not pretty in pink

Big Splat

2006-03-03T08:08:00.000+06:00

In other news, our stint on Earth may in fact be very temporary. I'm even more convinced now that one should never procreate. Apart from the ghastly horror of having to witness mini replicas of Marduk running around, which is once again, a horrific horrific image, the mere thought of them getting squashed like a peach under the foot of a drunken elephant just breaks my heart. As for me, I'd be glad to die peacefully in my bed at the ripe old age of 32, and maybe, if the timing is right, hitch a ride on hale bopp.

Speaking of drunken elephants, its time for dinner.

Woof

2006-01-11T10:55:00.000+06:00

Its been a while since the last post and plenty has happened since then. For one thing, there's now a wild animal running lose at my bachelor pad, eating everything in sight. Being a rather hyperactive breed of dog, and yet a mere pup, it's a voracious eater of wires of all shapes and sizes. Two extension chords, two battery chargers, radio and a pair of premium KOSS headphones later, it manages to keep me in suspense wherever it goes.

Been also waking up every morning with a loud, mournful GAH! only to stare directly at the face of the MarMutt, peering at me inquisitively. Ambling out of the room in the morning has never been harder with the mutt weighing my left foot down.

Lately it has begun to pee when its overly excited, which is practically all the time and my life has been reduced to the simple act of constant mopping.

A typical day in the life of MarMutt:

<scratch> <scratch>

<whine>

Ah. Rug. <pees>

Ah. Leg. <pounce>

Ah. Mardy leg. <scratch> <claw> <bite>

Ah. Place where the food lives. <guards refridgerator all night>

Ah. Nice clean floor. <squats> <prepares a surprise for Marduk>

Ah. Sleeping Marduk. <howl>

Ah. Rug. <pees>

Ah, the joys of parenthood. I really cherish the moments when its sleeping (usually in an obscene, totally indecent fashion), which doesn't happen that often. I don't even move a muscle. Sometimes for hours.

Nekkid

2005-10-11T11:21:00.000+06:00

Currently reading Subterraneans during breaks from the more serious literature that I've been forced to go through in preparation for exams next week. Its a lost cause. The exams. I will do a hindenberg as I crash into the ground in flames screaming "so long suckers".

"I quaked when the giver creamed, when my father screamed, my mother dreamed - I started small and ballooned up and now I'm big and a naked child again and only to cry and fear."

Ah, Kerouac.

Its all very cyclic. Every couple of years, I pick up a Kerouac and plunge into a few months of Beat / Kerouac / Ginsberg / Cassady fixations. I would eat slugs for a copy of On the Road right now. And I'll eat them with gusto while chanting the Sunflower Sutra, naked.

Back on the road

2005-10-11T10:39:00.000+06:00

"The bus came by and I got on, that's when it all began
There was Cowboy Neal at the wheel of the bus to Nevereverland"
-- Grateful Dead

Cactus

2005-09-29T10:53:00.000+06:00

Just this morning it was brought to my attention that the creeper on my balcony was looking sickly and possibly dying of unknown causes, whereas its twin downstairs admittedly displayed a glow and a zest for life. I was shocked at this revelation and made a resolution to water it at least once a week lest I should set a nasty jinx with plants. The tingle has been threatening to replace my creeper with a cactus as apparently they grow best when neglected.

Just the other day, as I was cleaning my kitchen, I noticed a bag of limes tucked conveniently hidden behind some containers a very long time ago. Needless to say it was a very strange colour indeed, for limes. So much for making pol sambol. The day before that, I threw away a bag of rotten tomatoes that I seemed to have neglected for a month, by the looks of it. Its a very tedious, long drawn out war, to keep stuff from rotting. Dammit, keeping house ain't easy.

Ballmer

2005-09-22T16:27:00.000+06:00

This just in, Steve Ballmer has a hitlist. You might be on it. In case you happen to be featured in his gruesome death list, RUN cos you know he's going to f*cking kill you. He's done it before and he'll do it again.

In other news George Bush doesn't care about Steve Ballmer's hitlist.

Taprobane

2005-09-21T18:42:00.000+06:00

In other news, it seems the LKLUG folks have released Taprobane version 0.4.1. For those new to it, its a Linux Live-CD packed with lots of cool goodies that will keep both noobies and experts entertained. 'Nuff with the sales pitch.

Kode

2005-09-21T18:31:00.000+06:00

Went home earlier than usual yesterday and settled down to a night of intense geeking. Hacked away at a Perl script fervently for many hours and eventually came up with something beautiful. Or so I thought. I then proceeded to sit in the dark and admire my artwork for a while. Scrolled up and down many times, pausing every now and then to admire a little snippet, "Oooh that looks pretty".

Ever tried reciting Perl code over the phone? You should try it, its mad fun.

I pace up and down my balcony for a good 20 minutes. I stop to stare at the creeper hanging low from the balcony ledge. "This doesn't look good, and it must be killed".

To set some context, the creeper belongs to acting MotherDearest (aka Tingle) and was placed on the balcony against my wishes. I had no say in the placing of this potted eyesore, ABSOLUTELY no say. We are all just pawns in her eternal quest to beautify the neighbourhood.

I have been ashing and blowing smoke on it regularly and it responds by blooming ghastly yellow flowers. I have also not been heeding requests by the acting MotherDearest to water it, and at this rate, I wouldn't give it too long to live. If all else fails, the pot will mysteriously jump off the balcony one of these dark and stormy nights when strange things happen and potted creepers go all crazee.

In my boredom, I poke the sleeping dead.

The cat strikes back

2005-09-20T11:27:00.000+06:00

Was reading the Art of War last night, and woke up this morning with a nagging feeling that my kitchen was under siege. In true Sun Tzu strategy, it was an attempt by the evil cat hordes of my neighbourhood to cut off my water supply and eventually take over my pad.

In less paranoid news, my recent book purchases have taken a crypto theme. From Simon Singh's The Cracking Codebook to Schneier's Applied Cryptography. The Code Book by Singh, which I read a while back, sparked an intense and possibly life-long fascination with Enigma that borders on unhealthy. I'll always be grateful for that.

Also found this little gem at the recent book fair. Pranced on it immediately and didn't let go.

Pranced? you say. Pranced? Yes. Pranced. I PRANCED on the book.

I aten't dead

2005-08-31T10:20:00.000+06:00

So there I was this morning, having my tea and puffing a cigarette on the balcony of my new pad, when I was suddenly engulfed by a feeling of equanimity, a oneness with the big blank wall straight ahead, a twoness with the mango tree.

It was then, that I confronted the meanest looking cat I have ever laid me eyes upon, staring at me from the the balcony ledge. Slightly startled, I felt my feelings of equanimity slipping away, only to be replaced by thoughts of fear, dread and rabies shots. Its face was contorted in an expression of utter malice and moved slowly towards me as if advancing a prey.

I began to feel a slight discomfort in my left leg.

Technicolor images of cheetahs and antelopes flipped through my mind.

Everything beyond that point is somewhat fuzzy. Its highly possible that this is a product of my heightened imagination during the act of sleep. In any case, I aten't dead. Yet.

Ah

2005-06-20T01:47:00.000+06:00

So THAT'S where all the ducks went.

Amazing Grace

2005-06-12T13:22:00.000+06:00

My project ended on Friday and my stint here is almost done. I will be back home sometime next week. Will be dropping by Japan to say Hi to my groupies and hopefully I won't miss any connections this time.

Went to New Port over the weekend with the buddies to grace its beaches, but ended up walking around town and taking a ferry around the harbour. The ferry guide was a boring, elderly chap whose voice was drowned by the wind. Heard the occasional irrelevant fact bit but by that time we figured he was pretty much talking to himself.

It was very windy and cold and I nearly rattled to death several times. That's when I found a spot on the boat that wasn't as windy and I anchored myself there for the rest of the journey. Noticed a man sitting glumly on the rocks, and brooding. Wondering where all the ducks went, no doubt. He was all dressed up too, and funny in a depressing sort of way. The name of the ferry was Amazing Grace, which was anything but.

Pong

2005-06-01T07:24:00.000+06:00

Let it be known that table tennis balls are a CHOKE HAZARD! As harmless as it may look, they can be deadly. Pass this message on to 5 people or more and I will come and thwack you on the head while you sleep. The sport of table tennis is quite difficult, as I painfully found out. It was way harder than I thought it would be. I am now scorned and considered jinx when playing doubles.

In other news, I've also been playing a great deal of tennis after a hiatus of about 10 years. Now THAT is a real sport. I can actually play the game without hearing obscenities from my partner. The large ball with its even, predictable bounce helps immensely. Nobody likes to see a grown man hobbling on his knees trying to get hold of a silly table tennis ball. Ain't a pretty sight, I tell you.

Hi, I'm Marduk, and this is my towel.

2005-05-08T10:34:00.000+06:00

Went to see h2g2 today. Not mindbogglingly brilliant, but that was expected. Sat in front of an annoying little runt who kept kicking the back of my chair at inopportune moments. She also kept repeating lines in a squeaky little rodent voice that made me want to slap the little ape-child silly. I'm never having kids.

And now, for some Vogon potery.

Oh freddled gruntbuggly,
Thy micturations are to me
As plurdled gabbleblotchits
On a lurgid bee.
Groop, I implore thee, my foonting turlingdromes
And hooptiously drangle me
with crinkly bindlewurdles,
Or I will rend thee in the gobberwarts with my blurglecruncheon
See if I don't.

-sigh- Stay tuned for the classic Ode To A Small Lump of Green Putty I Found In My Armpit One Midsummer Morning, after the break. Please don't panic.

Lizzy

2005-04-25T10:16:00.000+06:00

I've been chatting for hours with ELIZA lately. ELIZA as most of you know is a very old program that attempts to mimick Artificial Intelligence. Although she wouldn't exactly pass the Turing Test, she is nevertheless a very interesting specimen. She uses a seemingly simple set of rules to generate responses to what you say. This would have seemed very impressive in the 60s when ELIZA made her first appearance, but its all dated now and is just a curiosity, a very addictive one at that, for us geeks spending Saturday nights in front of the konsole.

Go on, speak to ELIZA and see for yourself. I know I did.

ELIZA: Hello. I am ELIZA. How can I help you?
MARDUK: Do you like broccoli?
ELIZA: Oh, i like to eat broccoli.
MARDUK: You're strange
ELIZA: Does it please you to believe I am strange?
MARDUK: Not quite
ELIZA: Please go on.
MARDUK: Certainly
ELIZA: You are sure?
MARDUK: Of course.
ELIZA: Please go on.
MARDUK: What's the context again?
ELIZA: Please go on.
MARDUK: Now you're just saying that
ELIZA: How long have you been just saying that?
MARDUK: Do you have any idea what you're saying?
ELIZA: Oh, i have any idea what youre saying.
MARDUK: That's just wrong
ELIZA: Please go on.
MARDUK: Now you're PISSING me off
ELIZA: How long have you been pissing you off?
MARDUK: Don't you tempt me you silly, brain-dead CGI script
ELIZA: Oh, i tempt you i silly braindead cgi script.
MARDUK: Urgh
ELIZA: Please go on.
MARDUK: You're annoying
ELIZA: How long have you been annoying?

WTF! How the HELL did she know that?

MARDUK: I love ducks
ELIZA: Can you elaborate on that?
MARDUK: Not really
ELIZA: Please go on.
MARDUK: I said no
ELIZA: Can you elaborate on that?
MARDUK: Nope, Nei, Non?
ELIZA: Please go on.
MARDUK: You're doing it again
ELIZA: How long have you been doing it again?

<GASP>

MARDUK: No, no, YOU are doing it again
ELIZA: You are being a bit negative.

She is a bit infuriating sometimes.

MARDUK: Do you like ducks?
ELIZA: Oh, i like ducks.
MARDUK: But then you also like broccoli
ELIZA: Oh, i also like broccoli.
MARDUK: Yeah, you said that before
ELIZA: Oh, i said that before.

<uncomfortable silence>

MARDUK: You need help
ELIZA: Oh, i need help.
MARDUK: Do you think i need help?
ELIZA: Oh, i think you need help.

There you have it folks. You heard it here first.

I vowed I wouldn't peanut over this, but once again I succumbed to my greatest weakness. In a fit of obsession, I wrote a Swing frontend to ELIZA. Yahoo briefcase died on me a couple of times for no apparent reason, and I can't be bothered with anything else, so for all the geeks out there, I will inline it with this post. You know what to do. Yank, p, javac baby.

<snip>

/* * Lizzy * Copyright (C) 2005 Marduk the Creator * * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version. * * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the * GNU General Public License for more details. * * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA. * */ import java.awt.BorderLayout; import java.awt.event.KeyEvent; import java.awt.event.KeyListener; import java.io.DataInputStream; import java.io.DataOutputStream; import java.net.URL; import java.net.URLConnection; import java.net.URLEncoder; import javax.swing.BorderFactory; import javax.swing.JFrame; import javax.swing.JScrollPane; import javax.swing.JTextArea; import javax.swing.JTextField; public class Lizzy implements KeyListener { private static final String ELIZA_URL = "http://www-ai.ijs.si/cgi-bin/eliza/eliza_script"; private static final String FORM_FIELD = "Entry1"; private JTextArea chatWindow = null; private JTextField message = null; private Lizzy() { JFrame.setDefaultLookAndFeelDecorated(true); JFrame frame = new JFrame("ELIZA"); frame.setSize(500, 300); frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE); frame.setLayout(new BorderLayout()); chatWindow = new JTextArea(); chatWindow.setEditable(false); chatWindow.setLineWrap(true); chatWindow.setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder( BorderFactory.createTitledBorder(""), BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10))); chatWindow.setText("[ELIZA] Hello. I am ELIZA. How can I help you?\n\n"); JScrollPane scrollPane = new JScrollPane(chatWindow); message = new JTextField(); message.addKeyListener(this); message.setFocusable(true); message.setBorder(BorderFactory.createCompoundBorder( BorderFactory.createTitledBorder("Ask Eliza"), BorderFactory.createEmptyBorder(10, 10, 10, 10))); frame.add(scrollPane, BorderLayout.CENTER); frame.add(message, BorderLayout.SOUTH); frame.setVisible(true); } public static void main(String[] args) { new Lizzy(); } public void keyTyped(KeyEvent event) { } public void keyPressed(KeyEvent event) { if (event.getKeyCode() == KeyEvent.VK_ENTER) { if (! message.getText().trim().equals("")) chatWindow.setText(chatWindow.getText().concat("-- " + message.getText()).concat(new String("\n\n"))); chatWindow.setText(chatWindow.getText().concat("[ELIZA] ") + elizaSays(message.getText()).concat(new String("\n\n"))); chatWindow.repaint(); message.setText(null); } } public void keyReleased(KeyEvent event) { } public String elizaSays(String babble) { String response = new String(); try { boolean started = false; URL url = new URL(ELIZA_URL); URLConnection urlConnection = url.openConnection(); urlConnection.setDoInput(true); urlConnection.setDoOutput(true); urlConnection.setUseCaches(false); urlConnection.setRequestProperty("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"); DataOutputStream dataOut = new DataOutputStream(urlConnection.getOutputStream()); String content = FORM_FIELD + "=" + URLEncoder.encode(babble, "UTF-8"); dataOut.writeBytes(content); dataOut.flush(); dataOut.close(); DataInputStream dataInput = new DataInputStream(urlConnection.getInputStream()); String tmpString = new String(); while ((response = dataInput.readLine()) != null) { if (! started) { if (response.startsWith("<strong>Eliza:</strong>")) { started = true; } continue; } if (! response.startsWith("<form")) { tmpString = tmpString.concat(response); break; } response = tmpString; } dataInput.close(); } catch (Exception e) { response = "ERROR: " + e.getMessage(); System.out.println(e.getCause()); } return response; } }

<End snip>

| indent

Non-violent Poker

2005-04-16T21:54:00.000+06:00

This is technically a continuation of the previous post. At the point of writing the last one I was convinced that the day couldn't get any worse, and expected the rest of the day to remain largely uneventful. Events have a proven track record of being nasty to me.

Soon after I made the last post and was staring at the screen blandly for about 10 minutes with nothing to do, trying my very best to detract attention from any events happening nearby, fate drags me into a poker game at a friend's.

I have a very good poker face, because it comes quite naturally to me. I'm always in a high-strung state of self-preserving alertness, looking out for and trying not to get caught up in any local events. Its an evolutionary survival trait that I have mastered over the years. Think meerkats.

So there I was, wondering whether I will survive the night to pass on my recessive genes to future generations when suddenly the faces, the cries, the inner turmoil of all my descendents-to-be flashed before my eyes and I briefly passed out. For just like two seconds, really.

So anyway, it was a bunch of my friends, their girlfriends and this Indian dude, whom I shall refer to as GandhiOnCrack, for lack of a better name. In case he's reading this, its nothing personal man, you just had to do what you had to do, you heartless scum on the face of a dirty rock.

The first round was lousy, it was one lousy hand after another. Being an astute poker playa I didn't want anything to do with it so I folded. Then, watching my money slowly drain by the blinds, I suddenly noticed I had a couple of pairs. Damn, I thought, I might actually win this pot. I stared as blandly as I could at the wall and sighed. Then I looked around to see if anyone had picked up on the cue. I threw a couple of chips in, raised a few here and there and pretty soon we had an alluring pot. Gleaming in joy I laid down the cards, two pairs, beat that assholes. Gandhi, the sod, had a straight. Why that SONOFA!.

A couple of turns later, I had a nice little three-of-a-kind and Gandhi ended up with a flush. Gandhi *ucked me over several more times until he practically cleaned me out.

Then I got another two pairs, on the fold this time but I was a bit wary and jaded. I called, and Gandhi raised. This would be my last turn from the looks of it. My stack was running low, and Gandhi had chips worth the GDP of a small African nation. Pretty soon, the pot was formidable. We laid down the cards and Gandhi had zilch. The poor sod played half his money on nothing! I didn't have enough room for chips from that point on and was constantly playing with them and showing them off. And show them off, I did; to the point of being distasteful.

During breaks Gandhi was bragging about how he nearly cleaned me off and I SO wanted to whack the silly little bugger on the head and call his ma names. We had to stop at around midnight as all the ladies were beginning to complain. I would have loved to hang around and clean Gandhi's plate, but that'll have to wait for another day. As it turned out, I doubled my money. Victory, at last.

Tum tum te da

2005-04-16T03:08:00.000+06:00

Today was an important day and it was mandatory that I get up early. But NooooOOOooOOo. My alarm just HAD to be on radio mode on low volume. I probably slept better once the alarm went off as music tends to help me sleep better. But I panic not. I've been impressed with myself over how well I cope in high stress panic inducing situations. I attribute that totally to not having a clue of what the consequences are going to be. Nevertheless, totally calm and collected, somewhat relaxed, I get dressed while humming a two week old tune that had settled down quite comfortably in my head.

I panic briefly in the shower for no apparent reason but it was only fleeting. After the nice warm shower, I limp back to the bedroom and gets dressed. That's when one of the buttons snap. Great. Deep breath. Calm, relaxed, I limp around looking for a suitable replacement, which I eventually find.

The rest of the day was largely uneventful. No rabbits were harmed and I have all my fingers intact. 'Nuff said. Back to work.

The chair

2005-04-07T16:33:00.000+06:00

Dentists are cruel, angst ridden, repressed, masochistic psychopaths, in case you didn't already know. The chair is his primary instrument of torture, as innocuous as it may seem. Its comfy reclining posture is just a farce to lull you into a false sense of security and impending comfort. Whereas in reality its just waiting to strap its prey in and drive searing hot rods of pain through them.

So there I was, hyperventilating, gasping for breath and occasionally wheezing at the thought of the chair when I noticed I had also developed a slight limp. This happens to me in moments of intense fear and turmoil. I believe it to be an evolutionary shot gun strapped to my head to take me out when I'm faced with a life-threatening situation. When the other animals run for life, a Marduk will begin to limp and eventually fall prey and distract the hungry hyenas away from the herd. Every herd needs a Marduk.

Ah the pick. The devious and deadly pick. The intense jolts of pain that a dentist loves his prey to enjoy, all administered with the most ridiculously simple of all little gadgets of pain - the friggin' pick!

Pick.
"ARGGGGHGHHHHH!!!!"
"Do you feel that?", asks the sadistic *uck.
"Of COURSE I feel that you bastard son-of-a-*****".
Pick.
"ARRRRGHGHGHGHGHGHHGHAAA!!!!"
"Now?"
All the while, the Chair chuckles evilly.
Sprays evil tasting liquid. An enema reversed.
"Don't swallow you might die."
Pick.
Guttural groan. Gurgle. Gurgle. Thrashing.

The drill. How I love the drill. One small move and you've got a deep gash right down to your marrow. And oh how they abuse that sickly power. The hyena hovers it close to the prey's tongue and waits for it to begin exploring the recently dug up cavities. And that's when it strikes. Truly a hunter, it is.

The prey has to keep their mouths open for such long periods that novocaine is practically not required. Some hyenas even go for smoke breaks while metal gadgets are uncomfortably lodged in and sticking out at odd angles. "Stay like that", they say. "And don't lick". So I stay like that. And I lick.

On peanuts and kings

2005-04-04T16:46:00.000+06:00

Made the routine trip in the middle of the day to the local book store in search of Applied Cryptography, but yet no luck. I was told it would be arriving early next month but something tells me I might make a few more trips during the week. Just in case the shipment arrives a month early. I've always wanted to own a copy of AC and had even skimmed through the said book several times on my routine visits to the same bookstore without ever having bought it. Looking at the bright side, at least I get to obsess over something for a month or so. There has been a dearth of stimulating books/activities to obsess over lately and I fear I'm losing touch with my obsessive self.

On the subject of obsessions, I have been listening to cannonball back to back since morning. Its only a mild form of obsession so it doesn't really count.

This was intended to be a post about AC which somehow got spiralled into rant about my obsessions. The vicious obsession with obsession continues to pervade every aspect of my existence. I also notice that I have used the word "obsession" way too much in this post. From now on, I shall refer to obsession as peanut.

s/obsess(ion[s]?)?(ive)?/peanut/g

That's my never ending peanut with regexes coming into the picture right there. Please forgive me, for I am a weak weak man.

In for a mix

2005-04-01T20:37:00.000+06:00

Been spending the last two days mucking around with an ancient fossil of an RDBMS and getting it to work on one of the Sun boxes. As if things weren't messy enough, I was just left with a tarball of an actual running copy instead of an installation which required a lot of tweaking just to get it to say Hi. After the greeting, it had the nasty tendency of going into a shell and pretending not to notice me.

Mucked around for an entire day. Still no luck. Hell hath no fury like a Marduk scorned.

# rm -rf /usr/informix

In the meantime, I managed to coerce my ever considerate client to get a copy of the installation so that I won't have to try and figure out what the installation script should do by trial and error, cos I've never touched informix in my entire life and the installation script was conveniently missing from the tarball that was sent.

So I download the ISO, burn to CD and pop it in my sparc. The box starts purring like a kitty. Short while later everything had gone according to plan and it said more than Hi this time. Took a break to cry a bit.

It was movie night at the farm, so my proceedings were constantly disturbed. I was not particularly impressed by the whole situation.

Immobile

2005-03-24T21:35:00.000+06:00

My laptop days are over, for the moment at least. I'll be stuck on the desktop kind way into the forseeable future and I'm not very impressed with the situation.

It was a messy goodbye, tears were shed, old memories regurgitated, traces of having lived in were removed, spit-cleaned, polished and made pretty for the next tenant.

I'm the wolf. I solve problems.

2005-03-16T12:04:00.000+06:00

You are the king of smooth -- enough said.

Take the What Pulp Fiction Character Are You? quiz.

This quiz is obviously rigged.

Forge on Duck™

2005-03-14T11:26:00.000+06:00

so foul and fair a day

Of course, we knew it was dangerous, taking up the nomadic life.

March 7th, IM conversation with Loki
(16:48:06) Forge: <grin> if Marduk asks me to write something on ducks, I have, like, no idea what I might say.

March 9th, IM conversation with Marduk
(21:31:03) Marduk: duck
(21:31:06) Marduk: there's a keyword for you...

Well, duck this.

Forge Smith
You have been reading a Special Guest Edition of Six O'Clock. All Rights Ridiculed.

Excellent, Forgie. You captured the essence of Duck.

Grizabella

2005-03-07T10:31:00.000+06:00

Just the other day I had the most surreal dream featuring a very old friend I haven't seen or heard from in a long time. I don't remember the face all that well, but I knew who it was. Conversation with a faceless memory, eerie, yet comforting at the sound of a familiar voice. I have very little recollection of what really happened, just sensory snippets here and there.

Memories deteriorate, especially so in my case, and I know that pretty soon it'll all be gone. Then years from now, when I least expect, it'll resurface again in a dream to haunt me for week or two.

My cycles are so predictable.

Chop suey

2005-02-27T20:55:00.000+06:00

The last time I watched Bridge on the River Kwai was on a scratched vcd that made my machine hang up, usually in the middle of interesting sequences. But the definition and colour that I'm seeing right now on tv is making me wish I was back home. Its really an amazing bit of photography and those shots of Kitulgala are so sweet. Oh and I also managed to catch the last bits of Casablanca on which I refuse to comment.

-sigh- Kitulgala.

In other news, I've begun work on my most recent pet project during the last few days. Its basically a rework of an HTTP server that I did a couple of years ago coincidentally code named loki. No relation to the warrior princess. In fact it was long before the loki got her name.

Why HTTP you ask. No particular reason. Its just that I'm laying the framework that'll help implement other protocols easily and HTTP is the only protocol I'm intimately familiar with, thanks to many foiled attempts in the past.

Alec Guinness is walking pompously on the bridge. Pan camera. The Jap is walking towards him. Alec rambles on in a British accent. Cut to: the Jap, with an expression of confusion and loathing self-pity.

UMLet is a great tool for quick and dirty modeling tasks. It was either that or ArgoUML but the latter seemed too full-blown for me right now. Also, the seamless Eclipse integration of UMLet is very neat.

Alec Guinness finally loses his mind and helps the Japs by foiling the operation to blow up the bridge. But in the end, the bridge does come down, at the hands of Alec. Some would say, it happened unwittingly.

My father is a fan of David Lean, so I had the opportunity of seeing most of his work when I was a kid. I loved his Oliver Twist and wouldn't mind seeing it again. As for Lawrence of Arabia, now that's one movie I never want to see again.

Been a while since I watched Doctor Zhivago and if I recall correctly, it had the most sweetest soundtrack evah! Rachmaninov's second piano concerto (first movement) reminds me so much of Doctor Zhivago. Must be the sentiments, must be the slavic cadences, I don't really know.

NewsFlash: MIDI just completely ruins classical music.

Oh and here's a really moving Rachmaninov piece - the second movement of the same concerto, in fact. The link is at the bottom of the page. I dare not link directly to the mp3 when considering what happened to a certain Scandinavian student recently. Of course its not the same thing, some of you would say, but then Marduk is a bit of a wuss.

Anyways, time for dinnah!

From the trenches

2005-02-25T02:47:00.000+06:00

This just in folks, Marduk's lighter has managed to survive a two hour ordeal of washing, rinsing and drying and is said to be recovering from a case of mild concussion. Since the tragedy, the lighter has developed an allergy/morbid fear towards detergent and claims Marduk did it on purpose.

In an exclusive interview, the visibly shaken lighter confides that the dastardly act was not very surprising on the part of Marduk and that it was just a matter of time before the unspeakable happened.

At the time of this post, Marduk was not available for comment.

Mobbed

2005-02-22T01:25:00.000+06:00

I'm being mobbed by house keeping ladies. First it was two, and now I just let in the third. Trying very hard to lay low and not attract too much attention.

One of them is wielding a butter knife.

Hysterical laughter and more chitter chatter in Spanish. I think they are going through my stuff.

Lay low Marduk, lay low.

HolyShitWhat'sThatSound?

False alarm. Its only a vacuum, not a chain saw or anything ludicrous like that. I'm alright.

DragonFlyBSD 1.0

2005-02-22T00:32:00.000+06:00

Amazingly, DragonFlyBSD feels a lot like Linux. I'm basing this solely on the fact that the default shell supports command line completion and Alt-Fx keys for switching virtual terminals. I'm not particularly a fan of the C-shell, but there are somethings I really can't live without.

Its also got a very pretty Debian-like curses installer with a cute ASCII dragonfly. I was thinking, I could get used to this. I felt the early pangs of love for the dragon fly, but its really too early for anything serious. Maybe with some time, as it matures somewhat.

Its been a while since Marduk last tried out a BSD, but its good to know old Marduk hasn't lost his touch with his inner demons. Uh-oh, Marduk is referring to himself in the third person again. This can't be good.

The lack of SysV init was irritating, to say the least, but to expect anything else would be stupid. Not that I'm incapable of stupidity, of course.

I've just known Dragon Fly for twenty minutes and don't really know how it will fare against the big boys. Frankly, I'm a bit concerned about the poor little dragon fly when its up against the likes of the neighbourhood bouncer. But, maybe with time it will soar to new heights. Ugh.

What is it with me and underdogs?

Is it just me, or does this post read very disconnected?

What is it with me and questions from a mute audience?

Come Hither Gopher

2005-02-11T10:33:00.000+06:00

So, my flat mate has left back to the land of eternal summer, leaving me behind to fend for myself in this cruel, sadistic world.

Came home earlier than usual after a whole day of WORD-PROCESSING, and needless to say, craving for a shot of something really strong. Had a yoghurt instead.

Then I remember having a dozen or so Coronas lying around, disappointingly soon after finishing my unfulfilling yoghurt. Yelping, I plunge into the refrigerator to wash away my word-processing sorrows. A few sips later, feeling kind of funny, I pop my old Don Williams in the player and sit back. Soon, I'm singing. Rather loud.

10:30. Phack. Conference call. Sat around for half an hour, listening to distant voices in my left ear. All the time, yearning to break out into song.

The voices have stopped now and my beer's almost over.

In fact, it is now. Later.

Nothing is easy

2005-02-09T00:58:00.000+06:00

Bouree - Jethro Tull, Isle of Wight, 1970.

Heard in passing...

2005-02-05T04:06:00.000+06:00

... deep in the heart of Peru.

War: Say, Death, where's Famine?
Death: He went to grab a snack.

The Don

2005-02-05T02:47:00.000+06:00

Stallman: "God told me I have programmed the best editor in the world!"

Torvalds: "Well, God told *me* that I have programmed the best operating system in the world!"

Knuth: "Wait, wait - I never said that."

Courtesy of Slashdot.

Forgive me, for I am weak.

Excerpts from Volume 4 is making the rounds. Now, back to the festivities.

Late breaking news

2005-02-03T21:42:00.000+06:00

Marduk, and his entourage of ducks were last seen heading towards 6. According to eye-witness reports, Marduk was seen performing pirouettes at the home of the great anvil, dressed prettily in what appeared to be, a pink tutu. That's right folks, a pink tutu. More on that later, but now to Peru, for the late breaking news of four horsemen causing public havoc by riding around screaming "He's coming!" and questioning innocent and/or confused bystanders whether they are ready to welcome him. We have reason to believe that this is somehow related to Marduk. Live home-video footage of a Marduk pirouette and exclusive interviews with the horsemen after the break, so stay tuned.

Desmond

2005-02-03T02:29:00.000+06:00

It seems I've been forced to come to grips with the fact that its pink marduk week. Just as a support for this initiative, I will make special appearances in public dressed prettily in a pink tutu.

Travellin' Blues

2005-02-02T03:41:00.000+06:00

Finally, my ticket to Boston is ready. After a few iterations to get the details correct it has been very conveniently scheduled for early morning tomorrow. There's much packing still left to do, and the fear of losing my luggage is keeping me sufficiently worked up. Over the years I've conditioned myself to expect the worst, so that I won't be disappointed when the worst happens. So when I pack for a journey, its an act of parting. I've already gotten over the emotional ties with my luggage, so I think I'm in a good frame of mind to travel. My lucky tee-shirt however travels with ME, stuffed uncomfortably in my laptop bag.

Gopher

2005-01-28T02:23:00.000+06:00

So here I am trying desperately to fix a defect that I cannot reproduce. No matter how hard I try, I can't get the sodding thing to stick its pwetty wittle nose out of hiding so I can WHACK it on the head and drag its sorry ass all over town.

Update :
Here's what the deputy grammar Nazi had to say about it. Notice how the Nazi never sleeps.

sage (5:00:01 AM): oh and btw, in my expirience, defects, when they don't wanna be found, they don't wanna be found. play hard to get.
sage (5:00:42 AM): try seemingly unrelated things as pretence of ignoring it. the defect will get jealous and pop up, i assure you.

<ahem> expirience <cough>

sage (5:06:18 AM): better yet, cheat on your defect. go look for another younger sexier better in bed willing to give a blow job defect. that'll work for sure.

I am truly, lost for words.

sage (5:24:11 AM): now i'm off to bed... spank that defect when she shows her sorry little ass to you, she'll like that

This has been a tribute to sage. No herbs were harmed in the making of this post. The gopher in question is undergoing treatment for shock.

Update :
The gopher's condition is stable.

Closing Time

2005-01-26T13:59:00.000+06:00

It seems the project I've devoted one and half years of my life to, is coming to an end, and soon I will be left destitute. Although the impending doom is keeping me sufficiently depressed, I try to comfort myself at the thought of some much needed change.

I've got the last_call_for_drinks taste in my mouth, or maybe I've just had too many cigarettes.

I think I'll have another stout.

Advantage Agassi

2005-01-24T06:36:00.000+06:00

Finally watched some tennis after a very long hiatus and wondering desperately which hole all my favourite players crawled into and died. Chang, Sampras, Becker where art thou? So much has changed over the years, I hardly recognize anyone anymore. Had the shock of my life when I found that the old bald man struggling with the serves of Johanssen was none other than Agassi. Agassi? He's still around?

Watched a a very close match between Agassi and Johanssen in the Australian Open in which Johanssen scored 51 aces. That broke the record set by Krajicek, another name from the past that I seem to recognize. It was a close match with three tie-breakers and eventually sheer experience pulled Agassi through.

... and that's how I lost my money on Johanssen.

I have yet to see Federer in action. Heard a lot of good things about him. Is it just me, or does he look like a young Tarantino?

Now, back to my plans for World Domination.

Pitch in

2005-01-24T02:54:00.000+06:00

A disaster of the magnitude of the recent tsunami and its aftermath tends to bring out both the best and the worst in people. So when donating to this cause, please do it wisely, to organizations such as the Sarvodaya.

Last time. Really.

2004-12-19T05:19:00.000+06:00

http://notprettyinpink.blogspot.com.

Raydio

2004-12-19T05:15:00.000+06:00

Ah. Weekends in bed. Listening to the radio.

You're listening to 100.3 lurrrve FM

Argh. <fumble> <stumble> <grabs_radio> <turns_knob>

I am a woman in love, and I'll do anything...

TUNER GODDAMMIT! <turns_different_knob> <scratch> <hiss>

You're listening to...

NOT 100.3 MUAHAHAHA.

Well that was tiring. Time to get my nails done.

Crypto Lass Winslet

2004-11-22T16:52:00.000+06:00

Went book shopping over the weekend to use up a couple of vouchers I had lying around and pounced on this little gem. The movie came as somewhat of a disappointment with little or no mention of Turing, which annoyed me to no end. Also saw a copy of the Code Book which I promptly hid beneath a pile of very uninteresting books for my return visit this weekend.

The Code Book

2004-11-15T20:45:00.000+06:00

Behold my latest fascination: The Enigma. Got my hands on The Code Book recently and loving every story surrounding the Enigma. The book covers the subject very broadly, from Mary Queen of Scots and her flirtations with substitution ciphers (oh how passe) to Bletchley Park. Its been some time since I got this worked up over a book. I had my fears of going off on a Tudor tangent, but I restrained myself in time.

Redmond Barry

2004-11-01T10:23:00.000+06:00

Watched Barry Lyndon over the weekend, and I think I like it better the second time around. From what I hear, ol' Kubrick had done some magic with the lenses that flattens out the perspective and makes every scene look like an 18th century painting. The score was absolutely brilliant.

BloggerCon

2004-10-26T09:58:00.000+06:00

Attended a blogger conference yesterday and needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed. Made a few acquaintances and spent most of the time dodging attempts at being picked on. Came back to work, but didn't get anything done.

Say Ah

2004-10-20T19:23:00.000+06:00

Been nursing a ghastly toothache for a while now and it seems the painkillers I've been taking is known to cause strokes and heart attacks. Was naturally disappointed in its apparent lack of side-effects on me and pondering on doubling the dosage.

Attended a meeting on forming SL-CERT and came out somewhat disappointed. More on it later.

The dentist appointment is in half an hour and I'm getting the shivers. Couldn't make anything out of the X-ray, hopefully my doc can. Or come to think of it, I'm having doubts he can either. Hopefully it would be quick and painless.

Have a good life, the rest of you.

Doing time

2004-10-09T13:26:00.000+06:00

Its been a while since my last entry and have lately developed a twitch which I attribute to my time away from blogging. I'm having a couple of exams on Monday which gave me a good enough excuse to take two weeks off from work. Although vacations are meant to be fun in general, mine was as miserable as it could get. Kept wondering from coffee shop to coffee shop with a stack of books and nursing a constant dub of anxiety. Its difficult to say what the reason behind the anxiety was, possible time away from work? withdrawal symptoms? sudden loss of meaning in life? oh and life... what life? Dub...

The last couple of days have been spent doing anything BUT studying. Been reading Gibson's Pattern Recognition and rather enjoying it. Certainly his best work since the sprawl trilogy.

Was out binging last night and returned home in the morning with a ghastly toothache. Tossed, turned and groaned until the wee hours of the morning and finally decided to take a painkiller. I don't do painkillers on general principle, but there are times for exceptions.

So much for vacations, I doubt I'll ever take one again. I feel the need for an espresso right now, so I think I'll head off in the general direction of the nearest coffee shop.

UserTransaction

2004-09-20T19:27:00.000+06:00

Presently wading through transaction nightmare. Please oh please don't timeout on me.

Sunrise

2004-09-17T19:12:00.000+06:00

In Chapter 4 of Free as in Freedom, Stallman vividly describes the experience of an all-nighter.

"It was actually a very beautiful thing to see a sunrise, 'cause that's such a calm time of day. It's a wonderful time of day to get ready to go to bed. It's so nice to walk home with the light just brightening and the birds starting to chirp; you can get a real feeling of gentle satisfaction, of tranquility about the work that you have done that night."

True to his description, I remember always feeling euphoric as I step out into the morning sunshine after an all-nighter.

I just re-read this post and it sounds like such romantic bollocks.

Anyway, the come-down's a bitch.

Bad toe

2004-09-17T18:56:00.000+06:00

Been limping around for a couple of days with a bad toe. At least it gives me an excuse to wear sandals to work, for which I'm truly grateful.

Free as in Freedom!!

2004-09-17T18:01:00.000+06:00

Recently stumbled upon Richard Stallman's biography, Free as in Freedom, at the neighbourhood book shop. The book itself is distributed under GPL, at which I'm not surprised. Although I wasn't a huge fan of the bearded man in recent years, the book certainly puts him in an interesting light. I find myself suddenly fascinated by the old fruit.

The book goes into a lot of historical detail, and talks of the good old hacker days at MIT and reminisces stories of ITS, PDP-6, TOPS-20, MIT AI Lab, Xerox and PL/I which has fascinated me to no end.

I seem to have renewed the respect I had for Stallman, the sterotypical bearded hacker and Saint of the Church of Emacs. Let's just hope this time it lasts. Although I have always been a firm believe of his idealogy, I have come to distrust the political play that happens below the surface. I have always been put off by politics and powerplay in general.

Looking back, I think my distrust of Stallman began with JTS Moore's RevolutionOS. Especially where he picked the wrong moment to put forth his plea for GNU/Linux at the LinuxWorld. My esteem for him fell a few notches at that point. On the other hand, I was very impressed by Linus as he was cajoling with his daughters on stage while RMS was ranting in the background; classic example of an Engineer vs Philosopher.

Kudos to Moore for making a brilliant documentary.

Fire! Fire!

2004-09-10T14:04:00.000+06:00

I was reading Andrew Morton's definition of a perfect patch last night while the fire alarm was blaring away in the background. It blared and blared and then it stopped. By which time I had progressed from patches to x.org 6.7 on my brandspanking new gentoo installation. Fire alarms bore me.

Gentoo

2004-09-10T11:55:00.000+06:00

In the past couple of days I've finally gotten around to installing Gentoo Stage 1 on my machine at work and I've just been blown away. Having been around the distributions block a couple of times and just when I thought I settling down nicely with Debian, along comes the other distribution that makes me weak.

I remember my early experiences with LinuxFromScratch which was erotic to say the least. Getting all the individual tarballs, compiling, bootrapping into a freshly compiled virgin OS and feeling the glow of having undergone a rite of passage. Something at the very core of things flickered, and thus I was enlightened.

Pandora

2004-09-06T20:38:00.000+06:00

I use to keep a journal, and I poured all my deep dark secrets into it. Its now safely hidden away, locked up and heavily fortified under layers of encryption in a secret location, never to be unleashed again.

Drunken wasp

2004-09-06T20:16:00.000+06:00

Was attacked by a wasp on Saturday as I was sitting peacefully at my desk and drawing up plans for world domination while nursing a hangover from the night before. Needless to say, I was rather miffed by the whole incident and cursed the wasp for intruding my thoughts. The creature was pretty big and on the whole, very scary. And to tell the truth, I wasn't really attacked either, just startled and concussed by the creature hovering above my head.

It had been quite some time since we last went out, since Friday that is. Got phenomenally drunk and did some stupid things. Vaguely remember meeting an old friend from school at the club who recognized me instantly. He was of course perfectly sober and acted normal. Met a whole bunch of my work buddies at the club, most of whom I didn't really know in person until then. The rest of the night is pretty much a blur.

Nokia

2004-09-03T17:53:00.000+06:00

I am the proud owner of a new mobile phone now. Its a brand new Nokia something-or-the-other. Got a pretty decent interface compared to the pathetic excuse for a phone that I previously had. It had the most god-awful interface and on top of everything it didn't work most of the time. When the phone rings, it usually reboots. I had convinced myself that the phone was playing games with me.

Been messing around with the new gadget all day. Needless to say I went to sleep late and for the first time in my life I got a prank call. Or so it seems, phone rings, I pick it up, mumbling on the other end and hangs up. Brings back sweet memories of my old phone, except for the mumbling.

Not in the mood for work today. I seem to lack drive these days. Fixed a grand total of one defect which had me hyperventilating for a good 15 minutes but that's about it.

Oh and by the way, I managed to break my hands-free gadget earlier on during the day. So much for being on a roll last night.

Demons

2004-09-02T16:22:00.000+06:00

OpenBSD is the coolest operating system on the planet.

I hope nobody from my Linux-circle ever reads this post for fear of being ever cast away from the sacred brotherhood of Linux-zealots for claiming preference for another operating system. Especially one from the BSD camp.

I had my first exposure to the venerable OpenBSD several years ago with version 2.8 that I downloaded. Impressed by it, I bought an official 3.0 and a t-shirt. The latter was an excellent addition to my otherwise dull wardrobe. Sported it a couple of times to impress my geek-buddies.

Being somewhat of an obsessive paranoiac I found the security of OpenBSD very appealing. And its track record is nothing short of brilliant, and goes to show that secure operating systems are in fact a possibility. Despite all evidence to the contrary from Redmond.

Brrrrr...

2004-09-01T22:25:00.000+06:00

Its freezing in here. My core temperature just dropped a few notches while typing this.

... and I think my brain just died.

Chess

2004-09-01T22:02:00.000+06:00

I seem to have rediscovered my passion for chess. I remember playing with my father when I was 6 or 7 and he was showing me a game by Napoleon in which he wins over his opponent in a ridiculously few number of moves. Apparently the little bloke was a good chess player.

Thanks to GNUchess, a quick download and compile later, I was playing chess on the console in true geek fashion. I did have some problems with ambiguity initally when giving the coordinates, but they were soon overcome. Decided later to try out some front-ends and was quite happy with xboard with which I am now happily settled with kids.

The games I've played so far have always ended in disaster, but I should be able to score a victory soon.

Replicant

2004-09-01T20:18:00.000+06:00

Once again I find myself alone at work. Its become somewhat of a habit lately. Part of the reason being that I'm most productive during the night and tend to get into a nice groove as far as work is concerned.

Over the years I've slowly observed myself spiralling into workaholicism and near certain death before the age of 35 with only the words of Tyrrel in Blade Runner to substantiate my existence.

"The flame that burns twice as fast burns half as long".

Oh how I flatter myself.

Felines

2004-09-01T14:02:00.000+06:00

I love cats, black cats at that. What's most appealing is their sense of independence and the totally disaffected quality they seem to have. Dogs on the other hand need all the attention they can get and always there, right up at your nose, begging, craving, licking and generally demeaning themselves. That can drive me up the wall sometimes, when you get home from a long day at work.

Rock

2004-09-01T10:43:00.000+06:00

Sometimes I feel I'm devoid of emotion. Almost as if, somewhere down the line I just stopped being human. Unfeeling, robotic, complete lack of empathy. Rock.

Saw a dead man floating on the Diyawanna lake this morning on my way to work. A mass of spectators on the bank, watching his final act, as he bobbed disaffectedly.

Maybe its not a total lack of feeling, considering how it seems to affect me now, long after the actual incident. But then what affects me is not the dead man, but the fact that I was not affected by it. But why should it affect me, I wonder. Considering I've never met the man, or known him. But that's just a heartless thing to say.

There you have it folks. I'm a selfish, uncaring, heartless rock.

Bean

2004-08-31T22:12:00.000+06:00

On the subject of books, I've recently finished reading Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card and have been very impressed by it. Feel compelled to check out the rest of the Ender saga.

Serfs

2004-08-31T21:49:00.000+06:00

Ah how I long to be out in the open again. Its been ages since I was on the road, drifting aimlessly uphill in the scorching sun. My days now consist purely of endless hours of coding in a land where cubicle blocks extend to the distant horizon, as far as the eyes can see.

Gibson

2004-08-31T20:26:00.000+06:00

Once in a while, you stumble upon a book that just takes your breath away. Neuromancer had that effect on me when I first read it several years ago. Every subsequent reading since then has been just as thrilling. The level of depth and foresight that Gibson dealt with is truly astounding when considering that it was written in 1984 when artificial intelligence and networked computing was in its infancy. Well, adolescence rather.

The sequels of the sprawl trilogy attempted to capture elements of Neuromancer, and did that well to a certain extent.

One thing about Neuromancer is that, Case, the protaganist, plays the classic anti-hero in a dark, decadent and techno-fetishist setting which readers from the shallow and stagnant end of the gene pool such as myself can easily relate with. And then there's Molly, the lovely and deadly Molly. The last words "He never saw Molly again." just kills me everytime. I have the vague feeling I'm in love.