Discovered an online database service called Zoho Creator. It's pretty cool and easy to use!
Catalogued all my audio CDs
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
IIM-B Vista Open
20071014@IIM-Bangalore
Clipped and Collected from Kerala Quizzers orkut community.
Lloyd
Harsha Bhogle @IIM-B
Last Sunday Me,Thomas (Ex TKM) & Prashanth (Ex CET) gatecrashed into IIM-B for 'Quizzard' which was part of 'Vista' the annual IIM-B business fest. The Quiz as always started late, Written prelims of 35 qns after which 6 teams made it through to the finals... As always we 3 were left high & dry thinking about the near misses we had or what could have happened if we had written the first guess kinda thing... This normally happens when u don't qualify and mind u its a tough field out here.. KQA veterans were all there plus some QFI imports from Chennai made it even more tougher. The QM was Harsha Bhogle,Questions were set by Anustup of KQA, Harsha was at his best in enthralling the audience with his quick wit and one liners, but at times he failed to impress. The setting for the Quiz was superb except the Buzzer - as always it malfunctioned a la Wardrobe malfunctioning which has become too common nowadays the latest star being Potter aunt JK Rowling....
The saddest thing about the Quiz is only 2 Mallus were on stage, One being our evergreen Anil Sir and his partner Jayadev who is a NRK, their team performed creditably and won the 3rd spot (Anil Sir had to leave after 2 rounds to catch the 9.45pm train to Cochin) Seeing people like Anil Sir & Arul Mani I always feel that most of us should be ashamed at the fact that we don't even have 10% of the enthusiasm that they have, For every KQA quiz Arul would be the first one to arrive on his Activa and from organizing to conducting to participating he is always there, Muslims go to Mecca for Hajj once a year but for Anil Sir Bangalore is Mecca and participating in Quizzes is a Hajj that he performs once a month, that's the spirit...
The Quiz was a memorable event and as expected was won by Arul,Uduppa combo, Infosys was 2nd Anil Sir's team led by Jayadev came third and Swami's QFI team came fourth - seeing Swami coming fourth was like watching the Aussies losing a Cricket match. For questions & a review keep checking Thomas's blog - http:oraclique.blogspot.com.
The saddest thing about the Quiz is only 2 Mallus were on stage, One being our evergreen Anil Sir and his partner Jayadev who is a NRK, their team performed creditably and won the 3rd spot (Anil Sir had to leave after 2 rounds to catch the 9.45pm train to Cochin) Seeing people like Anil Sir & Arul Mani I always feel that most of us should be ashamed at the fact that we don't even have 10% of the enthusiasm that they have, For every KQA quiz Arul would be the first one to arrive on his Activa and from organizing to conducting to participating he is always there, Muslims go to Mecca for Hajj once a year but for Anil Sir Bangalore is Mecca and participating in Quizzes is a Hajj that he performs once a month, that's the spirit...
The Quiz was a memorable event and as expected was won by Arul,Uduppa combo, Infosys was 2nd Anil Sir's team led by Jayadev came third and Swami's QFI team came fourth - seeing Swami coming fourth was like watching the Aussies losing a Cricket match. For questions & a review keep checking Thomas's blog - http:oraclique.blogspot.com.
Anil
Part of the questions were set by Gopal kidao another mallu who is a mainstay of QED.Questions,presentation,ambience,audience&everything was right.I still feel kicking myself for leaving early which contributed to my team ICNH finishing third.the first two teams had cash 30000inr&20000inr.we got 3k worth vanheusen vouchers.5pts&a middle aged guy who booked a ticketback robbed the team of 20k but we have the honour of surpassing QED with swami,jayakantan&sumo one of the veryfew todo this in the past 5years.
Let me also mention that Thomas won an audience prize for cracking the dream scene from wildstrawberries(bergman).And gracias,lloyd for bringing the news across
Let me also mention that Thomas won an audience prize for cracking the dream scene from wildstrawberries(bergman).And gracias,lloyd for bringing the news across
Thomas
review
it was a fantastic quiz. the quality of the questions, the entertainment factor, everything was superb. one of the highlight was harsha bhogle telling anil's team that they needed to "insert" it better, when testing out the buzzers! ... for those not in the know anil's team in bangalore is called insert cool name here)... harsha said he would add it to the list of worst things he has ever said onstage in his life...
anil had to catch a train and hence left after the first onstage round... too bad they were not allowed a substitute! they lost out only in the final round... called derailer... interesting because of the "rail" angle ;-) the team had already been derailed once!
sorry that i have not yet updated my blog with the questions (hope prasanth can send them across, i didn't note anything) and opinions... was busy at work this week... there were quite a few trivia gems.. the quizicians didn't disappoint!
yeah i got an audience prize and also made some cool cracks in the prelims... it was an enjoyable and memorable outing despite the fact that we didn't qualify... i also made what qualifies as my super blooper... wrote "lighthouse of alexandria" instead of "library of alexandria"! :-)
TRIVIA BITES
(Waiting for inputs from Prashanth)
anil had to catch a train and hence left after the first onstage round... too bad they were not allowed a substitute! they lost out only in the final round... called derailer... interesting because of the "rail" angle ;-) the team had already been derailed once!
sorry that i have not yet updated my blog with the questions (hope prasanth can send them across, i didn't note anything) and opinions... was busy at work this week... there were quite a few trivia gems.. the quizicians didn't disappoint!
yeah i got an audience prize and also made some cool cracks in the prelims... it was an enjoyable and memorable outing despite the fact that we didn't qualify... i also made what qualifies as my super blooper... wrote "lighthouse of alexandria" instead of "library of alexandria"! :-)
TRIVIA BITES
(Waiting for inputs from Prashanth)
You Are What You Say?
Labels:
Rant
You are what you say! If what you would say if you were there was known, is your presence really required? Do words make the man? In the sci-fi novel Wyrms, Orson Scott Card took this what-you-say-is-who-you-are principle to its logical extreme: heads of people were preserved such that they could talk, even years after the bodies perished! Talk about just being all talk! ;-)
Well, here are some things that I would have talked to you about if you had me over the last few months. These are also blog-points, hopefully I will expand on these points, but who knows! Some random thoughts in here - some trivial and obvious, some profound. Some original, some inspired. Some fun, some boring. Some are lessons, some are observations/insights yeah and some are shit. C'est la vie.
1. GREEDY DOESN'T WORK...ALWAYS
Doing the best possible thing at every point will not yield you the best results. You might even be called spineless! Greedy algorithms don't always work.
2. ON THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE
Science should not be taught in historical order. Why force everybody to learn the mistakes and then unlearn? One of the reasons why quantum physics, relativity etc still have an aura of mystique and incomprehensibility.
3. LIVE FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
Hope is what keeps us ticking. Only if there is hope is there a will.
4. DEMOCRACY?
Everybody is Chinese when they are born, slowly we become others.
5. LAWS OF FRIENDSHIP
a) Only equals can be friends.
b) And there are limits to friendship no matter what you might claim. There's stuff you will and stuff you won't for a friend/relative. Remember King Lear.
6. PARTICLE METAPHYSICS
Modern physics is in many ways approaching the realm of religion. "There has to be a particle like this, so let's search for it... we didn't find it... let's think up a new particle or a new dimension!"
7. KEEP IT SHORT STUPID
Futility of writing long-winded reviews. If you like the thing or its maker and I say it's bad, you will check it out any way - how bad can it be?.
8. MOVIE CRITICISM FOR DUMMIES
Quick-and-dirty movie critique tips applicable to all movies regardless.
a) Do the characters explain some part of the story or a quirk of some other character in dialogue? If they state the really obvious, it's a very weak script.
b) Artificiality Litmus - Did the director achieve what he aimed for?
c) There were a few more... cannot recollect now
9. COMMON SYMBOLIC INSTRUMENTS IN MOVIES
a) Elements Technique - Rain/Thunder/Lightning to indicate helplessness of the characters
b) Call Of Reality technique. Phone ringing to interrupt a dream-like, unreal sequence.
X. SYSTEMATIC<=>REGULAR
Regular and systematic is best. Regularly systematic will also benefit you. Be systematic
Y. THE WILL-DO PRINCIPLE
Doesn't always have to be 100% before you try to do something, enter the fray, put yourself to the test etc. 80% should do. 80-20 rule. Can be applied in most scenarios. 20% is all you need 80% of the time. And 80% would suffice 80% of the time (wait a minute, that would be the 80-80 rule!)
Z. OH PEDANTIC ME!
The difference between continual and continuous.
A. PSEUDO-LINGUISTICS
Musings on the similarities between Kannada and Malayalam.
a) Malayalam being a somewhat recent language takes elements from both Kannada and Tamil, although the similarity with Tamil is what gets highlighted.
b) 50 is Ainpathu in North Kerala, Anpathu in South Kerala. Thantha (=father) derogatory in south.
c) The modifier for "do not" in Kannada is "baruthu", Malayalam ("aruthu").
d) Ho-Po, Va-Ba Sound Interchangeability principle
Maybe some of these "similarities" stem from my ignorance rather than knowledge of the languages in question. Take them as hypotheses!
B. THOUGHT-LOSS-ON-WRITE
Capture the thought when you can! It's the capturing that's important, improve it later. But the Heisenberg principle applies, you alter the thought when you catch it. But catch it anyway.
C. SLOW-AND-STEADY
The principle of differential change like differentiation/integration. It is suddenly that you realize that it has changed completely!
D. IMPORTANCE OF MINUTIAE
Near-complete knowledge of any activity/sphere of life/domain is beneficial. Could be anything but it is very difficult to get there. Are you there? Here's an easy way to check: have you bluffed about It, when asked about something specific about It?
Yeah that's what I would have talked about. That was TJ BrainDump 2007.
So that's all? Nothing missed? Parts make the whole, but there is always more to the whole. Or so we hope.
- Thomas Jay Cubb
Changelog
20071124 Added the cheesy titles, moved the background update to separate post
Well, here are some things that I would have talked to you about if you had me over the last few months. These are also blog-points, hopefully I will expand on these points, but who knows! Some random thoughts in here - some trivial and obvious, some profound. Some original, some inspired. Some fun, some boring. Some are lessons, some are observations/insights yeah and some are shit. C'est la vie.
1. GREEDY DOESN'T WORK...ALWAYS
Doing the best possible thing at every point will not yield you the best results. You might even be called spineless! Greedy algorithms don't always work.
2. ON THE TEACHING OF SCIENCE
Science should not be taught in historical order. Why force everybody to learn the mistakes and then unlearn? One of the reasons why quantum physics, relativity etc still have an aura of mystique and incomprehensibility.
3. LIVE FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
Hope is what keeps us ticking. Only if there is hope is there a will.
4. DEMOCRACY?
Everybody is Chinese when they are born, slowly we become others.
5. LAWS OF FRIENDSHIP
a) Only equals can be friends.
b) And there are limits to friendship no matter what you might claim. There's stuff you will and stuff you won't for a friend/relative. Remember King Lear.
6. PARTICLE METAPHYSICS
Modern physics is in many ways approaching the realm of religion. "There has to be a particle like this, so let's search for it... we didn't find it... let's think up a new particle or a new dimension!"
7. KEEP IT SHORT STUPID
Futility of writing long-winded reviews. If you like the thing or its maker and I say it's bad, you will check it out any way - how bad can it be?.
8. MOVIE CRITICISM FOR DUMMIES
Quick-and-dirty movie critique tips applicable to all movies regardless.
a) Do the characters explain some part of the story or a quirk of some other character in dialogue? If they state the really obvious, it's a very weak script.
b) Artificiality Litmus - Did the director achieve what he aimed for?
c) There were a few more... cannot recollect now
9. COMMON SYMBOLIC INSTRUMENTS IN MOVIES
a) Elements Technique - Rain/Thunder/Lightning to indicate helplessness of the characters
b) Call Of Reality technique. Phone ringing to interrupt a dream-like, unreal sequence.
X. SYSTEMATIC<=>REGULAR
Regular and systematic is best. Regularly systematic will also benefit you. Be systematic
Y. THE WILL-DO PRINCIPLE
Doesn't always have to be 100% before you try to do something, enter the fray, put yourself to the test etc. 80% should do. 80-20 rule. Can be applied in most scenarios. 20% is all you need 80% of the time. And 80% would suffice 80% of the time (wait a minute, that would be the 80-80 rule!)
Z. OH PEDANTIC ME!
The difference between continual and continuous.
A. PSEUDO-LINGUISTICS
Musings on the similarities between Kannada and Malayalam.
a) Malayalam being a somewhat recent language takes elements from both Kannada and Tamil, although the similarity with Tamil is what gets highlighted.
b) 50 is Ainpathu in North Kerala, Anpathu in South Kerala. Thantha (=father) derogatory in south.
c) The modifier for "do not" in Kannada is "baruthu", Malayalam ("aruthu").
d) Ho-Po, Va-Ba Sound Interchangeability principle
Maybe some of these "similarities" stem from my ignorance rather than knowledge of the languages in question. Take them as hypotheses!
B. THOUGHT-LOSS-ON-WRITE
Capture the thought when you can! It's the capturing that's important, improve it later. But the Heisenberg principle applies, you alter the thought when you catch it. But catch it anyway.
C. SLOW-AND-STEADY
The principle of differential change like differentiation/integration. It is suddenly that you realize that it has changed completely!
D. IMPORTANCE OF MINUTIAE
Near-complete knowledge of any activity/sphere of life/domain is beneficial. Could be anything but it is very difficult to get there. Are you there? Here's an easy way to check: have you bluffed about It, when asked about something specific about It?
Yeah that's what I would have talked about. That was TJ BrainDump 2007.
So that's all? Nothing missed? Parts make the whole, but there is always more to the whole. Or so we hope.
- Thomas Jay Cubb
Changelog
20071124 Added the cheesy titles, moved the background update to separate post
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
What's Cooking
Labels:
Memory
Background Updates
---------------------------
It's been a long time since I put up anything other than movie reviews here. It's not that I've been too busy to write, I have been writing and also updating my other blogs (programming and quizzing) regularly...er... well...frequently. I am writing to write here; expect no structure! This is a brain dump.
Life has been chugging on, and I think I have been having fun. Been quizzing a lot (no successes worth writing home about though), learnt some Kannada, got a promotion at work, playing lots of table-tennis, traveled around Karnataka a bit - trekking and stuff... all regular stuff... fun, dull but also enjoyable fun.
Have also been reading quite a bit (Kafka On The Shore, Crime And Punishment etc.) and buying lotsa CDs (burnt my fingers AND ears quite a bit) apart from watching a lot of movies. Yeah, and did I mention my Krishna conscious phase - not the ISKCON variety but the "truly conscious" kind ?
(originally as part of separate post)
---------------------------
It's been a long time since I put up anything other than movie reviews here. It's not that I've been too busy to write, I have been writing and also updating my other blogs (programming and quizzing) regularly...er... well...frequently. I am writing to write here; expect no structure! This is a brain dump.
Life has been chugging on, and I think I have been having fun. Been quizzing a lot (no successes worth writing home about though), learnt some Kannada, got a promotion at work, playing lots of table-tennis, traveled around Karnataka a bit - trekking and stuff... all regular stuff... fun, dull but also enjoyable fun.
Have also been reading quite a bit (Kafka On The Shore, Crime And Punishment etc.) and buying lotsa CDs (burnt my fingers AND ears quite a bit) apart from watching a lot of movies. Yeah, and did I mention my Krishna conscious phase - not the ISKCON variety but the "truly conscious" kind ?
(originally as part of separate post)
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