed!

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Halloween Light Show 2011 - Party Rock Anthem

2011-10-29T03:09:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Beats the Marching Band

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Political Commentary on MSNBC

2011-10-18T14:21:00.001-07:00

via whatreallyhappened.com

not so lamestream media after all

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Making Friends in Mumbai | Mumbai Boss

2011-10-17T01:45:00.001-07:00

Hothouse friends, he called them. Like exotic flowers suddenly in full bloom, there’s no telling how long they’ll last. And the hothouse was Zenzi. This was six years ago, and I’d come to the city more or less alone. For people like me, it was a living room. You’d expect to see everybody you knew; anyone you didn’t know, well, you’d know soon enough.

That kind of awkward, desperate manoeuvre, the flurry of uninvited text messages, felt somehow beneath me. Shouldn’t friends just, y’know, happen? Develop organically, like in a garden? And, wait a sec—didn’t these people already have a life? Their own friends, family? Where were they all week?

via mumbaiboss.com

Love the other parts of the write up too. Also love how the article doesnt really try to achieve anything or really make a point. Its just thoughts.

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Steve Jobs in heaven. A cartoonist finally gets it right. (Bors)

2011-10-16T05:04:00.001-07:00

via bspcn.com

via The Best Article Every Day

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The Adventures of Helen Keller - Comixed

2011-10-12T06:03:00.001-07:00

via comixed.memebase.com

LMAO

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How to Read More: A Lover’s Guide :zenhabits

2011-10-12T04:43:00.001-07:00

1. Don’t read because you should — read for joy. Find books about exciting stories, about people who fascinate you, about new worlds that you’d love to visit. Forget the classics, unless they fit this prescription.

2. Carve out the time. We have no time to read anymore, mostly because we work too much, we overschedule our time, we’re on the Internet all the time (which does have some good reading, but can also suck our attention endlessly), and we watch too much TV. Pick a time, and make it your reading time. Start with just 10 minutes if it’s hard to find time — even 10 minutes is lovely. Try 20 or 30 if you can drop a couple things from your schedule.

3. Do nothing but read. Clear all distractions. Find a quiet, peaceful space. It’s just your book, and you. Notice but let go of the urges to do other things instead of read. If you must do something else, have some tea.

4. Love the hell out of it. You’re not doing this to better yourself. You’re doing it for joy. Reading is magic, and the magic will change everything else in your life. Love the experience, and you’ll look forward to it daily.

5. Make it social. Find friends who love to read, or find them online. There’s a world of readers on the Internet, and they’d be happy to make recommendations and talk about the books you’re all reading. Try a book club as well. Reading is solitary, but is also a social act.

6. Make it a habit. Pick a trigger in your daily routine, and consistently read exactly after that trigger each day. Even if it’s just for 5-10 minutes. The more consistent you are, and the longer you keep the streak going, the stronger the habit will become.

7. Don’t make it a chore. Don’t make it something on your todo list or schedule that you have to check off. It’s not part of your self-improvement plan. It’s a part of your Make Life More Awesome Plan.

8. Give up on a book if it’s boring. Reading isn’t something you do because it’s good for you — it’s not like taking your vitamins. You’re reading because it’s fun. So if a book isn’t fun, dump it. Give it a try for at least a chapter, but if you still don’t love it, move on.

9. Discover amazing books. I talk to other people who are passionate about books, and I’ll read reviews, or just explore an old-fashioned bookstore. Supporting your local bookstores is a great thing, and it’s incredibly fun. Libraries are also amazing places that are underused — get a card today.

10. Don’t worry about speed. Speed reading is fine for some, but slow reading is great too. The number of books, and the rate of reading them, matters not a whit. It’s not a competition. You’re reading to enjoy the books, so take your time. It’s like enjoying good food, or good sex: better savored, not rushed.

via zenhabits.net

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Artificial rain project in Horn of Africa (sponsored by Qatar)

2011-09-07T03:55:00.001-07:00

In Qatar, ORA has also proven effective bringing four gigalitres of rain in Ramadan last year, equal to the volume of water supplied in the country for 10 days. And as a follow-up, they again delivered 35 gigalitres of rain in the country.

via thepeninsulaqatar.com

Oh Kay!!

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Angry Anna

2011-08-25T00:41:00.001-07:00

via gsa7.gamesalad.com

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Untitled

2011-08-25T00:39:00.001-07:00

Angry Anna 1.0

geekmentors
Info

via gsa7.gamesalad.com

Angry Anna

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Squibble (from @gitangalic 's blog)

2011-08-10T03:38:00.001-07:00

I have forgotten what it feels like to finish a book.

The physical turning of a page, or the filling up of that electronic status bar. It’s all the same to me, really. At this point I just want to pick up something and read it from start to finish and I just can’t seem to do that any more.

I’ve never had to beg anybody to lay my hands on something interesting to read, I’ve been lucky that way. I remember how I felt while reading (and watching) Roald Dahl’s ‘Matilda’ – her dad ripping that book to shreds, I could feel my own eyes tearing up. Anyway, the point is there has ALWAYS been something to read , and it’s very rare for me to leave the house without a book in my bag.

But that’s the problem. I’ve become so superficial, floating from one book to another. Disrespectful, I want to cringe with embarrassment, but it’s the truth. At the back of my mind, I know there’s no time limit, no ‘form of the book’ limitation either. Earlier, I would carry only one book with me pretty much everywhere I went. This meant I had no choice but to read that one, single book when I had the chance. If it was a library book (oh, those Mills & Boons!) I would try to not take them out of the house for fearing of losing them. So I’d end up rushing home after school or college, waiting for the moment when I could delve back into it. Now, I rarely go to libraries anymore because I hardly read physical books.

via geetanjali.chitnis.com

If I could, I would steal the articulating ability from her. Very few people I know can actually do this - no big words, no (in)famous long sentences, just pure thought, that flows.

I do disagree on the point that ebooks are wonderful though. Where's the fun without differences in opinion?

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‪Manmohan SINGHAM‬‏ - YouTube

2011-07-21T06:33:00.001-07:00

<div class="yt-alert yt-alert-error yt-alert-player yt-rounded "><img src="//s.ytimg.com/yt/img/pixel-vfl3z5WfW.gif" class="icon master-sprite" alt="Alert icon"><div class="yt-alert-content"> You need Adobe Flash Player to watch this video. <br> Download it from Adobe. </div></div>

via youtube.com

Can't beat this!!

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And there are things you aren't proud of

2011-07-11T23:44:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Oh well, that was in the past though yeah?

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Things you're proud of

2011-07-11T23:42:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

but don't want to show them off cuz the way they were depicted

Thank you for bringing this to my attention Arunima Bera

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It was all lies, says Qatar 2022 'whistleblower' (via @MbinH)

2011-07-10T00:46:00.001-07:00

Upset at being sacked, Almajid later fabricated what she now admits were lies about the bid having offered bribes to FIFA executive committee members Issa Hayatou, Jacques Anouma and Amos Adamu and that it had been considering financial support for the Argentinian federation led by Julio Grondona, FIFA’s senior vice-president.

via sportsfeatures.com

Go Qatar

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Tweeting the Truth - Comixed - 4 panel comic strip (yonkoma or 4koma)

2011-06-20T13:02:00.001-07:00

via comixed.memebase.com

couldn't have tweeted it better

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jtnimoy - Tron Legacy (2010) (via Meg Richards)

2011-05-08T02:01:00.001-07:00

via jtnimoy.net

If you haven't, go watch the movie...if you have...ENCORE!

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Obama Jokes About Birth Certificate Controversy (via @florentdsouza)

2011-05-01T22:06:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Certainly an improvement over the last one!

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World's last typewriter factory 'shuts down' in Mumbai - Yahoo! News

2011-04-26T02:19:00.001-07:00

London, April 26 (ANI): Godrej and Boyce - the last company left in the world that was still manufacturing typewriters - has closed its production plant in Mumbai, India.

The company is now left with its last 200 machines - the majority of which are Arabic language models.

Although typewriters became obsolete years ago in the west, they were still common in India - until recently.

But with consumers switching to computers the demand for the machines started falling drastically in the last ten years.

"We are not getting many orders now," The Daily Mail quoted the company's general manager, Milind Dukle, as telling India's Business Standard newspaper.

"From the early 2000s onwards, computers started dominating. All the manufacturers of office typewriters stopped production, except us.

"Till 2009, we used to produce 10,000 to 12,000 machines a year. But this might be the last chance for typewriter lovers. Now, our primary market is among the defence agencies, courts and government offices," he said.

The firm began production in the 1950s. (ANI)

via in.news.yahoo.com

BOO :(

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Bruno Mars - The Lazy Song [Official Video] (via Swapnil Joshi)

2011-04-17T22:57:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Finally a good song that deserves to be stuck in the head

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Million Dollar Question: Name of Kochi IPL Team? - Mohan Lal as Quiz Master (via Anup Varghese)

2011-04-13T00:40:00.001-07:00

<div class="yt-alert yt-alert-error yt-alert-player yt-rounded "> <img src="//s.ytimg.com/yt/img/pixel-vfl3z5WfW.gif" class="icon master-sprite" alt="Alert icon"> <div class="yt-alert-content"> You need Adobe Flash Player to watch this video. <br> Download it from Adobe. </div> </div>

via youtube.com

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April Fools 2011: Complex Numbers in Math Class

2011-04-10T10:31:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

GENIUS!

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Solarized Terminal- Ethan Schoonover

2011-04-06T01:20:00.001-07:00

via ethanschoonover.com

this is actually pretty awesome

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The World’s Simplest Cell Phone Has The Perfect… | Bit Rebels (via @shahriarhaque)

2011-04-04T22:52:00.001-07:00

via bitrebels.com

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Shahid Afridi on rivalry with India - RESPECT!

2011-04-01T12:03:00.001-07:00

<div class="yt-alert yt-alert-error yt-alert-player yt-rounded "> <img src="//s.ytimg.com/yt/img/pixel-vfl3z5WfW.gif" class="icon master-sprite" alt="Alert icon"> <div class="yt-alert-content"> You need Adobe Flash Player to watch this video. <br> Download it from Adobe. </div> </div>

via youtube.com

Afridi inspires and commands respect for the second time this week, first being his post match presentation comment.

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India Pakistan match fixing tape (via @lokarlotweet)

2011-03-31T22:28:00.001-07:00

via dominatingseo.net

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How Did You Discover Your Ideal Career?

2011-03-29T05:37:00.001-07:00

When you don't have a job in IT, working at a help desk sounds good. Until you have to deal with end users all day. Or get to support users on alpha-level software someone like the CEO decided must be deployed before it was ready.
When you work at a help desk, working in data center operations sounds good. Until you have to work 3rd shift for 3 yrs as projects are deployed and be on call the other 24 hrs in a day.
When you work in IT operations, being a DBA sounds good. Until you have to deal with databases designed by college coders who've never heard of database design and have huge DB corruption issues due to poor coding. These issues go on month after month and your DBs are constantly going down and require selective restores using crappy tools.
When you are a DBA, being a coder sounds good. Until you are provided deadlines that have nothing to do with the amount of effort or time to actually complete a class or program. You are always 3 months behind on projects due to poor planning or decisions made by others, like marketing.
When you are in Operations, a DBA, or a coder then being a technical architect sounds good. For the most part it is, until a project you designed turns into a huge failure and you are fired (so I hear). It doesn't matter that 3 of the 10 vendors lied about capabilities. You get the blame. Or worse, you are constantly designing, but nobody ever gets enough budget to deploy these designs.
When you've been fired from an IT Arch role, being an IT project manager sounds good. Hopefully by the time you get here, you've learned from all the mistakes made at help desks, operations, DBAs, coders, and technical architects and you can properly budget and schedule IT projects. Then again, most IT project managers seem to skip half these preliminary jobs.
After you've done most of these, then you either become a CIO or get fed up working for someone else and you start your own company. Then you are the boss, but not really. Now you are a consultant, being lead around by a 2 yr experienced IT project manager trying to make a name for themselves by squeezing budget from your contract and blaming your company for any shortcuts they demanded to keep costs lower or other things they did wrong. "You didn't tell me that" is constant emergency text message at 3am.
The grass is always greener ... there are days when I wish I were loading semi-trucks with boxes of PVC pipe fittings again. Perhaps I'll start a landscaping business. Based on the amount those folks charge, I think I'd have greater satisfaction seeing the grass all cut to the same level.

via lifehacker.com

I love how TheFu takes you through a complete IT life-cycle, all so not-as-a-matter-of-fact ly

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The Most Aggressive Defense Of Teachers You’ll Hear This Year

2011-03-20T07:28:00.001-07:00

via front.moveon.org

Seen this all over the place today....

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RTM

2011-03-17T03:18:00.001-07:00

I want to see my tasks!!

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Amazing things will happen

2011-03-10T14:38:00.001-08:00

via vimeo.com

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Date a girl who reads.

2011-03-09T23:13:00.001-08:00

"Date a girl who reads. Date a girl who spends her money on books instead of clothes. She has problems with closet space because she has too many books. Date a girl who has a list of books she wants to read, who has had a library card since she was twelve.
Find a girl who reads. You’ll know that she does because she will always have an unread book in her bag.She’s the one lovingly looking over the shelves in the bookstore, the one who quietly cries out when she finds the book she wants. You see the weird chick sniffing the pages of an old book in a second hand book shop? That’s the reader. They can never resist smelling the pages, especially when they are yellow.
She’s the girl reading while waiting in that coffee shop down the street. If you take a peek at her mug, the non-dairy creamer is floating on top because she’s kind of engrossed already. Lost in a world of the author’s making. Sit down. She might give you a glare, as most girls who read do not like to be interrupted. Ask her if she likes the book.
Buy her another cup of coffee.
Let her know what you really think of Murakami. See if she got through the first chapter of Fellowship. Understand that if she says she understood James Joyce’s Ulysses she’s just saying that to sound intelligent. Ask her if she loves Alice or she would like to be Alice.
It’s easy to date a girl who reads. Give her books for her birthday, for Christmas and for anniversaries. Give her the gift of words, in poetry, in song. Give her Neruda, Pound, Sexton, Cummings. Let her know that you understand that words are love. Understand that she knows the difference between books and reality but by god, she’s going to try to make her life a little like her favorite book. It will never be your fault if she does.
She has to give it a shot somehow.
Lie to her. If she understands syntax, she will understand your need to lie. Behind words are other things: motivation, value, nuance, dialogue. It will not be the end of the world.
Fail her. Because a girl who reads knows that failure always leads up to the climax. Because girls who understand that all things will come to end. That you can always write a sequel. That you can begin again and again and still be the hero. That life is meant to have a villain or two.
Why be frightened of everything that you are not? Girls who read understand that people, like characters, develop. Except in the Twilightseries.
If you find a girl who reads, keep her close. When you find her up at 2 AM clutching a book to her chest and weeping, make her a cup of tea and hold her. You may lose her for a couple of hours but she will always come back to you. She’ll talk as if the characters in the book are real, because for a while, they always are.
You will propose on a hot air balloon. Or during a rock concert. Or very casually next time she’s sick. Over Skype.
You will smile so hard you will wonder why your heart hasn’t burst and bled out all over your chest yet. You will write the story of your lives, have kids with strange names and even stranger tastes. She will introduce your children to the Cat in the Hat and Aslan, maybe in the same day. You will walk the winters of your old age together and she will recite Keats under her breath while you shake the snow off your boots.
Date a girl who reads because you deserve it. You deserve a girl who can give you the most colorful life imaginable. If you can only give her monotony, and stale hours and half-baked proposals, then you’re better off alone. If you want the world and the worlds beyond it, date a girl who reads.
Or better yet, date a girl who writes."

via themonicabird.com

Dont remember why I did not mention this the first time I came across this a couple weeks back....but here it is again, after I landed on the page once again.

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The More You Know - Spiked Math

2011-03-08T02:15:00.001-08:00

via spikedmath.com

dareisay #SOML

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In Perspective: 1.76 lakh crore INR or 39.27 billion USD

2011-03-06T00:58:00.001-08:00

Most of us know that this figure is the CAG (Comptroller and Auditor General) loss estimate caused by the 2G spectrum scam, one of the biggest scams in India, or at least that's what I would want to say. This post is just to actually convert some of the numbers (:D) that have come out in certain reports and putting them in perspective to, well, whatever.

Total loss estimate: Rs. 1.76 lakh crore = Rs.1,760,000,000,000 = Rs. 1.76 trillion = $ 39.21 billion!

Using this amount as the GDP of a country(List of countries sorted by GDP on Wikipedia), that country in the world would be

This is a country richer than Uruguay, Bahrain and Jordan. Basically, a decently rich country! Also, this amount would've put India 10th in each of this lists (India is currently at the 11th).

Moreover, this was back in 2007. So, if we calculate the NPV of this amount with an IRR of.... Nah, I don't think I'm getting paid enough to do that kind of Math!

Lets step aside from the big picture and look at the (relatively) smaller picture, the earnings (can I call it that?) of Mr. A. Raja, the former telecom minister who enabled all of this mess.

Raja (which is Hindi for King, just literally though) is believed to have made about Rs. 3000 crore. Lets do the same Math for him, shall we?

Raja's estimated earnings = Rs. 3000 crore = Rs. 30,000,000,000 = Rs. 30 billion = $668.31 million.

What does somebody do with so much illegal money? Philanthropy?

Interesting reads on the 2G scam:

Timeline of the scam (this blog also has numerous other posts, but the sources....well, lets just say the writer doesn't like citations a lot)
Where Raja stored his money
Wikipedia article on 2G spectrum scam (with more links :D)

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Wadah Khanfar: A historic moment in the Arab world (TED)

2011-03-03T23:29:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

"Spectacular and inspiring TED talk from Wadah Kanfar of Al Jazeera. I've had a hard time articulating to my friends and family in the US how I feel about the uprisings going on throughout the Arab world but his talk captures the basic sentiment remarkably well." - Bob Monroe

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xkcd: Major in the Universe

2011-02-28T23:40:00.001-08:00

via xkcd.com

Nothing describes it better :D :D

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RAP NEWS 6 - Wikileaks' Cablegate: the truth is out there

2011-02-26T13:27:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

love the Berlusconi

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First real camera experience :D

2011-02-23T06:45:00.001-08:00

this is fun

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Harley Commercial

2011-02-23T04:03:00.001-08:00

<div class="yt-alert yt-alert-error yt-alert-player yt-rounded"> <img src="//s.ytimg.com/yt/img/pixel-vfl3z5WfW.gif" class="icon master-sprite" alt="Alert icon"> <div class="yt-alert-content"> You need Adobe Flash Player to watch this video. <br> Download it from Adobe. </div> </div>

via youtube.com

RESPECT!

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When You Write Your Essays in Programming Languages (via @krtgrphr)

2011-02-22T21:49:00.001-08:00

via imgur.com

iLike

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the 46 stages of Twitter (via @Nivivacious)

2011-02-16T23:34:00.001-08:00

1. Hear the word Twitter. Scoff.
2. Hear it again from someone else. Scoff again.
3. Hear about famous celebrity who is apparently "On Twitter." Scoff, but make mental note to check it out.
4. Log into Facebook to comfort self.
5. Sign up for Twitter.
6. Give up because it seems dumb.
7. Loudly criticize others on Twitter.
8. Follow @howardstern, @aplusk, @rainnwilson, @wilw, @mrskutcher, @oprah, and one other person you actually know.
9. Post tweet that is a variant of: "Trying out this Twitter thing."
10. Attempt to dig a little deeper into Twitter.
11. Notice rampant usage of words: "Tweet," "Twitter," "Twitterverse," "Tweetie," "Tweetdeck," and something called "RT."
12. Scoff again, this time in confusion.
13. Tell friends you "tried that Twitter thing, but didn't get it and it's stupid anyway."
14. Log into Facebook because that site at least makes sense.
15. Read story about Twitter somewhere.
16. Log back into Twitter.
17. Try to avoid saying Tweet, Twitter, Twitterverse, Tweetie, Tweetdeck, and ReTweet.
18. Respond to @rainnwilson.
19. Curse self for fanning out.
20. Log off for 4 months.
21. Come back, just to see.
22. Post something relatively funny.
23. Get RT'd.
24. Discover that RT means ReTweet.
25. Make it your life mission to get RT'd.
26. Install Twitter app on your phone.
27. No longer ashamed to say "I've gotta Twitter that."
28. Attend events with the sole intention of "Tweeting" them.
29. Pray to get RT'd.
30. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
31. Close computer.
32. Open computer. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh.
33. Think in 140 character sentences.
34. Compulsively check phone all day every day.
35. Tweet that you compulsively check phone all day every day.
36. Alienate actual people in your life in an attempt to impress ones you don't know.
37. Lose weight because you forget to eat.
38. Place phone by bed so you can check first thing in the morning.
39. Defend Twitter to the death from detractors.
40. Hear self, and vaguely recognize that you have become "That Guy."
41. Feel like, and start to behave like River Tam.
42. Vow to quit Twitter to preserve sanity.
43. Read this and change mind.
44. Think to self, "I should twitter that."
45. Recognize irony.
46. Twitter it.

via shanenickerson.com

been through most of these....not necessarily in the same order though

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China building a city for cloud computing - Computerworld

2011-02-09T05:24:00.001-08:00

via computerworld.com

Way to go

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Guy dancing to 'sheila ki jawani'! (via Nasneen Zahan)

2011-02-01T08:06:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

This is what I'm talking about!

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Happy republic Day 2011 (via @GabbarSingh)

2011-01-25T23:32:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

The best national anthem rendition seen in a while indeed.

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Roger Waters - "We Shall Overcome"

2011-01-24T21:58:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

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Facebook knows a lot about Prashanth!

2011-01-24T04:08:00.001-08:00

Need I say more?

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Sardar Jokes (via @lokarlotweet)

2011-01-05T00:43:00.001-08:00

We all love Sardar jokes. But do you know that Sikhs are one of the hardest working, prosperous and diversified communities in the world. My friend told me about the following incident which I wish to share with you. It has had a deep impact on my thinking.

During last vacation, a few of his friends came to Delhi. They rented a taxi for local sight-seeing. The driver was an old Sardar and boys being boys, these pals began cracking Sardarji jokes, just to tease the old man. But to their surprise, the fellow remained unperturbed.At the end of the sight-seeing, they paid the cab hire-charges. The Sardar returned the change, but he gave each one of them one rupee extra and said, ''Son, since morning you have been telling Sardarji jokes.. I listened to them all and let me tell you, some of them were in bad taste. Still, I don't mind coz I know that you are young blood and are yet to see the world..But I have one request. I am giving you one rupee each. Give it to the first Sardar beggar that you come across in this or any other city'.

My friend continued, ' That one rupee coin is still with me after twenty years. I couldn't find a single Sardar begging anywhere.' The secret behind their universal success, is their willingness to do any job with utmost dedication and pride. A Sardar will drive a truck or set up a roadside garage or a dhaba, put a fruit juice stall, take up small time carpentry ... but he will never beg on the streets.

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Ishihara - English version (via @omerm27)

2010-12-18T03:47:00.001-08:00

via vimeo.com

Beautiful!

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Six Keys to Being Excellent at Anything

2010-12-02T01:19:00.001-08:00

Here, then, are the six keys to achieving excellence we've found are most effective for our clients:

Pursue what you love. Passion is an incredible motivator. It fuels focus, resilience, and perseverance.

Do the hardest work first. We all move instinctively toward pleasure and away from pain. Most great performers, Ericsson and others have found, delay gratification and take on the difficult work of practice in the mornings, before they do anything else. That's when most of us have the most energy and the fewest distractions.

Practice intensely, without interruption for short periods of no longer than 90 minutes and then take a break. Ninety minutes appears to be the maximum amount of time that we can bring the highest level of focus to any given activity. The evidence is equally strong that great performers practice no more than 4 Â½ hours a day.

Seek expert feedback, in intermittent doses. The simpler and more precise the feedback, the more equipped you are to make adjustments. Too much feedback, too continuously, however, can create cognitive overload, increase anxiety, and interfere with learning.

Take regular renewal breaks. Relaxing after intense effort not only provides an opportunity to rejuvenate, but also to metabolize and embed learning. It's also during rest that the right hemisphere becomes more dominant, which can lead to creative breakthroughs.

Ritualize practice. Will and discipline are wildly overrated. As the researcher Roy Baumeister has found, none of us have very much of it. The best way to insure you'll take on difficult tasks is to ritualize them — build specific, inviolable times at which you do them, so that over time you do them without having to squander energy thinking about them.

via blogs.hbr.org

I've never been a big fan of these kind of articles, but these six points hit the point bulls-eye! Everyone who is good at something has gone through these, knowingly or not.

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How Barcelona make sex look ugly… (via @krish_Santhosh)

2010-11-30T22:58:00.001-08:00

In a display of much beauty and delight, Barcelona despatched Real Madrid with a good 5-0 thumping that left us breathing heavily and completely flushed at the sheer art of their tapestry.

It was just one of those nights when you were glad you preferred sticking to the television set than move over to the bedroom. On a chilling Monday night, Barcelona’s football effused such warmth that you wanted to lie in its arms and snuggle up to it, wishing the moment would never end.

There was mild flirting at the beginning, a few playful glances exchanged, the hands brushing together and then Barca took us all home. We like gleeful voyeurs sat and watched them strip Real Madrid of every garment, taking in the irony that the sheer beauty of the act came from a team dressed in blue and violet and not the one in white.

As you saw the sleek passing, the flicks, the dribbles, the feints, the mazing runs, the pinpoint vision and the understanding of the team-mates on the field, you realised that football may have been invented by the English but it has been mastered to perfection by the Catalans. They are the definitely the ones on top.

What we witnessed was not some kind of a B-grade porno filmed in a day in someone’s basement. There was nothing ugly about the Blaugrana’s performance, nothing at all, in fact it would have made us wonder just how ugly we get once the curtains are drawn. This was not Arnold Schwarzenegger, this was Johnny Depp oozing charm all the way through.

The belief that men are not multi-orgasmic was made redundant as for ninety minutes Lionel Messi and Co. had everyone enthralled in crescendo. As I rewatched the highlights of the game on YouTube, two American commentators were describing the action and you could hear them Ooohhh… Aaaahhhh…. Yesssss their way through it.

The first two goals were made out of pure passing as the ball never left the feet of a Barca player and then the next two were made solely by a certain magical Argentine. In between all this, there were so many times when the Catalans seemed simply unbeatable and yet so enticing. We love to hate successful teams but Barca can never be hated.

In this country we have grown an affinity for the Portuguese Jose Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo for their rawness, machisimo and exuberance. But there is just too much flair, poise and panache about Lionel Messi to not fall in love with him. He is not only the boy you can take home but also one who can make you see the world in a different light – ‘el Mesiah’.

I am not a Barcelona fan by any means, I took delight in their downfall at the hands of Mourinho’s Inter Milan side last season. In the battle between Good and Evil, I was on the latter side. But anyone who saw the Catalans in action last night would be forgiven for thinking that they are indeed ‘The Saviours’.

via blogs.independent.co.uk

Beautiful beautiful articulation

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WikiLeaks – Insurance Policy Expired? « Jester's Court – Stay Frosty My Friends

2010-11-29T07:50:00.001-08:00

So we all know it’s been pretty quiet round these parts. Why? WikiLeaks recently published a mysterious encrypted 1.4GB file titled “insurance.aes256′′ on their Afghan War Logs page, with no explanation. While much speculation has been going on as to the origins and purpose of the file, much of it saying that it is ‘insurance’ against WikiLeaks being taken down by the United States government, and contains ‘terrible secrets.’ WikiLeaks neither confirms nor denies the purpose of the file. But it remains there.

via th3j35t3r.wordpress.com

One of the real thought provoking ones in recent times

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Master of Business Card Throwing

2010-11-21T22:02:00.001-08:00

via youtube.com

Way to sell a product!

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At it again

2010-11-15T22:32:00.001-08:00

Moving on, and speaking of moving-on, when is that process completely done? Till when do you care about the people you're moving/moved on from? Do you stop caring at all? I know I don't want to stop caring. I know that I will always wonder and worry and ultimately, care about everyone and everything... and about keeping things in equilibrium and peace. What I worry about is the intensity of every emotion I feel now... towards people in the past and present, and about my future. Wonder. Worry. Curiosity. Fear. Aah. I feel sorry, happy, scared, stupid, and lost. Very freaking exciting. And I'll stop here.

via aysid.blogspot.com

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Coconuts removed in India ahead of Obama visit

2010-11-03T22:56:00.001-07:00

In their effort to provide maximum security in the run-up to his visit on Friday, they have removed coconuts which may fall on his head from trees.

All coconuts around the city's Gandhi museum have now been cut down, an official told the BBC.

Every year in India people are injured or even killed by falling coconuts.

via bbc.co.uk

The lines crack me up. That said, seriously? This is one of the top stories on BBB South Asia?

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Qatar's leading dailies are confused! Panther? Cheetah? No dude, it was a tiger!

2010-11-01T00:04:00.001-07:00

The last week here in Doha had some kind of a wild animal scare. I remember first seeing the rumors on twitter thanks to @NazQatar that a Tiger hunt was on somewhere near the Khatriyat area. http://twitter.com/#!/NazQatar/status/28817427261

Come Thursday, and not only the rumors but the Tiger itself had apparently reached EC and this resulted in some of the colleges sending out an emergency message asking people to stay indoors. This post is not the story of the rumor (a real report btw can be found here, a report by @mydailyq).

Here are the post rumor reports from Qatar's leading English dailies, namely Gulf Times and The Peninsula. The funny part, BOTH GOT THE ANIMAL WRONG!!!

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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The tiger that was out looking for other wildcats

2010-10-28T02:33:00.001-07:00

via sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net

Cutie

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A Girl’s Guide to Geek Guys (via @Decloned_Taz)

2010-10-26T11:54:00.001-07:00

So, your crush on the bass player from Vibrating Sandbox has finally died a whimpering death and you’re wondering where to go from here. All the scenester dudes are either dating a series of interchangeable high-school riot grrrls in baby doll dresses and an overdose of manic panic, or permanently shacked up with some bitter old lady who pays all the bills. Which will it be, a wifely prison or a humiliating one night stand? Into this void of potential mates comes a man you may not have considered before, a man of substance, quietude and stability, a cerebral creature with a culture all his own. In short, a geek.

Why Geek Dudes Rule

They are generally available.

Other women will tend not to steal them.

They can fix things.

Your parents will love them.

They’re smart.

Where The Geek Dude Lurks
While they are often into alternative music, geek dudes tend not to go to shows too often. Instead you’ll find them hanging out with their friends, discussing the latest hardware revolution or perfecting their Bill Gates impressions. You know how some people wear t-shirts with their favorite bands on them, thus showing that they went to certain shows? Well, geek dudes wear t-shirts with the logos of different software companies on them, thus showing that they are up on the latest, um, releases. A small, though convivial, rivalry may be detected here amongst the geek dudes. Try wearing one yourself and see if he strikes up a conversation.

Of course the best way to meet a geek dude is through the Internet. All geeks harbor a secret fantasy about meeting some girl in cyberspace, carrying on an e-mail romance in which he has the chance to combine an activity he is comfortable with, computing, with one he is very uncomfortable with, socializing. To many geek dudes, cyberdating is just an advanced form of some kind of video game, but they are frustrated by a lack of players. Their lack is your strength.

Imprinting
You might notice that these men harbor some strange ideas about how the world works and some particularly strange ideas about women. There is a reason for this. Because they’ve had limited interpersonal experience, geek dudes must look elsewhere for behavior models. Lacking a real world social milieu, geeks often go through a transference stage with such narratives, and try to model their interactions on them. Thus, certain media images and themes come to have an overly cathected, metaphorized reality to them, while the rest of us view such programming as mere entertainment. Case in point, our next topic….

The Trek factor
If you’re not up on your Star Trek, you can forget about getting or keeping a geek dude. And I’m not just talking vintage-era Captain Kirk and Spock either. You’ve got to be up on your The Next Generation , your Deep Space Nine, your Voyager. Armed with your own knowledge of Federation policies, you can better gauge when and how to act. For extra help in learning how to relate in their own language, check out the Klingon Language Institute

.
Once You’ve Nabbed Him
Of course, catching that geek guy is only half the battle. Keeping him by your side is another story altogether. I was privileged to speak with Miss Victoria Maat, who not only got herself a geek guy but was also clever enough to marry him just a few short months ago. She interrupted her newlywed bliss to give us a few tips on the care and feeding of a geek man:

Geeks are sensitive and caring lovers and husbands. If you can hang with the techno-lifestyle, they make the best mates. They are the most attractive people, not flashy or hunky, but the kind who get cuter and more alluring over time (I told you she was a newlywed). Definitely give geeks a chance.

Geek Cuisine
Geeks tend towards packaged, junk foods since they prefer to work and think and aren’t all that into cooking for themselves. Make sure that your geek understands that you are not merely a replicator, and provide him with home cooked food. A batch of chocolate chip cookies will let him know that you love him. You do have to monitor your geek for weight gain; however, remember that most of their days are spent sitting and staring at a monitor.

Geek Lifestyle
The geek dude has long work habits and tends to bring his work home with him. He seems permanently connected to his hard disk. You must at least appear interested in his work. Generally, a solid understanding of the computer is a must; if you cannot master this, you should at least be able to talk the talk. Remember most geeks are anal and they get stressed about details which appear insignificant. Be understanding, put on your best Deanna Troi face (see above) and empathize.

To relax, geeks love to play the latest computer games. Let him play Myst or Chuck Yeager’s Air Combat for hours if he wants to. Act concerned if he’s stuck or has just been ambushed by three MiGs. My geek loves to try to help people on the Internet who say that they are stuck in Myst. He comes up with clever riddles instead of directing them point blank. Geeks also like to go to sci-fi and Japanese animated movies, again, a basically harmless vent for your man.

Geek Buddies
Many geeks extend their work friendships into what they jokingly refer to as RL (Real Life, also known as “that big room with the ceiling that is sometimes blue and sometimes black with little lights”). The greatest thing about your geek’s buddies is that you can feel secure in setting them up with your girlfriends. They may feel awkward around females at first, so don’t overwhelm them. In time they will come out of their shell and realize that you are into the same things they are. Post-It Note

I thank Victoria for the above advice. I must say that when she read my draft of the piece, before writing her section, she asked her husband which one he thought she was more like, Deanna or Beverly. Howard, the devil, immediately replied that he had always thought Victoria was actually most like Ensign Ro Laren, a cute character with a slight authority problem who is always had trouble (this is fairly apt). This exchange is interesting for several reasons:

Howard had already thought about who she was most like.

He could summon up characters from seasons past with ease.

Victoria actually knew who he meant.

Folks, I think this marriage will last.

One Last Thing
Because they have been so abused and ignored by society, many geeks have gone underground. You may actually know some and just haven’t noticed them. They often feel resentful, and misunderstood, and it is important to realize this as you grow closer to them. Don’t ever try to force the issue, or make crazy demands that he choose between his computer and you. Remember, his computer has been there for him his whole life; you are a new interloper he hasn’t quite grasped yet.

Geek dudes thrive on mystery and love challenges and intellectual puzzles. Don’t you consider yourself one? Wouldn’t you like a little intellectual stimulation or your own? We thought so.

Happy Hunting!

via mikkipedia.net

it's scary how true this is!

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Compared to you, most people seem dumb

2010-10-26T03:58:00.001-07:00

In the Internet industry most people know the difference between Firefox and Explorer. We also know what FTW stands for and what the difference is between ASP, PHP and RoR. Or at least we know that there is a difference.

If you meet an entrepreneur who has never heard of Digg, Google Apps or The Freemium Model you would be surprised. Right?

But that is just us; a small subset of digerati who have time to stay up-to-date on almost everything relating to our industry. The rest of the world? Ignorant to most of it, and that is just fine. The problem arrises when you are trying to think about what you customers could want. Chances are they don’t have a clue what you are talking about. A few examples:

1: my father recently told to me he didn’t know how to text someone back. He doesn’t have an old phone that doesn’t make sense but the iPhone. How hard could it be? Well, he opened up the “Messages” App and showed it to me. He gestured at the interface, slightly irritated, and said “Where is the damn reply button??”. I was stupefied. The iPhone interface is the most elegant and easy to understand interface out there. Still, it didn’t contain that one recognizable element that my father needed to make sense of it all: no reply button meant he didn’t know how to reply.

2: a few years ago I managed an online birthday calendar. The interface was really simple. It showed the calendar in month view with a big red button on top of it that said “Add a Birthday“. It was so big I figured people wouldn’t be able to miss it. Unfortunately they did. I got about 100 helpdesk messages a day and about 60 of those started with “I don’t know how to add a birthday“. At first I got really annoyed at those ignorant people who thought it was more convenient to just email someone than to think and look around for more than 2 seconds. But then I did some tests and found out that everybody assumed that they just had to click the calendar to add a birthday. If that didn’t work they assumed it was broken. My fault, not theirs.

3: at a reception recently a woman came up to me and told me her daughter is named ‘Loïs’ too. She said “I was hoping I would bump into you because I noticed you know how to put the umlaut on the ‘i’, Can you please tell me how to do that on the iPhone?”. I explained it to her and the next day in the office during lunch I told the story to my co-workers. I laughed and said “apparently some people still don’t know how to get to the special characters on the iPhone!”. Nobody laughed. Then someone said “Well, neither do I. How DO you do that?” and then someone else admitted not knowing and then it turned out nobody knew.

4: Patrick got a call from his father a while ago who wanted to find something on the web. Patrick told him the URL and his father didn’t seem to understand what he was talking about. So Patrick said “You know, the address of the website”. His father still didn’t seem to get it so Patrick said “the line of characters you enter in the location bar in your browser” after which his father replied “I don’t know about all that. I simply click the blue icon for Internet and then Google shows up and I type what I want in Google and then I get it”. Apparently you can book tickets, check email and do all sorts of stuff online without knowing that each website has a distinct address called a URL.

The point of all these stories? If you know how to get to the special characters like ü, é and © on your iPhone and or PC, if you know what a URL is and if you know how to use most of the Apps on your iPhone you and part of a small group of experts. Don’t assume you are the default because you are the exception. Make your apps, websites and tools as simple as possible and always test with other people.

People are not really stupid, it is just that you know a lot more. Don’t let knowledge blind you.

via thenextweb.com

The last line says it all - "People are not really stupid, it is just that you know a lot more. Don't let knowledge blind you"

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hello

2010-10-21T05:23:00.001-07:00

test

--
Shakir Hussain
http://shakir.me | +974 55856274 | +974 77112358
Twitter: @fibonaccifreak, Facebook: http://fb.me/fibonaccifreak

Posted via email from Reductio ad absurdum

P = NP [Proof]

2010-10-19T23:56:00.001-07:00

Orwell says 2+2 = 5, and everybody agrees that Orwell is classic. But we know that 2 + 2 = 4. Also, I have proved in the past (YES< PROVED :P) that 4 = 5.

Subtracting 4 from both sides, we get 0 = 1, or 1 = 0, which also implies that ONE = NONE (concentrate now, this is important).

The statement ONE = NONE implies that the letter 'N' at the beginning of a word holds no value (you can see where i'm going from here right?)

From the obviously true statement P = P, we add the valueless N to either of the Ps and we get

*drumroll*

P = NP

Now where's my goddamn Ph.D.?

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Talent Vs. Attitude – Harsha Bhogle at IIMA (via @lokarlotweet)

2010-10-18T22:56:00.001-07:00

Talent Vs. Attitude – Harsha Bhogle at IIMA

A must-watch talk on why attitude matters, not talent. Presented at IIM Ahmedabad by Harsha Bhogle, a well known cricket commentator in India.

(Thanks Harish)

via gauravgupta.in

Exactly what I've always had in mind articulated awesome

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'Tweet It': The Michael Jackson/Twitter Mash-Up You Knew Was Coming (VIDEO)

2010-10-18T13:24:00.001-07:00

via huffingtonpost.com

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Trapped Miner Finds Himself in Another Tight Spot After Wife Meets Mistress at Vigil (via @woodster)

2010-10-13T06:21:00.001-07:00

Yonni Barrios' wife, Marta Salinas, and Barrios' lover, Susana Valenzuela, were both holding vigils for him outside the mine.

Salinas was stunned when she heard Valenzuela shouting his name amid a crowd of miners' loved ones.

via foxnews.com

Uh Oh

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xkcd: Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-11T04:25:00.001-07:00

via xkcd.com

Text here

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Airline with a sense of humor (via @anaggh)

2010-10-05T04:21:00.001-07:00

Kulula is a low-cost South-African airline that doesn't take itself too seriously.
Check out their new livery!

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From the cockpit on KULULA.COM- South Africa's Budget Airline

WHAT A PITY KULULA DOESN'T FLY INTERNATIONALLY - WE SHOULD SUPPORT THEM IF ONLY FOR THEIR HUMOUR - SO TYPICALLY SOUTH AFRICAN.

Kulula is an Airline with head office situated in Johannesburg. Kulula airline attendants make an effort to make the in-flight "safety lecture" and announcements a bit more entertaining. Here are some real examples that have been heard or reported:
------------------------------------------------------------------
On a Kulula flight, (there is no assigned seating, you just sit where you want) passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced, "People, people we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!"
                 ------

On another flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."
                 -------
On landing, the stewardess said, "Please be sure to take all of your belongings. If you're going to leave anything, please make sure it's something we'd like to have."
                 -------
"There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there are only 4 ways out of this airplane."
                 ------
"Thank you for flying Kulula. We hope you enjoyed giving us the business as much as we enjoyed taking you for a ride."
                 ------
As the plane landed and was coming to a stop at Durban Airport, a lone voice came over the loudspeaker: "Whoa, big fella. WHOA!"
                 ------
After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in the Karoo, a flight attendant on a flight announced, "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."
                 ------
From a Kulula employee: " Welcome aboard Kulula 271 to Port Elizabeth. To operate your seat belt, insert the metal tab into the buckle, and pull tight. It works just like every other seat belt; and if you don't know how to operate one, you probably shouldn't be out in public unsupervised."
                 ------
"In the event of a sudden loss of cabin pressure, masks will descend from the ceiling. Stop screaming, grab the mask, and pull it over your face. If you have a small child travelling with you, secure your mask before assisting with theirs. If you are travelling with more than one small child, pick your favourite."
                 ------
Weather at our destination is 50 degrees with some broken clouds, but we'll try to have them fixed before we arrive. Thank you, and remember, nobody loves you, or your money, more than Kulula Airlines."
                 -------
"Your seats cushions can be used for flotation; and in the event of an emergency water landing, please paddle to shore and take them with our compliments."
                 ------
"As you exit the plane, make sure to gather all of your belongings. Anything left behind will be distributed evenly among the flight attendants. Please do not leave children or spouses."
                 ------
And from the pilot during his welcome message: "Kulula Airlines is pleased to announce that we have some of the best flight attendants in the industry. Unfortunately, none of them are on this flight!"
                 ------
Heard on Kulula 255 just after a very hard landing in Cape Town: The flight attendant came on the intercom and said, "That was quite a bump and I know what y'all are thinking. I'm here to tell you it wasn't the airline's fault, it wasn't the pilot's fault, it wasn't the flight attendant's fault, it was the asphalt."
                 ------
Overheard on a Kulula flight into Cape Town , on a particularly windy and bumpy day: During the final approach, the Captain really had to fight it. After an extremely hard landing, the Flight Attendant said, "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to The Mother City. Please remain in your seats with your seat belts fastened while the Captain taxis what's left of our airplane to the gate!"
                 ------
Another flight attendant's comment on a less than perfect landing: "We ask you to please remain seated as Captain Kangaroo bounces us to the terminal."
                 ------
An airline pilot wrote that on this particular flight he had hammered his ship into the runway really hard. The airline had a policy which required the first officer to stand at the door while the passengers exited, smile, and give them a "Thanks for flying our airline". He said that, in light of his bad landing, he had a hard time looking the passengers in the eye, thinking that someone would have a smart comment.
Finally everyone had gotten off except for a little old lady walking with a cane. She said, "Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?" The little old lady said, "Did we land, or were we shot down?"
                 ------
After a real crusher of a landing in Johannesburg , the attendant came on with, "Ladies and Gentlemen, please remain in your seats until Captain Crash and the Crew have brought the aircraft to a screeching halt against the gate. And, once the tire smoke has cleared and the warning bells are silenced, we will open the door and you can pick your way through the wreckage to the terminal."
                 ------
Part of a flight attendant's arrival announcement: "We'd like to thank you folks for flying with us today. And, the next time you get the insane urge to go blasting through the skies in a pressurized metal tube, we hope you'll think of Kulula Airways."
                 ------
Heard on a Kulula flight. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to smoke, the smoking section on this airplane is on the wing. If you can light 'em, you can smoke 'em."

via anaggh.posterous.com

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Rajnikant time...or is it Rajnican time (via @anaggh)

2010-10-05T04:20:00.001-07:00

The Rajni saga continues!!
·      When Rajnikant hits you, you fly so far off….even Google can not find you
·      Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Rajnikant.
·      Rajnikant counted to infinity - twice.
·      When Rajnikant does a pushup, he isn't lifting himself up, he's pushing the Earth down.
·      Rajnikant is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
·      Rajnikant doesn't wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.
·      Rajnikant gave Mona Lisa that smile.
·      Rajnikant can slam a revolving door.
·      There are no races, only countries of people Rajnikant has beaten to different shades of black and blue.
·      Rajnikant's house has no doors, only walls that he walks through.
·      Rajnikant can divide by zero.
·      When taking the GRE, write "Rajnikant" for every answer. You will score over 1600.
·      Rajnikant grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage.
·      If you Google search "Rajnikant getting kicked" you will generate zero results.
·      Rajnikant doesn't bowl strikes, he just knocks down one pin and the other nine faint.
·      It takes Rajnikant 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
·      The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajnikant kicked one of the corners off.
·      There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq cause Rajnikant lives in Chennai.
·      Rajnikant once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink
·      Rajnikanth makes onions cry
·      Rajnikanth can delete the Recycle Bin.
·      Ghosts are actually caused by Rajnikanth killing people faster than Death can process them.
·      Rajnikanth can build a snowman..... out of rain.
·      Rajnikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.
·      Rajnikanth can drown a fish.
·      When Rajnikanth enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on,......... .... he turns the dark off.
·      When Rajnikanth looks in a mirror the mirror shatters, because not even glass is stupid enough to get in between Rajnikanth and Rajnikanth.
·      Brett Favre can throw a football over 50 yards. Rajnikanth can throw Brett Favre even further.
·      The last digit of pi is Rajnikanth. He is the end of all things.
·      Rajnikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.
·      Bullets dodge Rajnikanth.
·      A Handicap parking sign does not signify that this spot is for handicapped people. It is actually in fact a warning, that the spot belongs to Rajnikanth and that you will be handicapped if you park there.
·      Rajnikanth' calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Rajnikanth.
·      If you spell Rajnikanth wrong on Google it doesn't say, "Did you mean Rajnikanth? " It simply replies, "Run while you still have the chance."
·      Rajnikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
·      Once a cobra bit Rajnikanth' leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
·      When Rajnikanth gives you the finger, he's telling you how many seconds you have left to live.
·      Rajnikanth can kill two stones with one bird.
·      Rajnikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.
·      Leading hand sanitizers claim they can kill 99.9 percent of germs. Rajnikanth can kill 100 percent of whatever he wants.
·      There is no such thing as global warming. Rajnikanth was cold, so he turned the sun up.
·      Rajnikanth can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.
·      Rajnikanth has a deep and abiding respect for human life? unless it gets in his way.
·      Rajnikanth once shot down a German fighter plane with his finger, by yelling, "Bang!"
·      In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajnikanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.
·      Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Rajnikanth.
·      Rajnikanth destroyed the periodic table, because Rajnikanth only recognizes the element of surprise.
·      Rajnikanth got his drivers license at the age of 16 Seconds.
·      With the rising cost of gasoline, Rajnikanth is beginning to worry about his drinking habit.
·      The square root of Rajnikanth is pain. Do not try to square Rajnikanth, the result is death.
·      When you say "no one's perfect", Rajnikanth takes this as a personal insult.

via anaggh.posterous.com

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The Programmer Hierarchy

2010-09-27T03:52:00.001-07:00

via i.imgur.com

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Spirit of Mumbai

2010-09-23T00:42:00.001-07:00

Exact Narration by an auto-rickshaw passenger

By Suvendu Roy of Titan Industries, who shares his inspirational encounter with a rickshaw driver in Mumbai:

Last Sunday, my wife, kid, and I had to travel to Andheri from Bandra.
When I waved at a passing auto rickshaw, little did I expect that thisride would be any different...

As we set off, my eyes fell on a fewmagazines(kept in an aircraft style pouch) behind the driver's backrest.

I looked in front and there was a small TV. The driver had put on theDoordarshan channel.

My wife and I looked at each other with disbelief and amusement. Infront of me was a small first-aid box with cotton, dettol and somemedicines.
This was enough for me to realise that I was in a special vehicle.
Then I looked round again, and discovered more - there was a radio, fireextinguisher, wall clock, calendar, and pictures and symbols of allfaiths
- from Islam and Christianity to Buddhism, Hinduism and Sikhism.
There were also pictures of the heroes of 26/11- Kamte, Salaskar, Karkareand Unnikrishnan.
I realised that not only my vehicle, but also mydriver was special.

I started chatting with him and the initial sense of ridicule anddisbelief gradually diminished.
I gathered that he had been driving anauto rickshaw for the past 8-9 years; he had lost his job when hisemployer's plastic company was shut down.
He had two school-goingchildren, and he drove from 8 in the morning till 10 at night.
No break unless he was unwell. "Sahab, ghar mein baith ke T.V dekh kar kya faida? Do paisa income karega toh future mein kaam aayega."

We realised that we had come across a man who represents Mumbai –the spirit of work, the spirit of travel and the spirit of excelling inlife.
I asked him whether he does anything else as I figured that he did nothave too much spare time.
He said that he goes to an old age home forwomen in Andheri once a week or whenever he has some extra income, wherehe donates tooth brushes, toothpastes, soap, hair oil, and other itemsof daily use.
He pointed out to a painted message below the meter thatread: "25 per cent discount on metered fare for the handicapped.
Free rides for blind passengers up to Rs. 50.

My wife and I were struck with awe. The man was a HERO!

A hero who deserves all our respect!!!

Our journey came to an end;

45 minutes of a lesson in humility, selflessness, and of a hero-worshipping Mumbai, mytemporary home.

We disembarked, and all I could do was
to pay him a tip that would hardly cover a
free ride for a blind man.

I hope, one day, you too have a chance to meet Mr Sandeep Bachhein his auto rickshaw: MH-02-Z-8508.

----------------------------------------------------------

This is probably the best forwarded email I've ever gotten, and it's from my Mom :D

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Twitter ‘onmouseover’ security flaw widely exploited

2010-09-21T05:20:00.001-07:00

It looks like many users are currently using the flaw for fun and games, but there is obviously the potential for cybercriminals to redirect users to third-party websites containing malicious code, or for spam advertising pop-ups to be displayed.

Hopefully Twitter will shut down this loophole as soon as possible - disallowing users to post the onMouseOver JavaScript code, and protecting users whose browsing may be at risk.

Some users are also seemingly deliberately exploiting the loophole to create tweets that contain blocks of colour (known as "rainbow tweets"). Because these messages can hide their true content they might prove too hard for some users to resist clicking on them.

via sophos.com

I like the fail whale better

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Its Time To Quit Twitter (via @geekykarma)

2010-09-20T04:42:00.001-07:00

via geekykarma.com

It is time indeed! Love that last one

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Herbal Cigarette

2010-09-19T00:34:00.001-07:00

As 43-year-old S Radhakrishnan holds up a cigarette and starts explaining its healing and medicinal properties, one could only stare at him in disbelief. The cigarette he is holding in his hand is not the usual kind available in stores. This one is special – an herbal, 100 percent tobacco free cigarette! If the cigarette has the properties that Radhakrishnan claims it has, it could be the panacea smokers wanting to kick the habit have been seeking.
Herbal cigarettes may not be new to the world. Wikipedia lists about twenty such brands, but none of them seem to be popular among Indian smokers. L Prema, a psychologist at the tobacco resource centre in Adyar Cancer Institute, Chennai, told The Weekend Leader, “Nicotine gums are available in the market, which we recommend to people who want to quit smoking. But as far as I know, there is nothing like an herbal cigarette available in India.”
According to Radhakrishan, a Coimbatore based psychologist, who is also an emerging motivational speaker at schools and corporate institutions, the herbal cigarette is a far less harmful substitute to tobacco cigarettes. “I am not claiming its hundred percent safe, but I can assure you it’s far better than a tobacco stuffed cigarette,” he says.
A small room adjoining his house is the “factory” where herbal cigarettes are made by two women employees using a tiny imported machine. Twelve ingredients including pepper, ginger, and turmeric are used in the cigarettes. The cigarettes are put inside attractive packets carrying the brand name, HOPE.

HOPE: less injurious to health?

Launched first in 2000, the cigarettes were sold at a couple of places in Coimbatore including the popular Nilgiris Departmental Stores. “I used to have loyal customers, though we made only a few hundred packets a month. Even doctors recommended it to their patients who wanted to quit smoking. Some managed to quit also,” says Radhakrishnan.
Production was stopped three years ago. The product was re-launched a couple of weeks ago with plans to expand the business slowly. Dr S Arivazhagan, a diabetologist, practicing in Coimbatore told The Weekend Leader that some of his patients reported increased appetite and a better sleeping pattern after using the cigarettes.
According to Radhakirshnan, the Indian Tobacco Research Institute at Rajmundry had endorsed the sample of ingredients used in his herbal cigarettes as tobacco free. One of his brands, though, has thirty percent tobacco content in it. “It is for those who would find it too difficult to quit tobacco all of a sudden,” he says.
Prices of the herbal cigarettes are on par with leading tobacco brands in the country.
Anti-smoking campaigners though are restrained while commenting on the herbal cigarette. Prema at Adyar Cancer Institute feels a scientific study on the effects of the herbal cigarette on smokers could reveal more details.

via theweekendleader.com

ummm,,.....

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My meeting with Rahul Gandhi : Abdul Chowdhury (via @greenrains)

2010-09-15T22:52:00.001-07:00

Rahul Gandhi, in retrospect, gave me the impression of an aristocratic patrician: brought up around Prime Ministers, Economists and Cabinet Secretaries, the man is extremely sharp, suave and most importantly, convinced, and that helps him frame his arguments in such a way so as to win over people, and also give him that touch of sincerity. His heart is in the right place, and he wants to do good, but like they say, the most dangerous enemy is the one with a clear conscience. So I'm curious as to the Prince will rule the Kingdom, and i'm also a little terrified.

via thehiddenshadow.blogspot.com

An enlightening read.

I really like the articulation of Arnab, and am glad that he brings to light that critical thinking is more than alive in Indian politics, or at least will be in its future.

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Coitus interruptus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2010-09-15T05:30:00.001-07:00

This method was used by an estimated thirty-eight million couples worldwide in 1991.

via en.wikipedia.org

Why is this the THIRD sentence in the article?

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Khichdi- The Movie (Official Trailer) HQ

2010-09-07T05:55:00.001-07:00

<3 :D

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Moses!!!

2010-09-01T05:49:00.001-07:00

via plixi.com

HAHA

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Captain Planet - Comixed - 4 panel comic strip (yonkoma or 4koma)

2010-08-31T02:27:00.001-07:00

via comixed.com

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Best Poem ever

2010-08-25T05:42:00.001-07:00

via p.iqs.me

Read the titles of the tracks

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Facebook Explains Gravity [PIC]

2010-08-22T03:33:00.001-07:00

via buzzfeed.com

hats off

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Video Chat on Facebook - Rounds

2010-08-19T01:15:00.001-07:00

Video Chat Rounds allows facebook friends to interact and have fun while webcam chatting. You already chat to your friends on Facebook right? Well now, using Video Chat Rounds, you can video chat, take snapshots, play games, listen to music, share photos, use effects, send gifts and much more without ever having to leave facebook. Sounds great right? Well it is! Check out the demo below:

via blog.rounds.com

looks promising

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Keith Olbermann - Special Comment, Muslim Community Center

2010-08-18T07:33:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

Hats Off

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Hey, Baby! (via @Zee)

2010-08-18T03:53:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

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Venting Frustration Will Only Make Your Anger Worse (via @Lifehacker)

2010-08-18T02:58:00.001-07:00

Nobody recommends bottling up your anger, but venting your frustrations may actually be much worse. Quiet reflection may be the best cure for pent up frustration.

via lifehacker.com

See? I was right!

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The Origin of Job Interviews (via Jocin and Zeeshan)

2010-08-12T03:08:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

CV broke!!!! LOL

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Rani Mukherjee ambassador for "not losing weight"

2010-08-12T02:49:00.001-07:00

saw this here http://2leep.com/news/48871/27/

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My best ideas come to me when I'm in the shower - Sachin's Posterous

2010-08-11T08:01:00.001-07:00

I have found that my best ideas come when I'm taking a shower, when my mind is left to wander. My thoughts will drift to the idea that is at the top of my mind and I will have a moment of clarity.

The shower is when I come up with the most elegant solution to a problem that I've been struggling with. In the shower I figure out the best algorithms, the simplest way to store data, the best way to write an email I've been avoiding, the best tactic to negotiate something.

via sachin.posterous.com

Haha....who remembers 251?

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Ultimate Frisbee Golazo WUCC Prague 2010

2010-07-31T12:51:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

EPIC!

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Norwegian Recycling - Soul Of Fireflies

2010-07-30T03:43:00.001-07:00

via youtube.com

love Love LOVE the mix - mind BLASTING!

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Huxlwy vs. Orwell (via @Lramaseshan)

2010-07-29T01:41:00.001-07:00

via acceleratingfuture.com

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Very important alert from Saudi Geophysical Consulting and Environmental....

2010-07-20T23:36:00.001-07:00

Got this as a forward this morning. If it really is from a Geophysical bah blah and has been consented by all those countries, someone care to EXPLAIN THE ENGLISH?!?!?!

Dear all,

After 40 days the season will change in overall in the Middle East . This year the summer will be very tuff, the astronomer Dr.Khalid Al-Za’ak wrote an article in Al-Hayah Newspaper, that the temperature will reach approximately 70 C so please take care of your family and your kids.

This report from the office of the Saudi Geophysical Consulting and Environmental, it is official & has been consented by Germany , Japan , Switzerland , Denmark , Belgium , France , China , Korea , Italy , Brazil , Iran , Malaysia , Jordan Spain, Mexico , Canada , Syria , USA & UK

And especially in the summer, when the temperature is 45 and above it is 70 degrees inside the car-
BE AWARE OF THE DANGER READ CAREFULL, & BE RESPONSIBLE SPECIALLY WITH BABIES & CHILDREN !!!

OPEN THE DOOR OF UR CAR>> COUNT TILL 20 BEFORE ENTERING THE CAR, OPEN ALLTHE WINDOWS, THEN THE AC. BE SMART & SPREAD THIS KNOWLEDGE AROUND.!!!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Disclaimer: The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. Any review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of, or taking of any action in reliance upon, this information by persons or entities other than the intended recipient is prohibited. If you receive this in error, please contact the sender and delete the material from any computer. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of HMC.

Qatar Health 2010 I International Healthcare Congress and Exhibition I 10-15 December

www.qatarhealth.info

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Internet Needs

2010-07-20T07:32:00.001-07:00

via thenextweb.com

Couldn't be better

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