Night out - contd

The wait turned to be longer. Ended up going home at 8:30 a.m., next day. By the time we left few of my team mates were entering to start the day's work. They looked at us as if we were aliens :)
The next night i.e., yesterday night, had to wait again and ended up coming home at 5:00 a.m. (today morning). Hope that this saga of night outs end here...

Night out

It is 2:40 a.m. IST and I am still in office... Hoping to leave ASAP.

Food for soul

Recently one of my friend handed over the transcript of Professor Randy Pausch’s last lecture in CMU(Carnegie Mellon University). This has been doing lot of rounds lately and I thought of reading it. I read the last lecture titled, Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. Randy Pausch was American professor of human computer interaction and design in CMU. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and he gave the lecture after coming to know that his case was terminal. This lecture was given on September 18 2007. Randy speaks takes everyone through various phases in his life, describing passionately the difficulties he faced and the moments where he triumphed.

Some of the gems from the book:

• The brick walls are there for a reason. They are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. They are there to stop the other people.

• Never lose the child like wonder.

• Loyalty is a two way street.

• Never give up.

• You get people to help you by telling the truth.

• Get a feedback loop and listen to it. When people give feedback cherish it and use it.

• Show gratitude.

• Don’t complain. Just work harder.

• Be good at some thing. It makes you valuable.

I found the one below, most valuable…

The life is not about achieving dreams but leading it the right way. If you lead the life the right way, your karmas will take care of itself and your dreams will come true. How true… This reminds me of Bhagavatgeetha where Lord Krishna says, “Just do your karma. Don’t worry about the results. Let the rewarding of the results rest with me.”

Randy died on July 25 2008. There is also a book by the title The Last Lecture. If you come across the book, do read it. I recommend this as a must read for everyone who are passionate about life and want to fulfill their dreams. That’s all for now. Please leave a comment before navigating away from the entry.

Some related links: The transcript, Randy Pausch, CMU

Ps: By the way, this is the first entry I am writing from my new laptop. Hope to write much more in future. God Bless!!

(Source of the image: Internet)

Incident - 2

Hmm... Don't want to mention it.

Incident - 1

Content edited for various reasons.

My thinking style

Your Dominant Thinking Style: Visioning

You are very insightful and tend to make decisions based on your insights. You focus on how things should be - even if you haven't worked out the details. An idealist, thinking of the future helps you guide your path. You tend to give others long-term direction and momentum.

What's Your Thinking Style?

My intrapersonal intelligence

Your Intrapersonal Intelligence Score: 90%

Your Intrapersonal Intelligence is Very High You've spent a lot of time introspecting, and it's really paid off. You are comfortable with who you are, and you have a life philosophy that you are happy to live by. And you're always re-evaluating what you believe. Because you learn something new about yourself each day!

How Does Your Intrapersonal Intelligence Rate?

My dominant intelligence

Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence

You shine in your ability to relate to and understand others. Good at seeing others' points of view, you get how people think and feel. You have an uncanny ability to sense true feelings, intentions, and motivations. A natural born leader, you are great at teaching and mediating conflict. You would make a good counselor, salesperson, politician, or business person.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Tagged again!!

Sady, has once again tagged me. Hence I am here before you to perform duty of bearing the tag and undergo the undulated protocol. Well, I am supposed to make list of things that I would like to do in my life. Sounds interesting right? Here it goes…

Being an Arien, I like to trek and perform adventurous tasks. First two wishes capture this..


Would like to trek Himalayas, Ladakh

I want to trek Himalayan terrain once. I remember my visit to Gangtok/Darjeeling in Feb-2006. Himalayan range though far, looked majestic. Strong, tall and determined to bar all the gusty winds that blew towards it. I want to walk on those mighty ranges once. Apart from this, I would like to visit Kailash Manasarovar Lake which is in Chinese territory. The lake apart from being a place of worship for Hindus is a visual treat for nature lovers (like me...).


Would like to go on world tour.

I would like to tour the world once and see places. Would like to relish cuisines of different territories. Perhaps I would make a documentary out of it. [:)]


Would like to try my hand at nature photography.

I am inspired by Sady’s new found hobby and my cousin’s Sony cybershot [:)] . I would like to buy a decent camera and try my hand at shooting nature. I would be buying a camera soon.


Would like to own a cottage on a hill.

I would like to own a decent cottage on a hill which overlooks either the sea or range of mountains. This dream house of mine should have a huge court yard and back yard. Ample of space where vegetables, medicinal plants are grown organically. There will be a huge lawn, with a small gazebo at the center. The gazebo should overlook the scenic mountain range or sea. One more thing my cottage should have a huge library with a good collection of books of all cast and creed. And I would be reading the book from the library in the gazebo, after a tiring evening. I know that this needs lot of money. But what I am working for? ;)


Learn Pranic Healing / Telepathy and practice the same.

Nature is treasure of numerous puzzles. One of them which excite me is the relation between body, mind and nature. Telepathy, metaphysics, Pranic Healing are such domain which involve such an interaction. Some of these are known to help people cure diseases or give relief when in pain. Betty Shine who was a psychic has explained this in her books. For those of you who are interested in knowing more of mind-body-nature relationship, I would recommend to read her books namely Mind Magic and Mind Waves. I want to learn Pranic Healing / telepathy and help people around me.


Experience Zero gravity once in a lifetime

All these years I have being experiencing 9.8 m/s2 of acceleration on my body. Well, I am talking about gravity. Just want to know how it would be without gravity. [:)] I heard that NASA has facilities to create Zero gravity conditions. I would like to experience being weightless.


That’s the end of list for time being. I am sure that I will be having some more wishes tomorrow as life is all about aspiring for things and achieving them.

Wish you good health and God bless.

Ps: Would like to tag those who read my blog
(Source of images: Internet)

Post Guru Poornima

This year got a promotion in August, which will be affective from July [:)].

Ps: refer Guru Poornima 2008, Guru Poornima 2007

Scariest dreams

All of us dream when we sleep. Some remember them and some don’t. Some claim that they don’t dream but in reality they do dream but just don’t remember them (this is a fact.. [:)] ) Can you remember your scariest dreams? Most of them would be occurring during the exam time, like running out of ink when writing a paper or arriving late for exam. Even I had such dreams but they are not that scary when compared to the ones that I am going to write about now…

Dream 1:

I am a cop and I am chasing a gangster, (Don’t remember what made me think that he was a gangster.). He didn’t have weapons though. I don’t remember carrying a pistol with me. Two or three constables were chasing him along with me. What made the scene unusual was it was a night of New Moon Day and street lights were not burning. It was middle of night and streets were deserted. We didn’t carry any source of light, still we managed to see our way through. We were running in every possible lane in my locality. Suddenly he jumps the compound of my house, I do the same and follow him. The courtyard seemed to be wider than usual. He runs to the backyard and starts digging the ground. He dug few feet within just few seconds (Don’t know how, you see sometimes unusual things happen in dreams). I was watching him at a distance. And suddenly he grabs something from the ground holds it towards me. It was a skeleton…

Year of occurrence: 2001-02

Reaction: Woke up with fear (obvious, the section says ‘Scariest dreams’). Was relieved to know that it was just a dream. Could not sleep further.

Cause: I don’t know what made me dream this…

Dream 2:

I am fighting few men in a temple. I don’t really remember the scenario which led to this. It was again the night of New Moon Day. As it was middle of night, the temple was deserted. The wind is blowing hard and the bells are swaying to and fro, making loud sounds. This gave a eerie effect to the situation. (Does it remind you of the temple scene at night, usually shown in movies and television soaps?) As far as I remember there were some men who were helping me fight the goons (that’s what I think they were…) There war a huge Ganesha’s idol in temple which had a big Trishul in hand. I was fighting a goon and somehow we reached near the idol. The goon was searching for a weapon to kill and he finds the Trishul in the hand of the idol. He grabs it and throws it at me…

Year of occurrence: Few years ago in 1999 or so maybe. Don’t remember…

Reaction: Woke up with a start and was relieved to know that it was a dream. Was afraid rest of the night.

Cause: Watching too much of Hindi movies.

That's all for now. Catch you some other time. Till then take care and God bless...

Guru Poornima

Every year I go to Hubli to attend the Guru Poornima function. This year I could not make it. Didn’t have the luxury to avail 2 days of leave. My aunt gave me the address of venue in Bangalore, where Guru Poornima would be celebrated by Sanathan Sansthan. Took a half day’s leave on Friday and attended the ceremony. Felt good and relieved [:)] .

Ps: refer my earlier post Guru Poornima at Hubli.

This is for Technorati

This post is for Technorati's spiders...

Technorati Profile

Behavioral patterns

Recently was going through the software design patterns. Well, for people who are alien to the software, design patterns are the solutions to the most commonly occurring problems in design. They are tested and proven. You can say that they are analogous to the axioms, which are true, foolproof and don't need to be proved so. Now my intention is not give any gyaan on a technical topic. You can get a lot of info from various links that are available across the internet. There are a bunch of design solutions that are well proven. And if you are a software architect and come across a problem in a context you SHOULD be using one of them. (Sometimes it might not serve the purpose but still... people use for the heck of it). Well, what does such design solutions or patterns do? Of course, they will remove the burden of finding a foolproof solution to the most commonly occurring problem. But is that all? No. They limit your thinking, analyzing and solution finding capacity. Any ready made solution kills the urge and the curiosity to find better solutions. I can give you a better example; all of us have solved maths problems in our school days. When the teacher used to solve them on the board did any one of us thought that there could be a better solution? Worst, we used to note that and solve the them in the same way in the exam. Applying this to the design patterns... Do they help in solving the problems in software design or do they limit the inherent thinking capacity of humans? Recently had an opportunity to interact with an eminent Prof of IIITB (IIITB is a deemed institute in Bangalore and offers postgraduate courses.) According to him, patterns (could be architectural or software) came up when there was a need to offer solution to same type of problem. Why would you think for the different way when there was ready made, existing solution for the problem? This surely does not mean that people stop finding better patterns. Human mind is truly amazing, a ready made (and a so-called foolproof) solution before you and your mind just uses it blindly.

Another example to prove the unusual behavior of human mind. Imagine that you have an important meeting in the office and leave home early. When you are half way through, you discover that the municipal corporation has dug the road in between to carry out construction task. It is the only known road to you and you are in a hurry to reach the office. Luckily a friend who is accompanying you knows an alternate route and you follow his directions. While returning from office you follow the same alternate route. Applying the readymade solution funda, how many of us would pause and think for a better route? Only a few I guess. You take the same route for office for next few months. Then one fine day, municipal corporation is done with the construction work and opens the original route. Now which route do you use? I can bet that most of you would still have the urge to use the new alternate route in spite of knowing that the original route is open. The simple reason is that your mind which is accustomed to using the new route is now reluctant to revert back to the original route. Human mind prefers stability and resists change. Nature has bestowed precious human minds with unusual gifts. Most of them are awaiting to be discovered… More of this some other time…

Hmm... Quite a lengthy post. Will get back to you when my mind comes up with an urge to write. Till then, take care and God bless.

Free telescope by Microsoft

Microsoft has launched a new software that is expected to create waves in the world of astronomy and Internet, WorldWideTelescope. However this is more of a surprise to most of us because you can download this free. Yeah you read it right.. It is absolutely free. It has been launched on May 13 2008 (Got the date from a news web site). The link was forwarded to me by a friend. I was curious to explore and started accessing the link.

Here are some of my observations with the telescope software:

• The website UI looks sophisticated and matured with the night sky in the background.

• The installation procedure is pretty easy but takes long time. The installation file(setupwwt.exe) is of size 20.8 MB. Download it from the website and run it. The installation file will in turn start downloading necessary files (Microsoft .Net 2.0 and others).

• The application has a very good, mature UI. Something I liked (I want to learn how you do such a good UI design :) ). But it was slow, memory problem I guess. However the screen too many options and you have get used to it before gaining some comfort level in navigating across the screen.

• Lots of images, I read that the application has access to around 12 tera bytes of data.

I heard about a similar venture from Google few months ago. Sometime back Google had launched a software Google sky which provides easy way to access to images of astronomical bodies. It is available as a plug in to Google earth or as a link through which you can start using the facility directly without downloading.

However I found that,

• You can easily access the facility. No need of any installation procedure. :)

• The UI is pretty simple. No unnecessary options. It is fast. :)
  

The images are good in both the applications.

At the end of the day, I would prefer:

For UI and looks: WorldWideTelescope.

For the ease of use: Google Sky.

Microsoft might have launched WorldWideTelescope as a response to Google Sky. However it has dedicated this application to Jim Gray, the brain behind the entire application. Jim Gray is missing since Jan 28 after he went on a solo boating trip.

That’s all for now. Happy exploring !!!

Links :

WorldWideTelescope

Google sky

Jim Gray

Tagged...

I am unofficially tagged by sady... so here it goes..

1. LAST MOVIE YOU SAW IN A THEATER

Aramane, a kannada movie. You could rate it as an average..

2. WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING?

Windmills of the Gods by Sidney Sheldon


3. FAVORITE BOARD GAME?

none.

4. FAVORITE MAGAZINE?

Reader's Digest, India Today


5. FAVORITE SMELLS?

Smell of wet soil, petrol, nail enamel

6. FAVORITE SOUND?

Rain droplets falling on leaves and trees. You can experience this in places where the vegetation is dense.

7. WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?

Betrayals and breaching of trust.

8. WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE?

Morning already? wanna sleep for some more time :)


9. FAVORITE FAST FOOD PLACE?

Fast food? hmmm... nothing specific. Any place where they serve good fast food.

10. FUTURE CHILD'S NAME?

haha.. not yet decided. But i like the names, Parikshith, Kshitij, Menita, Vaidehi.

11. FINISH THIS STATEMENT. "IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY I'D...?

First pay income tax, then buy few good modern gadgets and gifts for near and dear ones. Would invest rest of the amount in the fields which would provide good returns.

12. DO YOU DRIVE FAST?

No.


13. DO YOU SLEEP WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL?

No.

14. STORMS-COOL OR SCARY?

Cool :)

15. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?

Yet to buy one.

16. FAVORITE DRINK?

Chilled mint and lemon juice, rose milk shake, strawberry milk shake.

17. FINISH THIS STATEMENT, "IF I HAD THE TIME I WOULD .....

Sleep and read a lot.

18. DO YOU EAT THE STEMS ON BROCCOLI?

Broccoli

19. IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR, WHAT WOULD BE YOUR CHOICE?

Burgandy.

20. NAME ALL THE DIFFERENT CITIES/TOWNS YOU HAVE LIVED IN.

Bangalore, Kinnigoli, Mulki, Mangalore, Hubli and Mysore.

21. FAVORITE SPORTS TO WATCH?

Gymnastics.

22. ONE NICE THING ABOUT THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU.

Always speaks her mind :) .

23. WHAT'S UNDER YOUR BED?

Shoes, sandals and two buckets.

24. WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE BORN AS YOURSELF AGAIN?

Yup.

25. MORNING PERSON, OR NIGHT OWL?

For 5 days a week, I am a morning person. For the remaining 2 days, I am a night owl.

26. OVER EASY, OR SUNNY SIDE UP?

Sunny side up.


27. FAVORITE PLACE TO RELAX?

Bed.

28. FAVORITE PIE?

hmmm.. none.


29. FAVORITE ICE CREAM FLAVOR?

Black current.

30. OF ALL THE PEOPLE YOU TAGGED THIS TO, WHO'S MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND FIRST?

hmmm.... Sady is always the first to respond. But as she was the one who tagged me I need to wait and watch who among others will respond first.

New Look...

I just changed the look and feel of my blog :) .Looks great right? The page looks elegant and feminine now. One of my team mate forwarded the link to Pratima Jayaram's blog. The blogger uses a template powered by Final Sense. Navigating to the website, I found out that it is dedicated to provide variety of services. One of them is the free blogger templates. Clear steps are mentioned for using the template in blog. However the steps given are for blogs supported by Blogger.com. I don't know if they support LiveJournal or Wordpress. You can check it out. There are various categories in the templates like 3-Column, Animal, Architecture etc. I browsed through some of them and found this one to be good. This one is from the 'Women' category.

Note: Better save your current template before you migrate. The custom titles which you might have added will not be migrated to the new template. I underwent this and found that the blog roll list which was maintained is lost with the previous template. I have to add it once again :(.

That's one part of the change. Apart from this I have changed the url of the blog too.
The new blog url is http://mortalzlife.blogspot.com/. The previous url http://poornimaprabhu.blogspot.com is no longer valid.
The reason for this change?. Well, I really don't know. Just felt like changing and going underground for next couple of days. Moreover anonymity brings certain privileges you see :).

The blog renovation does not end here. I would like to plugin some more features site hit counter, feeds, messenger, shout box etc. Let me see how it goes. Thats all for now.
Btw.. I would like to thank Suresh, my team mate who forwarded the link to Pratima's blog and my supervisors for not assigning me any task for day. Without them I would not have been able to renovate my blog. ;) See you soon. Till then, take care.