As I've made my way from being a greenhorn programmer (It's now around 8 years since I wrote my first C program, and more than 12 since my first BASIC program) to being reasonably competent, I find reading technology-specific programming books less useful. Unless I am doing work with some newfangled technology (or some oldfangled technology that's new to me), I've stopped reading books related to the latest C# fu, or .NET remoting, or managed sockets, or whatever is the newest buzzword in network programming. Books more generally related to programming per se, with insight into general, non-language-specific concepts seem more useful to me. Language and platform-specific books serve as great references, to be picked up when a task is to be accomplished at work(or elsewhere - but I am a mercenary coder right now :-))

I just started reading "The Practice of Programming" by Bob Kernighan and Rob Pike. So far, I've liked concepts put forth in the book related to the real-world practice of writing efficient yet readable and maintainable code. It talks about things like how much commenting in a program is important (my answer: go with what feels right - is fairly close to theirs). Another gem is how using funky operator combinations to do ten things in a single line of code is a bad idea. It will take the reader two hours to understand it, and a day to decode issues with it. The "if A ? A:B" format for a condition in C is as complex as a line of code should get.

I'm still reading the book, and it's been a fascinating one and a quarter chapters so far. Most of these things I've picked up over the course of time, with experience. Some are probably situations I haven't encountered, so knowing the scenario a priori isn't too bad.

Also on the list: The much-revered Art of Computer Programming by Donald Knuth.

While I'm at it, "Code Complete" and "Writing Secure Code" too. It shall all be done. One insight at a time.

Another area that I would like to explore is languages. Being an Electronics student in my undergraduate years and a networking/systems major in grad school, languages/compilers and the evolution of these concepts is an area I've never really explored. I've heard good things about The Design and Evolution of C++ which may be a reasonable place to start.

Good Will Quotes

Cleverly written films are always a pleasure. One of my favorites in this category is "Good Will Hunting." An eerily prescient monologue from the movie which came out in 1997.

Will, in an interview with the NSA:

Why shouldn't I work for the N.S.A.? That's a tough one, but I'll give it a shot. Say I'm working at N.S.A. Somebody puts a code on my desk, something nobody else can break. So I take a shot at it and maybe I break it. And I'm real happy with myself, 'cause I did my job well. But maybe that code was the location of some rebel army in North Africa or the Middle East. Once they have that location, they bomb the village where the rebels were hiding and fifteen hundred people I never had a problem with get killed. Now the politicians are sayin', "Send in the marines to secure the area" 'cause they don't give a shit. It won't be their kid over there, gettin' shot. Just like it wasn't them when their number was called, 'cause they were pullin' a tour in the National Guard. It'll be some guy from Southie takin' shrapnel in the ass. And he comes home to find that the plant he used to work at got exported to the country he just got back from. And the guy who put the shrapnel in his ass got his old job, 'cause he'll work for fifteen cents a day and no bathroom breaks. Meanwhile my buddy from Southie realizes the only reason he was over there was so we could install a government that would sell us oil at a good price. And of course the oil companies used the skirmish to scare up oil prices so they could turn a quick buck. A cute little ancillary benefit for them but it ain't helping my buddy at two-fifty a gallon. And naturally they're takin' their sweet time bringin' the oil back, and maybe even took the liberty of hiring an alcoholic skipper who likes to drink martinis and play slalom with the icebergs, and it ain't too long 'til he hits one, spills the oil and kills all the sea life in the North Atlantic. So my buddy's out of work and he can't afford to drive, so he's got to walk to the job interviews, which sucks 'cause the shrapnel in his ass is givin' him chronic hemorrhoids. And meanwhile he's starvin' 'cause every time he tries to get a bite to eat the only blue plate special they're servin' is North Atlantic scrod with Quaker State. So what do I think? I'm holdin' out for somethin' better. Why not just shoot my buddy, take his job and give it to his sworn enemy, hike up gas prices, bomb a village, club a baby seal, hit the hash pipe and join the National Guard? I could be elected president.

The secret life of the clergy

Ed Norton, as always, a prime pick. I tend to choose films by directors and not actors - Chris Nolan and Baz Luhrmann being directors whose complete (full-length film) works have been consumed, with Steven Spielberg and Cameron Crowe high on the list too. Ed Norton's an exception. Primal Fear, Fight Club and The 25th Hour later, Ed Norton's a guy whose films you watch, simply because he's chosen them.

Keeping the Faith was similarly recommended. Picking up the DVD, I realized that he's directed the movie as well. This gets better.

The premise is simple. Two guys. One girl. They've been friends forever. She left when they were in eighth grade and went to the other coast. Now she's back. She's beautiful, smart, the kind they both fall for.So, a love triangle, right?

Not completely. He's a priest. Catholic at that. His best friend's a Rabbi. She's not Jewish - complications all around. He wants to tell her. His friend already has. She likes him (the Rabbi, that is) as well. Problem: He cannot see her and continue his relationship with his mother or the Synagogue. Ah, the tangled webs we weave.

For me, the film was a revelation in some ways. It showed a couple of clergymen of two of America's most prominent religions as regular guys. They wear shades, play basketball, and yes, occasionally swear too. Seeing them out of their robes was a surprise by itself. (I don't know, imagining our batt-ru in a leather jacket doesn't quite gel).

They falter, as all humans do, and find the faith (in themselves and those around them) to carry on. The film is reasonably well written, offering all three - Ed Norton (the priest), Ben Stiller (the Rabbi) and Jenna Elfman enough to do. Ed Norton as always lives the role, something he did frighteningly well in Primal Fear. Ben Stiller is subtler than some of his more recent roles, showing he's capable of better, and Dharma fits the role to a T.

The whole love triangle thing gets a tad awkward at times, but nothing to kill the movie completely. Some laughs, some tears, a drunk scene, a showdown, a punch and all's well with the world again. I admit, I probably liked the film more than I should have and I'm rating it better than it deserves to be rated.

Everyone thinks his story is the one with a twist.

Edit: Fixed a typo

Binary Politics

This two-party thingy that the US has going is so boring. "You're with us, or you're against us" bumbles our dear Prez. The only problem is, for a mind more nuanced than W, there are more options in life, though not on the ballot paper.

Social dinner conversation:

Me: " If not for some things, there is a high likelihood of me being Republican."
(That I cannot vote is immaterial here. An Indian holding forth on politics/cricket is extremely common.)
A couple of wide-eyed looks around. These expressions are in jest, as I've committed the sin of actually coming out for this government, although I've done nothing of the sort.

Me, a few minutes later in the conversation:" Well, a better way to put it is that I'm socially liberal and fiscally conservative"

Someone: "Then you're libertarian".

Me: Um...

I hate tags of all sorts. My opinions on each issue are formed by the issue at hand and my dogmas (which I have very few of). Over the course of time, I've seen that my beliefs align with being libertarian, but I'd like to resist that tag, solely because I dislike it. There are people online calling themselves libertarian whose tone of writing I find condescending and superior. If being libertarian means being like them, I think I'll pass.

However, what is it with this binary mode of thinking? Why does everything have to come down to whether you like this head of state and his cohorts or not? Maybe you don't like some of what's going on. There are other things that they may be doing right(OK, I don't see anything myself). I thought politicians taking cheap shots during national crises was a bad thing. Seeing all the Democrats taking shots at this (admittedly bumbling) President makes me cringe. I mean, we know Global Warming's happening, but America responsible for the hurricane? Get a life.

Of course, the conservatives have done themselves a world of good by aligning with the evangelicals. God hath wrought this fury upon the devil worshippers indulging in the revelry of Mardi Gras in New Orleans. But, but, but, don't the Mardi Gras revelers leave on the next flight out, leaving the residents to their jazz and blues? Is spring break in Florida not equally wanton? And I'm sure Halloween in Boston isn't exactly kosher.

I'll make up my mind based on the facts. The problem is, biased media all around refuses to give me the facts to make up my mind. No wonder no one in the US trusts the press any more. Fair And Balanced indeed.

Web News Roundup

First impressions of Google Blog Search? *Yawn*. Wake me up when you remove the number of times I link to my own page, and give me some sort of authority/PageRank a la Technorati. Of course, it is 'Beta'. Like Peter Pan, Google software never seems to want to grow up. Of course, the software is normally top-notch, but the hiding behind the beta tag is something I find irritating. It's not like other companies stop adding features or working on their software after it goes out.

In other news, both Yahoo! and Hotmail have new spiffy interfaces coming out soon. The Yahoo! one is beta for the public now, and the Hotmail one seems to be in invite-only beta. All the DHTML and AJAX goodness is taking over the web - makes websurfing that much more interactive and fun now.

There are screenshots for Yahoo! email available. Looks suspiciously like Outlook/ Thunderbird and any other three-pane mail client interface. The GMail interface with conversations and labels is a major paradigm shift, though how many people are ready for the labels idea is an interesting question. I love it.

Lost love Haiku

Bright eyes and big lashes
Liquid pools alive with a sparkle
A forlorn hopelessness.

- A vain attempt at Haiku

Where's your loyalty, traitor?

The Tribbet test ? I am so failing it right now. Guess whom I am going ga-ga over, and whose fate I really don't seem to care about?

Mr. Blair, could I get a honorary (it'd be a honour for me, sir! Note the spelling as well) membership of your land? I'd like to take a break from being heartbroken all the time. At least for a while. Then I'll go back to griping about the Indian team.

I am kind of happy that I had some inkling of what a humdinger this series would turn out to be. Though I didn't guess outright that England would win, I was hoping for something like that. In fact, I actually thought Australia would win 2-1, especially after that last-gasp draw at Old Trafford. I was expecting the Aussies to reach into their bag of tricks and blow England out of the water by the fifth test.

An interesting thing would be a look at the stats. Harmison is probably among the underperformers this series, while Trescothick didn't really convert any of his starts into a well-deserved big score. It was Flintoff's series for sure. And Warne's. And, dare I say it, Ashley Giles'?

I'll just get done with singing "Jerusalem" (anyone have the words to that?). Then I'll return to "jeetega bhai jeetega".

Comment Spam

I was mildly surprised that Blogger didn't seem to have captchas for comments like they do for account creation. Luckily I realized today that they do and I enabled it. Weirder is the fact that they hadn't enabled it by default.

Here's how to do it.

If you haven't done it yet, do so ASAP. Almost everyone I know who uses Blogger seems to have been spammed at least once in the past fortnight.

End of An Era?

Nice article by Harsha Bhogle on where Indian cricket stands right now. I was a supporter of keeping Ganguly as captain till as recently as the Pakistan series. The past two series show him as having serious issues in the head. If after so long in the game, he cannot counter the short ball on his body, his hard work(?) on his technique leaves a lot to be desired. The (lack of) improvement in his running between the wickets and fielding mean that there is an 'attitude problem' somewhere that needs fixing.

Further, the series in SL showed that Dravid has the chops to be captain. He showed a lot of aggression as captain, and did a great job of marshalling his resources. His batting didn't suffer all that much, and but for that ill-timed rush of blood by him in the final, we might well have held the trophy in our hands there.

It's time to move on. Ganguly's been a great captain, and he showed us some of our best times ( A world cup final, that magical pair of series against Australia and the win in Pakistan). But as he has suffered in form, the team has suffered due to his diffidence at the top of the order, and as captain.

Let him earn his way back into the team the hard way - by performing. Appoint Dravid as captain and get on with it. Our greatest player ever deserves a World Cup. It's the best gift this team can give the man who carried it for the better part of a decade.

On HTML email

There is a whole set of people I have seen online and elsewhere who have this vague issue with HTML mail. They prefer sending plaintext mail to everyone.

For hardcore techies who still ssh into their boxen to check their email, this may be understandable. But for people using regular mail clients on GUI-based systems, this is nothing short of "ideological-bordering-on- stupid". There is a reason for email - communication. At the office, it is meant for getting work done.

So, if you use HTML mail for putting some highlight or emphasis in your email that will make your recipients' job of sifting through all their email easier, go ahead and do it.

I personally receive all my work email in plaintext (there is an option in MS Outlook which allows you to do that). A nifty option appears on top of my message window, which allows me to see the email as HTML. For most emails, where formatting is just eyecandy, I get by with plaintext. But for inline answers to emails, color contrasts are extremely useful. Then of course, there's tables, which are great for some of the work we do.

Being ideological about tech issues is good. Being an ass about them for the sole reason of ideology is not. Standards were meant for making things easier for us. Not the other way around.

Dogma

Rationalism is so 20th century. Dogma is it, man! Real men (and women) only base their arguments on half-baked theories and flashes of insight they get while sleeping (or maybe while watching the latest teen disappearance 12-hour marathon on TV). The scientific world, which
actually put in the effort to gain this knowledge is full of people who want to advance their theories at all costs.

Global warming. I mean, whoever gave these people devoting their life to the rational study of life and the earth the right to make statements that we infallible humans are screwing up this earth? I mean, Michael Crichton (he of Jurassic Park and Congo) knows better, right? If he says global warming is not happening it cannot be. We can of course neglect melting icecaps, later winters and not solid enough ice in Alaska, for it is probably an aberration, right?

And the horror! We are descendants of monkeys! Is that even possible? Of course, there has to be a better explanation, right?

To recycle an old tale, 20% of surveyed Americans believed the Earth revolves around the sun.

Science and rational, knowledge-based debating is for wimps. Saying "I don't know" and "I'm wrong" is infra dig.

I have seen the light. I now follow the religion of Pastafarianism. All hail the Flying Spaghetti Monster


*The New Yorker link via Ari's blog

Howie Day Live

I finally went to a much-anticipated concert to watch Howie Day, live at The Showbox in downtown Seattle on the 9th of August. As mentioned earlier, an insanely hectic week meant that I was looking forward to the energy the concert would provide and I wasn't disappointed.

Opening act was Missy Higgins, apparently one of Australia's top singers right now. Amazing voice and great songwriting to complement the bare orchestration - just her on the piano(keyboard) and one guy on acoustic guitar. Her songs are now familiar to me, thanks to KCRW, and seeing her live was good fun. She was surprisingly down-to-earth, staying on to sign autographs and sell CDs with her crew. The crowd lapped it up, and her CDs sold briskly. Great numbers included 'Ten Days', 'Scar' , 'The Special Two' and 'All for Believing'. Her most beautiful verse?

I remember someone old once said to me:
"Lies will lock you up with truth the only key."

Howie Day has been touring with Anna Nalick, who was up next. Again, great voice, and interesting songs. Breathe (2AM) is her single doing the radio rounds right now, and she says it beautifully:

2 AM and I'm still awake, writing a song
If I get it all down on paper, its no longer
inside of me, threatening the life it belongs to
And I feel like I'm naked in front of the crowd
Cause these words are my diary, screaming out loud
And I know that you'll use them, however you want to

After the customary break, it was time for Howie Day himself. He started off with "Perfect Time of Day", a lovely, upbeat melody.

Since gaining fame, Howie has a full band and doesn't perform solo with only his set of pedals and delay and echo effects to burnish his singing and guitar playing. He did use them sparingly and to great effect this time though. However, all these years of touring has given his set a certain rigor. He is able to play a great set, yey maintain his spontaneity (his shows are generally different - he doesn't do exactly identical shows) and riff off the audience reaction. He did some great songs, including staples 'Ghosts', 'Sunday Morning Song' and 'Brace Yourself'. At least twice, he played the start of the Beatles' "Day Tripper", but he admitted that he and his band didn't know how to do the song, or they'd have done it.

Howie Day's strength IMO lies in the strong melodies he creates. There are people who like his songwriting, but I find it slightly (deliberately?) obscure, though enjoyable. His melodies are awesome though, and these are songs that you can hum or whistle along. They are also incredibly catchy, a fact proved by crowd favorite "Collide", the new song "Be There" and by the encore "Morning After". A great song was also the cover of Crowded House's "Don't Dream Its Over".

All in all, an evening worth remembering.

It's the perfect time of day
It's the last day of your life
Dont let it drift away
While your heart is still racing...

Links: Still waiting for a recording of the concert to go up on the Internet Archive, but there's some photos on this fan forum (you'll have to scroll down a bit). Cameras are normally not allowed, but people get away with it in the crowd and darkness.

Voice of Summer

Even as I wonder about my restlessness and where to channel all of it, there is a set of people who deserve this restlessness all the more, and will have a harder time of it all.

For them though, the possibilities are endless, for they haven't yet bound themselves in with career choices and raison d'êtres which include mundane points such as loan repayments or a life with no summer holidays. Life at that point seems at the cusp of change, as the article states perfectly: "Like migratory birds, the young can feel the end of something. Freedom is fading fast." Which again takes me back to one of my favorite songs:

"Kicking around on a piece of ground in your hometown,
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way"
- Pink Floyd, "Time"

And on a cautionary note,

"Time, time, time, see what's become of me
While I looked around
For my possibilities"
- Simon and Garfunkel "Hazy Shade of Winter"

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Found at a completely random place online

Why We Write

Bloggers write for different reasons. Some have ideas which need expressing. Some have a life worth sharing, and a number of people interested enough with whom they can share it. I have neither, but I have a desire to put things out there, which forces me to keep at it.

Some, though have the skill for it, which mere mortals like yours truly only aspire towards. A blog by someone with a genuine gift for words, poetry and ideas. The Girl In The Hat

(Link via various sources)

It's the perfect time of day
It's the last day of your life
Dont let it drift away
While your heart is still racing*

A restlessness possesses me
An urging to do something
To grab life by the scruff
Of its neck
And give it a shaking

Life cannot
And will not
wait forever
The iron is hot
The spirit is willing
As is the flesh
Make something of it
Or forever hold your peace

The unease of a hot summer night
Of wanting more
Than offered by this life
Of creating a new reality
A desire to be something
Larger than this mere body
Of transcending space and time
To be somewhere beyond consciousness
Where only thoughts bind you
And not limitations
Where the beyond is there for the taking

*4 Lines from Howie Day's "Perfect Time of Day"

Radio as it ought to be

A chance encounter lead me to KCRW, Santa Monica's public listener-supported radio streaming online.

KCRW has a program called "Morning Becomes Eclectic" . As the name suggests, it is an eclectic mix of music from different styles and ranges - electronica, punk, latin and more down-home varieties including folk and country make their appearance here. The key feature of this is that it is music chosen by the anchor Nic Harcourt. Nic Harcourt has gained some fame for having a good nose for music, having been the person to have given artistes of the level of Norah Jones, Dido, Radiohead, Coldplay and Jem their first major breaks on radio (for some of the Brit acts, their major North American break). His taste sure is eclectic, though he has a distinct empathy towards certain sounds (Most of his selections are what you would call easy-listening - no very hard rock or metal or hardcore hip-hop here). But these sounds are wide-ranging, making for interesting and engaging listening.

To top it all off, there is Nic himself. He is really good as an anchor -extremely knowledgeable about music (a major relief after hearing inane chatter on mainstream radio stations - I know more about many of the songs I listen to than the jockeys themselves). His interviewing style is pleasant without being ingratiating, and he asks good questions about the process of songwriting and music-making.

Listening to him on radio made me realize that this is what I want from my music radio programming - good variety of music and gyan about music - not some new reality series or Ashton Kutcher pulling a new joke on someone who's famous for being credited third on some vague TV show, but is considered a 'celebrity'.

The website has a section of performances by a number of great artistes -many of them not so well-known. Give it a spin. If you are interested in good, but not so well-known music, you won't be disappointed.

I recommend: Nikka Costa, Beck, Missy Higgins, Si Se, Jem.

On a similar note, an interview of Nic Harcourt on PBS Frontline, and a great special section on the state of the music industry today

The Gym, Gigs and the Indian cricket fan's heartbreak

It's been a crazy two weeks. Features integrating upwards, downwards and laterally. Regressions and bugs hitting from left-field. To add to the hectic-ness of it all, I decided to start on a fitness regimen - a New Year resolution 7 months too late to come into action. Plus, there were five matches (go India! :-( ) to be seen in the wee hours of the night and two concerts to be attended (more on them later). By the end of it all in the middle of this week, I was happy to be standing. But rarely had I felt more alive. Adrenaline, caffeine and pure will carried me through.

That which does not kill you will only make you stronger
- Nietzsche .

Touché. Here's to more such insanity in the future.

I seem to be in a garrulous mood, so there might be a flurry of posts as I try to get things out of my head and into this blog. To start with, welcoming Abhishek aka Bunty to the weird, wonderful world of blogging. Abhishek starts over at Sidepod, and based on the first post seems destined towards nerd nirvana.

Me and Bunty go back a long way. We met on my first day in college, though we actually met in the hostel. He lived in the room next to mine, and I didn't meet him in college that day because he had slept through most of the day. It was a pattern repeated often, as he found the confines of a bed more inviting than that of a class. So did I, but I have a bad habit of being more goody-two shoes than I need to be. Fat lot of help that did me. A few more hours of relaxing never hurt anyone.

We did spend a lot of his waking hours hanging out doing nothing of note, which was the way all of our engineering years went. That we are gainfully employed is a tribute to ...what, I don't know.

Ta-too-tee

There is something about the t-shirts I wear that tend to draw reactions.

I used to wear a lot of smart-alec tees some time back. There was one that said "I see Dumb People" a la Haley Joel Osmont in "The Sixth Sense". And then there was the one which said "Scientific Theory Proven:The Universe Does Revolve Around Me". I've cut down on that, because I've found it harder to come by smart and funny t-shirts which aren't downright offensive and profane. It is hard to be smart, funny and clean.

However, it isn't these t-shirts that are causing the strange reactions. Those normally evoked a snicker, or at most "That is pretty rude" . This is more interesting.

Last month, I was wearing this t-shirt with a logo of a dragon twined over a surfboard. The guy at the local garage (where I was for an oil-change) was pretty impressed. This lead to a long conversation about how it would be a nice tattoo to get, where I bought the tee ,what kind of dragon it was (he actually knew - I forget the details) and so on.

Then I was wearing my Tantra 'Om' tee last week and the girl at the grocery checkout counter remarks - 'nice t-shirt'. Still signing my credit-card receipt, I absently answered 'thanks'. Then she says to the girl bagging the groceries 'I was thinking of getting a tattoo like that. Om, you know the universal sound. But I decided not to."

I was still digesting on this as I walked out with my groceries. A pattern is emerging here. Tattoos of patterns from tees I am wearing.hrm. I think I'll stick with the t-shirts.