Reccuring Dreams

During my childhood days, there used to a be character called "Kosh" in my dreams. It was strange how this got materialised in my mind during dreams (I never heard of this name in reality). Kosh used to scare the wits out of me whenever it came in my dreams. It used to periodically come in my dreams, appearing exactly the same way, (I don't quite remember now, the memory has become hazy). Mostly it used to hide below our cot, and I would accidentally trip down from the cot only to find it face to face.. and I would wake up to reality.
I wish to form a proper story with this character as the antagonist and try writing a horror story on the lines of my favourite RR Stein's Goose Bumps.

Dreams.. Dreams..

I would like to write on one of my favourite topics: Dreams in the next few posts.

Restarted Train Diaries Series.

Train Diaries: The Raid.

I had completely settled down at my side lower berth. On my right side were a family with two kids (the boy looked younger), and two men and two women. I could guess the kids belonged to the middle aged couple. The other couple seemed to be newly married. The man was pretty serious once in a while hushing his whenever she said something.  The kids were playing their usual games jumping up and down from the berths while their parent had their usual tough time controlling them.
I fished out my James Hadley Chase novel and started reading it. I always enjoyed reading Hadley’s novels during journeys as they were more like Masala popcorn covered in an air tight bag, bursting at the right time with all elements of suspense and thrill.
Suddenly I saw a bespectacled guy bumping into my berth. “Oh god, I thought it was S6 and went into S9!” He exclaimed as he put his luggage on the upper berth.
By his looks, he was a geeky type (or a forced geeky type to be precise), with his hair combed in a thorny fashion upwards and l settled with hair glue , Floral T-shirt and Torn Jeans.
“I Am Tammy” He said extended his hand for a hand shake protocol. I was affirmative, and accepted the protocol. “I am Raghu” . I said.
“Tammy!” said the boy in the opposite cubicle suddenly turning towards us. I wondered how he heard the name in this commotion. “That’s our Dog!”
“Shut up!” said Tammy, while the boy’s mother hushed him away..” You shouldn’t say such things”
“ I am a software engineer” He said proudly, “Into designing ,coding and yo yo man, I like to build things.”
“Whereas people like to play games, I like to design them” He said. A new Zuckerberg is on its way I thought.
“Have you designed any game” I asked losing interest in his ambitions.
“Not yet, yo yo.. but am an aspirant!” he said, taking out his note and scribbling something in it.
“You know I like coding to the core, yo yo.. I am a fresher but people say I have the knowledge of a 10 year experienced guy,, Isnt that great, yo yo” He pushed his noted back into his bag.
“My laptop has run out of battery, otherwise, I wouldn’t be talking to you.. I will be coding”
“hmm I said” again focusing my attention to the book.




“You read these kinds of books?” He said, “ I read only books on Coding: like crack the Code etc, and you know I like discrete structures, Boolean algebra…” he boasted.
I felt he had mugged all the Computer Science subject names, or may be he really was a genius.
The train slowed down and came to a screeching halt near a station. People again flooded the train.
The halt was for only a minute and the train started moving again. I put the book back into the bag and looked outside.

“Clap Clap” There was a rhythmic clapping sound, and this rang alarm bells  among the passengers . The geeky guy’s facials expressions changed as the sound started coming nearer combining with the train’s sound effects.
“I hate this situation”, he said. “These Nar Narees create havoc every time whenever the train leaves this Bangarpet station” He wailed.
Indeed the Eunuch’s are a menace in Indian trains. They  would come in gangs and plunder the poor! And do what not with men for their mamool (kind of alms), leaving even the toughest guys to bend.
 I too had some terrible experiences in and out of the trains and hence had become resistant now.
 And my past experience taught me two golden rules that these “one by two” people had:
1. They won’t bother people having food.
2. They won’t bother if the person is asleep.
3. The mostly don’t bother family passengers.
I immediately pulled the packaged food from my bag that I had bought a few minutes ago from the catering service and started eating. I slowly raised my eyebrows to just see what’s happening. Then entered the bunch of baddies into the scene. I glanced at them intermittently avoiding eye contact lest they pester me.
There were three of them, well built, each almost 6 feet tall wearing similar sarees.(might be their “Hijira” Uniforms), waving their hands in the unique styles, one arm on their hips and waving the other to and fro like a pendulum.
“Baayya!” Said the spade tooth eunuch in a masculine tone pinching  Mr Geek on the cheek. “Give me whatever you can or I will have to take whatever you have!!”
“Sir.. I mean madam, I am fresher, I don’t have anything!” He screamed as she(he) pinched him hard.
“What is your name?” She asked .
“Tammy”
“Oh that’s a nice name, sounds like us isn’t it?” She said nudging her friend.
“I am Maada, She is Baanja , she is Himmy and you are Tammy!!” She said, “You too can be one among us!”
“Ahh,,but I don’t have any thing right now!” He croacked.
“What are you talking Baaya! You are a SaptuBearu and you say you don’t have money? Where are you keeping the lakhs  you are earning!” She shouted rapping him on the head.
Mr Geek’s pride went before his fall. “What?! Give me whatever you can, Or I will..” She started her catchphrase again.  “We too will take whatever you have!”  The other two joined.
Then they joined their hands and stared an orchestra cum dance show along with the moments of the running train.
“Mein tho rasthe je jaa rahee thi,
Bhel puree khaa rahi thi,
Theri naani maru tho..”  Here all the three started rapping him on the head turn by turn.
“Tho mein kya karoo, “
I looked to my side and could see the family were enjoying all these musings like a TV serial.
“Mummy!” he screamed like a school kid.
Finally he turned to me unable to bear this anymore. “Anna, please do something”
Now he came to his normalcy. All the pomp and show was drained out of him in 5 minutes!

I am the Station Master!

This happened in the last decades of the nightneenth century erstwhile British Empire India.
An English Gentleman got down at CawaGunj Railway Station, Northern Province and bumped into a Dhoti Turban claden Babuji.
'Good Marninge Ji Saar' greeted the Babuji.
The conversation proceeded this way.
'No its Good Evening. How's everything?'
'Teek good hai ji Huzoor'. Said the Babuji.
'Who is the Station Master here?' Asked the Englishman.
'I IZZ the station master' responded the Babuji proudly touching his turban.
'Are you the Station Master?' Asked the Englishman raising his voice pointing at the Babuji.
'Yes Ji Huzoor, I ARE the Station Master'
Replied the Babuji vehemently, blowing his chest by 6 inches.
'Am I the Station Master??' Thundered the Englishman pointing his own Chest.
'No Ji You AM Not the station Master I AM the station Master!!!'
Crestfallen Englishman ran away to England 😊😊.

An old English Teacher's joke retold.
                Srinivasa Raghu.

My Head in His Hands

My heart racing like a horse in a race course,
As I ascend the barber's throne,
To keep my head in his hands...
As a reply to my greeting smile
"How are you sir" greets barber wrapping the hair armour around my torso,
he irrigates my hair with Pickled water,
then unleases magical weapons from their sheaths,
.....
The pair of scissors snips its' way,
wading through my side locks creating Dopplers' effect,
sending impulses through my auditory tunnels,
triggering my fear fright hormone,
His blades grazing my temple,
appeasing their hunger with bites of my hair,
munching their way behind my ears,
snip, snip, snip, snip....
then lands the comb,
on the white creases of my darklands,
Divides and rules the territory of my scalp,
with the 'scissors-comb' Combo,
snip, snip, snip, snip....
snippets of my hair flying around me,
As I close my eyes I pray,
That the scissors do not pierce into my brain,
the snipping music echoing my ears,
the magical comb,
combing its way back and forth,
creating shock waves in my heart,
As I feel this ordeal has come to an end,
Then the soap and lather encircles my cheek,
and oh no my throat!
Swiss, swash the swiss blade in Action,
just over my most important veins,
And over my tiny hill - my 'musicbox', then starts clammy sweat in my tightened fist,
moment of mixed feelings,
my mind murmers silently,
oh God! Let his blade not go astray....

Crossing all the rugosities,
it extends it's journey towards the plains of my cheeks,
Hah! cut, cut, cut ooo...me small cut,
to which the ruling barber never heads,
splashes Water and lotion to douse the fire on my cheek,
Finally he Gifts me freedom,
unwrapping me from all my shields
"You are ready sir"  he says.
I look myself in the mirror ,
to find a different 'ME'.....

                                      Srinivasa Raghu
                                       

This is just going to hurt a little bit

One of the interesting poems learnt as a school going kid.

One thing I like less than most things is sitting in a dentist chair with
my mouth wide open.
And that I will never have to do it again is a hope that I am against hope hopen.

Because some tortures are physical and some are mental,
But the one that is both is dental.
It is hard to be self-possessed
With your jaw digging into your chest.

So hard to retain your calm
When your fingernails are making serious alterations in your life line
or love line or some other important line in your palm;

So hard to give your usual effect of cheery benignity
When you know your position is one of the two or three in life
most lacking in dignity.

And your mouth is like a section of road that is being worked on.
And it is all cluttered up with stone crushers and concrete mixers and
drills and steam rollers and there isn't a nerve in your head that
you aren't being irked on.

Oh, some people are unfortunate enough to be strung up by thumbs.
And others have things done to their gums,
And your teeth are supposed to be being polished,
But you have reason to believe they are being demolished.
And the circumstance that adds most to your terror
Is that it's all done with a mirror,
Because the dentist may be a bear, or as the Romans used to say, only
they were referring to a feminine bear when they said it, an ursa,
But all the same how can you be sure when he takes his crowbar in one
hand and mirror in the other he won't get mixed up, the way you
do when you try to tie a bow tie with the aid of a mirror, and forget
that left is right and vice versa?

And then at last he says That will be all; but it isn't because he then
coats your mouth from cellar to roof
With something that I suspect is generally used to put a shine on a
horse's hoof.

And you totter to your feet and think. Well it's all over now and after
all it was only this once.
And he says come back in three monce.
And this, O Fate, is I think the most vicious circle that thou ever sentest, That Man has to go continually to the dentist to keep his teeth in good
condition when the chief reason he wants his teeth in good condition
is so that he won't have to go to the dentist.

– Ogden Nash

Tinkle: The childhood companion.

I found copy of Tinkle after long time and felt nostalgic. Kapish, Suppandi, Shikari Shambu, the eternal characters brought back my childhood days. Thanks to Anant Pai (affectionately referred as Uncle Pai) who dedicated his life for children.

Fritz 13 vs Stockfish 6 (64 Bit)

Another interesting game between Fritz and StockFish. This resulted in draw as well, but apparently StockFish (White) had an upper hand.

 Fritz 13 - Stockfish 6 64 [D00]

Aspire, Blitz 4m+2s Aspire (2), 01.10.2015

[0.29;0.14]

Intel(R) Core(TM) i5 CPU       M 480  @ 2.67GHz 2659 MHzW=18.0 plies; 1,678kN/sB=30.9 plies; 1,275kN/s 1.d4 Both last book move  0.29/19  13  1...Nf6  0.14/20  5  2.Nf3  0.23/19  14  e6  0.24/21  14  3.Nc3 (c4)  0.16/18  12  3...d5  -0.01/19  5  4.Bf4 (Bg5)  0.26/17  11  4...Bb4  -0.20/18  7  5.g3 (a3)  0.25/17  9  5...Ne4  -0.21/19  4  6.Bd2  -0.09/18  15  Nxd2 (Bxc3)  -0.14/22  18  7.Qxd2  0.21/16  2  b6 (Nc6)  -0.22/22  8  8.a3 (Bg2)  0.29/18  9  8...Be7  -0.19/21  5  9.e4  0.21/18  8  dxe4  -0.12/21  6  10.Nxe4  0.18/19  9  0–0  -0.05/20  11  11.Bd3  0.18/17  6  Bb7 (Nc6)  -0.13/20  6  12.Qe3 (0–0–0)  0.09/16  6  12...Nd7 (Qd5)  -0.42/18  5  13.0–0–0 (0–0)  0.31/16  7  13...c5 (Nf6)  -0.15/20  5  14.Bb5 (Rhe1)  0.16/16  6  14...Qc7  -0.31/18  4  15.Bxd7  0.16/17  7  Qxd7  -0.57/20  11  16.dxc5  0.13/16  8  Qc7  -0.52/19  6  17.cxb6 (Rhe1)  0.08/16  6  17...axb6  -0.84/19  4  18.Rd3  -0.18/18  21  b5 (Qc4)  -0.66/19  6  19.Rhd1  -0.08/16  6  Bc6  -0.65/18  4  20.b4  -0.25/15  4  Qb7 (Bd5)  -0.53/20  6  21.Ne5 (Re1)  -0.14/18  8  21...Bxe4  -0.63/22  5  22.Rd7  0.00/18  3  Qc8  -0.41/22  5  23.Qxe4  0.00/18  2  Rxa3  -0.33/21  6  24.R1d3  -0.17/18  16  Rxd3 (Ra1+)  -0.38/20  5  25.Qxd3  0.00/18  1  Bf6 (Bxb4)  -0.48/21  5  26.f4  -0.08/16  4  Qa6  -0.59/21  10  27.Ng4  0.00/17  3  Qa1+ (Ba1)  -0.36/20  6  28.Kd2  0.00/13  0  Bb2  -0.49/21  7  29.Ke2  0.00/16  4  Bc3  -0.42/21  4  30.Qxb5 (Nf2)  0.00/18  5  30...Qe1+  -0.37/20  8  31.Kf3  0.00/19  5  Qh1+  -0.22/22  5  32.Ke2  0.00/19  5  Qb1 (Qe1+)  -0.14/22  5  33.Ne3 (Qg5)  -0.05/17  10  33...Qe1+  -0.34/18  5  34.Kf3  -0.08/17  3  Qh1+  -0.48/20  5  35.Ng2  -0.18/18  6  Qxh2 (h5)  -0.29/20  7  36.Qc5  0.25/16  2  Bf6  0.00/21  6  37.b5  0.09/15  3  e5  0.00/21  3  38.b6 (Qd5)  0.00/15  4  38...Qh3  0.00/21  5  39.Rd2 (Qb5)  -0.09/16  8  39...exf4  0.00/18  4  40.Nxf4  0.00/17  2  Qf1+  0.00/19  2  41.Qf2  0.00/16  2  Qh1+  0.00/21  8  42.Qg2  0.00/18  2  Qa1 (Qb1)  0.00/24  6  43.Kg4 (Qe2)  0.00/13  2  43...Rb8  0.00/23  6  44.Qc6 (Rd7)  0.01/14  2  44...Qa5  -0.04/21  3  45.Re2  0.00/18  2  h5+  0.00/23  2  46.Kf3 (Kh3)  0.00/18  4  46...Qxb6  0.00/21  3  47.Qxb6  0.00/19  2  Rxb6  0.00/21  2  48.Nxh5  0.00/19  1  Ba1 (g6)  -0.02/16  2  49.Re8+ (Re1)  0.05/14  1  49...Kh7  -0.14/1  0  50.Re7 (Rc8)  0.00/14  3  50...f5  -0.10/20  3  51.g4 (Nf4)  -0.02/13  1  51...fxg4+  -0.09/19  4  52.Kxg4  0.00/16  2  Rc6 (Rb4+)  -0.09/21  3  53.Re2  0.00/17  2  Kg6  -0.06/21  2  54.Nf4+  0.00/18  2  Kf7  -0.06/20  2  55.Re1 (Nd5)  0.00/18  2  55...Bf6  -0.08/24  3  56.Nd5  0.00/18  1  Rxc2  -0.08/25  2  57.Nxf6  0.00/21  2  Kxf6 (gxf6)  -0.08/28  2  58.Ra1 (Re3)  0.00/17  2  58...Rc4+  -0.08/25  2  59.Kf3 (Kg3)  0.00/17  2  59...Kf5 (Rc3+)  -0.08/28  2  60.Ra2 (Ra5+)  0.00/16  2  60...Rc3+  -0.06/28  4  61.Ke2 (Kf2)  0.00/18  2  61...Kf4 (Rc5)  -0.06/29  2  62.Ra1 (Kf2)  0.00/16  1  62...Rc2+ (Rf3)  -0.06/28  2  63.Ke1 (Kf1)  0.00/18  2  63...Kf3 (g5)  -0.78/35  3  64.Kf1  0.00/18  0  Rc3 (Kg4)  -0.72/39  2  65.Rb1 (Kg1)  0.00/19  0  65...g5 (Rc2)  -0.71/37  1  66.Ra1 (Kg1)  0.00/18  1  66...g4 (Rc2)  -0.70/43  3  67.Rb1 (Kg1)  0.00/16  1  67...Ra3 (Kf4)  -0.70/42  1  68.Rc1 (Kg1)  0.00/16  1  68...Rb3 (Kf4)  -0.70/40  2  69.Ra1 (Kg1)  0.00/16  1  69...Rd3 (Kf4)  -0.70/40  2  70.Rb1 (Re1)  0.00/16  1  70...Rc3 (Kf4)  -0.70/41  1  71.Ra1  0.00/15  0  Rb3 (Kf4)  -0.70/42  1  72.Rc1 (Kg1)  0.00/16  1  72...Kg3 (Kf4)  -0.70/42  2  73.Kg1  0.00/16  1  Rd3 (Kf4)  -0.69/42  2  74.Ra1  0.00/17  0  Rc3 (Kf4)  -0.68/45  3  75.Rb1  0.00/17  1  Re3 (Kf4)  -0.68/37  1  76.Ra1 (Kh1)  0.00/18  1  76...Rd3 (Kf4)  -0.67/43  3  77.Rb1 (Kh1)  0.00/19  1  77...Ra3 (Kf4)  -0.67/42  1  78.Rc1 (Rd1)  0.00/18  1  78...Kh3 (Kf4)  -0.67/44  1  79.Rb1 (Rd1)  0.00/21  2  79...Rc3 (Rg3+)  -0.72/50  2  80.Ra1 (Kh1)  0.00/18  2  80...g3 (Rg3+)  -0.59/49  8  81.Rb1 (Kh1)  0.00/23  2  81...Re3 (g2)  -0.65/50  3  82.Ra1 (Rd1)  0.00/21  2  82...Re2 (g2)  -0.64/44  1  83.Rb1 (Rc1)  0.00/20  2  83...Ra2 (g2)  -0.64/47  3  84.Rc1  0.00/21  2  Rd2 (Rg2+)  -0.64/48  1  85.Ra1 (Kh1)  0.00/22  2  85...Rg2+  -0.58/43  2  86.Kh1  0.00/25  2  Rb2 (Rf2)  -0.58/41  2  87.Rc1 (Rd1)  0.00/23  1  87...Rh2+ (Rg2)  -0.64/44  1  88.Kg1  0.00/13  0  Ra2 (Rf2)  -0.58/46  2  89.Rb1 (Kh1)  0.00/23  2  89...Rg2+  -0.52/42  2  90.Kh1  0.00/25  2  Rc2 (Rf2)  -0.53/45  3  91.Ra1 (Rd1)  0.00/22  1  91...Rc3 (Rf2)  -0.53/46  1  92.Rb1  0.00/20  1  Ra3 (Rc5)  -0.53/45  1  93.Rc1 (Re1)  0.00/22  1  93...Rb3 (Ra2)  -0.53/50  7  94.Ra1 (Kg1)  0.00/19  1  94...Rb7 (Rb5)  -0.53/46  1  95.Rc1 (Rd1)  0.00/20  1  95...Rb2  -0.53/44  1  96.Ra1 (Rd1)  0.00/21  1  96...Re2 (Rg2)  -0.53/41  2  97.Rb1  0.00/21  1  Re7 (Rg2)  -0.53/43  1  98.Ra1 (Rc1)  0.00/19  1  98...Re4 (Re5)  -0.53/41  1  99.Rb1 (Rd1)  0.00/19  1  99...Re3 (Kg4)  -0.62/45  1  100.Ra1 (Rd1)  0.00/19  1  100...Re5  -0.53/44  1  101.Rb1  0.00/20  1  Re8 (Re2)  -0.47/43  1  102.Ra1  0.00/19  1  Rb8 (Re5)  -0.40/42  1  103.Rc1  0.00/19  1  Rb6 (Rb5)  -0.39/43  1  104.Ra1 (Kg1)  0.00/19  1  104...Re6 (Rb5)  -0.39/40  1  105.Rb1 (Rc1)  0.00/19  1  105...Ra6 (Re2)  -0.11/35  3  106.Rc1 (Re1)  0.00/19  1  106...Ra8 (Ra2)  -0.11/38  1  107.Rb1 (Re1)  0.00/19  1  107...Ra4 (Ra2)  -0.11/39  1  108.Rc1 (Rd1)  0.00/18  1  108...Rb4 (Kg4)  -0.11/41  1  109.Ra1  0.00/19  1  Rd4 (Kg4)  -0.11/41  2  110.Rb1  0.00/19  1  Rd5 (Kg4)  -0.11/41  2  111.Ra1  0.00/20  1  Rd3 (Rd2)  -0.10/42  2  112.Rb1 (Re1)  0.00/19  1  112...Rd2  -0.10/44  1  113.Ra1 (Rc1) Draw accepted  0.00/22  1  ½–½

Fritz vs StockFish

I had installed DroidFish in my mobile, which is considered to be the most powerful chess engines of the recent times (Stock Fish). Fritz is considered to be equally powerful, hence I was curious which one is the King, hence had them play with each other and surprisingly it was a draw!
A three fold checkmate by white resulted in draw. The above is the final position.


 The complete game is below.

StockFish(White) vs Fritz (Black).

1.e4 e5 [1...e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0–0 Nf6 5.d4 Bxd4 6.Nxd4 Nxd4 7.Be3 Nc6 8.Nc3 d6 9.Nd5 Nxe4 10.Qf3 Nf6 11.Bg5 Nd4 12.Qg3 Nf5 13.Qb3 0–0 14.Bxf6 (14.Qf3 c6 15.Bxf6 gxf6 16.Bd3 cxd5 17.Bxf5 d4 18.Be4 Be6 19.Rad1 Rc8 20.c3 d5 21.Qg3+ Kh8 22.Bxh7 Kxh7 23.Qh4+ Kg7 24.Qg3+ Kh6 25.Qh4+ Kg7 26.Qg3+ Kh8 27.Qh4+ Kg7

Universe... and the mind

At times I sit all alone in my balcony during the wee hours at night gazing at the sky, looking at the Big Dipper , which is called the Saptha Rishi mandal in Sanskrit, and gazing at billions of stars remembering my child hood poem on the twinkling stars and forgetting the time.

There always remains an intriguing question which science and philosophy find it very difficult to answer. "What is reality?"

 Is what we as humans 'see' be proclaimed as reality? Are the billions or trillions of stars whose light infact has left them millions of years ago be perceived as reality?

If there was no evolution, would the planets or even matter would have ever existed - as what we see are the by products of our well developed conscious minds?

Science states that such questions are invalid. The so called consciousness is not a valid concept as per science. 

And then comes the concept of time.  Wikipedia defines time as follows:

Time is a measure in which events can be ordered from the past through the present into the future, and also the measure of durations of events and the intervals between them.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]} Time is often referred to as the fourth dimension, along with the three spatial dimensions.^[8]

As per the definition there are three key elements: past present and future. But what exactly is "past", "present" and future and more specifically "present"


                                                                                                                                    --Continued.....

Water On Mars

Google has doodled the latest finding by NASA: existence of water on the Red Planet. The Doodle itself is one of the most creative works, depicting the Red Man sipping water with a straw :-)

 As per Wikipedia:-

Water on Mars exists today almost exclusively as ice, though it also exists in small quantities as vapour in the atmosphere^[1] and occasionally as low volume liquid brines in shallow Martian soils.^[2] The only place where water ice is visible at the surface is at the north polar ice cap.^[3] Abundant water ice is also present beneath the permanent carbon dioxide ice cap at the Martian south pole and in the shallow subsurface at more temperate latitudes.^[4][5][6][7] More than five million cubic kilometers of ice have been identified at or near the surface of modern Mars, enough to cover the whole planet to a depth of 35 meters.^[8] Even more ice is likely to be locked away in the deep subsurface.^[9]

Space always has fascinated humanity and the quest for extra terrestrial has always been ongoing.With growing technology, space missions have reached to higher levels in investigations and have been able to peek into the vastness of the universe giving more insights and changing the way the Universe was understood once upon a time. Very soon the evidence of extra terrestrial life will be inevitable and might provide the real reason of the existence of life,

Drag Me Down

Liked a song, after a long time! This is a new single from One Direction.

Teacher's Day

Google celebrates Teacher's Day by doodling in their home page. The doodle has rightly depicted teacher's insights and the knowledge that is imparted that shapes the future of an individual.

 A big salute to all the hard working teachers of the world.. !

" Appearing instead of '@'

This started since few days, whenever I type @ symbol in my laptop keyboard, " was appearing and I was trying to figure out why this was happening. As a workaround I used to copy the @ symbol from the net to type my email address!

Finally I figured out that this is due to the keyboard setting. The default setting was UK.

--> windows key+ shift and select English(United States). This has resolved the problem.

PL SQL Gems

I will start posting some interesting snippets for PL SQL similar to UNIX GEMS that can be used as a quick reference.
 

Google's New Logo

The world's favourite search engine Google has new logo from today. The same has been doodled on its home page as well. 

Visiting Jurassic World!

Will be watching the much awaited movie tomorrow, getting the same feeling that I got as a kid before the show for the original Jurassic Park..

UNIX Gem 3: How to display, segreggate file types:

We have several types of files in a directory (txt,pdf,.pl,.c etc) and we want UNIX to seggregate the file based on their types. How can we achieve this. UNIX has a command file. If we want to display the file type for txt file, just type in
>file filename.txt

If we want to display types for entire files:
file *

If we want to display set of files:

file file1 file 2 file 3

sample output:

file *

sound:                   directory
speech-dispatcher:       directory
ssh:                     directory
ssl:                     directory
sudoers:                 regular file, no read permission
sudoers.d:               directory
sysctl.conf:             ASCII English text
sysctl.d:                directory
systemd:                 directory
terminfo:                directory
thunderbird:             directory
timezone:                ASCII text
ts.conf:                 ASCII text
ucf.conf:                ASCII English text
udev:                    directory
ufw:                     directory
updatedb.conf:           ASCII text
update-manager:          directory

Unix gem: Truncating file

We know how to truncate a table in SQL,i.e. retain the structure of the table removing the contents of the table.
In UNIX ,lets say we want to remove the contents of the file and retain the empty file (zerobyte file). How can we achieve this.

➡ One way is to delete the file completely and recreate it.

➡The second method is to open the file using an editor such as vi and delete each line and save.

But what if we want to truncate the file on the fly?

Consider the problem statement:

Check if the file called dataflow has been sent by upstream and count the number of records. If records exceed threshold (value of 10,000) truncate the file and FTP it to the remote server indicating threhold breach-incorrect records. Else FTP the file as it is.

UNIX has a command for this:

We can use
cat >dev >null dataflow

This would make the file zero byte

A simple hueristic for the above problem will be

If exists file then
If
wc -l dataflow gt threshold
cat >dev >null dataflow
Ftp servername (pick credentials from .netrc)
Put dataflow
Bye
Else
Ftp file intact.

Unix Gems

In the next posts time and time I will brush up some important Unix related stuff that can be used as a quick reference. These are some important commands,info that are dug from the grounds of Unix. And hence gems

20 reasons as How I wonder Why Jurassic movie again

Coming to the next ten reasons

11. Jurassic World is said to be homage to Jurassic Park. This sounds optimistic.

12. Jurassic World would bring back old memories and nostalgic values..wish we were kids again.

13.The featurette had Spielberg himself praising the movie..

14. It would be refreshing to see 'Jurassic' dinos again on the screen.

15.It might ignite Jurassic Franchise again....

16.T rex is back from the original?

17.Chaos theory returns...

18. Waiting to see real dinosaurs in fully functional theme park..

19.Good to have a blast from the past..

20.Lets see what latest technology is to offer through the film.

I am looking forward to review every aspect of the movie once it hits the screen as it is being decreed as the most awaited movie of 2015.

20 reasons as How I wonder Why Jurassic movie again

1. Jurassic Park was not just a movie, it was an experience and a sensation. It created waves around the globe with its ground breaking special effects that cinema never witnessed before. Will JW live to that expectation?

2.JP introduced us to 'real' dinosaurs that looked so real it was hard to believe these was engineered through computer. We as children did believe that there really were dinosaurs in some island where the movie was made ☺. Now even toddlers know what special effects are. Just see a third graders syllabus to know what is Micro processor and what RAM is.

3.JP led a franchise that made dinos as household things such as comics,toys, bags,t-shirts,cartoons and endless other things.. What about JW..

4. Now dinos are nothing new.. There are TV series on Dinos in discovery and NGC.

5. There are independant film makers who were able to produce special dino effects at par with big production houses.

6.Nothing can beat the original. This has been the buzz word for ages.

7. There are Dino theme parks and rides everywhere.. JW follows the theme again..

8.Dinos have become yester year topic now.. And there have been N-number of creature effect movies.. Group of people stranded at a creature ridden place and plan for escape.. nothing new.

9.On a funny note: Jason Sthathom can defeat T rex now.

10. JP offered something new to the world. I would say it was almost an invention and a revolution in Cinema.. Hats off to Spielberg and his vision. and Stan Winston on technical grounds.. and Michael Crichton...for his inimitable concept...

...continued....

20 reasons as How I wonder Why Jurassic movie again

"INTRO"

23 years back Jurassic Park was  sensation. People had never seen anything like it on the screen before. Spielberg achieved a seemingly impossible task and the movie won the hearts of one and all.. And what followed was a mass histeria on dinosaurs with dino toys, dino games,dino theme parks and dino themed movies.

The concept of cloning the extinct giants from DNA of fossilized insects was innovative and the visual effects were phenomenal unlike some of the older hollywood dino flicks where the animals were mere puppets. Here the technicians had breathed life into the animals such that they looked so real.. We as children believed that they were real dinosaurs -We werent aware that the original concept was by an author called Michael Chricton. As time passed by the movie attained cult status.

...continued

Feeling Nostalgic

I felt nostalgic after watching the new featurette on Jurassic World. Childhood memories.. The movie that introduced us to Dinosaurs and computers. The T Rex and the Silicon Graphics Workstation.

https://youtu.be/PA4IdQZ7k7w

Essential Unix for Hadoop

In the next posts I will focus on Unix required as foundation for Hadoop. I will touch base all the commands needed for Hadoop ech system as well as a bit of Shell Programming which will be required at times to simplify execution of long commands (hadoop is famous for) at the command line.

Five Best Sources for learning Hadoop

Apart from Apache community,I would recommend the below sources/books for learning Hadoop:

1. Data Intensive Text Processing : This is available free of cost at this link

https://lintool.github.io/MapReduceAlgorithms/MapReduce-book-final.pdf

The book focuses on the theoritical aspects of Map reduce rather than programmatical aspect. It has algorithmic approach and dwelves into the various paradigms of Map reduce. This is a must book to start with Map Reduce. A 175 page book but serves as an excellent source to understand the roots of Map Reduce.

2. Yahoo Developer Website:

These are excellent tutorials that focus on the basics of hadoop. Very simple and concise these are a must for beginners.
https://developer.yahoo.com/hadoop/tutorial/

There is an option of downloading the tutorials for off line study.

3. Hadoop A Definitive Guide

Author :Tom White

This book doesnt touch the bare bones of Hadoop but emphasises on programming and vividly focuses on the echo system. The author takes up complex examples to explore the various nuances of Hadoop. Hence this is best studied once we are thorough with the Yahoo Developer tutorials.

4. Hadoop in action

The book contains several Hadoop examples in a problem solution format. However the book assumes some basic knowledge in Hadoop and Map Reduce. Also all the examples are Java based and hence readers need to be thorough in basic Java. But its an excellent source to explore Hadoop.

5. Kaggle.com

Want to be a champ? Then this site is an ultimate source to compete in Hadoop. Its  challenging and would generate profound interest in Big Data.

Gearing up for Hadoop

For learning Hadoop, Java is a must as most of the programming in Mapreduce is done in Java. The basics of Java should be sufficient. The best book I would prefer is of course the complete reference by Herbert Schildt if you are a beginner or can go for Effective Java by Joshua bloch.

Mission Impossible 5

The full length trailer for the fifth installation of the series is out. It looks very promising indeed. Cant wait for the movie!

Hadoop Focus

I am exploring Hadoop now as I feel the future of data processing will be Hadoop and it's associated technologies.  Will start posting soon. I don't wish to delve into the fathoms of Big data (as it's theoretical) rather focus on the practical aspects of technology. I will start with the prerequisites and move into the actual ocean of Hadoop.

Long time

Been a long time, more than two months posting. Will start blogging again..