Bus Ride, iPod

I left for City Centre yesterday from home. I had to catch a rickety share auto, get to Vadapalani. Then, i caught a bus to Alwarpet and at last, a 12G to the destination. There were a couple of kids sitting behind me in the bus. Their shirts were torn in places, unkempt hair and they were bare-footed. One of them was talking about a ride from Porur to some place near the beach. "Dei, Andha driver-u valchu valchu otnaayaan. Amma, mudhukulaan kanna pinnanu novudu daa." (Translator's note: Refer Madras Bashai in Wiki to get an idea of their dialect).
And their conversation was along the lines of some "pullayaaru sadurthi" festivities. They caught my attention when one of the mentioned about iPod and iPhone. And the kids started talking about "Thottu. Thottu" (the touch feature) phone pesalaam. I was dumb-struck and think Jobs has got it right. He has made the entire market to go after the touch feature.

PS: Wanted to check whether they mention about flash also. Unfortunately, they did not. :( :(

Advertisements.. Fail

A few ads get on to my nerves. Especially, when they stoop below a level. For example, LG's lets zap ad. Huh, selling someone's stuff becomes a "Wonderful Moment in Life"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTsPpV6no1Y
I will definitely like to meet the creative brain behind this ad.

The other one is the Micromax ad featuring Sehwag and Gambhir. I don't know what will be going through their minds when the ad is screened on the giant screen in the ground. (and if they are present in the ground. Seriously, i can't imagine being in their shoes. I pity them). Hopefully, cricketers will also start becoming choosy about the script of ads to avoid public embarrassment.

The icing on the cake is Dhoni's micromax ad. "Omg, this is my n-th mobile. Stop flicking it. Boo-hoo hoo hoo... booo hoooooooo". Perhaps the ad directors need to check this out.

A long year...

[24th Jan 2010]
I realized yesterday that it was a year since there was the storm. To just escape out of the reality, i ran home and got in terms with things that transcended the same day, a year ago. After spending so much time in absolute disbelief and disappointment on the first day, i realized to look ahead rather than think about what had happened. Then, there was a wait. A huge wait. Maybe, one can call it a drought after a devastating storm. The month of February, the shortest in the calendar year, seemed to be really long than actually it was. Quite ironical. Many of them tried easing me out of it during the period. I spent most of my time pondering about what had gone wrong. Where did i go wrong? Did i screw up anything big time? Rescue efforts came in from all quarters. Finally, the drought ended with welcome showers. Enduring such a period toughened me mentally. Although i was never given straight answers for my questions.
A lot has changed now. I exist and the storm-causing entity is no more. Journeyed on a ship before jumping to a smaller boat, as the ship was erased from the face of the earth by those who were given the sacred powers, exactly six months after the welcome showers in the month of March. Efforts to switch to a bigger vessel aligned with my interests got dented by somebody else's mistake. Life rolls on. When there is a crest there will always be a trough. It is up to the individual to build the ark, maybe multiple ones, before it rains. Remember to build them, before it rains, before it rains.

A particular ARR's song

:: This is not a review about his music and stuff. It is just a blog admiring a particular song for which he had composed the music. The effect of the song might last on me for a day. Thought, will roll out my current state of mind as a post before the euphoria subsides. ::

I had been playing the "Iktara" song (one can even go to the extent of saying that i just listened to this song alone) from "Wake up Sid" for several days (right from the time i had watched the movie). And today my roomie asked me to listen to a song called "Thee Kuruvi" from Kangalal Kaidu Sei (Tamil movie). I had listened to this particular song before this day. But, i never gave much attention to the lyrics nor to the small interludes of different musical instruments which ARR had used while composing the song.

I found the lyrics of this particular song amazing. The music is top class, amazing and awesome. Particularly, the small interludes in between the singing(although it is a trademark of ARR's compositions, this one looks special) make it even more beautiful. And the relative ease with which Harini sings(/zaps through) the "theekuruviyaay theenkaniyinai" couplet adds "the extraordinary tag" to the song. That particular couplet was an absolute tongue twister and she had sung it magnificently. Right now, as you can guess, this particular song has become the next Iktara of my list.

Some prime number puzzle

One of my friends asked me to solve a basic puzzle. The results I found after solving the same made me to write a blog. Yeah, first the puzzle.

Prove that p^2 - 1 is always divisible by 24 for p being prime and p>=5

The solution is fairly simple. The factors of LHS is p-1, p+1. One of them is divisible by 2 and the other by 4 (Since, p is odd and out of two consecutive even primes one of them will be divisible by 4). Out of every three consecutive natural numbers, one of them should be divisible by 3. Since p is prime, either of the factors is divisible by 3. And hence the proposition is true.
After this, another colleague told me that prime numbers, greater than 3, can be expressed as 6K+1 or 6k-1. (It is not a sufficient condition, in the sense, all numbers of the given forms needs to be prime). After spending some time, i found out that all the numbers modulo 6 can be expressed as 6q+r and r can range from 0 to 5. Given this, one can arrive at the conclusion that two sets of natural number forms 6q+1, 6q-1 (same as 6q +5) cannot be directly expressed as product of two direct factors. And hence, the prime numbers can fall into the class either of the number forms. So, the hypothesis is valid. I was just hunting for other numbers which will be forming such number forms (classes) that can be used for primality testing. I have to devise some sort of strategy to find some other number, which will generate two classes. (Quiet obviously, 2 3 and 4 are already considered). If someone can point me to a good read on the same, it will be awesome.
Later, i moved on to read about Sexy Primes and Twin primes in wiki. The articles were awesome and i loved it :). Also, if possible try reading about Surreal Numbers (just google for it and download a nicely written pdf on the same. this is purely for pleasure reading).

Randomness

If u had accidentally visited this link then pl do click here.

Its been a long time, since i had posted something in this blog roll. I just have a huge list of questions unanswered. Like, how to pass time on weekends? (except those when i go to IISc or home). What do ppl imply when they preach "have a life" ? Is not "having a life" a matter of perspective? I was always wondering about this when people pass such a comment.
I am now maintaining a wonderful cubicle-shifting rate at the office space. The one am sitting now is number "5"th in one and half years. Aaha.. one and half. I just remember that funny reader post i came across [Click here]. (Make sure to click on the aforementioned link, before u continue :P) What ever might change in the world, i dont think these ppl are going to change their policy on "Operation Fleece S/W engineers". (This operation is not carried out by a small clique of Autowallahs at Ben-kuluru). I am not going to compare these (relative) gentlemen to the thugs at Chennai. They are fleecers/(any other abusive adjective will suit to describe them) of the highest degree. I expected the govt concerned to make an attempt to standardize these things. (quiet obviously their polic(e)-ies are screwed up).
And yeah, my friends start up is kicking off really well. When you get time, try visiting interviewstreet.com or the discussion page. Hope they go a long way :) .
Edit: Forgot to add abt coming across a pub named "Just another Pub". Got reminded of a funny little friend who prefixes every handle of his with the string "Just Another" :P

Some sense at last...

I was just stunned by the incredible stupidity of our broadcast media while showing the coverage of the mumbai attacks. Moreover, a few news channels were stating in between reports that, we are the first ones to bring out this and blah blah. Keeping ppl well informed of the situation is different from playing with the sensitiveness of the issue (never thought that, freedom of speech can be stretched to such an extent). At last, some sense prevailed over these broadcast media. Saw this piece of news article floating on the net : http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blnus/14181780.htm . At last, they are back to their senses.

PS: This news merited to be published as an article, just because, this entailed the incident. Had the regulations been brought about earlier, i dont know how many would have cared to publish the same. It is just the way, Mr.Taleb had explained in his book, The Black Swan.