I am assuming you are working on linux.
For IIT Madras users. It was always a big pain for me to set the repositories. Here is the deal for ubuntu users of IIT Madras.
System->Administration->Synaptic package manager
Set the following two things
1)Settings->preferences->network
Click on Direct connection to internet
2)Settings->Repositories->Ubuntu software (by default it will be on ubuntu software)
select download from http://ftp.iitm.ac.in/ubuntu - you can do this by selection other in the selection which will lead you to the ftp site i mentioned
Click RELOAD once this is done- please dont forget to do this. Repositories are set :)
As I mentioned before I am assuming you have installed qt by downloading it from the nokia website. Once you have installed qt do the following
uninstall:
libqt3-headers
libqt3-mt-dev
qt3-dev-tools
install:
libqt4-core
libqt4-dev
libqt4-qt3support
qt4-dev-tools
source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=593183
Download "C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4, Second Edition
by Jasmin Blanchette; Mark Summerfield" from gigapedia.com. Yes it is an ebook. Write your first program. The instructions are very clear in the ebook - even I could do it :P
Monday, October 25, 2010
Friday, October 22, 2010
Replies to kirthika's comments
you should have read this http://g-ravi-ty.blogspot.com/2010/10/innovation-vs-invention.html before you read the following. The italics are my answers to the non-italics :)
Fantastic! I was waiting for this. I wanted some CS guy to get angry with what I posted which is why I made sure my post is ambiguous compared to my usual posts. If you notice the title is not apt.
There are lots of things in this post that I as a CSE student take offense to - (note that I use *CSE* - Science and Engineering, and I do believe nobody combines the aspects of pure science research with systems engineering as well as my discipline does, so CSE is justified)
I did not want to hurt CS guys but I wanted them to take offense to get hot replies like this. Actually this is the perfect setting for my next blog post(probably posts from the comments I see here).I am sorry it was that nasty.
0. Extremely wrong to put "(computer science)" as an alias for programming. Go through the CS section in the BTech Curriculum book and you will see how little of naive programming is mentioned in there. Most of CSE deals with pure research like theoretical CS or systems like network and programming is just a means a to an ends, though it is a very important means.
What you said is damn right! - I have been through the curriculum. I am one of the very few guys who took courses from all branches. I did 6 out of my 7 mtech electives outside my branch-had to almost con my fac ad for that. He was ranting"Ravikanth, you cant get mtech in Aerosopace Engineering by doing courses from other branches which are not even related to this!":P In the first paragraph I was not talking anything about invention or innovation or programming or CSE! I was really talking about my screwed up experience with programming because of my wrong opinion about it. This paragraph had two purposes one is to get your attention and the other is to entice/provoke you(CS guys to be frank) to comment on the rest of my post.
1. Programming is _not_ engineering. Just like other branches, CSE also lays importance on programming as a _tool_, not as engineering in itself. A typical CSE course does include _software_ engineering, but thats only from the point of view of how to design, maintain and work with such a large scale system (the system in this case being millions of lines of code and complex modules interacting with each other).
Agreed. its a tool. I told you I was enticing you. You fell for my classic prank Ravinga. Ok that did not work. Please dont give that stern look-it scares me out. smile please :)
2. Google (representative of search engines) is not an invention ? I really suggest you read up more about the history and complexity of search engines before coming up with a line like that. Think of the sheer complexity of dealing with data of the order thats much larger than 10^18 and finding the exact match for 1-2 search terms in the order of microseconds time. If you look at it closely, there are an insane number of systems design issues that come into picture. If you were to look at it as a large-scale engineering system, my guess is that complexity wise Google should rate on par with (or higher than) the largest factories/refineries/plants ever.
This is the real meat(or pani puri if u dont eat meat). The idea of google is a search engine. who does 'not know/figure out' that a search engine is of great use? I also know that there were search engines before google- . I also know that they sucked big time which is why google was a hit compared to the thers. I am not talking about what it takes to build something as awesome as google. I am not talking about the complexity involved. I am talking about the idea of a search engine.
It is far easier to build a cycle after you get convinced that it can be done. It is orders of magnitude tougher to build a search engine like google even if you come up with the idea of search engine. BUT the idea of google/search engine is something any idiot can come up with.
3. About Facebook again,one indicator I would suggest you to look at is the amount of research funding across the world that is going into social networks - you will be amazed. From among the millions of user accounts that Facebook stores on its servers, how is it able to fetch updates of your friends in no time at all and display when your page loads ?
SO is the idea of social networking. I am not even talking about CS! CSE is the means to enable social networking. I am talking about the idea of social networking. If you notice I am on your side :P
4. Finally, just dont under-estimate something because its *not physical* (as is the case with most comp sci stuff) or the concept appears simple on the face of it. Your post is a classic example to explain why CSE rocks - it deals bests with abstractions, providing solutions to the most complicated problems of the world yet abstracting the gory details out in such a way that the layman never realizes the extent of whats happening and feels there is nothing in there at all. The very reason to why its such a celebrated field is that underneath those layers of abstraction lie complex systems and solid theoretical research.
Thank you for the advice. I wish someone has given that to me before the end of my second year. I already know this right now. It is not just CSE! Any field of science/engineering is like that. Who is going to buy a metal piece of which weighs as much as Airbus A380 for 20,000 crores? If you know someone who does I want to know I am interested in selling him :P
On a related but a different note I would like to mention a quote of my prof "If you cannot appreciate a field of study it does not mean that field of study is stupid it means that you are not smart enough to appreciate it"
PS: I would be glad to provide more examples (ever wondered about how banks manage to combine ATM+mobile banking+internet transactions into a single interface dealing with millions of people and yet never messing up your account balances?) - not sure if you are interested though.
Yes, I am a CSE fanatic.
sure. Actually I am interested :)
October 22, 2010 4:12 PM
kirtika said...
Wikipedia describes -"Innovation is a change in the thought process for doing something, or the useful application of new inventions or discoveries" and Invention as the process of coming up with something new. If you look at it, the PageRank algorithm Google uses was a big *invention* by the founders, who were then CSE PhDs students. The Google search engine itself is the pot-pourri of not one, but hundreds of such inventions.
Pagerank algorithm is a different idea kirthika! I dont know enough about it but is probably better than google itself. Google stands on search engine. Facebook stands on social networking. Even before facebook came people were social networking. Even before google came people were searching. Even before cycle came people were locomoting. There were search engines before google. It is highly possible that there were social networking sites before facebook- I didnt check. There were no cycles before macmillan invented one.
Google and facebook made searching and social networking FAAAAAAAAAAR more easier. Every body appreciates that - I use facebook and google daily. who doesnt?
Fantastic! I was waiting for this. I wanted some CS guy to get angry with what I posted which is why I made sure my post is ambiguous compared to my usual posts. If you notice the title is not apt.
There are lots of things in this post that I as a CSE student take offense to - (note that I use *CSE* - Science and Engineering, and I do believe nobody combines the aspects of pure science research with systems engineering as well as my discipline does, so CSE is justified)
I did not want to hurt CS guys but I wanted them to take offense to get hot replies like this. Actually this is the perfect setting for my next blog post(probably posts from the comments I see here).I am sorry it was that nasty.
0. Extremely wrong to put "(computer science)" as an alias for programming. Go through the CS section in the BTech Curriculum book and you will see how little of naive programming is mentioned in there. Most of CSE deals with pure research like theoretical CS or systems like network and programming is just a means a to an ends, though it is a very important means.
What you said is damn right! - I have been through the curriculum. I am one of the very few guys who took courses from all branches. I did 6 out of my 7 mtech electives outside my branch-had to almost con my fac ad for that. He was ranting"Ravikanth, you cant get mtech in Aerosopace Engineering by doing courses from other branches which are not even related to this!":P In the first paragraph I was not talking anything about invention or innovation or programming or CSE! I was really talking about my screwed up experience with programming because of my wrong opinion about it. This paragraph had two purposes one is to get your attention and the other is to entice/provoke you(CS guys to be frank) to comment on the rest of my post.
1. Programming is _not_ engineering. Just like other branches, CSE also lays importance on programming as a _tool_, not as engineering in itself. A typical CSE course does include _software_ engineering, but thats only from the point of view of how to design, maintain and work with such a large scale system (the system in this case being millions of lines of code and complex modules interacting with each other).
Agreed. its a tool. I told you I was enticing you. You fell for my classic prank Ravinga. Ok that did not work. Please dont give that stern look-it scares me out. smile please :)
2. Google (representative of search engines) is not an invention ? I really suggest you read up more about the history and complexity of search engines before coming up with a line like that. Think of the sheer complexity of dealing with data of the order thats much larger than 10^18 and finding the exact match for 1-2 search terms in the order of microseconds time. If you look at it closely, there are an insane number of systems design issues that come into picture. If you were to look at it as a large-scale engineering system, my guess is that complexity wise Google should rate on par with (or higher than) the largest factories/refineries/plants ever.
This is the real meat(or pani puri if u dont eat meat). The idea of google is a search engine. who does 'not know/figure out' that a search engine is of great use? I also know that there were search engines before google- . I also know that they sucked big time which is why google was a hit compared to the thers. I am not talking about what it takes to build something as awesome as google. I am not talking about the complexity involved. I am talking about the idea of a search engine.
It is far easier to build a cycle after you get convinced that it can be done. It is orders of magnitude tougher to build a search engine like google even if you come up with the idea of search engine. BUT the idea of google/search engine is something any idiot can come up with.
3. About Facebook again,one indicator I would suggest you to look at is the amount of research funding across the world that is going into social networks - you will be amazed. From among the millions of user accounts that Facebook stores on its servers, how is it able to fetch updates of your friends in no time at all and display when your page loads ?
SO is the idea of social networking. I am not even talking about CS! CSE is the means to enable social networking. I am talking about the idea of social networking. If you notice I am on your side :P
4. Finally, just dont under-estimate something because its *not physical* (as is the case with most comp sci stuff) or the concept appears simple on the face of it. Your post is a classic example to explain why CSE rocks - it deals bests with abstractions, providing solutions to the most complicated problems of the world yet abstracting the gory details out in such a way that the layman never realizes the extent of whats happening and feels there is nothing in there at all. The very reason to why its such a celebrated field is that underneath those layers of abstraction lie complex systems and solid theoretical research.
Thank you for the advice. I wish someone has given that to me before the end of my second year. I already know this right now. It is not just CSE! Any field of science/engineering is like that. Who is going to buy a metal piece of which weighs as much as Airbus A380 for 20,000 crores? If you know someone who does I want to know I am interested in selling him :P
On a related but a different note I would like to mention a quote of my prof "If you cannot appreciate a field of study it does not mean that field of study is stupid it means that you are not smart enough to appreciate it"
PS: I would be glad to provide more examples (ever wondered about how banks manage to combine ATM+mobile banking+internet transactions into a single interface dealing with millions of people and yet never messing up your account balances?) - not sure if you are interested though.
Yes, I am a CSE fanatic.
sure. Actually I am interested :)
October 22, 2010 4:12 PM
kirtika said...
Wikipedia describes -"Innovation is a change in the thought process for doing something, or the useful application of new inventions or discoveries" and Invention as the process of coming up with something new. If you look at it, the PageRank algorithm Google uses was a big *invention* by the founders, who were then CSE PhDs students. The Google search engine itself is the pot-pourri of not one, but hundreds of such inventions.
Pagerank algorithm is a different idea kirthika! I dont know enough about it but is probably better than google itself. Google stands on search engine. Facebook stands on social networking. Even before facebook came people were social networking. Even before google came people were searching. Even before cycle came people were locomoting. There were search engines before google. It is highly possible that there were social networking sites before facebook- I didnt check. There were no cycles before macmillan invented one.
Google and facebook made searching and social networking FAAAAAAAAAAR more easier. Every body appreciates that - I use facebook and google daily. who doesnt?
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Innovation vs Invention
Long time ago when I was more idiotic than I am right now I came across programming for the first time. The idea of thinking programming(computer science) as a branch of engineering used to put me off big time. I used to look down upon programming. I never really liked calling it engineering. It did not feel like engineering! :P. I paid my price for such an attitude. I never learn't programming to my heart's content.
Similarly I used to look down upon "inventions" like google and facebook. I know that I misused the term inventions. Google search - Common! what is so impressive about the idea of google? Nothing! Similar is facebook. The ideas themselves are not impressive as such. It is something which any idiot can come up with. The reason these companies became popular is because these companies are useful to us! It is not because they are great "inventions". I heard these are called innovations.
To get a dose of the point of view I have. Contrast the above said examples with an invention like bicycle. I have no clue how Macmillan got convinced that one could balance and ride a two wheeled machine! It takes quite an amount of time for someone to learn riding bicycle. Imagine what it is to believe that it can be done at that time. Inventions like this were far more impressive when I was littler :P. Of course even now..
An unrelated but similar conversation happened when I came to Vizag a couple of days ago. I met Harsha who worked for three years in a civil engineering firm in USA and came here (ya to vizag) to start a civil engineering design consultancy firm. Guess what he says? He says it is way easier for someone to start a IT firm here compared to an engineering firm. Politicians don't bother because they don't understand IT business. Since 'civil= real estate', the person who knows more about who has to be bribed to what extent seems to have an upper hand over the person who actually can do civil engineering. There is a fact which goes around like a joke.Indian government did not involve itself in two things IT sector and IITs. If you notice they did pretty darn well.
Here is a random photograph I shot at when I went to Bheemli
If you have a facebook account you can check more of them at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49165&id=100000480453082
Similarly I used to look down upon "inventions" like google and facebook. I know that I misused the term inventions. Google search - Common! what is so impressive about the idea of google? Nothing! Similar is facebook. The ideas themselves are not impressive as such. It is something which any idiot can come up with. The reason these companies became popular is because these companies are useful to us! It is not because they are great "inventions". I heard these are called innovations.
To get a dose of the point of view I have. Contrast the above said examples with an invention like bicycle. I have no clue how Macmillan got convinced that one could balance and ride a two wheeled machine! It takes quite an amount of time for someone to learn riding bicycle. Imagine what it is to believe that it can be done at that time. Inventions like this were far more impressive when I was littler :P. Of course even now..
An unrelated but similar conversation happened when I came to Vizag a couple of days ago. I met Harsha who worked for three years in a civil engineering firm in USA and came here (ya to vizag) to start a civil engineering design consultancy firm. Guess what he says? He says it is way easier for someone to start a IT firm here compared to an engineering firm. Politicians don't bother because they don't understand IT business. Since 'civil= real estate', the person who knows more about who has to be bribed to what extent seems to have an upper hand over the person who actually can do civil engineering. There is a fact which goes around like a joke.Indian government did not involve itself in two things IT sector and IITs. If you notice they did pretty darn well.
Here is a random photograph I shot at when I went to Bheemli
If you have a facebook account you can check more of them at
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=49165&id=100000480453082
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Conversation with Dean Academics of IIT Madras
NUT CASE!
This is what most of my friends think of prof. Santhakumar who was the Dean Academics of IIT Madras. I have learn't one thing among other things in my stay at IIT Madras. A person who is orchestrating the efforts of people in any good organization always has a view point and usually is very strong about it. Whether we like it or not there is some truth to it and they are very strong about their point of view. I have a deep respect for him. Unlike most people he is a real engineer. He seems to know about all the branches of engineering! It is fantastic to sit and listen to his class. It is true that he cribs about a lot of things. It is also true that what he teaches for the rest of time is fantastic. Also, there is truth in all his cribs. It is just that we don't like to hear it.
This conversation is the following. A lot of profs in IIT Madras are in the bandwagon of the claim that coaching centres are screwing up the quality of the students entering IITs. I am against this. I dont think coaching centres are doing this.
Me: Sir, What is wrong with coaching centres? We just get better teachers there. What is wrong with that?
Some I like them better than the ones who teach at IITs
Prof. Santhakumar: AHA! You obviously find them better because they make your life easier.
Me: what is wrong with making life easier?
Prof. Santhakumar:Everything!
Me: what do you mean?
Prof: Dont you ever wonder about these things? A lot of us don't use power point slides even though we are supposed to be technologists. We still use blackboards. You probably also wonder why the contents of what we teach is almost same for the past 50 years.
Me: I wonder a little but I know the reason for the second part. The laws of science dont change whether it is 50 or 100 years. Newton's laws are going to be the same even after thousand years.
Prof: Its nice that you know that. It is technology which changes not the laws of nature and we dont focus on technology much. Now about the coaching centres. You don't recognize the difference between education and training.
Me: I don't think I know the difference.
Prof: Exactly! that is where the problem stems from. We dont train you we educate you.Our aim is to make you think better. If we make life easier while you are learning you wont grow. This is the reason behind us not simplifying the learning process. We are also in the business of teaching you engineering. That is the reason why we do this educating process through teaching engineering.
Me: Well, it makes sense.
Prof: Most of you kids wont end up in engineering. We know that. The reason why a lot of you kids end up successful is because you get educated and not trained.
(all the old profs call us kids :P)
Me: Its funny that I am hearing this when I am almost about to graduate.
Prof: Dont worry you get a lot of training when you are working(on job). No body is going to educate you there. This is the reason why we don't focus at all on training.
Me: Why don't you tell this to us when we are in first year?
Prof: That is how life is kid. This is why you should listen to profs :P. The coaching centres focus on training you not educating you. That is our problem with coaching centres. The bigger problem is you expect us to do the same when you come here.
I have my thoughts on coaching centres but one cant neglect what he said. The profs want us to learn a LOT in two years. The learning style completely changes from the learning style in school. While there is a lot of focus on rote learning in school, it is of little importance for JEE. It is difficult to make this switch without good teachers when you are 15 years old. Good teachers end up at coaching centres because they pay them more.
On an unrelated note I made a few punctuation mistakes which were pointed out in my last blog post. @Harsha - thanks.
@others:
If you like something tell others by commenting on the blog if u dont like something tell me personally :)
This is what most of my friends think of prof. Santhakumar who was the Dean Academics of IIT Madras. I have learn't one thing among other things in my stay at IIT Madras. A person who is orchestrating the efforts of people in any good organization always has a view point and usually is very strong about it. Whether we like it or not there is some truth to it and they are very strong about their point of view. I have a deep respect for him. Unlike most people he is a real engineer. He seems to know about all the branches of engineering! It is fantastic to sit and listen to his class. It is true that he cribs about a lot of things. It is also true that what he teaches for the rest of time is fantastic. Also, there is truth in all his cribs. It is just that we don't like to hear it.
This conversation is the following. A lot of profs in IIT Madras are in the bandwagon of the claim that coaching centres are screwing up the quality of the students entering IITs. I am against this. I dont think coaching centres are doing this.
Me: Sir, What is wrong with coaching centres? We just get better teachers there. What is wrong with that?
Some I like them better than the ones who teach at IITs
Prof. Santhakumar: AHA! You obviously find them better because they make your life easier.
Me: what is wrong with making life easier?
Prof. Santhakumar:Everything!
Me: what do you mean?
Prof: Dont you ever wonder about these things? A lot of us don't use power point slides even though we are supposed to be technologists. We still use blackboards. You probably also wonder why the contents of what we teach is almost same for the past 50 years.
Me: I wonder a little but I know the reason for the second part. The laws of science dont change whether it is 50 or 100 years. Newton's laws are going to be the same even after thousand years.
Prof: Its nice that you know that. It is technology which changes not the laws of nature and we dont focus on technology much. Now about the coaching centres. You don't recognize the difference between education and training.
Me: I don't think I know the difference.
Prof: Exactly! that is where the problem stems from. We dont train you we educate you.Our aim is to make you think better. If we make life easier while you are learning you wont grow. This is the reason behind us not simplifying the learning process. We are also in the business of teaching you engineering. That is the reason why we do this educating process through teaching engineering.
Me: Well, it makes sense.
Prof: Most of you kids wont end up in engineering. We know that. The reason why a lot of you kids end up successful is because you get educated and not trained.
(all the old profs call us kids :P)
Me: Its funny that I am hearing this when I am almost about to graduate.
Prof: Dont worry you get a lot of training when you are working(on job). No body is going to educate you there. This is the reason why we don't focus at all on training.
Me: Why don't you tell this to us when we are in first year?
Prof: That is how life is kid. This is why you should listen to profs :P. The coaching centres focus on training you not educating you. That is our problem with coaching centres. The bigger problem is you expect us to do the same when you come here.
I have my thoughts on coaching centres but one cant neglect what he said. The profs want us to learn a LOT in two years. The learning style completely changes from the learning style in school. While there is a lot of focus on rote learning in school, it is of little importance for JEE. It is difficult to make this switch without good teachers when you are 15 years old. Good teachers end up at coaching centres because they pay them more.
On an unrelated note I made a few punctuation mistakes which were pointed out in my last blog post. @Harsha - thanks.
@others:
If you like something tell others by commenting on the blog if u dont like something tell me personally :)
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Teaching English to my mom!
I really think I teach very well. One of my future plans is to become visiting faculty(definitely not full time) in some amazing university like IIT Madras :P. I could teach in some lower grade universities like IIT bombay or IIT Kgp or other IITs but I prefer IIT Madras :). I am serious though. I used to teach swimming to people when I used go for swimming in college. I actually took 12 people along with me to the deep pool(from shallow pool) and that was their first time. The funny thing is 8 of them are better swimmers than I am! They swim faster and longer than I can. This is only one incident.
My mother is an enthusiastic learner. She actually picks up things faster than most people. She does not believe even though I tell her this. Like all IITians I left my old computer at home and set up a broadband connection. My dad does not use computer at all and has no interest in learning. The only thing he likes is to listen songs in the computer. My mom was interested so I told her a few things and left. A couple of months ago she re-installed windows on her own- she occasionally called me up if she had doubts in the process. I tell her that its a big deal for anyone who sat before computer for the first time in their life 6 months ago. She does not believe it - well not enough.
Recently, she got comfortable using computer and now she wants to learn English. One of her biggest fears in her life apart from public speaking is learning English. Looks like she had a dreadful line of English teachers through out her education. All her batch mates believed a rumor that when NTR becomes chief minister of AP he is going to ban English from teaching. Their fear was dreadful enough to make them believe that! Now I know that I am dealing with things beyond my control :P.
Did you ever come across this book called "Indlish" by Jyothi Sanyal? It is an amazing book. I should have read it completely. He talks about the reasons why Indians screw up English. A lot of us (including me and you to some extent) speak our native language by translating the words to English. Those better speaking mortals change the structure but most of us dont do it well. They guys who does this change of structure are usually the better guys at English. If you are from Chennai and you find it in some book store please buy it. I will take it from you. I did not finish reading it.
The following is one thing which pisses me off big time. Do you know how correct English is agreed upon? There is a sect of people among the English using population and whatever this elite group uses seems to be the correct english. source: Word power made easy. Its not like science where you make an experiment and decide who ever is right. Its an unfair game I decide the rules and I also participate in the fight of what is right - I always win!.
The following is what I told my mom. Go to the BBC website where they teach English. They have these audio files and the content of the audio files is written on the page. I asked her to read it first and listen to it later and see if she understood it what they are speaking. The second and more funnier thing which I asked her to do was to write an article a day and send it to me for corrections. I asked her to write about cooking so that she can probably start a blog like this. I am sure my US friend would love it. She is an amazing cook. This is not my testimony. It is a testimony of her competitors- I mean my aunts. I am sure this should work out with your moms if they are not already good at English.
By the way the BBC learning guide of English can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/
If you dont want to buy a book but if you still want to read it. Here is a way if you are either in Chennai or Hyderabad. My friend Amrutash has this company http://www.iloveread.in . If you subscribe to it they deliver any book you want like pizzas to your home and you get to keep them as long as you want- no deadlines. If they dont have it they are going to buy one for you. He says - Once you are subscribed to them you wont need to buy a book ever as long as it is non-academic. If you are not from one of these cities ask him to start one in your city.
My mother is an enthusiastic learner. She actually picks up things faster than most people. She does not believe even though I tell her this. Like all IITians I left my old computer at home and set up a broadband connection. My dad does not use computer at all and has no interest in learning. The only thing he likes is to listen songs in the computer. My mom was interested so I told her a few things and left. A couple of months ago she re-installed windows on her own- she occasionally called me up if she had doubts in the process. I tell her that its a big deal for anyone who sat before computer for the first time in their life 6 months ago. She does not believe it - well not enough.
Recently, she got comfortable using computer and now she wants to learn English. One of her biggest fears in her life apart from public speaking is learning English. Looks like she had a dreadful line of English teachers through out her education. All her batch mates believed a rumor that when NTR becomes chief minister of AP he is going to ban English from teaching. Their fear was dreadful enough to make them believe that! Now I know that I am dealing with things beyond my control :P.
Did you ever come across this book called "Indlish" by Jyothi Sanyal? It is an amazing book. I should have read it completely. He talks about the reasons why Indians screw up English. A lot of us (including me and you to some extent) speak our native language by translating the words to English. Those better speaking mortals change the structure but most of us dont do it well. They guys who does this change of structure are usually the better guys at English. If you are from Chennai and you find it in some book store please buy it. I will take it from you. I did not finish reading it.
The following is one thing which pisses me off big time. Do you know how correct English is agreed upon? There is a sect of people among the English using population and whatever this elite group uses seems to be the correct english. source: Word power made easy. Its not like science where you make an experiment and decide who ever is right. Its an unfair game I decide the rules and I also participate in the fight of what is right - I always win!.
The following is what I told my mom. Go to the BBC website where they teach English. They have these audio files and the content of the audio files is written on the page. I asked her to read it first and listen to it later and see if she understood it what they are speaking. The second and more funnier thing which I asked her to do was to write an article a day and send it to me for corrections. I asked her to write about cooking so that she can probably start a blog like this. I am sure my US friend would love it. She is an amazing cook. This is not my testimony. It is a testimony of her competitors- I mean my aunts. I am sure this should work out with your moms if they are not already good at English.
By the way the BBC learning guide of English can be found at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/
If you dont want to buy a book but if you still want to read it. Here is a way if you are either in Chennai or Hyderabad. My friend Amrutash has this company http://www.iloveread.in . If you subscribe to it they deliver any book you want like pizzas to your home and you get to keep them as long as you want- no deadlines. If they dont have it they are going to buy one for you. He says - Once you are subscribed to them you wont need to buy a book ever as long as it is non-academic. If you are not from one of these cities ask him to start one in your city.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The second best book I have read in my life
Foil:You are so gaga about being smart. What will you do if you end up
marrying a dumb wife?
Me: I will make her intelligent
Foil is a human being and a good friend of mine who is now heading the Centre For Innovation.
I subscribe to the premise that anyone can do anything. I am a big fan
of rejecting the idea of talent. Rarely you come across a book which
shatters everything you have been believing."Now discover your strengths"
by Marcus Buckingham is one such book.Unlike
most books he defines what he means by talent and the role it plays
in being exceptionally great at something.
Human brain is the only organ in our body which shrinks. It does not
shrink in size. It shrinks in the number of connections. When you are born
the number of connections in your brain are in the order of billions. As
you grow the brain severs the number of connections. It does that way
to keep you sane. When you have so many connections the brain ends up
drawing several interpretations of its environment. To avoid this
confusion your brain severs some of the connections.
What is your first reaction when you see a particular situation?
When the news of the Taj bomb blast came in the news paper. I skipped the
news article and moved on to the next one. That probably is not the case
for you. you might find me evil/cruel looking at my reaction. My argument
is that when I can do nothing about a situation what is the point in
reading about it. I dont mind reading it if it is interesting to me but otherwise no.
It also does not mean that I dont read newspapers at all. I do sometimes skim
through them but not regularly. I have been accused of not knowing things which
seem to be common knowledge. You can see more of that in the about me section
on the right hand side of this page.
You must be thinking - Enough of telling about yourself just get to the point.
Talent as defined by the book depends on the kind of top of the mind
reactions of your mind when you see a situation. These are not under your
control. They just happen. They depend on how your mind severed connections
in your brain.
Marcus(author) found that there are 34 different themes of talents.Your innate talent is
decided by the top 5 themes of talent. The top five themes
of talent depend on how your mind severed the connections. How your mind
has severed the connections depends on how you grew up.
Whomever I have recommended this book thanked me profusely. I suggest you
get a copy of the book and read it.
caveat: when you buy the book make sure the code on the last page is not
scratched. You will need that to find your top of the mind reactions.
marrying a dumb wife?
Me: I will make her intelligent
Foil is a human being and a good friend of mine who is now heading the Centre For Innovation.
I subscribe to the premise that anyone can do anything. I am a big fan
of rejecting the idea of talent. Rarely you come across a book which
shatters everything you have been believing."Now discover your strengths"
by Marcus Buckingham is one such book.Unlike
most books he defines what he means by talent and the role it plays
in being exceptionally great at something.
Human brain is the only organ in our body which shrinks. It does not
shrink in size. It shrinks in the number of connections. When you are born
the number of connections in your brain are in the order of billions. As
you grow the brain severs the number of connections. It does that way
to keep you sane. When you have so many connections the brain ends up
drawing several interpretations of its environment. To avoid this
confusion your brain severs some of the connections.
What is your first reaction when you see a particular situation?
When the news of the Taj bomb blast came in the news paper. I skipped the
news article and moved on to the next one. That probably is not the case
for you. you might find me evil/cruel looking at my reaction. My argument
is that when I can do nothing about a situation what is the point in
reading about it. I dont mind reading it if it is interesting to me but otherwise no.
It also does not mean that I dont read newspapers at all. I do sometimes skim
through them but not regularly. I have been accused of not knowing things which
seem to be common knowledge. You can see more of that in the about me section
on the right hand side of this page.
You must be thinking - Enough of telling about yourself just get to the point.
Talent as defined by the book depends on the kind of top of the mind
reactions of your mind when you see a situation. These are not under your
control. They just happen. They depend on how your mind severed connections
in your brain.
Marcus(author) found that there are 34 different themes of talents.Your innate talent is
decided by the top 5 themes of talent. The top five themes
of talent depend on how your mind severed the connections. How your mind
has severed the connections depends on how you grew up.
Whomever I have recommended this book thanked me profusely. I suggest you
get a copy of the book and read it.
caveat: when you buy the book make sure the code on the last page is not
scratched. You will need that to find your top of the mind reactions.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
The one when you have a nut case on the review panel!
hapkido=hap-ki-do=coordinated-energy-method = method to co-ordinate energy
Thats the martial art I learnt from my prof(Dr. Muruganandam) for about two and half years while I was doing my engineering. One of the three principles of this art is non-resistance."Hapkido-ist does not stop that force or apply a force in the opposite direction, rather he/she will just move away from that line of force that the attack becomes ineffective or probably amplify that force in such a way that the opponent loses balance." Its a good thing if it made sense if it does not it just means the following- dont oppose force, either avoid it or use it to your advantage.
OMG! the plane crashed.
Mr.Kamallakaran: Common ravikanth lets start flying the next plane
Me: What about the crashed one, sir?
Mr.Kamallakaran: We will pick it up at the end after we are done with our flying.
(By flying I meant Remote controlled airplane flying.) after sometime.
Me: How could you be so calm?
Mr. Kamllakaran: for two reasons. 1) there is nothing we can do now. 2) I know what would have happened to the plane
Me: What do you think would have happened to the plane?
Mr. Kamallakaran: It would have broken at the middle of the fuselage(body of the plane).
To my surprise that is what happened to the plane. I was in total awe of him. He then told me how he knew about it. He makes the plane structurally weaker in the middle of the fuselage. In the event of a crash the plane breaks in the middle and nothing happens to the rest of the plane. All he has to do is go back home and just attach it there.
Most of the building skills I have in aeromodelling are because of him. One of the biggest reasons IIT Madras has a good aeromodelling club is Mr. Kamallakaran.
Ok. How the hell are these two things related to handling a nut case on the review panel?
I did manage to use them in a couple of occasions. Make your presentations weak at places where you can handle questions :) Its that simple. Once the nut case gets convinced that you know enough of what you talk you have earned his confidence. If the people on the review panel are sane they will forgive even if you make a couple of mistakes here and there. If you have a nut case who is bent on screwing - make your traps :).
We have done two things - did not oppose force (of the nut case), planned for a crash. Let me know if you do use it in any occasion :)
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