A less taught aspect of engineering

"Many people think engineering is applied science. It works the same in Perth, Pune, Paris or Pocheon: you will get the same results from the same experiments.

However, engineering is much more than applied science. Engineering is a coordinated social performance of many people with the technical expertise distributed among them, like an orchestra. Social interactions constrain the results just as the strength of steel limits the height of our tallest buildings."

This is such a beautiful and articulate expression of a rarely taught fact about engineering. It's a fact that all engineers would have experienced but not all would have understood. Not until they saw it in plain words as quoted here from this article. I now realize that it was there at the back of my mind, as a funny feeling you get when you use a theorem that you don't fully understand, or when you read a proof that doesn't seem to add up. The article itself may or may not go well with you but this one excerpt, I thought, was worth preserving.

Favorites in Roopak (7-beats)

Songs in Roopak taal (7-beats) have a unique funk element to them. Sadly, there are much fewer gems of this kind than I would like. It's worth keeping track of whatever I come across. You are most welcome to contribute - any genre.

1. Baawra mann, Hazarein Khwahishein Aisi
2. Aaj jaane ki zid na karo, Asha Bhosle
3. Piya tose naina lage re, Guide [Siddhartha Chaudhuri]
4. Teri bindiya re, Abhiman [Gaurav Srivastava]
5. Tere mere milan ki ye raina, Abhiman [Pankhuri Agarwal]
6. Piya bina, Abhiman [Pankhuri Agarwal]
7. Aap ki nazaron ne samajha, Anpadh [Ritesh Kolte]

Titles are (inter) personal

It was my 25th birthday yesterday, and I got a flattering deluge of wishes on facebook which beat my own expectations by far. More interestingly, almost as a collective gift, I was addressed by 45 unique titles other than my first name! Many of those took me down different memory lanes reflecting occurrences and phases of my life, making it a collection I would like to preserve. Words can be surprisingly powerful, especially those not in the dictionary.

1. Bhai saab
2. Dost
3. Dude
4. Boss
5. Mr. Manu
6. Man
7. Handsome
8. Mate
9. Mr. Bansal
10. Tabalchi
11. MB
12. Bansal
13. Hero
14. Bhaiya
15. Ladke
16. Manu Manu Manu
17. Brotha
18. Manu ji
19. Bhai
20. Manu bhai motor wale
21. ManU
22. Dear
23. Bushman
24. Kid
25. Bro
26. Manu bhai
27. Manu Bansal
28. ManuB
29. Tau
30. Manu Da
31. Sirjee
32. Mr. Manu Bansal
33. Buddy
34. Puttu
35. Barkhurdar
36. Bhaaya
37. manub
38. mofo
39. manub686
40. .k.
41. Manu Modular Bansal
42. Dada
43. Bansi bhaai
44. Mr. Bansal
45. Lawndays

My problem with religion

I think I finally articulated my problem with religion in the popular form. Thanks to Ritika Dusad - discussion with her was instrumental in achieving this. The biggest, and likely only, problem I have with religion is that the way in which you are introduced to it, preaching or reading, starts with the premise that there is a superior way of life than yours. It ends up convincing you that what you are doing is not the best and therefore, you are not there. You come out humbled and feeling inferior to yourself, or your ideal projection and thus, become your own competitor. And perhaps that is what makes this mode of propagating religion so effective that a slight tip into it pulls you all the way in - nobody, and I mean nobody, can be spared this inferiority complex, because the competition is not with another human, but with yourself. And it doesn't stop there. You are also convinced that religion is the only way to self-upliftment. That's the glue.

Therefore, no matter what your state is, no matter how good you are (whatever that means - don't ask me to define good, but I won't be able to, but just think of it as a measure of how close you are to that ideal projection), you will always be split away from what you want you want to be, that is, when religion kicks in.

Ever heard of a religion starting with "You are great! Think of all the reasons why that is true."? Nobody is totally devoid of good. And that's the irony - the path to improvement has to begin with realizing your shortcomings. It's just that the goal religion places on you is so far ahead that it could make you recoil, stoking self-condemnation to the extent that you lose the ability to identify and, therefore, nurture the good in you. All that dominates is negativism.

Religion may be great. Its intent too. That's not even the question. But the popular form is surely not for the average person. And perhaps that is why so few really attain what religion aims. Why do you punish the laborer for not being an astronaut?

Work vacation

Work. Vacation.

Work. Vacation. Work vacation. "Are you getting it?" as Steve Jobs says it. You don't pay your bills. You don't drive around. You don't even pay a visit to the courthouse for that fix-it ticket they gave you. You don't go out to eat. You don't go get groceries. You don't go move your clothes from washer to dryer. And yes, you don't even take a shower.

Something is missing from that list. Something is naggingly off. Work. We never used that word! That's what you don't put aside. In fact, it's the only thing you do. Well, okay, respond to email like a master, so they know you're working. Forage in the kitchen. And when you really can't hold it any longer, answer the nature. But for all the rest of your 26 hours, you satiate the student in you, the engineer in you, the detective in you, that ferocious warrior in you who shall not be held back by dark ignorance, the prophet in you who sought the divinity of knowledge and understanding, and the dreamer in you who knew where heaven was.

You take that vacation into waters you want to sail. You are the master and commander of that ship. You choose the course. In a world where you never run out of time. You don't sleep thinking about the next morning. You wake up without remembering the last night, except that you were sailing, only to be able to sail again. That, my friend, is the "work" vacation.

26-hour syndrome

Let me explain. There are days when I want to go to bed at 12 midnight, and I get up at 7 in the morning. The next day, I would still want to hit bed at 12, but I'd get up at 9am. The next night I just keep tossing and turning for a couple of hours if I hit bed at 12. I feel if the day was a couple of hours longer, or if I could happily live a longer cycle - sleep more, wake more - things would work out much better. Isn't it possible that God made random errors in manufacturing human beings, and while many were aligned to the 24-hour cycle, some were not?

Amarok 1.4 on newer *ubuntu

If your newer (k)ubuntu comes with Amarok 2 by default, here's an easy way to install Amarok 1.4 even if you just have KDE4.