One such group of people I have seen lately. According to the statistics gathered by my subconscious mind , such psychological traits of human behaviour can be seen more clearly amongst " The people from Venus ". It is not the case that we Martians are devoid of any degrees of Schadenfreude but we are reticent when it comes to expressing it. Moreover the statistics also reveal that such feelings are , in fact , lower amongst males than in the females , (throw away that piece of garbage presented by an experiment conducted in xyz year. All that stuff happens in a controlled environment, this is practical, the quintessential qualities emerge when unmonitored ) . We have the bro code imbibed in our nerves . Some special types of males have also displayed such traits ; mind you .

On a more interesting note, such feelings arise specially when a consistent performer or a perfectionist goes off track. One such bugger fist- punched the air when I totally screwed up my CAT registeration form online. And , no it wasn't done to tease me or such thing , it was spontaenous and instinctive . Another such incident took place just yesterday when we all were upbraided at the Coaching classes. I am not amongst the one to receive scoldings often. Today, I heard from *sources* that someone was happy at the fact of me being at the receiving end than feeling shame for his/her self being lambasted. Such incidents have also taken place when , in rare cases, I haven't performed at par.
But in all such cases of spiteful feelings against the hapless fellows ,either the troubled waters have subsided or they have bounced back mightier and stronger.
The CAT admin guys have provided the heavenly "Edit" button and I scored the maximum in the tests after the lambasting. :)

" Rejoice not when thine enemy has falleth , and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth. Lest the Lord see it , and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him ."
- King James.

This is the right time for the Lord Buddha's principles of Mudita to step in. Schadenfreude has become the national pastime. Where is the concept of sympathetic pleasure ? The pleasure of seeing someone else's success . Ok not going that far; it is the 21st century; at least have the restraint to view other's success neutrally ! All we can do is simply ignore such spiteful species and slap their faces non- violently by outscoring not only all others but also ourselves , the next time.

" Be over-amicable to people who show rancor , it will be a sweeter revenge than burning down his pants . "

- Vandit.

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The prospect of making a project for my current semester in Java and/or .NET has got me searching the Internet for some ideas on " What to make ? " and " How to make ? ". Let me be clear at this point that "how to make ?" doesn't mean copy-pasting the source code from some xyz.com.

After searching in vain for 3-4 days and almost giving up the search,when I was just scratching along my P1i's touchscreen posting "tweets". Aha ! The lightening had struck and the seeds had been sown. It was right there under my nose - a simple Twitter client. The " what to make ? " question seemed to be answered . Now comes " how to make ? " . Well that is a secret till I complete the entire application. As a hint, try searching for APIs to get some leads . Even if my project partner doesn't agree on making a micro-blogging application for the submissions , rest assured it will bear fruition, just for my self-satisfaction - take my word for that. The moment of seeing " from <myapp>" instead of "from web" underneath the tweet will be an awesome feeling. ( of course this will come after registering my app. with twitter)

As some of you might have observed my Tweeter feed , I have already put some work into it. Hope the faculties also accept this venture as the semester project and everything goes well.

- Vandit Khamker.

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First things first. Some of you might have found this strange that I haven’t posted for nearly an entire month and the last two posts were more suited to a tumblr rather than a Blog. But time needs you to adapt, to make sensible use of it , to dedicate it to the activities of higher priorities. The last month have demanded industriousness on my part and the coming few months will be no different. Something great is gonna bear fruition in the coming months for sure (You can expect a Twitter application all made by me /and by my friend . Not an official statement , so keep it under wraps ). Till I happen to find some time again for an awesome Blogpost , here are some thoughts that have sprung up in these days.

Software as a commodity

No guys I haven’t been studying Economics or such thing during my Houdini’s act. Recently me and my <unnamed> friend were discussing Piracy in the afternoon break we get. Things like – What actually goes in the mind of a Pirate while he his carrying out his acts if he *is* in fact aware of it ? – Is it the thrill ? or it is just a Social Service venture by some prick with a truck-full of bandwidth ? and what if he isn’t aware he is violating some legal stuff ? Is piracy , after all, that bad as it is perceived to be by us ? Is there any “other side of the coin” ?

Before someone accuses me of pretending to be all Mr.Goody Goody , let me tell you that I am no Saint but – I say, there is a fine line between “acquiring” what isn’t available at any ( practical ) costs and flicking one at the snap of the finger without remorse . I have that guilty feeling of copying some piece of code which gave the dev. his piece of the bread. So as a move to show repentance , I have a genuine Windows Vista machine at my disposal on which are running all genuine Applications (apart from some pirated junk that friends bring along :) ).

I know the heading above might have sounded a bit “ Business Times ” like (which I don’t like to sound like ) … putting it in simple words ….

You know what a Commodity is. Something you buy/sell and earn/empty your pockets during the process . Similarly Software , IMO , should be strictly seen as a Commodity – by the COMMON MAN. Now if you are any school representative or a Social activist , go teach this first ; Math , Science and stop cruelty towards animals can follow.

So get these things in your head before you hit the DOWNLOAD button at that Torrent site or the much loved “ Burn ! ” button in your DVD burning software or the even more convenient - ctrl c + ctrl v combination.

• Piracy is similar to stealing a television from the store (or probably buying it from a seller selling stolen goods)
• Respect the work of software developers. As you pay for the commodity you buy, like an ethical rat , you should also pay for a commercial software.
• If you don't want to shell out bucks faster than a Ferrari would guzzle down Gasoline, get yourself FOSS applications which are 8/10 times free ( as in “commercially free”. They are always guaranteed to be free as in “Free to Modify”)

The reason I am saying this because somewhere in the near future I will become a part of the Software Industry and so all you , who are using my piece of code, might pass on the bucks. :)

Now trying to see “ the other side of the coin ” of piracy , I must agree that it has compelled the software companies to keep the pricing low and also resorting to OEMs to sell genuine copies. It may sound abstruse but piracy has a major hand in creating monopolies like the one in the OS market . The boost in the piracy in the late ‘90 s catapulted Window’s popularity. See it can be a blessing in disguise. :)

DISCLAIMER : Piracy is unethical and Illegal. No part of this post suggests/advices/titillates you to pirate any kind of application or digital media.

2+2 =4 ;

2C + O2 –> 2CO

Stop cruelty towards stray dogs and cats .

:-)

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Recently someone dumped a link on my Twitter stream along with one of his originals of these . I found them hilariously funny ( tautology ! ) . I wish to pass on these invaluable jems of literature to my fellow loyal readers and RSS subscribers .

You can visit the site by clicking on the Title of the post. Maybe it is time I start a tumblr or posterous for such trivial posts… maybe not.

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