Pinstorm !!

Insomnia strikes again.

I typed up a really long email. still not sleepy, i was looking up some site or the other and came up with this cropper:

Was going through the profile of a guy called "Mahesh Murthy" on Orkut. He is in his 40s and from the looks of it, he was like some kind of a silicon valley techpreneur who ran startups, funded startups and stuff like that. He is one founder of "passionfund", ive heard that before.

Now one of his companies is called "Pinstorm" (www.pinstorm.com). It is a "search engine based marketing company". wonder what that means. The site really rocks. The company is apparently Red Herring's Hot 100 companies in Asia.

Seems like a great company to track. Will keep in mind.

IT is possibly the ONLY field where one guy or maybe one bunch of guys can make a great company and generate enough money to keep them running.

Lets see ....

A couple more of my Idols !!

Here are William Henry Gates III (Pic1 left) and Yo Mamma ! Johnny Bravo (pic2 Right).

Jughead Jones, One of my idols :)

Was going through a bunch of my old comics, Archies mostly. The Jokes in those comics are simply, well, too funny. Wonder whether they print Archie even today. I'l remember to check next time i visit a store.

Heres an amazing one from the "Jughead Jones double digest of 1996".

REGGIE (In a tuxedo in one of Veronica's parties) to the gang :

"Just because Iam Handsome, sophisticated and charming, people tend to think that Iam shallow"

JUGHEAD (Munching burger nonchalantly):

"If someone thinks that youre Handsome, sophisticated and Charming, then theyre shallow"

reggie chokes on his food while the others are in splits. :)

Dunno if it sounds funny enough on screen, its a helluva lot funnier on the comic.

Heres Some seriously interesting Stuff !!

After all that baloney with Scorpios and Zodiacs, i decided to try my luck with the all famous Okcupid online test (Highly recommended by a jerk whose neck il wring the next time i see him).

Heh heh, they are pretty accurate with their analysis i have to admit.

The Results are as follows:

>>>>> Quote

You are The Mixed Messenger { Deliberate, Brutal, Love Dreamer (DBLDm) }

Just...take...the...fucking...flower...darling.

The Mixed Messenger apologizes again.You're looking for love, but you'll always maintain your independence. You're prepared for a real commitment, but it's also likely that you're ambitious, which creates a certain romantic tension and ambivalence within you. So although you can be very affectionate to someone, you are also capable of pulling some dubious shit. In a relationship, you're usually the emotional leader. With your friends, you're a little bit more part of the pack. You're well-liked but you're not the uninhibited type, so the spotlight's often on someone else. In both social and romantic situations, however, you almost always get what you want. Influencing people is something you do very well.

ALWAYS AVOID: The Playstation, The Peach
CONSIDER: The Priss

Link: The 32-Type Dating Test by OkCupid - Free Online Dating.
My profile name: casanovasucks

Your exact opposite:The Playboy, Random Gentle Sex Master

>>>>>>>>Unquote

How much more pathetic can it get ? :) (Iam suddenly feeling VERY guilty about wasting time and sleep on such trash)

Astrology Part III ( THE END ! )

Part III - The End of Astrology for me. Iam so pissed that i almost scream.

I decided to find out more about Scorpios. I already knew some stuff (Courtesy: Anuj, from the hostel who says that linda goodman (the famous sun sign writer) thinks scorpios are stubborn, arrogant and total pricks all around)

heres what i found:

Words associated with the scorpio -- "I desire," intense, controlling, sexual, compulsive, deep, secretive, mysterious, obsessive, genitals (What tha?)

Energies associated with Scorpio : passion, sensitivity, anxiety. (this i understand)

What f*$#ed me up so bad was this picture of the "Zodiac Man", where each body part is signifies each zodiac sign based on general characteristics.

See where the Scorpion's arrow mark points ? Man ! This is f&^$en Cheap !

Thats the last time il ever do searching for sun signs. Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish !

Iam bloody embarrased too !!

Astrology Part II

Part II.

I was riding high on my,er, "success" with the delectable Jessica and decided to try a different something.

Chinese Astrology - I decided to scram as soon as my browser called me a "Rat". Always felt that the chinese were a funny lot !

People who were born on the 20th of November. Three names that stood up - Bo Derek (Never liked her too much) , Alistair Cooke (from the BBC's 'Letters from America') and Robert Kennedy (aka RFK).

Now, RFK was JFK's Younger brother. He too was assasinated by some palestian immigrant while on his own presidential campaign trail. He even has Parliament wings named after him and 1 dollar coins stamped in his honor. Heres something i found thats bloody strange -- Alistair Cooke , who also shares my birth date was standing next to RFK when he was shot and was the primary witness in the investigation (source: wikipedia, some site on RFK's biography). I find this MAJORLY amazing.

Ok, now i looked for people who were born in 1984. This was easy. Heres what i found:
Prince Harry, Avril Lavigne(yay), Ashlee Simpson(she cant sing for all the nuts in the world), Mandy Moore, Scarlett Johansson (Born on Nov 22, Chee we're close). Not bad !

I was beginning to think -- maybe Astrology on the internet can be fun after all.

Wait till you read Part III

Astrology Part I

Heres the first of my 3 part account on my experiences with Astrology. It all started when i heard someone discussing "Joshiyam" and "Jadagam" and the likes (My Cousin in on the market, you see ;) )

I was born on the 20th of November 1984. Thats makes me a scorpio.(I only just made it coz scorpio dates end on the 22nd). To begin with i googled for other famous scorpios-too many results. so i yahooed instead. Some famous scorpios i found include - Kevin Kline, Hillary Rodham Clinton, Bill Gates (hmm!!), Joaquin Phoenix, Julia Roberts, Richard Dreyfuss, Winona Ryder, Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Maria Shriver (Arnie's wife), Sally Field
Brittany Murphy, Calista Flockhart, Demi Moore, Leonardo DiCaprio, David Schwimmer, Whoopi Goldberg, Prince Charles (Yuck!) , Danny DeVito, Martin Scorsese, Owen Wilson, Calvin Klein, Jodie Foster, Larry King, Bo Derek, Goldie Hawn and lots more.

Now, the blokes at yahoo also have something called a "celebrity love calculator" (somethin like that). You key in your DOB and the name of a celeb you want to be with (whatever that means) and presto ! you have the details. Guess what I did, I chose, well, Jessica Biel ;)

Turns out that shes Aries and that "When Aries and Scorpio come together in a love affair, it can be the kind of relationship where they both wonder how they ever managed apart".

What a load of HorseShit !!!

Read on theres more..

The Beauty and the Beast !!

The Beauty and the Beast

Heh, that sums it up quite a bit.

Jessica Biel. As some sicilian would have shouted, "mamma mia ! whath a beeauty". Voted the sexiest person on earth by the esquire. Man ! She is surely one babe. I get randy even thinking of her. If she plays her cards right, she cud make it big.


This other pic, is more of a mug shot really. This creep is the next bond.( He goes by the name of Daniel Craig, i hear ). I can bet a thousand bucks that he and his 'casino royale' will suck rotten donkey's eggs. What the hell, all bonds looked kinda creepy anyways. the only exception being brosnan, who i think is as classy as they come.

( Psst, i also happen to have a copy of Biel's notorious Gear Mag cover. :). And whew, iam in love.

The Big Mac Index

Heres some really tasty stuff on the Big Mac Index

http://www.economist.com/markets/bigmac/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2708584

(Although the crummy table does not tell me how much a big mac costs in India. I suspect that the BIG MAC index will fail with India because a big mac at spencers would cost about a 150 Rupees (heh heh, about 3.4$ at current exchang rates) ,whereas in the US it apparently costs only 2.90$ leading us to the outrageous conclusion that the Rupee is overvalued.

The answer is simple, 'supply-demand'. While the big mac is like vada pav in the US, its more like gourmet in India. maybe we'll look for some other method to measure PPP

Maybe we can compare the cost of services,say, a haircut. A very decent indian haircut (Like for instance in 'salon' topaz, in adyar costs about 40 rupees. with air conditioning, Stuff labelled 'Nivea for men' and an unlimited collection of stardust, filmfare and even the economic times, its pretty cool. That makes about 1 Dollar.

Now, a haircut in the US, to quote peter lynch (from his book "Beating the Street" written in 1994) from his "friendly neighbourhood barber vinnie dilorenzo" costs 10$. Forget 10 years of inflation to be on the safe side. This makes services in the US 10 times as expensive as in India.

Logic tells me that for high flying techie jobs, this unbalance will be MUCH higher, also aggravated because of the sheer numbers of techies that India is churning out.

(( I beleive that this is probably going to continue being the theme in the coming years(as if its not now). So if we (Me, Indians as such) can improve on skillsets / capabilites to match the sophistication levels of the west there is going to be HUGE opportunities. In services, in manufacturing(Whee), heck, everywhere.

Whew, Ive got lotsa stuff to do

PPP !!??

Hmm

Heres some stuff i looked up when the topic came up with someone.

In actual dollar terms of total GDP (rupees converted to dollars at current exchange rates) India ranks 33.( GDP is the the value of all final goods and services produced within a nation in a given year in case youre confused )

But hear this, India ranks 4th in terms of GDP (total) after USa, china, Japan. calculated after correcting for Purchasing power parity.

This kinda implies that the actual value(not based on going currency exchange rates) of Services, Goods churned out by India is the 4th in the world.

India ranks 125 in Per capita GDP (a measly 3080 USD per head against the USA's 39496 USd or equivatorial guinea's 39444, Below countries like turkmenistan and hey guess who's rank 124, Bhutan. (BAH!)

I know i ud av seen this earlier too. but seeing it now on wikipedia first hand, iam shell shocked.
see for yourself

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29_per_capita

Angst !?

I had a longish discussion with appa today. Kinda made me think of 'information overload' making me 'aimless', 'distracted' and 'unproductive'. Dad 'suggested' these terms in his usual way and walked way smiling. Hmm, this is got me thinking

Alvin Toffler first coined this term 'information overload' in 'Future shock'.

But i thought my problem might be something else, well maybe 'angst' !?

The following meaning is attributed to Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855). ( And wikipedia, heh heh ).

quote - " Kierkegaard used the word angst (Danish, meaning "dread") to describe a profound and deep-seated spiritual condition of insecurity and despair in the free human being. Where the animal is a slave to its God-given instincts but always confident in its own actions, Kierkegaard believed that the freedom given to mankind leaves the human in a constant fear of failing its responsibilities Kierkegaard's concept of angst is considered to be an important stepping stone for 20th-century existentialism" - unquote wikipedia

So the key agenda is to keep focussed. While the unconventional nature of my job has given me a lot of freedom, lotsa resources it has also put a lot of responsibility on my head. To quote another guy (whose name i cant quite remember)

"whenever there is great potential there is even greater pressure to live up to it"

Makes lotsa sense, doesnt it ?

Gotta go to work instead of wasting,um, 'resources' !!

More on the 'Catcher' and Holden Caulfield

When asked once in the 1960s how he expected to die, Lennon's offhand answer was "I'll probably be popped off by some loony." In retrospect, the comment turned out to be chillingly accurate.

In the late afternoon of December 8, 1980, in New York City, fan Mark David Chapman met Lennon as he left for the recording studio and got his copy of Double Fantasy autographed; the event of Lennon signing one of his last autographs was caught by a photographer who witnessed this goodwill gesture. Chapman remained in the vicinity of The Dakota for most of the day as a fireworks demonstration in nearby Central Park distracted the doorman and passers-by.
Later that evening, Lennon and Ono returned to their apartment from recording Ono's single "Walking on Thin Ice" for their next album. At 10.50pm, their limousine pulled up to the entrance of the Dakota. Ono got out of the car first, followed by Lennon. Beyond the main entrance was a door which would be opened and a small set of stairs leading into the apartment complex. As Ono went in, Lennon got out of the car and glanced at Chapman, proceeding on through the entrance to the Dakota.

As Lennon walked past him, Chapman called out "Mr. Lennon." As Lennon turned, Chapman crouched into what witnesses called a "combat" stance and fired five hollowpoint bullets into John's back and shoulder. One of the bullets fatally pierced his aorta. Still, Lennon managed to stagger up six steps into the concierge booth where he collapsed, gasping "I'm shot, I'm shot."
Chapman stood there, holding his .38 Charter Arms revolver, which was pulled out of his hands and kicked away by Jose Perdomo who then asked "Do you know what you have done?", to which Chapman replied "I just shot John Lennon." Chapman then calmly took his coat off placed it at his feet, took out a book and started reading.

Police arrived within minutes, to find Chapman still waiting quietly outside, reading a copy of J.D. Salinger's novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

Very interesting !

What The Tortoise Said To Achilles

"So you've got to the end of our race-course?" said the Tortoise. "Even though it does consist
of an infinite series of distances? I thought some wiseacre or other had proved that the thing
couldn't be done?"

"It can be done," said Achilles. "It has been done! Solvitur ambulando. You see the distances
were constatntly diminishing: and so -"

See ? My original reference for Solvitur. :) Now lets see what happend in the story

The tortoise goes on and bashes achilles up and renames him 'A Kill Ease'. Heh Heh. The gist
goes like this:

The tortoise and achilles write down three lines

(A) Things that are equal to the same are equal to each other.
(B) The two sides of the Triangle are things that are equal to the same.
(Z) The two sides of this Triangle are equal to each other.

Now when achilles asks the tortoise to accept that Z is true based on A and B ( Much like the
crap we got in CAT :) ), the tortoise refuses to do so saying that he has every right to say
that he wont accept Z is true.

Achilles goes on and brings in another statement to trap the tortoise

(C) If A and B are true, Z must be true.

Now he says, ' Now that you accept C follows A & B and is true then Z is true'. The tortoise
stubbornly sticks to his stand, and refuses to accept Z to be true.

Poor achilles keeps adding thousands of Cs, Ds, Es and God knows what else and finally gives
up.

The whole, objective of Caroll's witty essay i beleive is to say that all accepted ground
rules of things like logic / science are all based stuff which, um, are not based on Logic at
all.

Its like this:

"hey all, il be coming to work stark naked from tomorrow and will walk with my hands for the
next 10 days" If someone complains that its against convention ( the 'logic' ) il go ahead and say that it is no more illogical than coming to work in business suits and walking on two feet.

Heh heh. Now Iam bloody sure that neither the tortoise not Caroll would av cracked the CAT. Now I beleive that Achilles himself made a mistake. He shud have shoved the notebook up the tortoise's ass as soon it began acting up. :)

Here's a link to the original story in Caroll's own words

http://www.lewiscarroll.org/achilles.html

ciao

My blog finally has a name !!

I'l be calling it 'Solvitur ambulando'

In English ( This is in Latin ) it means "To solve by walking". This is supposed to have been used by the famous greek cynic Diogenes to explain one of his theories of on motion.

It is also an appeal to arrive at a solution by practical experience.

I read this first from "What the tortoise said to Achilles" by Lewis Caroll. More on that in the next post.

1. i kinda like 'solvitur ambulando' all my issues :)

2. It sounds really fancy ( heh heh )

3. Ive become a BIG fan of Lewis caroll these days.

I considered really sorry sounding nicknames / blognames such as:

"Buzz Lightyear"- The spaceman from Toy story
"The horned king" - ahem, the less said the better
"Morpheus" - the greek god of dreams. ( i hate lawrence fishbourne, Grrr )

I was never any good at naming things. besides that i used to ( used to ??? ) suffer from the belief that fancy names are as Phoney as the junta hiding behind em.

The Catcher in the Rye

Staying on with Holden, the Catcher has been one of the books that ive come to think of quite often in the last year or so.

One critic said: " I enjoyed the book immensely, despite being asleep for half of it. I would go ahead and call it a masterpiece of modern times "

I definitely did not fall asleep anywhere in the middle. But this book can rightly be called a masterpiece. Felt kinda funny reading it though, as though there was no substance in it and yet i cud not put it down.

I remember reading it earlier ( when i was in 8th class or thereabouts ), i read about 2 and a half pages and threw it in with the old copies of my dad's tax journals.

One sample line from the book:

"I think, even, if I ever die, and they stick me in a cemetery, and I have a tombstone and all,
it'll say 'Holden Caulfield' on it, and then what year I was born and what year I died, and
then right under that it'll say 'Fuck you.'"

Another book i read was "vernon god little". Was like a watered down version of the catcher. Although, i have to admit the narrative was very good.

Another parallel that can be shown is the similarity between "to kill a mockingbird" and a recent book of John grisham's called "a painted house". the painted house is a refreshing change from grisham's lawyers and murder trials, it narrates a sequence of events through a boy's frame of view ( like scout finch from mockingbird )

My Blog's IPO

Okay

My blog is finally going public (Links will go out on orkut possibly :) So much for making it public ). And hey, the first person to comment on my blog gets something special from me.

( Ahem, and bots please excuse )

OK. Now why have i done this ?

Lotsa things have prompted me to do this.

Blogs are simply brilliant. They really are.

They are clumsy to use without a 24/7 online connection, as i found when i was in college (Even with a weekend broadband at mama's place.) Now with a 24/7 512 k broadband ( and a laptop thrown in as perks ) , blogging opens up a whole new experience. ( the laptop clinched it though :). I get mad if i even think of someone else looking at my posts. so the privacy helps. )

With me stuck at home in a town most Indians will have trouble pointing out on a map, blogs connect me to people, ( albeit it being one way ) lets me know what other junta are upto, and help get insights on lots of things.

I used to beleive that most people who blog are 'phonies' as holden caulfield or vern little would describe them. I have since then changed this view, to something less radical - Blogging is like some stock market discussion forum. There are about a 100 new posts daily, analysis explaining how the nifty will breakout and reach 3000 in 3 weeks. Hell, some of it even makes sense. But its like- you kinda hope that one or two other guys will endorse you views and youve finally ben heard.

This, i think is part of some basic psychology.

But Recently, i went through blogs of a few people i used to know in college. I wont mention names, but to use another caulfield expression "It killed me". So maybe junta are not so phoney after all !!

Hmm, lets see where all this leads.

p.s. - I have deleted potentially strong or embarrasing posts off this blog or moved em elsewhere. Some of these include stuff like 'My Life so far', 'A list of the best porno sites ive ever visited' and userid, password information for all my accounts. :) So much for applying blogs to improve things

Lets see if my IPO is oversubscribed or undersubscribed