Do you know Mahatma?

The Indian 5 rupee coin comes in so many size/shape/design now-a-days.



And it is going to be a tough task to have automatic vending machines accept them. The picture has only few types of 5 Rupee coins, I had at a time. There are many more in circulation.



Till I saw one of the 5 rupee coin which had "MAHATMA BASAVESHWARA" inscribed on it, I assumed Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is the only Mahatma!




So who is this Mahatma Basaveshwara ? Are there any other people, who are called Mahatma? I found Jyotirao Phule.

Guess, now coins are released in memory of people, incident etc.. instead of stamps. Can you think of anything equivalent that could be done digitally? Or something is already in use?

Back from National Free Software Conference - 2010

I, along with Chen, the Maintainer of Gnome Evolution project gave a talk in National Free Software Conference - 2010, Bangalore. Our talk was titled "Developing a Free software, Inside story"

I talked about who all are developing Linux Kernel, and how one can get started etc... Then Chen talked from his perspective. It was an inspiring speech, even I felt greatly motivated by him. He started with how he was excited, when he made changes to the software he used and showed it to his friends when he was new to open-source. Later he talked about Gnome and Evolution community. In the end he had lot of fans around him, and it took him nearly an hour to leave the hall after the talk!

Before our talk, we attended couple of talks. "Free Software Business Model – Software as a service" by someone from CGI. It was the usual corporate talk explaining CGI's business and then what is SaaS, PaaS, IaaS,... There was "Debate on Open Standards draft 2.4" by Venkatesh Hariharan, Policy Director, Red Hat and Prabir Purkayastha, Knowledge Commons. It was about Indian government's policies regarding mandating open standards and formats.

I came to know about this conference only 2 days ago for the first time. It was hosted by the Free Software Movement of Karnataka(FSMK), co-sponsored by Dept of IT Karnataka, Kerala IT Mission and Govt of West Bangal. The punch-line of the conference was "Free Software is the Future... The Future is ours..." I predict in future, Conferences won't provide network as everyone would have mobile Internet themselves. And this conference was ready for tomorrow already!

Weird binary!!

I read about weird binary at Varun Kumar's blog (http://varunkumar-n.blogspot.com/2010/03/weird-binary.html)

Number system with base as –2 (minus two) is commonly referred to as “Weird Binary”. Like binary number system, weird binary also uses the binary symbols 0, 1. The bit positions in weird binary represent the powers of (-2). For example: 11001 in weird binary represents 9 in decimal system.

This number system reminds me a saying in Tamil regarding tough situations, "For every foot of climbing, Slipping 2 feet". ஜான் ஏறுனா மொழம் சறுக்குது .

So How to convert from decimal to weird-binary(base minus 2)?

But I didn't want to check-out others solutions to the problem, before trying it myself. I wanted to find a pen and paper way to calculate it, similar to the one we use to convert from decimal to binary. And found it interesting!


Just at every alternate step, instead of going for the maximum multiple of 2 less than previous balance, find the minimum multiple of 2, greater than previous balance.
IOW, at alternate steps, if the remainder was 1, add 1 to next balance(quotient).

Weird-binary can be used to represent negative numbers without any special sign-bit. But I still couldn't think of any use for this negative two base system. Can you? Is it being used anywhere?

Unclear advertisements...

There are so many advertisements for TVs and DTH services on TV! In many of them, they show a blurry picture, and then as a TV frame crosses the screen, the picture inside the frame is shown with crystal clear clarity. It simply means that the TV + service, I currently have is already delivering such quality picture ?!

Or do they mean that, the picture via there products is more clear than, even watching it directly? Then all the TV production teams should buy there TV and first get the picture on it, then shoot that picture and tele-cast it. ;-)

I understand advertising for TVs via TVs do help. And today, we go for multiple-TVs + multiple service providers. This is just a joak.

Green fridge

An idea to save power.

Why not have a split-refrigerator similar to split a/c?
Wouldn't fridges releasing the heat inside an air-conditioned(cooling, not heating) room would make it hard for the a/c? Or does keeping the fridge inside the a/c room reduces the power used by fridge?

Any way I don't live in an air-conditioned apartment and I believe energy can neither be created nor destroyed. But my fridge heats my apartment, which I don't like during summer. I would like it to dissipate heat outside my apartment. But during winder it can continue to serve as a room-heater.

33% Ladies and 0% gentlemen

33% reservation for women. Will there be a rule to have a women PM/CM for 33% of time per-term? If it is OK to force a women representative for a constitution for a term, this should also be implemented.

At least we should implement 33% reservation for men as well, even though it is not needed right now, to maintain equality and avoid problems in the future. Also it would help hiding the gender based discrimination of law.

One solution could be the one in my school. One male representative and one female representative per constitution.

I can foresee a future protest by Eunuchs for reservation. It would be better if we can implement it now itself. Also I would like to know the basis for this particular 33%, why not 34%?

சிங்கம் stoolலதான் நிக்கும்

சிங்கம் படத்துல சூர்யா அனுஷ்காவுக்கு ஜோடியா நடிக்கிறாராம். ஒயரம் கம்மின்னு Stool-ல நின்னு நடிக்கிறாராம். தில்லா உயரம் கம்மியான Hero-வாவே காட்டி படம் எடுங்கய்யா. நம்ம சச்சின் டெண்டுல்கரே, அஞ்சலி டெண்டுல்கரவிட உயரம் கம்மிதான்

What these advertisement mean to me

HDFC ATM
A guy parks his car in no-parking. Before the cops could tie his car to towing truck, he gets back in the driver seat.
Probable intended meaning: No crowds at ATM, and very fast service
I understood: ATM's without parking facility and no customers except law-breaking stupids

Ashirwad Atta
A young daughter of the family is too fast and active doing like stealing chappathi's, removing clothes from the drying line, when it rains before her mother could.
Intended meaning: Ashirwad atta keeps the girl healthy and energetic
Conveyed meaning: Everyone else, who also eat the same atta are dull and lethargic.

Did you ever had such interesting mis-interpretations?

விண்ணை தாண்டி வருவாயா

கடந்த வார இறுதியில் (வாரநாட்கள் அல்லாத மற்ற நாட்களை தமிழில் எப்படி கூறுவது?) "விண்ணை தாண்டி வருவாயா" படத்தை சென்னை சாந்தம் திரையரங்கில் பார்த்தேன்.

ஏ ஆர் ரஹ்மான் ஏமாற்றி விட்டார் என்றே தோன்றுகிறது. படத்தில் ஒரு கட்டத்தில் அவரது பழைய பாடலான "முஸ்த(அக்கு)பா முஸ்த(அக்கு)பா" பாடல் வரும்பொழுது அவரது இசை-யில் உள்ள இறக்கம் தெளிவாகிறது. அவரது பழைய பாடல்களில் உள்ள வித்தை(மேஜிக்) இப்பொழுது குறைந்துவிட்டதாக உணர்ந்தேன். அல்லது எனக்கு வயதாகிவிட்டது(அவருக்கும்தானே).

கௌதம் மேனன் "வேட்டையாடு விளையாடு" திரைபடத்தில் போட்டதை போல, "Another episode in a young mans pursuit of love" என போட்டு இருக்கலாம். "வேட்டையாடு விளையாடு" திரைப்படம் "காக்க காக்க" திரைபடத்தை நினைவூட்டுவதை போல, இப்படம் வாரணம் ஆயிரம் படத்தினை நினைவூட்டுகிறது.

படத்தின் உச்ச கட்ட காட்சிகள் பிடித்தது. ஆனால் படம் எப்பொழுது முடிவடையும் என ஏங்க வைத்து விட்டது. படத்தினை ஒரு அரை மணிநேரம் குறைவாக வரும் வகையில் எடுத்திருக்கலாம்.

படத்தின் முடிவில் ஒரு கதாபாத்திரம் "..நான் சாந்தம் தியேட்டருக்கு போறேன்.." என கூறுவது பிடித்தது! ஒவ்வொரு திரை அரங்கிலும் அந்த அரங்கத்தின் பெயர் வருமாறு செய்திருகிறார்களா என தெரியவில்லை!