I was taking a cvs diff today between two versions of a java file. To my horror, I found out that most of the changes were in the formatting -- adding a space, changing a space to a tab or vice-versa. The real code change was tiny as compared to the white-space changes. It irks me when programmers ignore white-spaces, and add or delete them at will.

As a rule of thumb, cvs diffs' must contain only the code changes, and not the white-space changes. Very few programmers understand this, even experienced ones. :-|

Some movies are famous for their dialogues that run a chill along your spine. But such movies are rare. Very rare. Lately, I saw Taken. It is a story of an ex-special agent's daughter being kidnapped in France, and he (Liam Neeson) trying to rescue her from the clutches of the east-European gang. The movie has a predictable storyline, but some sequences in it are worth watching. For eg., the following dialogue uttered by Neeson to his daughter's kidnapper over phone:

"I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you."

Now *that* makes a movie worth watching!

I saw Slumdog, and I think it is slightly hyped. The movie portrays a skewed picture of India, especially to those who haven't been here (India is much, much more than only filthy slums and beggars). But given that it is directed by a British, this is not a surprise.

Though the soundtrack is good, A. R. Rahman fails to deliver the "Rahman magic" which we are used to (he has much better music than Slumdog, see Rojaa, Lagaan, Bombay). I also object to the brash language used in the movie, which makes it unsuitable for family viewing in India. The movie will not win all the 10 Oscars it has been nominated for -- there are far better movies at the Academy Awards than Slumdog.

Overall, though the story is surely innovative, the movie fails to impress me (but well, who cares anyway? ;-))

Got a professional membership to acm (Association for Computing Machinery) today. I can be reached at agodbole@acm.org too. In the host of benefits as a professional member, access to Communications of the ACM, and over 600 safari books is what interests me. Oh, and not to mention access to ACM's digital library, and the Classic Books.


For developing countries, ACM has a special rate of USD 43, as against USD 198 professional membership. And I guess it is worth every cent!

Don't waste candles in peace marches. Give them to those who do not have electricity instead. It will help them read, and be informed. Being informed is the key to building security.

...to protect ourselves, our people, our assets, our everything. We were, and still are ill-equipped to deal with any kind of emergency - be it human-inflicted, or nature-inflicted. Instead of criticizing our forces, our law-makers, and our politicians, time has come to introspect - where are we heading to? Unless "we" improve, our destination is chaos. Every single Indian has failed, and miserably so.

Giving more ammunition to police, or "better" vests, or establishing more security-related committees is not going to improve our situation. They are smart, they are well-trained, they are well-equipped, and they are *always* going to be one step ahead of us, unless every single individual decides to improve. Security of a nation depends more on every individual, than on the armed forces. Security is a collective activity, and not something to be had only by adding more ammo. People are the weakest link in security, and will always be so.

Resolve today. Resolve *NOW*. Resolve to IMPROVE as an individual. Educate. Be educated. Question. Keep your over-inflated egos aside. Take action. Be informed. Being informed improves trust. Improved trust helps build a secure nation.

We got a FIAT Palio Stile 1.1 SLX (furnace red color) from B.U.Bhandari in Pune. The reasons for going for a FIAT were good engine, and ample cabin space. Diesel was ruled out, as the premium above petrol was way too high. Photos here, here and here.

Anushree turned one on 3rd January, and I wanted to update her latest photos. Finally, they are. Here.

RMS (yeah, Richard Stallman) made a fool of himself on misc@openbsd when he made repeated incorrect statements about OpenBSD. And when people indicated this to him, he tried to shrug them away saying that they were "mistakes" on his part. Theo rightly calls him a "liar" and an "hypocrite".

Whatever respect I had for Richard as a "leader" has rapidly diminished and reached zero. Read it and judge for yourself.

Anushree turns one today. When you have a kid, time is warped. :)