Mona Lisa Smile
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Julia Robert’s laughter and Mona Lisa’s smile =)
Saw the movie this morning, liked it. Loved Roberts (as usual) but surprisingly liked the straitlaced Kirsten Dunst; the girl has a future.
Tags: music
Moving a finger
Monday, April 26, 2004
Bad things are happening to me and I have a feeling know that most of it is my fault. I also know what I should do about it, but I can’t seem to move a finger. So in case you’re wondering about the sudden dearth of posts, this is the reason.
Some of the things I’m working on right now:
- The Microsoft Visual C Toolkit and the cl (command-line) compiler, I’m currently toying with integrating this with GNU make; this is good stuff, for the first time you can have a completely free yet non-GNU solution for your compilation needs. Package management can be done by .vbs scripts, or better, small rebol ones. I’ll keep you posted.
- The screenplay I mentioned, it’s almost complete, but will need more work before it goes up.
- My column at LOBA, which seems to have shuttled urls now.
Tags: chaff • development
Failings of this website
Sunday, April 18, 2004
They are many things about this site I’m not happy with:
- The design is almost patently inacessible, though I’ve tried my best.
- My writing here is definitely second-grade. In fact, my writing everywhere is. I don’t spent enough time to clean up after me. That will be rectified very soon. Less is definitely more.
- The Kewl links in the sidebar don’t have an archive. Some people have complained that they whir by too fast sometimes.
- When you click the comments link you get a dirty popup comments page. Even I go “Yucky!” when I try to post here. Besides, popups aren’t cool. This, like the problem above is on the todo list.
- Titles are unnecessary. That would result in permalinks breaking which is the reason I haven’t changed it… yet.
Tags: vysnu.com
Screenplay
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Inspired by the Big Green Drama, I am writing a screenplay of my own. I’ve found that this medium is particularly suited to the way I write. The finished product may grace these pages soon.
People who want a peek should email me.
Tags: chaff
Column at LOBA
Sunday, April 18, 2004
I’ve begun writing a column for the Old Boys Association of my school. A truckload of thanks should go out to Ashok for inviting me to write for the website.
In Black and White anyone?
Tags: me outside
Apple has long arms
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Sarovar has been served a legal notice from Apple to take Playfair down.
I wonder when the MPAA and RIAA will blast down in Thiruvananthapuram.
Tags: chaff
Horoscope
Thursday, April 15, 2004
I have in my hand a horoscope by a certain Mr. Bejan Daruwalla. Translated from hindi, his name means “Lifeless alcohol vendor”. Very inspiring.
Tags: chaff
Off to Malakkara
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
I’m off to Malakkara for Vishu, it’s going to be a pretty short visit this time round, will come back by Thursday.
Tags: chaff
Usable Free Software
Monday, April 12, 2004
And now, some Linux bashing: these are two insightful articles that say everything I have to say about usability in Linux: One and Two. That’s not a copout btw, I’ll say my part some time in the future.
Tags: chaff
wsortalg
Monday, April 12, 2004
As you guys might have noticed, my interests these days stray to the coding front, I’ve released a small app over at Sarovar’s sig9works to complement my dll article: wsortalg. Get it from the project page.
Tags: development
DLL Creation with Mingw
Friday, April 9, 2004
I’ve posted a new spotlight to Sig9: DLL Creation in MingW.
See also: Sig9 Spotlights.
Tags: development • me outside
Drunkard’s Walk
Monday, April 5, 2004
As a rule, I don’t like fanfic. If the fanfic happens to be anime derived (as most fanfics on the net are) I avoid it. Drunkard’s Walk is an exception to that rule. It has excellently crafted characters, a wry sense of humor, cute tall Japansese girls (who for once appear to be real people rather than manga material) and good quotes at the beginning of every chapter. I liked Douglas Sangnoir. In fact, I’ll recommend this series to anybody who asks. Sadly, only Part II is available on the net right now 
March; Golden rules
Monday, April 5, 2004
If you care to look at the sidebar, you’ll find that I’ve found time to bother you with only 10 posts last month. Troubled times are the reason. A detailed account of the chaos in my life would bore you and would put me back into The Bell Jar, so I won’t stray in that direction. Besides, the purpose of this blog is not to unburden myself, it’s to share my infinite =) wisdom with you. So pull up a chair Andrew, and listen to my dregs of wheat.
Golden rules. You see them around you every day, and you follow it unthinkingly because it is the product of collective wisdom. I’ll extinguish my wrath on a particularly stupid one: “Two people, two children.”
First off, why is it absurd? You would think that if everyone were to follow this rule, then the problems of overpopulation (which is particularly drastic in my country) would simply go away. I don’t have any problem with the basic premise, what I do have a problem with is that this kind of a message is sent to people in the form of compulsion rather than education. If this were rephrased to something like “Don’t have more children than you can afford to bring up” I would be very happy. Of course, the collolary states that “Do have more children if you can afford it”, and it’s a sentiment that I have no opposition towards. Rich people can definitely have more children. If they can bring up their children well, how are they harming others?
They are harming others, you say. Everybody has a social responsibilty, you say. The rich kids are taking away a chance in life that could’ve gone to a poor kid. There are some strong flaws in this stream of logic:
- Poor kids are more worthy: So the poor kids are more deserving of a chance? Says who? Are rich kids somehow less worthy than poor ones?
- Social responsibility: If by creating more rich kids, we are creating less poor ones, isn’t the world a better place that way? Aren’t we fulfilling our social responsibility then?
- The rich can become successful easier: Success doesn’t depend on how rich or poor you are. Economics is driven by four factors: Land, Labour, Capital and Entrepreneurship. If you don’t have the skill to utilize your resources, whatever they are, it doesn’t matter how rich or poor you are. Success, is thus independent of capital. It depends only on abililty.
Objectivism gone bad?
Monday, April 5, 2004
What happens when progenitors of heroes go bad? Ayn Rand and Objectivism have fascinated me for some time. Now, this article, which I found via Criticisms of Objectivism has rejuvinated my interest. Look for my thoughts on Objectivism soon.
Tags: chaff