Pebbles...

Predicting the time to failure of a complex system is basically the aim of reliability analysis. I mean If at the end of the day I cant tell when a system would fail its stupid of me to study that system. Frankly I think the probability approach is not suitable because it takes data with a bias. MTBF must fit a probability curve. We twist and turn trying to fit a curve with substantial data falling out. Its not a nice way for PROGNOSIS. If I cant tell you weather the toss will be a heads or tails , What use is of the word '50%' probability. My hypothesis of diagnosing a fault is this: Suppose we line up the times between failures on a strainght line . With breaks consisting of up times and solid lines consisting of failure times , can we find a pattern? Can we find some scaling? Can we find repetative patterns of small failures inbetween big failures? Can we find a fractal dimension of the pattern of failures? and Can we extrapolate this? I mean if I find that the MTBF li...

There will be always a little left.. There will always be a litlle right... In the world of balance.. things will be little tight.. A little patch of sunshine .. A fistfull of moondust.. Some patch of clear blue skies.. And a little bit of mismatch.. a little left.. a little right.. there will always be a skew.. a little more broth..a little less brew... a little here ..and a little there.. somewhat this , somewhat that.. thats what it always is.. a little of this and a little of that ;)

Deep inside ....isnt a nice place. Deep inside is a scary place. A place of ghosts , apparitions and blood. Deep inside is a place no one wants to go. Light rarely enters and darkness rarely leaves. Its pulsating, dark and moist. It has a smell ..a mesmerisingly damp smell. Deep inside is a small beat...beating to its own rythm..sometimes erratic, sometimes sad and very rarely happy. Deep inside is a soft place, exposed to the elements it would wither and die ..but in the moist arena of memories it grows its own fungus. Its own poison ..its own nectar. It has its own movie and its own projector. Sometimes old vintage movies are shown ..rarely new movies come. Few people stay deep inside. Some are wanted some just refuse to go away. Deep inside loves darkness..it hates light. Light chases away shadows ..and deep inside IS a shadow. Deep inside is a dirty place..its a bad place..its a vulnerable place. Its not a place one visits of a picnic..its a dungeon that most people are dragged to....

This may be a bit out of the line for a blogspot entry but what the heck. I thought I would put down a bit of the summary of a course on networking. It was a 14 day course and kind of interesting because it opened my eyes a lil. We generally use internet so often that we tend to take it for granted but there is another world lurking below the software jargon. The world of switches and routers that kind of is boring but in some ways is terribly easy to know. The course concentrated on use and configuration of Routers(of course CISCO ones). What we learnt is this: 1. Routers are "intelligent" switches operating on an OS called IOS. 2. Routers connect one network to another. 3.You can use routers to monitor traffic between networks and also do a bit of jiggery-pookery to configure them. 4. Basically you can tell them 'connect this network to that'..poor guys will do that.But even more in teresting is that you can tell them..'dont allow this ,dont allow that ...

When a group of us got our first few months of pay packets... flushed with new found wealth and an adrenalin rush of acquiring gizmos commensurate with our pumped up bravado...most of my freinds bought their first bikes and the first music systems. Then there were a silent competetion to buy the most PMPO output music systems and the highest BHP bikes. A few opted out in the start itself . Reconciled to lower range "practical" bikes and box stereo midis. The Hero Honda splendour and the small philips hi-fidelity systems ..well which did their 'functions'..!! Then there were high players ..the Honda CBZ/Bullet guys with high end Music sysetms from  Sony to JBL. I bought a Suzuki fiero and went hunting for a music system . I somehow had narrowed on a sony when I came across a BOSE wave radio in a Pune showroom. I was zapped. The Sony was nowhere near the sound of a Bose. And even pricewise the comparision wasnt fair. The Sony was in the range of 15k while the bose one ...

troubled sleep..troubled deep... troubled is the mind within.. troubled is the body pure.. troubled is the mind in sin... troubled by the solitary reaper.. troubled by the lonely sleeper.. troubled in the way to conform.. troubled in substance and form.. troubled by the wanton peace.. troubled by the loving vice.. troubled by the past galore.. troubled by the misty future.. troubled by the false promises.. troubled by the unkept leases troubled by the wretched glory,.. troubled by a well acted story.. troubled by the lack of trust... troubled by the bubble burst.. troubled by the excellent acting.. troubled by the lamb so trusting.. troubled by the thoughts.. the would be's and the ought's troubled by interest.. and troubled by the disgust...

There was a story shared by a guy on a social site. It goes like this.... A man goes to a shop and sees a bronze statue of a rat in a shop. He kind of likes it and asks the shopkeeper for the price. The Shopkeeper says "10 $ for the statue and 1000$ for its story"....Now being an Indian , the customer pays only 10 $ and wallks out with the bronze rat. As he walks out ..hundreds and thousands of rats get out from all alleyways and corners and start following him. He gets scared and runs for the river. Faced with a multitude of rats he in panic throws the statue into the river..The rats all jump into the river following the statue and die . The man rushes back to the shop ..panting. The shopkeeper smiles and asks him"So, now u would want to buy the story?"...The man looks stunned and shouts back.."Fuck the story..u got any bronze statue of an Indian Politician!!?" Good natured , apt and however funny the story may be ..It underlines the deep resentment th...

The most difficult thing to do on a Sunday morning is to get up from bed at 530. Despite the gargantuan efforts needed we all at Jamnagar decided that a visit to the Narura/Vadinar Maritime sanctaury was worth it. So packed in tow cars we drove on to the Dwaraka-Jamnagar highway , took a right turn at Vadinar and reached the sanctuary at around 830. Its 55 kms dot from the Valsura naval base and fees are 250 rupees per car, 100 for camera and 200 for guide. Guide is a must. We approached the sea bed and walked almost 2 kms inside in the knee deep waters as the guide showed us baby octopusses, corals, and starfishes. Missed Turthes and sting ray. Must carry, includes, hats, waterproof rubber sandals and a great camera.

There have been so much of gyaan on life that one tends to get overwhelmed ...especially when coming to leading it the "correct" way. People rush to godmen , psychologists, quacks and philosophers in order to find "deeper" meaning of life!! Sometimes following them to such a degree of imitation that their own lives becomes a sad caricature of those they seek to follow. Its a sad thing to see. Sad because its like a begger sitting over a trunk of golden coins , asking for pennies. The men that tend to lead him never encourage to open that trunk because of the simplest reason that once he gets hold of that trunk's keys then he will never need pennies from you. My two pennies about life (not to be followed or taken seriously) is this. Life is a verb and not a noun. Its a continous process and no one ..NO ONE ..knows the "right way". They might have done something which would have worked out for them but given a slightly different scenario it would hav...

The fool is the epitome of survival. He has no special talents hence he doesnt feel the pain of being kept away from anything. He doesnt love anything so deeply as it can hurt him and hence he is powerfull. He suffers from no ego or shame as he has neither. His standards change with every situation hence he fits in everywhere.His flexibilty gives him great powers. His passivity is his strength. He doesnt fight, he waits for his competetors to give up. He doesnt have to do any thing to the best quality, mediocrity is his right. His aims are dictated by the biggest group he belongs to and hence he is a team player. He can sacrifice his love for work because there is nothing to love. His priorities are vague hence they never interfere in his drudgery. He will laugh if the majority laughs and will cry if the majority cries. He will do everything with great averageness and hence will have a presence. His expectations are zero and he doesnt posess a spinal cord. He is invincible. Never ever...

 The first time I heard the ''Chikni Chameli" Song(yeah I heard it before I saw it) , it struck me as quite catchy. Ignore the 'pahua' bit..thats so 80's(Now its pegs).Infact I saw the original marathi song and although shabbily picturised , the tune was the USP..no doubt.  Then I saw the famed song on TV.  With the start of the song, Ms Kaif, comes lumber ing into the frame.Her huge and immovable butt trying to ram into the camera lens. Then she tries a classic 'jhatka'...And I fell off my chair. What the hell are you doing,maam? The pelvis of a woman is decidedly much more flexible than a man, and hence women are naturals doing the jhatkas(you never almost see a man doing that). But but but, Ms Kaif managed to pull off the impossible,she made the jhatka look as un-sexy as possible. It was as if she was thrusting the ..err. ...base ,at  the camera. And believe you me, one never insults the camera and gets away with it. In the next frame Ms Kaif is sha...

Kya 'fayda' - Two foreigners(britons as I later found out) backpacking drew me and my freind's attention as we were standing by a chai shop. Swirling his tea he smirked ..'saale c*&*@# , pata nahin inko kya fayda milta hai ..ghar baar chod ke yahan khaak chaan rahen hai'..'kya fayda'!!  This brought me up to another convo I had with a classmate when I was in IIT. I was pretty excited about a C++ class which was being offered as a part of the extra classes(for a nominal fee). He came up to me and asked innocently"Why are you taking this class? Isse kya fayda hoga?" Cut to today. We were discussing which cycle is the best to buy. One of my friends made a very patronising remark that all said and done , no foreign made cycle could compare with Indian make ones for Indian conditions. I kind of chided him and said this was not so. The quality and construction of companies like Cannondale were far more superior..especially when you are in mountai...

When do the tears flow .. When do the thoughts slow... When does the wind stop.. When does the dew drop.. When does the sands grind.. when does the sunshine find.. When does the day end.. When does the roads bend.. When does the search end.. when does the idea stand.. When does the time fly .. When does a person die..

This relates to an incindent which happened around a year back as I was travelling from Bhubaneswar to Vizag on a train. In the seat facing me there was this grand daddy who was talking to a youngish guy (around 20ish). Since I am generally lost in music or gazing out of windows most of the time ..I was as usual in my screen saver mode. I was jerked out of my  reverie by some real spirited argument by grand daddy about lack of knowledge about our culture and lack of respect for elders in the younger generation. He was reciting some shlokas and trying to make a point that 'see, I know better culture' . That all is fine ..I have seen such oldies before so I ignored till he made a direct reference that 'All these media has corrupted our youth..just look ath the vulgarity and westernisation..our cultural values have vanished'...there is no respect for elders and values'? I gave him a polite nod but that sparked off a chain of thoughts that I must put forward. F...

Junagarh was high on a weekend plan from Jamnagar. SC Sharma, a coursemate and self , we thought that we have had enough of training per week and wanted to enjoy the weekend burning our bums on some nice leather. So we decided that it was Junagarh.. Anupam Dakua , bless his soul , very graciously offered us his beloved Karizma for the trip and after some last minute motivational talk provided by yours truly to SC on 30th night..We packed our bags for a whirlwind tour to Junagarh and back. The whirlwind was supposed to start at 0700 in morning but whirlwind over slept . And the wind started at 0900. After a bit of local navigation through jamnagar and we were off . SC was driving the first phase. After a few photo ops on the way we made good time till a place which had a temple called Sitamata temple. The funny part of this temple as I noticed was that part of the temple was typical jain archietecture(layerings on the wall) , a part of the temple was dome (pure dome) which was ...