Making technical documents interesting...

Technical write-ups can be boring if they talk just technical stuff. But some writers make an attempt to make them interesting.

Like in the Java API reference. Here's an example. In explaining the difference between the append() and insert() methods in the class StringBuffer, this is what I found in the API reference.

The principal operations on a StringBuffer are the append and insert methods. [...] The append method always adds these characters at the end of the buffer; the insert method adds the characters at a specified point.

For example, if z refers to a string buffer object whose current contents are "start", then the method call z.append("le") would cause the string buffer to contain "startle", whereas z.insert(4, "le") would alter the string buffer to contain "starlet".

It wasn't really necessary to pick an example where all three words made sense. But someone went that extra step.

Little things - and it made it just that little interesting.

In other news...

American efficiency in Iraq (from NYTimes)

[The] discovery that the world’s richest, most technologically advanced country could not restore basic services to minimal prewar levels left an impression of American weakness and, worse, of indifference to the well-being of ordinary Iraqis.
...
Yet another example of shoddy contract writing, lax oversight and absent supervision that has consistently characterized Washington’s approach to Iraq reconstruction from the start.

How pathetic! And how tragic!

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You thought Google wanted to pervade all our lives even more? Here's a situation where they don't want us to use google. (They are not evil, remember?)

As it turns out, they are okay with us saying "I googled it out" - but only if we had actually used their search engine. Don't say "I googled it out on Yahoo!", please.

By the way, I sometimes use Dogpile because they google from all googling engines!

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There's a portfolio game on. Here's my take:

93 Shares of TCS @ Rs. 1080.1 = Rs. 1,00,449.3

"Flat" World Syndrome

I am getting a little bugged that people associated with Infosys are adopting the horrendous "flat world" metaphor introduced by Tom Friedman like crazy.

Take a sample:

Nandan Nilekani
Stephen Pratt
Basab Pradhan [See the "About the Site" description in the side bar]

Infosys even has a "Think Flat" blog!

It seems to have become the next buzz-phrase after GDM. And it means nothing. Or if you want to be nice to Friedman, it really means everything that's the modern world.

And what good is a metaphor if we can twist it to mean anything and everything?

Cliche count

There should be a reason why in the English language, the word cliche has so many synonyms:

banality
platitude
hackneyed
trite
threadbare
shopworn
commonplace
bromide
old-hat
...
...
(and more)

Just so that the use of that word does not become it? (That's probably wrong usage, but as long as you know what I mean, it shouldn't matter?)

Still in love with sacrifices...

Narayana Murthy, on Infosys' 25th Anniversary Celebration, says -

Friends, by celebrating this 25th year of Infosys we are celebrating the success of these architects of economic reforms of India, and the courage, aspiration, enthusiasm, energy and hard work of every one of the Infoscions and ex-Infoscions. We are all celebrating the success of the wives and children of Infoscions whose sacrifices just render our own sacrifice into little, insignificant ones.

(Italics, mine)

I guess the Indian IT industry has a long way to go before it can claim corporate maturity. The Chairman (now ex-) one of India's leading and most modern industrial house thinks the wives and children of employees of his company are making sacrifices so that their husbands (and fathers) can do their day-job?

Sacrifices - for what cause?

Update: One of my friends pointed out another keyword in that quote above. Mr. Murthy says "wives and children", not "spouses and children".

I wonder if Bill Gates can make that statement in his retirement party and hope to get away with it.

Controlling Terror...

After the recent mumbai blasts, there were people who argued that no amount of security enforcement can actually control terror, particularly in large country like India. At that time, I tended to agree with that position.

But surely, security can do better than this!

Dravid, Dravid, Dravid...

It's adjectives all over the place in praise of Rahul Dravid after the phenomenal role he played in India's recent victory at Sabina Park. All good stuff - Dravid is finally getting his due.

Greg Chappell:

We couldn't have had a better example of commitment, application, desperation, determination, patience and technique to cope with the difficult conditions than we saw from our captain. History will show that he is one of the best players for anyone, forget India, anywhere, anytime.

Cricinfo Article:

Once again, Dravid was India's deliverer; it is inconcievable that India would have won without him. Throughout the series he was excellent, and in the final Test, which called for batsmen to stand up and be counted, he was monumental. Has there been an Indian batsman who has achieved more for the team than Dravid?

White Man's Burden...

Bridge On The River Kwai - the movie had great content; it explored questions about the inner nature of man and the conflicts that may arise within during War. It showcased how something like War can make perfectly sane-looking people act in a fit of madness. It had a strong narrative, great acting and pleasing picturization (shot in Ceylon) - on the whole, something that would put it right at the top of my favourites list.

However...

However, it did have a very few moments where Col. Nicholson, and a few others, talk highly about Western effeciency. Yes, it's okay for a British army officer to talk like that. After all, it fits his part. But when the Japanese officer Saito hands over control to Nicholson in a rather subdued way, in those moments, the movie itself seemed to endorse that view. And that - I did not like.

I adore Kipling's "IF" and hate everything about the "White Man's Burden".

Too much cricket...

Is way too much cricket being played currently? Is the ICC Future Tours Programme a disastrous overdose?

Well, players are complaining, ex-cricketers are warning, and cricket writers are crying over it. But nothing seems to be happening. The powers that be are still charting out calendars that are outrageously overbooked.

Complaining about too much cricket started in various quarters quite some time back. But inspite of all that, recently the ICC sat down and charted the FTP, a glance at which, makes it pretty clear (atleast to me) that the top cricketing nations have an almost filled-to-the-brim calendar. 10 to 15 tests and 30 odd one-dayers each. Isn't that a lot? Is there any expectation that they have to play domestic cricket too? Is there going to be something called domestic cricket?

Unless the board resolves to rotate the playing 11 in a highly planned manner, it is unlikely that a top player will sustain such a load for years together. And which board is going to do that? Which board has done it before? The only other option is for players to choose to rest themselves - which might be very tricky for their careers. But then again, the Boards might interfere and restrict their choice. For instance, if Yuvraj decides to play Australia and rest against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe, will the board be okay?

However, R. Mohan, thinks they are all kidding when they complain about too much cricket. Reason being - the number of days of basketball/baseball in a calendar year - is way more than the number of days of international cricket a player is expected to play. And yes, the players are free to take a break if they think they need one.

I am wondering if this is the same writer whose great analysis I adored, when he wrote for The Hindu long back (before he was fired?).

Small/Less is always beautiful. Is that so hard to realize? Its so sad when all that matters is commerce and we still call it sport/art etc.

Vote for...

New York Times

I have high regard for The New York Times.

Recently, Thomas Friedman, wrote about the changing attitudes towards education "all over the world". The link may require a user id and password, so I am summarizing the content here (which in this case, isn't a tall order).

The article starts thus,

Tony Blair has been fighting with his own party over permitting more innovative charter schools. Singapore is obsessed with improving its already world-leading math scores before others catch up. And America agonizes that its K-12 public schools badly need improvement in math and science. I was just in Mumbai attending the annual meeting of India's high-tech association, Nasscom, where many speakers worried aloud that Indian education wasn't nurturing enough ''innovators.''

And I should say, ends there. There was nothing "all over the world" about the rest of the article which centered around a few people he had met in (Oh no, not again!) India!! Needless to mention, it is just a rehash of his now famous rather redundant book with the unusual unjustifiable title "The World is Flat". Same Jerry Rao, same Nirmala Sankaran, same level playing fields, same changing world order and it finally ends with another of Friedman's win-win situation.

The big question the article leaves unanswered is how NY Times lets him write again and again in its Editorials. Someone said after reading "World is Flat" that Friedman needs a good editor. Now, if indeed he gets one, he might not get anything published at all.

On Dosaas...

I have always maintained that the Saravana Bhavan in Parry's Corner makes the best dosaas in the world. I have been there only a couple of times and both times I was so tired and hungry after playing cricket in the hot sun, that you could easily say I am exaggerating. But I get special pleasure in claiming that something is the best in the world, particularly when I have experienced that something.

After my entry into USA, I have visited the Saravana Bhavan in San Francisco a couple of times (it is not exactly SFO, but I get too confused about the places in Bay Area that everything is SFO for me). My expectations were great, and I should say they weren't let down. Food was as usual terrific, mangala isai was playing in the background and the board on the outside read "Uyarthara saiva unavagam". It was perfect!

The Udupi restaurant in Bellevue/Redmond area serves the worst dosaas in the world, atleast the worst I've eaten. They have about 15 to 20 varieties of dosaas and each one has something especially bad about it. But Udupi seems to specialize in murdering each and every variety - be it masala, paper or rava. Dosaas are something even the tiny eateries round the corner in Madras make to a certain standard with bare minimum infrastructure. Udupi here literally has monopoly in this area for south indian restaurants and I am sure makes great business just because of that.

Last week, I had paper roast. It may be a cliche, but I am unable to resist saying that, it literally was a paper roast. No sign of any dosaa there. Lakshmi asked me how I managed to complete about 75% of it. We used to think that Udupi here made the worst chutneys (and sambars) before. I was even sympathetic thinking that they probably didn't get good coconuts around this area. But for making a decent dosa - no such excuses.

Unfortunately, I find it extremely hard to complain then and there. I don't know what it is about me, but I seldom complain straight in the face to restaurant owners or shop keepers about the quality of the stuff they sell. It is probably very easy, but I guess there is something fundamental that I lack in that regard. So, this time too, I registered no complaint. My usual excuse is that my way of handling it is switching to another restaurant. In this case, even that is invalid since Udupi is the only one of its kind.

People who are from this area, when you find time, do visit Udupi and check out what I mean when I say something is the worst dosaa in the world. If you haven't done that already. Also, if you know of other good south indian eateries here, do leave a comment. Thanks!

On Mass Production...

Even though cricket writing doesn't really qualify as top drawer creative writing, it does suffer when an attempt is made to mass produce it.

Cricinfo, of late, has been a big culprit of trying to mass produce cricket articles. Here I am not talking about general match reports and bulletins. But rather about analysis articles that typically talk about a particular facet of the game or a player.

Take for instance, this article on VVS Laxman. Now that he has been dropped for a test, it was time to analyze Laxman as a player and his future. Dileep Premachandran (probably the best in Cricinfo's ranks) raises the now cliched "is it the end of the road?" question and rehashes some of Laxman's magical moments as a batsman. Absolute run-of-the-mill stuff with a set pattern - discuss the batsman's recent form, highlight his legend, discuss his age, close with the question.

In the last 6 months, I have seen atleast 3 or 4 articles by different Cricinfo writers on Ganguly, claiming that this is the "end of the road", "long kiss goodnight", "twilight zone" etc for the former captain. The point? While such articles coming from Dileep are barely readable, the ones from writers of lesser calibre are outright silly. I even start doubting if they were just pulled together by a computer that had a database of cricket stats and a dictionary.

Perils of mass production is all I can say.

*****
On a related note, we recently got Sun TV subscribed through a Dish antenna at home (an outright bad idea, in hindsight). There can be no better example than Sun TV Serials for the utter trash that can result when creative fields are subject to mass production.

So much so, that I even feel guilty of using the word "creative" and Sun TV in the same breath. Such is the quality of all their programs (have to reiterate - I say, ALL their programs). Two samples below.

In one of the too many mega serials (the rock bottom of Sun TVs products), the following scene -

Daughter comes back from College scared. Parents ask why. Girl explains that a few rowdy elements are chasing her every day on the road and she is afraid to step out of house. The father yells at the daughter for wearing indecent clothes (like the Salwar Kameez, which she is wearing in that scene) and "advices" that such a situation would not have come if only she wore a Dhaavani!

And no, I don't want to get started on critiquing this piece. You can do it yourself.

The second sample item is Sun TV news. Every darn day, there is a piece on the now infamous Paravai Kaaichal (bird flu). It ceased to be a news of any significance quite a while back I think - but then Sun News isn't really "News" is it?

Every day, this news item examines how the bird flu destroyed Chicken sales and is now totally eradicated and how chicken sales have really picked up. Obviously, this is a message for the ill-informed public to go buy more chicken. This advertisement reached its zenith when one of the interviewees in the news item proudly pronounced that since Tamil food uses a lot of masala and spices, even if the bird flu virus (or whatever else) was there in the bird, it will not affect the person who is eating it!

I don't want to say anything more.

Vannam Kodu Vasanthi...

Saw Rang De Basanti... Actually before watching the movie, I read Anand's short review of the movie and thought, maybe this fellow thinks just by going to UK and doing a few courses in film technology, he has surpassed Indian film standards.

Anand had described Rang De Basanti as "regressive piece of Hindi trash". What heck! The movie is a hit - whichever way you look at it. Rave reviews all over. Now, what does this guy think of himself??

But after watching the movie (in a cinema hall, actually) I so totally agree with every word of that description. Now I realize that probably the poor guy put in a lot of thought to get those 5 words to describe the movie. It was regressive and it was indeed very much Hindi trash. I wish he had also added the adjective "dishonest" to the list. The movie was totally dishonest to itself.

But again...

- I somewhat liked the music (wanted to dance for the Bhangra)
- Most of the humour was spot on
- Soha Ali Khan Pataudi was absolutely incredibly fantastic (and v. v. v. pretty - after all, whose daughter)

That makes me a perfect Indian film fan. Give me the stupidest of movies, and I will come out of the theatre claiming that a particular song was picturized nicely. (And think that my $8 was worth it).

Lakshmi was very angry after watching the movie. It seems she read so much about the movie and actually came to the conclusion that it was a patriotic movie. (And she likes patriotic stuff, for some reason, probably patriotism). See, that's the problem with building expectations.

And what's with the title of this post? Just a suggestion that the movie has enough material for a Tamil remake. With Vijaykanth playing Siddharth (the one who will deliver the punch dialogues in the climax over AIR).

Can't wait to watch that one...

Wow!

Introducing, Indus Creations...

Indus Creations, our play troupe has arrived. We did our first play last Sunday and we are getting critical reviews already. Here!

By the way, we do have a website, but at the moment it is nothing beyond a registered domain. So I am not giving any link yet. I will, once we have some content.