Google Chrome will be launched tomorrow

Google is launching Google Chrome tomorrow. More details are on google blog. I am looking forward to it. For some screenshots and a first look, go here.

BBQ for ... dummies like me

Here are some of the things to remember while BBQing. Most of the things mentioned here are for charcoal BBQ (the one I did):

1. First things first, to light the charcoal, make a heap in the center of the grill and pour about half cup of starter fluid on it. (1/2 cup fluid for 2 pounds charcoal).
2. Wait for the charcoals to soak the fluid (about 2-3 mins) and then light them with a lighter. Use a lighter with a long pipe or else you risk burning your hand from the burning fumes of the fluid.
3. Allow the charcoal to burn and turn gray. This can take anywhere between 15-30 mins. Once done, spread the charcoal in the grill, evenly, with a BBQ fork and place the cooking grill.
4. All this time, make sure that the charcoal is properly ventilated. Keep the grill vents open and clean.
5. Next spray the bbq grill food spray on the cooking grill and place the patties on it.
6. Allow the patties to cook thoroughly on one side before flipping them over. Remember, you only flip the patties ONCE! You can check if the patties are cooked on the side before flipping them.
7. Once done, serve on a fresh hamburger bun with cheese, lettuce and tomatoes (personally, I like some cucumber dills as well :) )

Enjoy!

NO-TODO

Things NOT to do this week --

• Cribbing
• Gaming
• Overspending
• Drinking soda
• Oversleeping
• Watching movies
• Flirting (tough one)
• Procrastinating
• Daydreaming
• Hesitating (toughest)

Fate ... huh ?

Perhaps one of my most favorite topics for discussion, mostly because it makes me a little uncomfortable and is a bit of a challenge for me to think about it -- not that I can't think about it (God only knows my imagination is wilder than the wildest animals) but because it is hard for me to understand this concept. Accepting it is way beyond my capability.
All my life, I have learned to understand life in a practical and methodical manner. Blame my strongly scientific and engineering education, or the fact that I enjoy patterns and mechanisms, but the issue remains the same - there are things that I just can't comprehend and which seem completely out of control. People call it fate/destiny, but I just cannot understand it.
Life being a sum total of actions and reactions seems to make so much sense, what we call destiny, then, is just the sum of actions that were not executed by us or were not under our immediate control. But does that mean that we couldn't have influenced them ? Now that is something to think about.

How to get out of bed in the morning ?

I've been trying to find ways to wake up early in the morning (which for me means 8-9 am) but have been unsuccessful so far. With the spring semester around the corner (less that 12 hours remaining) I still have no solution to this problem. Here are some of the things I have tried and the various attacks that my subconscious devised against them :

1. Wrist watch alarm - The most useless of all solutions. It only beeps for like 20 seconds. Saying that I am a monster when it comes to sleeping is an understatement. An ant against a lion ... tsk tsk.


2. Coffee Machine Delay Brew - When I bought this new Mr. Coffee coffeemaker, I was hoping that it would be the end to lethargic languorous mornings because it had a delay brew feature (for beginners, a delay brew is like a timed brew. You put the water, filter and coffee and set a time for brewing). But I grossly underestimated my subconscious here. I did smell the aroma of fresh coffee, did hear the annoying belching sounds from the coffeemaker. But ignored it - simply ignored it :(


3. Cellphone Alarm - This one has by far been the best solution, but it has its flaws. It usually works when I sleep light, but if I am tired and in a deep trance I just wake up for a fraction of a second and instinctively switch off the alarm. How I manage to find the "Exit" button in such little time, given that my reaction time is no better than an earthworm's at that moment, and I don't have my glasses on (and I am severely myopic) is another puzzle I have been trying to solve.


4. Blinds off - This is the only working technique. The reasons being habit and practice. My parents used to wake me up by pulling up the curtains. I have learned through experience that sunshine has a stronger effect than caffeine. But there is a catch. I can't sleep with the blinds open - this weirdly placed streetlight outside our apartment throws light directly at our window, instead of the road (the traffic safety issues arising due to this are a different story).

So this is the current scenario. And with the classes about to start, I need to find a way asap. Please comment and enlighten me.

Time Thieves

I read this article a while back and found it quite interesting.

Scrambling Keypad Security

I was trying to enter the Computer Science building today through the back door near SAC (the one where there is no door knob towards the outside - I know it sounds lazy and desperate, but I was doing it just for kicks) and I came across this locked door with a keypad lock. Now I am super skeptical where keypads are concerned but this one truly intrigued me. I have read about these scrambling keypads but never used one. The idea is that for every attempt the keypad scrambles the key-number assignment. The motivation is to prevent the trivial talcum powder attacks (which don't always work, e.g. if the keys are made of high quality matte rubber) or the more advanced thermal imaging attack.

But, then, the s-keypad might not provide adequate security as well. If you think for a while, the strength of the lock boils down to how good an RNG it has, which - I believe - is a very interesting problem to look at. Go to the first link. There you can download the datasheet for the lock. I quickly scanned it and my guess is that they are using the user input to generate new random numbers. Can this feature be exploited in creating a suitable attack ? Do comment.

A Dog for the Underdogs

I haven't had this discussion with anybody for a long time now and thought that this might be an interesting topic to discuss. You may assume that this is in continuation to my reply to Rahul's first comment on my blog entry 'Lets talk about idealism'. But truth be told, that was not my original intent and it is a fresh string of thought that spawned in my head today.
It started with the question - "What would you do if you see an event happening - which you find morally unjustifiable?" (I don't want to delve into the definition of 'morally justifiable' at this point but I am open to discussion about it). "How would you react?" "Would you take an action?"
This is not a new territory for me, as some of my old school friends would corroborate. I have had my fair share of fights and brawls with bullies in school. I couldn't stand and watch innocent people getting threatened and bullied and, hence, ended up in a lot of arguments and fights. People used to think I was being hot-headed, but the way I see it I was being radical. Although now I think of myself back then as this stupid kid who would break rules and get into trouble just to help an underdog out of a tight spot - but being a little objective - I would say it was my answer to the questions I just put before you.
I no longer agree with such an approach as it is too aggressive and destructive. Or maybe I am just getting wiser with old age :D . Anyways, my view has broadened regarding this issue now. I can still not accept apathy, but I think before I react. What I am trying to say is that don't neglect any situation which challenges your morals, but don't be quick to react. Look before you leap, but don't just sit and watch.

A Good Song

Don't be scared guys. Its not a full-fledged post :-)
I just wanted to share with you this song that I like a lot. Its called "Friends" and was composed by Led Zeppelin (yeah yeah ... my favorite band).

Lets talk about Idealism

Ok, so the response to the last post was pretty decent. (And I am really sorry about the font issue, and the comments security setting. I have handled both the problems and this post should be fine).

Mike's comment in the last post made me think about a subject I usually don't ponder about - not because I don't like the topic, and definitely not due to laziness - but it is one subject where I don't agree with myself (some paradox). What I am trying to say here is that the subject of idealism surfaces the hypocrisy within me that I often hide or mask under layers of ... well ... hypocrisy.

I did my schooling in a DAV. DAV stands for Dayanand Anglo Vedic. It is an educational institution that believes in teaching children modern education under western context, together with a strong emphasis on patriotism and spiritual understanding of world and its problems. There are bits and pieces of the spiritual lessons that I remember. The most prominent of these was regarding idealism and another related topic - 'moral dilemma'.

These two lessons had a profound impact on my psyche (usually I don't take school education very seriously). If I am correct, I was 13 or 14 years old at that time. The lessons were thought provoking rather than preachings. I can still recall, our instructor presented the following situation and asked us to think what we might do -

(Note : Cows are considered highly sacred in India. Keep this in mind while reading the following)

'You are on a street and see a cow running away from something. You see it hiding behind a bush and moments later a tanner appears before you. He looks weak and hungry. He tells you that he is looking for his cow that ran away. He says he is hungry and hasn't fed his family for days. By selling this cow's leather he can get some money and take care of his family'

Now, here is the question that my instructor asked us - "What would you do ?"

I understand I am mixing two seemingly different matters here. The problem seems more like a moral dilemma rather than anything related to idealism. But then, moral dilemmas arise under paradoxes of idealism. It is 'ideal' to protect the animal. It is 'ideal' to help the poor man. So the question is - "What would you do ?"

Now some of you would understand why I say - "I don't dare to be idealistic".

Wow! Seems like an eternity since I last posted on this blog. Nobody remembers it anymore anyways. There hasn't been much happening on it for more than a year now. So, I guess its about time I started posting again.

The issue with blog posting is that you need to have a topic to ramble about. Although, rambling has never been a problem with me, but finding an interesting topic is not so easy. You give me a topic and I can talk and express my opinions about it till the time would last. Va La! That gives me a topic for this post - 'The Art of Rambling'.

Rambling is highly underrated in the current society, and I guess the reason being the fast paced lives that people are living. Moreover, the art of digression is looked down upon by the so-called practical modern people. But I strongly disagree with this misconception. In my opinion, digression is an exercise to 'slightly' drift away from the topic of discussion to understand it from another perspective or to explore other dimensions that might have been overlooked during the formulation of the first narrow definition of the concept. Moreover, rambling about a topic also gives you insight into related matters and issues that are, to some extent, correlated or might be correlated if you ramble further about the correlation itself.

I was first impressed by the power of digression while I was watching the movie (yeah yeah... I know about the whole "don't take movies seriously" ideology, but hey! You can find some really cool ideas there - anyways back to the topic) Swordfish. There is a scene in the beginning of the movie (and its prelude near the end of the movie) where John Travolta, Hugh Jackman and Don Cheadle are sitting in a coffee house discussing the concept of a movie where the antagonist wins in the end. Each one of them brings a different viewpoint to the table, but the most striking is the one presented by John. Its interesting to note how he presents an idea, then supports it, then reflects upon it, argues, refines, reflects, then again support, and finally reaches a conclusion. This is a classic example of digression to refine discussion.

In the end, I'd say that people should take more time off their day to day mundane activities to sit down and ramble over a few cups of coffee to come up with new ideas, views and philosophies. And who knows, some great idea might come up in some such discussion.

Until my next post ... Adios!

SUNYSB, or "Stony" (as we Stony Brook students call it) is really a place to be. With a selfless and helpful staff, to knowledgeable faculty (For the "cynics" only: There are always exceptions) and a beautiful campus to great technological and administrative facilities, its a university you'd want to study at.
I had my reservations about Stony before coming here. But they are sort of dissolving now. Although life can be hard here sometimes (particularly with all the paperwork and the bureaucratic issues, that also because its a state funded university hence all the fuss) but you'd always find a way through it.
My best experiences here were with the International Student Services and the university's local bank (Teachers Federal Credit Union). At both the places the staff was very efficient and helpful. Unlike the 'desi sarkari daftars' these non-profit government agencies understand your problems and issues and help you out of them.
I arrived NY on August 22nd (2006) at the John F. Kennedy airport. Our flight (AI 111) was delayed by 3 hours atleast (hail air india!), but still the university voluntary pick-up staff was waiting patiently for us to arrive. They handled our luggage for us, knowing that we were very tired from our 20 hour long flight and took us to the university campus. There, at 9 o'clock in the night, there was university staff waiting for us to assign us our apartments and help us make ourselves comfortable.
Orientations started from August 24th where we were overloaded with details, brochures and pamphlets of all sorts, but despite all the resulting chaos the international students services staff listened to each one of our questions and answering (or forwarding) them to the best of their capabilities.
After having completed the international students orientations, international student check-in, department graduate student check-in, tax forms completion and department orientations, I was finally left with the social security number request. After having applied for SSN at the Social Security District Office at Patchogue (which, btw, is a really beautiful town if you ever visit it). Classes started from September 6th, the first lecture being that of Computing with Logic (CSE505) taken by Prof. C. R. Ramakrishnan.
Another great thing about living in Suffolk county is the fact that you can order stuff from BQ Foods. They sell indian grocery items and fresh food items (parathas, etc) at reasonable prices. For more details check http://www.bqfoods.com
I will be posting photographs on this blog soon (as soon as I buy a digicam, which might take time since my tax forms have been delayed for a while because I didn't submit a copy of my I20 with them, therefore my paychecks would also be delayed), so keep coming back.
Keep reading and commenting.