gajabhuja funda

That killer idea

Oh man this is really what dreams are made of !! Sometimes it is simplest of ideas that leaves you with a feeling of kicking yourself !!
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 9:40 AM 3 comments

Classical King

Check out This well written article about how Raja handled carnatic ragams in film music ! A pretty loooong article so read it in leisure, but do read it to understand how Raja is/was/will always be miles and eons ahead of anyone who calls himself a composer of music for films ! { This includes that remotely-resembling-music alias trash churned out by a-bunch-of-jokers alias musicians up north ! }. NO i will not accept that R.D.Burman was an exception. It is just that he came up with foot tapping numbers but nowhere close to what raja did. If you were a carnatic purist, you will be amazed at the choice and manipulation of the ragam. If you were a layman you will be left with a foot tapping number!
In case you are not satisfied, check out the song "Sorgamea Endralum" here.
This song is set is hamsanadhi, and it yet a brilliant number that was a massive hit with folks who didn't know what carnatic was !!
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:17 AM 0 comments

Not Appropriate

The recent attack in Indian Institute of Science by terrorists raises quite a few questions and brings forth a number of pressing issues that must be addressed on a war footing.
Firstly, for all the intelligence might and the regular intelligence reports that we have, the security seems to be pretty lax. It can be argued that such intelligence reports would crop up dime-a-dozen and not all of them can be taken into cognizance. However, in the overall scope, i think it would be better if the institute as a separate entity takes up the issue of security a bit more seriously. It would be appropriate to bring to notice here, that a few months ago, in the very same place, a tibetean protestor had shown flags against the chinese premier. The state government remains fuly accountable for not conducting a proper investigation into that happening.
It might be easier to wash off the entire episode as a one off thing, but taking the larger intrests into consideration, and the perceived threats to bangalore as a whole, i think that it would be better if the institute beefs up its security.
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 9:39 AM 1 comments

Interview

Here is an interview with RMS. For the unintiated, RMS is Richard.M.Stallman, whom for most free software movement guys, is a kind of demi-god. While most the interview is bordering close to the mundane and other stuff, these lines make some real sense !!

***************Start Exceprt****************************
A novel and a modern complex programme have certain points in common: each is large and implements many ideas. Suppose patent law had been applied to novels in the 1800s; suppose states such as France had permitted the patenting of literary ideas. How would this have affected Hugo's writing? How would the effects of literary patents compare with the effects of literary copyright?

Consider the novel Les Misérables, written by Hugo. Because he wrote it, the copyright belonged only to him. He did not have to fear that some stranger could sue him for copyright infringement and win. That was impossible, because copyright covers only the details of a work of authorship, and only restricts copying. Hugo had not copied Les Misérables, so he was not in danger.

Patents work differently. They cover ideas - each patent is a monopoly on practising some idea, which is described in the patent itself.

Here's one example of a hypothetical literary patent:

Claim 1: a communication process that represents, in the mind of a reader, the concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and becomes bitter towards society and humankind.

Claim 2: a communication process according to claim 1, wherein said character subsequently finds moral redemption through the kindness of another.

Claim 3: a communication process according to claims 1 and 2, wherein said character changes his name during the story.

If such a patent had existed in 1862 when Les Misérables was published, the novel would have infringed all three claims - all these things happened to Jean Valjean in the novel. Hugo could have been sued, and would have lost. The novel could have been prohibited - in effect, censored - by the patent holder.

Now consider this hypothetical literary patent:

Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the concept of a character who has been in jail for a long time and subsequently changes his name.

Les Misérables would have infringed that patent too, because this description too fits the life story of Jean Valjean. And here's another hypothetical patent:

Claim 1: a communication process that represents in the mind of a reader the concept of a character who finds moral redemption and then changes his name.

Jean Valjean would have infringed this patent too.

These three patents would all cover the story of one character in a novel. They overlap, but they do not precisely duplicate each other, so they could all be valid simultaneously; all three patent holders could have sued Victor Hugo. Any one of them could have prohibited publication of Les Misérables.

Other aspects of Les Misérables could also have run afoul of patents. For instance, there could have been a patent on a fictionalized portrayal of the Battle of Waterloo, or a patent on using Parisian slang in fiction. Two more lawsuits. In fact, there is no limit to the number of different patents that might have been applicable for suing the author of a work such as Les Misérables. All the patent holders would say they deserved a reward for the literary progress that their patented ideas represent, but these obstacles would not promote progress in literature, they would only obstruct it.

This analogy can help non-programmers see what software patents do. Software patents cover features, such as defining abbreviations in a word processor, or natural order recalculation in a spreadsheet. Patents cover algorithms that programs need to use. Patents cover aspects of file formats, such as Microsoft's new formats for Word files. MPEG 2 video format is covered by 39 different US patents.

Just as one novel could infringe many different literary patents at once, one program can infringe many different patents at once. It is so much work to identify all the patents infringed by a large program that only one such study has been done. A 2004 study of Linux, the kernel of the GNU/Linux operating system, found it infringed 283 different US software patents. That is to say, each of these 283 different patents covers some computational process found somewhere in the thousands of pages of source code of Linux.

That's why software patents act like landmines for software developers. And for software users, since the users can be sued too.
******************End Exceprt**************

On a more personal note, one cannot help but agreeing to his viewpoint !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 11:42 AM 4 comments

Point to ponder

Why is it that a india pakistan cricket match generates more intrest than any other cricket match ? Why is it that people still prefer to watch a Lara play than a hayden ?
Why is it that etc etc so many questions on those lines can be asked. The answer to them all is simple. It is because they play the game for the love of playing the game. They dont treat it as a mundane job ! Ok forget cricket. Why is it that a Vishwanathan Anand or a Kasprov was more favoured and watched than a karpov during a chess match ? It is again the same reason !
That being the case the current indian coach is doing more harm to the sport in india than good. Agreed we need some kind of discipline and the so called "professionalistic" approach, but this kind of discipline enforcement is not correct ! Suderman has written up a beautiful post here
Make no mistake, Dada was wronged and chappel is going to rot in hell for this !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:23 AM 0 comments

Half of it

Ran the bangalore half marathon on sunday. Missed out on running with kribs for company ! Sathish kicked my ass roundly by about 20+ mins ! Dunno for some strange reason even though i had decent practise the ups and downs of the roads screwed me up big time ! Ya the timing was no great shakes. Off to practise now for the next one. Sponsors anyone ? I would prefer if someone picks up my train travel money atleast !!
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 9:51 AM 3 comments

Is the Left Right ?

The leftists and unions have been raising a big hue and cry over the cut in EPF intrest rates from 9.5% to 8.5%. Now let us tarry for a minute and think here. The cut in rates can be thought of akin to the cut in bank intrest rates. Hence if you have say 1000rs in your EPF then a simple arithmetic will tell you that it matters little whether you have 8.5% or 9.5% intrest rate. However if you have say a lakh rupees then it does matter right ? So we can now safely conclude that higher the intrest rates, the higher are the benefits for those having huge sums of money in their EPF's.
Now in public sector organizations, the EPF comes to little around a few thousands every year. The cumulative intrest accrued is also along those lines only.
With all this being the case, the question that needs to be raised is that are the commies the real supporters of the working class, or is this just another political gimmick by the commi no-brainers ?
A real point to ponder.
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 10:51 AM 2 comments

In memory

Haapa kayacha dharmasya sarva dharma swaroopini
avatarava rishtaya ramakrishnayathae namaha

and

om shuklam baradharam vishnum sashi varnam chathurbujham
prasanna vadanam dayaethu sarvavigna upashantaye

Used to go that mellifluous voice of MS. It's been a year.
K.Shyam
PS: Ya i know this blog is long due in updation process.Just that im terribly involved in something else for the moment

Posted by Unknown at 9:33 AM 0 comments

Greed !

"Alavukku adhigama aasa padara ambalayum, alavukku adhigama kova padara pombalayum nalla padiya vazhndhadha sarithiramae kadayadhu" { a man who is jealous and a tempest woman have never known to have good lives } so goes the saying.
This is a good example to that !
K.Shyam

Posted by Unknown at 8:39 AM 2 comments