Freelosophy

DISCLAIMER: This post is a kind-of eulogy for everything in the software world that is free and open-source. And hence, I'm sure, it is understood I'm not being paid by FOSS or someone... :D


"...that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that this government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." - Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, November 19, 1863


"Given a large enough beta-tester and co-developer base, almost every problem will be characterized quickly and the fix will be obvious to someone." - Eric Raymond, 1997


"Only wimps use tape backup: real men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the rest of the world mirror it ;)" - Linus Torvalds, 1996






If you're wondering why I'm blabbering about all these oldies here and now (Lincoln was old, Raymond and Torvalds, on the other hand, not so much...), you must not have been in touch with me or at he very least, my FB profile and status updates. I've been in touch with one of the most important sensations I have ever been into. By the way, this is the first post I'm typing on my laptop. I always wanted to do this - be free! Free as in freedom. Freedom from finding software that can serve all my purposes and yet, be free (this time, as in cost :P). Freedom from figuratively looking over the shoulder all the time trying to see if someone knows that you are actually using pirated software. In this aspect, India is very much ahead than probably any other nation in the world. Let me put this into perspective - pick up like 20 computer users in India, 19 of them use any of the versions of Windows. And of those 19, about 10 still use Windows XP. Of those 10 people, about 8 have never spent a buck (literally) on the Windows software they use or most of the times, not even for any other compatible software that they need to use on their machines like, for instance, Photoshop, MS Office, Matlab et al. OK, what is this post about? You might've guessed it - Linux.

First things first : It costs you only the time it takes to download it. Almost every version (a Linux version is called a Distro, short for distribution.) comes free. being true Indians as we all are, we like to get things for free.On the other hand, we have a never ending paranoia. Why is he giving this thing to us for free? It is probably defective, probably sub-standard. I had the similar doubts about Linux back in December '09. Did you know that, linux is probably the most standarized of all the operating systems available? Virtually every big corporation (and I'm talking real BIG) uses one of the Linux distributions - Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Mandriva et. al. (Most likely Red Hat, though.)


Why did I venture into this? I've been asked this a lot - at least ever since I started rallying about Linux and especially Ubuntu to any living soul I know :D. OK, why? Back in December, I was planning on buying a laptop and had started researching for a good one (and so far, I have found it). What I found common with all brands was - laptops with Windows cost a considerable amount more than those without the same. It was during that period that I learnt a lot (a LOT) about things like processor architectures, OS architectures and other technical things. The irony is that - I was supposed to have known them for like 3 subjects that I took and yet, I found the fun in those subjects. Mostly because, knowing things is different from learning them (for like an exam or for an assignment). So, i thought, what other options do I have - for an Operating System. I wanted it to be cheap and or once in my life, I wanted it to be legal. On my desktop, I use a shared (between friends and all) version of Windows XP, which incidentally, cost me nothing :). I wanted my laptop to be totally free (except for the hardware, of course) and yet, legal, cutting-edge, and reasonably user-friendly. That was when I stumbled upon Linux. I pored over thousands of lines of reports, bench-mark tests, and technical details and ended up choosing Ubuntu, especially because it was just about a CD's size and of course, meant for personal users.


Now that I've answered the obvious question, another question. Linux is free, huh? What if it's all a conspiracy and all they want is your personal data and corrupt it all. (Trust me, I've been actually asked this.) Let's face it guys, you are not the center of the universe. No one is out there to get you, let alone all the silly things that make up your data. No one simply cares. And even if they do, Linux is at the very least as safe as the other options you have. Viruses, on the other hand, are a totally different issue. They are not aimed personally at anyone, no? Well, this next thing is not so much because of Linux's (come to think of it, any *NIX), omnipotence, but because of the smaller user-base of the *NIX OSes. There are practically (I can't emphasize this enough) no wild viruses for Linux - as of now, at least. That certainly is one less thing to worry about, don't you think?


True, Linux comes with a learning curve, a very long one at that. I've been using Linux for about 2+ years now, and yet, learn at least one new thing every week - try to beat that with Windows. And, I'm not even talking about any software, just the OS by itself.


Well, I'll leave you to figure out the rest of Linux. If you are at all into technology, I suggest you start using Linux - not great for games, but the thrill of learning something so pure...unbeatable!!


An excellent article I read about the differences in philosophies is here...do go through it and of course hit the Distro websites.




Ubuntu - My personal favorite
CentOS - My second favorite, just a clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux - Stability
Fedora - Just a cutting edge version of Red Hat
Distrowatch - Reading material on all the Distributions


"...the Linux philosophy is "laugh in the face of danger". Oops. Wrong one. "Do it yourself". That's it." 

- Linus Torvalds, 1996

Cheers!!


P.S.: Image courtesy: Wikimedia Commons.

The day that was - Part II

After having finally finished finals and doing well, Alhamdulillah, I'm getting back to the blog (read as block :P). Well, the holidays here are so boring that, I have been on Facebook for pretty much all of my in-somnolent time. And of course I have started developing this very very serious LaTeX fetish and have decided to do all my Lab reports and other submissions using LaTeX. Refer to my FB status dated May the 13th for my exact views on LaTeX. (And if you really care for that, I suggest you get back to hitting the books, enough of holidays for you.)

Well, no more beating about the bush (isn't that what I'm doing now? :P). OK, we had just paid like 500 bucks to the cops and this part of the episode still has an awesome repercussion which we will get back to. Anyway, and as C was kind enough to remind me in the comments of the last post, B's bike did not have a valid Pollution check on him and thus the hefty fine. Me and C were just standing on the other side of the signal and waiting for the drama at the traffic island to be over so we could be  on our way to having some serious FUN! At this point, I have to agree that we reached Mount Opera in pretty uneventful circumstances (although, I'm a bit surprised at that now...). Well, these things happen, don't they, another group of our friends was there too (no point wondering about the odds, there are only so many days you can avail the offer... :P). Now, remember the "two large soda"s which got us the tickets? Surprise, surprise! The sodas had gotten warm-hot (not even room temperature) thanks to the raging sun and our delays at the police and stuff. And now, we were all in a fix! We had spent so much on the sodas (no, the tickets actually do not count!! You seem to be weak in Hyderabadi math!! :P) and we were not gonna just throw them there! God forbid! I was not so brave though, I had left my two sodas at home see *patting my back*. So, the other group and A and B and I think D actually drank the warm sodas and as an eye witness, I heard things like Kya pinda hai yaaron!! Phenyl ke jaisa hai! and Chee re bhai! Phek dena tha!! Ab kya kya hota ki!?!. For the first expression, I just realized, Dude!! Tu phenyl kab taste kara patthey?? and kaiku tho bi!!! Well, we were through the gates and rode on to the actual fun (or did we walk, I don't remember...). Anyway, the fun was about to begin and it was gonna be legen-wait for it-dary.

We were just walking around the place in the beginning and there were these weird Dinosaur statues all around and we finally made it to a Columbus ride (the one that looks like a ship and swings all through) and thought, what the heck! and got onto riding it. Here, the highlight was D's face. He was so contorted, we were all laughing all through the 15-20 minutes of the ride. We still lament the lack of a camera on the side facing D so we could have captured the moment and make him embarrassed for the rest of his life :P. Well, and after roaming about for another hour or so (if you are wondering what we did "roam"ing, think big park-large expanses of grass-all the weird possibilities for the curious mind. I'll leave it at that. Then came the real fun part, the water rides.

I need a bit of a preamble before I even begin these events. First of all, I cannot swim although this will not matter in the events that transpired, it seems worth a mention. Also, those were the good old days when I used to use contact lens (and due to an idiosyncratic problem, they had to be hard a.k.a. RGP lens, look it up if you care...) and I had been very confident (read cocky) that it wouldn't matter with all the water around. That's pretty much it though. Well, we took up a locker and a couple of briefs for using the water rides (they wouldn't allow us to go in our own underwear, would you believe that!! :P). Well, A and D had brought their own swim-wear which needs a mention but, I shall not go into it. Well, among all of us, we had like, let me see, 5 sets of keys, all the bikes and the locker combined. And A had a pen-drive on him too (although I don't see the point of, in retrospect). Well, first stop was the wave pool!! We left our pants on the shore (can you call it that?) of the pool and dove in. It was fun for quite sometime. And yeah, I did not mention that I had left my bike keys and the locker keys in D's swim-chaddi(?)'s pocket. As luck would have it, the fly of the pocket was broken and could not hold the keys (I don't blame the fly...). Lo and behold! We had lost my bike keys and our locker keys (just imagine going home in just our pants (literally)). The problem of the locker keys was solved easily enough. We had to pay some 300 bucks to break the lock and get our clothes back. But, my bike keys!! Just imagine having to ride 50kms back home to get the spare. Well, I'm not complaining there, either. We found this life-guard guy who we told our case to. He was kind enough to tell us that he would keep an eye open (like he could see under-water). But, somehow, he found my key and we got it back and left it in the locker this time. Then came the log-rides!!

And of course, after a plethora of photographs in swim-chaddis, which if released to the public, none of us will ever get married in the future (just kidding! :P), we headed to the log-rides and well, let's face it me and B were kind of bigger than, you know, *log*s.  One of them was open and pretty straight forward and we went on it just once - you know, they make you take stairs for like 3 floors to reach the actual place to slide from. Well, the rides were fun per se, but the landing - WOW! For one who can't swim, it can be the worst nightmare ever! I was under-water for like 20 seconds before I actually surfaced (although I think my weight was the culprit there... :P). Then there was this innocent-looking ride with just about a floor's worth of convoluted tubes (yes, closed ones) seeing which I thought, eh! I can take this any day. Well, it was when I was actually in the ride that it hit - what if I get stuck in here (like Monica in FRIENDS :P). And of course, the ride was so convoluted that, the turns actually hurt!! And after just hanging around in the pool for another hour or so, we decided to call it a day!! On the way, we might've touched on the rain-dance room about which I will tell you in the next part...

Well, enough for this part...There still is the end and the actual consequences of the trip and finally, the moral of the incident. We did indeed learn a few awesome lessons from this one...

The next post would probably come pretty soon, what with me having so much free time this time around...

I almost forgot...pics!!

Picture of a Picture taker...Just after reaching Mt. Opera
(I'm not even sure we can shorten the Mount...)

I have absolutely no idea what I am trying to do...

B and C on one side of the Columbus ride...

We did have a pic of D on the Columbus, after all...

Two-in-one...D on Columbus and B and C on the other end...

You know who! :P

The weird dinosaurs I was talking about, with A in control!!

A broken(?) elephant

Top of the world - C and B

The wave pool from a distance

At the entrance...

Ahem!?!

Adieu!!

Guest Post: 10 Myths About Introverts

Well, this is a Guest post by a friend of one of my good friends...I did credit it to him at the end...

Enjoy...I don't want to spoil the fun by blabbering about this...

Myth #1 – Introverts don’t like to talk.

This is not true. Introverts just don’t talk unless they have something to say. They hate small talk. Get an introvert talking about something they are interested in, and they won’t shut up for days.

Myth #2 – Introverts are shy.

Shyness has nothing to do with being an Introvert. Introverts are not necessarily afraid of people. What they need is a reason to interact. They don’t interact for the sake of interacting. If you want to talk to an Introvert, just start talking. Don’t worry about being polite.

Myth #3 – Introverts are rude.

Introverts often don’t see a reason for beating around the bush with social pleasantries. They want everyone to just be real and honest. Unfortunately, this is not acceptable in most settings, so Introverts can feel a lot of pressure to fit in, which they find exhausting.

Myth #4 – Introverts don’t like people.

On the contrary, Introverts intensely value the few friends they have. They can count their close friends on one hand. If you are lucky enough for an introvert to consider you a friend, you probably have a loyal ally for life. Once you have earned their respect as being a person of substance, you’re in.

Myth #5 – Introverts don’t like to go out in public.

Nonsense. Introverts just don’t like to go out in public FOR AS LONG. They also like to avoid the complications that are involved in public activities. They take in data and experiences very quickly, and as a result, don’t need to be there for long to “get it.” They’re ready to go home, recharge, and process it all. In fact, recharging is absolutely crucial for Introverts.

Myth #6 – Introverts always want to be alone.

Introverts are perfectly comfortable with their own thoughts. They think a lot. They daydream. They like to have problems to work on, puzzles to solve. But they can also get incredibly lonely if they don’t have anyone to share their discoveries with. They crave an authentic and sincere connection with ONE PERSON at a time.

Myth #7 – Introverts are weird.

Introverts are often individualists. They don’t follow the crowd. They’d prefer to be valued for their novel ways of living. They think for themselves and because of that, they often challenge the norm. They don’t make most decisions based on what is popular or trendy.

Myth #8 – Introverts are aloof nerds.

Introverts are people who primarily look inward, paying close attention to their thoughts and emotions. It’s not that they are incapable of paying attention to what is going on around them, it’s just that their inner world is much more stimulating and rewarding to them.

Myth #9 – Introverts don’t know how to relax and have fun.

Introverts typically relax at home or in nature, not in busy public places. Introverts are not thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies. If there is too much talking and noise going on, they shut down. Their brains are too sensitive to the neurotransmitter called Dopamine. Introverts and Extroverts have different dominant neuro-pathways. Just look it up.

Myth #10 – Introverts can fix themselves and become Extroverts.

A world without Introverts would be a world with few scientists, musicians, artists, poets, filmmakers, doctors, mathematicians, writers, and philosophers. That being said, there are still plenty of techniques an Extrovert can learn in order to interact with Introverts. (Yes, I reversed these two terms on purpose to show you how biased our society is.) Introverts cannot “fix themselves” and deserve respect for their natural temperament and contributions to the human race. In fact, one study (Silverman, 1986) showed that the percentage of Introverts increases with IQ.

With permission from the author - Sai Sandeep Nandyala on Facebook. Link to the original - here.

Loquacious me!

Beyond the horizon of the place we lived when we were young

In a world of magnets and miracles

Our thoughts strayed constantly and without boundary

The ringing of the division bell had begun

Looking beyond the embers of bridges glowing behind us

To a glimpse of how green it was on the other side

Steps taken forwards but sleepwalking back again

Dragged by the force of some inner tide

-- "High Hopes" by Pink Floyd

The day I turn 22 and I miss home. My first ever B'day away from home and here I am, having had bumps for the very first time in my life :) (and I don't get what the fuss is all about, it doesn't hurt so much... :P). Like I always say, (yeah, you must be keeping track of all the things I have ever said by now :P), Birthdays for me are over-rated. Nevertheless, it feels great to be in company of people I can really call my friends and well-wishers. Thanks to my roomies (a lot really) for making my first B'day away from home and India as memorable as it can get. (Pity we did not take pictures, though, or did we?). Anyway, let me make it clear right away, if you are trying to look for the way this post is going, don't, this is just one of those time-pass posts where I just ramble off anything on my mind. :)


Anyway, I would like to thank all the people who wished me on my B'day and thank the rest too (*grudgingly*). Also, I just had an awesome experience last week. Sometimes you never realize how much you touch someone's life. I have this friend of mine (as usual, no names, but I'll leave a link to her blog) who used to write (just like I used to) and after I restarted (or may be revived?) my blog last week, she finally got through her Writer's Block. Way to go S.N.!! Wish you never have to have a Block again, but you know how vulnerable we are to Calvin's dark designs :P. Anyway, for those of who care, here's the link to her blog: Click Here. And for the future, S.N., you don't need to be so profusely thankful to me, I'm sure you'd have started writing again anyway :). Rock on! (and yes, the title is an allude to your blog :) \m/)


Well, feeling good after a long session of Pink Floyd and Linkin Park, I wish myself a very happy Birthday (I'm shameless like that :P).


Ciao!!


P.S.: Anyone has any tips for studying during exams? Leave a comment or mail me good ones :).

Western Waves

Feedback. This is what I have been studying for a couple of days now and seriously, I have Sedra/Smith to thank for all I know about it and my Professor too, of course. Anyway, let me dig into the topic of the post. We have all been there. Do you remember the first ever English song you listened to? (not heard, mind you! :P) There is always this "cool" older cousin/neighbor who you notice listening to some hard-rock (or may be Jackson) and you think, Wish I could do that too. But, I dunno where to find any :( (Remember, this was back when there was no internet, none accessible anyway, back in the mid 90's). Then you grow up and start concentrating on your studies and more important things (read whatever you were into, back then :P).

Then finally, you enter your College days (may be Intermediate) and your home gets its first computer. Then a friend comes over (who has had a computer for some more time then) (and I was this friend for many of my friends :P as I had a Computer at home since I was 9 (yeah, bow to me, low-lifes !!:P)). Lots of generalization here, I'll just let this go and tell you my story of my tryst with Western Discography.

The first song. You always start with something simple. It probably was "My heart will go on" (Titanic fame, if you can't place it.). Back then, I did not even see why Titanic was such a big deal :). Anyway, then I moved to Hyderabad, and of course, I was the studious type as many of my friends will be more than happy to testify :P. After a year there, we upgraded our computer and the guy who set it up (I was not allowed to do that back then, but then, I'd probably would have screwed it up big time) gave me CD full of Western music :). I used to listen to them all the time and to be honest, I couldn't understand even a quarter of the lyrics. I even remember phonetically Karaoke-ing the songs :P :P (stop laughing, I know you've been there too :P). Enrique was the first artist I ever started liking by any measure, and then came Backstreet Boys. After being conditioned to the dhin-chak desi music, it takes time to appreciate a whole different genre, you see :). For all practical intents and purposes, my first song would be Rhythm Divine. That was indeed all I needed.

Then you enter your Bachelors' and then your friends introduce you to all sorts of genres. Right from Marilyn Manson (Ugh!) to sometimes even Niel Diamond (Ugh! more). Then you actually start listening to western music and appreciating it. The revelation came to me as Linkin Park (yes, Numb) and then comes Pink Floyd (read as WOW!) continues to this day with Beethoven, Yanni, Satriani, Mozart and Vivaldi. I don't like to brag (you know me! :P :P), but my collection of music is considered one of the best :).

Tell me about your journey through the Western music flow!

Ciao!

P.S.: For those waiting for the Part - II of the last post, you might've to wait until my finals. :)

All the best, anyway :) :).

The day that was - Part I

Munaf is back! Well, after about an year of being MIA, I think I finally figured out a way to restart. Let me start off with what kept me from writing for so long:

(c) Bill Waterson

Well, you probably wouldn't be surprised but I was beta-testing for dear ol' Calvin. And to be honest, I works like a charm. :)


Amidst all this effort to advance technology, what brought me back to writing is one of the harsh realities that usually affect you lesser mortals (and rarely, me) - nostalgia. I was just looking over my Facebook and found some real great memories back when I was studying in Hyderabad. (For those who don't watch News, I am currently operating from Tempe, AZ, USA while studying for an MS in Electrical Engg. from the Arizona State University.) That was, I believe, as Ranjit from HIMYM would say, "Too many informations." :P :P


I just wanna take this slow for the first post after a year, and so start off relating a day - sometime in February 2009. I'm looking up the date as I type - yeah, it was the 26th. Let me dive right into it;


I was just done with my GRE (24th Feb, 2009) and was Cloud 7 (I did not score so much as to be on Cloud 9) and so were my friends, who for the sake of the blog are called A, B, C, D, Me (yeah, me!) and one F. So, how did the day come about? We were in the third year of college, what do you expect? Everyone around was having these crazy-ass road-trips to Mount Opera (no, not a mountain, it is a resort/water-park/hang-out place). And of course we were not gonna pay the heavy entry-fee (well, we Hyderabadis are cheap like that! :P). We found out about an offer. Some departmental store was offering a free ticket on purchase of two large sodas (these are gonna be important later...). Well, so we were all set, with tickets and trying to convince F to come. F lived in Banjara Hills (now in Kingsville, TX) and we make fun of him even today "Kyun F bhai, Mount Opera ku Banjara Hills ku shift karaarain, chalo ab tho jainge...". From now on, we'll try and move Mount Opera to Kingsville, TX. (Kyun F bhai, ab tho bi chalrain?? :P :P)


Of course, you might've realized that we were bunking college to have this all-day trip (not that, it was a big deal...not anymore at least...). We were supposed to start from my place at around 9:30 in the morning. Of course, these things never happen on time, do they? And of course B (and sometimes, even A) has never been to a class on time, how can ou expect them to be on time for fun, and on a separate note, I heard an interesting story about B (who works for a company now) being late for work and being told off by his supervisor. If anyone knows how that went, leave the description in the comments section :). OK, so, C was supposed come to my place and I was to pick him up or something. B was getting his own bike, so were me and A. Yeah, did I mention that road-trip here means on bikes for like 50 km or something like that.


You must be wondering how this is sooo not an interesting story, that is because I haven't started yet. The real fun begins now. I woke up at about 8 (well, pretty early as compared to today's standards) and had a look at my bike (an awesome 2007 Honda Shine, if you are wondering) and it had, wait for it, a flat tire. Well, I figured, it's fine, I'll get it fixed before we even start. So, I got all ready, calling up everyone and finalizing with F if he still wanted the resort to be shifted to Banjara hills. Well, at around 10 we were supposed to meet at a common point on the way to the resort. Me and C on one bike, B and D on one bike and A on one (because of his bike). A came to the point with C and so did B and D. A as usual came late and he had a broken leg guard (I'm not sure that's what it is called, it is the thing that stops the bike falling on your leg when it topples to the side). We had to go back to my place to put it at home and leave. I don't remember properly now, but I believe B's bike was also screwed up in some way. So, finally, it was about 11 by the time we started.


So, we did start, finally. Now comes one of the best parts. Location: L.B. Nagar X Road. A, the quintessential rash rider went totally overboard. There was a stop sign (a red signal, for you desis :P) and in trying to beat the stop sign, A went and beat another bike rider. As luck would have it, a cop saw all this and came running (almost literally) to the spot and took the key from A's bike (that is the style of Hyderabadi cops) and directed A to the center of the traffic island. Here is a funnier part: B was so amused by A's accident (?) that, he was laughing out and squinting in A's direction (in Hyderabadi: Jhaank jhaank ke dekhke hasra tha). For good measure, the former cop's sidekick came over and took B to the island too. Me and C were left alone (and sometimes I wish this ordeal ended here with all of us getting a loss in money). Well, after about 15-20 minutes of convincing the cops and having to pay like 500 bucks (post the amount in the comments guys :P).


This is definitely gonna be in parts, so I'll end here with a few pictures of the ride...and the trip so far:

This is A.

Me and C.

The cam was on B and D's bike, so no pics of those two so far...

I'll be back soon with the second installment of this day...