About Quotes ...

Quotes have always amazed me. I think it is a succinct expression of creativity. Not all quotes are applicable to all circumstances and not all are timeless, but some of them are pure stroke of genius. I shiver when I read a great quote. For example, here is one:

Life is tragedy for those who feel and it's a comedy for those who think.

Now, we know that a human being is neither a feeler nor a thinker all the time, but a continuum over these two defining traits. Yet, this quote makes me admire the person to whom it's attributed. With quotes, comes the problem of attribution, but that can be solved. Another thing about quotes is that there are plenty of quality ones (and crappy ones). It's almost like "there's a quote for that".

Having taken inspiration from several thinkers of all times, I thought of my own quotes. Let me know if you liked them:

• Biking (on the roads of California) has improved my driving.
• You feel like you have achieved something when you become a parent. The key is in not letting that sense of achievement and excitement fizzle, over time.
• People have wondered about my ability to (memorize, and) quote quotable quotes when applicable. I have wondered about ability of people who created them. 

mango-a-co-co

Last Friday, we had an International Potluck at our son's, Apoorv's school -- Monticello Academy. It was a pleasure to attend it (I did it in spirit, no pun intended).

We made a delicious (of course) Indian delicacy. Here are the details of the recipe:

1. Type: Vegetarian.
2. Kind: Sweet.
3. Calories: Don't count them. The item is exempt from Calorie calculations.
4. Preparation: It is definitely quick and easy
   
   
   
   • Ingredients: Shredded coconut (1 bowl), Sugar (1 bowl + 1 Tsp), Mango pulp(1 bowl), cardamom, milk powder (1/3rd bowl), lots of love.
     
   
   
   • Microwave (Yes, it's a verb) the shredded coconut till it's tender. Then in a clean skillet start heating it on gentle heat. Exercise care that it does not get overheated too quickly. Add the mango pulp while continuing to stir. Stirring is the key operation. After about 15-20 minutes of gentle heating and constant stirring, add the bowl of sugar. Since the mango pulp has some unforgettable sourness, it's okay to add a bit of more sugar.
     
   
   • Stir more. Heat more, but gently. The mixture starts to liquefy and then it solidifies. The temperature is around 95-100 degrees Celsius when you should be ready to stop the heat. Just about that time, add the milk powder to the mixture. It will be nice if you could use a funnel to add it to the mixture.
   • At this time, you should be able to make a big ball of mixture. Don't eat it at this time ;) (It's very mouth watering). Let it cool. The creation of this "ball of mango-coconut mixture" is key. The idea is that the mixture is able to "stand".
     
   • Make not more than 1 inch diameter balls by just rubbing the mixture between your palms. They look very tasty too ;).
     
   
   
   
   

We face challenges or challenges face us?

San Jose Mercury News asks on the front page (08 September 2009):

What challenges face 49ers this year?

I believe linguists can help us prove that this statement makes sense, but I think it would convey the meaning better, when put either this way:

What challenges 49ers face this year?

, or simply this way:

Challenges 49ers face this year (without the question mark)

I told you -- English is funny!

Congrats to Sarita Devi ...

On her win at the boxing event: World Police and Fire Games!

The pleasing paradox ...

I thought this article presented a balanced point of view. Very interesting read indeed!

Paraphrasing some of content:

The challenge is to be of service without becoming servile. We shouldn’t elevate any customer to the role of superior being, but treat each with human respect.

Human respect does not involve treating others as if they were superior or defining yourself through their expectations just because they're paying the bill. Human respect means being responsible, not overly responsible—a curious form of irresponsibility. Don’t cut others' meat for them.

Human respect demands that I respect myself so that I can respect others. Whenever I take that humbling step down and backwards, I can lose my own self-respect, and thereby forfeit my ability to really respect—or be of real service—to anyone else. When I can engage with my customer as a peer, we both seem more satisfied with the result.

I think it is important that you satisfy yourself by doing what you do.

Code comments!

A friend forwarded these code comments recently. Some of them are hilarious!

The best code comment seen in source code ......

1. ///

/// Class used to work around Richard being a $#!%^&* idiot
///

///
/// The point of this is to work around his poor design so that paging will
/// work on a mobile control. The main problem is the BindCompany( ) method,
/// which he hoped would be able to do everything. I hope he dies.
///

2.

// I dedicate all this code, all my work, to my wife, Darlene, who will
// have to support me and our three children and the dog once it gets
// released into the public.

3.

// Magic. Do not touch.

4.

return 1; /* returns 1 */

5.

/* This is O(scary), but seems quick enough in practice. */

6.

/*
* You may think you know what the following code does.
* But you don’t….Trust me.
* Fiddle with it, and you’ll spend many a sleepless
* night cursing the moment you thought you’d be clever
* enough to "optimize" the code below.
* Now close this file and go play with something else.
*/

7.

//When I wrote this, only God and I understood what I was doing
//Now…God only knows

देवनागरी आणि इतर "इंडिक" लीप्यंकन ...

OK, many of my dreams are coming true. One of the dreams was to be able to type in देवनागरी just on the browser.

Several schemes have been attempted for this to happen. But nothing is as simple as using Google Transliteration API and Firefox and its extension for Indic Translation, written by Sridhar. There is room for improvement (of course) but this is a very good step forward.

For the impatient, here is the recipe:

1. Dump Internet Explorer. Use Firefox as your web browser. Get it from http://getfirefox.com.
2. Start the Firefox browser.
3. Click on this link (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8731).
4. Click the (green) button: "Add to Firefox".
5. A Window will pop-up. After a few seconds, "Install Now" button will activate. Click it.
   
6. Firefox would prompt you for "Restarting Firefox". Click that button.
7. Firefox will restart.
8. Let's say you log on to your mail client (e.g. Yahoo! Mail, GMail etc.) If you are using Yahoo!, please choose the Plain Text formatting.
9. After clicking inside the Compose Window, you'll see a block like the one in adjacent image.
10. Choose a language of your choice and check the check-box. This should get you going. At the end of a "Word" boundary, the transliteration would occur. For example typing "bharat" should show you "भारत".
    

Thanks to Sridhar and Google Transliteration API!

English: Tip #2

Consider using "the reason (something) (reason)" without an intervening because. This is often violated and the resulting sentence is rather funny to read.

In such sentence, "the reason (something) " should be simplified for it to make sense.




I was rather surprised that Seth ran into this trap!

Beta or Not Beta -- That's the Question ...

GMail -- Are you Beta or Not? Since anyone can create an account now (which implies it is "out of Beta", I guess) do I need to send any invites to anyone?