FOSS.IN/2006 is over. This year the event was held in the J. N. Tata Auditorium complex of IISc, Bangalore. This meant that we had much better seating arrangements and acoustics compared to last year, though some of the halls were awfully musty and for some reason the airconditioner in every hall was set to too low a temperature for my comfort. The food was much better than what was there last year and there were enough pure water dispensers to quench everyone's thirst throughout the day every day.
The scale of the event however was much smaller this year compared to last year. It was held for just three days instead of four days as in last year and there were just five simultaneous talks through the day instead of six as in last year. While many of the American hackers chose to skip the event this year due to its unfortunate overlap with the Thanksgiving weekend, I don't know what would explain the much lower turnout of Indian delegates and exhibitors.
I didn't find that many interesting talks this year so it was a bit depressing for me. In addition, there were many a glaring error in a couple of talks that I attended. Among the talks that I did like were the ones by Christof Wittig and Russell Nelson on the first day, the one by Aaron Seigo on the second day and the one by Tim Pritlove on the third day.
In a talk on OpenAlchemy, I asked why anyone in India should buy an Amida Simputer when it has a bulky form factor and is more expensive than a Palm Tungsten E2 which at first blush seems to have many a desirable feature and looks far more polished. Another member of the audience asked where it stands now that the OLPC project is here. I wasn't happy with the answers provided for either of these questions.
2006-11-27
2006-11-17
New York, Philadelphia and Boston
In the last week of my recent US trip, Anusha and I tried to cover the cities of Philadelphia, New York and Boston. When the time for travelling between these cities is factored in, we had almost no time to see any of these cities properly. The weird policy of the hotels in the US to have check-in after 4 PM and check-out by 12 noon made the problem worse. It also didn't help that the sun used to set around 5 PM.
We spent about 2 and a half days in New York while staying in New Jersey and we still managed to visit five families of our relatives, meet Saikat and Kalpana and see some of the most famous tourist attractions in New York.
Hotel accommodation in New York, especially Manhattan, seems insanely expensive, even for the hotels with only the most basic of amenities. Ditto for car rentals and parking charges. Fortunately for us, decent hotels in New Jersey are somewhat more affordable and there are excellent public transportation options for shuttling between NJ and NYC. As a matter of fact, we stayed in a hotel in Jersey City that was a five minute walk from the Journal Square PATH train station. PATH trains were numerous and frequent throughout the day and took us into the heart of Manhattan in 20 minutes. Within New York, the excellent subway system made travelling within the city relatively painless.
Visiting the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building took half a day each because of the number of tourists and the elaborate security procedures. The view of New York City from atop the Empire State Building was very nice and the audio tour by "Tony, the cab driver" was quite useful for an utter newbie to the city. By the way, I didn't know that the Statue of Liberty was made out of copper sheets and the green colour was due to the usual patination of copper.
12x Optical Zoom is Cool
Central Park was quite impressive with its lush greenery and peace right in the middle of Manhattan. Actually it was amazing just how many parks there were in Manhattan itself. The Grand Central Station was simply awesome for a train station. The New York Public Library was fairly impressive as well. Times Square in the night was just as they show on TV and in the movies but for some reason it had just a lukewarm effect on me. The site where the twin towers of the WTC stood seemed big and eerily empty. Walking on the Brooklyn Bridge was a charming experience. It was nice walking around in Manhattan soaking in the sights of the city and gaping at the numerous skyscrapers.
We didn't get time to watch a Broadway show or visit any of the famous museums. In a city with more than 13,000 restaurants offering the most varied cuisines in the world, we were mostly so pressed for time that we used to just grab a quick bite in a fast food joint. Some day I hope to come back to this city and stay for at least a week or more.
We were not able to see much in Philadelphia due to a lack of time and Boston was only slightly better. In Boston, our misfortune was compounded by the long-term renovations being carried out at the sites of the Boston Tea Party and the Bunker Hill Monument. As if that was not enough, it was also raining persistently throughout the first half of the day we had set aside to see the city. We still managed to follow some of the Freedom Trail, see the USS Constitution and explore Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall, etc.
We spent about 2 and a half days in New York while staying in New Jersey and we still managed to visit five families of our relatives, meet Saikat and Kalpana and see some of the most famous tourist attractions in New York.
Hotel accommodation in New York, especially Manhattan, seems insanely expensive, even for the hotels with only the most basic of amenities. Ditto for car rentals and parking charges. Fortunately for us, decent hotels in New Jersey are somewhat more affordable and there are excellent public transportation options for shuttling between NJ and NYC. As a matter of fact, we stayed in a hotel in Jersey City that was a five minute walk from the Journal Square PATH train station. PATH trains were numerous and frequent throughout the day and took us into the heart of Manhattan in 20 minutes. Within New York, the excellent subway system made travelling within the city relatively painless.
Visiting the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building took half a day each because of the number of tourists and the elaborate security procedures. The view of New York City from atop the Empire State Building was very nice and the audio tour by "Tony, the cab driver" was quite useful for an utter newbie to the city. By the way, I didn't know that the Statue of Liberty was made out of copper sheets and the green colour was due to the usual patination of copper.
12x Optical Zoom is CoolCentral Park was quite impressive with its lush greenery and peace right in the middle of Manhattan. Actually it was amazing just how many parks there were in Manhattan itself. The Grand Central Station was simply awesome for a train station. The New York Public Library was fairly impressive as well. Times Square in the night was just as they show on TV and in the movies but for some reason it had just a lukewarm effect on me. The site where the twin towers of the WTC stood seemed big and eerily empty. Walking on the Brooklyn Bridge was a charming experience. It was nice walking around in Manhattan soaking in the sights of the city and gaping at the numerous skyscrapers.
We didn't get time to watch a Broadway show or visit any of the famous museums. In a city with more than 13,000 restaurants offering the most varied cuisines in the world, we were mostly so pressed for time that we used to just grab a quick bite in a fast food joint. Some day I hope to come back to this city and stay for at least a week or more.
We were not able to see much in Philadelphia due to a lack of time and Boston was only slightly better. In Boston, our misfortune was compounded by the long-term renovations being carried out at the sites of the Boston Tea Party and the Bunker Hill Monument. As if that was not enough, it was also raining persistently throughout the first half of the day we had set aside to see the city. We still managed to follow some of the Freedom Trail, see the USS Constitution and explore Quincy Market, Faneuil Hall, etc.
2006-11-15
Las Vegas
Anusha joined me on the second weekend of my recent US trip for a visit to Las Vegas along with VikGup and Pooja, who took turns to drive all the way. It took us about 10 hours each way with a break or two and that meant that we had just a little over 24 hours to spend in Vegas.
The glitz and glamour of Vegas was unlike anything I had seen before. It was particularly striking after having driven through hours of arid and dreary landscape. The sheer display of wealth and beauty has to be seen to be appreciated. It also becomes very obvious, very fast, how this city earned the moniker "Sin City".
We hopped from hotel to hotel checking out the attractions on display. It was amazing to see so much money and effort spent on recreating the landmarks of Paris, New York, Venice, etc. We didn't gamble much and I even managed to make a tiny profit. One of the most memorable part of this trip for me was watching the show "O" by Cirque du Soleil at The Bellagio.
Anusha checking out a slot machine
The glitz and glamour of Vegas was unlike anything I had seen before. It was particularly striking after having driven through hours of arid and dreary landscape. The sheer display of wealth and beauty has to be seen to be appreciated. It also becomes very obvious, very fast, how this city earned the moniker "Sin City".
We hopped from hotel to hotel checking out the attractions on display. It was amazing to see so much money and effort spent on recreating the landmarks of Paris, New York, Venice, etc. We didn't gamble much and I even managed to make a tiny profit. One of the most memorable part of this trip for me was watching the show "O" by Cirque du Soleil at The Bellagio.
Anusha checking out a slot machine2006-11-09
FOSS.IN/2006 Registration and List of Talks
You can now register as a delegate for FOSS.IN/2006. The final list of talks for FOSS.IN/2006 has also been released.
2006-11-08
"Canon Rock" by Jeong-Hyun Lim ("Funtwo")
It has apparently been a rage on the Internet for some time now, but only recently have I come across the cover version of "Canon Rock" played by "Funtwo". The original version was arranged and played by "JerryC".
2006-10-23
Fry's
Ryan and I went to the Fry's store in Sunnyvale yesterday. Our original plan was to spend about half an hour there, move on to the DSW store in Milpitas and then to San Francisco - we ended up spending about 6 hours just in Fry's!
To a bumpkin coming from India, Fry's is just incredibly big and has an amazing variety of items. The very idea of being able to take a shopping cart through aisles upon aisles of hardware components and picking up just the right components to build my dream computer would have been enough to make me wet my pants in my days as an avid gamer. I am sure that electronics enthusiasts back home would have a similar feeling if they see how easily they can get all sorts of electronic components and related hardware in this store. Awesome!
If I were younger, I would have filled my cart with all sorts of cool stuff, including the Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics kit. I did not because I realise that I would simply not have the time to play with all that cool stuff and it would therefore just be a waste of money. Sad.
To a bumpkin coming from India, Fry's is just incredibly big and has an amazing variety of items. The very idea of being able to take a shopping cart through aisles upon aisles of hardware components and picking up just the right components to build my dream computer would have been enough to make me wet my pants in my days as an avid gamer. I am sure that electronics enthusiasts back home would have a similar feeling if they see how easily they can get all sorts of electronic components and related hardware in this store. Awesome!
If I were younger, I would have filled my cart with all sorts of cool stuff, including the Lego Mindstorms NXT robotics kit. I did not because I realise that I would simply not have the time to play with all that cool stuff and it would therefore just be a waste of money. Sad.
2006-10-22
San Francisco
I spent the first weekend of my current trip exploring the city of San Francisco, first with VikGup and Pooja and then with Ananth and Surabhi. I will also be going to the city almost every day this weekend and the whole of next week, but I do not expect to have much time that I can spend exploring the city (which is a shame since I have really liked what I have seen of this city so far).
One of the first things that I noticed about this city was its diversity - there are so many people of so many ethnicities that it seems to be about as cosmopolitan as any city can possibly get. The next thing I noticed was the ruckus created by motorcycle riders (mostly riding Harley-Davidsons) almost everywhere. Finally, I really didn't expect the city to be so small!
I was with VikGup and Pooja for some time on the first day and then I walked around The Embarcadero, visited Fisherman's Wharf, Market Street, Chinatown, etc.
The next day with Ananth and Surabhi, I saw the Golden Gate bridge, visited Haight-Ashbury and the Amoeba store, ate at Massawa (an Ethiopian restaurant) on Haight street, indulged in the creations of Ghiradelli, went up the steep roads of Russian Hill and down the hairpin bends of Lombard Street, etc.
A charming city. I wish I were able to explore it properly.
One of the first things that I noticed about this city was its diversity - there are so many people of so many ethnicities that it seems to be about as cosmopolitan as any city can possibly get. The next thing I noticed was the ruckus created by motorcycle riders (mostly riding Harley-Davidsons) almost everywhere. Finally, I really didn't expect the city to be so small!
I was with VikGup and Pooja for some time on the first day and then I walked around The Embarcadero, visited Fisherman's Wharf, Market Street, Chinatown, etc.
The next day with Ananth and Surabhi, I saw the Golden Gate bridge, visited Haight-Ashbury and the Amoeba store, ate at Massawa (an Ethiopian restaurant) on Haight street, indulged in the creations of Ghiradelli, went up the steep roads of Russian Hill and down the hairpin bends of Lombard Street, etc.
A charming city. I wish I were able to explore it properly.
US of A
I have been in the US of A (Redwood City, California) for a little over two weeks now.
This is only my second visit to the US. I was in Edison (New Jersey) for a week about five years ago. For a number of reasons, I was miserable during my stay the last time around. I was suffering from jet lag for much of my stay - I wasn't able to sleep till about 4AM every day, but then had to get up by 7AM to get ready and go to work only to find myself groggy throughout the day. I used to accumulate so much static electricity so rapidly that I used to be shocked by touching almost anything - door knobs, car doors, coffee machines, humans, etc. - and would remain jumpy throughout the day. Even though the hotel that I stayed in was close to my workplace, I couldn't actually walk there and had to always depend on someone to pick me up, take me out for lunch and dinner and drop me back. But for some of my extremely helpful and accommodating colleagues, I would have had a terrible time. Since I stayed for such a short time, I also didn't get to go around and see places.
This time it's much better. My jet lag was less severe and I got over it pretty quickly. The weather is warm and really pleasant most of the time. The hotel that I stay in is a bit further from my workplace compared to the last visit, but there are very nice pedestrian sidewalks and
the path is surrounded by beautiful grass, trees and lakes. There is a supermarket, a bunch of restaurants and other shops very close to the hotel (but for some strange reason, every restaurant and shop in this area closes by 8:30PM - only the supermarket remains open till 11PM). There is good public transportation available here and the nearest Caltrain station (San Carlos) is just about a mile from my hotel. Finally, many of my friends live in this nook of the world, though I've only been able to meet Ananth, Yumpee and VikGup so far.
On the weekends, I've been able to see San Francisco and Las Vegas but both of them merit separate posts.
This is only my second visit to the US. I was in Edison (New Jersey) for a week about five years ago. For a number of reasons, I was miserable during my stay the last time around. I was suffering from jet lag for much of my stay - I wasn't able to sleep till about 4AM every day, but then had to get up by 7AM to get ready and go to work only to find myself groggy throughout the day. I used to accumulate so much static electricity so rapidly that I used to be shocked by touching almost anything - door knobs, car doors, coffee machines, humans, etc. - and would remain jumpy throughout the day. Even though the hotel that I stayed in was close to my workplace, I couldn't actually walk there and had to always depend on someone to pick me up, take me out for lunch and dinner and drop me back. But for some of my extremely helpful and accommodating colleagues, I would have had a terrible time. Since I stayed for such a short time, I also didn't get to go around and see places.
This time it's much better. My jet lag was less severe and I got over it pretty quickly. The weather is warm and really pleasant most of the time. The hotel that I stay in is a bit further from my workplace compared to the last visit, but there are very nice pedestrian sidewalks and
the path is surrounded by beautiful grass, trees and lakes. There is a supermarket, a bunch of restaurants and other shops very close to the hotel (but for some strange reason, every restaurant and shop in this area closes by 8:30PM - only the supermarket remains open till 11PM). There is good public transportation available here and the nearest Caltrain station (San Carlos) is just about a mile from my hotel. Finally, many of my friends live in this nook of the world, though I've only been able to meet Ananth, Yumpee and VikGup so far.
On the weekends, I've been able to see San Francisco and Las Vegas but both of them merit separate posts.
2006-09-27
ICFPC 2006: Epilogue
The results of the ICFP contest for 2006 are now available. "Team Smartass" came first, followed by "kuma-" and "You Can't Spell Awesome Without ASM" in the second and third places respectively. Amazingly, the lone hacker "Witrala" was able to take the fifth place. Congratulations!
There is also a a video of the presentation by the contest's organisers at ICFP 2006. It is quite shaky, there are audio and video synchronisation problems and there is a guy sitting near the camera who gets tickled by almost everything into laughing out loud, but it is still worth a watch, especially for those who participated in the contest or those who want to know just how the organisers created the task.
This year's contest has proved to be so popular that the organisers have created a separate site called boundvariable.org dedicated to the "Cult of the Bound Variable".
An interesting bit about this year's contest was that the teams in the first and the third places were both from Google. Another interesting bit is that the individual members of these teams are also ranked very high on TopCoder and have been toppers in various contests organised by TopCoder. "Team Smartass" comprised Christopher Hendrie (ChristopherH), Derek Kisman (SnapDragon), Ambrose Feinstein (ambrose) and Daniel Wright (dmwright). "You Can't Spell Awesome Without ASM" comprised John Dethridge (John Dethridge), Ralph Furmaniak (RalphFurmaniak), Tomasz Czajka (tomek) and Reid Barton (reid).
Update (2006-10-22): Yumpee has pointed me to the ICFP 2006 paper (PDF) written by the organisers.
There is also a a video of the presentation by the contest's organisers at ICFP 2006. It is quite shaky, there are audio and video synchronisation problems and there is a guy sitting near the camera who gets tickled by almost everything into laughing out loud, but it is still worth a watch, especially for those who participated in the contest or those who want to know just how the organisers created the task.
This year's contest has proved to be so popular that the organisers have created a separate site called boundvariable.org dedicated to the "Cult of the Bound Variable".
An interesting bit about this year's contest was that the teams in the first and the third places were both from Google. Another interesting bit is that the individual members of these teams are also ranked very high on TopCoder and have been toppers in various contests organised by TopCoder. "Team Smartass" comprised Christopher Hendrie (ChristopherH), Derek Kisman (SnapDragon), Ambrose Feinstein (ambrose) and Daniel Wright (dmwright). "You Can't Spell Awesome Without ASM" comprised John Dethridge (John Dethridge), Ralph Furmaniak (RalphFurmaniak), Tomasz Czajka (tomek) and Reid Barton (reid).
Update (2006-10-22): Yumpee has pointed me to the ICFP 2006 paper (PDF) written by the organisers.
2006-09-26
Fullmetal Alchemist
I generally like animé, but I am not into it the way VikGup is, for example. About the only series I used to watch regularly was Dragon Ball Z (DBZ), before Cartoon Network India abruptly and very irritatingly pulled it off the air just as it was near the final few episodes. I liked the overall story in DBZ, but I felt the episodes and the fights were unnecessarily long and dragged-out, really testing one's patience (it reminded me of Ramanand Sagar's TV series "Ramayana"). I also liked Animatrix a lot. I have watched parts of other animé series, but I have never felt compelled to watch an entire series from the beginning to the end.
I am not a fan of the way most serious animé suddenly switches to "silly mode" in the middle of a scene, with characters swinging their limbs about wildly and screaming for no good reason, the drawing degrading in quality with quivering outlines - it just ruins the whole experience for me. I also find a bit odd the technique of showing an essentially still frame and then moving the camera about - I realise that the animators want to save effort and that it is a commonly-used technique elsewhere, but it seems to be used a lot more often in animé and I wish they didn't do it. Finally, the English dubbing is almost always terrible and I wish I could just see them in the original Japanese with English subtitles (I believe the DVD releases allow you to do that). All this aside, I must admit that many of the more popular animé series are beautifully drawn and have an overall story that is so fantastically different from anything else that one generally gets to see.
When I read Stevey Yegge's blog post on animé, I felt an urge to check out some of the animé series that he recommends. As luck would have it, Animax India has been showing some of the animé series that he highly recommends and on a whim I decided to check out Fullmetal Alchemist.
I am not disappointed at all - this is a wonderful series. It does switch to "silly mode" some times, but the rest of it is so good that I can live with that. The art is awesome, the story is intriguing, the music is nice and the story actually moves forward in each episode. No wonder many people have rated it one of the best animé of all time.
By the way, by the time I started watching the series, the episodes being shown were from the last one-third of the series so I didn't quite follow some of the things. Fortunately, Animax started showing the whole series from the beginning on weekends in a "catch-up marathon", with eight episodes shown back-to-back on every day of the weekend. In the evening on weekends they also show five episodes back-to-back to allow you to catch-up with the regular episodes that were shown during the week. It is a bit exhausting and my wife and sister think that I have gone crazy.
I am really looking forward to watching the concluding episodes that will be shown during this week and the next. I am also looking forward to watching the movie.
I am not a fan of the way most serious animé suddenly switches to "silly mode" in the middle of a scene, with characters swinging their limbs about wildly and screaming for no good reason, the drawing degrading in quality with quivering outlines - it just ruins the whole experience for me. I also find a bit odd the technique of showing an essentially still frame and then moving the camera about - I realise that the animators want to save effort and that it is a commonly-used technique elsewhere, but it seems to be used a lot more often in animé and I wish they didn't do it. Finally, the English dubbing is almost always terrible and I wish I could just see them in the original Japanese with English subtitles (I believe the DVD releases allow you to do that). All this aside, I must admit that many of the more popular animé series are beautifully drawn and have an overall story that is so fantastically different from anything else that one generally gets to see.
When I read Stevey Yegge's blog post on animé, I felt an urge to check out some of the animé series that he recommends. As luck would have it, Animax India has been showing some of the animé series that he highly recommends and on a whim I decided to check out Fullmetal Alchemist.
I am not disappointed at all - this is a wonderful series. It does switch to "silly mode" some times, but the rest of it is so good that I can live with that. The art is awesome, the story is intriguing, the music is nice and the story actually moves forward in each episode. No wonder many people have rated it one of the best animé of all time.
By the way, by the time I started watching the series, the episodes being shown were from the last one-third of the series so I didn't quite follow some of the things. Fortunately, Animax started showing the whole series from the beginning on weekends in a "catch-up marathon", with eight episodes shown back-to-back on every day of the weekend. In the evening on weekends they also show five episodes back-to-back to allow you to catch-up with the regular episodes that were shown during the week. It is a bit exhausting and my wife and sister think that I have gone crazy.
I am really looking forward to watching the concluding episodes that will be shown during this week and the next. I am also looking forward to watching the movie.
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