Sudipta's Life

"90% of all quotes on the internet are made up" - Abraham Lincoln.  I cannot tell you the number of times I have had to leave that statement as a comment on Facebook. Consider this Facebook "forward", if you will:  It is attributed to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam because it suits the narrative that my friend wants to believe in. A lot of you will probably doubt if Dr. Kalam ever said that. I suspect (actually, fervently hope) that my friend who posted this also had a flicker of doubt the source. But he went ahead and posted it anyway.  That is what scares me the most. People are willing to "forward" anything that tickles their funny bone. I have grumbled about silly email forwards before. But Facebook takes it to a whole new level. This time, you don't even need to fill out the "To:" field. You can just "share" it on your timeline and people will read it. I am surprised at the incredible gullibility of people, and sometimes just f...

I keep getting ideas from time to time. These little moments of inspiration usually occur out of nowhere. Sometimes, the idea that pops into the head is related to something I am working on, such as: "Oh perhaps if this screwdriver had a magnetic tip, it would be easier to use". Most of the times, though, these are just random ideas which pop up during absolutely irrelevant times. For example, when working on one software project, I am reminded of the exact configuration on some totally unrelated machine that would solve someone else's problem. The point being: they come aplenty, and they are not necessarily related to the task at hand. Now, such ideas are of two kinds. One kind are improvement ideas, or "feature enhancements" in software engineering lingo. The others are quick fixes to problems that I might have been pondering about for a while. The third set of ideas (which, although I began the paragraph with "two kinds" still makes sense), is th...

There have been many-a-post sitting idle in my drafts. The urge to write something and get it out of my system has been plaguing me for a while. This particular video from TED actually inspired me to try and write at least a post a day for the next 30 days. Do watch the video and take up your own pledge. And wish me luck!

- "It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really matter, full of darkness & danger they were. Sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was, when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it'll shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stayed with you. They meant something. Even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I now know, folks in those stories had lots of chances to turn back, but they didn't. They kept going because they were holding onto something." - "What are we holding onto, Sam?" - "There's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo. And it's worth fighting for." -- The Lord of the Rings

Came across this one here: http://www.edulix.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=41705 Do click and enjoy! :)

I'm posting this as a blatant copy and paste from here: http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~ubasu/iitk/jokes/desi-romeo.html But worth the read... every single bit. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% %%%% THE DESI ROMEOS GUIDE-BOOK %%%% %%%% By Prem!(prem@prem.lbl.gov) %%%% with contributions by ACReddy (aceman@netcom.com). %%%% %%%%(PHYLUM: Desi,GENUS: Romeonensis) %%%% %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Since the annual induction of new recruits into s.c.i. is under way, let me start the ball rolling on the touchy topic of the intrepid romeo's courtship ritual... I would love to say that any resemblance to people living or married is a coincidence,but unfortunately that isn't really the case.It has been my misfortune to come across despos who fit at least one description very well.Some of the descriptions here are based on the outrageous opinions expressed by our dudes in private in an all-male environmen...

How to deal with some of life's problems: 1. Save every Free Credit Card Offer you get, Put it in pile A 2. Save every Free Coupon You get, put that in pile B 3. Now open the credit card mail from pile A and find the Business Reply Mail Envelope. 4. Take the coupons from pile B and stuff them in the envelope you hold in your hand. 5. Drop the stuffed to the brim envelopes in your mail and walk away whistling. I have now received two phone calls from the credit card companies telling me that they received a stuffed envelope with coupons rather than my application. They informed me that it they are not pleased that they footed the bill for the crap I sent them. I reply with "It says Business Reply Mail" I'm suggesting coupons to you to ensure that your business is more successful. They promptly hang up on me. Now, I did this for about a month before it got boring, so I got an added idea! I added exactly 33 cents worth of pennies to the envelope so they paid EXTRA d...

Aamar mukti aloy aloy ei aakashe Aamar mukti dhulay dhulay ghase ghase Amar mukti sarbajaner maner majhe Dukkha-bipad tuchha kora kothin kaaje My deliverance is in the lighted firmament, in every dust particle and in every grass of the earth ... My salvation is in the universal mind and in my exertions defying all dangers and disappointments. Lyrics and translation copied from here: http://www.parabaas.com/rabindranath/articles/pNarasingha.html For those who don't know, it is a poem (a song, actually) by Rabindranath Tagore

Hope. It is the quintessential human delusion, simultaneously the source of your greatest strength and your greatest weakness. --- The Architect in "The Matrix Reloaded"

What Matrix Persona Are You? You are Neo, from "The Matrix." You display a perfect fusion of heroism and compassion. Take this quiz ! Quizilla Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code Cause and effect, my dear?