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Quote for Now

Hrishikesh — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 20:00:14 +0000

Yes, I know. An update is long due, and one shall soon be here.

“Like a hungry dinosaur stuck in a snow bank, Microsoft is in starvation mode, eating itself rather than using its energy to look for new food. It knows there’s no more easy new food options available. Microsoft is dying.“

Focus!

Hrishikesh — Wed, 08 Nov 2006 18:00:03 +0000

Today is the last day of my first month as a full time employee at Atos Origin India Pvt. Ltd. And it’s a mixed bag.

(Of course, what isn’t?)

Yes, it is comfortable, if not luxurious, the people are nice, if not extremely good (there are a few nut cases, but they can be ignored), but…

But, there’s so much more that life should be.

It’s not like I won’t enjoy what I’d do at Atos. The training, however, is a super-duper waste of time. Partly because, I already know most of the stuff, and, there’s no one I can look up to in my training batch. I’ve sort of become the-know-all.

Now this is sad. Because I know that I’m not. And yet, I can’t do anything about it. I cannot exactly pursue what I want to do, because it would be inappropriate, and they don’t understand that my time, and therefore company resources are being wasted. I don’t know if I’ve doubted my decision of taking up Electrical ever all this much.

Another major issue is that I know that AOI isn’t going to be my life. I already feel sort of suffocated there. It’s the same old things. Sure, opportunities exist. And I will grab them, but the thing is, how much should I dedicate to them?

I fear that I’m losing my long term goals while trying to accomplish the near ones. Or having the concept of long term goals, altogether.

Bloody pseudo-complacency. And yet the dissatisfaction.

Drunk Fly

Hrishikesh — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:25:03 +0000

There was this weird fly that somehow managed to enter our training room. It was like any ordinary house-fly, and it, ahem, flew pretty normally as well. The only issue was, it just would or could not land right.

And by that, I mean, it landed very badly. Always on it’s back.

Then it spent ages trying to get on its feet.

I set it right the first time. And it promptly flew away. Only to crash land after a bit of normal flight, again onto its back.

This time, a fellow Original set it on its feet. And there was repeatation.

Either it was sick, lost the fluid behind the ear that balances the body or something, or it was drunk. Or maybe aliens were controlling it.

Or maybe, just maybe, someone was really interested in entertaining me.

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Oh, and I also happened to find (actually, it was a friend who passed it to me) a rather big stone-like pebble inside the training room as well. Wonder where that came from! Which reminds me to check if it is still there where I left it last.

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Finally we have machines that are net-enabled in the training room; and I can actually blog live if I want to. How cool is that?

Melodramatic Emtionally Loaded Self-Reflective Crap

Hrishikesh — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 19:15:04 +0000

The amount of that I have here makes me wonder if there is a serious issue with, um, life.

Anywho, not like I care.

Oh wait, I do.

Grrrr!

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Fourth week at Atos, and I’m getting really bored. I mean, it’s not like it is not fun, but seriously, it’s not exactly the best spent time. I’ve been paid to sit through the training. That is that.

I am going to reject my IBM offer. (For those who don’t know, I’ve been offered a post of Associate Systems Engineer at IBM Banglore, starting 3rd November.) As I see it, the offer isn’t all that very financially attractive, and I’m getting paid almost as much here, the opportunities are equally good at either places, and I’m just too well settled here to pack my bags and leave for a completely new city.

===========

CAT is about 19 days away. Scary. And SimCAT6 was a big let-down. God damned PS. I’ll be missing the next one, cause we have our outbound exercies scheduled on the next weekend. Pictures and brick bats on return, I promise.

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And once again, regarding the title: It’s (the stuff, not the title) nice, but does it ever serve any purpose? I mean, it’s more like you want to be like that, rather than you being forced to be that.

Indulgence

Hrishikesh — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:45:04 +0000

Minor news update: My job at Atos Origin has finally started (since last week, actually), and so far, I’m enjoying it, and yet the sessions are generally a waste of time, so far. More on that on a later post.

Now for today’s post:

Is it absolutely ok to indulge in a relationship that is based on something sort of superficial, and yet, sort of deeply rooted because of the circumstances during which it was forged, with some sort of ulterior motives that may or may not actually materialize in the future?

Well, yea. I chose to offer no more clarity on this issue. There!

Stupid pining!

LOST!

Hrishikesh — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 17:10:40 +0000

I’m increasingly feeling lost.

And it’s not even a level of lost that can be expressed.

Because…

Because it’s a loss of opportunity.

I can’t even quantify that. Pathetic.

Anywho.

There’s another issue: The world is moving, and I can’t keep up. Not that it matters, because it is completely optional. But it is frustrating AND irritating. Don’t even get me started on how much of that it is!

The problem as I see it is not so much that I’m losing it, it is because I’m sort of helpless AND yet I’m realizing that I’m losing it and I can’t do anything about it. Very frustrating, if you ask me!

[I'm not going to be providing any explanations to this post. So don't bother asking.]

DishTV, Heat Sinks and Happy Times

Hrishikesh — Mon, 02 Oct 2006 17:10:02 +0000

After one of my friends, I decided to bite the bullet and get DishTV (a direct-to-home [DTH] satellite based TV subcription service) installed for the home. Did not take much effort to convince folks at home, especially since we were all equally fed up with the hopelessly sub-optimal quality (and value) of the CableTV offering.

So, the fellow comes and installs the dish, and everything seems to be working fine, till it starts raining! Then the signal strength drops to less than 15%, and everything freezes. No TV.

Now, it is beyond me why they fail to mention this anywhere on their web-site, brochures or manual – the usual tactics of misguiding people seems to be in play here. Sheep we all are, especially us early adopters.

Anyway, I’ll give them a call, and try to find a solution to this. But I’m not expecting much out of it, since a friend informs me that their CableTV operator always harps on the fact that their connection will never go down, some rain, sleet or snow. Of course, having optical fibre connections help, but this is just too lame.

Otherwise, the quality is good, though a CRT is not the best place to judge that. Also, their Movie on Demand encryption is sort of screwed up, cause I am able to view all the movies without ordering them. On second thoughts, the whole on demand thing is slightly rigged, since it isn’t on demand as such, four channels play the movie staggered at 45 minute (or now 1 hr, since they do two movies) intervals, so you can tune in to the one just about to begin.

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My primary machine was having a serious issue with, ahem, processing. Well, it worked fine for normal tasks, like movie watching or browsing or office work, but it would randomly lock up when entrusted with a slightly more challenging task, such as MP3 encoding or DVD ripping (when the processor temperature as reported by the motherboard sensors would exceed 68-70 degree Celsius). Which is quite frustrating. So for a few months now, I was treating it like a sick child, not stressing it at any point.

Today I decided to finally dismantle the processor (Intel Pentium 4 Prescott 2.80 GHz / 1 MB / 800 MHz / Malay) and the heat sink arrangement, since my email correspondence with Intel required the processor serial number. They were not willing to proceed with the warranty business till I got them that. So it had to be done.

The usual clean up followed, in which the heat sink contributed thick black sooty carbon of unusual proportions. But I am no longer surprised by that. I did note down the complete details on the back of the processor case.

Later on while connecting the heat sink back on, we noticed something strange. The levers that lock the heatsink onto the bracket won’t do their thing. I remember having faced this problem last time, so I mentioned it to my friend. He saw the reason this was happening: The heatsink was part resting on the bracket. Which means that it was not touching the processor on one edge.

So maybe that explains the random locking up. It was a Sherlock Holmes moment.

After fiddling with the bracket a bit, we were able to get the heatsink in properly, and it is working fine since then. Stressed it out, 100% processor utilization, and no lock ups. Temperature even exceeded 72 degrees, so the problem seems to have been taken care of itself.

In the end, I’m happy. At least for the time being.

Mini Computer Shop Now Open!

Hrishikesh — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 14:40:03 +0000

There are so many used and hardly-used computer-items and components lying around at my place, that I’ve opened up a mini computer shop.

Feel free to browse. Pictures will be up soon! Interested parties to contact via the comment form. All prices are negotiable, and a best effort will be made to ensure a good deal for everyone.

Happy shopping!

Apathetic Agnostic

Hrishikesh — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 08:30:06 +0000

I am now the proud member of The First Universal Church Triumphant of the Apatheic Agnostic.

Also, I’ve graduated from the International University of Nescience as a Bachelor of Agnostic Studies. Look, I even got a certificate to prove it!

So now, I’m a Apathetic Agnostic. We don’t know and we don’t care!

Silence. Almost Absolute.

Hrishikesh — Mon, 18 Sep 2006 02:20:05 +0000

At my midnight bath yesterday night, I happened to turn around facing away from the shower, and water flooded my ears. And then it wouldn’t come out for a while. I loved that experience.

It was almost complete silence for that time. Muffled sounds. Bliss.

I think I need to switch off for a while. Every few days.