Pit Stop

Physics and Music

2010-09-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

A little while ago, one of my friends asked me an interesting question - "why do some songs have 'ma pa ma pa' and not 'da pa da ni' (for the same notes)"? Basically he wanted to know how can one know if a composer/singer isnt cheating by just throwing some random musical syllables for his/her music?

This got me thinking on writing down about musical notes in relation to frequencies and organization in general. Also, I felt I should write this post in a language that people not familiar with Carnatic music can understand it as well.

To start with, its a well established fact that the range of human audible frequencies is from 20 Hz to 20 KHz. And, we know that higher the frequency, the shriller the sound gets. Based on many studies, the human voice can mostly range from 80 Hz to 1100 Hz (which is actually a small fraction of the range of our audible sounds).

Now, lets start with a little bit of college physics - We all might have done the "Sonometer experiment" back in college. This experiment showed us that longer the length of the string you pluck, deeper the tone (lower frequency) it produced. In other words, the length of the string is inversely proportional to the frequency of the sound it produced. In fact for a string under a constant tension, there's one constant/natural frequency with which it vibrates.

If a string of length L produces a natural frequency f when under constant tension T, then, we could produce a "similar" sound by either modifying the length or the tension so that f is halved or doubled. Essentially, f and 2f (or f and 0.5f) are said to be one octave apart. I searched to find a better way to explain the concept of "similar", but I dont seem to be able to provide a ground-up explanation. I vaguely guess that the pressure waves cause sound, and if those pressure waves are natural multiples of each other (like in the diagram shown here), they "fit in" perfectly. However, that wouldnt explain how octaves still hold good even when you remove the factor of time (In other words, octaves sound similar even when they are out of sync, w.r.t when they started). In fact Wikipedia calls the octave relationship as the "basic miracle of music" and leaves it there. Let me think about on why f and 2f should form an octave. (In comparison, its much easier to explain noise cancellation or resonance using sound waves).

Once we have established natural frequency and octaves, it is now much easier to organize the notes and start from a reference point. If we look at a standard 88-key piano, every 12th key is an octave apart. We now need a reference point, based on which we can relate other notes and create music. In a standard piano, the 49the key serves as the standard musical pitch (Called the A440) and every other key is designed to have a frequency = 440×(2^n/12), where n is the the distance from this key. So, keys to the left of "Middle A" will have a negative n, and hence their frequency will be progressively lesser than 440 Hz, and the ones on the right, higher. If you plot frequencies against n, it be an exponential graph. The reference point, however, is typically the Middle C (Ref. Wiki) in many classical styles and this is characterized by its frequency of ~261.6 Hz. In Indian music, this is also the "Sa".

Now, coming to the original question - "How do we know if it is correct when you randomly hear a note such as 'ma'"? The answer to this question lies in figuring out the reference point (such as C) in that song. It doesnt matter what octave you match the C, since notes in different octaves sound similar. Once you get this reference point, its simple to use it to judge the correctness of the "ma" or any other note. The spinning totem ending for this particular post is transposition or grahabedham (in Carnatic music).

Ref: Wikipedia.

Solar Powered Sunroof

2009-06-03T20:44:00.000-07:00

As much as I hate Prius (and its owners :D), I really liked it when I came across the solar powered roof in the 2010 3rd generation Prius (Click here).

How many times have we all parked our cars in the sun, and then spent the first few minutes of the journey in full A/C and sweating profusely? Solar powered ventilation fan and remote A/C for short amount of time might just be enough to make getting into cars a lot less painful during peak summer.

I still hate the Prius. :)

MacBook Pro

2009-02-07T08:00:00.000-08:00

Over the past 10 years, I have owned/used a dozen computers, but none were a mac. And, of course I always obsessed owning one, but refrained of having it as my primary computer due to lack of knowledge about Macs. The price of Apple computers didnt help it either. Anyway, now that I have one, I thought this deserved an entry in my blog since its one of the long-awaited things...

The Hardware:
The first impressions - The part where people fall in love with it - When you have an ugly grey-silver-black Dell 14" laptop in one hand and a sleek-aluminum-sexy 17" inch mac in the other, its a no contest. All my life, I never "cared" for any of my PCs (I used to run my first desktop without covers, any problem would be faced with an immediate reinstall, if I ran out of patience to shutdown I would just pull the plug, the keyboards couldnt face my wrath and would sometimes have some keys broken, and the list goes on...), but the moment I held this MacBook Pro, I had already given it a higher status in life - something say closer to my cherished possessions like bikes or my car. Of course, (emotionally) a computer would never come close to something more substantial (and materialistic) as engines or something, but you get the idea.

I suddenly felt proud having an aluminium laptop v/s a cheap plastic box, started walking straight as if I just graduated in style, held the mac slightly to the right so that the now-corrected apple logo on the screen cover is visible, the whole lot... As human beings go, I just felt I was in a better place than the 'normal' pc owners, thanks to the incessant mac ads and the decades of hype created by generations of mac aficionados.

I came back home, threw my Dell aside (since I still had to copy some stuff from that to the new one), and then laid my hands on the mac... Before I turned it on, I think I spent a good hour just observing the design, finish and the style with which this mac is built. It felt as if genuine people who really cared about building something memorable, something nice, something that reminds you of how far in human evolution we have come across to reach this phase, have put all their time on it to make the best they can.

After just gazing and running my fingers along the edge of the laptop to find a single imperfection (which I failed), I pressed the door-open button (now idea what you call that). The dell laptop was simple to open - A big-ass, shiny, fake-steel latch on a plastic door, which always reminded me on the slightly-torn apart lavatory door in my grandma's house in the 80s - I had to use brute force to lock the door or else it wouldnt lock the door completely and would surprise you when you are having a happy time (I mean, it was really a "happy" moment per-say, compared to the later years). Anyway, the point is that the latch made me feel that it was a product done by someone who was quitting Dell that week, and this one felt like it was designed by the husband of runway model who, instead of going home early to his beautiful wife, stayed the night at work and designed the button.

The next 15 mins or so was spent on how on earth the door "locked" when we close the laptop. If any of you do get a chance to hold a Macbook Pro, please skip reading this paragraph and go to your laptop and figure out how this works. There are 2 thin rectangular slots on the base, and 2 more slots on the screen that align with the slots on the base. And yet, when you close the screen, there's zero freeplay. Its like the difference between closing the door of an ambassador (or a Lada), v/s that of a well-made Mercedes (Of course not the ones made during '95-'05). I was genuinely stumped on how the laptop held so well when there was nothing mechanical holding the two... I knew the electric power chord was magnetic, and my initial thoughts were that this was somehow magnetic as well. But I tried bringing some other metallic object and nothing happened. Moreover to hold something like the screen, you would need an awfully powerful magnet. And, opening with a button didnt make sense. Anyway, after close observation, I figured that 2 metal latches deploy at the nth moment before closing the screen and they get retracted the moment you try to open your laptop. Does this strike any resemblance? May be wheels on an airplane? Simple genius. I wonder who was the person who came up with this(and what would be the pinup on his bedroom wall)!? I could probably go another paragraph on how great this idea is and how complicated it is (because giving the intelligence for a door latch to understand when its closing and opening is quite a complicated one - given that the screen almost occupies the entire width of the door).

Anyway, I was now confirmed that this belongs to a better place. Every single piece on a mac defines class. It defines style. It defined imagination. They way the hard drives increased the rpm sounded like an airplane take off (although I dont know if it was because there was some problem with it), the way the keyboard was laid out, the perfect edges on the keyboard bay and elsewhere, the auto-backlit keboard, the integrated video camera, the well crafted power button, the wide single button touchpad, the unassuming cd slot, the flat underside (immediately compares to an F1 flat underside that is designed in a wind tunnel to keep the drag to the minimum) - the whole lot.

Anyway, the point is I nick pick a lot and I generally manage to find something faulty in everything. This one, however, seemed perfect. At least so far.

Software:
This was the first time I ever used a mac. After 10 years of constant Windows, I felt I was institutionalized. Of course I have used Linux throughout as well, but not as a personal computer. I do remember the crazy dual boot days, when I used to spend a few days trying to fiddle with /etc/fstab to mount a simple cd or an external hard drive. Totally not worth it.

So, with Windows as benchmark and no-knowledge of mac whatsoever, I started browsing. Again, the graphics and the way the apps and windows are laid out and move about, makes you feel they are much closer to the real life than in windows.

I know I still have to 'break in' using a Mac, but from the past few days' experience, I did feel it isnt as divine as people claim it to be. Comparing it to an iPhone, this software somehow fails to bowl me over. When the first iPhone came out, I thought it was the most sensational product the Apple has ever come across... iPod might have resurrected Apple, but it was really nothing more than an mp3 player in a pretty frock. I felt the iPhone was as big a leap for smartphones as Miura was for supercars or the Trinity for the Carnatic music.

It didnt take me long before I realized there were quite a few very annoying things in the mac. For starters, the login prompt - For apparently no reason, I get the login prompt, and it wouldnt allow me to login from then. It doesnt throw any error, nor does it log me back in. It just disables everything and then only thing I have to do from then on, is to shut my laptop and open it again. By then the "AirPort" wireless will have died and I will have to restart any work that I was unforeseen-ly paused. If I'm watching a video online, I will have to reload the video from beginning. And then Safari - How can Safari become *completely* unusable in a mac!! Its not like IE crashing in Windows where it will be okay when you restart it. Safari would just hang everytime you try to start it. Later I found out it was some stupid preference file that I had to move to trash. Good that I had Firefox as well.

And then, general usability - Windows keyboard has more keys than a mac and obviously they have tried to stick to their usual philosophy of less is more. But I dont understand why they
have tried to cut down on separate keys for home, end, pg up/down etc., In Windows (or Linux), it is very simple - You have a key specific for a purpose. And, you have "Ctrl" to extend its functionality. So, you use the right cursor to move a letter to the right, Ctrl+Right key to move to the end of the word. You have End to move to the end of the line, Ctrl+End to move to the end of the page. You have click to open a link, -click to open in a new tab. So, everytime you want to extend some functionality, just use Ctrl. Its not so in the Mac.
Similarly, Alt in Windows always takes to Window level activities. I'm so confused in the Mac - with Ctrl, Option, Alt, and the Apple keys, its very hard to get the right key without thinking or getting used to it. I also hate the way they have done away with the right click. I have to use track pad and the Click to do that. Why? And the battery power sucks. I think there's some problem with my battery pack (max 1 hour!), but still the claimed ~2 hours is puny compared to my old 4.5 hour Dell.

I think its like the Lamborghini of the olden days - It needs an Audi to put some sensible things into it and yet preserve all its beauty. All this reminds me of yet another Jeremy Clarkson's videos/philosophies - that "for something to be called as an 'art', it can have no purpose other than itself". This macbook sometimes feels that way. I feel sometimes they have tried to oversimplify things. Or over-complicate in some other situations. May be my thinking is still Windows-like. May be I'm still breaking in.

Top 10 car sounds

2008-07-01T13:41:00.001-07:00

I have ever tried to come up with a list of best car sounds ever... Something that is musical to ears, something that is very characteristic of a particular car, something charismatic. So, here goes the list (Since I'm still trying to add and decide the cars, please comment if you like something else).

1. BMW M5 (E60): I think this is the most unique engine sound ever. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbcrOfUt7NI

2. Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzrXItX7DJM

3.

4. BMW M3 CSL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIAliUVQKOo&feature=related

5.

Cross winds...

2008-04-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

A few days back, I had taken my bike on an early evening spin and I fancied a ride on the golden gate bridge so that I could ride the twisties on Marin county... (Also because GG bridge doesnt charge the toll for carpool and motorcycles during peak hours on weekdays. And I, for some strange reason, hate to pay $5.)

I was sh*t scared when I started on the on-ramp because of the cross winds... I was riding on the middle lane and I could feel the gusts of wind trying to push me to the right as I literally hanged on to my bike... Just as I approached the first tower, it all seemed to calm down and I thought that was it and relaxed a little. And before I know, a powerful burst of wind literally pushed me a completely lane and I was almost near the ped-fence.

To really test it out, I dared it again yesterday. And guess what! The same thing happened... The bike felt awfully twitchy all along the bridge (of course while coming back into the city, its a breeze since the wind assists you). So, its not me. I concluded somehow the cross winds on just this bridge are very wicked. I think for now, I will just savor this pic...

Competition...

2008-03-12T19:43:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I was at bro's place... A packed weekend, with lot of riding on my bike, and hell a lot of skiing on Sunday... I finally learnt the right turn on the slopes. All this while, I used to start on the right most part of the slope, and end up on the left most bottom of the hill since I could only do the left turn (I think my right leg is more rigid than the left, and since I am a right hander, turning left might have been more natural since the right leg would be on the outside for a left turn)...

I would pat myself if I understand the above sentence tomorrow :D

Anyway, I have been stuffing Deepti of all the yamaha trivia. For a three and half year old girl, she does seem to enjoy most of my "preaching", and understands it her own way, I guess... Of course she isnt new to idea of being pounded by automobile do's and dont's from me ;)

So, last week was no different... She was puzzled with so many new things on my bike, and in typical-Bangalore-style, she sat on petrol tank and honked incessantly, till her hands hurt. She asked a dozen questions abt a dozen things, and finally concluded:

"... nin bike beda... nange nan bike ee beku... nandralli pedals ide... yamaha alli pedal ee illa...?" and rode off...

DNA Profiling...

2008-02-13T18:03:00.000-08:00

I dont know much about DNA Profiling... However, how cool would it be if every kid born in the hospital is profiled... This would make things so much easier tracing and capturing crooks and suspects... Its just a query away from identifying anyone!

Problems of YZF600R

2008-02-03T08:32:00.000-08:00

Since I am considering buying either of the below as my first bike in the US, I thought I should just list out their known problems.

First, the Yamaha YZF600R:

The bike I am looking at is a 2002/2003 pre-owned... To start off, I've read these:

1. A weak second gear. (I should wind on to full throttle in second and if it pops out of gear, or if the gearbox feels sloppy or clunky, it is an expensive repair proposition).

2. Exhaust Headers: It seems they are of cheaper quality and they tend to rot in colder weather.

3. Rear shocks lasts till 20-30K it seems... But I guess its not a major concern for me now.

4. Also, some standard fall backs of it are: Poor headlight, carb-icing (since its not a fuel-injection engine)

Kawasaki Ninja 250:
This is what I first thought of buying, however, time's changed my mind and I'm more inclined towards the sexier YZF...

Of course, this is a true beginner sport bike and has been lauded by pretty much every reviewer in the business... and underplayed by pretty much all the dealers :D

Anyone has any thoughts on the YZF, I'd greatly appreciate that!

Why carnatic music?

2007-12-27T06:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I had a debate about carnatic music and it made me wonder what is going on with it today...

Some random thoughts about current carnatic music affairs:

Its definitely more evolved than other forms of music, simply becasue any kind of improvement has been strictly uni-directlional for a few centuries now...
Listening to lighter music after you've heard classical music compares to eating mac-cheese v/s a seven-course meal. Its hard to digest, and it needs a lot of preparation, but at the same time, the taste (if done right) is greater and so is the satisfaction. (Now, before carnatic-music-bashing begins) I am not talking about the superiority of any kind of music, I'm just stating why people cannot easily get it...
Of course, carnatic musicians have historically been slightly conservative, which has in a sense, deterred its own growth. But I think this is a part of a life-cycle where the overhead of maintaining the tradition overtakes the advantages of the stronger framework. Once the wheel has been invented, its very hard to come with up with anything else that has such an impact.
Coming to innovation, I guess not much is happening in mainstream carnatic music. Obviously I barely manage to sing some things that have already been sung a zillion times in the past, let alone try something new... Apart from electronic instruments, fusion music and jugalbandis, I am not aware of too many changes in this field... Are we stagnant? Or, have we reached so far that every new generation takes decades to reach the same landmark that tons of musicians have reached so many times before?

I'm not too worried about popularity of Carnatic music since it can only be appreciated by some and its definetely not a mass-appealer. In fact, it shouldnt be. But as far as listening is concerned, I wonder what are the differences between that and light music are, which makes so much of a difference in the user-base (listerners)... Another post awaits...

Zoom in and Zoom out?

2007-12-16T19:40:00.001-08:00

I was watching National Geographic yesterday and they zoomed in from a very far distance on to a cow or something... The cameraman would have stood at a far distance and zoomed in on a cow or a blade of grass...

And then it hit me that we don't have a device that can zoom out... (What I am trying to say is, we don't have a device that can take a picture behind it... In other words, how to relate the scenery in front and back of the camera and stitch it to make it look like a same image?)

I guess the solution isn't too complicated... We already have software that can stitch images by comparing some unique objects in the focus. All we need is another lens on the reverse side of a camera so that the images on the front and back can be stitched appropriately...

Implication: With this, I think I should be able to hold a camera in front of me (say along side my car) and can take a picture as if it were shot from a mile away (including everything in between the camera and the virtual point from where the photo is "clicked") ... ;)

Good and Better...

2007-11-20T15:40:00.000-08:00

There are only 2 kinds of drivers in Bangalore (well... you can generalize it across India):

1. Good drivers: The ones who drive carefully and almost never result in an accident...
2. Better drivers: The more "talented" ones who cause the prevalent chaos on the streets.

Home sweet Home...

2007-11-19T16:52:00.000-08:00

After two and half years, I'm back in Bangalore, or Bengaluru as its called now... When people start fiddling with the name of the city for the heck of it, you know it isnt heading towards any improvement whatsoever...

Anyway, I had a long flight from SFO and I was totally sleep deprived and tired when I reached Bangalore airport. Ever since I moved to the US, my patience-levels and tolerance had increased by multiple folds and the moment I landed here, I seemed to have picked up my left-over baggage. First, the people flocking the baggage-carousel... and then the guys ready to pick up your luggage to get through the customs, without your permission... A minute I was looking out for my other baggage, and all of a sudden this porter had claimed 'ownership' of taking me through the customs. I told him I dont need any help, but he just wouldnt leave my baggage. So, yelling #1 right in front of the customs officer... A small scene created, and the porter finally left me!

And then, there was a longer queue for the pre-paid taxi than the width of the airport itself ;) So, finally at 11PM, I found the end of the twisty-queue and stood there. After 10 mins the queue had moved a little, and an uncle, whom I had said "hi" in the plane, conveniently joined me as though we were long time buddies... I just dont get it. Again, I was slightly pissed with him...

After much hassling to get the taxi (whose prices have been doubled in 3 yrs), the driver and his friend were arguing on how the taxi counter didnt charge for the 2 big baggages that I carried... I had to convince him that I would be a generous tipper to stop him go on and on about that non-sense...

We were hurrying through the streets when some car from behind kept honking like an animal... I got so pissed that I opened the window and yelled at him. It turned out that the guy was honking at his friend - my cab driver! Of course, I got reminded of the traffic sense in India...

We took the Richmond flyover which is probably the joke of the century - A testament of how badly planned infrastructure is this... The flyover is just as long as the traffic junction underneath and I believe the flyover was built to avoid the long traffic lights. And the result now: A traffic light on top of the flyover!! At one point, you will be driving on the left side of the road. And sudden you go head-on with the traffic in the other direction, and then you will be on the right side of the road.

Even in the middle of the night, the air was so thick with dust and pollutants that the street lights looked like a mass of yellow-lump. And, the stench from the open-drainage on the airport road is just unbearable.

Sunday morning (18th nov), I woke up to the sound of roosters :D (just like in stories) and to the aroma of mom-made freshly brewed coffee. Coffee in steel cups, just feels so right :)... I took my bike for a ride, and that feels so complete too... And, I am surprised that my driving senses are not totally out-of-whack either! And, it feels like an event to get from point A to point B. After the initial few hiccups, I am finally getting a hang of how to live here... Of course, its beautiful to smell the fresh air in the morning, and to get some cheap-thrills on TV, or some live-action riding on the traffic-jammed narrow streets, or eat delicious food from moms-kitchen... Above all, it feels like home :)

Save Nanda Road

2007-10-18T10:25:00.000-07:00

It hurts to see the last few 'Bangalore' roads are being sacrificed for the Metro... All through the 90's and early 2000's, I used to take a big detour just to go through Nanda-road... It would be a catastrophe to make it a concrete jungle...
I mean they could always make it underground for that stretch...

If I had more money...

2007-06-06T23:12:00.000-07:00

... I would have bought a 1968/9 Mustang GT...

I am not such a big fan of American muscle cars... I hate boring/reliable Japanese cars (although I own the Mazda RX8, which is understandably the most unique car ;) )... I always thought Germans and Italians are the only people who knew how to build cars...

But oh my God! this movie changed my mind.... Big time!!! Shot in San Francisco (you can see my apartment complex a few times in this clip), this is exactly what I think of whenever I take my car on VanNess or Lombard :D

well... the point is, the Mustang and the Charger kinda give such a good idea about what cars should be made of: ear-bleeding raw, brutal noise. One day I will own one... zzzz.....

Pixel paint!

2006-10-12T14:05:00.000-07:00

Today, I had a rather un-eventful day at work, just fixing some bugs (from the list of bugs I introduced into the code last week). Anyway, one of them was to create some new button interface for our application. And, as usual I started playing with MS-Paint when I was testing the colors...

I started playing with it by filling an area with spray-paint, or fill-paint functions on MS-Paint (oopsie... too much of paint!)... A stupid idea struck me - how much of a tedious process is it to paint automobiles, aircrafts, buildings etc., How cool would it be to enclose, say complete outer body of a car, with tiny LEDs, better LCDs, so that at the touch of a button, the whole car changes its color... Instead of seeing the same dull buildings everyday, can we customize all buildings according to the day/season/ atmosphere? hehe too much to ask (and time to take a walk:D)

However, imagaine this - you are racing with a green jaguar, and the next instant, your camouflaged car has vanished with 'transparent' paint... ringing any bells?

Dream watch...

2006-07-28T10:02:00.000-07:00

If it were only half its price, I would have bought it :(

This is outrageous!!

2006-07-12T11:18:00.000-07:00

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1741304.cms

That F***er Arjun Singh should be cut into pieces alive!

Yahoo! Maps way ahead of Google...

2006-07-07T11:15:00.000-07:00

For the past weeks, i've observed some really signicant differences between the 2 maps... and even though I dont like the yahoo maps interface, I feel google maps is just way primitive than its Yahoo! competitor...

First, you cant do point A -> point B -> point C and so on... on google maps. This was ultra-useful to me when planning the trips over the last weekend... I hate to use multiple windows to calculate from Mountain View - Sunnyvale - Folsom - Lake Tahoe and back. Worse, to find the total distance I've to manually add them... One great feature of Yahoo Maps.

Second, the accuracy of the maps itself: Hmm... rather than accuracy, I should say ability of the Maps. Although I've forgotten the exact instances where Yahoo recognizes my input while Google didnt, I do remember there were quite a few times that I first typed something on Google, and then went back to Yahoo to search for that place.

Third: Even though this is probably a tease than a necessity, this is defientely a great feature - Have you ever just 'surfing' the maps and wondered how far is it from your place? Well, with Yahoo Maps, you can just right click and say "Drive to here" or something like that!! They take the co-ordinates of the map, and give you a driving distance and direction! This is just great!

Next, although Google has implemented airport codes now, as far as I remember, Yahoo had this a lot earlier than the competition.

Finally: Live traffic: I should say, whoever designed this maps, drive a lot and know what to put in maps. Again, I havent seen a direct consequence/accuracy of the data since I try to take the route that has least congestion, it definetely gives a good indication of what might the overall traffic look like. This is by far the 'coolest' feature of all :)

Having said all this, the interface seems cluttered, which still makes me use Google maps sometimes. I cannot pin-point the problem with the interface, but the color scheme or the font/size isnt as great as Google's. That apart, Yahoo! maps beta just nails Google at this point of time (I would love to see Google innovation here - Just as the "conversation" feature alone made me switch all of my personal email from Yahoo to Google :D)

Bhairavi

2006-06-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

With the new nuances that I found, I want to write on characteristics of this amazing raga... (Coming soon...)

2006-06-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

The last weekend was crazy like hell...

First: I tried to install the USB adapter/harness into my car audio system and was stuck big time when I opened up the whole center console and was one nut away. Finally, I went to Walmart in a hurry and bought another wrench that could un-screw the horrible nut... Finally, after 4 hours of meddling with the precious system, I was relieved it worked well with my Rio... Now, my RX8 can accept any kind of audio signal- be it 1/8" signal from any player or a USB drive - without any interference unlike the cheap-quality FM transmitters or the cassette adapters....

music is one area I've been out of touch. I've been trying to pratise atleast an hour everyday, but my voice has broken badly... kinda restless over this :(

picked up pradeep in the night from fremont station, but was late enough to get a good dinner. We met Nithya for lunch on sunday, and then I decided to drive for Mt. Hamilton - which was a pleasure to drive the last time I went there... Not this time though - the temperature was near 100, and I started feeling like those ugly hot summer days in India when you could barely open the eyes in the scorching heat. Adding to this heat, I took a street that was new to me, and so isolated that I started getting all the memories from the movie Fargo. To top it, the curvy narrow road narrowed further with width enough for just 1 car... At this point, I was scared like hell (forget what pradeep thought :D), because the area looked absolutely shady/lonely, and all the curves were completely blind, and the road was 1-car-width exactly. If an idiot came from the opposite direction, God knows what could happen from that cliff... and to my new car!!! Somehow after surviving this, the heat took over the cluthces and I felt I was dehydrated to the core... Somehow, my evening dropped Pradeep to fremont again, and without wasting a second, headed back home.

To take my mind off the headache, I thought a little racing with the yellow-beetle blonde ahead of me would be welcome, and of course I showed her a couple of moves on the freeway ramp - only to find a cop car waiting head on with a laser on the shoulder!!! I quickly changed lanes and slowed down to speed limit, and saw the cop car taking off in my direction through the rear view mirror. As I cruised to 65 behind a Camry, I started building up excuses on why was I speeding and how to 'avoid' another ticket! Luckily he zipped past me to catch another bakra. I was so relieved... Just went home and slept like a log...

Ultimate Driving Machine

2006-06-13T07:47:00.000-07:00

Under 40 grand, this car is the most affordable, serious-fun 'car' on the planet... Even though it is close to 300HP only, its 500Kg weight makes it faster than McLaren F1... By all standards, this is one of the most impressive machinery that I would like to have it in my garage... (def. not in the near future!)

Until then, I would still drive the most unique car on earth ;)

Got my car back...

2006-06-09T13:22:00.000-07:00

And I am not happy with it... First of all, the bodyshop guy messed up with the wheel by adding new scratches to it. Then, he tried to cover it up by brushing it(effectively taking a layer off of the wheel rim, to make it look new). As if this wasn't enough he overinflates the tires to such an extent that I felt as if I was driving a steel-rimmed car. Considering that my car was so smooth with no road noise before, I am super-pissed with this body shop... After coming home, I waited till the tires cooled down and checked the tire pressure, which showed me a whooping 55+PSI on all 4 wheels, when the recommended pressure is 32!! How can someone be more irresponsible! A tiny scratch on the steering wheel, on the speedometer console, spare wheel nuts misplaced - enough to bring me to my boiling point... I am just waiting to get some free time now, so that I could go there and make those guys loose some sleep...
Instead of this high-profile Akins Body shop in Palo Alto, I feel I should have visited a local makku-shop... Atleast I could have saved some money! I am *not* happy with this...

Something's bothering me

2006-06-03T17:10:00.000-07:00

And I am not quite clear what that is...

* Landed up in a place that I longed to... and yet nothing interesting seems to be happening

* Thought I would find it hard to breathe during the weekends - and now I am luggling between left and right side to sleep during the day

* My dream machine is wrecked a little and I am using some stupid rental car

* Was thinking how it be if I stayed back in India... But thinking about the OBC reservation makes me feel sick about the assholes...

Even though nothing bad has happened, nothing great hasnt too, which has got me slightly irked now... or rather restless (Gone are the days of irritation :D)... I guess I need to practise a little bit of music everyday. Atleast.

A day to forget

2006-05-26T08:58:00.000-07:00

Irresistible combination...

2006-05-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

Yanni on Bose in my RX-8 - all these coupled with, of course, my driving :)

2006-04-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

http://www.lrsformula-usa.com/usa/index.htm

Is Ron Dennis just too good?

2006-04-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

well... this is about alonso actually... even though I 'considered' alonso not to be on par with Kimi in terms of racing, I have always noticed one thing in him- he just makes things work unlike most other drivers who get the result 'if' things go well... I simply wonder why does Fisichella have problems everytime, while Alonso has a clean run all the time... More like Barrichello used to take the 'bad luck' charm in his days of Ferrari when Michael used to make the best of the team... Is Alonso capable of making things right all the time? Is this the reason why Ron decided to get in Alonso for 2007?

Yield

2006-04-20T19:04:00.000-07:00

to... hmmm... err... Inertia??

http://youtube.com/watch?v=RjrEQaG5jPM

Tired and Satisfied!

2006-04-14T06:27:00.000-07:00

Its been almost a week now since bought the car and I have successfully managed to cover 700 miles on it. Except for a couple of goof-ups (like yesterday I almost pulled it to 3rd gear instead on going to 5th when I was doing 80), its been a decent journey till here.

I-80 was shutdown last night, and I had to take a detour in a stop-go traffic. Now, working with the gear shifter, I am shutdown indefinitely! Anyways, I am enjoying every mile of driving now ;) It was a great pleasure to drive on this 10 mile San Mateo bridge to Menlo Park (my new home), with all windows down and roof pushed back... Almost conquering some of my dreams :D

Don't you recognize?? Its HER!, Damn it!

2006-04-09T06:41:00.000-07:00

Who wouldn't have dreamt of driving a topless bimmer beside a blonde! Well, I did come close to it yesterday when I made one of the biggest moves in my life... er... close to the bimmer, I mean ;) I am totally surprised (and satisfied) with the way she cries, moans, whispers, and hmm... pretty much everything in her is awesome. With a few hours that I spent with her yesterday, I am confident of having a great time with her in the coming days... Hahn, if you don't know what am I talking about, close this window! hehe... just kidding. Well, I just bought a new Mazda RX-8 yesterday, and drove it home... yipeee. and scared. Spending more than 28K on one day has been the biggest investment of my life till day, and probably for a few more years to come!

The day I left India, I realized I wasn't wired to depend on public transport or even lead a life without personal transportation. Also, I did realize 'Life', without excitement on road, is not me ;) (busss...) For the past one month, I had seriously been thinking about getting a car and after careful considerations of what I always wanted to possess, I test drove some good cars within my budget. With starting my new job next week, it was time for me to conquer the roads, and yesterday I did!

Cutting the crap, the 2006 Mazda RX-8 Black GT (with Black-Red interiors) is what I wanted. However, I got a decent deal on a fully quipped (except Navigation) on a Grey 2005 model and I thought it might afterall be good to have it for a bargain. With a perfect 50:50 rear wheel drive, and just over 3000 pounds kerb-weight, she is lighter, more agile, and balanced than most of the 2-seater counterparts. This rotary engine sounds like a plane-about-to--takeoff, and sometimes remind me of the sounds that 'TATA' buses make. 0-80mph is effortless within 5th Gear, and 6th can only take higher. So, frequent encounters with 'mama' might be un-avoidable now :D

Anyway, I will just let the pics speak for now ;) This definitely is one of the most unique cars on the road today - inside and out.

After all, she's MY niece ;)

usual shokis ;) Ravi and I....

If at all you get to see this vehicle, this is all you would see ;) ;)

Some neat things about the RX8:
* 0-60mph in under 6 secs (It beats an M3 in a drag:D)
* An Rpm of 9000 redline... That's more than half of today's F1 revving.
* Standard features include ABS, Traction control, Limited slip differential, independent double wishbone suspension, carbon-fibre gearbox, an exact 50:50 weight distribution, and a host of ultra-innovative ideas definetely pleased me :)

Mustang GT

2006-03-04T18:19:00.000-08:00

I test drove a Red Mustang GT, just for the heck of it... The roar of the engine is tremendous, so is the power in the vehicle (300 HP from a V8). However, the vehicle simply failed to impress me everywhere - inside and out. It reached 80mph with a feather on the accelerator (but I am not sure how fast though), yet the power delivery is somewhat too raw and unpredictable. The stick shift was a total mess (that's something that I challenged the car dealer and he accepted it was 'unusual' stick shift which needed a 'little' using-to), however the car handles pretty well on the curves, especially considering its bulky size.

Some things I didn't like: If you floor the accelerator, you will have wheel spin big time. The dashboard is one of the worst I have seen - The speedometer has a bowling-ball-diameter, yet the fonts are a Arial-narrow size 8. With those 108 coloring options on the dash, it would complete the joke. The air vents would require a training to operate, and I do not simply understand the redundancy in ford vehicles when you are talking about AC operation. (You have a separate AC on/off, another 'O' in the air direction switch, and another control that I forgot. In total, you might have to look at 3 different places to turn on AC, in the worst case... Why???). The rear passenger cannot tilt the front seat without the help of front-passenger to get out. I have seen Honda vehicles that have one switch that will tilt the passenger seat and move it forward at the same time.

Things that are impressive: Ultra spacious (head room, leg room in the front - cant beat it)... But rear seat - I did not judge.
Power and the sound: Even though I am not a fan of the 'muscle-sound', I can totally understand it will cater to the needs of someone who is...
Raw/Brutal power: 300hp with some good timings would make this a good performance car, though not necessarily 'performing'.
PRICE!: This is the biggest advantage over its rivals. The high end GT would still cost less than a base model BMW Z4 or even the scarcely known RX8. I wonder what does Ford use to build these cars so cheap! (Typically, I am intimidated by the low price which makes me feel this car shows off more than it actually possesses... Hmm... a difficult thing to prove anyways)

Test drive Results!

2006-02-20T10:43:00.000-08:00

I took all the 3 cars for a testdrive yesterday and let me put the results first and try to explain it a little more...

1st Place: Mazda RX-8... A clear winner
2nd Place: BMW Z4
A distant 3rd Place: Nissan 350Z

I first drove the Nissan 350Z convertible:
The looked great from the outside and it all changed once we got inside... Somehow, it was the first time I sat in a convertible, and it did'nt make a very good impression... The dashboard was filled up with cheap plastic - quite similar to the one you find in Mustangs. For a car thats $30K, having hard, cheap plastic all over is a disgrace. The sitting/driving position seemed odd, but I cannot pass any judgement since I thought roadsters are like this! Now comes the worst part - The engine: Though it has the most horsepower in its class, the delivery of power to the rear wheels is clumsy. In the first gear, if you over-rev a little, the rear wheel starts spinning, and if you turn at the same time, it feels like riding a bike on sand covered road. The speed, however, is good, though the engine keeps shouting all the time. But with constant high revving engine all the time, and with stiff suspension like a go-cart, and high road noise, its simply impossible to have a silent drive, or a 'low-energy' drive.
I did NOT like this car!

Highs:
1. Great styling and a reliable car
2. Lots of raw engine power, just like Mustang...

Lows:
1. Highly uncomfortable rides
2. Horrible interiors; No finesse.
3. Noisy interior. The engines makes a lot of 'noise' instead of 'sound'

Verdict: Absolutely no reason to buy this car.

After this, the dealer had kept the Z4 ready. Again, me and my bro just it out to test it. Of course, Ravi was quite impressed by the Z4 since it was a bimmer. I tried to find the clutch and then realized it was an automatic vehicle, since the dealer had no manual. So, this test was almost useless as there's nothing to compare in an automatic vehicle. However, the seating was comfy, and the driving postures were a lot better than the 350Z. Of course, it was a BMW, and came with all the neat dashboard besides other accesories. Agian, a tiptronic version is nowhere near a Manual transmission. So, no judgement here. Also, I was not able to find the '2-tone' sound that is typical in other BMW's (I am espicially familiar of this becuase of driving my bro's bimmer - and it produces an A.m.a.z.i.n.g. sound) in the Z4 - this was quite a disappointment. I could have probably bet half my money on the sound. At this point, I got a little worried because I am resting all my hope on the RX-8, which most of the people have never heard of, and something that I have not even touched. Assuming the Z4 could give all the thrills and sound that a normal 3 series could, I was still skeptical to spend $30K+ on this car...

Highs:
1. BMW engineered car
2. Luxury convertible

Lows:
1. No great engine sound
2. Did not meet my expectation with the tiptronic. And, this is the least powerful of all the 3 vehicles.

Then, I got to drive my biggest expectation - the Mazda RX-8... The interiors were roomy and well made. Though I don't have the experience to comment on the layout/styling, I can definetely say that this is one totally different car. Rear doors open outside for easy entrace of the rear passengers, which makes it un-coupe-ish. The exterior looks are not really enticing, but it has all the muscle, curves, shapes that you see in a sports car or a muscle car... The dealer decided to join us this time, and I was literally cursing him, because this meant that I cant really put the engine to the limit... Darn! Anyway, the first thing to notice when you start is: The car is vibration-free... And, there are literally 2 stages of acceleration: upto 4-5K RPM, and the second stage is 5k+ RPM. If the engine is running on the lower rpms, it is very smooth, gliding over the road, and the moment you take it over the 5000 rpm, you feel you are driving on a race track... Another highly peculiar thing was the fact that the speedometer is a small digital meter inserted in the rather-huge RPM meter. This car is truly focusing more on the RPM than the speedometer (I started to get a little biased towards the RX-8 at this point).

We just took turns to test it in all gears in all ranges of revving, and I felt this will be the car I will be driving (once I can afford it :D). The facts that it was a Mazda(and not a Bimmer), and it was a coupe (and not a convertible) no longer bothered me because it has such a quite cabin and you can just make the engine moan and listen to it very clearly... (This was like - I had this idea of getting a microphone from the exhaust and feed it to the speaker system to get the engine sounds... Like you have another button beside the Radio/CD/, called "Engine" - Press that and you feel you are inside the engine... Anyway, that isn't anymore needed I guess :D). The RX-8 compares to the rest like this: The cabin sound difference you would find if you sit ahead of the engines in an airplane v/s behind the engine... This car is also supposed to handle in a very good way becuase of its light weight, high revving and 50:50 weight distribution. Well, I cant say much about it since we were on public roaods and not a race track...

Lows:
1. Not as much time tested in terms of reliablity, brand as BMWs or Toyotas... Relatively new car/concept.
2. Not a convertible (?? Does this matter at this stage? Hmm... I dont think so - I'm biased now :D)

Highs:
1. Great revolutionary engine that simply listens to what you want.
2. High response in all fronts - engine, suspension, silence etc etc.,
3. Satisfaction guaranteed :D

Verdict: I WILL buy this :D

The remaining question is: "When?"

RX-8 v/s Z4 v/s 350Z

2006-02-15T16:19:00.000-08:00

Comparison of Mazda RX-8 vs BMW Z-4 and Nissan 350Z

Its been a while since I wrote anything on my most favorite subject ;) what's going to be my first car??

well... I have been looking around the market for some potential car makers and these 3 cars just fit into most of my requirements, which are:
1. Sports Car/Convertible.
2. Amazing engine/Sheer Driving pleasure
3. Brand
4. Practicality & Affordability (since this might be my only car for a long time... :D)

To start off with, I decided to simply rule out American manufacturers (since they just don't show the character and that nimbleness) and Japanese cars (since they are atrociously boring machinery which has to be thrown to garbage, because of their tastelessness).

However, the 2 cars in my contention today are (surprisingly) Japanese, and especially the Mazda, which I probably had never dreamt of driving one, let alone owning it! And, then comes the looker - BMW Z4, which probably has almost everything that I would ask for... (Except practicality and affordability). I would definitely give more weightage for creative thinking and flawless execution of a feature in a car.

Ok, here are some criteria/specs for making the decision more detailed, as well as, clearer...
1. Sports Car/Convertible:

1a. I always wanted to drive in a simulated 'Kanakapura-trip's environment... I mean - beautifully sounding engine, air blowing through your body at 80, sometimes long winding roads, endless journeys, punishing the engine to its limits :D ... So, the first thing I would notice in a car is - 'Is this capable of such a thing?'... Of course, a convertible says "Yes!", I did find myself surprised when the RX-8 said "Yes" and I believed it ;) since the Mazda is neither a convertible, nor my dream-brand like the Bimmer. Hence, this round goes to the Z4...

1b. The Car in general: I am not sure, at this point, why I need to compare the Nissan 350Z, because whatever the Nissan offers, the BMW offers and of course with a price difference... However, I am trying to keep price and practicality out of the decision making process now. So, I would always prefer a 'BMW' over a 'Nissan', just because of the brand amidst other considerations ;) Of course, I revere the 350Z for its ultra-cool design, and a true-sports car, but if I could buy that, I might aswell go for the BMW Z4... Hmm... Let me just have a head-head competition between RX-8 and Z4.

1c. Convertible: Thumb rule: Go Topless! I dont need to emphasize this more... Z4 is clearly a better choice (20% battle won in this round)

2. Amazing engine/Sheer Driving pleasure

2a. Engine: One of my most important considerations: Engine should have the distinct 'sporty' 'feel' imbibed into it... The only way to know this is to test drive the cars. However from the looks of it, all the 3 look to have 'stuff' in them... The bimmer has that characteristic engine, and the Nissan makes a distinctive sound when it races. However, the Mazda RX8 has one ultra-distinct feature: The industry's ONLY rotary-powered Wankel engine is under its hood. And, its a 1.3 liter engine compared to the others' near 3 liter engine, with horesepowers all in the same range - nearing 250. I simply wonder, why does Mazda alone make these engines, when this is a 50-year old technology! And, based on the reviews, I hear these are ultra smooth and high revving upto 9000rpm!!! Compare this with the $85K 2006 BMW M5 which has a redline of 8500rpm.... hmm, I'm impressed with the RX-8.

2b. Vital Stats: Horsepower, weight and weight distribution, RWD/AWD/FWD, Traction Control and other cool gadgets: All the 3 players are more or less equally equipped; However, the RX-8 comes with a little more standard features like slip differential etc., which others wont. I cant make a big judgment here...

3. Brand
No doubt, BMW wins this on a huge scale... with the lesser known Mazda, a third.

4. Practicality & Affordability (since this might be my only car for a long time... :D)
The RX-8 offers 4 passenger with individual doors, while the rest can accommodate only 2. Hmm... Not much to decide here, RX-8 nails the other two in practicality for being my first/only car. However, none of them are 'truly' affordable for me right now... A decently equipped model will cost a minimum of $30K, which is very costly. So, not one car does justice to my wallet!

I would not consider the 4 reasoning to judge 'what vehicle is the best', since my most important considerations are sheer driving pleasure and the quality/amount of thinking that's gone behind building the car. I can only make a true judgment once I testdrive all these vehicles. Yet, at this stage I can say the probabilities of me liking the cars are:
Nissan 350Z: < 10%
BMW Z4: Around 35% (Becuase its a convertible and because its a BMW)
Mazda RX-8: 45% (For all the other reasons)

Testdrive results awaited.

Skiing is FUN...

2006-02-05T23:42:00.000-08:00

... and a lot of pain!! My ankles are wasted and turned in all directions... Today we had been to Sierra peaks in Lake Tahoe and skied for half a day to come back for superbowl... Got a pretty damned deal for $37 including equipment, classes, lift etc., Even though today was my 'first' official ski day, I did quite manage well with about 10 full-length rides on the intermediate slope (and no broken bones...) Started off with the very basic lesson - How to wear the ski shoe, and then how to put the ski on... And, how to stand on the snow and how to brake/wedge... And then the good stuff- how to climb/un-climb the lift, how to actually ski down a slope for a good distance :) I guess I'm addicted to it now, just that my wallet doesn't support such fantasies...

Jobs...

2006-01-16T23:34:00.000-08:00

A little while ago, my friend sent me this link, and I wasn't in a mood to read philosophy at wee hours. However, it was a speech-excerpt of Steve Jobs and I just started reading it against my will. I should say one of the most dramatic, philosophical and thought-provoking article this one is. I was wondering what does it take to do something that is even fractionally innovative of Apple... "Follow you heart", "Do things that are most important" are just ringing in my ears. Just got reminded of Dr. Kung when he used to say "Programming in the large"... hmmm... Now I have plenty of time to think of all my dreams and ways to realize them... ugh! I'm feeling sleepy now...

http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2005/june15/jobs-061505.html

Munich

2006-01-14T14:02:00.000-08:00

After a long wait, I saw Munich... people had told so much about it that the movie turned out a little boring... I mean, I had too much expectations about it which the movie didn't meet...

This movie was a long movie and as any other time, I got boring towards the end... I won't consider the movie on par with Schindler's List, however, its not far behind. I should say - after a long time, I saw a good movie in the theater...

Deepti

2006-01-05T11:42:00.000-08:00

I never thought I had the patience to look at some 40 year-old teaching some rhyme to a few small kids... Though I admit they are very cute, it's simply not my forte (Forget it... It's nowhere near my interests)

But, it's been a couple of days now since I started taking Deepti to a nearby library where they story-tell for kids... What am I thinking the whole time I drive her to the library, sit with her to listen to some "Twinkle-Twinkle" rhyme or some "This little piggy" story?? I am not sure I'm thinking anything at all! While my friends happily spend weekends having fun and dating girls (or so they claim :D), I am sleeping around in my house - ie., on the couch, in the room or just on the floor writing this stupid blog!! hehe... Yet, somehow I have managed myself not to crib about it... So, I feel I am discovering new High's even in the Low's...

Not Pron

2005-12-23T11:00:00.000-08:00

I was getting bored yesterday since I was again jobless in the afternoons... (not that I had anything big in the mornings... still) I was just going to random blogs and searching for anything interesting... and I came across a blog that mentioned about this site: NOT PRON

An amazing set of puzzles they have, and I guess its going to be a good challenge for me for the next few days to solve it... There are 138 levels, it seems, and only 82 (out of some 6 million) have been able to solve it completely! Try this - Its interesting...

Image search??

2005-11-29T07:08:00.000-08:00

Today, I was reading the comments for an article posted by Ambar. Sadly enough it was an article about how my friend's article was 'flicked' by Viji. When I was reading the comment, I read a question that asked if the images posted on Viji's site were also engineered??

How about this idea: To search the poem that Viji has posted, i took some text and Googled for it. Similarly, if I were to search for a pic, how about- I just upload the picture (Browse-select)... and press "I am feeling lucky" - It would display the related images???

Is this already implemented?? Also, has anyone heard about Yahoo! Ideas??? I heard that this was one of the places to put in your ideas...

Tetraspace

2005-11-18T14:06:00.000-08:00

I was reading this article on Dimensions (I think I got this from one of Supreeth's blog). The author very nicely tries to explain the different dimensions... I always wondered even if Time was the next dimension that we have been able to realize completely, what might be the possibilities if it were?

Forget 4-D, let’s take 2-D. Getting back to kindergarten, we can quite easily visualize the existence of 2 apples. So, what does -2 mean? In reality (outside Math), can we have negative values/variables? Or, is it just a mechanism to depict the deficiency of something? I recollect from sometime earlier on darkness and light... If fact, there's no such thing as dark - It’s purely absence of light... In other words, you cannot measure 'darkness' - sounded funny... Similarly with temperature - what's cold?? Absence of heat? So, in reality we can only measure the heat - which means if there's no heat (is this absolute zero?), then there's no way we can differentiate between 2 'cold's.

Now, lets jump off to Time as our 4-D hyperspace. As we could go on the other side of zero on the number line, if we could go backwards on the timeline, will we be able to see past events the exact same way?? If you think a little bit, it sounds as if we might see things in the past. Lets assume a goes back in time and comes to present. Some time later, B travels to where A had been, and returns to present and they both discuss the events that happened in the past.

1. If traveling in time were a simple decrement and increment operation of time (!!), both A and B should have the exact same 'image' of the past when they discuss. So, with respect to people, what they speak, how they behave etc., there should be an absolute co-ordinance between them.

2. If so, with respect to someone from 'future' (traveling ahead and looking back ie., ++ and --), A and B were bound to discuss about their past-journeys at 'present'. This gives me an idea of 'destiny' (in which I don't believe too much). But at some later point of time, if we were to get back to present, and if present were to retain its state throughout the life-cycle of time (seriously, I don’t know what it means... my brain's overworked now), then all our actions are nothing but a series of 'steps' executed like a batch program...

3. But, if we were to get different results each time we went to the same 'past' location, I think I am not so sure which direction of argument should I take... ?? ??? ????

4. Now, When comparing 2-d with 4-d, there might be another 'point' worth noting... zero can be considered as a constant/reference on a 2-D space... But, if we compare zero with present, I can't make out the exact resemblance in them because present is not a constant in time, but its a moving scale... am I missing something? or am I even hitting any thing??

Division Bell

2005-11-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

Today I was standing in the Bus stop waiting for the second bus... I was of course hiding from the sun behind a CVS Pharmacy billboard... The weather was good and the temperature in lower 60s. I got a little bored on searching for some good song on my mp3 player, and suddenly PF's Division Bell caught my eye... It had been a real long time since I had heard it and thought it might suit the ambience in the busstop...

The music picked up and all my previous encounters with this particular song (like when I had gone to BR Hills with my friends and I listenend to this one first time in the bus) came flashing at that instant... When I was back in India, I had built some picture to myself as to how what kind of life I had to live in US (or, in future for that matter!)... And, realized this was actually one satisfying moment - ultimate weather... huge symphony in my ears :D... And, I was just gazing the traffic in the junction without any thoughts (forget worries!)

This was quite short lived -like 10mins, but it did bring the entropy-level in my head big time. I'm in a lighter mood... somewhat satisfied... and quite inert to the surroundings :D

NY Trip...

2005-11-03T16:02:00.000-08:00

The trip to NY was a nice one... Met my whole family at one place after such a loooong time...

Deepi's talking a lot these days... and she runs beautifully too!

Saw Niagara, and NY... and stayed in Roosevelt Hotel on the intersection between 45th street and Madison Ave in the heart of Manhanttan... Of course, it came with a premium of $200 parking fee for 2 days!!

Noise Canceling - Way to go...

2005-11-01T09:43:00.000-08:00

The past few months, I've like a nomadic lifestyle... There was almost a seperate suitcase kept aside for traveling... And, to it came a new entry - My new Noise Canceling AIWA headphones.

Though, not the greatest of my purchases and definetely not something that I dreamed about it so much that I need to write a blog about it, its still an item worth describing. The first time I wore it, it did not make a difference in the sound quality... But when I wore in the flight to NY last saturday, I realized what noise canceling was all about... Almost all flights are getting boring and tiring these days... Except the take offs and landings and turbulences, I've started feeling that its one of the most boring things to do. I used to keep max volume on my player to beat the engine noise, and get some music into my ears all this while... But with noise canceling headphone are a whole new animal in the market... I guess its there for quite a while now, but $300 for a Bose headphone simply doesn't fit into our economic model... However the $17 Aiwa did... Though its made out of cheap plastic, and has not-so-comfortable style of wearing it, I felt it was worth the money (as long as you are making frequent syupid-plane journeys)

My Friend's already made it to the Forbes!!!

2005-10-20T10:35:00.000-07:00

I guess not on the front page (I hope not!!! :D) and my friend is not the prettier one in the photo :))

Congrats Akku... You now know where to go, don't you?

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/10/06/cz_05200best_toptenslide_2.html?thisSpeed=6000000

Ah!! Movie...

2005-10-12T12:29:00.000-07:00

Yeah!!! I now remembered: It was about the movie I (again) saw last evening - "12 Angry Men"

I wonder how would those guys create such a nice movie, within (literally) 4 walls of a small room. Espicially, if someone comes from a Indian movie background, it looks as if the movie is bland- no overacting, no over-timely dialogues etc., I realized this yesterday when I was watching it with my (new) room-mate, who watches more Hindi movies than English.

All of a sudden, I liked the movie even more, because the actors have 'tried' to act more naturally than they were supposed to 'act naturally'... (hmmm... Does is make sense, or at least, is there a difference between them?... er...)

???

2005-10-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

I opened this page wanting to write a nice blog on something I thought about while having noodles 5 minutes back... I'm totally clueless now!!!

Atleast I remember that I wanted to write one... Is this good or bad?

Suzuka

2005-10-09T08:48:00.000-07:00

Last night, after wasting the whole day doing nothing, I was just about to doze off, when I realized that the Japanese Grand Prix was live sometime then. I decided to watch it at my friend's place (would-be my place soon ;) ) and went arrived there just in time...

This race was, by far, the most exciting one in the recent years. It had everything from deadly pit stops to great crashes, amazing overtaking maneuvers to remarkable strategies... I would have never thought that Kimi would be able to actually win the race, having started from the back, and also having a contact with his team mate...

However, I witnessed some of the greatest overtakings from both Raikonnen and Alonso, and an amazingly defensive driving from Schumacher - despite having a much much slower car. I am all excited from the GP... And, the best part of it was the last lap passing over Fisichella - something worth watching to see how Kimi stamped the authority over him ;)

Never Beat the System...

2005-09-27T10:20:00.000-07:00

And if you really want to, make sure you are 110% sure that it won't fail :)

(Context: I was supposed to fly to Phoenix from Dallas... But I bought a ticket from Dallas to Los Angeles via Phoenix) since it was hell cheaper than a direct ticket to Phoenix...)

Well, I burnt my fingers (almost) this Saturday when I thought I cracked the system by getting a great deal to Phoenix. Everything looked ok until I reached the airport on the 24th - I put the 2 check-in luggages on the weigh-bridge and asked the guy at the counter to check it in only till Phoenix, so that I could handover the baggage to my 'friend'... He almost did it, when he called up their helpdesk and found out that I cannot break the journey on this ticket! Darn! I thought I was busted, and asked him to give me another ticket to Phoenix instead... (Earlier the morning, I had checked the ticket from Dallas to Phoenix, and it was around $200, so I thought it would still be ok even if I could not do the trick). Well, he checked a couple of times on his system and told me that the ticket was $606!!! (I payed $1000 for a round trip ticket to India! and should I be paying $600 for a one-way ticket to Phoenix???)

Now, was the time I started calling everone I knew, and asked them to find a deal online and book it if it was around $200-$300... My friend Shruthi, who had come to drop me off, found out that I could get a ticket from Los Angeles to Phoenix for about $110, but the flight was early next morning... She gave another nice idea of asking them to ship my baggages instead of me going to LA, and then take another flight back to Phoenix... Suddenly, I felt like goat that was about to be butchered from all ends... I did so many tricks to avoid flight changes and reach Phoenix in the shortest possible time, and now I stood there in the airport thinking about spending the night in some airport terminal... It was 20 mins before my flight took off, so I had to decide on something now... And, I decided to go ahead with the my earlier plan and think about it once I reached Phoenix, and within minutes before departure, I sat in my seat...

I called the stewardess and chatted a little while on how I can solve my situation - "I decided to change my plan today, and instead of flying to Los Angeles, I want to get down at Phoenix... And, I have 2 checked in baggages... Can you help me?"... She told me that I could try my luck at the Phoenix airport, and thats exactly what I did as soon as the flight landed in Phoenix...

I hurried to the nearest airline personnel, and told them that I need my baggage to be unloaded here, instead of forwarding to LA... The quite-helpful guy did a few things on the computer and gave me a printout saying that my luggage will be coming on caroussel 1 :) ... "Ah ha! Finally I made IT!!!" I thought, and rushed to the spot and waited the next half hour, not to see my baggage... Then I went to Baggage Claim area and showed them the receipt for which they checked on their system and told me that it has already been transfered to the LA flight... So, I would need to come back to the airport again and pick my luggage... and that wouldn't happen until the next day, at the least. I thought this was still way way better than me going to LA, then pick my luggage, and then sleep in the terminal that night, and then purchase a new ticket to Phoenix, and then... Ah!! too much work, I thought and called up Boda... I also went to cancel the other leg, for which they told that I don't need to cancel it, but I can fly the same ticket anytime in the next 1 year!! :) Things seemed to fall back in place... ;)

Boda arrived in the airport, and we went to Paddu's place... Went to some Indian restuarant and had some nice food... Finally the circus ended! And, the best part was - I got a call from the airlines in the morning and they told that they will get my luggage delivered to my house!!! hehe... THIS was indeed a happy ending :D

Ways to beat the system... (Coming soon :) )

Procrastination to the core...

2005-09-22T12:23:00.000-07:00

This morning I had a lab submission at 11am... Last night I sat down to do the project, and of course this was my first shot on anything in software testing... Sure enough, I wasn't able to understand much... So, after doing some crap till 2am, I finally went asleep and got up a little late... I still had a mountain to crush, and I barely had a couple of hours to finish it...

As ever, asking everyone of every possible shortcut, I somehow did manage to submit the stuff by 11, only to realize I had forgotten to attach the screenshots of the application running... Anyway I would loose 10 marks for late submission, so I thought I can take my own sweet time to do it... And, I have successfully pushed it to the end of day now :) I don't know whether I will finish it or not... hehe...

One good news is that I am all set to start working... All my paper work is complete today, and I filed for OPT... So, that way, even if I make 2 B's this sem, its ok with me ;) er... I think I am actually aiming for B's this time :D

Flight Ticks...

2005-09-19T15:55:00.000-07:00

Last saturday when I was looking at one-way fare for 26th Sat from Dallas to Phoenix, I found a neat deal for $170 on americawest.com, while most other sites were selling it for atleast 200+ . I guess, for me, 200 looks a big amount, and thought I should do a little more research to get the ticks cheaper... And, yesterday I checked the sites - the minimum I found was $206 plus taxes!!!

Today, I thought spending 220 (after taxes et al) is not worth, so I started looking for Amtrak... Stupid! they wont serve west of Dallas at all... Again back to searching game... And suddenly I got an idea... I opened the America West Airlines' route map and checked the nearest cities that would be served only from Phoenix(PHX) or Vegas(LAS)... hehe... The previous flight that I had searched was DFW-Vegas-Phoenix for about $206+tx. I was pretty sure there would be some flights that would have to stop in Phoenix and that went beyond... to places like California...

Sure enough, I got a few routes like: DFW-PHX-Burbank for $194+tx, and a few minutes later I got DFW-PHX-Ontario for 184+tx... I thought this was the cheapest anyone could think of... Just before I booked it, I thought of just looking at how much would going to LA cost from Dallas... I kinda felt that since this is a major route, it might have a good deal, but I just hoped that the flights flew through Phoenix, and not LAX. I pressed the Submit button, and guess what happened! I got a flight for $104!!! By far I think this is the cheapest fare from Dallas to Phoenix (Greyhound costs $105!!!)... And, the choices were plenty - I had atleast 10 flgihts for that day to choose from :)

Ultimately, I have the cheapest fare from DFW-PHX in the shortest time possible... (The direct booking from DFW-PHX non stop flight costs around $600)... I am just hoping that someone who has taken such a ticket sits beside me - I will make him/her cry till all the tears drain out by telling how I spent ;)

Deepi...

2005-09-19T14:38:00.000-07:00

Deepi has started talking big time now :O It's just more than a week since I came back from Calif, and there seems to be an exponential growth in her talking...

Me(over the phone yday): "Helllloooo deepi...."
She: ".... HeeLloo..."
... and then she told me another story, which I didn't understand it anyway...

And, Ravi came over and sang: "Saaaa...." Deepi repeated it :) and then "Paa....." "Sa..." She amazingly tried to increase the pitch with each note... Ah!! Her beautiful voice is still lingering in my ears... It's so mysterious to see her grow... I mean, she talking all that much just a week ago (even though she was making all sorts of sounds and small words often), but now she looks to be in a different league :)

some pics from Sep 10th visit:

Intel Inside, Ericsson Outside...

2005-09-14T12:46:00.000-07:00

After a long wait, I have come to a decision that I would be joining Intel on 26th... I guess this week is my last week at Ericsson, and I have told that with my managers... It feels strange to join and leave a company so fast, but hopefully things should turn out well...

Apparently it doesn't feel too good to leave Texas for good, espicially since I spent very less time here, and I need to start everything afresh at Phoenix... On the other hand, I should have done this sooner or later, so why not now! And, Intel is after all a great place to work, an continuing on a more independent life...

Deepi's 1st Birthday (10-12 Sep)

2005-09-13T13:54:00.000-07:00

My niece, Deepti, turned ONE on Sept 4. So, customarily, my bro and sis-in-law held a nice bday party for her at the club house of Falls apt complex (I think thats the name:) ) At one, she's already speaking little words, hear and tell long stories that somehow doesnt penetrate the invisible wall, that prevents the other person to understand ;) (yet we dont simply give it up), she can walk/run a mile now (or a 'deepi-mile', i should say), and she carefully listens to 'secrets' and never lets them out :)... Needless to say, even if I go to my bro's place after months, she instantly pounces on me and stay with me till I leave ;) you know, I am her fav :D

It so happened that I was just calling Ravi on Friday afternoon... He asked me my plans for the weekend and it suddenly occured to me that I could go to Deepi's bday the next day... By 4PM, I had booked a one-way red-eye ticket to Sacramento and before I understood anything I was in Calif....

The bday was quite a nice one... Had lots of good food, and cake cutting party and lots of presents for her... She must feel nice once she looks at it after she grows up :) And, of course, I (tried) played the happy bday for her on the piano...hehe

One incident worth mentioning while I was returning to Dallas... This was an A-319 Northwest flight from Minneapolis(MSP) to Dallas on Monday evening at 7pm. We were on the runway, just about to take off from MSP, and the pilot had almost started both the engines with max thrust, and he suddenly pulled it off on to a 'service lane'... Quite similar to how we pull over when we see flashing lights from behind on a freeway. I was quite understandably quite irritated with late flights and long journeys for short-unplanned trips, and after 20mins, the pilot makes an announcement- "Ladies and gentlemen, we are having some software problem with the aircraft. Hence we will be grounded for a few more minutes until we resolve it... Thank you"... Lots of looks and huzz-buzz between people flew all over the aircraft, and I was cool-ly looking at the anxious faces when I felt a pulse that reminded me of the Airbus disaster involving auto-pilot and related stuff... I was soon reminded of Ferrari's current form in F1, just because they outsourced software to TCS (hehe...) and, if such code had, by mistake, entered the plane, we are doomed, I thought... And, within the next few minutes, we took off... The next minute was again not so releiving since the plane was still flying at a very low altitude with some not-usual intermediate jerks... But soon, we reached the cruising altitude and then it looked like a safe journey... I am sick of taking connecting flights... I guess its worth shelling out a few tens extra for a non-stop flight... and another advice - Never take air tickets using sky-miles.

Dharma Sankata

2005-09-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

Well, today I told my Manager that I would be quitting for Intel, and he offered me to match the salary right away! At the crossroads, I wonder which direction should I go now... I'm feeling that getting a job is painful, but getting two is even more... :((

Labor-less on Labor day...

2005-09-04T09:41:00.000-07:00

My days in Arlington are numbered... Within probably a week or two, I would be in Phoenix and still I have absolutely nothing to do on my cards... The only good thing that happened here was that me and my friends had a good music session last evening... After a long time of singing, I felt a little out of place... I was just thinking if this trend goes on, how would I be after a couple of years...

well, I was reading Witty Kiran's blog about National College stories and thought I would put one of my own...This happened when I was in my 1st PU (11th grade). I was an awesome 'sleeper' then. I used to sleep the whole of night, and most of the day during my classes. Once in my Sanskrit class of M K Shridhar, I (as usual) came late to the class since I got up late from the previous class. The only seat available was in the first row (which I always avoided). Within a few minutes I got dozed off. I had a neat 'talent' (or so I assumed) of sleeping, but at the same time, looking as though I was reading a book on my lap, or sometimes I would hold a pen so that I would be seen as taking down notes... Unfortunately, during the course of the class, all the guys sitting beside me had easily escaped off on to the back benches, and sometime later, I was the only one 'sitting' on the front bench. By now, I think it had become pretty clear on what was happening in the class... Coincidentally, MKS was doing some story from the Mahabharata, and some of my friends in the back row were busy trying to wake me up. Just before leaving the class, MKS uttered pointing to me: "You can probably wake up Kumbhakarna, but not him" and left the class... :)

PS: In Hindu mythology, Kumbhakarna was very famous for his long, sound sleep :)

Another book....

2005-09-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

After successfully completing reading "Da Vinci Code", I started a new Sidney Sheldon's book - "Tell me you dreams" last night... The middle part of the book was so exciting that I decided to finish the book in one stretch :)
I did manage to finish it by noon today... And later cooked Aloo-onion sambar with a different style - Put some raw onions along with coconut and sambar powder to give the bangalore-hotel smell... In deed, it came out well, and we had loads of it, lots of watermelon at the end of lunch... This was sufficient for us to get a huge sleep, and I only got up in the evening...

2005-08-31T09:15:00.000-07:00

My last visit to India was kinda different (not that I had many experiences to visiting India... hehe) I thought I would have enough difficulty driving my bike, or eating road-side masala puri, or just the fact that I had no serious plan of spending 2 months without any commitments. I just could do all these without thinking about them, I mean..., it happened so naturally.

One day, one of my friends - Sainath, had come home and was telling about his quest to find the ultimate truth!! Thoughts like that had almost never hit me seriously before. Quite a few times, I was trying to think the relation between mind, body and soul (first of all, whats that??)... He gave an interesting expanation that soul (approximately equvalent to aatma?) is one layer beyond the mind, and mind(according to most philosophies from the west) controls the body... Actually its not that simple, but things are quite clobbered in my mind itself, so I will leave it here... These things came quite handy when I was 'blading' heavily with a german lady. I didn't quite like the tone she was speaking about Hindu temples and Gods... Made her realize (or so I thought :) ) that she was too ignorant to talk about 5K+ years' history.

Right now, I am totally jobless at my job ( I like contradicting phrases like these, even though sometimes I myself dont get the whole meaning). Current mood: sleepy and bored

25th to 27th Aug Intel interview @ Phoenix

2005-08-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

Aug 25th Thu 6pm: After having a boring day at work, I left with a couple of others to the DFW airport. Caught the America West flight bound to Phoenix at 8pm and landed at the Sky Harbor Intl airport at Phoenix at 8.30 local time. Soon got out of the airport premises and went to Hertz rental where I was supposed to have a car readyÂ Sure enough, a brand new Chevy Equinox was waiting for me near the Hertz Gold block (pretty impressive, I thought J)

The guy at the reception saw the itinerary and without saying a word, handed me the keys (of course he saw my license, and thatÂs it). I was given a map to the hotel and I was wondering when was the last time I drove, so as to get some confidence on reaching hotel in one pieceÂ With a couple of goof ups, I could quite easily reach the Hawthorn Suites by 10pm. Again, I was pretty impressed with the hotel room Â a full fledged kitchen, a guest room, a full fledged bedroom, 2 TVs, and a bathÂ may be I should have gotten someone along. I pressed my interview dress again, and went to bed, only to see a good movie till midnightÂ ah, some things never change in life.

Intel Chandler is situated on West Chandler blvd, which was just about a mile from my room, and I was at the lobby at 9 am. My manager took me inside and briefed me about the proceedings of the day! "Phew" I told myself, after seeing interview slots all the way till 3.30pm. I never had a dayinterviewtrview and was skeptical about surviving till then... However, each one of the interviewers took turn in asking me a lot of questions starting from computer architecture (of which I almost answered none) to web applications... But they made me feel quite comfortable that I didn't feel the pain :) Then itself I knew it would be really great to work with these people... At lunch, my manager decided to take me to an Indian restaurant, along with another great individual (who was on wheel chair, which blew my mind)... this guy took us in his Ford van and it was not an everyday thing to see him drive... He took the driver's seat and drove the van with a tiny joystick that was stuck to his wheelchair. He explained how that thing worked and a little about a big black box that was between the driver and the passenger seat (It was some kind of dual-computers talking to each other real time, running some really high tech fast OS that ran the drive-by-wire system. Hearing the key words drive-by-wire, I couldn't just control myself telling about the story of the first Air France A320... (One of my favorite planes, the Airbus A320 has introduced the fly-by-wire technology, thru which the pilot could steer a plane using a joystick... and i had seen many documentaries of that maiden Air france flight crashing...) and a few minutes of silence past, and my manager started telling his experieces of working in Honeywell during the same time developing something on the same lines. I didn't speak for a long time after that... hehe...

After the lunch, a few more people continued with the interviews and by 3.30 Pm, my manager told that I was done for the day and I could have some fun. He asked to have a look arounapartmentatment scene around (hmm... "am I through?", I thought) and I left to my suite. Later in the day, I met Boda and Roonwal and we just spent some time wandering around Phoenix. The next day, lazy Boda got up at 9am, and we went to Sedona, which was about 2-3 hrs from my place. I did a 100 once and almost hovering at 80/90 all the time... We were supposed to go to some 'Indian ruins' in Sedona, but after searching for half an hour on muddy-interior roads, the new chevy 'car' had become a dirty dusty off-roader... And, more importantly, we didn't want to get ourselves lost in the 'jungles of the desert' and make it in the next day's headlines as "Ruins of 3 Indians..." So, headed back straight to Phoenix. We stopped in the middle of the highway to take some pics of cactus... I was a little wary that I was wearing shorts and I was standing in the middle of some thick shrubs hoping not to encounter any wild-'arizonian'-rattle snakes...

After dropping these guys at their 'respective residences', I caught the flight back to Dallas... Monday evening, I heard the good news...

2005-08-22T13:43:00.000-07:00

"Please to meet you... Let me show you around..." and thus my manager took me around Ericsson as my first day as an intern started today. The office has huge number of people, probably in thousands, and there's a beautiful lake surrounded by U-shaped building... I got my Laptop (HP compaq nc 6000) and a cool cubicle with all the goodies... The worst part though, is that I will be sitting on the other arm of the U-shaped building from the rest of my team... so, anything needed, i will have a good 10min walk down the halway, through the cafeteria, and reach the other building... in a way, great place to do all the nonsense, or to do nothing, hehe...

The desi senior came a little while later and did a small freak-out session (actually he was quite nice... Its just that I have had a loooong vacation and, words like work, deadline, meeting kinda gives me a alienated feeling... Hope it doesnt stick with me for long. So, this week seems to be pretty jobless with just some induction-ing... well, isn't it quite evident from my blogging?

2005-08-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

I never seem to get a good hold of blogging... grr... getting old and lazy these days, i hardly find it easy to complete writing a sentence :D