Naansense Factory ... Accident Laboratory

Experiment on self

2009-01-28T19:36:00.000-08:00

I am going to do an experiment. On myself. I have read good reviews on Ramachandra Guha's India After Gandhi. I think, the book will ultimately make me fall in love with India again. And, I'll hasten to go back. So, I wanted to put this down even before it happens, and I start yearning. So that, I could see whether my reaction will be as predicted.

I'm ordering the book. The clock ticks.

The age of denying god

2009-01-27T18:38:00.001-08:00

Slumdog Millionaire - A million abominations

2009-01-25T18:03:00.000-08:00

They say reality is stranger than fiction. In the context of Slumdog Millionaire it's hellish ghastlier. Read for yourself the horror:
Here is the link to an article in the Daily Mail.

Ruminating over Purposes

2009-01-23T05:49:00.000-08:00

[ Dedicated to my 'gang', the Lopers - which is not much of a euphemism, but crass pronunciation. ]

Hazy,Jazy, Kazy,Lazy
That's what Lopers are, plus crazy
Repeated attempts of utility they resist
That's 'cause its the very definition of Lopers, isn't it?

Permanent Etchings: Made in Taiwan

2009-01-09T13:39:00.000-08:00

"How did Taiwan emerge as an electronics workshop to the world? The island has an abundance of relatively low-cost engineers, many of them returnees from the U.S., and strong connections to Silicon Valley. The Taiwan government stimulated the high-tech industry with tax and venture capital incentives. The country has a deeper technical and industrial base than its Southeast Asian neighbors. Taiwan's entrepreneurs have been much more adaptable than its competitors in Japan and Korea to the rapid change and short product cycles in the computer industry.

Taiwan has not been notably successful in branding and marketing its own products. Where it has succeeded is in partnering with the U.S. (and, increasingly, Japanese) computer industry. While being careful not to advertise what they are doing, the U.S. name-brand owners have delegated a lot to the Taiwanese. The brand holder may give a road map, such as product specifications and performance. Or the Taiwan side may generate the ideas and bring them to the customer. Taiwan has a particular strength in the time-consuming design of the printed circuit board, a customized system that is crucial to the overall speed and reliability of the finished computer. A joint development process between the two sides can come up with a new model in six to nine months.

Lam says that Quanta, which has 500 design engineers in Taiwan, did about half of the design work for Apple Computer's G4 notebook. For Dell, Quanta's biggest single customer, Lam says, his army of engineers does about 60% to 70% of the design work on Latitude models; Dell does the remaining 30% to 40%. He asserts that HP was a marginal player in notebooks before Quanta helped to design its products. Compaq, which last year sourced an astounding $9.6 billion of electronics from Taiwan, looks to become Quanta's No. 2 account. "

(...)

"Taiwan's electronics factories started out at the drone end of the business. But there wasn't enough money in that. In the past decade they have evolved from lowly con-tract manufacturers into designer-manufacturers. They differ from the well-known contract electronics manufacturers in the U.S.—namely, Solectron and Flextronics—in typically having a few specialties, as opposed to making a wide variety of products. In Quanta's case the list includes laptops, and now cell phones and servers."

{ Shows how important being focused is. I, on the other hand, am learning it the hard way.}

- Forbes article Made in Taiwan

This [emphasized] explains why the Chinese are and need to be fashionable.

Also, 'tis helps to notice that the government had a major part to play, in helping setting up this industry in Taiwan. Governments can play a major role if they want to. They should've let Tata open his plant in Singur.

Point naught ('tis a bad habit)

2009-01-07T19:44:00.000-08:00

You think you are fairly intelligent. But think this.. you are definitely not the most intelligent/ingenious person; you do get snapping ideas from time to time, which you think are fairly smart; what when u realise that somebody's already thought of any idea which you'll ever think, and probably tens or hundreds of years ago? How wasteful, pointless and sweet Fanny Adams will your existence feel ?

Edit (Jan 16 '09): I have proof for this. I was thinking about how one could use any piece of information any which way, in proving yourself right. And, thinking myself to be intelligent to be thinking so. Well, some guy already thought about it, and put it in a book he wrote! Its Aldous Huxley folks. I started reading his quotes to get an idea of what he's like and I found the nemesis of a sentence. What would I like more than sharing it with you. Here, have a look, will you ->

"Facts are ventriloquists' dummies. Sitting on a wise man's knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere, they say nothing, or talk nonsense, or indulge in sheer diabolism."

* "Bruno Rontini" in Time Must Have A Stop (1944) - Which is actually Aldous Huxley of course, 'cause he's the one who wrote the book.

And by the way, he reigned nearly half a century ago

I frankly object frankly

2008-10-19T15:43:00.000-07:00

A comment for a post I came across. My arguments make sense, I think. No offense to the author. But, I don't comment so much, and thought "Hell! one of my posts could be so long! Ok... lets make it a post then!" :P

If you have any objections.. go ahead object!

The post:
http://havetimewillwaste.blogspot.com/2008/09/why-so-reckless.html

My comment:
Hi, found you've put in quite a bit of effort/thought in the post. I have some rebuttals .

You say...

" But IITs don't make people clever. They just provide the finishing touches to people who are already very smart. ... By having a few more buildings, we won’t end raising the IQ of the people occupying them. "

Naha.. but it is exactly not that.Like you said its not getting dumb people and teaching them. It is finding people who are smart and training them. So this clever statement (no offence, sounds so much like one of Chetan Bhagat's sentences, full of rhetoric..dig deeper no actual meaning) of raising IQ by raising more buildings, actually has no grounds, and doesn't actually make sense. As, nobody is doing what you say they are. It is just not raising new buildings, they'll get more staff, more facilities etc and probably a newer method of education.

As some IITians (though any reasonably well-educated, intelligent, experienced person would do) have mentioned that the JEE exam does not really have everything in it to identify intelligence/creativity etc holistically. I do agree the exam is quite demanding and rigorous in terms of how much effort a person puts in, how he tackles new questions in basic science etc. But, it does not test other important aspects like creativity, innovation and other things which India is crying for lack of. These aspects too are related to 'success' (which they say IITians are surrounded by). So why shouldn't the govt. open more IITs.. call it exactly that, and have more 'capable' people as you call them?

Also, assuming you are an IITian, maybe you wouldnt be in IIT if the govt had not constantly increased the no of seats. :) . And then maybe you wouldnt be defending it so passionately.

"We do not have twelve Stanfords, fifteen Oxfords or twenty two ETHs."

But Stanford is not the only university in its cadre, there's Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Caltech, MIT, Princeton, and many others who are good in a particular fields. MIT is certainly not the best for everything. In Europe, there's not only Oxford, there's Cambridge, St.Andrews, EPFL, ETH, etc... So India having the population of US and UK combined(nearly!) should do a favour for her children and open more such universities ! Can't you see the imbalance??

Actually it does not really matter so much, whether they open more IITs or not. But it certainly isnt a bad idea.

Don't be so selfish and think in terms of market value of yourselves. You clearly don;t want more competition out there. If you are getting good education and its possible to extend it to more people, don't you want that? What kind of breed is India raising in the name of IITians? I don't know.

Selfishness is way over-rated. Somebody shoot Ayn Rand. Wait. She's already dead. I guess we'll have to invent a time-machine after all, to back in time and kill her.

Yay! its exam time!

2008-10-18T13:21:00.000-07:00

Why I think I have ADDS. And, what I make of it.

2008-10-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

Anything that requires my mind to stay on it for more than 2 minutes -and is not constantly providing new (interesting) information or (interesting) challenges - eventually loses my attention. Or, I stop being attentive, that is :P.

The ADD Syndrome - as I call it - in me, has been a part of me since I was playing in a puddle of mud. It lasted through school, where initially I used to be the highly distracted kid who used to disturb benchmates in junior school, which has received special mention in all the report cards without exception. And, was asked to go wash my face in high school by one teacher especially. Then I went to college, I stopped being embarrassed by it. Shamelessly - hopefully without my mouth wide open - I used to doze in the first bench. I thought I should deal with this problem, and urged my benchmates * to shift to the last bench. Nope. They wouldn't hear of it. So I slept on. Was named Tapas Queen by a slightly strict teacher. That stuck on, and I kinda liked that image :P

Now in grad school I don't feel so drowsy so much. Its not bcos classes here are better than in India, the percentage - I think - has remained the same, I sleep in one out of 3 classes here, back home it was 2-3 out of 6-7. I don't think that I'll even try to change that.

Coming back to the ADD Syndrome, things which mesmerize me and have my full attention are Kung Fu, Hip-Hop / Break dancing, well made movies, and certain shows like Derren Brown's, FRIENDS, SATC, House, and the Looney Tunes show! Whose line is it anyway and other things are so off in the past I've forgotten them! So... my conclusion is, that I've to engage in something that is not only mentally but physically challenging/engaging as well. The closest matche to that is Kung Fu. I love it. I've even joined classes here (Wing Chun Kung Fu, not the Shoalin that I wanted.. but does fine for now), which I've stopped attending past 3 wks bcos of grad school pressure :( . I've no clue how to go about this. But, I think a healthy dose of all kinds of activies, like science, kung fu/sport, dance/music, going out a lot :P, and good reads with a bout of healthy interaction between quite a few people will do me a world of good.

* Only 3 gals in class back in undergrad. The consequences it led to sometimes, made me want to rip somebody's hair off. One of the chief probs was, I couldn't sit in the last bench as I couldn't sit alone - too boring. The 2 other, apparently kuDmi (paDAku; studious - not in a good way) gals dint want to sit in the last bench. The guys wouldnt sit with me bcos they'd get teased terribly. Several used to say an innocent "Hi" initially in class and got royally leg-pulled, ob they stopped even talking to me after that.

The Chicken, the Egg and the Oppotunity Cost

2008-10-12T20:56:00.000-07:00

Oppotunity-Cost is a self-fulfilling prophecy. By saying that you are losing a certain amount of benefit just by not opting for it, you make the effect come alive. Whereas, in reality you would not have 'lost', considering your profits (returns - investment) are not negative.

Persnaalty Profiling

2008-10-09T18:57:00.000-07:00

The Jung-Myers-Briggs turned this out for me, and guess what..i am interested in these things! But not 'only' these things, and not in this order. Hmm... I cant really tell if the JMB works.

Counseling
Psychology
Social Work
Education
Public Health
Physician
Science/Technical
Science
Computer Programming
Management
Fashion Merchandising
Politics
Famous people of your particular type
Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Clara Barton (Founder of the American Red Cross), Ronald Reagan

Raf Hail ! Raf Hail !

2008-07-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

6th July 2008. Cut to map of the world. Cut to British Isle. Cut further to England. Cut to Center Court, Wimbledon. Thwack. The fluorescent ball zooms past after being thwacked by a racket. Thwack ! Hits the net. History made as the epic match ends. The prophecy come true.

Prophecy made by Bjorn Borg:

The Scene described above..

A one-up on Agnosticism

2008-06-27T00:22:00.000-07:00

I might or might not want to believe in God.

That (movie) don't impress me much

2008-06-06T12:10:00.000-07:00

Very very very few of the latest movies have made the cut for me. I think I used to enjoy movies better when I was younger. Probably because I was more ignorant and less demanding. The perplexing thing is: I still love the movies I loved when I was younger! Guess I just remember the aftertaste more than the movie itself. I can't fathom.

I love the movie Mr.India { most from my gen do :) } . But, dint like Koi Mil Gaya that much. Kids of KMG's gen apparently enjoyed it a lot. But Mr.India was more fascinating, I say! From the red coloured glass funda ( beats the physics laws of eternity, ergo, magical ) to Sridevi dancing like Charlie Chaplin; from the witticisms ( which kept the audience glued to the movie ) to the supremely gut-bursting-funny encounters between the editor and 'wrong number' callers. The movie had it all for me. All to wonder and gush about when it was over. And, all the enthu to watch it all over again! The movie's still entertaining today. All the actors were very natural. Mogambo terrified the hell out of every kid, and became a scarier substitute for Bogey Man. Bogey Man - nobody knew what he looked like. But knew Mogambo's bloodshot eyes staring at you, which made the inner recesses of your soul and body grow very cold and dark. Brrr!
Amrish Puri - the quintessential villain! Nobody dare replace him!

{ Ah! the joys of childhood! It (childhood - extending from 0 to 16) was a perpetual picnic. Until adulthood happened and gave to you: there is no perpetual machine. That's why many adults turn to sarcasm, I suppose. There's a lot of joy bursting somebody's bubble :D }

Well, to all those movie makers out there: Entertain me!

Note: There was one movie however, in 2008, which I loved - Snatch. Make more like 'em.

Cornstarch - now its people who're acting weird

2008-05-29T03:35:00.000-07:00

Cornstarch gets eerie! (towards the end)

2008-05-29T03:19:00.000-07:00

Christian Bale

2008-05-29T00:29:00.000-07:00

Before I introduce the man, you ought to see his pics. But, that's not enough. First, pics though - which you've seen by the way.

Question... Does anybody look this good in a suit? Ever?

Second, this guy gives any damn poker player a run for his cards. You've to watch Equilibrium to know. I can't believe I'm saying this, "He'd have been the perfect Neo!" How could the Wachowski Bros miss him?! Total respect for Keanu Reeves and all, but this guy is the best poker-face, the best human-machine, and if you'd seen Equilibruim you'd say he'd have done great justice to the fight scenes as well! The fight sequence at the climax of Equilibrium is superfast and superperfect. It's supposed to be a martial art called Gun Kata - fighting with gun in a non-firing capacity - as a sleek bludger :) . There's some Samurai style swording as well - oh! the pleasure seeing him swish and slice through the opponents! Sighhh :) . I guess it's those hollow cheeks, thin lips and sharp nose which work the mystery/magic.. whatte candidate!

Although, he's not had much of success as a movie star - only American Psycho and Batman. - he has a major cult following. Was voted among the Top 8 Cult Figures of all time! So, just pause and think. Then, rush faster than the atomic clock ticks to movie library and watch all his damn movies!

The only problem with Equilibrium is that it's just engaging, and not riveting. The plot and story are not strong. Direction is pretty good though, especially the climax fight scene. But it wasn't enough for the movie to succeed, the screenplay had to be stronger. What I want is a story+screenplay the writer spent at least 3-4 years thinking and writing. It would've done justice to Bale.

If you haven't watched him(in movies), you don't know why people go cultish.

Leaving Golden Shores

2008-05-26T09:57:00.000-07:00

'Mr. Bhagat now wants to be a part of the historic changes taking place as India awakens to its potential.', so I read in a New York Times article. Then there was a stab. More sadness.

At this juncture, when everyone's staying back(in the country), I'm leaving. It is getting increasingly depressing. I feel nostalgic already (!). What's wrong with me? Hopefully, I'll be back soon, with the experience from the West(lol). It does feel like green pastures here, and red-blue-white there. Waiting to come back, without having left yet. What is this feeling.? I'm unable to measure...

No. I will be back soon. Max hiatus I take from India: four years. I'm coming back! :)

Urban Loving

2008-05-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

Urban Dictionary is the new Oxford .. New York, London dictionaries put together! Not only does it specialise in slang, which Oxford can't let slip through it's stiff lips, it also allows users/janta to add and modify content!

Here's the load on shyte I found there:
Shyte

A shyte is a measure of information - usually on a computer. One shyte equals one byte. A shyte is used to measure corrupt data, bad programming and rubbish on the internet.

A spam message might contain 5 kiloshytes (KS), a virus-infected file attachment could be 1.5 megashytes (MS) in size, a bad sector on a hard disk might take up 3 megashytes. Something measured in gigashytes (GS)can be left to the imagination.

Uh Huh !

In case you missed the shyte...

It is a variant of shit, as how it was said in old English. 'Ye olde stabble boy spend ye time on cleaning ye horses' shyte.'

"I intend to turn over a new sheaf!"

2008-05-06T03:15:00.000-07:00

... and I have ! :)

Starting from the look of the blog. And, then the feel and a whole new experience... like riding a horse(head) {across a} nebula!

From a simple, 'Scribe' to custom 'City Lights' - blurred, no rocks - I'm talking about the template,. Hope you like it as much as I do :)

Booooring!

2008-03-24T02:25:00.000-07:00

I've become boring!
Loooooooong posts... discussing some over-discussed issue. Over-discussed because people have been pondering over them (chewing the same gum) for centuries !
Time to run the scissor!
People of the world ...prepare!
I intend to turn over a new sheaf!

Success

2008-03-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

It's bane. But, it's human nature. People like, and like to associate only with successful people. Nobody wants to associate with a failure. Even if (s)he is failing only 'for the time being'. But, the moment somebody succeeds at something , people will cross oceans to associate with them.

Have I myself been an example of this syndrome? Not really . But, I have been, at certain points of time. Now that I've become conscious of this, I will make an effort to not be a 'fair-weather friend'. Yes, this is how prejudice has to be removed, once detected. Else, it might become a part of us, like calluses.

There is confusion no more

2008-03-09T22:12:00.000-07:00

Einstein's space is no closer to reality than Van Gogh's sky. The glory of science is not in a truth more absolute than the truth of Bach or Tolstoy, but in the act of creation itself. The scientist's discoveries impose his own order on chaos, as the composer or painter imposes his; an order that always refers to limited aspects of reality, and is based on the observer's frame of reference, which differs from period to period as a Rembrant nude differs from a nude by Manet.: Arthur Koestler

Make way... the Era of the Gun has arrived...

2008-02-22T19:55:00.000-08:00

When I saw all the shootings in US universities and schools, in the news, I dint think so much about it. When I heard about the violence (shooting included) in Indian schools , again I dint bother so much. But, when I saw this piece of trivia in the newspaper it dawned on me like a Revelation.... "The Era of the Gun has arrived" .

Now its a fad. The market fillers are making it a fad. Gun shaped eggs! How cool eh? Brrrr.... its actually a little scary.

Anthony Burgess

2008-02-20T03:59:00.000-08:00

"…slang…the home-made language of the ruled, not the rulers, the acted upon, the used, the used up. It is demotic poetry emerging in flashes of ironic insight."

Man! he's a poet in a mere-writer's clothing!