Engagement Rings!

I found these two pictures of engagement rings on my hard disk (don't ask me how they got there!). Really impressed with their design. So here they are:

Job Titles and Bullshit

Was talking about my job with a friend. She happened to mention that the job 'sounds important'.

Which made me realise the fact that more important a job sounds higher the percentage of bullshit in it!

Top Level Domain Names - A Friendly Guide

Top level domains... now what the heck are these and why should I read this post?

Let me answer the second question first...

Why should you read this post?

You will be surprised to know top level domains (TLDs) are encountered by us every time we surf the internet. Equally surprising is the fact that many people are unaware of what they mean (especially those not in the IT sector) and how useful they can be in figuring out the nature of the website (without even visiting it!).
Moreover many websites have names which might give a false or wrong impression, prompting you to click the link. But due to the strict control on TLDs their true nature can be found by just looking at the FULL address.

So read on, it might save you a few useless clicks when you are looking for that important piece of information!


What is a Top Level Domain (TLD)?

Generally domain names (or main website addresses) are of the following format:

www.WEBSITE_NAME.X X X

(e.g. www.yahoo.com, www.google.com, www.amazon.com)

OR

www.WEBSITE_NAME._ _ _.X X

(e.g. www.yahoo.co.in, www.google.co.uk, www.homeoffice.gov.uk)

Now top level domain is the bit (in italics in the examples above) after the main website name (which is highlight/bold).

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority classifies top level domains into three categories but here we will discuss only the two important ones which you are most likely to encounter on a daily basis:

1) Country-code top level domains (ccTLD): used by countries as top level domains. Used by country specific versions of various sites. For example Google UK has the following address:
www.google.co.uk where the ccTLD is .uk similarly for Google India the address is www.google.co.in where the ccTLD is .in. This shows that the site is particular to that country.

Why do you need to bother with country specific sites?
An example to answer the above question: If you reside in UK and you go to Amazon.com (the US version of the site) it will not sell you many of the available products and ask you instead to go to Amazon.co.uk and purchase the product from that site. This is due to copyright and other legal restrictions.

2) Generic top level domains (gTLD): used by particular type of organisation. For example .mil (as in military) is used by the US Armed forces for their websites (http://www.navy.mil/ - US Navy). Similarly .com (as in commercial) is widely used by companies. The gTLD .gov (as in government) is used by US goverment bodies (e.g. www.fbi.gov - The Federal Bureau of Investigation)

These are often combined with ccTLDs to give country and role specific sites. For example all UK government websites end with .gov.uk and for Indian government websites it is .gov.in (http://www.indianrail.gov.in - website of Indian Railways) or for country specific commercial sites such as Amazon.co.uk (.co is same as .com both standing for commercial websites) and eBay.co.in.

USING TLDs

TIP 1:
When looking for government/country related information (such as passport information, visa, tourist information etc.) concentrate on websites with addresses ending with .gov.XX or .gov (for USA) specific to that country. Therefore if you are looking for information on Australia start with sites having names ending with .gov.au. Many commercial websites have an official sounding name such as in the ad highlighted by the red box in the image below.

The website name is www.indianvisaheadoffice.co.uk
What strikes a casual user is the main website name: indianvisaheadoffice which may be mistaken as a Government of India website especially if the user is in a hurry and doesn't read the ad carefully (which doesn't clarify that it is NOT affiliated with the Indian Government and that it is a commercial website!).

But the FULL ADDRESS gives it away! Looking at the TLD we see it is .co.uk which means it is a COMMERCIAL (.co) website specifically for the UK (.uk)

TIP 2:
When looking for products look on the country specific website first (if present). Thus if you are looking for a book and you reside in UK, search Amazon.co.uk first. All the top retailers and brands have country specific websites (for major countries). For an accurate idea of products available in your country go to the country specific website first!
Usually the smaller brands and retailers do not have country specific websites, instead they operate out of a single .com address with or without country specific sections in the website (an example would be www.WEBSITE_NAME.com/uk/some_page.html - pointing to UK specific webpage within a standard commercial website).
Don't worry if you type in the country specific address and the browser takes you to a .com version of the site. Most probably the country specific domain points to the same site with a redirection to the country specific content.

TIP 3:
If you are still confused about a particular website then go to http://www.who.is and type in the full website address to find out registration information about the domain name.

Click here to view the WHOIS information about my website (www.pisceslab.com)



FINALLY
A full list of ccTLDs and gTLDs can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Internet_top-level_domains

The BIG Chivas Regal

Bin is our Bar

The Dust-bin Drinks Club

Yummy, the final drink!

'I'll be back'

I have tried to explain the simple concept of happiness to my friends many times.
It is quite simple:

Your happiness is in YOUR hands, you have the power to make yourself happy or to remain unhappy.
Every SECOND you remain unhappy is because you ALLOW yourself to remain so.

That is the simple fact. People will argue and talk about how they can't 'help it' or their 'circumstances are bad' or that 'you don't know how it was' or sometimes 'not everyone is as strong as you'. But I just tell them one thing. I'm not telling you to be happy. I am just telling you that YOUR happiness is in YOUR hands. If you want to make yourself happy, you can do that! It might be tough as hell but it CAN BE DONE!

In fact the main problem is not becoming happy but remaining happy. That is very tough! But I am sure if you have a half decent bunch of friends, I am sure you won't have to TRY very hard to remain happy!

Another thing to try for the times when you are unhappy, is to forget your happiness/unhappiness and make others happy. Don't become a cry baby. Make a difference instead in someone else's life. It will have the dual affect of making you forget your issues and making someone else feel better!

Tell life 'I'll be back' just like Arnold says it in T2.

Yeah! I'll be back!

Cursed By Beauty

This is a still from the movie 300.

It is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Bit straightforward action, yet full of mystery. This is a picture of the 'Oracle'. The title of the song that plays in the background during this scene is 'Cursed By Beauty'.

It is an amazing song! The soundtrack on the whole is quite good. Listen to it if you get a chance.

The title of the song 'Cursed By Beauty' comes from the fact that the 'Oracles' were always chosen from the most beautiful girls born to the Spartans. Thus they were cursed by beauty to become Oracles and spend their entire life with the hellish Ephors.

Can beauty be a curse? In India definitely.

Subzero00

I was talking to someone a few days ago about chatting on the net. They happened to mention Internet Relay Chat (IRC). IRC is the grand-daddy of modern-day internet chat systems.

It was the only service accessible from the 'VSNL Non-graphical Student internet account'. Services like Yahoo Messenger and ICQ were only accessible from the 'VSNL Graphical internet accounts' which were quite expensive in those days.

I still remember my first IRC chat. That was my first on-line chat. First time I chatted for about 4-5 hours. It got me hooked! I met many good people there. Out of that long list of people there is only one person that I am still in touch with.

But what I remember most clearly is my first on-line nickname: Subzero00
The double zeros at the end because the nick Subzero was already taken.

I got the nick from the video game: Mortal Kombat (TM) which has a character named Subzero. The speciality of the character was a 'freeze' attack. My friend, who was a Mortal Kombat (TM) fan, was able to complete the game with this character only. Obviously used to be my character of choice when playing the game.

Those IRC days were fun.

There is just one thing I miss from those days. Melissa Smalley living in the state of Georgia, USA. I never actually met her but we did exchange a whole lot of emails and a few letters. She was a very special friend. Hope where-ever she is now, she is happy and content with life.

Chatting / Chat rooms are the way-stations (i.e. - a stopping place on a journey) of the present.
We go and share our thoughts with other people. Make them friends for some time. Then we loose touch. All this happening in the slip-stream of life.

It is most interesting to see where these threads meet and where the separate and where they meet again!

:)

The Newsreader and The Student

There was once a student. Not of a particular subject but let us say of life in general. This being a short story, age and location of characters is of no consequence.

The student liked listening to a newsreader on the radio. Everyday the voice of the newsreader would strike out across time and space and reach the student through the radio. The student in turn would, like one of the 'faithful' always take out time to listen. To make out the subtle nuances in the newsreaders voice. Trying to pick-out signs of emotion, stress, happiness and anger in the carefully controlled tones of the newsreader. The voice streaming through the speaker was all that the student had to discover the person behind it.

They couldn't meet. They wouldn't meet. Or would they? The student did not care. As long as the voice came through every night the student would know that the newsreader was alive and doing well. The student cared for nothing except the well being and the happiness of the person behind the voice. The one voice which called out across the night. Never failing. Always faithful.

One day the student came to know that the radio station the newsreader worked in was closing down due to financial problems. It would cease broadcasting from midnight of the 19th of February said the news.
The voice of the newsreader, pronouncing its own fate, did not betray the slightest hint of emotion to the untrained ear. But the student knew better. The student could feel the pain and the sense of loss right through the words. The tone of fear is quite clear and distinct to the trained ear.

It was a time of mourning for the student. All was lost. Hope was not easy to come by. The future looked bleak and black. Then one day the student realised that the newsreader would definitely get a job in some other radio station. The newsreader would be back! Maybe this time not reading out the news but giving the weather or the round-up of the newspaper headlines or the sports update! Anxiously the student scanned radio channels for few weeks. Often listening to two or three stations at once. Listening for that familiar voice.

But the newsreader's voice did not appear on any of the local radio stations. This broke the student. The student went into a fit of anger. Cursing everything around. Cursing the newsreader for creating the dependency and then taking away the support. Blind rage coloured with frustration surged through the student. It burned through the body and the brain like a fire through dry wood. The student couldn't eat or sleep. Sometimes the student couldn't even breath.

Weeks turned into months and the student regained some sort of peace. The fire of anger had eaten all there was to eat and then died down. Then one day as the student was walking down the street there came a familiar voice. The voice was bit different but the student knew it was the newsreader! It had to be. Wild desperation seized both the mind and the soul of the student as the search for the source of the voice began. The newsreader had to be found!

The student looked around trying to locate the source and realised that the voice was coming from one of the houses along the street. Once that was known the house itself was easy to locate.
The student stood at the door of the house. Now confused what to do! You can't just knock on the door of a strange house and ask who the voice belongs to. Before the student could decide how to proceed the voice stopped. Steps were heard approaching the door and the door flew open in the face of the student surprising both the person opening the door and the person standing outside it.

As the student tried to piece together an explanation for standing outside the door like this, the person who had opened the door, recovered and asked in an even voice: 'Can I help you?'. Everything froze around the student as the newsreader spoke again, this time asking with a faint note of annoyance: 'Can I help you? Are you lost?'

The student could just reply 'You are the newsreader!'. The face of the newsreader clouded over with suspicion and the door started closing. The student cried 'Wait! 8th of July!'. The suspicion on the newsreaders faced changed into confusion and then curiosity. The door stopped closing but did not start opening again.

The student knew, the next words had to be the RIGHT WORDS at the RIGHT TIME. Nothing less would do. 'What happened on the 8th of July last year?'. Now the newsreader's face registered shock. The door started closing again. 'Wait!' cried the student as the door slammed shut. Minutes passed as the shock of the meeting passed through the body of the student. Then the door opened again. This time the newsreader looked a lot more relaxed. The voice spoke once again to the student. It asked: 'Where did you get that date from?'. The student replied with the truth: 'Your voice had a raw edge to it, the only time it had such a painful note in it, in the two years I have been listening to your broadcast'.

'You got that from my voice?' asked the newsreader now intrigued.
'I feel the connection between us, sometimes words are just what we have, one has to make do with them' replied the student, now both calm and excited, the heart hammering away.

'That was the day....' the newsreader began and then stopped. Surprised with the response. Then began again: 'Why am I telling you this!'.

'I prayed to God for your happiness every time I heard the sadness in your voice' said the student in reply. Suddenly the student felt drained. The strain of past few months and of the sudden meeting came crashing down. Facing the newsreader felt like facing the Sun in a desert. Darkness settled around.

As the student's heart froze in its cage, words came out of the half closed mouth: 'Why do you cry?'

The newsreader replied 'Why do you study my pain?'

The student answered 'I never got used to the bland taste of happiness, pain has so many different flavours'

Between the Green and the Grey, Lies a world!

Bristol, July 2007

Am I a Cow?

A few days ago, a friend said to me:

"u have had a very colourful life as far as girls are concerned and u continue to have one"

It got me thinking about the various girls that have come into my life.
The above statement is not quite true. That is what I realised immediately. There have been many girls in my life, that bit is true. But I have enjoyed a close friendship with only a very few of those girls.

I have met all kinds of girls. But every-time I used to get attracted to the 'non-mainstream' kind of girls. The girls who have that 'something special' spark about them. They are the hardest to have a relation with. They are also the ones I get attracted to the quickest.

Then there is this strange thing I have for Libran girls. I get attracted to them but nothing happens (to my utter frustration!). Met a few non-mainstream Libran girls. One kicked my ass, the other plain ignored me, the third remains a big big '?' and the fourth asked my sun-sign and when I told her, she replied 'oh you can't be a piscean, pisceans are like cows'.

Now I am thinking: Am I a cow?

I guess I cannot comment, only the girls who know me can do full justice to that question!

So LADIES... am I a cow? :D

A Question of Fa(i)t(h)e

A Question of FA(i)T(h)E

This post talks about astrology and other methods of predicting the future. These things fascinate me a lot. There is a definite logic behind these methods. The exact science behind them was lost a long time ago. Now there are just books.

The field is divided between those who know and those who pretend. Those who see the future and those who lie. The main problem is not the lack of knowledge. You will find many good books on the technique of your choice (be it astrology, palmistry or any other technique). The problem is what you use it for.

Blind faith in anything can be dangerous. We all know that. Yet we somehow end up trusting these techniques blindly. The simple impossibility of the act (predicting the future!) makes us trust and apply these techniques in a narrow minded way. Then when the predictions fail we feel cheated and betrayed.

The point that we miss so often, stressed just as often by people who really have the skill to peer into the future, is that these techniques are to be used as tools and not crutches. Master them but don't let them master you.

Predictive VS Descriptive

All such techniques have dual applications. They can be used for predictive purposes (my future!) or for descriptive purposes (me, my past and how they connect!).

By descriptive applications I mean using these techniques to understand yourself better. Relate your past experiences with what you are today and how you think. You will find that these techniques do give you new insight into your past and present. Plus the worse thing that can happen is that you will not understand yourself any better. Atleast you won't feel cheated.

The predictive power is much harder to tap accurately, especially when you don't have much free time. If you are really interested in your future, you may want to seek professional advice or take it up as a career!

Whatever happens just remember one thing, always, during your explorations of the Old Arts:

The future is in your hands.

It is crafted by your actions.

Whatever the situation you find yourself in.

Your happiness is in your hands.

For Sleep From Me

Ahh sweet Sleep,

I wish thou never releases me from thine peaceful embrace.

For my heart grows weary and my head hangs low.

As I see the bright darkness ahead.

A Poem by Me

love is a delicate flower,

which you my fair maiden cannot smell,

cannot touch,

for you have locked it away somewhere,

deep within the ruins of your heart

V for Vendetta

V for Vendetta

This is one of the BEST movies I have ever seen.

Few lines from the movie:

"We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed first hand the power of ideas, I've seen people kill in the name of them, and die defending them... but you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it... ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love..."

Dum Aloo

Here is a recipe for Dum Aloo from a proper Kashmiri friend of mine.

For all those guys and gals who will be cooking their own meal tonight!

1. Boil medium sized aalu,
2. pierce them and deep fry
3. so that Oil get in pores...and it becomes crispy
4. fry till outer cover becomes dark brown,,(Black nahi bilkul redish brown)
5. in a vessel add some oil..
6. add cumin seeds...1 spoon(tea spoon leveled...not heap ful)
7. garlic ginger paste..2 spoons
8. brown cardmom...moti elaichi ..1
9. cloves....3
10. add red chilli powder 2 spoons...tea spoons
11. add saunf powder...3 spoons
12. fry thoda saa
13. add beated curd...1 cup ...stirr continiously...till it boil
14. add fried potatoes...dip in the paste/gravy ache sei mix it..
15. then add water ...just to dip all potatoes....put a lid and cook on sim for 15-20 mins...
16. dekhna kahi jala na do....

This is what it should look like in the end (theoretically speaking).

Azzahar Macchwe

Few days ago a numerologist told me that I should spell my name with 2 z's and 2 c's.
Thus my name: Azahar Machwe becomes Azzahar Macchwe - which sounds like something out of a Star Wars movie.

This post is about someone Very special, someone I trust a lot, someone who is my Best buddy!

Hey who is this person, you ask? Ahhh but what is their name, you ask?


Really want to know the name don't you?

These questions will remain unanswered I am afraid. Since the person is special let them remain special and thus my little secret. ;)



Oh well, you all know how bad I am at avoiding questions especially when I am giving such BOLD hints! :D

So I will tell you.

The post is dedicated to my blog! It has created controversies, made me new friends, made me loose friends and generally kept my brain running when it wanted to go off to sleep. It gave me a platform for my thoughts, pictures and words. Sometimes I abused this space by writing about depressing things, sometimes I angered people by posting controversial thoughts.

All in all it has been a fun 2.5 years out here. My blog has over 500 posts now (579 to be exact). Lately I have been feeling that I should just end this blog and begin afresh with a new philosophy and a new title. Or maybe give up blogging completely and write a book or something (haha!).

This blog started with me wanting to post things about my work. Things related to life and evolution both in the computational sense and practical sense.
But then I reaslised that even our emotions evolve. In short Everything Evolves! What doesn't evolve, dies. As simple as that.

Thus life is about Everyting Evolutionary!

This blog started out as an attempt to redefine myself.. or maybe an attempt to define myself?
Will it end with me redefining myself as Azzahar Macchwe? Or will the old saying that 'more things change more they remain the same' come into immediate effect and stabalise this blog on to the next innings?

Lets wait and watch. Lets wait.. and watch..

A. M.

Glass and Stone at the Natural History Museum

Stained Glass Windows at the Natural History Museum, London



Exterior of the Natural History Museum

Poetry in Pink

"pink chatri ke neeche pink tshirt mein khadi thi"

Sahara Samay does the cutest/funniest things on air!

Keep it up!

I Love the Tube!

Spending some time in London these days. Travelling around on the London Underground is both painful and fun at the same time. Kind of paradoxical.

During my journey's on the 'Tube' I have seen many things, heard many things and experienced many things.

Heard on the Tube:
Two hep-ish Indian/Pakistani mom's talking.
Woman 1 (smart and trying to be sexy): Our stop is two stations away.

Her kid: 'Where are we now'?

Woman 1: We are near Harrods.

Woman 2 (not so smart and showing stuff to try and be sexy): 'Isn't that where you bought your handbag from'?

Woman 1: -blah blah blah- 'your foundation [makeup] is visible' -blah blah blah-.


Seen on the Tube:
Lots of cool looking girls in formal clothes! Smartly dressed gals from exotic parts of the world!
The latest laptops, mobiles and PDAs. Books with interesting looking covers and catchy titles.


Experienced on the Tube:
The woman who smiled at me. I was travelling on the District Line Train towards Earl's Court. A woman came in on board the train at Westminister. She must have been around 28. She had a badge on her jacket with today's date and 'Visitor' written on it. I was trying to make out where the badge was from. Looked like something Government related. She caught me looking at her badge and she turned a bit towards me. I could now make out the badge clearly. It had a Government logo on it.
Then my attention wandered towards the door because a station had come up. As I looked back in her general direction I saw her looking at me. I met her gaze for a bit then looked away. She had a sweet face.
Looking back again in her general direction I again saw her looking at me. This time I didn't look away and neither did she. Then she gave me the sweetest smile and I couldn't help but smile back at her.

She got down at the next station and that was the end of that!

:)

Like I said.. the Tube is amazing yet a pain. New things happening all the time! I could never read a book there. So many things to observe and think about!

Full Circle Family Planning

The other day I was told by someone that 'Boots sells everything from baby toys to sex toys'.

Sex toys are sold only through the website except during Christmas when they are also sold in the 'family planning' section in selected stores.

A question that came to my mind, at this point was how do sex toys help in 'family planning'?
Perhaps a social science Ph.D. topic?

It is amazing though, that Boots does baby toys so the baby can grow up happy and then once all grown up, go back to Boots for their sex toys and thus produce more babies completing the circle! This is what I call full circle family planning!

:)