Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Snaps from all over...
Check out this link to see my snaps from Virginia, Kentucky and Madison too.
Especially check the ones in Trip to Virginia called "Am I Driving Drunk" and "Looks like Howrah Bridge"
Tried a little impressionist painting while I was in the car you might say?!;-)
My Snaps at Webshots - Check New
Check out this link to see my snaps from Virginia, Kentucky and Madison too.
Especially check the ones in Trip to Virginia called "Am I Driving Drunk" and "Looks like Howrah Bridge"
Tried a little impressionist painting while I was in the car you might say?!;-)
My Snaps at Webshots - Check New
Saket, 8:29 PM
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Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Geeky me!
If you weren't convinced that I was a complete geek before, this article should remove any doubts that you might have had in your mind. Its a sudden realisation that has dawned upon me that you see an application of things youve learnt in just about everything you do in a day.
For instance very mundane things one might do... such as programming 100 microprocessor boards. Say I get them in a box and I have to put them back in the same box and the desktop PC takes some time to program those boards. Now a smart way to do it would be to bring a new board to the table while one is being programmed so that one saves the time that might be consumed for fetching the boards. This of course is pipelining (and I think instruction prefetch as well). One way to get those boards would be to first take say 20 and place them on your table, program and then place them on another side of your table when youre done. Now the other thing you can do is to directly lift the board from the box and put them directly into the box again. If you do that it basically is like reducing instructions for moving data and directly getting data from memory to accumulator and putting it back to memory with no registers involved in between. That is some sort of a compiler optimization, where one is trying to reduce the number of redundant instructions.
Once youre done you write "VERIFIED" on the box. Then again you would be saying that you checked the truth of as the prefix VERI means correctness, truth and so on. Okay call my connections stupid but remember I am a geek and I love being one.
If you weren't convinced that I was a complete geek before, this article should remove any doubts that you might have had in your mind. Its a sudden realisation that has dawned upon me that you see an application of things youve learnt in just about everything you do in a day.
For instance very mundane things one might do... such as programming 100 microprocessor boards. Say I get them in a box and I have to put them back in the same box and the desktop PC takes some time to program those boards. Now a smart way to do it would be to bring a new board to the table while one is being programmed so that one saves the time that might be consumed for fetching the boards. This of course is pipelining (and I think instruction prefetch as well). One way to get those boards would be to first take say 20 and place them on your table, program and then place them on another side of your table when youre done. Now the other thing you can do is to directly lift the board from the box and put them directly into the box again. If you do that it basically is like reducing instructions for moving data and directly getting data from memory to accumulator and putting it back to memory with no registers involved in between. That is some sort of a compiler optimization, where one is trying to reduce the number of redundant instructions.
Once youre done you write "VERIFIED" on the box. Then again you would be saying that you checked the truth of as the prefix VERI means correctness, truth and so on. Okay call my connections stupid but remember I am a geek and I love being one.
Saket, 5:40 AM
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Thursday, September 11, 2003
No Americans Need Apply
I dont know whether to call this funny or sad or what... it just depends on who you are. But in any case check out this article if you want to hear a very trite story about jobs in the US and then a very strange twist in the story of how the author, an American applied for a job in India and the following response...
Check this out...
I dont know whether to call this funny or sad or what... it just depends on who you are. But in any case check out this article if you want to hear a very trite story about jobs in the US and then a very strange twist in the story of how the author, an American applied for a job in India and the following response...
Check this out...
Saket, 10:51 AM
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Sleep talk... sleep walk
The weirdest thing... My roomie tells me that I received a phone call at 1130 last nite and I actually picked it up and said "Hello!! Hello!!". Okay why am I saying this very ordinary incident is bizzarre?!!
I slept at 1030 last nite and I am certain I didnt pick up the phone or anything. It was lying right next to my bed I agree but I have no recollection of it. Initially I thought my friend was fooling me, but then I checked the received phone calls and I saw that phone call at the correct timing and a phone from someone who my roomie doesnt like to talk to. The last possibility is that Nishant actually picked up the phone and said "Hello Hello" himself but said that I did it to cover up the fact, so that it matches the story of the person who called. I dont know... all in all it sounds strange.
The weirdest thing... My roomie tells me that I received a phone call at 1130 last nite and I actually picked it up and said "Hello!! Hello!!". Okay why am I saying this very ordinary incident is bizzarre?!!
I slept at 1030 last nite and I am certain I didnt pick up the phone or anything. It was lying right next to my bed I agree but I have no recollection of it. Initially I thought my friend was fooling me, but then I checked the received phone calls and I saw that phone call at the correct timing and a phone from someone who my roomie doesnt like to talk to. The last possibility is that Nishant actually picked up the phone and said "Hello Hello" himself but said that I did it to cover up the fact, so that it matches the story of the person who called. I dont know... all in all it sounds strange.
Saket, 7:00 AM
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Monday, September 08, 2003
Virginia ahoy!!
If you were driving down I-64 this weekend, you might have passed an old Toyota whose passengers included none other than yours truly. This was my second road trip here and we drove down to Blacksburg, VA which is about 400 miles away from Louisville and two states away. It was a long drive I admit but the conveniences of driving in the US are just too many. Firstly the interstates are really fast... 70-75 miles per hour if your just on the speed limit and even faster if you decide to try your luck with the hand of the law.:-) Nishant, my roommate and my driver for the journey, is one of 'em daring ones, so we were speeding a little and making good time. Took us 6 hours to get to Virginia Tech, where a friend of Nishant's called Gagan stays.
After youve been in places like Madison and Louisville, VT seems like one of those Lego sets... it mustnt have been more than a mile wide. But the campus is pretty nevertheless and the buildings are all made in the old architectural styles. It is my hypothesis that people on the East Coast generally seem to be more prosperous than people in the Midwest... I dont know if the logic really holds but I think that since the East Coast colonies were settled in the earliest, those people have spend a lot more time in the US farming with lots of land (and with lots of bonded labourers... though I know slavery was more prevelant down South).
The other observation one can easily make is that people are obsessed with Football. Not our good ol' soccer but the American variety. My hosts had a TV at home and we were talking football all the time. Thankfully, I started understanding the game a whole lot better just last week, so I didnt feel too out of place. A Hokie game was on.. thats the VT Hokies, ranked 9 in the country. But everyone was generally glued to the television watching a Michigan game in the morning and then a Miami vs Florida game around midnite. I just wondered why they dont telecast Wisconsin Badgers games nationally just like they do with Michigan. May be we're just not good enough. Then made my first visit to Buffalo Wild Wings.. and maaan are they good!!! Its like spicy Tandoori chicken.. if you ask me its even better. The spicier chicken was really really WILD, just the kinda food I wanted!! I've never been much of a drinker, so I couldnt join in the revelry that much, but thats just me... played pool and was really good at it for a first timer. I liked the game and hope to play much more of it. So all in all I discovered many more things I like... good trip.
If you were driving down I-64 this weekend, you might have passed an old Toyota whose passengers included none other than yours truly. This was my second road trip here and we drove down to Blacksburg, VA which is about 400 miles away from Louisville and two states away. It was a long drive I admit but the conveniences of driving in the US are just too many. Firstly the interstates are really fast... 70-75 miles per hour if your just on the speed limit and even faster if you decide to try your luck with the hand of the law.:-) Nishant, my roommate and my driver for the journey, is one of 'em daring ones, so we were speeding a little and making good time. Took us 6 hours to get to Virginia Tech, where a friend of Nishant's called Gagan stays.
After youve been in places like Madison and Louisville, VT seems like one of those Lego sets... it mustnt have been more than a mile wide. But the campus is pretty nevertheless and the buildings are all made in the old architectural styles. It is my hypothesis that people on the East Coast generally seem to be more prosperous than people in the Midwest... I dont know if the logic really holds but I think that since the East Coast colonies were settled in the earliest, those people have spend a lot more time in the US farming with lots of land (and with lots of bonded labourers... though I know slavery was more prevelant down South).
The other observation one can easily make is that people are obsessed with Football. Not our good ol' soccer but the American variety. My hosts had a TV at home and we were talking football all the time. Thankfully, I started understanding the game a whole lot better just last week, so I didnt feel too out of place. A Hokie game was on.. thats the VT Hokies, ranked 9 in the country. But everyone was generally glued to the television watching a Michigan game in the morning and then a Miami vs Florida game around midnite. I just wondered why they dont telecast Wisconsin Badgers games nationally just like they do with Michigan. May be we're just not good enough. Then made my first visit to Buffalo Wild Wings.. and maaan are they good!!! Its like spicy Tandoori chicken.. if you ask me its even better. The spicier chicken was really really WILD, just the kinda food I wanted!! I've never been much of a drinker, so I couldnt join in the revelry that much, but thats just me... played pool and was really good at it for a first timer. I liked the game and hope to play much more of it. So all in all I discovered many more things I like... good trip.
Saket, 10:08 AM
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Friday, September 05, 2003
My cool bud...
This one is dedicated to my latest nicest friend called Ali. Ali is also a co-op here in GE with me and is a sophomore from Purdue. But currently he is the person I feel most comfortable with in Louisville. Somehow I am not much of an extrovert, and usually you have to prick me to become really communicative... but with some other quiet and nice people, I show my true colors. Ali is one of them... His father is Iranian and mum American, which makes him more American than the other guy since being American is all about having roots in as many continents as possible. We carpool and then get talking on the way... Thank God for friends like him.
This one is dedicated to my latest nicest friend called Ali. Ali is also a co-op here in GE with me and is a sophomore from Purdue. But currently he is the person I feel most comfortable with in Louisville. Somehow I am not much of an extrovert, and usually you have to prick me to become really communicative... but with some other quiet and nice people, I show my true colors. Ali is one of them... His father is Iranian and mum American, which makes him more American than the other guy since being American is all about having roots in as many continents as possible. We carpool and then get talking on the way... Thank God for friends like him.
Saket, 12:33 PM
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Thursday, September 04, 2003
On developing an accent..
This is a topic I have to address. I dont know why it is such a bad thing to try to put on an accent but there are many incidents related to putting on an accent and I am open to some ideas on what is the right way of looking at it. I put on an accent once in class when many of my friends were around and GOD you should have seen how much they ridiculed me. (They were guilty of the same crime, if it is a crime).
Primarily there is a communication issue... Americans just dont seem to understand me, if I dont roll my "R"s or make my "HOT" into a "HAWT". You get the picture!.. I hate to be the one who has to repeat my sentences all the time, but its a necessary evil.
The other aspect is one of fitting in. I mean people tell you "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"... I just wanna appear more Roman..(or was it American), of course my brown skin is a dead give away, so there is only that much you can do. But may be it is wrong to want to appear Roman when the truth is you're not. I know people who go to a ridiculous extent to appear more American, like dressing like them and wearing a French beard and stretching their Tamil accents to the hilt and making a joke out of themselves. Basically faking it is kinda eclectic in nature and you get some words with a Southern Accent and some with a midwest one and some with Indian and the whole ensemble is more
incomprehensible than their original accents.
The other thing is ABCD's... American Born Confused Desis. I dont know if they have a problem with their Indianness but most ABCD's I have seen, hate to appear Indian, claim to not eat Indian food, accentize more than Americans do themselves. (Sometimes to a very strange effect...) I dont have too many ABCD friends (none as a matter of fact) but I dont know if anyone of us has a right to the claim of being righteous. Okay so no conclusions on this one... if anything this might tell you how confused I am about this. Basically, until I came here it never was much of a hassle to sound well-educated, cos it is a rare thing to have an excellent Indian accent (Thank you Loyola!!) and be articulate in Pune. (Most Maharashtrians I know have this hint of Marathi in their English, which isn't something I like..). But here its a different ball-game if you dont want people to impose their generalizations about Indians on you.
This is a topic I have to address. I dont know why it is such a bad thing to try to put on an accent but there are many incidents related to putting on an accent and I am open to some ideas on what is the right way of looking at it. I put on an accent once in class when many of my friends were around and GOD you should have seen how much they ridiculed me. (They were guilty of the same crime, if it is a crime).
Primarily there is a communication issue... Americans just dont seem to understand me, if I dont roll my "R"s or make my "HOT" into a "HAWT". You get the picture!.. I hate to be the one who has to repeat my sentences all the time, but its a necessary evil.
The other aspect is one of fitting in. I mean people tell you "When in Rome, do as the Romans do"... I just wanna appear more Roman..(or was it American), of course my brown skin is a dead give away, so there is only that much you can do. But may be it is wrong to want to appear Roman when the truth is you're not. I know people who go to a ridiculous extent to appear more American, like dressing like them and wearing a French beard and stretching their Tamil accents to the hilt and making a joke out of themselves. Basically faking it is kinda eclectic in nature and you get some words with a Southern Accent and some with a midwest one and some with Indian and the whole ensemble is more
incomprehensible than their original accents.
The other thing is ABCD's... American Born Confused Desis. I dont know if they have a problem with their Indianness but most ABCD's I have seen, hate to appear Indian, claim to not eat Indian food, accentize more than Americans do themselves. (Sometimes to a very strange effect...) I dont have too many ABCD friends (none as a matter of fact) but I dont know if anyone of us has a right to the claim of being righteous. Okay so no conclusions on this one... if anything this might tell you how confused I am about this. Basically, until I came here it never was much of a hassle to sound well-educated, cos it is a rare thing to have an excellent Indian accent (Thank you Loyola!!) and be articulate in Pune. (Most Maharashtrians I know have this hint of Marathi in their English, which isn't something I like..). But here its a different ball-game if you dont want people to impose their generalizations about Indians on you.
Saket, 10:06 AM
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