25 November 2005

CPU comparisons

Tom's Hardware has an excellently compiled article on CPU comparisons. I somehow favour the david AMD to bring down the goliath Intel and it does seem to be happening
A well compiled article as usual from Tom's Hardware!
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:36 AM 1 comments

Untitled

Well i didn't know what *exactly* to title this post so left it at that.
Anyway there are a few distrubing things which have been noticed. Notably, two bright minds from the factories, IIM and IIT have been murdered while doing their duty. It is appalling enough that the IIM graduate's murder has not had enough coverage, except of course The Indian Express.
However the murder raises a few questions. Firstly, isn't there any room for honesty and integrity ? The students of IIM and IIT are now rightly so, questioning all the nay sayers who were calling them as brain drain and tax drain.
However my poser to the students is simply this. We did see a thousand more deaths of a thousand more bright minds in order to stand where we are. Independent and free and most importantly, the right to ask questions and the right to fight for it. Instead of making an issue out of this and being disillusioned about the whole incident, i would prefer to take it as an example that, hey here is someone who was brave enough to take on the whole mafia. He paid an extreme price for it with his life, but should'nt it be a positive inspiration instead of negative one ?
So i urge my countrymen to take this as a positive inspiration and try to work towards that, instead of asking questions like "What safety do i have if i am in India?" we better ask questions like "How best can i take inspiration from him and try to make this a better place if not for me, atleast for my next generations".
May the deaths of those two bright minds not go in vain
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:19 AM 1 comments

22 November 2005

Good Riddance

15 years of (mis)rule has finally come to an end ! Laloo might be a decent railway minister { so say the statistics } but he has done nothing but plundering of bihar, a state which once had a model education system for the world itself !
I sincerely hope that the present breed of rulers try to do something constructive for that state, so that if not contributing to india's GDP, it does not lower it !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 7:15 PM 5 comments

19 November 2005

Abstract Concept

I have always maintained that a bugless program is an abstract concept. This is further proof of that !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 12:33 PM 1 comments

Joint Effort

As they say in tamil "poovoda serndha naarum manakkum", im trying out my feeble attempts at creative humour along with her. Regulars will know all the reasons and other stuff behind this !! So head over here. No we are not yet targeting calvin&hobbes or peanuts or whatsoever, but ya someday we hope to get there !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 11:43 AM 0 comments

14 November 2005

Of Natwar Singh and Other Issues

Much water has flown over the cooum and ganges since Volcker came out his report. However there are a few things which i feel i uneasy about.
Firstly, there have been reports going around from as far back as late 2002, about a certain Indian's involvement in the Oil-For-Food scandal. Secondly the volcker committe is just a fact finding misson. It has nothing to do with pointing fingers or accusing people of bribery, nepotisim or whatsoever. It just mentions that hey, these things have happened. It is upto the countries to take action as appropriate. Now before we take a look at what has happened here, we shall first note that Russia has dismissed the report to be fabricated and is acting uniformly in that manner. France has gone about aresting all the people invovled and relieving them of their responsibilities.
I find this independent yardstick that is happening here prety amusing. What is the independent yardstick ? Well before i get to that let me first state that the report clearly also states that the congress party is a beneficiary and most importantly it was headed at that time by the venerable madame sonia { no i will *not* address her using her married name ! It is no doubt an insult that man }. Oh ok all the details i have are gleaned from the media and none the less.
Now it has also been established that Natwar was at best a intermediate, a conduit carrying a letter ! It is of course true that he has questionable links with the company in South Africa, which have also been named in the report. So assuming that as a person holding a high office, he should not continue in it to maintain the reputation and prestige. So far so good. Now here comes the other side of it. Why is madame still the president ? Judging by the fact that the same volcker committe has also questioned the party's role, should'nt she accept moral responsibility ?
When she can relinquish the prime minister's office and gain the "goodwill" why should'nt she step down now ?
In all this the prime minister is being embarassed to a large extent. An intellectual to the core, he is being made to play some dirty politics ! While is unable to defend Natwar singh, he is forced not to question the actions of madame when she herself is in the dock. There is another dimension to this whole episode. I feel that the congress party, by sacking natwar singh has actually suceeded in diverting the attention of the public from the larger issue, the involvement of madame herself in this whole mess ! And sadly the spineless morons in the party seem to be least intrested to question it ! When the same morons could bay for natwar's blood, why not demand the removal of madame herself ? There is also another point to note here that none of the allies, notably the commie bastards are voicing any kind of opinion. Why not ? is it because madame is involved ? And finally there is absolutely no reaction from the media demanding madame's removal, with of course the exception of Indian Express. One cannot help but pity natwar in this different yardstick that has been applied here. He has been used as a scapegoat, a collateral, to divert attention from a far more serious issue.
As a citizen of this country i think i am being fair in demanding that madame must immediately step down and use the same yardstick that had been used for natwar singh.
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:25 AM 2 comments

09 November 2005

The long arm of law

As the saying goes, there is no such thing as perfect crime. When i first moved into bangalore back in early 2000, i used to hear people say that in kormanagala alone there are close to 100 software companies. I always used to think how is it that in a residential area, people could let out their houses to these companies and make handsome profits. Why even my office was operating out of a rented premises !
And finally the law has caught up on them ! The high court passed orders saying that there is no scope for such voilations and they all will have to be demolished !

There are however a few points to be noted.
1. Most of the residents complain of inadequate time given to them for demolishing. WTF ? When you were able to make an unapproved construction overnight to rake in the moolah, why not demolish it overnight ?
2. The demolition is due to a petition by a doctor. Now the residents are going hammer and tongs to prove that the doctor himself has done unapproved constructions ! Now isn't this a clear case of crab mentality ? You have voilated the law. Now first get your house in order before complaining about others !
3. One of the tenant in such an illegal construction is a software company. In a clear case of software high handedness, he has gone to court saying that his clients in the US of A are disturbed by such proceedings and he may loose more clients. It seems he has installed a server worth 4 lakhs and he needs some more time to move out. Saddeningly the court has agreed to give him a little bit more time. Now here are my questions to that useless and worthless piece of shit of a tenant. Firstly, the government has constructed an Electronics city and an ITPL. What prevented you from going and setting up shop there ? Secondly you are an educated person right ? Dont you think before you start a company it is your duty to first find out whether the place you are renting out is a proper notified commercial area ? And to top it all who the hell cares about your US of A clients or not ? I am most disturbed by the court giving him more time ! The court should not have agreed to giving him more time. Server or not.
4. Most of the residents are resorting to road blocking and demonstrations it seems. What crap ! I hope the police get shoot at sight orders on such people ! Ok that might seem far fetched. The saddening part is most the people who have flouted the law have atleast 4 or 5 cars parked in their garages ! Greed and total greed ! Violating an approved plan !

In all these valid questions can be asked like how did the companies get sanction, what were the BCC officials doing at that point etc etc. Now i am not going to go into those intricacies.

I fully support the court and the Bangalore City Corporation in this drive. It seems that this drive will continue in areas like Domlur and Indranagar. I sincerely hope that all such companies are weeded out ! That would provide some respite for the common man who is unable to travel through the roads in these localities, as they are taken over for parking by these companies !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 11:22 AM 6 comments

07 November 2005

The Other Side

We in the software industry think that we are some kind of messiah's creating more jobs and doing lots more for this country right ?
So here are a few well written articles highlighting the other side.
1. WoodTamizhan's article is up Here. In fact a very well compiled article.
2. Vatsan one of the few guys who support me in my pro-deve-gowda stance, has a few articles here and here.
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 12:40 PM 4 comments

06 November 2005

sivakasi a review

Q: What do you do with a wafer thin storyline { okay almost non existent }, a stunning heroine, some good locales and dappankuthu music ?
A: Rope in wannabe superstar vijay, add some punch dialogues, some sentiment, some sidekicks and make a concoction out of it and serve it.
Q: What happens to the above concoction ?
A: Heh it runs for 250 days atleast, cements vijay's place firmly, the audience have total paisa vasool and the producer guffaws his way to the bank ;-)
Well that is the star power for you guys !
Ok i will dispense with telling the story ! There is nothing of it. But every frame has vijay in it either emoting or dancing or wisecracking.
He will no doubt have to tone down the chauvnistic dialougues if he has to appeal to the urbane audience. Then again he still has age on his side so he can definitely do it !
Ah since i titled this post as a review let me give the story in full.
Vijay an orphan, is a welder by profession in madras. He attracts the attention of heroine Asin. Asin falls for him. When her brothers try to reason out with him to accept some of their property, he beats them up black and blue. Asin gives him lecture on paasam and then thalai reveals that he is not an orphan and he has a family in his village and he ran away from it. So urged by the heroine he goes back to his village and finds that his elder brother { prakash raj } is ill treating his mother and sister. How he brings the smile back on the face of his mother and sister is what forms the rest of the story.
The director has heavily banked on vijay to deliver and he does not disappoint. I have always maintained that from movie to movie, he shows improvement in every department. Be it acting or dancing or emoting. His dances in this movie are nothing short of stunning. Asin needs to improve in this front. Asin comes good easily in emoting, but should refrain from too many closeup shots which reveal her freckled face.
The nayanathara special number kicks some real butt ! No not her though. The way vijay dances through in that song and the "diwali" number ;-)
References to superstar lineage are abundant in the movie. Note the point where he dances with MGR and Rajini ! That sums it all up.
Srikanth deva has tried out the songs and the background score. The songs are total dappankuthu ones. However "Idhu enna" sung by harish raghavendran and uma ramanan has some semblance of melody in it! The background score ? Who noticed it ;-) Thalai was all over the place !
Vijay is the definitive answer to the next superstar lineage. But tone down a but thalai. You do need to watch your dialogues if you need a global audience.
Finally please refrain from going anywhere near this movie if you have absolutely no idea of the way the thalai {formula} movies work !
K.Shyam
PS: If this is in total contrast the way i write reviews in general, it should not be hard to guess the reason i think :-)

Posted by Unknown at 11:29 AM 0 comments

04 November 2005

Most Unfortunate

This is most unfortunate. For a company that pioneered many an intresting graphical innovations this is most unfortunate. I sincerely hope the fortunes turnaround somehow.
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:38 AM 0 comments

03 November 2005

Every..

"Every breath I take I feel you inside of me
Every second I live I want you along with me"
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 4:54 PM 1 comments