Life is like a Camera

Really nice analogies impress me. Came across this brilliant one today.

"Life is like a camera.
Focus on what's important,
Capture the good times,
Develop from negatives,
and if things don't workout, take another shot!"

Up and Down mean the same!

One interesting conversation I have everyday with my American friends.

"Hey XYZ, do you up for this?"
"Yeah, I am totally down for it."

But there is no such line as "I am up for it" when one isn't ready. In short, "I am up" and "I am down" mean the same. It's quite 'anti-analogous' to the head shake we have in India. We say Yes, No and unsure with the same expression. :P

Beautiful Sunday!

Sunday seems so beautiful today. It's magical how good food and good sleep can make everything around us beautiful! After sleeping for 9 hours, having huge fruit salad plate (Bananas, Red Grapes, Green Grapes, Green Apple, Red Apple, Pear, Blueberry yogurt and Milk) for breakfast, life seems so positive. To add to that, listening awesome songs from Songza is really making my day!

Let's get back to work! :)

Screen Protectors - Pheww!

Blue Jeans and Aliens

What if some aliens were to land on our planet right now. Their first journal entry would be, "We found colorful creatures but they most of them share a common pattern. Their lower half has similar blue colored skin." :P

A great tribute to Nazia Hassan

Disco Deewane - arguably the second most famous song by Nazia Hassan (first one being 'Aap jaisa koi meri zindagi mein aaye') - has been my one of my favorite songs. My father loves her albums and I have been listening to them since .. I don't know.. I was born? I have always been a fan of her voice. Even today, her albums are present on my laptop, mobile, iPod and all the hard disks I own.

Yesterday, I was listening to random songs online when the service started playing a revamped Disco Deewane. Later I found out that it is a part of the song, 'The Disco Song' of an upcoming film 'Student of the Year' by KJo. I was completely startled and started Googling everything on how and why this song reached this platform when no one in the industry even created a remix of it! (during the remix creation era of 2000's)

I feel this is a great step by KJo. Now, almost all the YouTube videos of Disco Deewane have the top comment as "Thumbs up if Student of the Year brought you here!". It is a great tribute to the most beautiful (vocally and physically) singer.

'..and I was like..' Why do you like 'like' so much?

One distinct thing that girls (and some guys) who have lived in US for long say is 'and I was like.. and then he/she was like ..' and I am like why? Why do you need it? Not just this, they say it in every single line! Even to communicate what they did in the past, they say, ".. and I was like .. ".

Initially, I used to feel as if a small girl is learning to speak and trying really hard to communicate herself. Nowadays, I try and avoid "I was like" people. Conversations with them progress 50% slower because of the redundancy. On secondary thought, imagine the amount of 'word power' US loses because of this. :P

Obscurity and Security

People keep getting confused between obscurity and security. I was having a discussion with some CS guy and he was having trouble getting the idea of security. His idea was, if you are able to hide a thing, it is secure. Actually, by doing that a object becomes obscure not secure.

So here is my small explanation :
Obscurity is when you hide stuff so that people won't be able to get it in one shot. But once you know where/how it is obscured, the obscurity vaporizes. Its no longer 'secure'. Security is different. In security, you 'secure' it using some mechanism and you provide details of the mechanism. You provide how the whole system works. You just need to keep some parameter(s) (inputs or keys) secret which will allow you to access the object. Without the parameter, if you can't retrieve the object, it is secure!

Computer Smash! WTF!

I am subscribed to an engineering frat house. Today, I received this totally idiotic event invitation.

"XYZ Fraternity will be hosting the best rush event ever at 6pm.  It is known as Computer Smash.  We will be taking old computers, printers, or anything electronic and smashing them to pieces.  Come let out your frustration of old technology with a sledgehammer or baseball bat.  You are also invited to dinner at the house at 5pm."

My first reaction.. WTF! I agree you don't have any use for it but why smash such tech? Give them for recycling or donate it somewhere. Describing it as 'best rush event ever' was even more infuriating. I should do something about it!

Tata Consultancy Services at Career Fair

My first reaction on seeing Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) at Career Fair, "Scope hota hai! Jaan chali jaaye but resume nahi jayega" :P

But yeah, its good. It's good to see a Indian Software Company making this big and hiring CS@UIUC!