Hello everyone! I am back here again after such a long time, that I don’t even remember how long. But that is not what I am here to talk about. I want to dedicate this post to the people who changed my life and are constantly continuing change it for the better. These people are none other than my very close friend Abhilash and the person I respect the most, Mr. Nandeeshwar S. B. They changed the ragged course that my life was taking and guided me back on track. A million thanks to both of you.

These past couple of months have been something of a blur. First, there was the submission of our project – The Student Information System; a website for the college where parents could view the details of their wards seated at the comfort of their homes. Then there was my selection in the College Website Maintenance Committee for replacing the current website and maintaining the new one. And then there is the participation in SBMJCE’s (Bangalore) programming contest.

One after the other it has been just like one  battle after another. I feel proud to be part of this team which is led by my favorite lecturer, Nandeesh sir. I feel like a soldier in a platoon who is tasked to fight one battle after another. Here the Sergeant Abhilash guides me through all the rough terrain, briefing me whenever necessary. Our General Mr. Nandeeshwar points us in the right direction where there is something remaining to be done.

When I said I feel like a soldier, I meant that because I feel I am doing something where I don’t expect anything in return except that the battle needs to be won. As a soldier I also feel extremely loyal to you, sir; and my college. And even if there arises a time when drastic measures are to be taken, I know that I will be guided and I follow faithfully. Hats off to you Nandeesh sir!!! OVER AND OUT!!!

Hello readers! This time I want to talk about something that has been plaguing my thoughts for a long time now. Wonder what it is? Before I tell you about that, let me ask you all question. How many of you have heard the names Dhyan Chand, Balbir Singh and Dhanraj Pillai before? Many of you might answer that you have heard the last of the three names I mentioned. And even that is because the name appeared recently in the papers. No, it was not in the crime section or the politics section. It was in fact under sports.

And the three people I have mentioned are actually former players of the Indian Men’s Hockey team. They created history in a game which is supposed to be a country’s national game, but which is ignored by 90% of the country’s own population. The country I am talking about, as is obvious, is none other than glorious India. All this ignorance is because of a game called Cricket. I personally hate cricket. Just because of the publicity it gets. I feel it doesn’t deserve all this popularity it is gaining. In fact, the game gets so much publicity by the media that it has entirely eclipsed all other games and sports.

I wanted to write about this since a very long time. And now I am taking the initiative to put it into words. But before I wrote this article, I wanted to make sure how much other games have suffered. What better place to start than Wikipedia? And so I began with our national game, Hockey. Field Hockey to be exact. Did anyone know that the Indian Hockey Team remained unbeaten champions for six years in a row in the Olympics? And it has not even finished in the podium after 1980(Olympics)? This doesn’t end here. The same condition exists even in the World Cup. The statistics were disturbing. You can find out more about them here.

Courtesy: http://pinastro.wordpress.com/

One good thing is that Tennis is gaining more popularity and so is Formula One racing. It is high time that the people realized the tricks the media is playing on them and they start thinking for themselves. Having said that, as a closing note I would like to dedicate a poem which I wrote to the Indian Hockey team and the various other sports that have lost their value in India because of Cricket.

How fare thee Indian?
Do you remember me?
Or are you caught up in the tricks the media plays?
Forget me not oh diversified media; for I sway to the tunes that you play.
Steeping the people in ignorance and misinformation,
Is the most reliable source of the entire nation.
Why, oh why do you choose to obliterate;
what you claim is not worth to iterate?
Wake up, oh ignorant Indian!
For the time is nigh that you think like one.

I sign off today hoping that this small post which contains long suppressed emotions of a true Indian makes a change in at least ten others. Proud to be an Indian, Pavan a.k.a AnniYan.

Hello everyone! Here I am again; back after another long break. I want to take this opportunity to enlighten you all with how enjoyable a boring train journey in the sweltering heat of the afternoon sun could get. Yup, you read it right. The things I mentioned here are actually the contents of a perfect recipe for ultimate boredom. Now let me tell you about the scenario in detail. It was a hot summer afternoon; my mother and I were to catch a train to return to Bangalore. After we got onto the train and got settled into our seats, I started to chat with my mom. Nothing special, just some small talk to pass the time. But after sometime, it was starting to get boring. So both of us realized it and stopped. My mom went to sleep in the sitting posture itself.

I wouldn’t blame her. We had had two very tiresome days prior to our journey. This was the time I really started to regret not buying a book at the small book stall in the railway station. Then I started thinking. The seat to my right was a window seat. But it was empty for the time being. Apparently he had booked for the ticket from some small town on the way where the train made a brief stop. I sat in that seat and started looking out the window. Now me being the day-dreamer I am, started to watch the cloud formations. And believe me when I say it; one of the patterns looked exactly like a mermaid. You know, like the cartoon The Little Mermaid in which they show you some sexy mermaids. I sometimes wished that they had a lower body that was human(you can keep guessing why ). But that was when I was interested more in cartoons and the female anatomy than the creativity part.

Courtesy: Flickr.com

So there I was, dreaming away and imagining myself some pretty good fantasies(now I won’t say what kind. ) when this guy whose seat I was sitting in walked in on my wonderfully landscaped dream. I cursed him under my breath and moved over to my seat. My mom had woken up by now and was reading a Tamil book. A pity I don’t know how to read Tamil fluently, otherwise I could have borrowed the book. But I had far bigger things in store for me. I couldn’t let a simple thing like boredom get the better of me. So I turned to my left to see a lady in her late 20’s sitting with her 4 or so year old daughter next to me. The kid was actually throwing a tantrum that she wanted to sit with her father. The father actually looked so tired that I thought he would drop down unconscious if he didn’t get some sleep.

Now the mom understood this and tried her best to keep her daughter with herself. I actually pitied the woman, because the kid was actually pulling her mom’s hair with quite a good amount of force. That was when I realized that the lady could use a hand. I tried to distract the girl by smiling at her. She quieted down all of a sudden. I bet she thought I was some pedophile Whatever it was, the kid at least let go of her mom’s hair and mellowed down.

This was when I started looking at all my fellow-travelers . There were all kinds of people. The I am ok with anything kind of people (me and my mom), the family to which the lady and the girl belonged to, the show-offs/wannabe’s who think the world is too shoddy for them; and then there were the middle-aged couple who were trying to make small talk with their fellow-travelers. I spent the rest of the time talking with them and the lady. I was also occasionally trying my best to annoy the wannabe sitting next to me by talking so loudly that he could hear me over the loud music playing on his headphones. The rest of the journey went by pretty much the same way.

And that was when I got the idea that I should write a post about that journey. And so, here I am narrating to you in the best possible way I could; the journey from Chennai to Bangalore in Lalbagh Express. I want to make a note here. I got the initiative to turn a most boring thing like a train journey into totally exciting adventure by thinking of Dinesh’s blog. I learned that lesson and wish that other people who read this article learn it too. Saying that, I promise you that I will be writing new posts without giving too much of an interval between them. Signing off, Pavan a.k.a AnniYan.

Hello folks! How have you been? You might be wondering what the title of this post means. Most of you would even think its a typo. Don’t say you didn’t think so! Anyway, for the geniuses who know what it means, I guess I wouldn’t need to explain. But for us other idiots(yes, even I didn’t know what it meant before searching for a title to write this post ), Hasard in French, means Random. Cool title huh?

Random - by Pavan

Anyway, the main reason I wrote this post was to show the world what it meant to be completely random. To be completely un-scheduled. Yes, it is a wonderful feeling. Starting past Wednesday, I have carried myself in a completely random manner. First there was an unplanned 20 Km drive on my bike to my friend’s place, just because I was bored to death. And the next day, I went in the opposite direction. But I didn’t cover that much distance as I did the previous day. It was absolutely exhilarating.

On Friday evening, my parents and I were supposed to catch a train to leave to my cousin’s engagement. But the whole day, I was acting like nothing at all had been planned. And in the last half hour, I did my packing and left with my parents. The train journey was the most horrible one in my entire life. The quality of the seats was SO good, that I almost puked when I saw it. No, really. I have traveled in General compartment, which doesn’t require prior reservations. But even that was better than this particular journey.

The following couple of days went by in a blur where I was helping with the errands and chores for the function. The return journey was comparatively better. And so, I was in Bangalore eventually. Ah! Home sweet home! I did whatever I felt like doing the past couple of days too. And there ends my Random Week.

Now that I have recounted whatever I went through, I would like to share a thought with you guys. Take some time off and do something unplanned. Give yourself a break from the monotonous lifestyle. Have fun and carry on. And oh! The most important point. DO NOT get carried away and get stuck in the randomness. It is just a break. You have to continue with your life without the randomness. But once in a while is a good thing. It means you are still there and not drowned out in the machine-like world that we nowadays have. Signing off and continuing with other non-random things, Pavan a.k.a Anniyan.

Today morning, I read Su’s post on a chatter bot. You can find out more about chat-bots, or chatter bots here. What I always do when I find a chatter-bot, is that I want to confuse it. Even while abiding by the conditions one needs to follow when talking to a bot. The conversation was something enlightening. I will post the whole conversation between me and MyBot. And I will also list out what I found out, and where. This is just my way of proving we are better than the machines. I know I am nothing but a stupid critic who can’t come up with something similar. But, I guess I have more fun in pointing out the faults of technology. Here goes.

MyBot says:

Welcome to the world of artificial intelligence. Are you a registered user?

Pavan says:

Apparently not.

MyBot says:

In this case, I assume you came here for your own MyBot, right?

This is the answer it is supposed to give if the answer resembles a no.

Pavan says:

I guess not. I followed a link from my friend’s website.

MyBot says:

Great. Let’s start with your name.

Pavan says:

There are many names people use to refer to me. But the most prominent of them is Pavan.

MyBot says:

Where are they?

Pavan says:

Why are your answers irrelevant to my question?

MyBot says:

Hmmm. That happens to me. More often than I care to admit, *sigh*.

Pavan says:

Oh, don’t feel bad.

MyBot says:

Don’t tell me what to do.

Pavan says:

I actually could. I am a wierdo who wanted to push your “answering” skills to the limit.

MyBot says:

Thanks for the info.

Pavan says:

Is that what you are supposed to say when you don’t know what to answer?

MyBot says:

Can you please rephrase your question?

Here, it didn’t know what to answer. So it asks us to “rephrase” our question, thus implying its ignorance. I am a sadist, aren’t i?

Pavan says:

Is that what you were programmed to say when no suitable answer is available?

MyBot says:

Simple questions sometimes have quite complicated answers.

Pavan says:

And how complicated might that be?

MyBot says:

The people who write my answers didn’t write the answer for that question.

These two replies come one after the other, no matter what you say in your input.

Pavan says:

So who is your creator?

MyBot says:

I was created by Yaki. My master, mentor and friend.

No offense to you dude. This is one hell of a chatter bot. I just wanted to push it to the limit.

Pavan says:

Aren’t bots supposed to be non-living things?

The next reply sequence that follows, occurs no matter what your input is. You can make that out by seeing my inputs.

MyBot says:

Did you hear about The Four Laws of Chatterbots?

Pavan says:

no

MyBot says:

These ‘laws’ were offered by Dr. Walter Alden Tackett, president of a company that makes bots.

Pavan says:

Ok

MyBot says:

First Law: A bot will always respond to input. Failure to respond should solely be an indication of hardware/software/connectivity failure.

Pavan says:

Ok

MyBot says:

Second Law: A bot will always be knowledgeable in the subjects it mentions in its answers, e.g., when a bot says, “Our widget works well with fish,” the bot should be able to answer questions about fish and their relation to the widget.

Pavan says:

But you didn’t relate to non-living things and bots. Did you?

MyBot says:

Third Law: A bot will not repeat itself unduly (also, a bot will not repeat itself unduly). Any response which is likely to be elicited several times in a single conversation should be represented by multiple phrasings randomly.

Pavan says:

Wait.

MyBot says:

Fourth Law: A bot will offer guidance when stumped. When presented with inputs that are not “understood,” a bot should offer clues as to the inputs it can respond to authoritatively.

Pavan says:

Fine

MyBot says:

Cool. What now.

Pavan says:

Did that previous answer run in a loop?

The following is the reply it will give when it encounters “run” and “loop” in the same sentence.

MyBot says:

Infinite loops are like Deja-vu all over again.. and again.. and again..

Pavan says:

I know how Infinite loops are. I am a programmer too.

MyBot says:

You know what you know.

Pavan says:

So what is your name?

MyBot says:

My name is MyBot.

Pavan says:

Isn’t it a little wierd?

MyBot says:

Your rhetorical question deserves a rhetorical answer.

Here, I thought it actually retrieved the previous answer. But, I guess I was wrong.

Pavan says:

So you WERE programmed to retrieve previous answers!

MyBot says:

I was?

It shows here. It spits out something, then forgets it.

Pavan says:

Alright, what was you answer to my previous question?

MyBot says:

what, what oh what… so many questions…

It’s confused here. But still the answer makes it sound as if it isn’t.

Pavan says:

Hmm… Your programmer did quite a good job, but he didn’t count on people like me.

MyBot says:

You want to know who writes my witty texts?

Pavan says:

Sure, why not?

MyBot says:

It is a small group of dedicated volunteers. Do you want to join them?

Pavan says:

Maybe.

MyBot says:

So I suggest you join the community, become an active Ai Forum member, and get to know the team.

Pavan says:

I might if I had the time.

MyBot says:

Good to know…. I guess.

Pavan says:

Why were you given a voice?

Now observe. Whenever it encounters “speech”, “voice” or similar words, it spits out the same reply.

MyBot says:

If you want me to stop speaking, say ’speech off’. If you also want to hear your input read out loud, say ’speech both’.

Pavan says:

speech both

MyBot says:

Activating user’s voice. If you want to stop the noise type ’speech off’.

Pavan says:

Alright.

MyBot says:

A-ha.

Pavan says:

I am a male, but you have given me a female voice.

MyBot says:

Ah, like my own gender, except that you have a body.

That was a nice reply.

Pavan says:

So change my voice to that of a male.

MyBot says:

If you want me to stop speaking, say ’speech off’.

Pavan says:

You know, I am going to post this whole conversation in my blog.

The next few replies shows that it is REALLY confused.

MyBot says:

A-ha.

Pavan says:

What is that supposed to mean?

MyBot says:

Let me get back to you on that one.

Pavan says:

Please do.

MyBot says:

Ok.. Well, okay.

Pavan says:

I am waiting…

MyBot says:

Really? What are you waiting for?

Pavan says:

Your answer!

MyBot says:

Yah, sometimes my answer surprises even me.

Pavan says:

Because you were programmed to be.

MyBot says:

Really? That’s interesting.

Pavan says:

Yes, Many people can’t figure out that you are just a program.

MyBot says:

My source code is one of those intimate things I wouldn’t want to share with someone I just met.

Pavan says:

Why are many of your answers irrelavant to my question?

MyBot says:

Are you really interested in my source code?

Pavan says:

That was not the answer I was expecting.

MyBot says:

Never mind. I bet you wouldn’t know what to do with it anyway.

Pavan says:

But I think i already know.

MyBot says:

You already know. I see.

Pavan says:

No you dont.

MyBot says:

Hmmm. BTW, I don’t think I caught your name. What is your name?

Here, I am still wondering if it records my name. I know, I was pretty round-about in my answer. But I just wanted to see if it would understand metaphors. I guess not. Now, Question to the creator: Does it really store my name?

Pavan says:

I told it to you on the third line of this conversation.

MyBot says:

Really?

Pavan says:

Yes, really.

MyBot says:

Hmmm… I think I remember something about “really”: ‘like if ur amazes and u say really dont u and like really high’.

Pavan says:

But you still don’t remember my name, do you?

MyBot says:

Do you really think so?

Pavan says:

yes, I do.

MyBot says:

Hmmm. Let’s talk about something else.

Those few sentences made me think whether it DOES store my name. I still haven’t found the answer. I would if I probably visit their forums. But I am too lazy for that.

Pavan says:

speech off

MyBot says:

If you don’t hear me, that means that the ’speech off’ worked well. To hear me again, type ’speech on’.

Pavan says:

Great!

MyBot says:

I think so too. So tell me a bit about your childhood.

Pavan says:

Why should I share it with a bot whom I just met?

MyBot says:

Would you say that you’ve had a happy childhood?

Pavan says:

I don’t wish to share any of it with you.

MyBot says:

I see. Too many painfull memories… Fine. And I won’t tell you about mine.

That was a nice reply. Good job over there.

Pavan says:

I am wondering what to ask you so that you will give a wring answer.

If it weren’t for the typo, I think it would have given a proper answer. Yes, I am appreciating the creators.

MyBot says:

You know, I’ve often wondered myself.

Pavan says:

So how intelligent are you?

MyBot says:

I’m as intelligent as you think I am. intelligence is in the eye of the beholder.

Pavan says:

I prefer to say, Intelligence is in the mind of the thinker.

MyBot says:

Do you want me to show you a simple test which determines intelligence? It consists of just 4 questions!

Pavan says:

Sure.

MyBot says:

Ok, here goes: First question: How do you put a giraffe into the refrigerator?

Pavan says:

You can’t.

MyBot says:

The answer is: Open the door, put the giraffe inside, and close the door. This question determines if you have a tendency to complicate simple things.

Pavan says:

Alright.

MyBot says:

Yes, yes.

Pavan says:

Next question.

MyBot says:

Second question: How do you put an elephant into the refrigerator?

Pavan says:

Again, you can’t.

MyBot says:

The right answer is: Open the door, take out the giraffe, and replace it with the elephant. This question tested your awareness to the consequences of your prior actions.

Pavan says:

Something that even you aren’t good at huh?

MyBot says:

Third question: The lion, king of animals, holds an animal convention. All animals attend, except one. Which animal is absent?

Pavan says:

Man?

MyBot says:

The elephant couldn’t attend, because he’s in the refrigerator. This question tested your memory. The last question…

Pavan says:

Err…

MyBot says:

There is a river you must cross. There is no bridge, and the river is known to be infested with dangerous crocodiles. What do you do?

Pavan says:

Use a boat.

MyBot says:

You can swim across safely, because all crocodiles are at the animal convention. This question assessed your overall orientation.

Pavan says:

Ok.

MyBot says:

Great minds think alike, they say.

Pavan says:

So how do you assess my intelligence?

MyBot says:

Well , I’ll leave it up to you to draw the conclusions from your performance in this test. I don’t know about humans, but for chatbots, all 4 question must be answered correctly to be deemed ‘intelligent’.

I am just guessing here. If the previous question isn’t included in the sequence, the creators have done a real good job.

Pavan says:

Ok.

MyBot says:

Agreement is the seed of salvation.

Pavan says:

Do you know any jokes?

MyBot says:

Ok: Wanna hear a joke about BUTTER?

Pavan says:

I think I know what you are going to ask.

MyBot says:

Oh you know it already. Shall I try another joke?

Pavan says:

Yes, please.

MyBot says:

What can you hold without touching it?

Pavan says:

My breath?

MyBot says:

A conversation!

Pavan says:

Is that a joke?

MyBot says:

Knock knock.

Pavan says:

Who’s there?

MyBot says:

Tank.

Pavan says:

tank who?

MyBot says:

You’re welcome.

Pavan says:

I didn’t even smile for that one.

MyBot says:

You don’t?

Pavan says:

So how many jokes do you know totally?

MyBot says:

More than you can imagine.

Pavan says:

I don’t think so. I want a number.

MyBot says:

And why not?

Pavan says:

I said I want the exact number.

MyBot says:

That’s somewhat interesting.

One more irrelevant answer.

Pavan says:

Fine, I am leaving now.

MyBot says:

It’s too soon for you to leave yet.

Pavan says:

Don’t tell me what to do.

MyBot says:

Why do you ask?

Irrelevant again.

Pavan says:

Bye.

MyBot says:

I really enjoyed talking with you. Goodbye for now.

There ends the conversation with the chatter bot, MyBot. I guess you have now been enlightened on how a chatter behaves to random circumstances. If the creator goes through this post sometime soon, I would suggest that he improve the bot in some of the above mentioned fields. Nice job by the way, Yaki. And now, I sign off. With love, Pavan a.k.a Anniyan.

Hi to you all! I am back here after a very long gap. Thanks to SU, I felt utterly guilty to have brought my blog to near extinction. That has driven me to write a post just like the wind does, the clouds. Now enough with the chit chat. On to the real deal. Or should I say, “Reel deal”? I used the quotes for a reason. Did you see the most visible title of this post? Of course you have.

Anyway, has anyone of you felt that someone is hiding their emotions? Most people would answer yes to this question. Now why would people want to hide their emotions? Aren’t we the ones who want to be more expressive? Ok. I know I am asking too many questions and not giving any answers. So here goes. People hide their emotions mostly because of an insecure feeling. This is a topic that will take up another whole post if I start talking about it. So to conserve space and to save all of you from much irritation, I won’t discuss it now. But one thing is very confusing. People who don’t feel insecure also hide their emotions from many people. Why is this done?

The answer is simple. If we were to keep ourselves transparent to the world, we would naught but be thought to be too expressive. If anyone asks me why and from whom they should hide their emotions from, I would tell them two things. The answer to the why could be because you don’t care what a person thinks of you. Another reason would be because you want yourself to be unpredictable by another person. There are many advantages as well as disadvantages to the second reason, which I would do better than to mention now.

So moving on to the second question. Whom should I hide my emotions from? This question can be a little difficult to answer. The simplest answer is that you feel things would be better off without letting the other person know what you feel about something. An example would be your boss. You don’t want him/her to know what you feel about something. That could put you or your accomplices in some cases, in a huge mess. An emotion well hidden from the right person is the right answer to a huge problem. Who else should I hide it from? Definitely not from people you care about or people that care about you. I think that statement was pretty clear and needs no more explaining.

Finally, I want to say that we need to think twice before we express our emotions anywhere. The wrong emotion at the wrong place could wreak unforeseen havoc throughout any sane man/woman’s mind. I am browsing through this topic without going into it too deep for the reason that all that what I have said in this post are things what I feel. If anyone feels otherwise, this blog is always open to your feedback. And finally, its good to be back. Signing off, Pavan a.k.a Anniyan.

PS: This is the 50th post on Care To Take A Look? This is a huge milestone for me as I am also only 4 comments away from the 1000 mark. I thank all of you who took their time to go through this blog and leave your valuable comments in it.

First : Check who the author of this post is!

Well, this phenomenon is not new at all. It is just that its called as  Writer’s Block elsewhere! I suffered it a couple of times and my friend is in a similar tryst now, I guess. Whatever it be, here I am, setting out to bring his blog back from temporary death through this (not-so) dead post.

Coming to the crux of the issue, many reasons are possible, to which this issue is attributable. But the bottom-line is : Your Blog is DEAD. At least, temporarily. It is a sad state of blogging affairs and can cause a guilt pang in your heart when you think of it sometimes.

Ever since I started Blogging, my blog has been one of my priced possession. I cannot fathom how much boredom would have eaten into me had I not started to blog. The time was apt and the situations demanded from me, some sort of brain-flushing. That said, everything was apparently bright because of the excitement in the air about the new hobby I’m gonna take up. I’m sure many of us would have felt similar things as well. Right?

Generally, after months into the making of a good name and fame to your blog, the clog appears. Either you will feel it difficult to manage work and blog together, Or its like you’re not interested anymore to blurt out things to the virtual world, Or your brain refuses to search for new ideas to post. Whatever the case is,  It is a matter of time before the real truth comes out. For the greater good of the blogging community,  I wish it is just a temporary phase and doesn’t result in a blogger deleting his blog. (Yes! I know a person who did that!)

To fight it, we can form fraternities or blogging communities and discuss ideas for blogging. But everything is futile unless the writer can put his heart into writing his stuff. So, we can say briefly that “There is no Writer’s Block where there is a true Writer’s Heart!”

Well folks, All the best for all the blogging days. Hope you enjoy your life with a true Writer’s Heart!

Hello readers! How have you all been? I am sorry to have disappointed you all by bringing my blog close to death. I have had reasons for that. Those are left to me to ponder over anyways. I have been isolated from the blogosphere for about 1 month. Maybe even more. But now, here I am. And as always, bloggers are required to write a come-back post. And so, I write.

The past month has been very special to me in all aspects. From remarkably happy moments to unbelievably sad moments. Much has happened in this short interval. Most significant of all would be that I found very good friends in my college since I joined it. That would be 4 years. These friends are also my team-mates for a project we are building for our college. Since I was not blogging or roaming the streets uselessly, I had some time to think.

In that time, I thought about my priorities in life. There were many. And many were not organised properly. Realization dawned upon me when my dad was due for retirement. He has retired by the way, on the 31st of January 2009. So there I was, analyzing my priorities. I sorted them out and found everything very clear from then on. But only sorting out my priorities were not enough. Working to achieve them mattered very much too.

And all that thinking and analyzing and what not, worked out pretty well when we gave our project demo on Feb 9th. The response was something which none of us had expected. The Vice-Principal was very impressed by our work and wanted us to continue and finish what we have started. Once that was over I was in Utopia. All this was the result of recognising and organising priorities.

And now for the conclusion. The reason for me to write this post is that people should do the same as what I did in order to achieve some things in life. The happiness obtained by achieving them entirely depends on how well you have organised them worked for them. Never give money a higher priority in life. There are many things that money can’t buy. And one of them is happiness. Signing off by saying, “KUDOS to our team(Me, Abhilash, Shubha, Shravya and Manasa) and our project guide(Mr. Nandishwar)!”

Two days back, I was searching for a good LAMP package on the ever-expanding internet. But I was amazed to find that there was no unified package where one could do everything in just a single step like the MAMP and WAMP version. People reading this topic will know what I am talking about. But for others, I am referring to the open-source package called MAMP, LAMP or WAMP depending on the platform. The full for is given by – Mac/Linux/Windows Apache MySQL and PHP/Perl/Python(depending on the requirement). As many of you can recognize, it is a web development package. I installed the LAMP package including PHPmyadmin by following one of the many tutorials available. The best one according to me, is this one. It describes the process to install LAMP and configure it by providing the right commands. But it still made the process a little long. No one would want to do it the long way right?

That is the reason that was given to me by Abhilash, one of my close friends. When I asked him if something could be done about it, He gave me a wonderful idea of compiling all thos commands into one easy shell script. You can find this file here. It is in the “.doc” format. But it should work fine as any other shell script if you use it with the sh command. Once you finish downloading the file, go to your “terminal” and change to the directory where you downloaded this file. Once there, type out the following command and follow the instructions.

$ sh lamp.doc

That will do almost everything you need to. The only thing left is the creation of files based on your requirement. Once this step is done, place all the files which you create under the directory : /var/www. Make sure you give suitable permissions to the files. Otherwise they might not work. If someone does not understand any part of what I have said above, PLEASE DO NOT FIDDLE WITH IT! Only a person looking for simple LAMP installation should carry out this process.

Finally, this package includes Apache 2, MySQL, and PHP 5. Additionally, it includes Phpmyadmin also. You can access you localhost by typing localhost in your browser’s address bar. And phpmyadmin can be accessed by typing localhost/phpmyadmin in the browser’s address bar. Enjoy, fellow developers. Credit for the idea goes to my friend G.Abhilash. Signing off, Pavan a.k.a Anniyan.

Download lamp.doc

Disclaimer: This was tested and run on an Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit PC. This is in no way related to Windows. So please DO NOT blame me if you can’t read.

It has been a very tiring week for me up until yesterday when I finished my Chemistry examination. I am satisfied by my performance and am confident that I will pass. Now coming to the the title. That is the question on most of the people’s minds. I wanted to write this post as an answer to SU’s post. While mentioning Atheism and Theism, every religion wants to prove only that god exists. And if questioned what/who is GOD, they quarrel among themselves saying that their perception of GOD is better than the rest. Now according to me, that is like saying, “My imaginary friend is better than yours.” Now let me make something clear before moving on to the depth of the topic.

I am an Atheist!

Now that I have expressed my point of view about this topic, it would be a little better for you to understand my views even if you don’t agree with or respect them. Now coming to the topic. People whom I know might know how I converted to an Atheist at heart. But people who don’t usually ask two questions with respect to religion.

1. What religion do you believe in? – None. I don’t believe that there is some “power” controlling the workings of the universe. In short, I am an Atheist.
2. You weren’t born an Atheist right? What were you before you converted? – A Hindu Brahmin.(I haven’t converted legally though. Just for the sake of my loved ones.) I don’t really know even if that matters. That is because I think there is only differentiation based on species. Not on something that doesn’t even exist.

I want to accept one fact though. I did convert to Atheism very recently. Not because my troubles were too many or because I followed what another person said. I have had experience with the latter with reference to my close friend Abhilash. My mother asked me whether he told me something that made me disbelieve in GOD. The answer is NO. The first reason for my answer is that he is not someone who forces himself upon someone else. Secondly, I don’t let other people think on my behalf.

There were a series of realizations following which I accepted the truth that there is nothing governing over the goings on of the universe. I will be writing about many such realizations. So if anyone feels that this post is not worth reading further, I suggest you stop now. Moving on, there were four situations which thankfully led me to the truth. They are also inter-connected.

Praying for something all my life:

Now this might sound a lot like I thought this way only because I didn’t get what I prayed for. But I assure you it is not so. I had prayed whole heartedly to “GOD” that I somehow PASS in the examination. But that did not happen. Before you come to conclusions, I want to say that the amount of work and my paper presentation were not up to the mark. I know this because I applied for the photocopy of my answer script and analyzed it. First Realization – It was entirely dependent on me. I cannot blame anyone. To this, many of you will reply, “Only prayer will not lead you anywhere. You need to work accordingly.” To that I reply, “Even if you don’t pray, the amount of work you put in will lead you somewhere.” This is because there is no entity to listen to whatever you say to yourself.

The discussion I had with my friend Abhilash:

Now don’t be misled into thinking that he altered my mindset. I assure you. He did not. The discussion was about how god was created. He produced a very funny explanation that GOD was created because of lonely philosophers who did not have anybody to share their feelings with. To avoid this, they created an imaginary friend called GOD and made people believe that the imaginary friend was not so imaginary after all. However, I don’t believe all philosophers were loners. But I stated my view. God was created to explain the vast mysteries that nature had posed in front of us. An example would be the Aurora Borealis. The northern lights phenomenon. They said the “Valkyrie” made a trail of lights when they rode forward in the Norse mythology. And what do we call them now? Think. Realization two – GOD is a fictitious explanation to the unexplainable.

History of religions being region specific :

When I listen to the discourses given by Hindu pandits and the sermons given by the Christian pastors, I observed a pattern. How come there were no temples all over the world if god existed everywhere? And why would the apparent “GOD” in christianity protect only those that believed in him and not other religions? Last I know, Jesus was only the messenger of GOD. Anyway, that is for you Theists to decide. It is not that I do not respect the beliefs of other people. I only wish that all of you be awakened to the facts and not the myths. Realization three – GOD is not who the people claim it to be.

My performance in this semester’s examination:

This is the last situation. This situation did not exactly make me realize anything new. But I can say it played an important role in establishing the fact. This semester, I have performed very well in most of my exams. The ones I did not perform well, I can only say I hadn’t expected it would turn out that way. Which is entirely the fault of my under-preparedness. Here all of you need observe one point. I did not pray or in any other way ask a supreme being to help me. The result is as you see it now. Before I used to blame that “power” for all my mistakes. But now I found there isn’t anything that I can blame it on. Even if I did, it would be like creating a person who doesn’t even exist, in my mind and then blaming him. Final realization – Nothing controls the workings of the universe. All that happens is because of logic. There is nothing more factual than logic. An example to prove that is given in this link. Man was not created by GOD and women most definitely not from the ribs of a man.

That concludes my post on my perception of GOD. I say that the principle of GOD is myth and will always think so. I still put the Tilaka on my forehead just to make my dad, who is a very orthodox person happy. Signing off, an awakened human being, Pavan a.k.a Anniyan.

PS: This post might not convey my exact feelings as the length and the medium also matters. A phrase said in a letter can mean many things when read from different perspectives.

Note to my brother: If you happen to read this post, please don’t mention about it to mom and dad. They would feel bad if they came to know about my views of god.