Dreams – Logs of our brains memory manager?

After a day where i was asked to explore how the operating system handle’s memory management one incident also evoked my interest and wonder for the tiny little sand mass we carry with us.

First let me narrate a dream of mine which I had today..with real life pointers to them inside the braces

“I was meeting one of my school friend in his home after a long time (he wrote me a testimonial few days ago..so i must be thinking of him). it was some festive day for which we were to home town(reminding me the sweets we had for Krishna jayanthi..). I was asking about his work for which he told that he manages two to three CPU’s with a single monitor(The dream was really funny for the way he explained how he does it. . It was replica of the way I had described clustering to myself). He was also refering that his job was to save remote problems (This is about Remote infrastructure management and even @ dream I started started thinking about friedmans World is flat…).

My social awakardness was also screened in my dreams (my concern to work on that in recent days). And when it was time to return to my home i had to take my cycle and i had noticed low charge in my mobile (My mobile was low on charge yesternight:)). And when I was about to start my ride his dad came and stopped me thinking whether I need to change my decision because its already dark and some scavengers are at the outskirts to take my belongings (This should be the thought about few ppl who attempted to get some money from me yesterday at VPLN bustand) I was really scared but i knew I had very little to loose (Here it is I opened my purse and that seemed to contain the exact amount I had in reality) I told his dad that I dont have much cash with him. Anyway he was not happy with me going in a cycle.

So he asked me to wait for a bus before making a decision. Then when the bus came he stopped the bus and went to the driver and asked for something (It was a deluxe bus..it had doors). He was asking whether any rogues were active for which driver mentioned some street name and named some guy who was there(Amarkalam effect i guess… Yesterday i watched a movie ..amarkalam where the protagonist is a rogue … I had the same street coming up in dream..).

Then inside the bus the conductor was asking me to go inside with due respect (One quality which was different and I admired yesterday during my way back to room). And at the next stop few persons with serious wounds as a result of fire accident were getting in (I dont know whether this is a premonition even if its that I am not going to belive it …but this is because of a thought of mine of how should I be prepared for fire accidents at all the places related to me..like taking measures to safeguard your degree certificates and other important worthless paper.)

It didnt stop with that..the rumblings continued inside the bus and I was told that its because of a fire accident at a place where some college students have gathered for some meeting (I got back to my college days..recollecting all my failed attempts towards my dreams..) Within the dream I was saying that every soul runs after getting some sort of branding. I was saying alound to myself that its not bad to get failed in a attempt or two or more.All those failures will help you in shaping your success…(That’s Randy Pausch’s last lecture…) And when I did all these I knew that i had a good dream and woke up.

 

Everyday I used to curse myself for waking up beyong my marked time (For the past two weeks it’s been a habit to get up near 8:00) luckily today i saw 6:40 AM in my mobile but got back to sleep by some unknown factors. And woke up only at the new found habit of 7:46AM but i am happy for doing so today because i got the above dream only in that interim period.!

 

Dreams have always had more concern in my thought process and todays dream has raised my curiosity towards it. So I have two memories to uncover 😦

Bookmarking,paging,segmentation,virtualisation,mmap,ioremap and many more buzzwords lie beneath your silicon box’s ability to remember what you want to know. But whats those behind  your brains!!

TurnAround

Close to one month since I got that much vaunted change. Busy week ends and il health didnt give me  growth as i had expected.But in a way i feel a difference between my past attempts and current one. I play down my excitment and making use of both the times when i am excited to the core and other extremes.

Yesterday as froward was mentioning it was a good day for us at work(Only for us not for our masters!) Put along with the mailing list the discussion we had with my team made it clear that stupidity and more importantly exposing it is the secret to success. Its very important not to take assumptions and continue to convert them in to questions. Never settle for your own or someone else assumptions. More important than questions is seeking answers for those.

Once Froward and myself were excited with the book of answers ; Now i feel its imperative  that I need to write a book(blog) of questions to keep things excited. Every invention and discovery seems to be the answers to some stupid question of noble minds.

In the world ruled by google and recorded by wiki it isnt that difficult to reach for answers. I am going to take this very serious and bring up in my company’s board meet (Peerless inc) 🙂 Questions might be as complex as “how flushing at toilets work” to  simple questions like “How do dreaming occur”.  Once upon a time I measured my satisfaction by the number of words I gain access to in each day. But from today I am going to use questions as my barometer.

One simple question like “why dont the apples fall upwards? ” can simply turnaround not only your life but that of the entire universe.

Best Series: Best Director

Warning: The results were based on a survey conducted by the writer among a select group of people and the opinions expressed were by a naive movie watcher who hardly knows whats happening behind the screens. But even then the writer believes he has the freedom to express his views from his view!Please forgive him in case you find anything offensive.

75 years has rolled out since the silver screen images started speaking tamil.You can hardly find any difference between the hollywood movies made in the early 80’s and recent movies. Those people have almost saturated in terms of filmmaking in those days itself.
But in our case even if a movie release gets delayed two or three years after its making – it’s sure to get bombed in the box office. That is mainly because of the rapid growth we are having in terms of technology.Trends are changing on positive notes in kollywood and I thought of starting a series of posts on Tamil movies. Here comes the first post picking a best director!

I have circulated a question among my friends asking them to nominate the best director in tamil filmdom and this post and the results were completely based on it.

I belong to the early 20’s – Most of the survey respondents were born during mid 80’s and hence these results were biased on their exposure to movies during these period.

It was only during my college days I discovered that pearl man.From then we started to watch a movie from different aspects other than the story.

In this post I spell out some words about the top contenders for the award and at the end let me conclude by picking the winner.

Shankar:

We could have hardly watched any flick as director’s movies in our childhood since we were are all unanimously ruled by the SuperMan shows of Rajini. I could remember Shankar was the first director who got some brand image during my early teen days.He carved out a brand for himself and now he got trapped in to it. He makes it big and safer too – so the producers go gaga after him. I would rate him as the most successful commercial director among the other contenders here.

Strength: Stunning Visuals and right mix of masala
Weakness: Far from Reality

K.Balachander:

People of my generation didnt get much to watch him. So he didnt get as many votes as he might have deserved in my survey. He would have hardly given 5-10 movies when people of my generation started watching movies.Many of us knows his him as a great director but hardly any of us could have felt is greatness. He is such a candid creator who believes only in his scripts rather than anything else. But all his recent attempts at the main screen turned out to be big flops. One must watch his 60’s and 70’s movies before judging him. More than his movies I like his personality – A martinet and a guy who strives perfection.

Strength: Script and casting
Weakness: Melodramatic themes

Kamalhassan:

Though he has directed only countable number of movies he entered this survey for one of his ghost directed movie “Anbe Sivam”. Many of us beleive that most of the movies were directed by Kamal rather than the claims made in the title cards.
Though I would rate Anbe Sivam as my personal best movie ever I couldnt give Kamal the best director title. But he has an exceptional talent to port good concepts from other languages(english especially) in to good tamil movies. Though Anbe Sivam was inspired from Planes,Trains and Automobiles , it stands our far ahead in terms of making. Kamal deserves pat for his passion and desire to do new experiments.

Strength: He gets good inspiration (He uses his dvd library well);Passion
Weakness: Experimenting beyond the limits

K.S.RaviKumar:

I never thought he could make it to this list but even tamil superstars are fond of him ! He is said to be the best commercial director tamil filmdom has ever produced.Muthu,Padayapa,Thenali and finally dasavatharam are his magnum opus.
His first movie “Puriyadha Puthir” is a far better and different crime thriller.He could have even given us a better Sivaji!

Strength: Excellent in managing and integrating big projects
Weakness: His scripts hardly appeals you

Maniratnam:

The name has it – He is the peerless Pearl man of Indian Cinema.He is farahed behind his competitors winning more than 75% hearts in my survey.He is the only director who got exposed to our generation in his heydays. Other greats were either outdated or in making during our days. He has innate talent of mixing a moral and a story and presenting with great elan.
He has inscribed his trademark in each and every scene – You can identify any of his movies by just watching for 10 seconds.
People have claimed all of his films ranging from anjali to Guru as their personal bests.Romantic scenes in his movies are second to none. Be it roja or Kanathil mutamital he stands out in those sizzling scenes. Mouna ragam is even greatly acclaimed. Kanathil Mutamital is my personal best which scores a perfect ten in all departments. Without any doubts he is the king of tamil filmdom

Strength: Excellent scripts with well supported technicians
Weakness:Cant think of one!He is staying away from tamil often

Others:
Few others like Ameer(All of his movies are different from the previous one..He is the one to look for!),Mahendran (I have not seen much of him to comment on him…Jhonny was exceptionally good) got a vote each. I was disappointed to see Jeeva,Vasanth,BaluMahendra,BharathiRaja(16 vayathinile is a rocking movie!) going without any votes.

Array of new directors:

Tamil filmhood is noted for its technical excellence and in the recent past there have been many new entrants with promising movies. Bala has already carved a niche for him.Vasantha Balan,Pulikesi maker,Copy cat Gowtham Menon (Though he copies he is stylish!),SusiGanesan(Five star,ThirutuPayale is versatile),Mishkin (He makes gripping movies) ,Very recently sasikumar… are some promising aspirants for future crowning.

We have come to the end of the show and its time for results…

The Results:
Total Respondent: 25
Maniratnam :19.5
Balachander:.5
Shankar,K.S.RaviKumar,Mahendran,Ameer,Kamal – 1 each.

Hope none of you would appeal against the verdict.Looking for your comments broaching a healthy discussion on the cinema which we have enjoyed!

Peerless Deepak

An eventful week end!

Life at peerless Inc has gone for a complete makeover. The geek is very excited about working with kernel and exploring the device model for linux. The gaiety is prone to continue atleast he finishes the honeymoon days with his new find love.

Let me capture what has happened this week end. It all started with the geek trying to complete his endianess blog -Sitting in the office skimming through various articles on a friday night. He decided its too much to chew for a friday evening and decided to start home. I was contended in many ways in which the week has gone so no big demands were there in the week end plan. Picked a fiction and technical book from my office library (Hurray! I am back in Vadapalani…Definetly the best of HCL’s facilities!)

Our manager Karthi was at his best this weekend (For many reasons..!)! He wanted me to complete the paper within the week end which I felt was impossible because i had only four hours for his paper during week end(But still he believes me for that work…Thats my manager!) .Read a couple of pages on WSN before the blankets covered me on friday.

Saturday! We the idly lovers woke up early and made sure that idly is being done for the break fast.(That in itself is a great start to the week end). Then I started the day with Kramer Vs Kramer – I brag myself that i am nonchalant to sentiments and relationships..But most of the movies which make it to my heart are dramatic and slushy movies.This kramer stuff is one such which portrays how a single father juggles his career and bringing up his cute little Billy. More on that deserves a separate blog.

By the time we have finished the movie KNBL was buzzing with activity with all our employes cum business partners (Else manager will scold me !) I could go as per my schedules but that didnt pressurise me .Mistakes are to be made! I did get started with Ayn Ryands Anthem in the middle. I did some washing to stick with the plans but not completely. I lost track of time and it was 3:30 when I started to T.Nagar for a event scheduled at 4:00 . Now i got much anger on myself for not keeping up time for external events. I showed up miserably at 4:50 PM at the spot (Poor Deepak..But its good in one way …Balachander was saying “You loose a lot by being punctual when others are being unpunctual “)

Anyway i got to make it a point to show up at promised times. The event is a launch of mentorship program for under privileged children studying in 8th-12th. I also vowed to take care of four children and started my discourse at them (Pity for them??? One lady who watched me speaking with them later had a doubt whether I work with HR — Am i so bad??? :)) A lot of things could have been different if we had got apt guidance at the expedient time and many things are different for us only because of the guidance we had from our elders during our days.

I blame myself a lot for being the first engineer from my family circle since I had to discover many of the myths on my own. My mother used to blame her dad for keeping her away from many of her interests.Thats how the blame circle goes on. It takes a generation to evolve and improve. Even now there are many children who are first timers in their family to school and higher education. In this competitive world they are definetly at the back seat when compared with other children with mentally wealthy parents. Even they can get financial help from some helping hands. But a moral help is difficult for kids. There are few good teachers but they are few in number and there are few good hearts like my colleague Sampath – who devised this plan. The plan is to monitor and mentor few children who are getting scholarship from a NGO. I willingly agreed to it.

At the meet I learnt a lot – IAS IPS aspirants were there and for sure being with young kids is the best way to lose your worries. I would like to hear more questions from them! For it is where the true search of knowledge is!

Then when I am back at KNBL I managed to get a good brinji rice from our cook and rushed to have a kofee with anu . It was the final episode with balachander and charuhassan (Too old but too good!)
Had been dog tired with the travel so inspite of mangers warning of very short time left for the paper i slept !

Sunday! Our cook took leave and we the idly lovers (Me and Venky) woke up early and made sure Idly was our agenda for the day by making it. We made onion chutney and the bowl was empty even before 2 members were yet to eat (That speaks on our talents Isnt?) But the real show was from the manager who went on to prepare a more delicious chicken gravy than our cook.

Even he was not sure on his abilities but didnt express it out (Thats the confidence I admire in him !) and went on to make the most perfect dish of recent times. He was so surprised of the result hence he called for a mini celebration where we danced to his tunes!

The taste of the dish will be evident by the fact that the bowl was empty within 10 minutes of the opening . Everybody went to sleep like a python which had taken a sumptuous lunch. LLG had been cancelled due to rains and this reason.

I again did some washing in the evening. Virumandi and PKM was going on in TV’s (Two good to be missed but I didnt had time) .Froward had invited me to the usual sunday walk. We went to connexxions and had some chitter chatter (our talks are better than any chat shows). Its a nice walk with drizzzles on and I a managed to get my money from him back by doing some swiping for me:)

I had almost fought with KNBLites and compelled them to try french toast for dinner which they were hesitant initially but gave consent because of me .But this froward dragged me to Virudhu nagar where we had a small but complete dinner .(Last week it turned out to be a flop when i was with the manager). Then when I headed back home Venky was done with the grocery purchase.

I didnt say them that i had my dinner for they would kick my butt off! It was almost half past ten when he broached about dinner. When I made french toast everyone went after it with the same interest they had for chicken gravy that afternoon (French toast became a hit and we added one more dish to our menu!)

Then I felt drowsy and decided to get to bed early but again it was made memorable by our bed time stories.Had a nice great complete sleep which made me awake by 5 AM (Sadly I spoiled my mood on my own and went back to bed only to get up 2 hrs later …airtel guys deserves the blame).

Though many of my tasks are still in pending state this week end is memorable and eventful because of the variety of events in it.

It reminds me of Kamal’s saying in virumandi “Santhosamna enna nu manasanukku anbuvikra appa theriyaathilla” Atleast i am knowing it by now!

Got to get ready for an eventful week ahead …Happy geeking geek.