“It Had Me At The Scrolling” and the Pinch
Today I watched (at considerable length, may I add) Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at CES. Two things were obvious.
The guy is very good at marketting things.
There was a lot of antagonism towards Microsoft.
But then, that is not the important part.. which brings us to the iPhone..
Though its a bit costly, I guess it has a lot of good concepts behind it. At first look, it seems a pretty cool thing to own. But then, one must be careful. For example, I am not very convinced that text messaging will be very easy on the device.(and we college students live on SMS,mind you!). Also, there is a question of how durable the screen will be, once you start using your hands for operation. I’m guessing that the answer is:not as durable as it would be if I used a stylus.(but then, not as inconvenient either).
(This brings back pleasant memories.. Two summers ago I broke the stylus of my Sharp PDA, two days after my brother gave it to me. Now ,THAT is trouble.)
On a lighter note: Imagine this..you will be forced to keep your nails trim if you want to use the iPhone with good speed. So Apple is doing its bit in improving world health…Good Job(s)…
Busy Busy BZ
For the last couple of days, I have been reading blogs throughout the day, and for a good part of the night. I got a huge list from a fellow blogger and friend Vishnu, and am sampling his feedlist…..
Yeah.. I’m Back
Once again, I’ve brought my lazy self back into the blogging world. In this break, as usual, I managed to do nothing worthwhile. Oh yeah, I did manage to complete my applications for PhD… and THAT, was a big pain.. Apart from having to rewrite a personal statement about five times (perfection, you know) the hardest part was having to keep note of all the various required documents. And the university sites did not help much.
Most sites being as vast as they are, there is not easy way to find what ou need to send. Of course, the standard stuff like SOP, gradesheets are all fine.. But finding mail addresses, and other obscure forms to be filled up.. that is trouble. For eg some college-departments have a separate dept. form to be filled and this is never mentioned in the application page, or the form. Luckily, I stumbled upon the forms in time. The mailing addresses are another story. In the myriad pages present in the site, it was a pretty tough deal.
Thank God for the Google University search.. These guys know how to help…
Nob-body can Stop You
That wasand probably, still is, Prof.Govi’s favourite qoute at class. Ok, so this post is about Govi(Govindarajan, but this is how we refer to him). A guy with hair white as snow, if ever I’ve seen one, a bushy white moustache, and a mischevious attitude.
Now, the guy is pretty good at what he does-teaching ORGANIC Chemisty. So good that the top cream out of Chennai’s 10th students flock to his classes for JEE prep….That is another story. Today’s story has to do with what he talks…..
So, first day- he starts with “These fellows say I can’t remember equations and formulae,
Dirty fellow(to no one in general), You can remember the number of the bus in which She goes, but you cant remember this?”
Now, coming from the mouth of a 60 -year old who has just retired, and whom you are expecting to pour forth with equations and serious threats about how he’ll chuck you out if you are not serious, is weird. Slowly, it got more hilarious
Some of his quotes, from my memory, so not exact.
Till now, 9 people tried to isolate flourine. Some of their hands became Hand Flouride. legs became leg-flouride, head became….
I know what you will do tonight..You will go home, and read M and B. Not Mills and Boons, Boons and Mills….but ..Morrison and Boyd..and how will you read it, by..writing, and <pause> writing, <double pause> and WRITING.
Note: Mills and Boons is a romance novel. I dint knw that in 11th.
Student: Sir, this question is wrong
Sir: Ok, then get 99, nobbody can stop you.
Know that the top in IIT prep classes are around 40/100 and maybe 60/100 in easy tests. More than that, and you’ll be above AIR-500
Looking at a guy who had fractured his right arm..”You shall answer attendance with Ullen Aiyah or Yes Sir, and lift your right-hand only. If you lift your left-hand, no attendance
Of course, he was kidding.
Patience is a virtue.. “The student says, ok sir, you be patient. Now I have become so virtuous that I have grown a halo over my head.
Then there is the ” I can give you empathy, I can give you sympathy, but I cannot give you marks”
Those are some of it.. If I’ve lost the funny effect, I owe an apology to Govi….
Free Stuff On Economics? What about poor Electronics guys?
Vishnu blogs about free papers from NBER for people in all third-world countries.
So, what about third-world electronics people..Can someone try and get IEEE to give away all papers for free in third-world countries? It will be pretty useful to me..:P
The Toughest Part In Blogging
When I am sitting around trying to cram up subjects that I don’t wanna do, but have to do anyway, I get a hundred ideas on topics for blogging. Then, when i finish my work there, its all gone. Sometimes, I do remember one or two of those. For instance, today I wanted to blog on why Indian college education, as I’ve seen it, sucks… But then the trouble crops up. I am lazy, when it comes to writing serious stuff, as it requires me to use by not-so-grey cells.
I’d rather write on pointless stuff like this. You see, my friends can tell you. I am an expert in the art of mokkai, ( a Tamil cousin to “rant”). So, here I am, ranting out on a totally pointless topic(is there even a topic here..hullo..HULLO!!) On account of, this is the path of least resistance. Words flow easy when the subject is light, or,as is the case here, weightless. 🙂
Though I do think the topic I mentioned above is coming up soon…wait and watch..I’ll be BACKkk..
The Height Of Ignorance
Recently I had this conversation with someone who teaches me.Though this someone probably doesnt know about or read blogs, I’ll withhold details about him/her for obv. reasons. But I’ll say this much, he is a lecturer.
Now I’ve got this practice of asking doubts in class. This is something that was long abandoned by my peers after they lost hopes of getting them cleared, or alternatively, after they got into the practice of sleeping in class. Let me clarify, I ask doubts when I’m awake. As they say, curiosity kills the cat.
Scene: In class
Him : This quantity is always positive.
Me : Why should it be
( I assure you he hadnt given any explanations to render that question ultra-stupid)
Him : Because its minimum value is zero
Me : !!!!
Ok, so now I’ve become used to there stupid answers, having been where I am for three years. So….
Me : Ok, now why is its minimum value zero?
Him: Because its value cannot go below zero. For example, if I say pass mark is 45 marks, then anything below 45 is fail right, you would pass that subject….
At this stage let me assure the reader that I do happen to know what ” positive” and ” cannot be less than zero” mean.. and donot need a statement analogous to “anything less than zero will be negative ” but this is the far end for me. When someone tries to hide his ignorance, and does a damn bad job at that too, along with everything else, thats the height of stupidity.
Moral: Next time, ask doubts only to disrupt class when your friends are getting bored. If you want to learn something, go read a book
P S : For the record, I learnt that moral 2 years back, but never lost hope in the human abilities to learn from mistakes and hence get good at what they do..maybe i should have.
Hypothetically speaking
What if E were not equal to mc^2….a random musing.
If it were, instead equal to mc,what would happen?
By Writing, and Writing AND Writing
Back in 12th, when I used to diligently go to IIT-JEE prep classes, that is what my Chemistry professor would tell his class, in his ever-jovial voice. And writing is all that I’ve been doing for the past sometime…Writing records, writing assignments, writing a report, though the last was enjoyable.(writing=typing too,if you have any problems with that, i won’t stop you from having them….) and well, writing scraps too ;).In the midst of all this, this guy comes around and comments in my blog, forcing me to post yet another post. For you see, it is events like these that remind me the once-a-day-blogging that I set myself and broke…..Well, some more later
Do Servers Like Donuts?
I think not…
Now, the only thing I know about donuts is that cops in the US are expected, (by virtue of being cops) to eats them and fatten their not-so-famished tummies, just like some Indian cops are expected to receive bribes(not all, mind you.. I’ve seen some sincere ones, and frankly I was slightly surprised) ..and yes, I do vaguely remember seeing donuts in some movie, and maybe in the IIT campus..
Now, Orkut people have been trying to punish their servers by not feeding it what they consider to be its fair share of donuts, and they’ve been at it for months..Doesn’t seem to work..The server seems to only become more and more unavailable..Perhaps, it is allergic to donuts..We must try out something else, like bytes instead of whole donuts..maybe (note the pun, its not hard to find..)
PS: In case you’ve been wondering why I’ve been blogging so incessantly over the past couple of days, its because my internship ends in a couple of days and I’ll be back to my zombie existence at college, where I have to sleep eight hourse non-stop. Huh…so much for college.
My Tryst With Destiny 