The Lonesome Road

A recently married friend of mine was in town for the weekend. He’s a senior who finished his engineering course a couple of years back. So our old group (well, the three of us who were in town) got together and went out for dinner. You know, the funny thing is we see each other once in three months - sometimes that gap is longer. But when we meet and talk - it feels like it’s still the old college days. It’s the same witty banter that flies across the table. Was a fun evening - we went on a drive, had sizzlers for dinner and finished the night with coffee. It’s hard to explain in words the feeling of continuity that comes from these meetings. The only problem we had was the fact that my friends wife kept calling him to see what his plans were

In other news, project review 2 went off well. We’re now concentrating on building the framework for the main module. Hopefully that will be done this week. Once that’s done, we will start integrating the peripheral modules and running tests on the system.

What else…Oh yeah. Got my hands on a new Black Widower’s book by Isaac Asimov. For all those not in the know, The Black Widowers series are a set of mystery (short) stories. To my knowledge there are six books, each with twelve stories. The club consists of six gentlemen and their quote Esteemed waiter, Henry unquote. The stories follow the same basic pattern - one of the members brings a guest to dinner. In exchange foir a free dinner however, the guest will undergo a grilling. Somehow, it always turns out that the guest has a mystery/puzzle to offer . The members try their best to solve it - but it always falls to Henry to provide the final solution. The conversation before the grilling gives the theme of the story and sets up the puzzle. The best part of the stories is that Asimov keeps them very fair and gives the reader a fighting chance to pip Henry to the post. All in all great books to relax with.

For all those following the mars exploration, scientists have found a frozen sea on Mars. The full story can be found here . For all the toy lovers - new iPod minis are on their way. Fianlly, for those who want have their mp3 and ogg it too , check out the IRiver .

That’s all folks! (For now at least…)

Though I’ve been rushed with a little work this week, I’ve still found the time to read a bit. I’m reading three books currently - all amazingly good books. Firstly there is The Great Indian Novel by Shashi Tharoor. It deals with the Indian struggle for independence and though there have been many books written on this subject, the uniqueness of this book lies in the fact that the Independence struggle has been overlayed with the structure and characters of the Mahabharata. In most cases, the co-realation between the real life and historical characters is quite straightforward ( as in Gandhiji and Bheeshma ) and some are a little more subtle ( still can’t figure out if Pandu is supposed to represent Netaji or Sardar Patel ). Overall, the book is brilliant. Highly recommended.

The second book I am reading is a Kenneth Anderson Omnibus - Vol 2. This gentleman was the Jim Corbett of South India. He tracked man hunting tigers and rogue elephants all over South India. His stories and expreriences are replete with the sights and sounds of the Indian jungle. There are quite a few stories in which he also talks about the traditions, superstitions and beliefs of the local tribes. All in all a good book to relax with.

Lastly, I’m reading The Mote in God’s Eye. Now this book is widely regarded as *the* best book on first contact (with an alien species of course). I’m through a fourth of the book and so far am not disappointed. The only grouse I have with it is that the pace seems to be a little slow. Otherwise, the characters and the plot are superb. Looking forward to some free time to go ahead with this book.

I’m rediscovering radio on the net these days. Now that my satellite radio subscription has run out, this seems to be the best way to hear the retro tracks I like. Somehow, for the connection class that I have, I’ve seen that Launchcast (at least the one bundled with Yahoo Messenger) offers the best radio experience.

Now back to the rest of the books - Java, Comp Arch and Unix programming.. Later all!

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Seed 2, originally uploaded by shadowfall.

I was nearing the end of my evening walk when I came across this tree. When I first looked at it, it seemed to have bulbs strug up on it. It seemed like a valid assumption at first as there was some sort of party going on next door. However, when I took another look, the “bulbs” seemed to be fuzzy. I was intrigued - and kicked myself (mentally, of course) for not taking my camera along.

As I made a complete circuit of the tree, I saw that some of the bulbs were light green, some a mixture of green and black and some completely back. I wanted a closer look, but didn’t want to pull down any of the bulbs.

Fortunately, I managed to find this broken bulb near the tree. Now, I know that these photos haven’t come out very well - I had to rush it a little. The bulb was disintegrating, and I had to be quick about the photos.

Now, it’s clear why the colors were different. As the wind blows, it takes away the fuzzy coating and presumably the seeds then disperse. After I took the photos, I tested the theory by lobbing the bulb in a horticultural garden (took permission before I did though ) near my house. It landed, and then simply disappeared - was amazing to watch the speed at which the spores dispersed.

However, the caretaker could not tell me the english name of the plant. If anyone knows - please let me know.

Well, three new photos are up. They can be seen on the Trees and Plants and the Misc Photos pages.

Busy preparing for my project review - am studying and trying to implement the Remote Frame Buffer Protocol.

Back to work!

I’m not much of a movie buff, but the promos of the film Black had me intrigued. College finished early today and three of my friends and I decided to go see the afternoon show. Believe me - the movie was worth every minute of the two hours I spent watching it.

I’m not going to review it here. But trust me - watch it and you will not be disappointed.

In other black news, summer has officially arrived. Our electricity board is celebrating - they have announced a new load shedding schedule. Three hours a day for six days a week. Hooray!

Anyway - still lost in memories of the film. I’ll write something more about it once I gather my thoughts.

Later…

Mom wanted to go to the temple today - but I was in two minds about the whole thing. I mean - it’s one thing to have your shoes stolen, but to tempt fate again… Anyway, mom had a smart suggestion. She said that we’d go in turns. I finally caved in and agreed. So mom, sis and I trooped off to the temple.

Once there, sis and I kept our shoes on the rack and entered the temple. Mom took up a strategic position where she could watch both our shoes without hindrance. Thus relieved, I went about my prayers in peace. As I came out of the temple, my sis was busy smiling. Oh yeah - someone had come after my shoes again. Found out from mom that he’d come and calmly taken the shoes from the rack. He was about to put them on when mom confronted him. At that point he muttered something about taking the wrong pair of shoes and fled. My shoes are now (hopefully) safe for another week.

We then took over sentry positions and mom went into the temple. A few minutes later we saw three people milling around wearing the same expressions we had the previous week. So I went and asked them if their shoes had been stolen and they replied in the affirmative. Seems that our thief (thieves?) has very selective taste. In all cases only Nike shoes and floaters had been stolen. We’re planning a surprise for our “friend” next week. A group of us is planning to go and catch him in the act. Let’s see what happens

What else…Working on my project. Have a review on the 21st of Feb and Want to finish 4 more modules by then.

That’s all from me for now. Later dudes!

The last few days were pretty relaxing. Low stress in college due to the changed time table and low load as we’d finished a few assignments ahead of schedule.

Managed to take the time out to play cricket yesterday. Real good fun - playing after a gap of quite some time. However am paying for it today

Anyway, not in the mood to write more as of now.

Later all!

I don’t know many people who keep a blog and update it regularly. Oh yeah - there are (were) links on my page, but of all those links, only Anshul manages to squeeze out the time and effort to maintain his site. For my part, I think there are two kinds of people who start a blog - and then manage to maintain it. One set is of those who have a genuine interest in writing. The other set is actually a subset of the previous one. It’s made up of those people who have no clue that they want to write till some kindly person comes and puts a keyboard under their waiting fingers. Then there’s no stopping them.

One thing that unites both these groups is the fact that they write because they want to write. The first person they write for is themselves. I still remember when I first started my blog - I used to come and check every few hours if anyone had posted a comment to my article. that need slowly faded when I realized that I wrote the articles because I wanted to - not because I wanted someone to read them.

Of course, that being said - it really doesn’t hurt when someone takes the time out to read what you have written and post an opinion on it. It still feels good when someone does it. So - all you blog surfers out there - when you take the time to read what someone has written - take a few seconds more and make your thoughts known. Who knows - what you write could spark off an idea for a new article

In other news, I read these two articles on Rediff . The first story is of a journalist who wrote of his struggle with brain cancer. He died after posting his last entry. More information can be found here . The other story is of a wierd virus - it abuses you as it infects your PC. More information can be found here . These guys also have the mp3 of the song it plays. Go figure!

Well, that’s all from me as of now. Until next time - keep blogging (and commenting )!

The mercury has been dropping rapidly over the last few days in Pune. Since last morning, the sky has been overcast and the predominant color all over has been a dull, battleship gray. The sun didn’t make much of an appearance either. It was as if everything was waiting for the final component to finish the picture - and it came in the evening. It was rain - clean and cold water from the sky. Of course - it just helped the temperature hit a new low. Also, the wind chill factor has picked up over the last two days. It’s pretty cool in the afternoons as well - not that I’m complaining. It’s just cool enough to put a spring in your step and keep you active.

In other news, my family and I decided to head for the local temple. So, we walked to the temple - it’s around a km (appx 0.625 miles) away. The good thing was that we reached bang in time for the evening rituals. Unfortunately, when we got back to where the shoes were placed, my floaters/sandals were missing. Now there’s nothing that can be done about this - there were around 60 people in the temple area. And you never know if the person who stole your shoes is sticking aound waiting to be caught . Anyway, we decided to take a cab and visit the nearest shoe outlet. But fate, it seems had other plans. The shops were all closed. So had to come back home barefoot. Been using my walking shoes since last evening - will go and get a pair of floaters today.

Also, today was the first day that college started at 0800. My bike had other ideas. It refused to start at first. After a lot of kicking, screaming and coaxing, I finally got it started, but it kept shutting off. Finally, I gave up and took the car to college.

Well, that’s my news. Until next time - have a nice day!