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May 13

Tag Post!

Life View Comments

Tagged long long back. Was in a really busy phase of life then and I’m probably spending the first Sunday in ages at home, watching episode 422 of scrubs {an amazing one} and then had this sudden thought of wrapping this long time entry in my to-do list off now !

1. A living person I would like to meet – Blondie , at least 5’7″, fair complexion, German, Scottish or Irish background a bonus. Must be young, artistic and financially stable and looking for a fling. Of course, must dig me !! Serious things apart, I would love to meet Rebecca Romijn, Jessica Alba, Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Melissa Joan Hart et. al. Actually anyone on the current ‘Maxim’ Top 100 Hot list would do, which reminds me.. Eva Longoria. For those who have already started judging me, Stephen Hawking, I juss admire him for everything he has done inspite of all tough times !

2. A dead person I would like to meet – Wouldn’t want to meet anyone dead. Am scared of Ghosts and all you see. If someone is going to be brought back to life, Marilyn Monroe it is. Princess Leia too, if she is anything close to Carrie Fisher and of course, the all time beauty queen, my grandmom (miss you ..). Well, when it comes to hot babes its never enough and I dont care much about others (to be read as politicians, philosophers, writers and the usual blah blah) alive itself..

3. An event in the history I would like to change – Change my choice of being Stupendous man to Spaceman Spiff. I would love getting zapped, shot down, and being captured by ferocious and disgusting aliens for a change. Winning moral victories kinda tends to become quotidian o’er time. I would like the moon-landing to take place around 100 years earlier so that they would have made space travel much more accessible and cheaper now. Yeah, I am sky-diving someday for sure.

4. An event in the history I would like to witness – Scrubs, Episode 106, My Bad in JD’s shoes.

J.D.: Stick to the truth and you can’t get hurt, that’s my philosophy.
Dr. Cox: You didn’t sleep with her did ya?
J.D.: God, no!
J.D.’s Narration: Philosophy is tricky.

Indeed it is

5. A movie I would like to witness without being a part of – Saving Private Ryan, especially the initial 20 mins. There is no way I would want to be a part of that except if they are going to give me a fighter plane or something, loaded with nukes that I can fire from way way away from that gore.

6. A literary character I would like to meet – Cinderella, Princess Fiona. A dance with my Cinderella makes my day, yeah yeah an 8 dance or whtever it is !! And yeah how can I forget Cecilia from phdcomics !!!!!

People I tag, DB (Go for it full swing, full volume), Amyn (Chapter 7 of your thesis), PChat (More topics to rant on), DJ (Dude, in case you still dont rmr your passwd, just go for a new blog), Navya et al( for the amazing orkut profile types one), Laks (Yeah, yeah someone wanted to start blogging), Mythalez (I think you hate tag posts, but you just have to write this) and Ani (Time to write something about the real monkey, you ).

You are supposed to write on these stuff in your blogs and drop a comment as soon as thats done !!

May 06

Spiderman 3 – Review

Movies, Spiderman View Comments

[How long can any man fight the darkness... before he finds it in himself?]

The tag line says it all. Spiderman is all happy and leads a perfect life, a life watching the stars with Mary Jane, topping the class and so on. Then, enter Topher Grace, {You might rmr the cute next-door boy in Thats 70s Show who gets picked on and bullyed by everyone}. He ends up spoiling the balance that spidy had struck. Now, enter Venom, New Goblin and Sandman, we have a movie which has more villians. much more than we can chew.

All in all, Spiderman 3 is a decent movie, a little different from the previous two. A bad ass superhero, subtle one-liners, James Franco and Topher Grace end up as the saving grace. Kristen Dunst is as usual there just for the beauty part, more or less for the run-of-the-mill romantic moments with Topher?? [:D] Naah Who cares, she kinda is the Jackie of Thats 70s Show .. The CG part especially the Sandman part is decent, while the rest of the CG is too much clutter with too many things happening at the same time. The story-line goes haywire in the middle, with Venom’s introduction and powers not described clearly, probably due to lack of time. One of the perils of having too many villains, resulting in improper character establishment.

However, given the craze and the 300 million $ that has been spent on the movie and the fact that in Santa Cruz Regal, it had 11 shows on the first day, I’m pretty sure that Sony would earn back what they invested. However, its not like everyone can pull a Terminator, both ways. Dont over-expect .. Just go there for some fun !!!

Apr 22

Increasing Google Page Rank

Google, Life View Comments

First, let me answer the why part. Now, lets imagine you own a website that sells acoustic guitars. If your site is the first site that is generated by a google search “Buy acoustic guitars” voila, your hits would drastically go up for I would more or less buy my guitar from one of the top 10 google search stores. Now, I amnt selling guitars here. I just want to see if my knowledge of Google page ranking is enough for me to see if my site. would be the first site generated with a google search for “sumanth”

1) Have as many back-links as possible. One way of getting easy back links is to write tons of comments in good sites (Ones with really nice page ranks) so that your url is displayed there. You can pay someone to put up your url on their site or write really really cool articles, which is worthy enough to be referred by say digg or someother site or the easiest way, you can just simply have backlinks to your own site like this http://kislove.wordpress.com Someone said, self help is the best help

2) No one listens to bullshit, not even a machine. Remember finally, at the end of it, google search is done by a machine that in layman terms looks a bunch of sites, sees if anyone refers to you and then checks if the content is similar to what is there on your site. Now, since I am looking for only sumanth. I need to ensure that there are as many instances of sumanth as possible in my web-site. Ofcourse, its only sumanth (content) that matters !!

3) But, now let me think, Google guys are obviously smarter than you and me ( atleast they think so.. ). So, they would have written some sort of an anomaly check that would detect if there are too many backlinks all of a sudden to a particular site. Something like rising to fame all of sudden is too bad.. So, take it one page-rank at a time. Dont just go start writing 1000s of comments all of a sudden. If you are lucky you might even be kicked out of the google world itself red-flagged I mean.

4) It always feels better to be praised well by someone who never praises anyone and is a little important, than someone who always praises someone or the other and is important. So, making sure that you have links from sites with medium level page-rank arnd 4 or so than a high page-rank website with too many outgoing links.

5) Take care of your own kids. Have more links pointing to your site than to some other site. Why? Simple enough, you want your links to have a high page rank. The more the links that go out, the lesser the page rank that your own links will receive.. duh ! You have to be a lil selfish to survive in this world. However, if you can be symbiotic, its always good. Thats why I always link mythalez .

6) Now for some real techie stuff. This is something I read in Game Theory, a game called Prisoners’ Dilemma. You should read wikipedia for that and it seems rama’s group in Southampton came up with this way of making some of the agents suffer so that the other agents can win !! Simply put, out of the 10 pages you have, you can increase the page ranks of some of the pages, reducing the page ranks of others by having a large number of links from them to these “favored” pages.

7) Now, noone wants to read a complicated book. The same holds true for a machine as well. No complicated frames, re-directs, dynamic pages, javascripts, this that and all. Keep it simple with basic html and if possible have a robot.txt or whatever the link above asks you to do so that googlebot sees u immediately.

Thats it. You should be in the top of google searches hopefully. I am bored and dont want to write anymore about this. Where am I now? I am the 5th in the google search for “sumanth”, which is good considering the fact that there is a telugu actor by the same name. {Not too famous, I wouldnt bother too much about him though.. }

Latest News of My life {Just to keep a tab}

I got into Adobe Advanced Labs. I would be doing my summer internship from June 15th there. I am moving to Silicon Valley in summer. We were chased by girls in a car on our way back from West cliff a week back (I shud blog that..). Ani got into Google (I am going to get lotsa inside info about googles’ algos n all) and SUN n yeah I am damn jealous abt it I had amazing biryani the last 2 days. I am just back from Indian Organisation party where we had samosas and watched an amazing dance performance. I got contacts and that too for free, thanks to my health insurance. My salsa and guitar classes start from next week. Am just waiting for it. Next in the buy list : Shades and Car ! I’m loving it here !!

Mar 21

My Moment of Un-Truth

Random View Comments

I wonder when I will get bored of writing blogs with incoherent titles, titles of the same old episodes of scrubs day in and night out, night outs and feeling insomniac daily and wishing that I could sleep a little early by around 4 AM in the morning, morning breakfasts mostly at McDonald’s talking , talking to the same old friends on yahoo and in person, person detection on some large data for my research, “researching” everything in the virtual world from diggs to blogs, blog reading – most of which are nowadays mundane, mundane talks and classroom visits, visits to the west cliff every time I get high, getting high every time I am happy, happy every time something I want happens, happening events at the most happening place California, Californian babes, babe I love the most, most of my never ending dreams, dream of strumming my guitar like Joe Satriani, ani... Probably never !!

Mar 13

Straight Talk

Uncategorized View Comments

[Copy paste from an amazing blog ]

So over the weekend me and a male colleague of mine decided to go shopping. “What and Why?” you question with a raised eyebrow. Brace yourself – you aint the first person to question the activity. Another friend of ours raised similar questions too with the “Aren’t both of you confirmed heterosexuals” look. So I did what any sensible man facing such a question in this century would do – post on my blog abt it.

I think the society is strangely skewed in its choice of activities the sexes are allowed to do together. Every time I hit the malls, I see tons of women who come to shop by themselves. Two women, all dressed up, giggly, trying out different clothes and asking each other questions like “too short?”, “too low?” “does my stomach show?”. Perfectly fine. No one questions them and their motives. Now imagine two guys doing that. Imagine me walking into a store with my male friend and trying out a shirt and asking him “too tight?” “will this go with green?” Yeah!! You can’t imagine that – can you?

So let me spell it out again – two fully dressed men in an attempt to dress themselves further will appear queer in our society but (yes, the quintessential but) boxing – that is just fine. Seriously. The act of two almost naked men, wearing nothing but literally boxing shorts, touching each other while sweating is perceived to be an act of oozing machoness but the thought of the same two guys buying shirts together is strange!!!! The same holds true for working out. Two buddies pumping those heavy weights in the gym is completely fine – where one man in his sweaty T shirt standing right above his buddy’s face, helping him do bench press is fine – but the same two men if seen in a classy restaurant, eating dinner together in formals, will be questioned. Oh yes, that brings me to restaurants. Isn’t it strange that we draw the line across some special kind of restaurants – two men having burgers in a fast food restaurant is cool (coz they are buddies grabbing a quick snack) but if they go to a sushi bar by themselves then it is not (coz then people think that they are just buddies try to grab each other while they snack).

Which is why I love Indian men. Coz we all know that Indian men hate it more than anybody else to have their sexuality questioned. At the same time most acts Indian men (or Indian men I bump into) do together are … err … quite questionable – going for Friday night movies together, always having their arms around each other while taking photographs, going to the sea beach all by themselves and then running into the water and splashing each other??? Sounds familiar? Yes, these are some of our favorite bonding moments. But we never come across as questionable because Indian men follow the rule of the jungle – whatever you do, DO IT IN HERDS!! Yes, Indian men flock in large quantities. Coz we know that two men hugging and taking photographs is queer but twelve of them doing it is just plain old weird and we are fine with weird!! This is the same reason why you can safely go to any night club in areas with high desi population and see a dozen Indian men dancing together and still not question their sexuality. Pretty neat, heh?

Society and its biases – I will never understand

Mar 07

Cric fever !

Cricket, Santa Cruz View Comments

You know that the world cup fever is catching up when one in every third blog you read is about cricket, when most of the links forwarded are about cricket stats or ads. We are planning to watch cricket at a friends’ place. Going to buy a $200 deal to watch cricket matches online. And hopefully, India would get into the semis, then we would for sure rent a projector and watch it with vodka shots. Getting drunk at 6 AM in the morning and watching Sachin blast his way through the opposition, sounds like fun. I am like so looking forward to this. Planning on putting a night out, come back home, watch cricket, then sleep for stime and then wake up and watch cricket again !!!

P.S : Sachin is GOD.

P.S2 : The red dot in the pic is my fave place (West Cliff) and yeah, its the pacific ocean and u can dangle ur feet and the water hits ‘em !! { Never been there in the daytime, and except on 2 occasions, the umpteen times have always been when high !! }

P.S3 : Nothing like watching cricket at OBH. Lucky dogs !

Mar 05

Lifes good..

Life, Love View Comments

Probably the first time I am blogging when I am drunk.. after a nice walk, dancing with the girl I love, amazin food tht shes cooking rt now, which I am waiting for.. just cant ask for anything else in life.. I am soooooo happy. I rmr telling amyn in the morning watching one of the most beautiful sunrises that I have ever seen my whole life that life has been perfect. Its just been picture perfect, am all happy and content in life. Touch Wood. I hate getting personal on blogspace but this just had to be blogged. Wud I want anything in my life to be changed? no nothing that I can think of right now.. that statement exactly echoes how I feel abt my life right now. Thanks a bunch to everyone !

Feb 12

… But don't YOU go anywhere.

California, Santa Cruz, UCSC View Comments

[Title inspired by a 'Calvin & Hobbes' strip !]

Santa Cruz – Fave Places

1) West Cliff – Santa Cruz beach. Its a rule for us over here, everytime we get sloshed, we have to go to that place. Actually, I have never been at that place sober. Have seen stars, ships ( both werent there, was just the effect of vodka) … got totally drenched by the salty ocean waves, heavy rains, 15 people going there @ 4 in the night, drunk driving, sipping hot choclate .. it has all happened at that place. Tons of fond memories and for the first time am going to see it not drunk this weekend, hopefully. (This dint happen.. I got totally sloshed and I HAVE to write abt this weekend’s bash !!)

2) E2 – Kitchen : A table, tea and people sitting arnd, talking abt the most rand things you can come across in the world, ranging from ‘Who has to go with whom in the trips’ to ‘The amazing drunken reveleries ’ .. thats the place where you can get all the gossip of the desi junta at santa cruz. Pssst psst… we even have a google group and we mail the grp when we want to have tea. When @ school, it happens for an hr atleast every 2 hrs !!

3) Bay & Nobel : The amazing food, people and conversations. Every week, someday or the other, free amazing food at my buds’ place. It made my stay there comfy till I moved into my new place, Rigg St. which slowly is turning out to my home chweeettt home. It feels really good when you have people who you get along with soo weell arnd. Touch wood !

………..And, dinners at bay area every friday, hopefully raquet ball every week, the amazing trips we have been to (esp Rum Jungle, Las Vegas .. Avalon, San Jose) the wharf where I spent my new years’ morning, dennys which have amazing pancakes which I am sooo craving for now.. and last but not least 301 where I have my stupid comp and the work that I have to do.. kinda finishes the list for now..

IIIT-Fave Places (A copy paste from my prev blog !)

1) Ambulance : Thats where the iiit’s ambulance is kept.. Lots of great talks and lots of fun over there. Antakshari.. Pizzas.. what not .. hmm.. my fave place. Always brings a smile on my face just thinking abt that place. Hehe.. I know..

2) 119, NBH : Actually.. this is something I miss more than anything else. sometimes makes me feel that I shud have stayed bak there.. emo.. but I guess that is one place that changed my whole life.. the way I thought abt everything in life.. everything.. good for me? dunno,.. time only will tell.

3) Masala/ Temptations : that wud be the third one.. always believed that if i had to go to masala that would be on a special day coz every moment over there has been really really special.. I have probably had the best times of my life there. what else can beat friends, chicken and wonderful icecreams.. I will buy that place when i have enough cash .. but it isnt there any more.. so i guess cant do anything..

4)Bru/Subway : Once again thanks to tejo for introducing me to that place.. nothing can beat the subs at subway.. i just love that place.. and the french fries at the bru are the best. I still rmr the good times i had over there.. (Arrgghh.. this shud have been my most fave place.. maybe.. hadnt it been for one ) emo..

5)Next would be the place opposite library, the room where we studied in the main building, eat street (I had to edit this part.. I have had amazing times at this place and had to add this !)

Well.. that takes care of 1/6 “incomplete blogs” that are in the pipeline. Darrrnn.. I shud be less lazyy.

Jan 29

I got my first real six-string

Guitar, Kid in me View Comments

I got my first real six-string
Bought it at the amazon.com
Will play ’til my fingers bleed
It is the spring of ’07

I just cant wait to strum it. It was a choice between a tatoo or a guitar with this month’s pay check. The six string won, thanks to amazon !

And here is the pic of my latest buy !!

I have lots more to write.. but am too lazy to pen ‘em right now, as usual !!

Jan 15

Let the Geek-O-Mania prevail ;).

Friends, Geek, Life View Comments

Geek is indeed a really tough term to define.. Wikipedia defines a geek is an individual who is fascinated, perhaps obsessively, by obscure or very specific areas of knowledge and imagination, usually electronic or virtual in nature, which I guess is somewhere close to what I think wud be an apt description of a geek.. Now, for some of the geekiest things my friends and me have been part of…

1) I have this really sweett friend of mine who wudnt survive I guess without working for a single day.. On the way to India, she has a 4 hr break at Chicago and happened to feel bored there.. She took her laptop and started coding at the airport terminal. She for sure totally deserves her Phd

2)

if( no work & time < 7) { lets go out and eat icecreams };
else if( time > 7) { go home .. cook dinner}
else finish work.

A note that an another friend left for me (almost like this.. ). Trust me, this is how the thought process of comp. programmers evolves over a period of time..

3) I just cant code without listening to songs.. not even a single line.. my brain somehow seems to cease working until a dose of my fave songs are pumped in. Thanks to that, I had to spend 3 hrs configuring my ubuntu system so that I could stream music.. installed both the windows and linux versions of firefox.. and after reading discussion forums and all, finally solved it and the sweett sound of music is back.. I have an ipod, and songs on my system, but still I had the obsessive urge to solve the problem of streaming songs.. if only, I could channel this towards my research.. (like thats going to happen eva !)

4) Ever played too much of age, quake or some game where u had to get totally involved, mortal kombat maybe… I have heard and personally seen dreams where I have a rocket launcher and am just jumping and strafing arnd launching ‘em.. aww those were damn good moments. Choppers.. babes.. rockets.. all that I wanted. Ctrl – alt – del takes it one step furthur.. almost been there.. seen that !

5) How many times have you used orkut/ yahoo messenger to message a friend who is in the same wing as yours or the same office. We indeed do live in an age where we communicate using these darned comps and are indeed all geeks thanks to that. I am done with my dosage of my idiot box for today.. lemme see if my friends are free.. dont worry, I am going to give ‘em a call, not that its any different..

All your base are belong to us
P.S : Confession.. I am a comp geek ! But glady I do have a life also !!