Caught this in the evening news.
The Darul-Uloom has come up with yet another fatwa…and this one’s outright hilarious. It prohibits all muslims from taking loans, investing in sharemarkets and indulging in various other financial dealings. Why? Because it smells of gambling and its likes. Great going Mr Maulana
Monthly Archives: August 2006
You and I
Shekhar, a very dear friend of mine wrote this recently, and I just loved it at first sight.
So simple…and yet so touching. That’s how I like my poetry!
Chemistry sparked
Fierce and deep
the first time we met
you and I
We fight about anything
We fight the world
For us
You and I
So polarized.
Yet so bonded
you and I
hmmm….
you say
the color of rage
is red
i say white-hot
like a tungsten needle heated to flash point
you say love needs no logic
I say love can’t be blind
you say cool down
I say lose control
you expressive; voluble
I succinct
earthy you
airy me
your bedroom eyes
my give -a -darn smile
You seek mountains to climb
I’m happy paddling my feet in a creek
You with your goals
Me with my destiny
you with sound
me with silence
you with your laptop
me with my books
you shoot straight from the hip
i think twice before i speak
your passionate precision
my dispassionate reason
Yet we muddle by
don’t we?
Somewhere
somehow
you and I
American History X
This is a very powerful movie, filled with violent and disturbing scenes. One of those rare ones which are capable of depressing you. Edward Norton plays the neo nazi skinhead Derek Vinyard, who’s filled with rage against all the non-white immigrants flooding his country. He spearheads the grouping of frustrated white youth into a gang of nazi skinheads, who commit dozens of hate crimes against other races. After a brutal incident in which he murders two black youth supposedly in an act of self defence, he’s given a jail term of three years. A lot of events take place during his stay in the jail, which change his outlook on life. But on coming back home, he discovers that his younger brother is following the same path which led him to self destruction.
I just cannot stop admiring Edward Norton, not just for his acting skills, but also the way he changes his physical appearance to match the role he’s playing. One generally has an impression of him being skinny and harmless, but he looks entirely different in this movie, completely fitting the tag of a nazi skinhead bully.
A short IM conversation
I really don’t know how these people get hold of one’s id. Not even good enough for timepass fun:P
siddharth misra: ?
aaa_manooch:
aaa_manooch: im m21
aaa_manooch: u?
aaa_manooch: asl plz
aaa_manooch: ?
siddharth misra: m23
aaa_manooch: are you add me?
aaa_manooch:
siddharth misra: are you kid me?
aaa_manooch:
aaa_manooch: you are on
aaa_manooch: your availbe i see
aaa_manooch: ok babay
aaa_manooch: ?
Geek vs management
From a friend’s blog->
People who believe that they are geeks believe that people who they think are “management” are unfamiliar with technology and can be easily intimidated by it. Picture this confrontation: young active looking geek with long hair v/s old grumpy looking guy in pinstripes. Anyone can predict how this encounter is going to be when it comes to technology. Here’s a preview from the encounter:
management guy (M): So, let’s say I upgrade Linux on a machine after many years and one of my programs stop working, what could be the reasons?
geek guy(G): (Uh oh! how do I explain this to him). Many things could have changed that cause problems
M: Like what?
G: kernel, libraries, file systems, hardware…
M: I said upgrade OS, so hardware remains same (gotcha geek, don’t bullshit me)
G: uh ok
M: Explain how each one of the other changes breaks things
G: (Says nothing)
M: Let us say the program in consideration in “hello world” written in C, with this as an example, explain why the binary may stop working after the upgrade (C’mon now, even terribly old mgmt folks can still write this).
G: For starters, header files might have changed
M: But why do you need header files to run binary?
G: (Wow! this old guy knows more than I thought) Um yeah, you said binaries.
M: So what about the kernel?
G: (Ok old fella, you asked for it, kernel is so not what you know) Change in terminal output drivers which is a part of the kernel will break the program.
M: Ok…
G: (Die management bitch, die)
M: What about filesystem?
G: (Huh? That last one was supposed to be stun you till your kid returned from school, I used kernel and driver in the same line, what more do you want?)
M: Are you saying newer OSes come with newer fs?
G: (confidently) yes
M: Let’s say you have a binary on your hard drive which is a ext2 fs and I copy it over to a floppy which is fat32. Will it run?
G: No
M: Have you been to mozilla.org/mozilla.com and tried downloading binaries for linux?
G: Yes
M: Do you remember seeing “firefox for ext3”, “firefox for jfs”, “firefox for resier” etc etc?
G: No
M: Then how does it work?
G: No idea
And thus the evil management guy harassed the geek.
I never realized till today why I was getting weird answer at interviews. Turns out that I look very non-techie and very managementish, and hence candidates have been liberally bullshitting me. Sometimes not trying to guess personas and just answering questions helps.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
This is seriously one of the whackiest movies one may expect to see in a lifetime. Puts your laughing bones on overtime. The comedy doesn’t even wait for the movie to begin…it starts right from the credits. The movie was built on a very tight budget, as may be evident when you watch it. But the beauty of the movie lies in its dialogues. I have not come across funnier dialogues in any movie, and I have seen a lot of movies. Check them out here-> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/quotes . IMDB rates it as #49 on its 250 top movies of all time.
PS: Wanna watch it too? I have the video:)
Bangalore Book Club Meet II
Some blasted idiot broke the mudguard of my bike in the parking today. Had to go and get it replaced, which made me late for the meet. Made it from ITPL Road to Lavelle Road in 20 mins. New record for mid day traffic:p.
Getting back to the meet…reached about an hour late, but just in time. It had been decided earlier that we’d meet up at Airlines Hotel and then move on to a friend’s place. Finally made it to the place after a rather twisted journey.
We again had a pretty good gathering. From my past experience, I know that the initial enthusiasm fizzles out quickly. Still…seems like this group isn’t dying anytime soon. Had got two PGW’s in the last meet, Right Ho Jeeves and Galahad at Blandings. Bone tickling stuff.
Got two more today. The discussion, as usual varied from topics ranging from the depressing underlying theme in most Russian literary works, emotions lost in translation, the usual book vs ebook and book vs movie, etc. Introduced everyone to my huge dvd repository, already over a dozen requests.
Some great news at work lately. Till recently, I had been mostly involved in executing projects my partners. But over the past month, I began to reach out to my own personal network to get projects. After an initial lull, I’ve been literally flooded with work. Established a marketing channel in Australia and executed the first project for a client there . A channel in Netherlands is in the pipeline. Tied up with a medium size s/w firm in Hyderabad, finished the initial proposal for the first project for which work should begin soon, and got a request for another project this Friday eve. Planning to tie up with another firm based in Bangalore. Facing a serious manpower shortage right now. Hope to sort this out by the end of the month, along with some other issues.
A death wish not granted
Driving from MG Road to ITPL Road.
Post 1 am in the night.
A route known for numerous mugging incidents at night.
Headlight faulters, doesnt throw beam beyond a few feet.
Tail-light not working since a week.
And hardly braking, mostly keeping around 60-70kmph, going beyond occasionally.
Mind racing with thoughts after watching an intense movie.
Still…things going well.
See a truck coming straight to me, on the wrong lane.
Could make it out from distance, so manage to survive.
Then comes a roadblock.
The onward route blocked for a few kms for road construction.
Peril of meeting traffic head on with dysfunctional headlight.
Idea…use the indicator.
Continuing on the wrong lane with mixed thoughts, some of brave, some of scary nature.
Still…streetlights make life easier.
Reach stretch beyond airport.
No streetlights.
Still going steady above 60, when I can hardly see a few seconds of oncoming road.
See something moving about 15 feet away, just before Marathahalli market.
Reach closer…find its a bullock cart (no lights ofcourse, making it a blindspot at distance).
Manage to brake just in time.
Several potholes on the road beyond.
But having traversed this route so many times, have a mental note of each potential hazard.
Make my way beyond the bridge.
Streetlights. Make life easy.
Turn left to ITPL Road.
Some dogs along the way.
Luckily, none interested enough to chase me.
Reach home at 1.30am, high on life.
How to Make a Grilled Cheese Sandwich With an Iron
Is your stovetop broken? Have you just moved, and don’t have your own frying pan yet? Or are you just looking for an alternative way to make a grilled cheese sandwich? Here’s how to make your next lunch with an iron…
Steps
- Turn on your clothes iron. Set it to its highest setting (Linen or Cotton).
- Take 2 slices of bread and butter the outsides. Place cheese spread or cheese slices between them.
- Take a piece of tinfoil, roughly twice the size of the sandwich. With the foil shiny-side-up on the counter or stovetop, place the sandwich on the foil and fold it over to cover it completely.
- Set the hot iron flat on the foil-wrapped sandwich. This doesn’t hurt the iron at all. Let it sit on the foil for about 30 seconds, then peer inside the foil to see if it’s toasted. It will burn quickly.
- Flip the foil packet over, repeating Step 4.
- Open the foil, and flip the sandwich onto a plate. You can keep and reuse the foil several times. All you have to wash is a knife and a plate, and it takes less electricity than a frying pan.
Tips
- Don’t put too much cheese in the sandwich, or it will melt out the sides and the bread will get stuck to the foil.
- You can do this safely on your kitchen counter, but a clear spot on the top of the stove is safer.
Dean Jones fired from Ten Sports for racist slur
Dean Jones, the former Australia Test batsman named cricketer of the year in 1990, was fired from his television commentary job after referring to South African player Hashim Amla as a “terrorist” during a live broadcast.
Jones, 45, was part of a team calling the second Test between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Colombo for broadcaster TEN Sports. He had his contract terminated following a complaint by South African cricket officials, TEN Sports spokesman Jude de Valliere said in a telephone interview from Colombo.
“TEN sports has apologized to Hashim, Cricket South Africa, Sri Lanka Cricket, the International Cricket Council and millions of viewers,” the broadcaster said today in a statement. “Sport has no room for such an act.”
According to Cricket South Africa, Jones was heard to say “the terrorist has got another wicket” after Amla, a South African Muslim of Indian descent, took a catch to dismiss Kumar Sangakkara yesterday. The governing body also reported the matter to the ICC.
“It was a silly and completely insensitive thing to say and, obviously, it was never supposed to be heard over the air,” Jones told reporters before leaving Sri Lanka. “I am truly sorry to have caused offence to anybody and the last thing I intended was to be disrespectful. It does not represent who I am, how I think or what I believe.”
Jones said he would apologize to Amla, who wears a beard for religious reasons and has an agreement with SABMiller Plc, the South African team’s main sponsor, not to wear its Castle Lager brand logo on his playing and practice uniforms.