But, YOU NEED THE INTERNET

I went to Berkeley for a workshop recently (yeah, I'm bragging). University of California, Berkeley.

I arrived at the UCB dormitories reception (had reserved a room there), tired, and, awfully in need of sleep. Poor little me. They had a big desk and four undergrads sitting behind it, all smiling and welcoming. A guy was sitting behind another small table (draped with a we-are-conference-organizing-people table cloth). He interrupted me.

Him: "Hey, you're here for the HotPar workshop?"

Me: "Yeah, can I get my room key?"

Him: "Sure, just a second, I'll look you up."

Girl-behind-big-desk: "Hey, how about I just give a room key to him (_madthanu_) first?"

Him: "Nah. I'll verify his name in my list first.... No. You aren't here."

Me: "Come on, give me the list."

And, the list had around 10 names. I was fairly confident there were many more people staying there for the workshop.

Me: "Are you sure this is the correct list?"

Him: "Sure. You need to call the workshop organizer to fix this up."

Me: "Ok. You have a phone? Mine's out of juice." Damn it, Angry Birds.

Him: "No. There's a paid phone there."

I rang the USENIX people, they were very apologetic, told me to call back in 10 mins. Waited, called back again. They told me to talk with the reception to let me in, and a USENIX person was coming over there in 15 mins to fix everything. By now, the guy-behind-small-table had gone on a break, so I talked to the girl behind the big desk.

Me: "Hey, can you call up the conference organizers and talk to them? They seem to have my name on the list."

Girl: "Hold on. I'll check it here."

Guy (back from his break): "So, what did Jess__ tell you?"

Girl: "Ok, your name is on the room reservation list."

The WHAT list? No, again, what? And ... the girl gave me a room key.

Guy: "But we can't do it, his name is not on the local Internet list."

Local internet list? May be some kind of UCB security thing? Oh, yeah, I remembered it now ... there was some web form related to wired Internet access from the dorm rooms, which I hadn't filled in.

Me: "What? The Internet form is mandatory?"

Guy: "No. But, you need the internet."

Me: "I think I'll just head to my room."

By then, I was feeling like he was pulling my leg. You know, innocent guy from India, don't know anything other than small-time-Wisconsin in the US. But, the guy gave me an am-I-looking-at-an-alien stare which vapourized any questions.

Guy: "But, YOU NEED THE INTERNET."

I didn't know what to say. I felt like ROFL-ing, but again, the way the guy looked at me... Seriously?

Me: "Hmmm... how about I place my bags in my room and head back here later?"

Guy: "Well, yes, but, you need the internet."

Me: "Yes, yes, thanks for helping."

I was (surprisingly) very happy at that point. I had finally met one person who gave Internet the credibility it deserved. I almost felt like going back, hugging him, and saying "Come on, kiddo, ofcourse I need the internet, and I have my 3G connection with WiFi hotspot always. Don't worry about me".

Still, it would do well for us to remember that the internet is only the fourth important thing in life. Important only after food and shelter.

Elay Dhoni

This post is not about cricket. It is an obvious attempt to post something on a long-unused-blog. And also a movie 'review'.

So when did I start writing about movies? When I saw Modhi Vilayadu (For people who ask when I started watching movies: I usually dont watch, agreed, maanatha vaangathinga).

Last thursday we went to Modhi Vilayadu. We: me, glamour, senthil, vinoth, vijay and fraud. At abirami. Glamour, vinoth's treat. Probably the last treat before I leave.

Ok, why I am writing about the movie: The first half is a complete copy of "100 Days with Mr. Arrogant". And nobody seems to have noticed it. The Korean anime screen play - too much, it is an obvious-copy. Other things:

1. There were only about 75 people in the hall. At Abirami. And it hadn't been a full week after the movie launched.

2. The title song was awesome. So was the background behind the title slides. Seriously.

3. Credit slides included credits for 'punches', 'steps' and 'cuts'.

4. Catapult vachchu adikkura thoorathulla hero-voda helicopter parakkum. Theatre-la girl friend oda cinema paarparu. Aana assasins ellorume hero car ootum pothu thaan avara target pannuvanga (assassin should remain anonymous la - logic). Athuvum, beijing-la irunthu vantha professional assassin rendu adi thoorathulla, innoru car la irunthu, view-sight vachchu aim panni thaan suduvaaru (Athuvum miss aagidum).

5. Dont listen or watch the songs too closely.

I am not gonna tell anything about the actors or songs or anything else - I am not into movies, hope somebody else comments on them :). And the movie was ok, inspite of everything.

Thats all. Thanks to glamour and vinoth. Packing off in a few days. Bye.

Blogging

Globus crashes Earth

Do not get fooled by the title.

I had several installations of Fedora on my computer, and one of them was named 'Fedora-Earth' in the Grub menu. It was my favourite.

It crashed today when I was trying to install the Globus toolkit.

It contained numerous package installations, served as a Primary Domain Controller, survived me trying to hack it, had numerous kernel modifications, and held the record for the longest surviving OS in my laptop.

It is survived by two of it's disk image copies, Fedora - Green and Fedora - Genie, both created 4 months back.

Let Earth rest in peace.

Long time, no see - BSNL #@!~^

Im back after a long time. And its the same old excuse - BSNL. I haven't got anything that can be called "broadband" for 2.5 months now. The time line:


1 week - phone line was dead
1 week - no internet connection
4 weeks - internet connects every wednesday and thursday (I complain on monday, BSNL "repair"s on tuesday, things stop working on friday, and its no use complaining on week ends)
2 weeks - internet gets disconnected every sixty seconds - I don't know how you technically explain it, but it was exactly multiples of sixty seconds
3 days - surprise, internet works fine
4 days - back to no connection
1 week - I get a 6 KBps connection


Intha kandraavikku naan kaasu vera ketturen. I finally decided to kick BSNL and get a Tata Indicom. BSNL has more resources, sure. Problem is, IT SIMPLY DOESNT WORK. For people who may support BSNL in the comments (Glam): dont, or i'll heck you when I get the chance.


One good thing - I learnt to live outside blogosphere (I never posted anyways, but I was addicted to surfing blogs). Only reason I'm posting now is that theres an "I Too Have A Blog" Category in latecut, and I dont want my blog ending up there. Hail Jegan (and Guru?).

Philosophy in CompSci

I did'nt really believe everything in PhD till I had this conversation with Aravind Narayanan (he's doing a MS at Stan):

madthanu: u r supposed to b busy

Aravind Narayanan: hehe
Aravind Narayanan: supposed is the operative word

madthanu: if u rnt busy
madthanu: y dont u sleep?

Aravind Narayanan: work da
Aravind Narayanan: projects
Aravind Narayanan: assignments
Aravind Narayanan: problem sets
Aravind Narayanan: :(

madthanu: u have all these bt say u rnt busy?

Aravind Narayanan: i have reached a state
Aravind Narayanan: where
Aravind Narayanan: i choose not to be busy
Aravind Narayanan: we have choice!
Aravind Narayanan: freedom!

madthanu: u got into philosophy?

Aravind Narayanan: i don't have an impending deadline

Deepavali Thaththuvam