Hi,
I have downloaded the linux source code for version 0.0.1 from http://lxr.linux.no/.
I just wanted to get started on reading and trying to find out what each one of the files are doing. Where do I start off. I am not quiet comfortable in semaphores or operating system stuff like that.
Any help will be welcome.
Thanks.
Last week, I went for the ‘First Day First Show’, as any tamil film fan, to the release show of ‘Dasavatharam’ in Albert Theatre at 8. The film unveiled with Kamal speaking something on ‘Butterfly effect’ and ‘Chaos Theory’. From then, I wanted to know what are those terms and what significance they play in that film. In this post, I try to figure it out. I may not come out with the actual answer, but still a try.
What has Chaos Theory to do in the magnum opus Kamal starer ‘Dasavatharam’?
Before going into details of its implications, just for the sake of completeness, lets see what Chaos theory is? Wikipedia quotes it as
In mathematics, chaos theory describes the behavior of certain dynamical systems – that is, systems whose state evolves with time – that may exhibit dynamics that are highly sensitive to initial conditions (popularly referred to as the butterfly effect). As a result of this sensitivity, which manifests itself as an exponential growth of perturbations in the initial conditions, the behavior of chaotic systems appears to be random. This happens even though these systems are deterministic, meaning that their future dynamics are fully defined by their initial conditions, with no random elements involved. This behavior is known as deterministic chaos, or simply chaos.
This is best explained as ‘Butterfly effect’. Imagine a butterfly flipping its wings. If a butterfly flipping its wings is a part of a system where a tornado is forming, and it happens that this butterfly flipping is an initial condition in the tornado formation, then according to chaos theory, this butterfly flipping its wings could have far reaching implications, such as to change the course of the tornado, say the direction. Though this may seem too odd, this is what the chaos theory says.
Coming to the discussion on how this fits in the movie, The film starts in the 12th century where a vaishnavite is tied to Lord Vishnu statue and drowned into the sea. In the world (system) and this event of drowning (butterfly flipping its wings) occurs well before the Tsunami hit India (tornado). According to the chaos theory, Kamal getting drowned occurred in the initial condition so that it created implications much latter so as to move the plates deep in the sea, causing a Tsunami on Dec 26, 2004. If the initial condition was something else than Kamal getting drowned, then the effect would have been different and a tsunami would not have occurred.
In the film, they show a buttefly fluttering after Govind (Kamal) delivers his speech, to explain the inspiration was drawn from the butterfly effect in the making of the film.
Hope I got it explained at least to some extent. I leave it open for discussion.
Recently I have been obsessed with getting a bicycle for myself. The reason behind this sudden attraction to the age old cycle is
So, I and Soms, embarked on a mission to get a bicycle last Sunday. We had a cycle shop very near to our house in Kellys, Chennai. The cycle rate has also increased over the years. When my dad got me my first cycle, a Hercules MTB, it cost around 1800/-. The same model was not available. There were a lot of models to choose from. We stayed away from the ‘geared’ ones (Not because of my gear-o-mania with bikes, but because it cost a ransom). We settled on two nice ones from Hero and Hercules, two good companies making cycles.
One thing about the two cycles that we didn’t like was their height. I or Soms could not get our feets on the ground firmly, if we sat on the seat. There came a small boy (should be studying 7th standard) with his father. He was stubborn on getting the cycles we had chosen. He could not even get his legs on the pedals! From the conversation between the shop keeper and the boy’s father, we could find out that the boy had been pestering his dad for a ‘gear cycle’ for a long time, and he wanted it to show off to his school friends.
At last, we settled for Hercules Windracer retailing at Rs. 2700/-. It came with two months FREE service. 🙂
By this, we have pledged that we save earth by
So fellas, the take from this post is ‘Help save earth; as Rajesh and Soms’.
Right now, I am feeling terribly bored. My mind is wavering and I am loosing concentration. I am loosely typing whatever comes to my mind. Sometimes (many times) I feel like it. At the end of this boredom, a lot of fresh thoughts come to my mind. Whatever I have been pondering for a long time, seems solvable. New solutions and thoughts. Quiet weird behavior of my wired brain!
Do some of you also feel so. A period of lull lasting just over 4 hours and then a refreshing mind. Whatever amount of caffeine or tea, can’t get the lull mood out. At office, I am not supposed to waste time blogging. But my mind fails me. I right now want to get over it.
Let’s see what happens!
On Monday, 19th of May 2008, my family got its first car. Maruti Alto. A small family car. It was a wonderful feeling to own a car. I am going to add to the already congested traffic in India.
Wine Red colored. Waiting for Friday to come to go home and lay my hands on the beauty. Keep you posted.
One more post on IPL!
I was there in Stadium to watch the match live! Chennai Vs Mumbai. The match was slated to start at 8 pm IST. I and my friends, we were all in at 6 pm itself. The crowd was swinging to Hariharan’s songs. He ended with his ‘Krishna nee…’ from Colonial Cousins album. Then came the ambassador for Chennai Super Kings, Actor Vijay. He was received with a standing ovation.
Then there was a half an hour show of drumming. Who else can drum than ‘Sivamani’. He was rocking. We danced to his tunes! It was a nice show. After this the match started. Hayden and Raina slammed the balls for fours and sixes. It was raining scores in Chennai. For each four and between overs, Sivamani had his drums on and had the cheer leaders dancing. It was great to watch the match live among the crowd. The crowds started the Mexican wave as usual, cheering the players.
Nayanthara was missing as usual. Very close as Mumbai finished 6 runs short of the target. Altogether it was a nice experience
Once there was a guy, enjoying life, doing whatever he wanted to. He was most interested in computers and wanted to make a challenging career in the field of computers. He was doing his 11th class then. If there is a guy, then there should be a girl. That is what all kollywood movies have taught us. And it happened that this girl was living in the house opposite the guy’s. She was studying 8th class.
As always the guy had not known about here existence till then! What is interesting if the guy and the girl don’t meet! So be it. Days passed and the guy now in first year of his college and the girl in 11th class decide to join a computer course. Also the girl’s sister (in her 5th class joins the class). It happens that the guy talks to the younger sister and by some way after a long … long… time, the guy speaks with the girl. They remain so as friends.
One fine day, the girl calls the guy over phone (not a cellphone), says that she is in love with the guy. The guy (hey! he is an aspiring lad), rejects the offer advising the girl that this is not the age to fall in love or to make a decision about life. Then the time cycle spins rapidly (imagine a bullock cart wheel spinning faster in MGR movies).
After 7 years, now the guy is a software engineer in a good company. He had long forgotten about the girl and the proposal. One day in a friend’s marriage function, the guy and the girl meet. The girl then meets the guy in person and expresses her love for the guy had remained intact. The guy is stunned. He is in a dilemma now! Whether to accept or reject the girl’s hand in marriage! Whether he loves the girl or not!
What can be the ending to this story! (Can you get some realistic ending rather than a cinematic ending! )
IPL. If you are in India, you should have recognized this word by now. Everyone speaks about it. It has been the headlines for a week now. What is so special about IPL? Let me try to figure it out.
What more can one ask for a complete entertainment. Enjoy watching cricket! Enjoy the stars!
IPL. If you are in India, you should have recognized this word by now. Everyone speaks about it. It has been the headlines for a week now. What is so special about IPL? Let me try to figure it out.
What more can one ask for a complete entertainment. Enjoy watching cricket! Enjoy the stars!
The big gala event of Cricket started yesterday in Bangalore. Lalit Modi (Chairman IPL) and Vijay Mallya (RCB Owner, UB group) must have been happy with how the crowd responded. There was a grand cultural extravaganza before the actual ‘Karmayudh’ started.
Surely, there was glamour, high decibel scream brought in by the dancing girls, acrobatics, Shankar Mahadevan, bollywood stars and King Khan himself. The crowd should have enjoyed a lot.
IPL had a theme for each team. Bangalore was all Red (Why doubt, KingFisher man), and my favourite team for this IPL, Kolkatta were truely attired as Kinght Riders in Black and Gold. Even the helmet was Golden colour. After all the cultural openings faded, the match started.
Ganguly collapsed for 10 and Ponting for 20. Then came McCollum. He made a massive 158* runs consuming just 78 balls. An innings expected out of Twenty20. There was great cheering for each six he sent out to the gathering. What more could Sharukh ask for.
Then came the RCB innings, though the local crowd expected a lot, the first blow itself showed what was in store. Ishant Sharma took the first wicket of Dravid in his very first ball. Deadly! and the story continued. Nice game play by KKR and the match was theirs.
Every news channel, screams the head lines. IPL, IPL, IPL. Just tune in now, you could read something on any news channel about IPL, exclusive interviews …. Indeed Cricket is India’s National Game. We have it in our mind and in our blood.
Raasukutty's 