Potpourri

I have been asked by my friend to write about 10 things I judge about people. I can't promise 10. It may become more.... it may stop early for later additions, it may simply not start.... I might end up making another list of things.... So lets see....May be I'll try this. 1. I hate when people are boastful about the things they haven't hard earned. Unfortunately, I have known people who are proud about they being south indians , north indians , bramhins , women in research, all sorts of things!!! I mean, don't you guys get it that its just by mere chance you were born in the families that you were and the place you were, the sex that you were. All one can possibly feel is thankful and not boastful!!! If authors in your mother tongue are the best in the universe, well, it doesn't make you a good writer. Or if Tendulkar is your langotya yaar doesn't make you a world class batsman. So all you people with mis -spelled egos, why not have a good look into the mir...

drafts: auto saved on blogger drafts: painful to prepare drafts: never get published!!!! drafts: who reads them even when published All I am trying to say is, I have been writing too many drafts under my blogger id but hardly ever feel like publishing them. As if the published one's are real great!! Sarcasm, I used it a lot in one of the discussions.. Shame shame and then kept saying that I haven't been sarcastic...even more shame... Discussions.....have had three with my guide this week and it was great fun. The last couple of weeks, have been full of ups and downs... downs, mainly because of some unconfortable exchanges of words.. ups thanks to no boredom capturing my daily activities and general ethusiasm I have felt in doing everything and anything.... Weekend, looking forward to. Wish to do something crazy.... Lets see.....

Today on Computational Complexity blog (started by Lance Fortnow and now being handled by Bill Garasch ) announced starting of a WiKi for open problems in computer science. It has been started by Matt DeVos and Robert Samal . The idea was proposed by Lance few months back. And these guys went all the way to actually start such a wiki space. I think, its absolutely a great idea because: It will list open problems of many areas. It would help in finding out who is working on what and hence it will provide a good forum to make collaborations. It will help people avoid reinventing wheels. It would make reviewing of papers easy (if problem of importance ** is solved in a paper you would automatically know how to rate it etc..) If one wishes to shift fields, then surveying new fields will become very easy. Of course, all these advantages are subject to the fact that people in the field take active interest and responsibility to maintain this forum up to date and lot of people make contri...

I with two other people did two days of trekking. We trekked on two routes staring from Kodai. We had essentially planned the trek according to the information provided on a website. And as we went along, we realised that a lot of info was incomplete/inaccurate. Here are some facts for those who plan to trek. For those who wish see how much we freaked out, go see the album... Facts: The distances mentioned in km on any site seem unreliable. We too don't have exact estimates of distances in km, I would rather mention time needed. (One of us was an experienced trekker. As a whole, we would rate our group as medium paced trekkers.) Trek route 1: Kodai - Dolphin's nose - Vellagavi - Kumbakkarai (from kumbakkarai we came back by road). started at 11:00 am total time : four and a half hours toughness : low road type : essentially a descent, winding narrow road, no loose stones cautions : trek ends in a waterfall, enquire before hand about the water level of this waterfall tips : ve...

There used to be a certain village in which, all the people had either a red or a black mark on back of their neck. They could see other person's mark but not their own. In fact, they had a rule that, if anyone ever got to know color of his/her own mark, he/she would have to commit suicide. They didn't have a single mirror in the village and they never discussed colors of anyone's marks. They were all logical and intelligent people. One fine day a tourist landed in their village. And after a pleasant stay went off saying that "atleast one of you has a red mark". What do you think happened to the people of this village in some time? This puzzle is coursey some website. But it is posted along with its answer. So I will not reveal the name of that website for a while.

Today's xkcd.com, comic strip: (If you haven't seen Memento, then forget about it!!)

I am going to just write down all that comes to my mind. I am sitting at a desk with a lamp glowing on my right and a bottle of water on the left. Keys to random locks seem to be lying here. I could be anywhere. But I am right here. Sometimes it makes me wonder as to how come and why. But thats currently besides point. Thoughts are coming in floods. But I am shunning all of them. Could I be anywhere else? May be not. If life was meant to be spent in offices and cubicles, I would think, it wouldn't matter where you are. And when you are. May be these cubicles were the time machines. Who knows. There is a clock ticking right on the screen here. Which is kind of telling me to cut the nonsense (evidently, I am censoring my language here. One can never write fully uncensored stuff. (Speak for yourself girl!)) Anyhow, having a coffee is surely a good idea. Head is aching. And eyes are going red. I think, the best thing to do would be to simply take a nice walk around. Freshen up a bit. ...

Some quotes I read somewhere and some I came up with. Try and guess which is which... But basically read and enjoy... When you come to a fork in the road ... Take it. Either I find the man and his talks interesting, or none. I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury. Football's not a matter of life and death ... it's more important than that. One who errs is a man, one who errs all too often is clearly a moron... Middle age is when you've met so many people that every new person you meet reminds you of someone else. If in the end everything seems fine, certainly its not the end.... The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

Me and my friend aaloka can suddenly start off talking about TV advertisements and can go on forever. It doesn't take us too much effort to begin singing all the funny ads that used to come on TV when we were kids. Like dipika - ji aaiye aayie .. . par nirma super hi kyu ... then dipika - ji delivers the punch line " dhulai ka super dam, daam phir bhi kam ", or else the nerolac ad " jub ghar ki raunat badhani ho, diwaaron ko jab sajaana ho--- nerolac .... nerolac !!" or "ye bechara , kaam ke boj ka maraa --- isse chahiye ....hum dard ka tonic, sinkara " or " jub mein chhota baccha tha , badi shararat karta tha , meri chori pakadi jati .....ting ting ting ting... jub roshan tha bajaj !!" ...and many more stupid stupid ads. Not watching TV is something, now I am totally used to. I don't miss the soaps and don't miss all the reality shows, quiz contests, sports, cartoons...Absolutely none of these t...

Yes!! The title as exciting as that is going to contain a total crib post. I am totally pissed with myself. Well, thought of the day is: when you read a paper, work it out from the end to the beginning as opposed to from the beginning to the end. I mean, get it so right that when you say you understand it, you mean you understand why the author came up with the definition he did and why he came up with the notation that he did and all and all.....:) Jam tried to teach us this for two whole semesters and Meena has wasted all her energies for getting me to know this. But what the heck, I just don't get it. And I still go on reading papers like an illiterate. Shame shame!!!

This movie released many years back. But I saw it just 2-3 days ago. I quiet liked it!! I like the idea of a man being an island himself!! The main guy, the hero of the movie , says at the beginning of the movie that, 100 years back people could not think of living alone. In the sense that, for security, for meeting day to day needs etc etc people depended on each other. But now with all the technology and conveniences, a man really needs nobody to help him with his materialistic needs. He can live by himself. Suppose he has all the money, like our own main guy is shown to have, he would just watch movies and listen to music day in and day out (basically do what he likes without getting too involved in people) and lead a stress free, zero complication, independent life with no emotional baggage . Well, but we humans are prone to attachments and so is our main guy. A kid gets into his life due to some strange situation. And they both become very close pals. The main guy, starts giving...

ever seen an object moving incessantly close to you closer everyday? it may seems all good but ofcourse , it possibly won't continue this way it gets so close one day the object i claim i like i own that object but i lose its sight.... one step back....two steps back... it still looks blurred i wonder how i saw it, when it was this close (this far) its strange that when i go back all by hundred steps it starts looking like it looked when i first saw it hundred steps ahead lies the infamous misery island where you possess everything and you like nothing... its the place where life pulls you hard wish to own is the biggest hazard hundred steps away is too hard to maintain but i would hate to lose sight all over again....

This is a name of a cafe in Chennai. Well, sort of. Actually, the real name is "Coffee..?" but for some mysterious reason people call it pothole. Its nothing like a pothole though. Its really a lovely place with an ambiance perfectly suitable for enjoying a good one hour break from everything and anything. So this place is close to music college, off a noisy road, in a quiet lane. There is just one waiter, who is quiet a laid back guy. Never hurries up things and lets you waste as much time as you like. Just as you enter, you see a sofa, on which I never sit. But thats because there are always people who prefer sofa over chairs and they are already on it. You turn to your right and there is another cozy looking room with about 4 table with chairs. Really simple. The walls are awesome orange with mild and warm lights. Music is never a hindrance to any conversation, however, a lot of times they play good stuff. (Classical, indie, even soft rock). Food served is only vegetaria...

a hazy mirror speaks more truth than a shadow ever can, its not me who is saying it i heard them say that a hazy mirrior looks back at me like a old man with bad eye sight i hate to look at it, do i see myself like it?

Going home for a vacation was extremely refreshing. As always I saw lots of TV, spent lot of time with my parents, ate lots of delicious mom-made food, met lot of my friends. At the end felt like not coming back. But now I am here, sitting at my desk. Getting back into things and writing a blog.

During the time of new years, we get to hear people giving predictions about how the coming year would be for us. When I was a kid, Indian astrology and palm reading etc. were the famous methods. But now things are much more fancy. There are atleast 10-12 different styles in which they predict your future. And mostly, one doesn't match the other. The worst is, if you pick any of the last year's predictions you realise it was so grossly wrong. Ofcourse , if you are a believer of one or all of these methods, then you can even relate bankruptcy as a correct prediction, if actually it read as : "You will be involved in many money exchanges". So that in fact is the point. Why do these predictions and luck/destiny related talks excite a huge number of people. That has to be because we almost always are thinking of tomorrow and not just that, we are even hopeful about our tomorrow, in spite of the fact that there is not an iota of evidence from past that it should be any...

Wonder how neverland is formed? (I call a place neverland if its some place one can never reach but has heard of.) For answering the how we need to understand properties of potential neverland , PN , (A land which eventually may become neverland .) I imagine PN is a land inhabited by a whole lot of people. People, who are completely unaware of the fact that, it would become a neverland some day. Eating bread, chatting, merring , quarrelling too. Such a PN may be, geographically a bit secluded, a bit out of the way, however still connected to the rest of the world through a weak but sure link. A PN , I imagine, is a place self-contained. Providing for itself for the bare necessities, however, depending on the rest of the world for luxuries. One fine day, such a place somehow gets totally secluded from the rest of the world. Thats how probably neverland is formed. ..... This may not be the whole answer for the "how". I mean, mere seclusion doesn't make a PN a neverl...

I saw this Nagesh Kukunoor movie, called Dor , couple of days back. The movie is about two women, one from Himachal Pradesh ( zeenat ) and the other from Rajasthan ( meera ). Their lives get entangled, through an interesting plot. ( Meera's husband dies in an accident and Zeenat's husband is held responsible for that. Zeenat comes in search of Meera because only Meera's letter of consent is going to save Zeenat's husband). What follows, is a search of goals. But as always, when one starts out to search something, tends to find something else on the way. What did I like about the movie? Movie is a visual treat, filled with the amazingly beautiful landscapes from Himachal Pradesh and Rajashtan . Also the narration is very well thought. No character is painted totally black or totally white, very rare for Indian cinema. I liked Meera's role played by Ayesha Takia . Also the small part played by Nagesh Kukunoor himself has come out quiet well. Whats mor...

Lance Fortnow has decided to quit blogging. His blog was the only complexity theorist's blog I read. Also among all the other blogs that I read this is/was my the most favorite. Many many informative posts and discussions will remain as archives online (thank you Lance). But I will miss reading his daily posts so much. This was really sudden, as all bad news are. Hope Lance starts a new blog soon.

Yao introduced a model for computing complexity of communication. Say Alice and Bob know two different parts of a story and they are trying to solve a mystery. The amount of talking they need to do is the complexity measure. If they need to exchange too much data to solve the mystery then the whole mystery is said to have high complexity, and low otherwise. At first this seems very natural. Uninteresting example: Alice and Bob each holds a list of numbers. Alice doesn't know Bob's list and vice-a- versa . Now they have to figure out which is the smallest number in the two lists put together. Well one way is, Alice tells all the numbers she has and Bob having listened to the whole story then declares the minimum. But the complexity of this communication is too much, because they talked too much. However, following communication has lower complexity than previous one: Alice first computes the minimum number in her list and tells only that to Bob. Bob in turn compares this mini...