Monthly Archives: May 2009

tamil, tv

How to watch Tamil TV Serials !

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The last couple of days I am watching Tamil TV Serials – during lunch and dinner. I have to socialize with the guests who are visiting us. It will not be manners to read a book when guests are around you see.

So here is how I entertain myself.

1. Watch the side actors. Usually the main heroine ( no heroes ) will be talking a few pages of scripts in one go. And time to time the side actors will keep looking at each other. It is so funny. At times one actor will try to look at the other – and she/he will be listening intently and will not look.

2. Watch for mistakes. There are so many. Usually when there is a large crowd there will be 5 or 6 people who will never get a dialogue. Keep looking at them – and they will keep seeing into the camera now and then.

3. Guess the cliche statement that will emerge out of the actor’s mouth. You will win all the time.

“Enn uyiruai kuduthaavathu unnai kaapaathuvaen”
“Vaanga. Coffee saapidureengala”
“Nalla mugurtham paarthu sollnuga”

There is more to entertain yourself. Guess what they really wanted to speak.

“Unnoda Call Sheet mudiyuthu. Seekiram sethu tholai”
“Vaanga. Beer saapidureengala?”
“Marriage set innamum ready aagalai – 2 months thalli date iruntha sollunga”

Here is my suggestions to the script writers to hook up people like me.

1. Mix up a few sports news in dialogue.

“Chennai Kings kalakuraangala”
“Chelsea manager sothapeetaan”
“Gilli marana adi adikuraan”

2. Product placements.

For instance, all the actors use a cellphone. Why can’t they use it to their advantage –

“Entha Phone ithu? Oh Nokia N97. Cool machi”
“Wow Flat screen – Samsunga – nalla color kaatuthu”
“Oooh Mac Book” ( If a day comes to this Steve Jobs will be selling movie tickets in black )

3. Mix a few PJs

I understand you script writers dilemma. Years of writing cliche after cliche dialogue has blunted the brain. Suddenly you cannot ask them to write jokes – atleast browse on the internet and insert a few PJs here and there.

“Knock knock”
“Why did the kozhi cross the road pa?”
“Intha Blonde joke kelaaen?”

God save Tamil TV Viewers.

linux

Finally Switched from Vista to Ubuntu 9

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Finally I have made the jump from Windows to Linux – the 3rd time. First 2 times I did it when I was on a J2EE project ( weblogic environment ) and a SOA project ( Tomcat ). Once I rolled off the projects again I had to go back to Windows.

Now this is the 3rd time I am switching and along with it the development environment of Apartment Adda to Ubuntu and I will be here for quite some time – perhaps till I get a powerbook 😉 The build and production are already on linux – so it was easy to make the switch – the scripts were all working. A few things were holding me back – like Nokia PC Suite, ITunes, Chrome – but I am feeling better already for having made the choice.

1. Ubuntu 9 is slick, good on eyes and blazingly fast

My thumbrule for judging the performance of an OS is – everything should launch like how a notepad launches in Windows XP ( vista notepad takes longer than XP notepad). In Ubuntu most of the apps meet the critieria. Ubuntu boots really fast and is immediately responsive after desktop comes up and doesn’t cheat like XP or Vista. 

2. Terminal

I had putty for SSHing, a cygwin window for tailing error file, and a command prompt for building, running tests – I know I could have merged cygwin window and command prompt – habits die hard. Now I have one window – with tabs for each of the above. Really neat – and I have switched to the mainframe green – gives me a nostalgic feeling since thats where I started my career.

3. Multiple Workspaces

I am a big fan of multiple workspaces. Missed it in Windows and earlier OS X versions. Helps segregate work and fun. Now with extended desktop and multiple workspace – it is productivity quadrapled. And to switch all I have to do is to move the mouse to the desktop area where there are no windows and scroll the mouse wheel – and it switches.

4. Feeling light

I am not running any of the memory hogs :

1. AVG Anti virus
2. Windows Defender
3. Windows Firewall
4. Spybot S&D

5.Unixiness

Vi, cron jobs, apt-get ( debian specific though ), pipe, grep – the list of toys is endless. Now when I think back I should have switched in Jan 09 when I got this laptop. But kept postponing the switch thinking it will take time to set things up – apparently it took me half a day yesterday and the time / frustration saved from today onwards will pay back within a week.

What I will miss : 

ITunes, Chrome, Nokia PC Suite, Tortoise SVN, HeidiSQL… Do let me know if youknow of some alternatives.

So after crying here : http://kvrlogs.blogspot.com/2009/02/vista-is-a.html and misjudging here : http://kvrlogs.blogspot.com/2008/04/rendezvous-with-vista.html – I have made the switch wholeheartedly and following is the request my machine will be making to the webservers all over the world – doesn’t it look beautiful 🙂

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042523 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Firefox/3.0.10

election, gloom

Who will lose in this election?

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It is easy to accurately predict who all will lose in this election. A fractured mandate is bad for the country.  Here is my list of losers because of this election 09.

1. Environment

With the makeshift horse traded government trying to hold on to power on a day to day basis – the environment will never show up any where on the radar. Instead we will see environmentally unfriendly projects getting sanctioned at a furious pace – because even before the PIL can be submitted – the minister in charge might be replaced and a new government would have come. Make hay while the sun shines will be order of the day. Sorry Earth.
2. Economy

I feel sorry for the poor sods (including yours truly ) who have sunk their money in Stock Market . I am predicting market to fall to 8000 in the next few months. The parliment will be run by everything other than pragmatism. With the netas whims and fancies changing on a day to day basis – and along with it the fluctuating majority – and along with it the market will keep plunging. 
3. Aam Aadmi 

The new Government’s life span is in weeks to months. They will not think even of a 1 year long project. So no new infrastructure projects will start, no improvements to healthcare or education will happen- everything that a Government is supposed to do – goes for a toss. 
Of course the politicians are not responsible for this mess – they would say it is the Aam Aadmi is to be blamed for having voted such a fractured mandate.
The world will turn dark tomorrow ( May 16th when counting will begin ). Brace up folks – and get ready for a rough ride in the coming few months. Probably my next posts will make fun of our pathetic situation and wont be this gloomy – so don’t blacklist my blog yet 🙂

startup

Specialization is for insects

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There is this age old debate – should you specialize on a skill, or generalize and become a jack of all trades?

Heres a quote that answers the question :
“A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, and die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.”
– Robert A. Heinlein — from The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
There are exceptions – but as a generalization – the above quote is spot on. In any career you will have your main stream ( BA, Developer, QA, Architect etc. ) – but to become really kickass in your stream – you have to develop other surrounding skills.
Where I am coming at is – as an entrepreneur you will be forced to don many hats. I have met a few entrepreneurs who will dig through their card holder to give me their appropriate business card. They actually have multiple business cards with various designations like VP, Architect, CTO, Business development manager etc. Perhaps they might not be the best in all the roles – but overall they trump the specialists.
So go ahead. If you are a developer talk to your QA, BA, PM, HR, RM, BDM, MD – on what they do, how they do, problems they face, how they tackle – whenever you get a chance – these chats will help you in your career and will help you some day when you run a startup – where you have to be a little of everything.
So become the jack of all trades and a master of one or two.
bangalore, chennai

Chennai Vs Bangalore

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Some people will live and die for a city. I am not one of them – and I will objectively analyze which city is a best fit for me – a 30+ year old dad, techie, non-pub hopper, digs Chettinad food and Saravana Bhavan, and who enjoys the beach. By now you know where my allegiance is 🙂
Beach Vs Mall
The beach might not be how it used to be 10 years back – but still the salty air and cool breeze are the same. No one can prevent the breeze from hitting me – and every time I go to Beasant Nagar beach it reminds me one of the fun times I had there – late night cricket, intellectual and mushy exchanges…numerous.
When I go to a mall I get blinded, suffocated and when I come out I feel drained of my energy and am happy to get out of the mall.
Chennai : 1 
Bangalore : 0
Traffic
Traffic has shot up everywhere – even in tier 3 cities. Chennai traffic is still smooth like butter. You wait only once in any signal – lots of flyovers and smart traffic management ensures you keep moving. Bangalore – uggh.  Driving is zero fun in Bangalore.
Chennai : 2
Bangalore : 0
Food 
Chennai has got great food at affordable rates.   Saravana Bhavan and chettinad joints are there everywhere – Karaikudi, Ponnuswamy, Anjappar – and you can get a tall Falooda for 75Rs ( in Anjappar ) with an umbrella. Try to get one like that in Bangalore for the same price. 
However, to Bangalore’s credit the type of cuisines are endless – konkani, mangalorean,egyptian…you name it – it is there in Bangalore. It might be costlier than Chennai but I would award equal points to both.
Chennai : 3
Bangalore : 1 
Chennai Super Kings vs Bangalore Royal Challengers
Awarding points to both. BRCs seem to be fighting back.
Chennai : 4
Bangalore : 2 
Cars

Chennai wins hands down. I spotted 2 Audis in a space of an hour. There are so many Mercedes. And once I was sandwiched between 2 Mercedes – felt as if I was being escorted like a rock star. Bangalore? Too many indicas, sumos – and even if an Audi R8 pulls next to me I will not notice – I will think it is a figment of my imagination.
Chennai : 5
Bangalore : 2
Weather

Ahem. Heres where things get tied.
Chennai : 5 ( wanted to give a negative score )
Bangalore : 5  ( awarding a whopping 3 pointer ) 
Bottomline – it is a tough choice. You go where your career takes you – rest of the things you can compromise and live and hope things change for the better. 
And finally to sum things up here is my haiku that I wrote when I was in Chennai.
Audi might have got its quattro
But Chennai still has its bovonto*

Dhoni might be from Ranchi
But he is now Chennai’s own Machi**
* Bovonto is a fruit drink looks black in color and bottle says – “does not have fruit juice or pulp”. Is as bad and unhealthy as a Pepsi or Coke and does not have an Amir Khan or SRK peddling it – but tastes fantastic. You can still find it in Chennai.
** Valid till he is bought by a Mumbai or a Kolkata team.