Magical World

Landing In Minneapolis

2009-03-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

This is a small poem (and almost a childish one) I wrote sometime back. It describes the night view of the city of Minneapolis as I saw from an airplane. Each stanza has two lines and in each stanza the first line describes a scene of flight and the second is about the city of Minneapolis. The words in small braces are mentioned for the sake of grammatical completeness.

Landing in Minneapolis

As the plane passed on the black slate,
There she was, the city, the city of lakes.

Many a cars, through the window I could see
Like the fireflies, dancing blinking and free.

And gently then she turned her face
(I saw)The Mississippi, her connections and all her necklace

Finally she started to pace down
(I saw) A TV tower and a blazing down-town

A hug, a kiss and she embraced me in her arms
There was I, at a place so tranquil and calm.

My Satyam Connection

2009-01-09T03:43:00.000-08:00

Seriously, no one really thought in their ugliest of the nightmares that Satyam Computers would turn out to be a black sheep of the Indian IT industry. And no one knows what lies at the end of this abyss?

As such on the facade of things I really have nothing to do with Satyam and their is practically no reason for me to write this blog, but somehow I remembered of an incident, which though fairly insignificant, could have changed a lot of things in my life by now!

It was the summer of 2004, when Nishant and I after completing our U-grad managed to get a face saving intership at a government organisation. We thank them for this oppurtunity, but seriously we wanted to be out of that mess. We were still in close touch with our deparment and had a constant vigil on an almost parched on-campus recruitment process. That's when Satyam computers, by some heavenly grace, turned up to our college and we thought, well that's it! This is our golden ticket to the outside world.

Almost instantly when we came to know about this news, we contacted our HoD, a real gentlemen by nature and a man with a very level head, for his permission to sit in for the interview process. To our dismay, he quite blatantly asked us not to sit for this, as we were already placed! We tried our best to convince him, but all was seriously in vain. We both eventually ended sitting in the canteen and cursing our fate over a cup of chai. Phew! That was a tough day and I still remember that.

The rest, of course, as always said is history that most of you are aware of. But, I am remembered of a the following line, which I saw somewhere:
"Life can only be understood looking back, but it can only be lived looking forward".

Aur karvan phir bhi chalta raha....

2008-12-01T17:19:00.000-08:00

This is what happened in Mumbai:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/11/mumbai_under_attack.html

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/12/mumbai_after_the_smoke_has_cle.html

What is freedom?

2008-10-15T18:20:00.000-07:00

Has LHC Destroyed Earth?

2008-09-09T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well now that everyone is talking about the end of world, end of our civilization, end to human existence that too by a machine that has some fictional capability of creating black holes that will engulf the entire planet!

I really pity the fate of poor LHC...perhaps "The" most advanced system on the planet...is actually doubted to be a "genocide" machine!

Call it a machine that will unravel gods mind, but at the end of the day the machine is out there to find what physicist call "Higgs Boson"

And yes for all those people who feel that this machine will destroy the planet earth....well here is a web link that tells you the status of earth

And for those souls who actually want to see the original LHC, Click Here

The unholy morning

2008-08-09T11:53:00.000-07:00

Beep…Beep…Beeeeeeeeep….[my alarm ]

He says [to alarm]: “Shut up its Saturday…”

He says [to me]: “You shouldn’t be getting up early today…dude there is absolutely no motivation for you to get up…the earliest you will get some good food in the day is in the evening…go back to sleep!”

Me: Well so I take his advice and go back to sleep.

He [after 30 min of loneliness]: “Get up you idiot, get up you are supposed to be with her… in her room next door….don’t you remember deciding this yesterday evening…you have already stalled the meeting….you were supposed to be with her in her room last night….but you got lazy…I can’t believe how can someone be lazy for such a thing…”

Me [to him]: “Shut up…f***off…let me sleep”

He [quite angry this time]: “Dude this is your last chance of doing this thing before the fall semester begins…and you know there are NO weekends in grad school…Listen up buddy tomorrow you are busy all day…and then what you have is one long work drowning week…and you have already blocked your next weekend’s…get up bro…you can do this!”.

Me: “Yeah[half asleep]….[lazily getting up]”

He: “Dude you may want to take of your clothes right now…so that you can expedite the process.”

Me:”Okay…[almost brain dead]”.

He: “Hey stop…stop…not the shorts you idiot…the room is next door…you don’t want to be seen by someone like that…”

Me[quite pissed off]: “What the heck!...okay…”

He:”And don’t forget [interrupted]”

Me:”the bag…I know…I know it’s the key thing...how can you even think of me going there without this bag?”

He[apologetic]: “I am sorry…I just thought of assisting you!”

Me [still pissed off and almost awake]: “Thank you…thanks a lot…”

Me: “Can’t believe I have to even pay her!”

He: “You always paid her…come on dude she is not that expensive….venki pays a lot more than you do…cheer up buddy…she is all yours this morning”

Okay…So here I stand at 8 on this Saturday morning…with bag full of dirty clothes in one hand and few quarters in the other in front of the laundry room next door.

Chocolate Donut

2008-06-19T06:50:00.000-07:00

When you start capturing math in your food (well yeah the food that you are eating), probably it's signal that you should take a break for a while!

I am eating a chocolate donut right now and really can't stop myself from visualizing all kind of non-planar graphs that could be easily be represented in almost planar fashion on the surface of the donut. Well as such the concept not at all new, but mathematicians used much more elegant objects or rather names, which in this case is Torus. I guess doing math on poor piece of donut is sinful. And to extend my perverted sinful nature, I am wondering right now are there any special properties that vertically bisected donut will have as compared to a complete donut?

Huh! I should rather complete my donut and get back to work.

Watching A Cloud Die.

2008-06-17T18:00:00.000-07:00

As I lie on my bed on a listless Sunday mornings in Minneapolis and thinking about absolutely nothing, I see a small piece of cloud on the face of the clear blue sky, a part of which I can see through my glass window. The cloud seems to be moving west perhaps all alone, but quite slowly as if it is in no hurry to reach its destination.

As it moves slowly across my view through the window, I start to notice its edges that keep on fading with time and the more I notice, the more I see the dynamic nature of the cloud. Now, no longer to me cloud appears to be a tranquil adult, but appears to be a playful child, who is fascinated with all the space that is out there. The cloud still keeps on moving!

I wonder, how qualified my thought process is! Or may be it's a common human tendency to personify things. I guess it's more of human nature, then my idiosyncrasy, we see life in everything. Probably, this is stemmed in the fact or rather our belief that anything that is born should die. We, the bed, the chair, the car, civilization, nations, planets, galaxies and universe, everyone took birth one day, both in realistic and figurative sense, and all will die! All of them should come to an end.

And so will this cloud, that I see outside my glass window. Probably, it has already started to disappear in the nothingness of the blue sky, returning to the place from where it originated. I can see edges dithering out and disappearing into the blue background, making the size of the cloud smaller and smaller every second. And as the cloud moves slowly and pass through my view it has shrunk to a smaller size and probably in next some minutes will disappear and will not exist.

Dude! Give me a break

2008-06-12T19:40:00.001-07:00

I have been thinking a lot about "Art" and it's role in the human civilization and somehow I just get a feel that it's a very foolish attempt to find meanings in things that are inherently contradictory or meaning less. I really at times get so much frustrated, that I feel like saying "Dude! Give me a break".
But then as I type this passage and to this extent I realize that I have fairly, tersely and satisfactorily criticized "Art", I really can't stop myself from appreciating the very fact that it's a very good piece of work or to my sudden depressing surprise that this itself is a piece of "Art". And as you can see the criticism actually extends to ad infinitum.

Random Thoughts

2008-06-07T19:43:00.000-07:00

What a blind saw
and the deaf heard
Is a just a matter of surmise

Conjectures lead to discoveries
Undiscovered is what left

A sudden flap of the wings
And the time changes
the song it sings

the buried stay
where they are
the imaginative
make the way to far

strangled in the thoughts
of the known
fighting the quick sand
and possibly die unknown

Postiviely Bad, but negatively good

2008-05-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

Something that reminded me of what happened more than two decades back in Bhagalpur:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Villagers_pour_acid_into_mans_eyes/articleshow/3019795.cms

Life Goes On...

2008-03-11T20:45:00.000-07:00

"So long, Jimmy, so long, Jimmy.
Though you only stayed a moment,
We all know that you're the one. Singing."

Cross Winds! - The Hamburg Fiasco

2008-03-06T12:31:00.000-08:00

I get fascinated when I see pilots touching down their planes in strong cross winds. It's the most elegant example for the application of vector algebra...but the cross wind landing at Hamburg airport was hard pill to swallow....the pilot almost screwed it up...Take a look all by yourself:

I would also recommend you to have a look at the following blog, its an interesting read:

http://www.airlineempires.net/blog/2008/03/03/hamburg-wing-strike-pilot-a-hero-or-lacking-technique/

For those who are wondering what happened eventually:
It was the co-pilot [the less experienced dude of course], who had messed this up... later on the captain took the command of the landing process and it was an happy ending!

Daffodils By William Wordsworth

2008-02-14T12:58:00.000-08:00

This is one of my all time favorite poems! Really like the loneliness described in the poem.

Daffodils

I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the milky way,

They stretched in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed--and gazed--but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

-- William Wordsworth

Love At First Byte

2007-08-21T16:38:00.000-07:00

A Story Of This Old Man

Exploring The Unknown!

2007-07-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

"How The Guitar Goes,
In A Song That No One Knows"

The River

2007-06-01T09:22:00.000-07:00

(River Ganges At Twilight)

The River

And then he asked the last question
Where are you going?
I don’t know...May be nowhere
Or may be in the river finally
And be its soul.

And then there was the silence
Everywhere,
With darkness engulfing life
But then there was the light
Seeping through

And here I was
To start it all again
May be to embrace the darkness again
May be to flow in the river
Again.

The Invisible Mind

2007-05-10T05:28:00.000-07:00

My Hands...
Clean Slate...
And Erase Myself.
Long to start it all again
And faked myself.
All words of one song,
Which played in my invisible mind.

Heard all day long.
With tears in the eyes
And with dejected beat
Repented all night.
Will cry all life.
As I believe that song
That is still there in my invisible mind.

With pounding drums;
Strumming guitars;
I cry out loud.
To betray the pain.
What I've done,
The song goes.
And it still plays in my invisible mind.

Quantum Theory Fails Reality Checks

2007-04-19T08:29:00.000-07:00

A very interesting article on Quantum Theory...Following are some of the paragraphs from the article:-

"The big question always was … whether one can go beyond this probabilistic description," says physicist Markus Aspelmeyer of the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Vienna. Perhaps Einstein was right that "God does not play dice," and a photon has a true state that is somehow hidden from experiments

In other words, Aspelmeyer says, nonlocality is not enough to save realism from quantum theory. "You have to pay a price," he says. In effect, quantum naysayers like Einstein would have to swallow the spider to catch the fly. "I'm still amazed [at the experiment's outcome], I have to say."

Read the entire article on the Scientific American >>

Google >> Search >> Advertising

2007-04-16T10:16:00.000-07:00

I know it's quite over-hackneyed, but today Google has engulfed the concept of search...I have heard people say "Have you googled that on Yahoo?" Amusing but true! So it looks like if it is search, then it has to be Google!

But many of you, who are net junkies, would agree that Google is also making itself synonymous to more thing... Any guesses??? Well yes Advertising! Of course, Google is a media company and has its business model around that...but the extent to which they are going is just shocking... Was internet advertising not enough, that they have plunged into Radio Advertising!

The only thing I wonder is, has Google reached a stagnation in case of Search Technology? Well, apart from some "Powder-Lipstick" changes nothing much has changed on main Google Search...May be I am doing the over-kill... But its only Google who knows the truth!

Life Is A Highway

2007-04-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Life is a highway is the OST of the animation movie CARS. Really cool song...with really great lyrics...well here is the modified poetry of the song:-

Life's like a road that you travel on
When there's one day here and the next day gone
Sometimes you bend and sometimes you stand
Sometimes you turn your back to the wind
There's a world outside ev'ry darkened door
Where blues won't haunt you anymore
Where brave are free and lovers soar
Come ride with me to the distant shore
We won't hesitate
To Break down the garden gate
There's not much time left today

Through all these cities and all these towns
It's in my blood and it's all around
I love you now like I loved you then
This is the road and these are the hands
From Mozambique to those Memphis nights
The khyber Pass to Vancouver's lights

Knock me down get back up again
You're in my blood
I'm not a lonely man
There's no load I can't hold
Road so rough this I know
I'll be there when the light comes in
Just tell 'em we're survivors

There was a distance between you and I
A misunderstanding once
But now we look it in the eye

Life is a highway
I wanna ride it all night long
If you're going my way
I wanna drive it all night long

Check out the video at YouTube

Two Seconds For Peace

2007-04-10T03:26:00.000-07:00

Life's strangled in labyrinths of self
And every pebble has a story to tell

In veins flows the pain
"Blood" a writing on the wall

A desire to live, is a hope
Lost in the conflagrations of inferno

What we just need are
Two Seconds For Peace

The Twenty20 Cricket World Cup

2007-04-08T03:27:00.000-07:00

Here it is guys...the abridged version of the game...The twenty20 Cricket World Cup.
The grouping and schedule goes as follows: -

Group A: South Africa, West Indies, Bangladesh.
Group B: Australia, England, Zimbabwe.
Group C: New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Kenya.
Group D: Pakistan, India, Scotland. (The Group Of Death)

Fixtures:

September 11: South Africa vs West Indies (Johannesburg)
September 12: New Zealand vs Kenya (Durban); Pakistan vs Scotland (Durban); Australia vs Zimbabwe (Cape Town)
September 13: West Indies vs Bangladesh (Johannesburg); Zimbabwe vs England (Cape Town); India vs Scotland (Durban)
September 14: Sri Lanka vs Kenya (Johannesburg); Australia vs England (Cape Town); India vs Pakistan (Durban)
September 15: Sri Lanka vs New Zealand (Johannesburg); South Africa vs Bangladesh (Cape Town)

September 16: C1 vs D2 (Johannesburg); B1 vs A2 (Cape Town); A1 vs B2 (Cape Town)
September 17: D1 vs C2 (Johannesburg)
September 18: C1 vs B2 (Durban); B1 vs D1 (Johannesburg); A2 vs C2 (Johannesburg)
September 19: A1 vs C1 (Durban); B2 vs D2 (Durban)
September 20: B1 vs C2 (Cape Town); A2 vs D1 (Cape Town); A1 vs D2 (Durban)

September 22: Semi-final E2 vs F1 (Cape Town); Semi-final E1 vs F2 (Durban).

September 24: Final (Johannesburg).

You can have a go at the entire article at Cricket.Indiatimes.com

Stupid Is As Stupid Does!

2007-04-02T23:37:00.000-07:00

Forrest Gump ...now I remember...thats the movie where I first heard this phrase...well if this happens to be a most common phrase of your vocab...then please pardon my English... It's not my mother tongue!
More interestingly this phrase got stuck into my head and over years I kept on wondering about its meaning, until I googled for it today! Some Mr. Tony Lee explains its meaning as:

"It means that and intelligent person who does stupid things is still stupid. You are what you do.
Another variation is beauty is as beauty does or ugly is as ugly does."

So there you go some interesting gyan (hindi word for knowledge) for the day!

There are some very interesting reads on this topic over the web. I have shortlisted some of them below... rest you can always google.

1) Stupid Is As Stupid Does By Scott Reeves at Forbes.com
2) Stupid Is As Stupid Does By Charley Reese at LewRockwell.com
3) http://newmexiken.com/archives/2007/03/0010689.php

Dark Energy

2007-03-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

Dark Energy, definitely a word that ought to be a part of any sci-fi that deals with cosmos, but I guess that's not enough, a bunch of really great scientists have found it in our universe and believe that it comprises of 70% of the entire universe! Phew! Seventy Percent! Thats way to much of this stuff...but then why can't I see it or feel...Well here are few articles that may answer some these questions:-

http://www.utexas.edu/features/2007/energy/

http://physicsweb.org/articles/world/17/5/7

Wake Me Up When September End....

2007-03-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have' been a Green Day fan from the day I heard it's song "Wake Me Up When September End..."

It was one of those lazy, half asleep Saturday mornings in Melbourne, when I heard this song and I felt like I have been waiting for this music all my life. From that day (something like 2 years back) I have been a fan of the music of Green Day! Though I "beg to dream and differ" slightly from their philosophy!

You can watch the video (Live Version) of this song at the following link: -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj4qfCNQB6s

Some intelligent information on this song can be found at: -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wake_Me_Up_When_September_Ends

And for the lyrics...there you go:-

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my fathers come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when september ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when september ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

like my father's come to pass
twenty years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends
(Repeat 2 Times)

P.S. :- For the sake of all those weak hearted souls who are reading this, let me tell you, the genre of this song is Punk-Rock! So listen the song at your own discretion :)

An Encounter With Mozzarella Cheese

2007-03-20T08:08:00.000-07:00

I am not a great cook...but sure cooking is one of my hobbies...though it's on the lower end of the spectrum.

So today I thought why not make a "Desi Pizza" at home! Have never tried that before ... so thought should be fun making it! But what would be a pizza without the great Mozzarella...so went to the super store and bought a packet of it. This was the first time I was having a look at this thing and to me it looked like a blob of plastic and when I tasted it...well it was tasteless. But still I went ahead with my venture only to become more curious about how this stuff (Mozzarella) is made.

So after couple of minutes of "Googling", I found this interesting link that explains how you can make a Mozzarella at home: -

http://nv.essortment.com/makemozzarella_rkpy.htm

Well now I know how this stuff works or I should say made!

You can also check the following Wiki link on Mozzarella or go ahead an google it out: -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozzarella

The Caribbean Masala - 2

2007-03-19T00:22:00.000-07:00

Oh dear! This curry is really developing a bad taste day by day!

Nothing could have really stigmatized the facade, but the sudden and controversial death of the Pakistani Coach, Bob Woolmer, a gentlemen from Britain. If this was not enough, Pakistani captain Inzmam-ul-Haq announced his retirement from international one day cricket. He will be playing his last one day international match and his last match as the captain of Pakistani cricket team on 21st march, that's when Pakistan will be playing with Zimbabwe.

The platter was already filled with strange ingredients and as if it was not enough the Brits added their own version of miseries. I thought only Manchester United fans were drunkard-outrageous-hooligan machines, but it turns out that even the British Cricket team is not far behind. Andrew Flintoff, the British Vice-Captain, has been shown the door for his out-off-the-line behavior and several other players of the team have been fined for "breach of team discipline". For More Click Here

The picture outside the Caribbean is also not well painted. The fans out there in sub-continent are outrageous over the unexpected defeat of their teams (Read: India & Pakistan) in WC. Effigies are burnt, road side protest and some have gone even to an extent of attacking players houses.

It's been just the first week of a month long drama and already it's turning out to be a show not well directed!

The Caribbean Masala - 1

2007-03-17T23:22:00.000-07:00

This Cricket World Cup seems to be most awkward and weird of all the WC ( that's World Cup and not Water Closet!) I have witnessed. It's been very few days that the WC has begun and already there has been a series of unexpected incidences.

To start with we have the Irish team, a rookie team for this WC, made their presence felt when they drew their match with Zimbabweans, who if not the favorites were (expected) best of the two teams. This was the third time that a WC match ended in a draw. The Irish team gave the next surprise to across-the-globe audience, when they defeated Pakistan (No dear thats not a typo!). Pakistan getting all out for mere 132 runs! And to add to their miseries, they are also out of the WC, so there is no chance that there could be a match between India and Pakistan (And there goes all the fun). But, really don't know what is the next surprise that Irish team has held in store for us!

The next weired thing to take place this WC was record number of Sixes getting hit in an over. Herschelle Gibbs became the first man to hit six sixes in an over in a one-day international. You need a lot of guts to do that...doesn't really matter who your opponent is! You can read more on this at the following link:-

"Gibbs hit a robust 40-ball 72 coupled with Kallis's unbeaten 128 as South Africa's batsmen pulverised hapless Dutch bowling to muster 353-3 in a Group A match reduced to 40-over-a-side."

Now, if that wasn't enough, cricket fans in India had one more iron pill to swallow! India V/s Bangladesh, first match in this WC for both the teams. Team India took the ground with most coveted eleven men of the nation and to everyone's imagination, disaster struck. With a very shaky and lame start, Team India reached a face-saving total of 191, but it turned out that the total was not enough to save the day! The boys from Bangladesh played a very technically correct professional cricket defeating the men-in-blue with 5 wickets and 9 balls to spare. Looks like Mr. Greg, the Indian Coach, is still experimenting and as the joke goes that he is prepaing team India for 2011 WC! God Save India! And all those companies who have made all those expensive ad campaigns!

It is going to be a wait-watch WC for everyone as it looks like the trophy can fall in anyones hand. But sure this WC is no lesser than the Pandora's Box!

Recovering deleted items in MS outlook

2007-03-16T22:40:00.000-07:00

Here is something for those, who use MS-Outlook for managing their emails and normally end up deleting the emails which they would like to preserve till their death!

So here is something which you can try...
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate and click the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Exchange\Client\Options
3. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, and then add the following registry value:
Value name: DumpsterAlwaysOn
Data type: DWORD
Value data: 1
4. Quit Registry Editor.

P.S. : I didn't create this method...I found it somewhere on the internet long time back and of course now I am feeling too lazy to search the original link!

Ambrosia

2007-03-12T08:28:00.000-07:00

Analytics Loaded!

2007-03-10T22:25:00.000-08:00

Google is great!!!!
Just stuffed my blog with Google Analytics...isn't that great!!! Now I can know how many times by blog was visited in a day...over the week and in entire month...and all other details to keep me inspired to keep blogging :)

Computers for All!

2007-03-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

It’s nice to know that our government is interested in making India a real knowledge based society. The efforts made by them are worth appreciating, as they are conforming that the so-called “Gen X” is computer savvy. Today’s kids are the leaders of tomorrow and they definitely take India into a new world.

Now, here comes the big “BUT”. But! What about the present? The world is changing and changing real fast. Our leaders are not still computer savvy as their counter-parts in other nations. Can we afford this? We really need to digitize our selves. Today or tomorrow we will have to emerge as a paperless government. So why not today? The fact is: we are one of the fastest growing economies in the world. And we have fully stepped on the gas. Now, in order to really boost up we need the booster rockets and that are available in the form of digital world. The smooth information flow is the key in making ourselves as voraciously growing economies.

Of course, we will have a new technology and definitely it is going to come with its own well-defined set of difficulties, ambiguities and problem. But, we just don’t stop using a motorcycle because it has more complicated problem as compared to bi-cycle. The world of paper, which is based on the logic that the answer to clutter is more clutter, needs to be shunned and the e-world where the answer to clutter is a single mouse click, need to be adopted.

In simple terms we need a paperless government, that to “RIGHT NOW”!

Gaming Around....

2007-03-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

Well just got hold of this very interesting article on "Game Theory". Following are couple of paragraphs from the article: -

"Hobbes's Leviathan is often regarded as the founding work in modern political philosophy, the text that began the continuing round of analyses of the function and justification of the state and its restrictions on individual liberties. The core of Hobbes's reasoning can be given quite straightforwardly as follows. The best situation for all people is one in which each is free to do as she pleases. Often, such free people will wish to cooperate with one another in order to carry out projects that would be impossible for an individual acting alone. But if there are any immoral or amoral agents around, they will notice that their interests are best served by getting the benefits from cooperation and not returning them. Suppose, for example, that you agree to help me build my house in return for my promise to help you build yours. After my house is finished, I can make your labour free to me simply by reneging on my promise. I then realize, however, that if this leaves you with no house, you will have an incentive to take mine. This will put me in constant fear of you, and force me to spend valuable time and resources guarding myself against you. I can best minimize these costs by striking first and killing you at the first opportunity. Of course, you can anticipate all of this reasoning by me, and so have good reason to try to beat me to the punch. Since I can anticipate this reasoning by you, my original fear of you was not paranoid; nor was yours of me. In fact, neither of us actually needs to be immoral to get this chain of mutual reasoning going; we need only think that there is some possibility that the other might try to cheat on bargains. Once a small wedge of doubt enters any one mind, the incentive induced by fear of the consequences of being preempted—hit before hitting first—quickly becomes overwhelming on both sides. If either of us has any resources of our own that the other might want, this murderous logic will take hold long before we are so silly as to imagine that we could ever actually get so far as making deals to help one another build houses in the first place. Left to their own devices, rational agents will never derive the benefits of cooperation, and will instead live from the outset in a state of ‘war of all against all’, in Hobbes's words. In these circumstances, all human life, as he vividly and famously put it, will be "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short."

Hobbes's proposed solution to this problem was tyranny. The people can hire an agent—a government—whose job is to punish anyone who breaks any promise. So long as the threatened punishment is sufficiently dire—Hobbes thought decapitation generally appropriate—then the cost of reneging on promises will exceed the cost of keeping them. The logic here is identical to that used by an army when it threatens to shoot deserters. If all people know that these incentives hold for most others, then cooperation will not only be possible, but will be the expected norm, and the war of all against all becomes a general peace."

You can read the entire article at: - http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/game-theory/

Time's up

2007-03-09T21:17:00.000-08:00

In the portrait of dreams

Where i roam with no one,

But lonliness,

And a melancholic thought

Runs through the mind.

The chase is still on...

While the time moves on

And my life’s clocking out.

Treason is what i fear

A fear which has no meaning

Integrity is what i have

A thing with no use...

What should I do

When aim is high

Strength is less

Desire is there

But time is less

This is something which I wrote back in May-06.