Warmest wishes for Durga Puja to all.
Wishing everyone happiness, peace, success and good health.
- AJ and SSS.
Saturday, October 23, 2004
Durga Puja Greetings
Thursday, October 14, 2004
Real life Superman
Up.. up.. and away!!! Is it a bird, is it a plane?? No, its SUPERMAN. Christopher Reeves, who immortalized the already immortal Superman, left for higher abode on Oct 11, 2004. This is in tribute to the legendary actor; who fought with his paralysis like a real life Superman.
Saw his biography being aired on History Channel. A moment to remember was when Reeves comes on the Oscar stage on wheel-chair and the film community gives him a standing ovation.
These images move one so much. Inspite of all the odds being stacked against, the human spirit lives on. SURVIVORS.
Saw his biography being aired on History Channel. A moment to remember was when Reeves comes on the Oscar stage on wheel-chair and the film community gives him a standing ovation.
These images move one so much. Inspite of all the odds being stacked against, the human spirit lives on. SURVIVORS.
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
It's the Cash Flow, Stupid!
Interesting Article that I received as an email forward. A dot-com investor confesses to a fit of irrational exuberance. -SSS
ECONOMISTS ARE SOMETIMES defined as people who don't believe things work in practice until they can be proven in theory. Not surprisingly, during the dot-com bubble the behavior of investors befuddled these economists. Very few dot-com investors consulted their financial theory textbooks before making investments in the stock market. In fact, many did not even understand the businesses they were investing in. To understand the dynamics of valuations during the bubble, it is necessary to look at investor practice. Like many others, I had a rush of "irrational exuberance." With hindsight, my only regret is not that I joined in the gold rush but that I became exuberant at a time when the bull market was 95 percent of the way up the incline. Although it went against everything I ever learned in finance, I began to believe that I was missing the much-touted "New Era Economic Thinking."
During the boom, the stock market valued dot-coms that were incurring negative cash flows more highly than companies generating profits and positive cash flows. We had irrationally exuberant investors driving stock prices beyond what cash flows could justify and so-called professionals trying to rationalize why this was correct! Later, cash flows acted on valuations the way gravity acts on matter: The lower the cash flow, the greater the downward pull on valuation. The Bill Clinton mantra, "It's the economy, stupid," kept his people's focus on the central role that the U.S. domestic economy plays in American voting behavior. I could have done with an adviser reciting a mantra about the fundamentals of company valuation: "It's the cash flow, stupid."
In the aftermath of the roller-coaster ride, I returned to my finance books and re-learned the basics of how to value a business. According to "efficient markets" theory, the stock market valuation of a firm is the outcome of all available economic information about that firm. But the theory is based on the assumption that investors act rationally and therefore stock prices are always a reflection of value. The dot-com bubble presents a challenge to efficient markets theorists because of the obvious stock mispricing that lasted for quite some time without a correction by the market.
When the cash flow performance of Internet companies became clear and reliable estimates of cash flow became possible, two things changed that had an impact on stock market valuation: Investor enthusiasm for dot-coms collapsed, and valuations became aligned with the emerging reliable estimates of future cash flow performance.
In other words, in the aftermath of the dot-com crash, long-established valuation principles were restored, and a new generation of investors has learned old lessons in finance.
BY RONAN MCGOVERN, MS SLOAN '96
Ronan McGovern, MS (Management) Sloan '96, is associate director of the corporate finance division of Allied Irish Bank in Dublin, Ireland. The full text of this article was published in Ireland in the Jan. 13, 2002, Sunday Business Post.
ECONOMISTS ARE SOMETIMES defined as people who don't believe things work in practice until they can be proven in theory. Not surprisingly, during the dot-com bubble the behavior of investors befuddled these economists. Very few dot-com investors consulted their financial theory textbooks before making investments in the stock market. In fact, many did not even understand the businesses they were investing in. To understand the dynamics of valuations during the bubble, it is necessary to look at investor practice. Like many others, I had a rush of "irrational exuberance." With hindsight, my only regret is not that I joined in the gold rush but that I became exuberant at a time when the bull market was 95 percent of the way up the incline. Although it went against everything I ever learned in finance, I began to believe that I was missing the much-touted "New Era Economic Thinking."
During the boom, the stock market valued dot-coms that were incurring negative cash flows more highly than companies generating profits and positive cash flows. We had irrationally exuberant investors driving stock prices beyond what cash flows could justify and so-called professionals trying to rationalize why this was correct! Later, cash flows acted on valuations the way gravity acts on matter: The lower the cash flow, the greater the downward pull on valuation. The Bill Clinton mantra, "It's the economy, stupid," kept his people's focus on the central role that the U.S. domestic economy plays in American voting behavior. I could have done with an adviser reciting a mantra about the fundamentals of company valuation: "It's the cash flow, stupid."
In the aftermath of the roller-coaster ride, I returned to my finance books and re-learned the basics of how to value a business. According to "efficient markets" theory, the stock market valuation of a firm is the outcome of all available economic information about that firm. But the theory is based on the assumption that investors act rationally and therefore stock prices are always a reflection of value. The dot-com bubble presents a challenge to efficient markets theorists because of the obvious stock mispricing that lasted for quite some time without a correction by the market.
When the cash flow performance of Internet companies became clear and reliable estimates of cash flow became possible, two things changed that had an impact on stock market valuation: Investor enthusiasm for dot-coms collapsed, and valuations became aligned with the emerging reliable estimates of future cash flow performance.
In other words, in the aftermath of the dot-com crash, long-established valuation principles were restored, and a new generation of investors has learned old lessons in finance.
BY RONAN MCGOVERN, MS SLOAN '96
Ronan McGovern, MS (Management) Sloan '96, is associate director of the corporate finance division of Allied Irish Bank in Dublin, Ireland. The full text of this article was published in Ireland in the Jan. 13, 2002, Sunday Business Post.
Friday, September 17, 2004
"Topo"logy
Topology would unquestionably be associated with the subject of Geography. Nevertheless, there is another interesting coinage of the word which definitely can change the landscape of a person's grade cards. Errr.. confused. Let me explain.
Engg grads prepare bunch of periodicals and lab journals over their 4 year course of "B.Tech." Needless to say, its the topper of the class who has to burn the midnight oil to complete all the work, calculations, manipulations (how else would value of 'g' be always obtained to be 9.81 m/(s*s) in lab conditions and Ohm's law experiment always result in a straight line graph). The less intelligent but more practical batchmates of this topper master an art which not only sails them through the whole grad but also keeps them blissfully unaware that world is not a perfect place (until, of course, till their examination halls).
The art is a serious business. Its a cult, its a rage. It has a fan following of thousands, may be millions. The Art of "Topo"logy. "Topo"(slang)(n.)(origin - unknown) - to copy. "logos"(Greek) - science or study of. Topology is the implementation of the art of copying. In present context, it refers to the phenomenon of mass copying of lab journals by purely human methods. (i.e. no photostat etc.)
The pattern follows binary tree. For the uninitiated, binary tree is something like a family tree. A man. His two sons. Each son having two sons each. Thus, 4 grandsons of the original man. Followed by 4 great-grandsons and so on. (There will be daughters also. But as females are complex beings, the data structure will become increasingly complex. It is out of scope of this blog; more so because of my cipher understanding of female psyche).
Ok, ok... I digressed from the main thought flow. The binary tree pattern is replicated as follows. The topper creates a lab journal (hencefoth referred as "master copy"). 2 of his closest freinds get the first privilege to practice Topology on it. Now we have a "master copy" and 2 "carbon copies". The "master copy" goes back tot the original master as the hostel rooms are black holes from which never ever returns to the actual owner(I challenege Stephen Hawking to disapprove my theory of "Singularity exists in Hostel rooms"!!!).
The 2 carbon copies are religiously copied by 4 other guys.... and so on. Thus, the whole batch gets their lab journals ready within matter of hours. Such marvel of human excellence cannot be even rivalled by amoeba or any unicellular creature which increase their population exponentially by cell division method.
Here are the 2 outcomes I remember fondly after a genuine and hardworked mass effort of Topology.
Incident 1.
A guy, in the hurry of things (and also pressed by the fact that he HAD to watch a movie just on the eve of his practical exam), was blindly (not exactly, the word is used figuratively) copying his preceding carbon copy. The next day he submitted his journal. After sometime, the prof called him and told to search for his lab journal. He started looking in the lot of journals. Identifying a journal looking in size, shape, state and writing of his own; he pulled it out. But he was mystified to see that the roll number on the journal was not his. After exchanging some glances between his professor and his journal, the guy realised that he had copied even the roll number of the other guy. Rest of what followed is censored.
Incident 2.
The topper's writing is not very legible. The "master copy" contains some words which are not legible. Also, the topologists (!!) are not able to figure out the words from the context (as, if they had any knowledge of what they are writing about, they could have as well themselved had written the journal). Now, this leads to a "dharm sankat". The topper is not available for comments (after completing his work, he is probably sleeping or preparing for next exam; he cannot possible go out with a girlfriend, he doesn't have any). They can't leave a blank space in place of the unlegible words. Taking cue from the first law of Toplogy :- "Thou shalt not use thy brains", they religiously copy all the pen strokes for that world like copying an ancient script. Done with their work, they are quite satisfied. Subsequent carbon copies follow the same path (Mind you, topologists are the world's most tightly knit community without any reports of sectarian violence!!) When the prof randomly picks up one of the journals and reads through them, he finds a graphical element which he has never came across during his whole association with the subject. He asks the guy what does it mean. The guy first stammers, then says he doesn't know. The prof traces it down (or techinically speaking, "up" the binary tree) to the "master copy". He asks the topper what this is. The topper innocently replies, "I was copying from the book and their was an oil stain over this word"!!!!
Engg grads prepare bunch of periodicals and lab journals over their 4 year course of "B.Tech." Needless to say, its the topper of the class who has to burn the midnight oil to complete all the work, calculations, manipulations (how else would value of 'g' be always obtained to be 9.81 m/(s*s) in lab conditions and Ohm's law experiment always result in a straight line graph). The less intelligent but more practical batchmates of this topper master an art which not only sails them through the whole grad but also keeps them blissfully unaware that world is not a perfect place (until, of course, till their examination halls).
The art is a serious business. Its a cult, its a rage. It has a fan following of thousands, may be millions. The Art of "Topo"logy. "Topo"(slang)(n.)(origin - unknown) - to copy. "logos"(Greek) - science or study of. Topology is the implementation of the art of copying. In present context, it refers to the phenomenon of mass copying of lab journals by purely human methods. (i.e. no photostat etc.)
The pattern follows binary tree. For the uninitiated, binary tree is something like a family tree. A man. His two sons. Each son having two sons each. Thus, 4 grandsons of the original man. Followed by 4 great-grandsons and so on. (There will be daughters also. But as females are complex beings, the data structure will become increasingly complex. It is out of scope of this blog; more so because of my cipher understanding of female psyche).
Ok, ok... I digressed from the main thought flow. The binary tree pattern is replicated as follows. The topper creates a lab journal (hencefoth referred as "master copy"). 2 of his closest freinds get the first privilege to practice Topology on it. Now we have a "master copy" and 2 "carbon copies". The "master copy" goes back tot the original master as the hostel rooms are black holes from which never ever returns to the actual owner(I challenege Stephen Hawking to disapprove my theory of "Singularity exists in Hostel rooms"!!!).
The 2 carbon copies are religiously copied by 4 other guys.... and so on. Thus, the whole batch gets their lab journals ready within matter of hours. Such marvel of human excellence cannot be even rivalled by amoeba or any unicellular creature which increase their population exponentially by cell division method.
Here are the 2 outcomes I remember fondly after a genuine and hardworked mass effort of Topology.
Incident 1.
A guy, in the hurry of things (and also pressed by the fact that he HAD to watch a movie just on the eve of his practical exam), was blindly (not exactly, the word is used figuratively) copying his preceding carbon copy. The next day he submitted his journal. After sometime, the prof called him and told to search for his lab journal. He started looking in the lot of journals. Identifying a journal looking in size, shape, state and writing of his own; he pulled it out. But he was mystified to see that the roll number on the journal was not his. After exchanging some glances between his professor and his journal, the guy realised that he had copied even the roll number of the other guy. Rest of what followed is censored.
Incident 2.
The topper's writing is not very legible. The "master copy" contains some words which are not legible. Also, the topologists (!!) are not able to figure out the words from the context (as, if they had any knowledge of what they are writing about, they could have as well themselved had written the journal). Now, this leads to a "dharm sankat". The topper is not available for comments (after completing his work, he is probably sleeping or preparing for next exam; he cannot possible go out with a girlfriend, he doesn't have any). They can't leave a blank space in place of the unlegible words. Taking cue from the first law of Toplogy :- "Thou shalt not use thy brains", they religiously copy all the pen strokes for that world like copying an ancient script. Done with their work, they are quite satisfied. Subsequent carbon copies follow the same path (Mind you, topologists are the world's most tightly knit community without any reports of sectarian violence!!) When the prof randomly picks up one of the journals and reads through them, he finds a graphical element which he has never came across during his whole association with the subject. He asks the guy what does it mean. The guy first stammers, then says he doesn't know. The prof traces it down (or techinically speaking, "up" the binary tree) to the "master copy". He asks the topper what this is. The topper innocently replies, "I was copying from the book and their was an oil stain over this word"!!!!
Monday, August 16, 2004
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander!
Ian Thorpe is King of the 200 mtrs freestyle at Athens Olympics 2004!!
This Race was dubbed by the Press as the "Race of the Century". Peiter Hoogenband (left), winner in the last Olympics came second this time around.
American Teenage Sensation Michael Phelps came third - his claim of 7 Olympic Golds is thus Thorpedoed out.
Sunday, August 15, 2004
Monday, August 09, 2004
Myth or truth?
Growing up in a Hindu family is quite entertaining. Eh, why?? You ask.
My grandmother never did narrate to me bedtime stories of Rapunzel, Cindrella, Seven dwarfs and their kind. Enid Blyton was not comprehensible to me at the time when I was just learning C-A-T... cat.
But still, the element of fantasy was never missing. It came through our great Hindu mythology. A whole Bible of stories and events; with cross-linked events and inter-linked characters. The plots were interwoven, stories transcended boundaries of Space and Time (and Universes!!), much before Einstien had ever said E= m*c*c . Gods could do the impossible, change shapes, lift mountains and some luck ones even had nymphs (Indra dev).
It all was childhood fantasy. Watching Mahabharat and Ramayan added visual spice to already famous lores. It was fun and it was awesome.
When I was introduced to science of higher classes, something struck me as quite remarkable. Was it an isolated coincidence that I was witnessing or is there something more to it.
Hindu mythology's super-human and divine aspects are being repeated in body and machine in present day. Is it possible that the stories are not just stories? Were these Gods actually in posession of modern scientific theories.
Shiva's trident is mentioned in the mythology as a source and sink of power. When Shiva is furious, the trident is used for burning down the person invoking Shiva's wrath. Stop. Observe the trident's shape. Recall. An object called lightning conductor. Isn't lightning conductor shaped like Shiva's trident? Doesn't it act as absrobent for huge electrical voltages while other objects made form the same material as lightning conductor but of different shape melt from taking in so much energy?
Shiva again. The Shivaling. Great Shiva devotees know that Shivaling is a source of immense power. It containes energy which built the Shrishti (the universe). Observe again. Shivaling's shape is exactly like that of the dome of a Nucler Power reactor!! Its a proven scientific fact that the inverted bell like shape is the most suitable shape for containing the immense energies generated inside a reactor. How does our mythology say the same thing which modern science has proven in only last 100 years?
Iraq War I. Operation Desert storm. Saddam Hussein thinks that he can win the war with his Soviet Scud missiles. US thwarts his ambition. The answer to Scud was the Patriot missile. It intercepted in an incoming Scud missile by tracking its trajectory and then exploding right in the face of the Scud missile. Scud would be hit by the several of the pieces of Patriot in mid-air and Scud would explode in mid-air instead of hitting its targets on ground. Does this remind you of some scene. Ramayan. It was comic to see head-on collisions between arrows from Ram and Ravana. But, when I first saw Scud vs Patriot footage on CNN; I couldn't help but realise the likeness!!
Pushpak. The air-charoit which Ram drove on his journey back from Lanka to Ayodhya. Can we sue Boeing and Airbus for stealing our mythological patent!! Jokes aside, was it possible that Ram had a personal aircraft at his disposal?
Modern day's Adam's bridge between Rameswaram and Sri Lanka. Recent satellite photgraphs have proved the existence of a man-made structure beneath the current sea level. We have thc San Francisco bridge and other splendors of modern engineering. Could Ram have built that bridge, across the sea?
Apart from engg feats, the prowess in the medicinal and surgical skills of our Gods is also amazing. Ganesha got an elephant's head grafted on hi sbody. Did I hear "body part transplant"? Vishnu was able to survive ages and rid world of evil by taking avatars. Did somebody say "cloning"? Abhimanyu heard secrets of breaking the Chakravyuha in Uttara's womb. Don't our present day medics propose listening of soft music and keeping away from noise pollution to expectant mothers?
There are scores of other parallels which can be drawn. Are they imagination of my mind which is just trying to prove a point? What say? How about travelling back in time and saying "Hello" to our scientifically genius Gods!! They sure will have a great laugh at us.
My grandmother never did narrate to me bedtime stories of Rapunzel, Cindrella, Seven dwarfs and their kind. Enid Blyton was not comprehensible to me at the time when I was just learning C-A-T... cat.
But still, the element of fantasy was never missing. It came through our great Hindu mythology. A whole Bible of stories and events; with cross-linked events and inter-linked characters. The plots were interwoven, stories transcended boundaries of Space and Time (and Universes!!), much before Einstien had ever said E= m*c*c . Gods could do the impossible, change shapes, lift mountains and some luck ones even had nymphs (Indra dev).
It all was childhood fantasy. Watching Mahabharat and Ramayan added visual spice to already famous lores. It was fun and it was awesome.
When I was introduced to science of higher classes, something struck me as quite remarkable. Was it an isolated coincidence that I was witnessing or is there something more to it.
Hindu mythology's super-human and divine aspects are being repeated in body and machine in present day. Is it possible that the stories are not just stories? Were these Gods actually in posession of modern scientific theories.
Shiva's trident is mentioned in the mythology as a source and sink of power. When Shiva is furious, the trident is used for burning down the person invoking Shiva's wrath. Stop. Observe the trident's shape. Recall. An object called lightning conductor. Isn't lightning conductor shaped like Shiva's trident? Doesn't it act as absrobent for huge electrical voltages while other objects made form the same material as lightning conductor but of different shape melt from taking in so much energy?
Shiva again. The Shivaling. Great Shiva devotees know that Shivaling is a source of immense power. It containes energy which built the Shrishti (the universe). Observe again. Shivaling's shape is exactly like that of the dome of a Nucler Power reactor!! Its a proven scientific fact that the inverted bell like shape is the most suitable shape for containing the immense energies generated inside a reactor. How does our mythology say the same thing which modern science has proven in only last 100 years?
Iraq War I. Operation Desert storm. Saddam Hussein thinks that he can win the war with his Soviet Scud missiles. US thwarts his ambition. The answer to Scud was the Patriot missile. It intercepted in an incoming Scud missile by tracking its trajectory and then exploding right in the face of the Scud missile. Scud would be hit by the several of the pieces of Patriot in mid-air and Scud would explode in mid-air instead of hitting its targets on ground. Does this remind you of some scene. Ramayan. It was comic to see head-on collisions between arrows from Ram and Ravana. But, when I first saw Scud vs Patriot footage on CNN; I couldn't help but realise the likeness!!
Pushpak. The air-charoit which Ram drove on his journey back from Lanka to Ayodhya. Can we sue Boeing and Airbus for stealing our mythological patent!! Jokes aside, was it possible that Ram had a personal aircraft at his disposal?
Modern day's Adam's bridge between Rameswaram and Sri Lanka. Recent satellite photgraphs have proved the existence of a man-made structure beneath the current sea level. We have thc San Francisco bridge and other splendors of modern engineering. Could Ram have built that bridge, across the sea?
Apart from engg feats, the prowess in the medicinal and surgical skills of our Gods is also amazing. Ganesha got an elephant's head grafted on hi sbody. Did I hear "body part transplant"? Vishnu was able to survive ages and rid world of evil by taking avatars. Did somebody say "cloning"? Abhimanyu heard secrets of breaking the Chakravyuha in Uttara's womb. Don't our present day medics propose listening of soft music and keeping away from noise pollution to expectant mothers?
There are scores of other parallels which can be drawn. Are they imagination of my mind which is just trying to prove a point? What say? How about travelling back in time and saying "Hello" to our scientifically genius Gods!! They sure will have a great laugh at us.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Googling.... Ushuaia
Ushuaia is the southernmost city of the world. Right at the tip of the Southern America. And using "Ushuaia" as a term means to reach the extremes of the unexplored.
Googling is an awesome way to Ushuaia. The sheer reach and penentration of Google is unrivalled. No use going into "Search Wars" over Google vs Yahoo vs AltaVista vs et al.
Developing Googling as a hobby opens up vast resources of knowledge cutting across the length and breadth (and of course..depth!!!) of the spectrum of human intellect. Just type the topic's name in the search field.. and the information gathered by anybody who is somebody in that field will be available to you.
Instance 1.
I just got fascinated over that 6 colored 3 X 3 X 3 block which has held the imagination of nerds and skeptics alike. Its the Rubik cube. Dunno how many man-years of productive thinking would have gone behind developing the algos for solving the cube and then practising them such that a person has a worl drecord of solving the cube blindfolded(yeah... skeptic??) in 11.2 seconds!!! Not in my life.. never was I going to get that much skill and how would I hit upon the optimized algo. Simple!!! Google is God... answers to all my questions. I not only got the algo, but full flash animation which would be repeatedly play itself so that I could mesmerize (err.... memorize) the steps. And now I can solve the cube..... acheivement, mission accomplished!!!!
http://lar5.com/cube
Instance 2.
Nostalgia haunts me like anything. So, on one rainy morning, I remembered 1989 and a Pakistani singer by the name of Hassan Jahangir. (If you were born near 1980.... and had access to some kind of tape recorder... you are bound to know this). There was a song "Hawa Hawa" which had taken the nation by storm. Somehow, I felt the inkling of having the original piece of music and searched Google for some download site. Instead, I landed up on a web page mentioning the song.
The page was an awesome blog by a dude who lambasted mid-80s Hindi movies in the most hilarious notes. And in hi snostalgia section was the mention of the song. The blog is called "Timex Timepass". And it has been a great strees reliever at numerous occasions.
http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~sundar/tp.htm
Ushuaia....
Googling is an awesome way to Ushuaia. The sheer reach and penentration of Google is unrivalled. No use going into "Search Wars" over Google vs Yahoo vs AltaVista vs et al.
Developing Googling as a hobby opens up vast resources of knowledge cutting across the length and breadth (and of course..depth!!!) of the spectrum of human intellect. Just type the topic's name in the search field.. and the information gathered by anybody who is somebody in that field will be available to you.
Instance 1.
I just got fascinated over that 6 colored 3 X 3 X 3 block which has held the imagination of nerds and skeptics alike. Its the Rubik cube. Dunno how many man-years of productive thinking would have gone behind developing the algos for solving the cube and then practising them such that a person has a worl drecord of solving the cube blindfolded(yeah... skeptic??) in 11.2 seconds!!! Not in my life.. never was I going to get that much skill and how would I hit upon the optimized algo. Simple!!! Google is God... answers to all my questions. I not only got the algo, but full flash animation which would be repeatedly play itself so that I could mesmerize (err.... memorize) the steps. And now I can solve the cube..... acheivement, mission accomplished!!!!
http://lar5.com/cube
Instance 2.
Nostalgia haunts me like anything. So, on one rainy morning, I remembered 1989 and a Pakistani singer by the name of Hassan Jahangir. (If you were born near 1980.... and had access to some kind of tape recorder... you are bound to know this). There was a song "Hawa Hawa" which had taken the nation by storm. Somehow, I felt the inkling of having the original piece of music and searched Google for some download site. Instead, I landed up on a web page mentioning the song.
The page was an awesome blog by a dude who lambasted mid-80s Hindi movies in the most hilarious notes. And in hi snostalgia section was the mention of the song. The blog is called "Timex Timepass". And it has been a great strees reliever at numerous occasions.
http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~sundar/tp.htm
Ushuaia....
Friday, July 30, 2004
Contra
It was a summer of 1992. And for the first time, I was witnessing moving figures on TV actually responding the tune of fingers of the users.
The system was called "Media-GameBoy" and the game was called "CONTRA". Little did I know that I was just uncovering the tip of an iceberg. A whole entertainment industry which makes billions of dollars even with all the piracy around.
The experience was amazing. The whole game plot with umpteen levels and secret passages; it was a delight for the dream-mongerer. CONTRA was given company by MARIO. Another highly popular game. And I was just discovering what a phenomenon it was.
The commando painted himself black and stepped into the unknown worlds of villians and alien creatures. Each world conquered with war cries and foot thumping. The sheer gesture of triumph on getting past an obstacle which was previously undodgeable was a statement of heroism. There came along admirers who would watch me play those levels again and agin to get that extra "oomph" when the player on screen would dodge bullets and spread his own blitzkreig into the nether world.
With advances in technology and the systems becoming popular even in small towns, there was a barrage of games which had to be mastered. After all it was a question of prestige!!! Games like - "Adventure Island", "Motocross", "Ninja Turtles, "F1", "Road Racer", "Load Runner", "Tennis"... and not to forget the all time favorites "PacMan" and "Galaxian".
The commando was fighting his way into the enemy territory. And then, he was introduced to a more lethal weapon. It had by tradition 104 keys and a pet to accompany it called by the name of - "Mouse". And the commando used his new weaponry to fight another round of battles, break yet another secret and kill yet another super-villain.
This new round included games like "DOOM", "WOLF-3D", "DUKE NUKEM", "Prince of Persia", "RoadRash", "Air Xonix", "PinBall" and "Word Twister"!!! But the baap(s) of them all would turn out to be the trio of "Age of Empires, "Quake" and "Unreal Tournament".
Age of Empires holds a high esteem in my life. Simply because it has been responsible of many sleepless nights which I spent thinking how a "palladin" can cut through a horde of "eagle warriors". There have been nights when Unreal Tournament was loaded on the PC with the monitor shut and no game being played; just to hear rhe repeated music of the background action-packed score.
Gaming has been a cult and rage. Wonder when I would lay hands on a X-Box or Sony Playstation and upgrade my arsenal. And then someday, which is not vey far, a kid would be wearing a VR (Virtual Reality) pod and having the "in-game" experience. It would start a new passion of the man and the machine.
The system was called "Media-GameBoy" and the game was called "CONTRA". Little did I know that I was just uncovering the tip of an iceberg. A whole entertainment industry which makes billions of dollars even with all the piracy around.
The experience was amazing. The whole game plot with umpteen levels and secret passages; it was a delight for the dream-mongerer. CONTRA was given company by MARIO. Another highly popular game. And I was just discovering what a phenomenon it was.
The commando painted himself black and stepped into the unknown worlds of villians and alien creatures. Each world conquered with war cries and foot thumping. The sheer gesture of triumph on getting past an obstacle which was previously undodgeable was a statement of heroism. There came along admirers who would watch me play those levels again and agin to get that extra "oomph" when the player on screen would dodge bullets and spread his own blitzkreig into the nether world.
With advances in technology and the systems becoming popular even in small towns, there was a barrage of games which had to be mastered. After all it was a question of prestige!!! Games like - "Adventure Island", "Motocross", "Ninja Turtles, "F1", "Road Racer", "Load Runner", "Tennis"... and not to forget the all time favorites "PacMan" and "Galaxian".
The commando was fighting his way into the enemy territory. And then, he was introduced to a more lethal weapon. It had by tradition 104 keys and a pet to accompany it called by the name of - "Mouse". And the commando used his new weaponry to fight another round of battles, break yet another secret and kill yet another super-villain.
This new round included games like "DOOM", "WOLF-3D", "DUKE NUKEM", "Prince of Persia", "RoadRash", "Air Xonix", "PinBall" and "Word Twister"!!! But the baap(s) of them all would turn out to be the trio of "Age of Empires, "Quake" and "Unreal Tournament".
Age of Empires holds a high esteem in my life. Simply because it has been responsible of many sleepless nights which I spent thinking how a "palladin" can cut through a horde of "eagle warriors". There have been nights when Unreal Tournament was loaded on the PC with the monitor shut and no game being played; just to hear rhe repeated music of the background action-packed score.
Gaming has been a cult and rage. Wonder when I would lay hands on a X-Box or Sony Playstation and upgrade my arsenal. And then someday, which is not vey far, a kid would be wearing a VR (Virtual Reality) pod and having the "in-game" experience. It would start a new passion of the man and the machine.
Thursday, July 29, 2004
Family Pattu
I read this delightful piece of anecdote in yesterday's Times of India.
(paraphrasing Ravi Shastri) - Sometimes back, I was commentating for a Srilanka game along with Jeff Thomson and Attapattu slams a double century. The camera moved amidst all the cheering crowd to pick up Attapattu's parents, who were clapping and beaming with pride. The co-commentator comes up with this gem to describe the situation:
"Joining in Attapattu's celebration and joy are Mamapattu and Papapattu."
(paraphrasing Ravi Shastri) - Sometimes back, I was commentating for a Srilanka game along with Jeff Thomson and Attapattu slams a double century. The camera moved amidst all the cheering crowd to pick up Attapattu's parents, who were clapping and beaming with pride. The co-commentator comes up with this gem to describe the situation:
"Joining in Attapattu's celebration and joy are Mamapattu and Papapattu."
Sunday, July 25, 2004
How "Computer Courses" flourish??
Picking up from the last time. The Indian kid gets his first tryst with destiny on a box which he has been told has get gone through several "generations" of changes to be in front of him in this shape. His classbook tells him that is 5th in the genration. Charles Babbage is the Adam of this species and Lady Ada Lovelace (may her soul not get offended by this) is supposedly the Eve. Then came great grand-daady EDVAC, ENIAC and others (man, we had to cram up the acronyms to get the elusive 'A' grade!!)
The kid burns his hands with 1's complement and 2's complement. Gets to know Gray Code as if it were a part of some great Conspiracy Theory. And to add spice to all this, are codes to print the reverse of an input string.
So far so good. Kids get their first lessons and then they start experimenting with the stuff. And suddenly there will be a bright kid who would develop a PacMan game in BASIC with key handling, graphics and even music added!!
Now, a peep into another section of learners. They get enrolled in those sprawling computer classes, ones which dot the suburbs like net-cafes and PCOs. There you have an instructor teaching the kids "Windows". Teaching Windows?? As in teaching Operating System fundamentals, threading, memory management,.... naahhhh. They are kids, begineers; you don't teach them such stuff. So what in the name of "Windows" do they teach. They teach how to open folders, how to "copy-paste" (first step towards becoming a great programmer :), how to undelete files from Recycle Bin!!!
People have to satrt from some poine. Well this is a good starting point. But the cost paid is highly improportional to the learning acheived. I believe that learning computers as a technology\device\science has an exponential curve to it. Somebody has to give that initial push. Rest of the ground will be covered by the inquistive mind. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen for most of the "computer literate".
Imagine a course claiming that they will teach you Internet. Do they teach IP addresses?? Do they teach DNS?? They teach HTTP or TCP/IP?? These are the basics of learning Internet technology. What they teach is how to opne Internet Explorer window and where is the address bar. That's all... and tha's all what is needed. After that the mind will take the person surfing in the waves of the Web. How much price should be taken for teaching somebody where the address bar is?? A look at the course fees of such institutes will tell that education is real COSTLY.
Here's my two cents to how a kid should be learning the computer course. Let him be instructed to where the UPS is, where the power switch of the CPU is and let him boot automatically to Windows. (Sorry guys, Linux is too techy for a kid to start learning with!!) Tell him where "Start" is, how to open notepad, how to open "Solitaire" and how to save files. Sit with him for th first few sesions. Let him be interested in the multimedia part first. And believe me, today's kids have access to remote controls of TV which have more options than all the key controls for the DOOM game!!! They will pick up things like lightning. Once they get used to the environment, and are of proper age (6th standard prseumably); make them start with the programming language like BASIC. Again a short course which teaches them how to get a couple of PRINTS and palindromes done will be sufficient to get them going. Just make good books available to them. GOOD books. And form there you just have to sit back and relax. They will be on their way to super-geekdom.
Computer Science is the only subject I believe which cab be self-learnt to proficeincy by having access to a PC and good books.
The kid burns his hands with 1's complement and 2's complement. Gets to know Gray Code as if it were a part of some great Conspiracy Theory. And to add spice to all this, are codes to print the reverse of an input string.
So far so good. Kids get their first lessons and then they start experimenting with the stuff. And suddenly there will be a bright kid who would develop a PacMan game in BASIC with key handling, graphics and even music added!!
Now, a peep into another section of learners. They get enrolled in those sprawling computer classes, ones which dot the suburbs like net-cafes and PCOs. There you have an instructor teaching the kids "Windows". Teaching Windows?? As in teaching Operating System fundamentals, threading, memory management,.... naahhhh. They are kids, begineers; you don't teach them such stuff. So what in the name of "Windows" do they teach. They teach how to open folders, how to "copy-paste" (first step towards becoming a great programmer :), how to undelete files from Recycle Bin!!!
People have to satrt from some poine. Well this is a good starting point. But the cost paid is highly improportional to the learning acheived. I believe that learning computers as a technology\device\science has an exponential curve to it. Somebody has to give that initial push. Rest of the ground will be covered by the inquistive mind. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen for most of the "computer literate".
Imagine a course claiming that they will teach you Internet. Do they teach IP addresses?? Do they teach DNS?? They teach HTTP or TCP/IP?? These are the basics of learning Internet technology. What they teach is how to opne Internet Explorer window and where is the address bar. That's all... and tha's all what is needed. After that the mind will take the person surfing in the waves of the Web. How much price should be taken for teaching somebody where the address bar is?? A look at the course fees of such institutes will tell that education is real COSTLY.
Here's my two cents to how a kid should be learning the computer course. Let him be instructed to where the UPS is, where the power switch of the CPU is and let him boot automatically to Windows. (Sorry guys, Linux is too techy for a kid to start learning with!!) Tell him where "Start" is, how to open notepad, how to open "Solitaire" and how to save files. Sit with him for th first few sesions. Let him be interested in the multimedia part first. And believe me, today's kids have access to remote controls of TV which have more options than all the key controls for the DOOM game!!! They will pick up things like lightning. Once they get used to the environment, and are of proper age (6th standard prseumably); make them start with the programming language like BASIC. Again a short course which teaches them how to get a couple of PRINTS and palindromes done will be sufficient to get them going. Just make good books available to them. GOOD books. And form there you just have to sit back and relax. They will be on their way to super-geekdom.
Computer Science is the only subject I believe which cab be self-learnt to proficeincy by having access to a PC and good books.
Saturday, July 24, 2004
c out!! what?
Okey dokey.. Free my mind. That's what Morpheus told me. And I took the red pill. So, this is the real world and I am now blogging. Roll the carpets, blow the trumpets, bring in the cavalry..... hoaaa.. am I getting nervy?
Nervy....?? Topsy-torvy....?? That sounds familiar. Deja Vu. Been there, done that. Flashback. 1994. My close encounter of the first kind with the thing. "AI". Naah.... me nervy again. It was a 386 machine with no hard disk.
I was a student of class 8th. Getting my practical classes of Computer course. We booted using 5.5" floppies. Those paper thin ones, through which I tried to see a solar eclipse.
Hmmm.. so I said this is neat. I can make generate inverted triangles using '*' symbol. I can flood the screen with prime numbers. I am the geek. Big deal.
I was considering myself an advanced programmer in BASIC. Advanced BASIC. Oxymoron? Or was I the oxy moron? Just a kid, people, you can sympathy me.
I didn't know what was C and why it had a brother with better grades; C++. By the time I came to know that PRINT ib BASIC is printf(); in C, somebody said to me "cout". I heard "see out". Couldn't see anything; just a dog wagging his tail. Then the guy blared "cin". I "see in". Nothing again. Hit the guy; got the deliverance. "cout" and "cin" were advance form of printf and scanf. Man, thing are so complicated.
Will add more to how an average Indian kid "learnt computer" (whatever that phrase may mean) and how the parents swell with pride when they tell prospective bridegrooms that their daughter has done a BCA course.
Nervy....?? Topsy-torvy....?? That sounds familiar. Deja Vu. Been there, done that. Flashback. 1994. My close encounter of the first kind with the thing. "AI". Naah.... me nervy again. It was a 386 machine with no hard disk.
I was a student of class 8th. Getting my practical classes of Computer course. We booted using 5.5" floppies. Those paper thin ones, through which I tried to see a solar eclipse.
Hmmm.. so I said this is neat. I can make generate inverted triangles using '*' symbol. I can flood the screen with prime numbers. I am the geek. Big deal.
I was considering myself an advanced programmer in BASIC. Advanced BASIC. Oxymoron? Or was I the oxy moron? Just a kid, people, you can sympathy me.
I didn't know what was C and why it had a brother with better grades; C++. By the time I came to know that PRINT ib BASIC is printf(); in C, somebody said to me "cout". I heard "see out". Couldn't see anything; just a dog wagging his tail. Then the guy blared "cin". I "see in". Nothing again. Hit the guy; got the deliverance. "cout" and "cin" were advance form of printf and scanf. Man, thing are so complicated.
Will add more to how an average Indian kid "learnt computer" (whatever that phrase may mean) and how the parents swell with pride when they tell prospective bridegrooms that their daughter has done a BCA course.
Thursday, June 03, 2004
Satellite weather image of India
Given below is the insat satellite image depicting the current weather in India. No centigrade/fahrenheit here - just the satellite image, to suggest weather and cloud conditions. Yahoo weather summary of 6 Indian cities are given on the left pane.
INSAT IMAGE (INDIA)
If the above can't be viewed, try:
KALPANA 1 IMAGE (NORTH WEST SECTOR) click here
INSAT IMAGE (INDIA)
If the above can't be viewed, try:
KALPANA 1 IMAGE (NORTH WEST SECTOR) click here
Saturday, May 29, 2004
My first Post. Yay!
This is my first post into morphius. the layout is finally complete after 10 hours of wrestling with css and company. yahooo!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)