BN updated with 2011 calendar pics

I have been having a real dearth of time. The last few months have been really hectic after tenCube got acquired by McAfee and I joined McAfee. There is just too much to do and time is running short.

So, after a long gap, the BN website has been now upaded with the 2011 calendar in soft copy. The pics have all been taken by members of the group and the design was done by Chaitanya, another BN member. We have amazing talent within the group.

Last year, I had been editing each pic and uploading. But this year since CV had done all the work, I only had to resize and put it up on the site. So, I wrote a small python script for resizing the huge original pics into web manageable ones. The
script reads all the images in the directory and resizes in 3 different sizes. Following is the python code - and its amazing how small a piece of code this is.

from PIL import Image
import os, glob

#adjust width and height to your needs
thumb = 200,150
small = 800,600
normal= 1600,1200

for infile in glob.glob("*.jpg"):
    file, ext = os.path.splitext(infile)
    im = Image.open(infile)
    im.thumbnail(normal,Image.ANTIALIAS)
    im.save(file + "_normal.jpg","JPEG")
    im.thumbnail(small,Image.ANTIALIAS)
    im.save(file + "_small.jpg","JPEG")
    im.thumbnail(thumb,Image.ANTIALIAS)
    im.save(file + "_thumb.jpg","JPEG")

Neat eh ?

RIFT - First Impressions

Started playing RIFT yesterday - I got totally bored with WoW and anyways it was too demanding a game at end game. I just was not able to find the time required to raid.

So, after a lot of thought, I signed up for RIFT.

Initial thoughts on the game : Its a game which could have been great. Comparison's with WoW are of course going to happen.

A lot of people would have told you that its a polished game. I will differ. Its got more 'realistic' graphics than WoW. However, a lot of things that we think about when we think of WoW are missing.

Some things which I think should have been taken care by the devs are :

• All races of a faction start at the same place. I find this a put off. If you have 3 races per side,they should start of in different starting areas. 
• All the races look the same, with hardly a difference in how they look unless you are a dwarf. Sure there are hundreds of customizations on how you look, but once you start playing in the 3rd person perspective, they all don't matter. Contrast this with WoW where the orcs look totally different than the taureans than the undead.
• An element of fun is missing. All the quests, the feel etc is so serious. It gets boring. 

The good and the bad of the game has to be the soul system. Essentially what it means is that you have 3 talent trees, and you can choose which 3 trees to use out of 8 available. This is pretty cool as it allows for a lot of customizations. However, since this is thrown at you pretty early pretty fast, you end up confused. As you get each new tree, you get 2 new spells with each. The spells in the different trees overlap many times, and this is lame.

I initially started out with a Warrior class - as I was looking at end game kind of content, but got bored.

Rerolled as a mage - who got the souls of a Warlock , a Necromancer and a Chloromancer. So far, this is feeling  much better as to what I like playing.

More updates at the end of the month of playtime.

शायद ज़िंदगी बदल रही है!!

I got this as a forward, and loved it. Sharing for your reading pleasure.

शायद ज़िंदगी बदल रही है!!



जब मैं छोटा था, शायद दुनिया
बहुत बड़ी हुआ करती थी..

मुझे याद है मेरे घर से "स्कूल" तक
का वो रास्ता, क्या क्या नहीं था वहां,

चाट के ठेले, जलेबी की दुकान,
बर्फ के गोले, सब कुछ,

अब वहां "मोबाइल शॉप",
"विडियो पार्लर" हैं,

फिर भी सब सूना है..
शायद अब दुनिया सिमट रही है...
 

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जब मैं छोटा था,
शायद शामें बहुत लम्बी हुआ करती थीं...

मैं हाथ में पतंग की डोर पकड़े,
घंटों उड़ा करता था,

वो लम्बी "साइकिल रेस",
वो बचपन के खेल,

वो हर शाम थक के चूर हो जाना,
अब शाम नहीं होती, दिन ढलता है

और सीधे रात हो जाती है.
शायद वक्त सिमट रहा है..

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जब मैं छोटा था,
शायद दोस्ती

बहुत गहरी हुआ करती थी,
दिन भर वो हुजूम बनाकर खेलना,

वो दोस्तों के घर का खाना,
वो लड़कियों की बातें,

वो साथ रोना...

अब भी मेरे कई दोस्त हैं,
पर दोस्ती जाने कहाँ है,

जब भी "traffic signal" पे मिलते हैं
"Hi" हो जाती है,

और अपने अपने रास्ते चल देते हैं,

होली, दीवाली, जन्मदिन,
नए साल पर बस SMS आ जाते हैं,

शायद अब रिश्ते बदल रहें हैं..
 

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जब मैं छोटा था,
तब खेल भी अजीब हुआ करते थे,

छुपन छुपाई, लंगडी टांग,
पोषम पा, कट केक,
टिप्पी टीपी टाप.

अब internet, office,
से फुर्सत ही नहीं मिलती..

शायद ज़िन्दगी बदल रही है.
 

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जिंदगी का सबसे बड़ा सच यही है..
जो अक्सर कबरिस्तान के बाहर
बोर्ड पर लिखा होता है...

"मंजिल तो यही थी,
बस जिंदगी गुज़र गयी मेरी
यहाँ आते आते"
 

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.
.
 

ज़िंदगी का लम्हा बहुत छोटा सा है...
कल की कोई बुनियाद नहीं है
 

और आने वाला कल सिर्फ सपने में ही है..
अब बच गए इस पल में..

तमन्नाओं से भरी इस जिंदगी में
हम सिर्फ भाग रहे हैं..
 

कुछ रफ़्तार धीमी करो,
मेरे दोस्त,

और इस ज़िंदगी को जियो...
खूब जियो मेरे दोस्त,
और औरों को भी जीने दो

Overall, I just wanted to thank you

Yesterday was not particularly a good day. Still recovering from a bout of seasonal flu, and was feeling quite low in the day. Late at night, was not feeling like sleeping and was browsing the net, chatting with friends. When suddenly an email popped up. A reply to a mail written 2 years back! Wow! This changed the total 'feel low' mood. I am a firm believer of Karma, and this coming up makes me an even bigger believer.

Sumit was an intern in Symantec, and on the time of completing his internship came up to me to ask for advice. He was in a different team - but still wanted some advice from me. It was probably cause I was more approachable than other managers. The conversation and the reply are below with kind permission from Sumit.

Firstup the mail I had sent out on 2008.

from    Vibhu Rishi
to    Sumit Agarwal
date    Fri, Dec 19, 2008 at 3:38 PM
subject    Best of luck in future endeavors
   
hi Sumit,

My interaction with you was very brief. But here are a maelstrom of thoughts that I have i wanted to share with you but never seem to get the time to say them :) . They are in random order, so maybe difficult to read the mail at one go ;)

I see great potential in you. Go forth and conquer.

Great men are not born. They are made. From time immemorial, even with kings, its not always someone who is born in a great family that becomes great, but people who think different that they reach heights others did not even dream off.

As Steve Jobs (one of my icon figures) says : Stay Hungry Stay Foolish .

some criticism and helpful ( in my opinion which may be totally wrong ;) ) tips
- Dressing is important. make sure you dress for what you want to become and not what you are. I should probably not be giving this advice as I myself don't dress appropriate, but then I do not know what I want to become ;) .
- Keep your body language positive. Most people will have good looks, wear good clothes, but not know how to keep their body language positive. Walk with purpose. Look with intent. You already have some of it, just keep it in mind , and you will develop a 'presence'
- Your interaction here has been with some individuals who are ... umm.. hyper. This may give you an impression that maybe that is the way to go, yelling and getting the things done. On the short term it works well, but if you plan to have your own company, you get better loyalty out of people in other ways. I know people in pretty high positions  ( govt service and private firms) who are the most humble people - but the people who follow them are loyal to the hilt. Its your choice which path you take.
- You stammer a bit. I notice that it hampers your communication abilities. This is normal. I had it in school ( 11th class ) . it happens when your thoughts outrace you, and your words cannot keep up with your thoughts. The way we mostly try to cope up with it is to try and talk fast. But sometimes, to go fast , you have to go slow. Slow down your vocal speed. Think through what you are going to say, and say it slowly, deliberately. You will get out of this habit of rushstammer.

You want to become someone great. Know that you cannot have everything in life. there will be setbacks in life - most of which are out of your control, some , because you messed up. Don't be hard on yourself. Give yourself room. One learns to run by falling repeatedly. You can't blame yourself for falling. Just get back upright and go ahead. Rough roads lead to smooth ones with time .

In fact I believe rough times are not that bad as everyone makes out them to be.

Develop a few role models. I find it helps me. If I am in a particular situation where I am not getting answers, or do now know how to proceed, I think what my role models will do. That gives you the answers.

Baki, enjoy life. There is much more in life than work and making money. Take care of your health - no amount of money can give you back  your health after you have lost it. Live life to the fullest - the time does not ever come back. Make time for doing things that you want to do. My philosophy is to sit aside sometime, and think - what are the things i would think of and say 'oh shit ! i did not do this' , if it was the last day of my life. That gives me a list to work with.

chalo. enough of gyan. :)

Have Fun.
Ride Safe.

Vibhu..

The reply I got yesterday out of the blue. Thanks Sumit :)

from    sumit agarwal
to    Vibhu Rishi
date    Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 11:11 PM
    
Hi Vibhu,

This might feel weird as i am replying to 2.5 years old mail, but your mail became younger day by day through all this time. The thoughts are coming randomly as am typing, please bear with that.

After my internship at Symantec, I got a PPO as gautam had pushed my CV. But as I had already shared this with many of our team mates and may be with yo also that I didn't like tech much and wanted to pursue a career in finance or do a start-up.

So after college, I declined the offer from Symantec and started my company in Gurgaon. We ran it profitably and professionally till Jan-2011 and then arrived at decision to exit. The whole start-up experience (1.5 years) was great and may be can share it some other day :). This was the period when I got to see the world closely and learn from it.

After exiting from the biz, I applied to number of finance companies, but got call from just one company and that was JP Morgan. After multiple rounds of grilling, they hired me in Investment Banking division.

Tomorrow is my first day at JPM, Mumbai and I would like to thank you first. May be we didn't spend much time during my stay at Symantec, but I have been following you continuously since then. Reading about your bike trip from Pune-Hyderabad-Nagpur-Bhopal-Jaipur-Delhi-Dehradun..... was quite a experience and definitely some day I wanna pull something like that.

I wanted to attend the recent bike nomads meet in goa but couldn't because of biz commitments and exploring my options. Now I feel that I can think straight and can afford to do more things I always wanted to ( Riding long is one of them).

I plan to purchase a bike in next couple of months, hence will need your expert advice.

Overall, I just wanted to thank you.

See you soon.
SUMIT AGARWAL

Shaken by Japan

I was horrified to see the distruction caused by the quake and the subsiquent tsunami. People say that the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian ocean was more distructive, but the images from the current one are the ones that make a dent in ones mind.

This is the second time that I am having this feeling of awe and horror together. The last time was when the planes crashed into the Twin Trade towers. One manmade calamity, and the other by Nature.

Its a wakeup call. No, I am not talking about the predictions about the end of the world. I am more thinking in terms of living our lives. I used to have a blast. But somehow, I too have been drawn into the rat race and living has just become a stream of days of just exisiting. Working, working, working.

Need to wake up. Look out. Look at life again and enjoy each day again. The world wont end in 2012, but you do not know when your life does. Its doubly important that each day you live you have memorable experiences.

Do it your way. But, Just do it.

2010 recap

The year went fast ! But then a lot of things also happened... just a minor recap in no particular order

Movies seen

• Avatar ( non 3D version)
• Dabang
• Ishquiya
• Udaan
• Shrek 4
• Percy Jackson and the Ligtning Thief
• The Social Network
• Tron

Bike Rides/Bikenomads

• Rode to Neemrana Fort. The only ride this year :(
• Had to cancel the BN calendars due to delays in the printing. Now 2011 calendars are on the way to being printed.
• Had to cancel the BN annual meet - again due to delays and low response. However 20XI meet is planned for Goa and seems to be getting good response.

Other Trips

• 2 trips to Dehradun, one in car. Love that place. 
• 2 trips to bangalore
• A trip to Singapore
• A trip to Santa Clara, went via the North Pole ;)

Gaming

• World of Warcraft : Cataclysm got released. I have a level 85 character now. My favorite game for many years now, and my wife's nemesis :)
• Started a Guild in World of Warcraft called 'Vinash'
• StarCraft 2 : completed the single player. Dont have any enthusiasm about the multiplayer part. 
• Batman : Arkham Asylum : Neat game. 
• Assasins Creed II : Classic game. Love jumping off the buildings. 
• Civilization V : The best civ game so far 
• Torchlight : an Indie game - the closest to Diablo you can get. Since Diablo seems to be delayed indefinitely, this is a good passtime.

Sports

• Football World Cup Yeah ! 
• Olympics
• And how can one forget the Vuvuzelas
• CWG gold rush in Delhi
• I dont follow cricket, so please do not ask anything for that.  ;)

Government/India

• Mostly can only remember the corrruption. 
• CWG scam
• Radia scam
• 2G spectrum scam
• Wikileaks 

Work/Tech

• Joined McAfee. Working with the WaveSecure team - the whole reason for me to join McAfee. This is phone software not AV software, so do not ask me any AV questions
• In One97 worked on an OutBound Dialer - which got shelved just as we got the 1st version running and stress tested on 1500 ports - tripple that of the previous best. Worked on PayTM a mobile payment initiative.
• Tried out ChromeOS from hexxeh's builds, booting off the USB drive
• Did a bit of prelimnary coding on Android. 
• Learning Django coding.
• My Configuring Bugzilla post was a hit this year. Lots of people were able to install Bugzilla and left their thanks in the comments field :)
• iPad got released this year. Waiting for iPad 2 before I buy it ! :D

 Hmm, now I look back - damn. Thats a lot of stuff for a year ! Lets see what 2011 has in store.

Mark Zuckerberg : Time person of the Year

Oh man ! The youngest billionaire in the world - just by getting people to connect to each other ! 

Reading his biography, you figure out that he was a genius from a young age. I guess that defined his success. 

Congrats Dude ! 

The Magic of Flying

Usually I just take the aisle seat while flying on night flights - what all can you see outside the window - right ? Flying has become so common-place that we just dont give much thought to it. Its another boring 2 hr flight is what we think.

But, I chanced upon this video a few weeks back.



So, this time I decided to keep my mind open. At checkin for the Delhi-Bangalore flight I asked for a window seat ... and experienced the magic of flying... again.

The Magic of Flying

As the flight took off, the lights on the runway start rushing by and with a final heave the plane takes up to the air. Isn't that amazing ? We are there - in a small tube - up in the sky ! Peering down, looking at delhi lighted up I wondered about the amazing amount of electricity needed to run the city. Houses, streets all lighted up. And yet, the most intense light was from the columns of cars lighting up the roads, making even the street lights look dull.

The plane took off in a direction where we were headed towards central Delhi, and had to take a U turn to correct the direction. The world from above looks so different , and as I was peering around for where we might be, I got my bearings by a beautiful sight - the Lotus Temple lighted up ! In the distance I could see the tall buildings around CP.

As the plane started approaching the Delhi suburbs/ Gurgaon, the topography of the houses changes to single or double story houses. Suddenly a flash caught my attention and looking in that direction I saw another unforgettable sight - fire crackers bursting. From ground level, we look up at the glitters these cause, but from the plane they are way below - just above the house levels. Different ways of seeing the same thing !

Pollution Line

Suddenly I got a feeling that there was some kind of shade above me. It felt wierd... a blackness and I was wondering ... untill ... all of a sudden I realized that it was actually an atmospheric effect. The blackness was actually the air at this level, free from the pollutants, while below it was the brownish glowing air with all the trapped pollution of Delhi. God ! It suddenly struck me how much of an unhealthy place we live in.

Just above the line demarcating the pollution line was the moon. A thin crecent moon, and since the air was so clean up here, I could make out the dark side of the moon - where the earths shadow was falling. So, I could see the entire sphere of the moon - the lighted part and the showded part. Mesmerizing.

I see shapes

As the flight progressed, and the pollution from Delhi became lesser, the entire country side started to become darker as the dispersion effect of the pollutants became lesser. The small towns and villages were dotted across the landscape. A beautiful sight. The villages in India are not really well planned, so they have these amorphous shapes - which take the shape that your imagination gives them - something like how you give shapes to clouds. The most interesting one I think was the JellyFish. The main town was the body of the creature, and since it was a big enough town, there was a bit of dispersion effect from the smog - giving the body a bloated kind of image. The tentacles were the roads leading to the town. Some Imagination eh ?!

MoonSet

Near the end of the flight, I saw the moon set. The moon by this time was at the horizon, and as it was slipping below it, all sorts of light refraction effects were happening. First the crecent changed from being circular to more angular with two vertical ends attached to a flattening horizontal line, till only the stright horizontal line was left, which itself winked out of view. Unforgettable. A MoonSet , seen for the first time.

I did not have any books with me this time. But the flight was anything but boring, and flying is such a wonderous magical experience which we seem to have forgotten.

Microsoft shooting itself in its foot ?

For sometime I have the feeling that Microsoft is shooting itself in its own foot.

My observation is not from the angle of an industry pundit but from a gamer's viewpoint.

Today, we have a lot of operating systems - Windows, Linux, AppleOS. They are quite polished and basically on par with each other. However, Microsoft Windows has the unique distinction as being the only desktop OS for which games are developed actively - and I do not mean games like Farmville, but AAA games like World of Warcraft, Need for Speed etc.

However, off late, the games on PC seem to be going down as Microsoft focuses more and more on the XBoX. For me and a lot of other gamers, this will mean that the PC as a gaming rig is loosing its significance. If I need to have a gaming console to play games, I do not need to get Windows for my PC - I would rather get a Mac or install Linux - most probably Linux for my desktop ( which is already dual boot for many years) or a macbook if I buy a laptop.

I predict that if Microsoft continues to neglect desktop gaming in favor of pushing its Xbox systems, they will be surprised to find that their desktop OS share dropping...

And if you think that I am wrong here, just compare with the OS growth for mobiles. iPhone has become such a big phenomena because its also a gaming platform. No other OS has realized this apart from Android which is trying to get more games up on its app store - as the recent Angry Birds release shows.

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

Leaving Microsoft to Change the World

The book's name grabbed my attention as I was browsing the books at Om Book Shop. Intrigued I picked it up and started to read the first 2 pages... and I was hooked. This was a man working on a mission ... trying to get literacy to the schools of Nepal and then the rest of the world.

Have just read a few chapters, and it is hard to put down. I highly recommend a read and also check out the foundation : Room to Read.

Edit : 12/10 Finally finished the book yesterday. This is a great book. John Wood, ex Microsoft started an organization with the aim to provide books to children in various places. Its a touching book - descriptions of how the people reacted on getting the things.

Takeaway from the book.

• If you find your calling in life - its the best you can give in your life. Finding it means that you achieve more than what you can ever hope to do. John was a great exec, but once he found out his inner calling - he became a positive force of change for the unprivileged children.
• When you do something will all your heart - people around you get influenced, and help you do better. 
• Its better to concentrate on the good stuff rather than to criticize. e.g. in the book he mentions that some NGOs use pics of crying kids to get grants on the basis of pity. He on the other hand used pics of happy children going to their new school or reading a book. 
• You dont have to be a billionaire to change the world.

Loved the book. I recommend it to everyone. 

Ebb and Flow of the Yamuna

Took this pic a few days back from the Delhi metro as it enters the Yamuna Bank station:

The river was full and filled with water from bank to bank.

Today, the river looks like below:



there is a large island formed in the middle due to all the silt deposited by the flooding river. The area around the river would have been very fertile if the river had been allowed to overflow the banks - but now its all concrete and houses.