Routes to get out of Cochin City - 3

Lastly and finally. If you live anywhere beyond Aluva Town and want to avoid the Notional Highways and move at a decent pace without tension and without much traffic, this is probably the best way forward.

It helps save a lot of petrol because there is no slow moving traffic jam to get through. There are 2 railway crossings where you'll (at worst) switch off the car for 5 minutes.


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Routes to get out of Cochin City - 2

A very effective way to get from Edappally/Elamakkara to Menaka and back avoiding the bottleneck of the North Overbridge. Any suggestions or better ideas?


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Routes to get out of Cochin city

Here's a nice way to get from Menaka to Kaloor avoiding most of the traffic. This is most effective when in a small to medium sized car - too big to weave through the jam but small enough to move fast through the lanes.


View Larger Map

Indians - Privately Smart, Publicly Dumb

We Indians are a queer species. Whats most intriguing about us is that we continue to survive, and in many cases thrive not in spite of the way we are.

I recently drove 500km from Cochin to Trivandrum and back in my puny Maruti 800 and I learnt something interesting which can be best put in the words of V.Ragunathan -"Indians are Privately Smart but Publicly Dumb".

Thee is no better place than the open road to observe this phenomenon.

The first thing you notice is the road itself. While the road was being built, the engineer (who has complete responsibility for the project) is rewarded with more funds in case of a delay. This would be fine if he is to be held responsible for any faults in construction but that is not the case.

So the engineer (literally) makes sure the road takes 20 years to build and will break up as soon as it rains because it ensures he can pocket the most money. He is privately very intelligent. But he fails to look at the bigger picture and as a result the country & its people look like fools to an outsider.

The next thing you'd see while driving down the National Highway (or Notional Highway) is the the number of unplanned cuttings & entry/exit points. Take an example : After a 4 lane road is built, I buy land on its fringe and build a petrol pump. Being on one side of the highway my customers are cut by half since cars on the other side of the divider can't turn into my pump.

So, being Indian, what do I do? I take a bunch of goons, and overnight, I break the divider in a convenient place so that I can do more business. I am now making more profit than my competitor down the road. But the fact that there is no yield to turn your car and the fact that the cutting might be in the middle of a blind turn - leading to countless accidents is none of my concern. Noticing his fellow petrol pump owner raking in the bucks, the competitor down the road copies me and we have 2 unscientific breaks in the divider. Privately both me and my fellow pump-owner are intelligent but publicly Indians, as a people, over the long term - suffer.

At a red light we quickly realize that the policeman is looking the other way and zoom through.

Indians spend far too much brain-power on trying to outsmart the law and gain personal gain when standing together and obeying it has far greater benefit. The people are the only ones to blame since we live in a democracy.

The reason for this besides our inherent disobedient nature is the lack of rules and controls. The rap on your knuckles when you do something wrong is too light. The people are happy because they can be privately intelligent, but they don't realize what they are doing...

Of Old men & Wisdom

Every man has a story. The only thing you can take with you to your grave is your story. Every story is made up of small instances, each with great value - like the Mahabharatha. Most of us forget many characters and rich plots because we never cared to write them down, preserve them.

I guess the fact that all four of my grandparents were either well into senility (or well beyond) by the time I could understand them has meant I have been deprived of old people and their wisdom.

A good grandfather, if there is such an expression, is someone who can remember the stories but also knows when to say them.

Movie Review - Home (2009)

Most movies which preach conservation take a "Oh look at the poor panda, its dying :(" attitude to try and convince you to do the right thing. They use the oft mis-used and mis-represented need of people to save the planet (if not for themselves) for their kids. What they fail to understand is that most of the people watching the shows aren't 40 but 14.

Home takes a different view on things. This movie manages to put in front of you not our mistakes but how we made them. While you are busy soaking up the exquisitely filmed scenes of this movie, you are left with a profound sense of guilt and a feeling of "What have we done.... ".

This movie is a visual treat, quite like the Planet Earth series, and has a bounty of aerial shots of some never seen before places & phenomenon. What really stands out is that they don't show only the good or the bad, they tell you a story. A story of how man reached where he is today and how man is upsetting the earth's fragile climate.

8.5/10 By the end, the overall impression I felt was how stupid man is. The Earth, always bounces back from any devastation - only the time it takes is longer than man has. So we aren't destroying the Earth, but only our own existence.

Home on imdb

Home on mininova

Movie Review - Paranormal Activity (2007)

To think this movie cost only $15,000 to make! In its first weekend of open release it has grossed $22million. There is a very good reason why it has made movies like Saw VI (which had the worst release in Saw history) look distinctly fake and passe.

After the first half of the movie, I reduced the volume almost to zero to somehow not get scared, but that is when I realized the real horror of the movie. It is the story and the quietness of the movie which scares you. The reality of it all, and the genuineness of the performances leaves you wondering what might happen. Unlike most supposedly "scary" movies which try to make you shake with fake sound effects and grotesque imagery, this movie plays with your mind.

I am happy I watched this movie on my laptop and not at a theater. I am also very happy I watched it in the afternoon and not at night.

Well, if you haven't already heard about it, the movie basically tells the tale of a couple who decide to use a camera to capture the ghostly/demonic/paranormal experiences they have been having at their home.

8.5/10 Simple and straightforward. Scary as HELL!

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1179904/

http://www.mininova.org/tor/3067454

Movie Review - Brick (2005)

A great mystery story being played out in a high school setup. There is a good deal of drugs, guns and murder against the backdrop of a suburban school.

The story is well laid out, with a lonely possessive boy (who packs quite a good punch) investigating the death of his ex-girlfriend at the hands of the drug-peddling baddies in the neighborhood.

The script is just awesome and the dialogues are packed with the fast paced wit of old detective stories (which I haven't had the privilege of watching).

Brendon (Joseph Gordon Levitt) is a lonely and possessive late teenage (possibly troubled) boy who breaks up with his girl, Emily (Emilie De Ravin). 3 months on, he gets a distress call from her and decides to check on her only to find her in a sewer. What follows is a classic Film-Noir detective story which is stunning in its still-ness. So much is said in what is unsaid in the movie.

There is quite a bit of violence and a great twist at the end.

I have always wanted to watch a genuine, serious movie based on high school life. This is pretty close to what I wanted, though there is not one shot inside a class. Maybe thats also real.

7.5/10 Watch it. Its a serious movie, so make sure you're in the mood.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0393109/

http://www.mininova.org/tor/1765076

Rammstein - Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da

Listening to music which you don't understand a word of is quite liberating. Rammstein would be my favorite foreign language band and Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da is (on first impression) their best album to date.

They have never been renowned for their deep and thoughtful lyrics and this is, I believe, no different ( If any German folks are out their, correct me if I'm wrong).

Their music is easy to listen to and the rhythms are what sticks in your head. Lyrics have to be remembered, Rhythms stay with you forever. Its hard, smooth and fast ,and before I forget to mention, controversial.

Their single "Pussy" which was released early last month was debated endlessly thanks to the heavy use of explicit content. Personally I like their open flaunting of stupid American "Family Values". I totally loved this album. 8/10!

Keep a Copy of the Pirate Bay

As many of us downloaders were agonizing at the prospect of the impending change of the Pirate-Bay tracker and the resulting loss of all the millions of torrents on it, someone was kind enough (or crazy enough) to crawl the site and make a database of all the torrents and upload it on TPB.

I heard about it from TorrentFreak but the news about this going to happen was around for a while. All (or as many as possible) of TPB’s torrents were being moved onto the OpenBitTorrent.

The torrent itself is probably too big for me to download on my 30kB/sec download speed. 21.3GB would be big for any speed! It would take me around 2 weeks of downloading to be able to get the whole database. I wish the uploader would have split it up so that I could have kept a copy of atleast some of the torrents :P

All the same I totally appreciate the efforts. Cheers to the Anonymous uploader. And this is the LINK TO THE TORRENT !

Humbug – Arctic Monkeys

OK! This is an early birds preview of the new album by Arctic Monkeys. My tastes aren’t exactly conventional and I don’t want to speculate on whether this will go on to break any records.

So without making any sweeping judgments for you, my opinion is that the droney voice of Alex Turner sounds just as good as before. Being a sort-of fan of these guys, Yes its worth downloading.

The tracks that stand out – for me – would be Propeller and Dangerous Animals. Propeller is seriously the best track by far. I don’t understand how there can be such a difference in the quality of tracks in one album, though.

Ratings – Mine of course : 6.5/10

[edit]

Before the edit, I had a link to the torrent I downloaded it from. Within 20min of posting this I received a comment (below) from WEB SHERIFF asking me to take my link to the torrent I downloaded it from, off the site.

Being an intelligent person I have now removed the link. You can be intelligent too and download the songs online. Torrent no. 2809220 on mininova.org.

Cheers.

[/edit]

Relapse (2009)

Its been a while since I posted anything and my net connection being a pain and I have been trying to get around my books for a change. Actually getting myself to write this thing is thanks to the LiveWriter thing which is pretty neat.

Eminem’s new album was released a couple of months back.

There was a time when I used to love the Eminem songs where he used to go around insulting every other artiste I had heard of. Starting with his first big-fat-hit the Slim Shady LP. I remember hearing it blaring out of every Omani college student’s car at one point of time.

OK. He has been missing from the industry for 4 years and not many industry-folk liked the fact that one of their most marketable artistes were going on holiday. All the same, he (like all other rich people in showbiz) had drug issues. This album is something of a post-rehab achievement if you will.

The theme of a rap album is always based on the lyrics and topics. This album is based on madness and insanity. There is a fair bit of violence – but every Eminem album had that. What is missing? Humour.

I guess rap music has the ability to bring out the mindset of a person better than any other type of music. In Relapse its obvious that lousiness was the undertone. There are countless rhymes made with Vicidin (a pain-killer) and a host of other drugs. There is also an overdose of high-level chemistry and biology as well which I couldn’t really connect to, or laugh at.

The best track, IMO, is Stay Wide Awake. Though the themes are pretty much the same recurring ones, the vocalization is more effective. Yeah, that is whats actually missing. Most songs fall flat in a sense. He hasn’t put in the energy he did in older albums. Where is the screaming? Where is the emotion?

Web Development

I think I should have titled this as development of the Web, but what the hell… This sounds more familiar.

I was wondering how awesome it is that I can sit here on my bed, in the comfort of my room and talk to any person anywhere in the world. Yeah that is more to do with the telephone, I know. This concept of universal coverage was taken a step further by the net.

Not only can I call anyone anywhere but anyone anywhere can see what I have put online by clicking a button. I think the fact that the net was developed in the US has a lot to do with why it has become so user-friendly.

Had it been in Europe, there wouldn’t be a universal English language which could appeal to such a large number of people.

I know it was a gradual thing, but the idea of generating your own content and putting it online for all to see must have been such a novel idea when it was first mentioned. I have a cool video that we took and I can upload it. This is really revolutionary and that all inclusive message is what makes the internet the hot-bed for communism, in my humble opinion.

This is really what Karl Marx probably thought perfect communism would be like. Where the citizens have control over everything and the big monopolies don’t really have a say in how the people use the net.

Americans have contradicted themselves in the way the net is used. On the one hand, there is the absolutely capitalist ideals of purchasing things madly which has fuelled the e-conomy. On the other there is the profusion of free technology, information and entertainment content – legal and otherwise, that is available online.

i wonder what the next big development will be…. Wonder if it will be Ubiquitous Computing – thats when things come online and you can check whats in the fridge when you are at the mall. Of course, the technology is already there, but the prohibitively huge price-tag is an obvious turn off. For it to be a success it has to be communist <surprisingly>

Me, Music and Michael

It took a while for me to understand the significance this guy has had on my life. When I first heard the news, my first reaction, I will painfully admit, was “He had it coming… “. But then in one of my day-dreams I thought back to my kiddo days.

For all the Mettallica, Linkin’ Park and Limp Bizkit songs I have heard, I know that they were all just passing phases. Their songs sound fake at best and lacked any real quality. They were somehow always second best.

Its hard to quantify what exactly the parameters are for making the list of the 2 most influential music-makers in my life. I can’t number them 1,2. They made songs which I remember and sing along with in my sleep.

They were there with me in my darkest hours of teenage life. Both literally and figuratively because I used to listen to songs when I went to bed everyday. I had a small tape-recorder which I would plug in by my bedside and would listen to the songs till I drifted off.

The first name I got as soon as I thought back. Bryan Adams. He was the first musician who I really followed. I had all his songs at one point – every one of them. He was a genius – though he was a bit old. I just generally like his voice and his songs.

Thought as I might, I couldn’t get another name. Mettalica was too commercialized and I couldn’t relate to their latest songs. Linkin’ Park was all screaming and manufactured angst. Eminem was more of the same. Limp Bizkit have made just 1 likeable album and don’t look like they are going to bring out another Choclate Starfish. Which brought me back to ol’ Michael.

I have never bought Michael Jackson songs ever. Back in the days when music was on tape and not too expensive, it was pretty weird. I loved every single one of his songs on both Bad and Dangerous. Both albums were with cousins of mine and I had copies. I danced to his songs and I sang along with them. Black or White, Smooth Criminal, Beat It, They don’t really care about us, Dirty Diana, Man in the Mirror … I guess its just that I never had to fast forward any song from his 2 albums.

Maybe if I were a bit older I might say the same about Off the Wall and Thriller. The beat of They don’t really care about us still rings fresh in my mind and as childish as it was this was the song that ran through my head during the days of anti-establishment (read school) thoughts…

Well, I think the time was right for his death whatever people may say. From a music industry PoV, MJ saved their ass once with Thriller when the sales were drooping. Now with file-sharing ending the industry as we know it I wonder who is going to save the day…

Laptop Day 3 – Why I am sad on Windows

I installed almost all the things I need on the system. Windows is not bad and feels fine. I installed all the free solutions to all my entertainment needs. I installed VLC Player for my videos. I still have to install Real Player though. I wonder why VLC can’t play .rmvb…

Then there is the one thing which I missed on my years on Linux – uTorrent! It is by a long long way the best torrent client to date. Its sad that they haven’t released a Linux version yet even though they are open source…

Songbird – a Mozilla based music player had taken my fancy on Linux and the Windows version of it is lighter and easier.

And Mozilla! How I hate IE! I actually gave IE a chance but grew very frustrated by the default settings. Maybe I should give Chrome a chance…

I’ll end by giving 2 very basic reasons about why I liked the Linux I had over the last 3 years.

1. Whenever I had an issue, I felt almost certain that someone else must have had the same problem as me. I would check on the forums and inevitably there would be a solution. When there was no solution you could post it and get an answer in under a day.

2. The best part, though, was that all solutions are free. When it came to reading of awkward formats like .djvu and .chm there were available add-ons (not even separate programs) which I could install with a few clicks (not even commands) and get the job done.

I miss both of these dearly. But anyway I guess this will do for the time being.

After Long

I’m going to blog now after a long time. In all this ‘gap’ time lots has changed. I have a laptop which has now all but replaced my gigantic desktop. That would be the biggest change you can see in the room.

A while ago I had promised myself that I will blog only if there is something to write about. I guess this pretty much breaks that promise. But maybe this post is about how I just can’t keep promises to myself…

Windows Live Writer

Well, here goes! A test post from Windows Live Writer.

Coraline - Some doors should never be opened

I have to say that I am surprised i hadn't heard about this movie. It released in the US in Feb 2009, but it was only a couple of weeks back that I first saw it when searching on top ranked animations on imdb.

There are very very few movies which fall into the category of children's horror. Unlike most kids movies these days, this spends time on scenes and is not about running from A to B saving friends.

This movie is based on a tremendously spooky book by Neil Gaiman of the same name. Though they have made changes to the book, not least in the location, which has been moved from UK to Oregon, it retains the dark & spooky feel.

It is the story of a girl who finds a secret passageway in her new home to a parallel world in which everything is "better" - her parents care for her, the food is tasty and life is always interesting. The only hitch is that everyone there has buttons for eyes. She gets attached to that world but it has many dark secrets...

It was a 3D release and managed to do fairly well at the box-office. The animation isn't Disney regular and is stop-motion. An absolute must-watch. I can't recommend this movie enough. 

A DvD-Rip is available on thepiratebay.org - here.

Laptop - Hunter : Part 1 - Do I need Windows?

Its been a couple of weeks now, and my 4 year old PC is starting to give up on me. I need an upgrade and, since I am at the clichéd "crossroad" of my life, it makes sense to buy a laptop - at last. Buying a laptop is a big deal.

Agreed I have been a Computer Science student for quite some time now, but I never really kept abreast of all the latest news from the computer market about prices etc. So its been a good experience learning about how things stand in the laptop market.

Since I am not counting on Windows for anything else except gaming, I don't really need to worry too much about the new Windows 7 which is said to be released fully by December this year.

I was not really interested in the netbook idea as it was going to be my substitute for a proper PC. What I was looking for was a system with

• 4GB RAM
  
• Good 2GHz + processor, Intel preferred
  
• Graphics card if its not too expensive
• not more than 3Kg weight.
  

Here's a short round-up of my findings on the roam online from an Indian base. I guess there are better deals to be had and more to found on the road but then this really is the first stop for me.

My first stop was Acer. I have to say it was a very poor advertisement for a product. Agreed they don't have an online store solution, but it is so unfriendly and even incomplete! eg. the most important part of the online search would be the prices. Here's what their "pricelist" page looked like. So as a result, sadly, I can't really say anything about their laptops or prices. I wouldn't mind taking a look around Palarivattom where there is an Acer store and asking for the prices, but I have to say I am a bit turned off.

Now, in a bid to check out some of the less popular brands, I took a glance at the HCL L(e)aptops. (Hey they are Indian after all!). The HCL Leaptop T39 seems like an amazing laptop for its price. I was mighty impressed with this one. Its loaded with Ubuntu 8.10 default and that obviously brings the price down.

The question is whether Windows is needed for anything?

I believe that Microsoft has done only 1 bit of software well and that is MS Office. Office is so good that it was the only MS software on Mac that people really appretiated. None of the other competitors (not even Apple) have been able to better it.

Another part of their ever so small arsenal of reasons-to-use-MS would be ASP.net. There are some reviews online which say that the Linux environment Mono is not without its issues.

Oh well all these issues for another day then!

Avoid Dooms Day! pretty simple really...

Are you going to flunk an exam because you slept off too early? No problemo! Just reset your memory and you'll be good to go. Reboot yourself in a parallel universe! This solution, by Saibal Mitra, pretty much defines why I am starting to like Quantum Mechanics so much.

At the root of this theory is the Many-Worlds interpretation of Quantum Mechanics. The gist is that atoms can exist in many states at the same time. So technically there are multiple realities in parallel (simultaneous) universes.

Ok. It seems like just another one of those interpretations of quantum mechanics which gave rise to sites like this. So let me explain. Think of a machine which can reset its memory to a previous (backed up) state when it encounters a glitch. Suppose, the computer learns that there is an impending asteroid strike (my favourite) which has been scaring us over and over. Now suppose the machine resets its memory.

An observer sitting next to the machine can verify that the "same machine" will still face disaster after the reset. But from the perspective of the machine's reset memory, the state of the universe in the many-worlds scenario becomes "undetermined". After all, for all the machine knows, the reset occurred for a mundane reason, such as a crash of its operating system.

Now, all the undetermined possibilities are open to the machine. So, the machine, it has been dealt a whole new set of cards. It starts afresh. So to the machine it has switched to a parallel universe. The probability (to the machine) that the reset was because of an impending asteroid strike is close to zero. So by simple probability, the chances that its in a new and free world are more.

If we had brains where quantum uncertainties were entertained, we would all be aceing our tests, getting into the top universities and scoring the most amazing girls.

Download New Scientist April 18 Edition here!

Indian Elections - Random Round-up!

The Great Indian Election is over. The smaller parties, most of whom would want to be on the winning side, are literally "Talking to the hand". In the post election Govt. forming frenzy - an unavoidable side-effect of the multi-party system - let me put a word in, on the goings on. Both good and bad.

While the Americans have had their problems with hanging chads over the years, we Indians have done remarkably well with our indigenous Electronic Voting Machines. It has increased the confidence of the people in the voting process. Though ballot-box stuffing is a thing of the past, booth capturing is still a problem in many areas. In West Bengal 5 polling stations had re-elections as alleged booth capturing or EVM malfunction took place.

Online, Twitter was alive with the reactions (and news) on the election results. Helped by the fact that it was Friday night in the US, the #indiavotes09 tag was the hottest trend on Saturday. What we must learn from that is that more than the elections themselves, the netizens are more interested in the results, with people likening it to watching a humdinger of a cricket match. The online interest was so large that the Election Comission site crawled to halt. Of course you can't attribute that just to the traffic!

Candidates updating their status online was not so common to find. While they were all trying to woo us during the campaign, quite like Obama, they faded away once the results started coming out. All except Mr.Shashi Tharoor, who was active online as he gave his reactions on Twitter. His enthusiasm was lapped up by the netizens, who have him jotted down as a favorite for the post of External Affairs Minister.

At the end of the day, you have to say that controversies were much lesser than in other elections, though they are never really absent. The current Home Minister, P.Chidambaram (sitting as thoughtfully as Shashi Tharoor is above but probably for different reasons), won from Sivaganga (TN) after a recount. How it is possible for a candidate to gain 4000 votes on recounting when we use electronic voting machines, I will never know. It looks like this case will spend some time doing the rounds in the court.

I'm just happy that we won't be having (too much) haggling and "buying" of MPs. I never was a fan of UPA or NDA. One looks to please non-hindus while the other looks to please hindus. Both have their main leaders from lands far away. Both have a real lack of progressive ideology - the Congress ideology being "do whatever it takes to be power").

Well, this time the UPA don't have any excuses (read CPIm) to blame for any lack of progress and development.

Cheers to India and thanks for all the fun (and fish?)!

2 Harihar Nagar - Lacking originality

Before I begin: I don't normally watch the "new age" Malayalam movies. They have lost their charm, and their humour. The dubbing, in general, has become horrible as well.
I watched this movie because this is the sequel to "In Harihar Nagar" which was one of the best comedies I have seen - in any language. Of course, like any self respecting malayali, I believe that malayalam comedy is the best. Good British comedy comes in at a distant second while American comedy is mostly slapstick or stand-up and lacks the recall value that a "Thomas'kutty Vittodaaa!!!" has. What follows is less of a review and more of a solution to the "to watch or not to watch ?" question.

Firstly, comparisons to In harihar Nagar, which was released in 1990, would be unfair to the movie. Its made in a different era, and Lal's recent movies have all been similar to this - they've all been part of the cliche - youth = colourful, vibrant, lots of hair on the head, 'cool' clothes. This movie is not different as it tries to connect to the younger audience again, except the actors are all 50+ now!

To his credit, Lal has tried to make up for the lack of mobility and genuine youth with an overdose of humour. We shouldn't forget that the older movie was one with 2 distinct parts. The fun-and-laughter 1st half and a second half where a new and terrible villain, John Honai, is introduced. I felt the violence was one of IHN's strong points because you will find it in stark contrast to the first half.

In this movie though, in an attempt to keep the rating at 'U' (I presume), there are very few scenes of violence and absolutely no scenes which you will remember for too long. None of the villainous characters show any negative intent. The protagonists are not even restrained in captivity.

(All ratings are on personal parameters)

Acting: 5/10
Many scenes with great potential were wasted. These guys were never great actors, so Lal should've omitted scenes requiring such great effort. Lakshmi Rai as the girl is terrible, just terrible. Thank God she has only a small part to play.

Comedy: 9/10
This score is helped hugely by the above mentioned overdose. Lal has taken special care to disrupt all serious scenes with jokes.

Story: 8/10
The beginning is very lame but the end more than compensates. An O.Henry twist. Well done.

Picturization: 3/10
The movie suffers from the same problem as other recent malayalam movies. They are too focused on peoples faces and less on the scene. When the "acting" isn't stellar, it looks so... wrong!

Music: 5/10
No originality in the songs. The rehash of the epic "Ekanda Chandrikey!" is dissapointing, frankly. They could've used less techno and picturized it in a more realistic way.

Overall: 6/10
Its not a movie worthy of a theatre ticket, but is defenitely fun to watch.

Its a decent attempt to use older original ideas.

PS : By the way, why not rate the In Harihar Nagar movie on IMDB?

Taking Chance

There are countless war movies based on blood and gore in the name of reality. There are still more which sympathize with the grieving families of those at war. And some more about friends and foes on the battlefield. But this is definitely the first to look at it from a refreshing, if sad and respectful, angle.

Taking Chance is a simple story of a higher officer who decides to escort the body of a fallen PFC back to his home half-way across the USA. The story has no twists or turns - its very straightforward in the message it tries to convey. About how everyone respects a soldier, whether they know him or not.

Patriotism is not about infamous "acts" or torture. Its not about beating the drum and shouting out. Its about respect for fellow countrymen. T movie shows that in a very soft-spoken manner. Kevin Bacon has given a stirring performance as the senior officer.

There is absolutely no violence - the opening scene where the soldier is killed, is not shown, only audio. The emotions are all understated and many times I have to say that an elegant tear welled up in my eye.

Great movie.

Download the torrent here!

5 Centimeters per Second

I have been reading manga and watching anime for 4 years now. I thought it was about time I moved away from the famous anime's and go in search of something thats particular to my tastes.

One of the things which I have found to be very disturbing about the whole anime culture in Japan is the overwhelming leaning on the shinigami/mecha theme. Its always a death god or a robot. There are very few animes which tell a good story based on normal people.

I started with Initial-D, which is The drifting anime. Its very old and is hugely popular and successful. But even so, its still basically the same underdog story as in Bleach and Naruto. I was distinctly unimpressed after I finished watching the first stage. After reading that the following stages are based in a big way on the same characters in Stage 1 returning with faster and better cars, I was turned off.

All this while I had ignored Japanese anime-movies (I'm not sure what else to call it). They are 1 to 2 hour long movies which are illustrated in quite the same way as the episodal animes. Well, the reason I'm saying all this is that I stumbled onto one such movie called Five Centimeters Per Second.

5 cm per second is by far the most expressively illustrated anime I have seen. The use of light & shadow, movement and stagnation, its all just brilliant. The best place to read the storyline would be the Anime News Network.

Its the story of Tono Takaki and Shinohara Akari, who were close friends but gradually grow farther and farther apart as time moves on. The metaphors used to show time, space and love are amazing. A first time experience of great animation.

Go ahead and click here for the torrent download!

This is our time

I have a lot of time on my hands now. A very real need is there to use it well and have something to show for the time spent. I keep thinking, what is it that I am to do with my life?

The one sentence that comes to mind every time I have nothing to do but dream is, "The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching".

I have a lot of time, now that college is over. So the main achievement to be taken out of this time should be the improvement to my self. Along the way I will gain some skill and technical knowledge since that is the medium, but the final goal is something much greater.

Over the last 4 years, I have gained a lot of unwanted things in my day-to-day routine. Taken on a lot of unwanted baggage. Never again will I get this kind of time - to improve.

But the way is full of stumbling blocks. The first is with the medium. Whenever I sit down to do anything - be it studies, reading, TV, blogging or programming - I am struck by the same question, "Is this the best way to use your time?". Once the question is posed then what follows is not productive. I end up chasing after different things in my mind without actually getting down to doing anything.

The second major stumbling block has been the moods. Bad moods. Good moods getting upset by small things which may happen - mom saying something, current cuts or headaches. All small things which have to be overcome. Addiction is another problem. Anything in moderated quantities is a good thing. When it goes beyond that, its dangerous to your life.

This is our life. This is our time. Use it. It never comes back. never.

Peer Pressure

I have been a staunch fan of The Pirate Bay. There are many reasons for that. One of the main ones is that it is free - in every sense of the word. I am free to do as I please with the torrents. There is no fear of being kicked out of any community if my ratio doesn't work out right.

As is evident, I used to remove all my torrents immediately once the download completed. Like a friend of mine put it, I had a chronic case of "Hit-and-Run". In the new web structure, one has to add content to the web since "you are the source". It just struck me, that if I don't add content, at least I shouldn't just Leech off others.

Many torrent sites have rules which make it mandatory for you to maintain a ratio of at least .3 to qualify you for membership. Of course it makes sure that all torrents are properly seeded, but at the same time it adds what I call "peer pressure". Thats the pressure to maintain your ratio above the cut-off, and its especially bad when you are competing against super-seeders. Your download speeds are way high but the uploads aren't in much demand as people would prefer the faster seeds, leaving you with a dirty Ratio.

Piratebay (et al), on the other hand, are more gracious. So,as a service to pirates and to other fellow peers (cyborgs etc are welcome), I hereby pledge to seed a majority of my torrents to a ratio of 2!

Vuze (Azureus 4.2)

Last week I decided it was time to upgrade myself from the lousy BitTransmission, light-weight client, to something considerably heavier (and better) as I was to find out.

My first reaction was to see if Mu-torrent had a Linux version, so that I could continue my pirate activities using the same ship I had used on Windows. Since it didn't I realized I'd have to use Wine, which would be too slow, my system being 4 years old. Well, I use Ubuntu but still like to be pampered a bit - sadly my computer isn't one to indulge me.

So I went about hunting, and found Vuze or Azureus 4 (as it will be better known for many years to come). Linux applications are slowly moving to the Windows way, with easy-to-install .deb files for my Ubuntu. But I could not find a .deb for Vuze - and instead did custom install with a tarball instead. Its always nice to have a tutorial, isn't it?

It looks good, and controlling the up and down loading rates is easy. Q-ing torrents in a proper order isn't as easy as in Mu-torrent, or maybe I just feel that way because of my slow computer. After a few hours of use with Firefox on the side, the computer hangs for a bit - which was never an issue with BitTransmission.

Except for the problem that Vuze isn't exactly a butterfly (it really slows me down) the features are impressive. I am, of course not in a position to rate the HDtv options thanks to my modest 256kbps connection.

All in all, from a lay-user PoV the Vuze is not too different from the other torrent clients. Its still a bit of a way away from being as good as Mu-torrent. I have to try out Deluge and a host of others before being a good judge.

Though my rating will be un-informed and irrelevant to anyone who doesn't "enjoy" my circumstances, I give it a humble 5/10. I'll use it for a while now that I've started.

A Pirate for Life!

Its only now that I read the various threats against these guys and by God, their replies are hilarious and i must say - to the point. :D

Not many people around the world would tell the lawyers of Dreamworks their honest opinions in such undiluted language...

It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are ....... morons, and
that you should please go sodomize yourself with retractable batons.

and sign off with a :

Go fuck yourself.

Polite as usual,
anakata

Also, as a reply to Warner Bros.

We are well aware of the fact that The Pirate Bay falls outside the
scope of the DMCA - after all, the DMCA is a US-specific legislation,
and TPB is hosted in the land of vikings, reindeers, Aurora Borealis and
cute blonde girls.

Taking on the world's stupid corporations which just have no clue how to make money in the digital age - THE PIRATE BAY ROCKS!

You Are No Greater Than Your Thoughts

A thought is the only lasting matter in this world. Its the only thing that lasts in its existing form even after you are long gone.

This is something which I have been wondering about for a while. Its come to mind now because I've been struggling to concentrate on my papers on hand. How can I control my thoughts? How can think of what must be thought about?

Well I did a bit of reading and came up with some ways to do this. If I can be at least partially successful it'll be one small step for me et cetera.



Use Your Consciousness

There are many thoughts we think about unconsciously. There isn't much we can do about that just yet. But the things we choose to think about - that we can control.

Your life is not just made up of the actual events that happen when you are alive, but rather how you feel about what happens to you. Depending on your personal belief systems, you recognize that you have anywhere from partial to complete control over the physical happenings in your life.

Predictions

I must be insane to spend a whole 40 minutes blogging today! But I just have to give this a go!

My Barclays Premier League predictions for the end of the season - - just to see how accurate they may be. (Of course there is the added bonus of being hailed as Nostradamus :P)

Well, no point in predicting weekly scores because they make no real difference in the big picture. Since my aim is "to be hailed as Nostradamus" I guess I have the freedom to be cryptic.

Final league positions:
Manchester United, (+4)
Liverpool, (=) GD+1
Chelsea, (=)
Arsenal

The last game of the season will be very important. For Liverpool it'll be against their bogey team this season - Tottenham Hotspurs. A draw.

Manchester United will pay dearly for lousy passing against Arsenal. hey won't lose a game outright but will drop more than 2 points.

Essien = hero.

Arsenal will have a very strong end to the season with a few high scoring matches. Arsenal v Manutd to be a high scoring draw.

Well I guess thats all for now. I just hope these predictions turn to be all screwed and ManUtd play the most mediocre football. I hope Torres and Gerrard set the footballing world on fire and Liverpool get the double.

Dare to dream?

Where are the Protests?

A little redundancy never hurt anyone! So here's my blog post from the Cochin Open Coffee Club

"Just done watching the news today! Only one part of the news really interested me, though. Its now time for AIG to pay their executives their huge bonuses!


AIG, as you all must have heard, almost went bust before the US govt., quite benevolently (and obviously quite hastily) decided to bail them out with a package of no less than $85 billion of taxpayers money, followed by another package of $40 billion.


Now, the company is in a bit of a fix, with their executives' contracts having been written up before the crisis and all, these guys still need their $450 million in bonuses. If paid, it would be the most undeserved pay-checks ever meted out in business history! Its like saying, "Right boys, you've lost us $61.7 billion. Lets make it a nice round figure shall we! "


Somehow, one thing thats missing from the entire situation are the protests! Forget India, if it were in Europe (France especially) we'd have a huge rally or something asking for these executives to be put in jail! Of course there are some people who are raising their voices, including the "Messiah" Obama, but even he says "he will look into the matter"


The public has been too quite for their own good. No huge protests, and thats surprising - considering how many jobless Americans there are!! There are a few disjointed voices, but in todays world,


"If it ain't in the news, its as good as it never happened."

Busy Times!

Not too many posts over the last few days, and I've been busying myself. The project still has a bit of documentation work to be done and I'm not helping much with a few tests to handle.

Friday will be my last day in college - proper. We have a Farewell (Party?) apparently, but I have no idea what to expect. I just hope its a bit better than the farewell we had in school, what with suspensions et al. But Kerala is too nice a place for that :|

Oh and by the way, all those who read this by email - It'd be nice of you to follow me. I just added the follow widget. (God, that sounds so lame :D )

Buy Yourself a Job! The Real Bubble?

Interesting topic, I say. Today's Scott Adams Blog got me thinking...

" ... can you compare unemployment rates across the decades?"

His argument is that nowadays you can "buy yourself a job" whereas earlier you couldn't, and thats why the unemployment numbers aren't as inflated as they were during the Great Depression.

"...But what happens if the economy sours and all of those people who appear to be working at their small businesses are actually using their savings to stay afloat?.."

If these people, who are basically busting their savings to appear employed, were actually unemployed (as they would have been), only then can we have a straightforward assessment of the economies around the world (especially the US).

I feel the real reason for the big bust (of the bubble) was that no one saw the real unemployment numbers till it was too late. Which means no one really noticed how many people couldn't pay their dues till it was too late.

kaboom!~~

Thats the sound of the pressure getting to ya!

Today was the day of the fateful mid-term project evaluation! And it was - we-ll - not good but not SOS-bad either.

I wish i didn't have to be so last minute. I keep thinking I'll get the ball rolling and dig into all the course-work today,tomorrow, the dayS after... never works does it?

And now the pressure is probably starting to get to me! I have a huge test tomorrow. Huge because its on 3/5 modules of a "Distributed Systems". Now, the abbreviation is DSC. So my full form isn't quite right is it? I think I should stick to calling it "Distributed" and smile to myself about my private joke.

There is still a mountain of work to be done over the next 50 days or so. Immediately though, this weekend I have a treat to attend, shivratri to enjoy, new people to talk to ....

jeez this is precisely my problem ...

Parental Advisory, Explicit Content!!

Q. Which sign was made mandatory after a heated campaign by an organization better known as the Washington Wives? The first product to have to carry the sign was named Danzig. The organization has come under repeated criticism because there is no fixed standard for the application of this sign. Initially, the warning was thought to have a detrimental effect, but of late research shows that the forbidden-fruit-syndrome is catching on! What sign is this?

My first "Parental Advisory, Explicit Content" cassette was Limp Bizkit - Choclate starfish and the hotdog flavored water, back in the days when I used to like them - when I was happy but loved their hate. Now I full of frustration but love to love.

I still remember how scared I was when I had to get Dad to pay for it! I know, now thinking back I wonder why I had to buy it with Dad around, but then when you're in 9th grade and where I was - no surprise...

It was so cool to have a cassette with uncouth words in it! That cassette has long since disappeared and now when I'm downloading stuff online, I never think about the warning. Almost know what to expect from whom.

The PMRC (Parental Music Resource Centre) - the hopeless wives behind this all, if they had their way would have the the warning in audio before each song so that even downloaded songs would warn kids of the dangers of uncivilized words...

Yawning

Lets face it, having nothing to do but 'trying to' study is boring. The funny thing is that I'm supposed to be busy with my final year project!

There are so many things to do really. I have another month of college life, another 2 weeks for the project, a load of papers at the end, and I - of all people- announce that I'm bored. Hm...

I just can't seem to excite myself with anything. No, not the perverted excitement, but the adrenaline rush you get when you do something like going on stage, laughing a lot with friends, watching an amazing movie.

So what is the problem? What should I do? I just can't seem to take the initiative and start doing anything. What is wrong with me nowadays.

Lousy lousy Neel.

Harmon Oscar Nelson's backside

This deserves a pretty big post. Not because Slumdog Millionaire sweeped the Oscars but because all the Indians nominated actually won something! After much debate and discussion on how good the movie actually was and whether it deserved any award, there it was...

Even with all the bad acting and sluggish story-telling, the unbelievable character swings and repetitive dialogues, the Danny Boyle movie got the Academy Award. (More famous for being Harmon Oscar Nelson's backside) And boy did it win!! Winning 8 out of 9 categories it was nominated in, it is now in esteemed company. Quite surprising really, considering what an ordinary movie it was.

Out of all the other nominees in oh-so-many categories the ones that I actually saw were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Dark Knight. Brad Pitt was OK in the former, while Heath Ledger should have won the Best Actor for the Joker in the latter - he was that good!

AR Rahman got his 2 awards for some mediocre work - and I am sure all of you will agree that his best work has been in Tamil cinema. It was heartening to see him getting recognized globally - the sales of his albums are in the world all-time Top 10!

The last word though goes to the 1st Malayalee to win the award! Rasool Pookkutty! He's obviously going to be overshadowed by Rahman, getting air-time on Indian channels just because he received the award before Rahman. A shame really.

So the Oscars are done and dusted! Time to (belatedly) go and download/watch all the winning movies....

So until next year!

Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree

I bought this book a while back from Reliance TimeOut and I had reservations about how good it would be. If beauty was only skin deep, then I was a fool to think the book was any good.

Its one of 4 book s in an "Islam Quartet" by Tariq Ali, who is a man of many words of Pakistani and British leanings. His more recent books have been takes on current affairs - Iraq, Pakistan, India and other topics.

This struck me as a pretty different book (or series of books, to be more precise). It dealt with Islam in Europe and how, in those days, it was the European Christians who were the so called "Fundamentalists". We have studied in history, of how great Islamic civilizations existed and, in some ways, still do exist today. Not having heard of any better way of getting to know this side of a people, I thought I'd give the book a shot!

Its a brilliant book, as far as I have read anyway! Its informative - which is one quality I was truly interested in. But its not all bland history - He's taken liberties with reality wherever necessary. The only fault would have to be that its very difficult to make out where the fact ends and the fiction begins...

"Over the embers of one tragedy lies the shadow of another..."

the puzzle that is 'Me'

1. I hate being alone.

2. My moods take an unpredictable amount of time to change.

3. I can look scary when I'm angry. Mostly because I don't say what I'm thinking, but its there for all to see.

4. I don't become emotionally attached to anyone easily. But if I do become attached, then I am very difficult to un-attach.

5. I like a good story. In a book or a film. It doesn't have to have a happy ending. In fact it doesn't need an end at all. I love story-tellers.

6. I am not good at hiding my feelings. So I walk away when I don't want to show people what I feel.

7. I hear everyone. I listen to those i feel matter.

8. I find humour where most people don't.

9. I love dreaming about what might have been, should have been or will be.

10. I keep thinking and dreaming. So i talk to myself a lot. Too much time alone is a bad thing.

11. I love arguing. Especially if the person at the other end can change my views on something.

12. I don't like people who say that I can do something when I know i can't.

i wish i DON'T

"
- Enjoy watching someone fail
- Lie to keep someone happy
-Waste my time with people I don't like
- Judge someone's habits
- Feel apathy about things that should matter
- Laugh at unfunny jokes
- Wonder if I am loved
- Lie about liking someone
- Spread my political convictions around
- Waste my time looking for the good in people I don't have to like.
"

Nice Day?

What happens on a nice day?


Do you win the lottery?
Do you find money on the sidewalk?
Do you see an old friend?
Do you finally stop seeing that one person who you reserve all your loathing for?
Do you have the most productive and energetic day ever?
Do you have a lazy, hazy day doing nothing?
Do you see your favourite football team win in style?
Do you see your least favourite team lose miserably?
Do you discover someone else shares your tastes?
Do you have a meal and realize that was the best damn meal you've ever had?
Do you laugh more than you talk?
Do you spend every second with someone you like?
Do you see something rare happen?
Do you see a life saved?
Do you get free t-shirts?
Do you read a good book?
Do you ace a test?
Do you organize your desk so it looks unbelievably neat?
Do you get a good night's sleep?
Do you get an unexpected compliment?
Do you look forward to tomorrow?

Have a nice day.

appreciating disability

To really appreciate what it feels like to be blind all you have to do is to try and get through 1 day, or even half a day, awake and with only 1 eye patched up.

You can still see, and even so you feel so helpless when one of your vital organs have been taken away from you. The reasons for this is another fairly long story so I guess thats not important.

I'll be back to 2 eyes, although with sunglasses, soon. But what I experienced in those few hours, I will never forget.