Shakti Bar

What is the purpose of life?

2010-12-22T08:53:00.003+05:30

(In reply to someone's post on FB.)

Two theories I subscribe to:

1. We are part of a complex computation. Anyone into speculative fiction will have come across this theory. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy will give you a good example of what I mean. In that book, the Earth... and all of us are a computer which has been assigned to find the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. H2G2 may be a humourous take on this but underneath that humour, there are some very concrete answers to your question.

2. We are travelers. This is an answer that comes from a serious problem in space travel. The problem is that all living things have a limited life span. If one were to attempt space travel lasting several thousands of years, our range is limited by the life span of the traveller. So, we populate the ship with enough life forms to survive several generations. Even if the original travellers die, the descendants still have a good chance of making it to the intended destination. Read this wiki article for a clearer explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_ship

There is also the theory that God created us so he could have a relationship with us. I find that very very disturbing.

What a scoop!!

2010-12-01T00:52:00.002+05:30

Dear Times of India,

We are so proud of you... and so are your families, your pets, your extended families, their pets and you yourselves. What a scoop!! A very important question facing Indian society today: "Are we 'flexisexual'?" THIS is what we call journalism. A textbook example of responsible reporting.

A couple of months back, this fella (chap called Craig Venter) created a living cell in his lab. (How boring. Cells have been around ever since Life first appeared on this rock.) Very recently some senior media persons were implicated brokering favors between political parties. (Boring. We already knew that.) And then let's not forget how Julian is so publicly sodomizing the high and mighty with the help of the amazing HyperText Transfer Protocol. (Geeks are boring by default.) Surrounded with such trivialities, it must be really tough to focus on things that really matter. Things like: "Are you 'flexisexual'?"

Let us all spare a moment to step back and tip our hats to the mighty TOI. India is ever proud of you. We are all flexisexual.

Agnel C J Kurian

Ten Things

2010-09-09T16:29:00.005+05:30

I can tolerate articles in the "<N> Things..." format most of the time. "Ten Things to Remember this Christmas", "Eighteen Things to Remember When Buying a New Car", "Five Things to do this Valentine's Day", "Sixty-Nine Things to do with your iPhone in vibrator mode"... and so on.

But when I saw this headline saying "Ten things the Philippines bus siege police got wrong", it nearly got my goat. People died there ya bastards. Innocent people, just going on some tour. Shot. Just like that. And here you are you pathetic turd, earning a living from another's misfortune, because you simply couldn't find any other means to pay for your next meal. You are such a loser.

Revenge of the Sikh

2007-07-06T17:14:00.000+05:30

Got this in the mail:

In the Diwali vacation, Jayant and a couple of his friends had gone to Delhi .

They rented a taxi for local sight-seeing. The driver was an old Sardar, and boys being boys, Jayant and his pals began cracking Sardarji jokes, just to insinuate the old man.

But to their surprise, the fellow remained unperturbed.

At the end of the sight-seeing, they paid up the hire-charges. The Sardar returned the change. Moreover, he gave each one of them one rupee extra and said, (in Hindi, of course) ''Son, since morning you have been telling Sardarji jokes. I listened to them all and let me tell you, some of them were in a very bad taste. Still, I don't mind coz I know that you are young blood and are yet to see the world. But I have just one request. Here I am giving you one rupee each. Give it to the first Sardar beggar that you come across in this city."

Jayant continued, "That one rupee coin is still with me. I couldn't find a single Sardar begging on the streets of Delhi ."

Friends, we all love sardar jokes. But the fact of matter is that Sikhs are one of the most prosperous and diversified communities in the world. The secret behind their universal success, according to me, is their willingness to do any job with utmost dedication. A Sardar will drive a truck or set up a roadside garage or a dhaba, but he will never beg on the streets.

A Small Village in Austria

2007-05-06T22:11:00.000+05:30

Let me take you straight to this article [wiki] and also a related news story about a nice little village in Austria.

St. Germain on Flickr

2007-05-06T19:38:00.001+05:30

Some neat snaps of my school - St. Germain Boys' High School on Flickr.

Originally uploaded by zimblymallu.

Code Monkey

2007-05-06T12:47:00.000+05:30

Code Monkey is a song written and preformed by Jonathan Coulton which describes the life of a coder (who bears a very uncanny resemblance to...me!!). The song was slashdotted over a year ago and has developed a pretty good following on the internet. And the Code Monkey dance is pretty neat IMHO.

Do not Disturb

2007-04-24T13:32:00.000+05:30

A 'Do not Disturb' list for India (to put an end to telemarketting calls). When you register your number on these sites the companies are under legal obligation to keep you out of their promotional campaigns.

Looking for Zen-like Stories

2006-11-02T12:28:00.000+05:30

Simple. Google this: "approached the master"

Hacker Tales: Part 2

2006-09-18T18:46:00.000+05:30

A Short History of Hacking at Neatorama.

Hacker Tales: Part 1

2006-06-22T18:51:00.000+05:30

"Hacking is the clever circumvention of imposed limits, whether imposed by your government, your IP server, your own personality, or the laws of physics." -St. Jude Milhon

I'm not much of a hacker myself but lately I've been very busy surfing hacker-related articles on Wikipedia. Hacking will never fail to captivate me. Starting with this post I'll be putting up links to anything interesting I can find.

The most facinating hacker article I've ever come across so far: The Great Hacker War.

Excerpt:

The Great Hacker War was a 1990–1991 conflict between two hacker groups; the Masters of Deception (MoD) and a faction of the older guard hacker group Legion of Doom (LoD). Each side attempted to hack the other's computers, across Internet, X.25, and telephone networks around the world.

The Tree of Ténéré

2006-06-14T12:38:00.000+05:30

This was once the most isolated tree on Earth — the only one within more than 400km. See Arbre du Ténéré [Wikipedia].

Major Attempts at Utopias in History

2006-03-22T23:09:00.000+05:30

Here is a set of brief articles describing major attempts at utopian societies in history. My favorite is the 'Captain Mission Pirate Utopia' - a whole community on a ship. I'm surprised I could'nt find any related entries on Wikipedia!!

Here's another post about Captain Mission.

SQUID Labs :: Engineering Design and Technology Innovation

2005-12-23T13:08:00.000+05:30

Here's the concept: just like you can share know-how via open source software, you can also share any kind of engineering ideas via blueprints, manuals or other media. Build better mouse-traps and share them with others. Cool! Atleast some things are going the right way in this crazy world. (Hard to believe they got Bush for President!!! How come?!!)

Read more at www.squid-labs.com/ and www.instructables.com

Omri's Computer Humour Page

2005-12-07T19:15:00.000+05:30

Here's a cool collection of geeky computer humour: Omri's Computer Humour Page.
No lame computer jokes here. This is the cool stuff.

Don't miss 'Write in C' -- the hacker version of the Beatles' Let It Be.

Wikipedia in the wrong hands

2005-12-05T21:46:00.000+05:30

Wikipedia 'bio' has former Kennedy aide furious
A false Wikipedia 'biography'

But then anything and everything that can be used for some good can also be used otherwise.

Drinking Too Much Beer

2005-12-02T09:41:00.000+05:30

Jack and the Beanstack

2005-11-22T22:01:00.000+05:30

This one's an old favorite. If you've ever killed time running fortune on a Unix shell, you just might have read this. I've pasted only a small extract here (with the author's permission) but you can read the whole piece on the author's site.

Jack and the Beanstack
by Mark Isaak

Once, in a finite state far away, there lived a JOVIAL character named Jack. Jack and his relations were poor. Often their hash table was bare. One day Jack's parent said to him, "Our matrices are sparse. You must go to the market to exchange our RAM for some BASICs." She compiled a linked list of items to retrieve and passed it to him.

So Jack set Forth. But as he was walking along a Hamilton path, he met the traveling salesman.

"Whither dost thy flow chart take thou?" prompted the salesman in high-level language.
More...

Robert Howard's Works

2005-11-17T15:34:00.000+05:30

Finally found the works of Robert E. Howard after a very long search. Surprisingly I could not find a single copy of his stuff anywhere on Google and other search engines. Robert E. Howard happens to be the creator of Conan the Barbarian.

Spline Doctors

2005-11-10T20:52:00.000+05:30

Neat little blog by a group of animators.
Spline Doctors - Animators by day Animation teachers by night.

Also found a link to one Sanjay Patel whos created a neat lil compilation of Hindu Gods

Darwin Awards

2005-11-10T11:00:00.000+05:30

From Wikipedia:
Darwin Awards

"A Darwin Award is an honor given to people who supposedly help to improve the human gene pool by 'removing themselves from it in a spectacularly stupid manner'..."

Unusual Deaths

2005-11-10T10:39:00.000+05:30

Found these on wikipedia:

List of unusual deaths

List of people who died in the bathroom

New Age Ninja Worship!

2005-11-10T10:31:00.000+05:30

Firstly here's a sample: Scripts from www.realultimatepower.net

Sure to get you totally pumped up!

Cold Hard Facts about Ninjas! I'm serious.

REAL ULTIMATE POWER

This blog is about...

2005-03-04T17:54:00.000+05:30

Anything interesting I find on the web.
Nothing specific. Anything I feel like posting comes here. I surf the web a lot and I think I manage to scoop up some of the most interesting stuff on the web. Keep an eye on this space to know what 'interesting' means.

/* Shakti Bar is the name of my favorite hang-out. I usually go there alone, have two whiskies, some chicken and some fried rice for dinner. If you're ever in Bangalore do drop in. Its right opposite Coles Park, Fraser Town. And don't miss the Biryani.*/

Update (7th July 2007): Shakti Bar has been running under new management for nearly a year now. It has been renamed United Bar, it has had a lot of changes ...and it's no longer my favorite hang-out.