Saddam Hussein - Dead. Hanged (not hung, mind you) this morning.

The one with no soul

Today, waiting for MS (the Cow), I had the unique opportunity of spending a full hour with "The One with no soul." During the course of this hour, I perused this individual's recommendation and found the following phrases, scattered all over that vile document:-

1. endeared himself to students and teachers alike, within two years of joining the school
   
2. left his mark in the school
3. will be remembered and cherished by the school for years to come
4. one of the most confident, charismatic and intelligent students the school has ever seen

Pretty impressive. I raised my eyes and peered at the individual closely. Never before had I seen a seedier specimen than the one I beheld. Short, dark, with a pinched face and half-closed eyes, as if avoiding the sun. He wore photo chromatic spectacles that gave him the look of a vile, evil-smelling insect. Repulsive.
And yet points no. 1,2,3 and 4 had been placed in this individuals recommendation.
Upon further inquiry, the specimen (human scum or the one with no soul) admitted that he had written the recommendation himself. Ah, that explains it, I said to myself. My indignation subsided momentarily.
However, moments later, the following question struck me: "Has he no shame? Has he no soul? Has he no mirror to look himself in the face with?". The fellow looked as bad as a dung-beetle on steroids. As an uninspiring as a hippo-hunter. As insipid and dull as a cold pizza.
But really, has he no soul? No conscience?
Anyhow, thats the end of my rant. Lets move to brighter topics.
Abolish the question mark
Yes. Abolish it. Isn't it a tad annoying that everytime we have to ask a question, we have to use the shift + / combination? I propose to use a / in place of the question mark. Its easier to use and looks a lot cooler.
For Example:
Person: How are you/
Other Person: Im good. You/
Henceforth, I will replace the question mark with a / in all my online conversations. Thank you for bearing with me.
S'all for now.
~Dhruv

In the OAT, DPS RKP. Those were the days.

















I'm building up courage to go to school tomorrow to visit MS aka the Cow aka TeaPot aka the high Bovine. She really is a pain in the backside.

The pre-boards are at hand
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the pre-boards are at hand. If you haven't realized it by now, then you're in trouble. If you have realized that they're at hand and yet you're here reading this, then you've simply accepted that you're in trouble and you plan to live with it.
Orkut is good
I've been using orkut for the past week (I've been on orkut much longer, but I never used it seriously) and I'm pleased to say that it's way, way better than Hi5. Hi5 is just too childish. Now that I've passed out of school, I figured it was time to grow up, so I gave Hi5 the boot and switched to orkut.
Madras Gin
Thats the name of my future company. I've been told it sounds like an exotic cocktail. Hmm. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, though.
Parting Shot
Go to The Big Chill in Khan Market, if you get the chance. The food is amazing. Really amazing.

I guess this is all for now. I must now go, make myself iced tea, consume it and proceed to do integral calculus.
Bye.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to one and all. Have a great day.
Cheers.

The times are changing.

I'm in an exceptionally good mood today. Let me explain why:-
1. On Saturday, I was rejected by Stanford.
2. An FIR was lodged against me (among other people) and a complaint for under-aged drinking was filed against me in the school.
As it happens, today I got accepted by the University of Surrey. I had initially planned to do History at Stanford or one of the ivy leagues, but now I'm veering towards doing EE or CE at a good univ in the United Kingdom. SO, obviously I was elated.
Interestingly, the FIR and the complaint against me, both, were withdrawn/dropped today. The FIR was obviously weighing on my mind and bothering me quite a bit. Anyhow. Life is good.

Among other things, I just discovered that the final book in the Harry Potter series will be called "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" which, I must say, is a dreadful name.

Thanks to Google Analytics, I also discovered that people have reached my blog after searching for "the internet is full of shit". I'm sure it is, but what sort of people go out of their way and do a search in Google, specifically to look for shit? Strange.

Anyhow, I must repeat that life is good. RG, Sid, Gudi and I plan to open a company next year. We haven't really decided what the company will do, but we're still starting a company. I hope we call it "Madras Gin", which is an anagram of "RG is da man". Lets see.

Goodbye for now.
Dhruv Kumar
P.S. I am a student of DPS RKP (RK Puram)

Codewars 2006 is ours. HAHA. The sweet taste of victory.

I just had kiwi juice. It tasted alot like aam panna. Go figure.

DPS MUN 2006

DPS MUN (or DPSMUN?) 2006 came to an end yesterday. It certainly was a 'worthwhile' experience. Let me elaborate.
Btw, be sure to read RG's day-wise posts on DPS MUN 2006 and check out his pics.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Also, check out Gudi's blog for his post on MUN.
Well, thats that. Its gone. Its over. DAMN.
Cheerio,
Dhruv

DPS MUN 2006 Day 3

DAY 3. The last and final day. We had absolutely no work, so we started doing other weird stuff.
First thing in the morning, Gudi, Adarsh and I went to AAD (All American Diner). Adarsh had a vegetable hoagie. (I love that word)
So, obviously, Kartikeya and I went to the plenary early morning, accompanied by Manas. Manas and I eventually got bored and almost fell asleep while Kartikeya continued to incessantly flirt with that messenger from Class XI.
Lunch was crap. I hated it. Sid and I then had three strips of bacon at AAD. Finally.
There wasn't any entertainment point this year, unlike the last. So, we soon had the closing ceremony, where we couldn't show our video (with RG doing the "MUN"walk. I hope someone puts it up on youtube). Eventually, the crowd dispersed and we all went home.

DPS MUN 2006 Day 2

DAY 2 also had a deceptively tame start. However, things soon changed and we were flooded by numerous resolutions scribbled by a battalion of idiotic delegates with impossible-to-decipher handwriting.
I picked up a resolution and read the first clause, which was:
Deeply distressed, by the dung problem in the world.
Hey, so am I, but is it worth discussing in a session of the UN? Turns out it was actually 'drug', not 'dung'.
Lunch was okay. RG realized that he'd been given a coupon with the number 666 written on it. So, naturally , I planned to take advantage of the situation for some good fun and we started composing a letter demanding a formal apology from the USG, Food Coupons (yes, they have USGs for everything. They also have a Vella USG Clan, known as the VUSGC). However, RG and I somehow misplaced the letter.
Day 2 was also the day when we created the Gangster's Hole. The lights were switched off, and more chairs were moved in. Day 2 was also the day when Adarsh became an unofficial member of CIS. He helped us play games and type resolutions.
RG and I also smuggled in coke from a nearby marketplace into Habitat. RG's resourcefulness must once again be brought to the reader's notice. We stuffed 2 two litre bottles in the pockets of his jackets, and it was still impossible to make out that he was carrying anything underneath his all-black attire.
At about 3:30, Kartikeya, Sahil and I went to the Plenary, pretending to be part of the International Press. Obviously, we sat there and read stupid messages. Also, Kartikeya kept flirting with a certain messenger from class XI who kept showing us flirty messages that delegates were sending each other (I mention this only for the sake of completeness. Also because this messenger must not be confused with another "friend" of Kartikeya's from class X). I eventually had to pull him away from the plenary, otherwise the amorous escapade would have never ended.
At the end of day 2, I took a picure of Vibhu's coffee before going home.

DPS MUN 2006 Day 1

DAY 1 started off well. RG picked us (i.e. me and Kartikeya) in a black scorpio, while he was wearing an all-black suit with black shades (the shades eventually became a sensation at DPS MUN 2006).
The first day took a while taking off. Actually, it never took off. We had no work to do and were busy playing games and bothering people. Tea was taking a little longer than we were expecting, so we started a good 15 minutes before the actual "Tea Time" by having our share of cookies from the wrapped cookie plate.
Gudi arrived late, with his Senior Pagdi. Also, Sid and I went to AAD pretending to be traders (Wall Street, btw). We discussed ENRON stock in front of the waiter before we made our exit (pretending to be busy) without buying anything as we didnt have enough money.
At this point, it is worth mentioning the Gangster's Hole aka Room two. Room two was the room given to CIS (technically, its ICS but I prefer CIS). We moved in two laptops (RG's thinkpad and Sid's PowerBook) and 7 chairs into a tiny room. Eventually (on the second day) we smuggled in coke and switched off the lights, giving it the resemblance to a Gangster's hideout, as Vibhu pointed out.
Manas Gautam and the rest of the CIS department persisted with their games after lunch (the only good things in lunch were the mass kofta and the chocolate ice-cream). However, I joined Ishaan Chugh in his pursuit to dupe any loser we could lay our hands on. We randomly stopped people and asked them weird questions (and took fake interviews). Ah! Sadistic pleasure. Manas also joined us for a while.
After lunch, Sid and I went to AAD and ordered some stuff. However, we once again left abruptly without paying and/or eating. DAMN!
So day 1 was basically a waste of time, however we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Samsung

So I was unpacking the so-called Samsung Hero. A phone that costs a mere 3500 bucks (I got it for free btw). I was pleasantly surprised.
The build quality of the phone is superb. The keys are big and have a good feel. Tactile. Easy-to-use. The quality of the plastics used in the phone is phenomenal. It has a nice velvety feel to it. I'm mighty impressed with Samsung. I had expected a cheap, low-quality Korean product but was surprised to find a value-for-money, high quality product from Samsung.
I am, btw, a stout Nokia supporter when it comes to phones for alot of reasons but after using this phone, I'd say I'm pretty open to buying a Samsung phone, in particular one of those slim Ultra edition phones.
Sony-Ericsson is a strict no for me, due to reasons, namely:-
1. It's a Sony
2. I don't like the memory sticks. Proprietary shit.
However, they're walkman phones are pretty good. The quality is great and they have some neat features. However, the lack of a real OS is at times annoying.
Motorola? Awesome looking phones but an equally horrible User Interface. The standard UI used for the RAZR, KRZR, SLVR, etc. look like they've been ripped off a 5 year old colour phone. It's absolutely shocking that a company can get away with something so disgusting.
That's why Nokia is the best. Great build quality. Symbian kicks ass. Feature packed phones. Legendary ease-of-use and user interface. However, they don't do to well in the looks department.
Samsung looks to be almost as good as Nokia and with the kind of money they're pouring into R&D, they'll probably trounce SonyEricsson and Motorola in the near future.

Over the course of the next week, I shall be introducing you to R.D. Sharma and Kahlil Gibran. The prospect of introducing you to the most dreadful authors in the world gives me a great deal of sadistic pleasure.

An update was due, and here it is.

As everyone knows, Exun took place on the 11th and 12th November, 2006. Went well. It was also my last Exun. Ironically, the end-of-school and similar such sadness shit hasn't sunk in yet.
The Exun sweat shirts, I feel, will take a while coming but it will be done if all the juniors are "helpful" ;)
During my absence, the PS3, the Nintendo Wii and the Zune have been launched. Here's my take on them:-
Sony PlayStation 3
A Waste of money. Spend it on the Wii instead if you want to play good, fun games.
However, there are certain good things about the PS3. If you want a powerful machine with an awesome processor (read: the Cell) then go for the PS3. The PS3 will let you install PPC based Operating Systems. Yellow Dog Linux and Fedora Core 5 have been successfully installed on it. It also comes with a BluRay drive. All for 600 dollars. A pretty good deal if you think of it as a Linux desktop, though I don't see what you'd do with one.
Bottomline: Sony looses big bucks on every PS3 they sell. So go buy it, if you want Sony dead!
Nintendo Wii
It was codenamed "Revolution" and, if you ask me, it has done just that: revolutionized the gaming console industry. While the X-Box 360 and the PS3 pushed for more number-crunching power and High-Def graphics, Nintendo has stuck to the basics: better gameplay. The revolutionary controller, the Wii-mote, is one of the most endearing features of the Wii. The price, $250, is also welcoming and is unlikely to burn a hole in your pocket.
Zune
The Zune hath arrived. And it's darned good. Put aside Apply fanboyism for the moment, see some pics, read some reviews and check it out. It really is good. The Zune might not, and probably WILL NOT, hurt the iPod much right now, but I suspect the second iteration of the Zune will give Apple's iPod a good run for its money.
Oh, and if you thought the iPod had a good looking user-interface, then check out the Zune's UI. You'll probably drool over it.
Microsoft doesn't suck that much, now, does it?
More later.

Saddam has been sentenced to death, two days before the Bush administration is expected to "face the music". Coincidence? I think not.
Yes, I think Saddam deserved to be punished. However, I neither agree with the timing of the sentence nor the sentence itself. Capital punishments, imho are inhuman and should be abolished. Such medieval practices are best left in the medieval ages.
Anyhow, Exun is coming up. Being the President of Exun is tough. Never realised it.

Firefox 2.0

Firefox 2.0 is really good. I've been fiddling around with it, and I've concluded that it's a worthy successor. The User Interface also looks marginally better. However, my favourite new feature is spell check. Its quite useful when you're writing blog entries and emails.

Attention Microsoft haters and LOTR fans, read this: http://www.comedycorner.org/76.html

The exams are over

The exams are finally over. They went reasonably well (for any class 11 or 12th student, this means that I didn't have my ass kicked. This is the kinda pile of shit we're in, by the end of class XII).
The problem with the last exam is that, inevitably, the next day involves waking up at 11:30 with a splitting headache. No matter what you do, theres no getting away from the hangover that you get because of last night's partying (more specifically, last nights booze).
Anyhow, you guys know this as well as I do, so without further ado, lets move on to more pressing issues.
Tell me, do you like (or prefer) fat waiters or thin waiter? I think I'm biased towards thin waiters. They seem more efficient. I feel they can give me better service. Fat waiters, I believe, are slow and inefficient, and incapable of rendering good service. In other words, they make you wait, and, in effect, make you the waiter (okay, bad joke).
Fat waiters, on the other hand, give you the impression that the food has to be good. Think about it, waiters spend alot of time in their respective restaurants. If they're fat, it's probably because they eat a lot of food, most of it being prepared in-house. This, in turn, means that the food must be worthy of being eaten. In short: Fat waiters mean bad service, but good food. So make your choice.
And Einstein is (was) an absolute nitwit. I respect the fellow for his work and all, but his english is horrendous. I (and all other class 12 students of my school) had the misfortune of reading a speech that he declaimed on a dull, dreary day in New York. It's horrendous. Period. His sentences are long and fragmented, his organisation is utterly illogical and his style is, once again, horrendous. (You may level the same accusations against me but I'm not Einstein am I? Nor am I a nobel laureate).
Nordstrom is good.
That is all for now, my friends.
Dhruv
P.S. I heard from a reliable source that Gudi is restarting his blog.

Those arrogant IIT aspirants in our class were damn wrong. They dont know shit.
Let me explain: Fermat's principle does not explain refraction. Read wikipedia's entry on Fermat's principle and you'll know what I'm talking about.
Undoubtedly, Fermat's principle proposes a result which is true, but bear in mind that it is a result, and not an explanation. I pointed this out to Tuteja and company but, as always, my words fell on deaf (and extremely arrogant) ears.
Anyway, presently I'm inundated with work. I have no time at all for anything. So see ya around.

I wonder what Apple is going to release today. The excitement is driving me insane.
P.S. I hope its the elusive iPhone (seems unlikely) or atleast a widescreen iPod (more likely).

Victory

• Schumacher won, and subsequently announced his retirement by the end of the season. This truly is sad. Formula-1 will never be the same anymore without Schumacher. Love him or hate him, he was undeniably the most significant driver the world of racing has ever seen.
  
• Roger Federer won the US Open. Number 9 for Federer. WOW. That's all I can say. And he's just 25.
• We Won e-spice 2006
• We also won MINET 2006.

Its been a good week on the whole.

News: RG has taken up blogging!

Inspired by someone, RG has started blogging, following Sid who resumed blogging yesterday.
Check out his blog http://rgdot.blogspot.com
P.S. I think I was the one who inspired them to blog! Haha :P

Sid's blog is back. Check it out.
http://lordsid.blogspot.com/

Reverse Image Search

I like Google Image Search and in addition I'd like something like a Reverse Image Search. Let me explain:-
You copy an image into the engine.
The search tells you stuff about it.
Simple as that.
I have a lot of images lying around whose source I'd like to trace - and know more about. Wouldn't it be cool if I just copied an picture of say, a park in Delhi into this Revearse Image Search and it would tell me that the park is Shri Malwari Lal Park and the pic was taken by Mr. Harnam Singh?
Yanyway, more later.

Gradients

Can you spot the gradient on this page?

Does sound travel in water?

Well, physics will have you believe that it does. But have you ever experienced anything that would suggest that sound travels beneath the surface of water. Have you ever heard anyone talk underwater?
There is, of course, a very worrying problem associated with speaking underwater: the moment you open your mouth, water will make its presence felt within your mouth. Not a very pleasing experience. This has always deterred me from speaking underwater.
However, I think I can convince some poor, stupid soul into attempting this (assuming that he overlooks the water-in-mouth incident that will inevitably occur). Before the inevitable surge of water in his mouth, if the poor idiot manages to speak a few words, I might be able to solve a mystery that has intrigued me for a long, long time.
If one of the aforementioned idiots is reading this post, then please feel free to volunteer by means of a comment. After, science must triumph in the end.

The Thank yous

Now that under_score is finally out, I'd like to thank some people for their efforts and contributions. They are:-
1. Mukesh Sir
He's supported and encourages us throughout this initiative, as always.
2. The Principal, for taking such interest in our magazine
3. Gudi: It was his idea, he conceived it.
4. Sid executed Gudi's idea to perfection.
5. Mohit, for the wonderful cover and the cover story
6. Rohit Garg, for writing a brillian article in the gaming section
7. All the other authors
This is an unofficial thank you, so I'm being totally honest in my "thank yous" here, as this is my blog.

Under_score

The first issue of Under_score has finally arrived. Take a look at some pictures of my personal copy:-





The stunning cover is the outcome of some solid hard work by Sid and Mohit.
The whole thing has come out well, and we'll learnt from the mistakes that we made this time, and the next issue should be much better.

Under_score

It's finally out. The first 25 copies of under_score arrived from the publisher's, and they're simply stunning. I will post a pic (or two) as soon as I get the chance, but I must repeat, the magazine is stunning.

Oh and by the way, there were 77394 searches for "shit" in yahoo during july 2006. People really are stupid.

The internet is full of shit

Check out this link and you'll now what I'm talking about.
It's incredible that more people searched for "shit" on the internet that "vodka". Okay, vodka might not be a very popular thing itself, but shit? Do people actually go out of their way to type the word "Shit" in google and hit the enter key? Seemingly they do.

Two words

I posed this question to someone:
"What do you plan to do after the exams?"
And I got this reply:
"I have two words for that: Relax"
Go figure!

The day before Monday

It just so happens that tomorrow is a monday, and today is the day before it i.e. Sunday. A beautiful day, I must say, which finds me busily (yeah, right!) studying computer science for the upcoming test.
Getting to more exciting stuff, there is a race today. Which means I have something to look forward to.
I'll end this post with a question.
Why are people so incredibly stupid?

A tussle with a cow

From the Boondoggle blog. Posted 5/16/2005
The "cow menace" has really gone beyond being a menace in New Delhi nowadays. I was witness to one such event of "Cow Rage" (all phrases in quotes were coined and used by TOI, not me).

The sole motive of the cow seemed to be to try and insert its horn through the metallic shell of the car (much like a fork through an omelet), and the sole motive of the car's driver was to get as far away from the cow as possible. When such clashes of strong-minded (and possibly fat-headed) individuals take place, there is bound to be a heated argument and an exchange of words..
But this wasn't the case this time. The driver was cursing the cow in all languages known to him, but the cow was either very thick-skinned or just wasn't concerned. It went about its work in a manner which would've put business-oriented Europeans to shame.
All were having a merry time, when suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, six burly "jaat" cops, equipped with lathis and ropes emerged and dispersed the crowd. The cow was more obstinate and refused to budge.
The exalted leader of the "jaat" cops shouted to the cow "Key karan lagra hai?" (What are you doing?)
The cow, unfortunately, didn't understand and remained quiet on the issue (maybe it didnt wish to hurt diplomatic sentiments). This infuriated the exalted leader of the "jaat" cops, who after glancing at his lathi proceeded to place the lathi underneath the cow, and then pushed upwards.
To this the cow replied with a loud grunt and moved away, much to the disappointment of the now dispersed (but still expectant) crowd.
The thing fizzled out without much action, but it could've led to something serious. The point I'm trying to make is this: Why doesn't the highly incompetent MCD do something about this?
Something must be done to avoid a clash of interests and avert impending disaster.

Food Junkies

A junky is a person who is addicted to heroin, but the word can now be used to describe a person who is enthusiastic about anything. Thus comes the concept of a food junky.
A food junky is a person who is particularly enthusiastic about eating good food in good quantities, with a fairly decent frequency. I am such a person. I love food, I love eating. Both give me immoderate pleasure.
My love for food goes to such an extent that I have found myself concentrating more intensely on my food than my date on numerous occasions. I'm sure people find it irritating, but so what?
My love for food is challenged only by possibly one other thing: my love and passion for coke. People who know me will readily testify that I can effortlessly gulp down 4-5 bottles of coke (and I'm talking about the 600ml ones) in a day.
Everyone has their different passions. So do I. To each his own, I say.

The purpose of this blog

There are many things that I wish to achieve through this blog. The most significant aim of blogging is to keep in touch with my friends and acquantances once I leave DPS RKP, my school, and possibly Delhi, my city. I realize it'll become very difficult to interact with all of them online or via email, and so the idea of blog comes naturally to ones mind.
Another reason for blogging here on this blog is because I enjoy writing and blogging.
Now that I've explained the intent of this blog, I can start posting meaningful (this might be an exaggeration) posts here.
Thanks

A word about the template

I do not intend to stick with this template, it's only in place temporarily till I come up with something better, something cooler and neater.

Hi

Hi.
Welcome to Slurpin'.
I originally used to write on "the boondoggle blog", but I took a break from blogging, and the once renowned boondoggle blog fell into a state of negligence. I planned to relaunch the boondoggle blog as "the Boondoggle blog: Part Deux", but I eventually settled for Slurpin', which I found was much shorter and easier to spell and remember.
So, now that I have a name, I've created a blog and embarked on a great journey, a journey which will hopefully be a memorable one.
As an introduction, I think this will suffice, but do expect more interesting stuff from me, and keep coming back.
-Dhruv
P.S. I may in due course repost some of my posts from the Boondoggle blog, and then again, I might not.