Mood Indigo experiences

Currently, Mood Indigo is going on here at IIT. The past few days have seen me finally do some quizzing, after ages, with my old pal Sree. Fortunately, our first quiz in over 6 months, the General Quiz, went rather well, and we came second.

First place went to Ramanand, also from KReSIT, and Kunal from Fergusson. They were one terrific duo, and deserving winners. So, it was a KReSIT 1-2!

All in all, the festival does seem to be attracting larger crowds than last year, and the list of events at a particular venue is now displayed at that venue, which is a nice touch. However, I still miss the lounge as it was at MoodI 2004, where you just had to make your way to the KReSIT audi to relax, and possibly get some freebies now and again!

The only proshow I've attended so far was a concert by Jan Akkerman, which was terrific!

Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and tomorrow is the last day of MoodI. The campus will feel a little emptier then, mostly due to the lack of girls ;)

Merry Christmas!

Although this post is a little late, here's hoping that all of you had a wonderful Christmas this time round!

End of Semester 1

At last, my prayers have been answered! A rather long and tortuous Sem 1 has finally drawn to a close. All course projects and exams are over!

Finally, my worn-out self can enjoy doing what it does best - NOTHING!

My all-new Tech blog

Well, after a rather substantial delay, I've finally created my own technical blog. I'll post some details regarding MediaWiki installation after I'm done with my next exam. The first is fortunately over. But, there are still 3 to go along with some course project deadlines too. Long way to go!

In the soup!

Well, here I am in a classic mess, with only myself to blame. Some things never change!

I'm writing this in the middle of a night-out (hopefully I'll last at least till 3am) to meet 2 course deadlines in the next few days. These are majorly important deadlines, so everyone pray for me!

I know I've not been in contact with most of the people I've known, and it might seem like I've forgotten a lot of your birthdays. Don't worry, I haven't. It's just that procrastination has become a necessary evil. Seriously, for the last 2-3 weeks, I've just been living from deadline to deadline. Plus, my end-sem exams begin a week from now.

So, the soup has just begun to boil!

Isn't it obvious?

rohan's synonym -- genius (... as in adept!) 'What is your synonym?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Course worries

Ah well! Here I am occupied with my course projects. There are 3 projects, one for each course, and none of them are particularly easy.

Plus, I'm overcome with this tremendous feeling of lethargy, which I'm just not able to shake off. Procrastination is way too easy!

India avoids the wooden spoon in field hockey WC

This post is very late, but anyhow I just had to put this down. India managed to finish 11th out of 12 teams at the hockey World Cup at Monchengladbach.

This rather pathetic performance was mainly due to a spate of late goals by opposition teams. This meant India only 1 draw in the group stage and that too against lowly South Africa. Yet India lost only 1 game by more than 1 goal (a 6-0 thrashing by the Netherlands).

This can only mean that there is a lack of co-ordination in the team. There are many possible reasons for this: short tenures for coaches, favouritism, the list is endless. It's all down to poor administration, a rather correctable failing. But, does anyone want to correct it? No. Too messy, and plus folks might actually have to work.

The biggest joke of the tournament was the fact that it improved India's world ranking.

All we can do is pray that the team can improve.

I'm back... I think

Phew! I'm finally blogging after over a month. Lots of things contributed to this rather miserable state of affairs including illnesses, exams, accidents and the odd deadline. Well, there's a lot of stuff I've been waiting to blog about for a long time. So, let's hope for a mini-resurgence now. I think these one-month breaks are happening once too often.

India's hockey jinx continues

Yesterday, Sandeep Singh, the Indian hockey player who's the only one in the entire team that can convert a penalty corner, was shot accidentally in a train by the security guard.

This has given rise to yet another outrageously silly situation in Indian hockey just days before the World Cup. Our ace drag-flicker is now out of the tournament, and we've had to turn to the likes of Jugraj Singh, who's still struggling to regain the flow he displayed before he suffered a debilitating car accident over 2 years ago.

Just goes to show the absolute lack of vision hickey administrators have.

Happy Independence Day(belated)

Well, I'm finally blogging after an outrageously long time. It's really irritating to update liferea(my feed reader) everyday only to find that yours is one of the blogs that have not been updated. This is mostly due to the rash of assignments and tests I've been having(not that I'm doing very well though).

Anyhow, to get down to today's topic, India turned 59 yesterday. It's a really proud moment for all Indians. It's also really important to remember the sacrifices of all those who have made this possible.

All in all, India seems to be in a very promising position. But it's still important that the fruits of development are distributed equitably. Otherwise, it won't be development in the real sense.

From BE to M.Tech

Well, I've finally graduated from Don Bosco IoT (with a Ist class, thankfully). This ends a 4-year long saga littered with good times and bad ones, though the former overpowers the latter, at least in hindsight.

I've now moved to KReSIT, IIT-Bombay. It's a completely different world and will take some getting used to. Still, it promises to be a very interesting couple of years.

Sympathies

My deepest sympathies to the victims of the Mumbai train blasts. May the deceased rest in peace and the disabled rebuild their lives. Let's hope that the wounded recover quickly and that bereaved families find the strength to carry on.

Football World Cup finale

After much stewing over this game, I've finally got down to commenting on it. The final was contested between Italy and France.

The start of the match was rather uninspiring. Both teams seemed nervous and defensive. In the very first minute, Thierry Henry bumped into Italian skipper, Fabio Cannavaro, which left him rather dazed, but fortunately he was able to recover. In the 6th minute, he earned a penalty, that was converted by skipper Zinedine Zidane, albeit with a bit of luck. This brought some life into the game with the Azzuri being forced to go forward. They eventually equalized in the 19th minute, when Marco Materazzi rose above the French defence to send a powerful header into the back of Fabien Barthez's goal, off an Andrea Pirlo cross.

The rest of the game, including extra time, was littered with chances but both sided failed to capitalize. Notable ones include a powerful Zidane header in extra time, which Italian forced keeper Gianluigi Buffon to tip it over the crossbar, a Luca Toni header from a corner which hit the crossbar, and another Toni conversion, this time from a free-kick, which was ruled out for offside. Thierry Henry and Florent Malouda also made some penetrating runs into the Azzuri defence.

Then came the great Zidane incident. It was obviously a red-card offence, but it was definitely provoked by Materazzi. But it is a sad way to end such a glorious career. Unfortunately, it also left France without all their mainline penalty takers, Vieira being injured, and Henry and Ribery substituted, which eventually proved costly.

In the penalty shootout, David Trezeguet was unlucky to see his penalty come off the crossbar, but it was enough for France to lose. The Italians scored with all their penalties to take home the trophy.

All in all, the final was well-contested, though the Zidane incident did leave a bad taste in the mouth.

The Azzuri take on Les Bleus in the World Cup Final - II

Like I'd promised I'll now comment on the 2 semi-finals.

The first semi-final featured Italy and the hosts, Germany. Italy started brightly, and took the game to the Germans. As the game progressed, however, Germany managed to claw back and create a few opportunities of their own. However, there were no real scoring chances, and neither goalkeeper was really tested.

The second half was relatively quiet when compared to the first half, as the Azzuri just sat back and defended. This allowed the Germans to attack more often, and Lucas Podolski shot the best chance of the half too close to the Italian keeper, Gianluigi Buffon. The Italian defance was otherwise outstanding, with Fabio Cannavaro in great form. Towards the end of regulation time, Italian coach Marcello Lippi bolstered his front line, bringing on Alberto Gilardino and Alessandro Del Piero. However, the game was still goalless after 90 minutes, and headed into extra time.

The first half of extra-time was action packed as in the first minute Gilardino hit the post, and Gianluca Zambrotta hit the cross bar wth the follow-up off the rebound. Podolski missed the goal with a header, despite being completely unmarked. The second half of extra time proved decisive, as Fabio Grosso's brilliant goal off an Andrea Pirlo pass, put the hosts on the back foot just as the game appeared to be heading for penalties. The Germans attacked, but the resulting conterattack resulted in the Italians doubling their advantage, with Gilardino's splendid run ending with a superb back-heel to Del Piero, who made no mistake in beating Jens Lehmann.

Thus the Italians continued their strange sequence of making a final every 12 years, while the hosts were shattered after being denied a chance at the title.

The next semi-final took place at Munich between France and Portugal.

This was not as exciting as the other semi-final, but it was keenly contested and did have its moments. France began the brighter of the two, but Portugal soon found their feet. Cristiano Ronaldo was particularly dangerous with his incisive runs down the flanks. The match was decided with a slightly dubious penalty earned by Thierry Henry. Zinedine Zidane took the spot-kick and finished clinically, just beating the Portugese goalkeeper Ricardo.

After this, though the Portugese enjoyed the lion's share of possession they never really had any chances thanks to the ploy of operating only one striker. The only real chance fell to captain Luis Figo, who misheaded a botched clearance by Fabien Barthez towards the end of the second half. The real hero
for the French was Lillian Thuram who always seemed to be on hand to block a shot or any dangerous cross.

So, the French make their second final in 8 years while the Portugese go on to play the hosts in the battle for third place.

The Azzuri take on Les Bleus in the World Cup Final - I

Well, we've reached the last stage of the FIFA World Cup. What a time we've had!

First let's have a look at the Round of 16 games I've not commented on. Italy managed to beat a determined Aussie side with a rather dubious penalty in the last minute of stoppage time. France finally woke up, and came back from a goal down to trounce Spain 3-1. The Switzerland-Ukraine game was rather dull and finished with the Swiss missing all their penalties in the shootout, while the Ukrainians made all 3. The same can be said of the Brazil-Ghana game which turned out to be rather one-sided, in favour of Brazil.

Now, for the qurter-finals. First, Germany beat an in-form Argentina in another successful shootout, despite haing to come back from a one-goal deficit. Argentina were dominating the game till their coach, Jose Pekerman, went defensive, and took playmaker Riquelme off. After that the Germans equalized and held on till the end of extra-time, and were unstoppable (as usual) in the penalty shootout that ensued.

The next game involved Italy and Ukraine, and proved to be pretty one-sided, as the Ukrainians conceded an early goal and never recovered. Though they did apply some pressure in the 2nd half, the Italians killed off the game with 2 more strikes.

Next, Portugal met England. England made a mess of a penalty shootout again, as Portugese goalkeeper Ricardo stood like a wall to deny the English. The match made news thanks to Wayne Rooney's controversial sending-off. Though England fought hard they never really had much hope thanks to coach Eriksson's tactics which were flawed to say the least.

The final quarter-final saw France upset a fancied Brazil. The French ran rings around the Brazilians who were done in thanks to defensive tactics. Even after conceding a goal, Brazil never really fought hard enough to equalize, what with Lillian Thuram looking invincible in the French defence. Patrick Vieira, and Franck Robery were on song, while Zinedine Zidane was at his magical best.

I'll speak about the semi-finals next time.

The World Cup in knockout mode

Yippee!! The football World Cup has reached the knockout stages, and are we in for a treat. The group stage has already seen quite a few upsets along with some brilliant attacking football. Ghana proved to be the surprise package of Group E, qualifying ahead of big teams like the Czech Republic and the USA.

The 2nd round promises some good games (although half of the games are over as I write this). Germany won comfortably over Sweden, who could have been tricky. Argentina won a rather close match with Mexico, which went into extra time. England huffed and puffed (again) to victory over Ecuador, while Portugal came through an ill-tempered encounter with Holland, that featured a record 4 red cards.

The upcoming games include Italy v/s Australia, which could prove tricky for the Italians, thanks to the Aussies' fighting spirit and Guus Hiddink's guidance. Another interesting game is the one between Spain and France, both fancied sides, though France is low on form, while Spain isn't. Switzerland take on Ukraine in another match. The Ghanaians could ruffle quite a few Brazilian feathers with their strength and pace.

We already have 2 promising quarter-final match-ups decided. Let's see how the others shape up.

World Cup update

Well, the first 2 rounds of group matches are over. Let's have a look at what the possibilities are for all the groups.

Group A

The teams which will qualify have been decided, namely Germany and Ecuador. The winner of the group will be decided by the Germany-Ecuador game. Germany need to win to top the group, as they are behind on goal difference. Poland and Costa Rica are playing for pride after being eliminated from the tournament.

Group B

This is a more open group. England have already qualified, thanks to 2 rather fortuitous wins. Paraguay, are definitely out. But, Sweden and Trinidad & Tobago are in with a chance for the second qualifying spot. In fact, if Sweden beat England, they win the group. However, if the England-Sweden game is a draw, then England top the group and Sweden are in 2nd place, regardless of what happens in the T&T-Paraguay game. So, the islanders need to win if they are to nurture any hopes of qualification.

Group C

A rather tame end for the expected "Group of Death". Holland and Argentina meet to decide who tops the group. Cote d'Ivoire and Serbia & Montenegro play for pride in their game as both have alredy been eliminated.

Group D

A similar situation as in Group B. Portugal have already qualified with 2 wins. Mexico, who take on Portugal need to at least draw to stay out of reach of Angola, but they top the group if they win. Angola need to beat Iran by a 4 goal margin, and hope that Portugal beat Mexico. Iran are already out of it.

Group E

The most interesting group of the lot. A whole lot of permutations and combinations are possible, with everybody in with a chance. Italy needs at least a draw to get through. The Czech Republic need to beat Italy to be sure of qualification. A draw will suffice only if the other group game ends in a draw or if the US wins by less than 3 goals, thanks to better goal difference than Ghana. Ghana need to beat the US to qualify. The US can also qualify if they beat Ghana and Italy beat the Czechs, but a draw or Czech victory will bring goal difference into play.

Group F

Well, Brazil are through thanks to 2 narrow victories. They only need a draw against Japan to ensure topping the group. Australia need to win to ensure qualification, as a Japanese victory over Brazil can send them out of the tournament, but a draw might be enough, as the Japanese victory looks unlikely. Croatia need to beat Australia and hope that Brazil don't lose to Japan.

Group G

Another group to watch. France are in grave danger of being eliminated. They need to beat Togo by at least a 2 goal margin to ensure qualification, as a draw between the Swiss and the Koreans would leave all 3 level on 5 points, and goal difference would come into play. If either the Swiss or Koreans win, France's qualification becomes easier. Togo are already out of the tournament.

Group H

Spain have already qualified, and take on Saudi Arabia in their last game. The Saudis with 1 point need to win to have any hope of qualifying, but that looks unlikely. Ukraine takes on Tunisia, knowing that a win will see them through, although a draw might leave them vulnerable to a Saudi win. Tunisia are in the same boat as Saudi Arabia, only they have a much better goal difference.

This round of group games promises quite a bit of excitement. Let's see what happens.

The World Cup is here

At last, a month of good football. The saddest thing about the WC is that it comes once every 4 years. Now for my predictions for each group (Yeah, I got nothing else to do!)

Group A

Germany ought to top the group, with a bloody fight between Costa Rica, Poland and Ecuador for the second spot. Costa Rica do have some experienced campaigners like Paulo Wanchope.

Group B

England and Sweden should qualify, but Paraguay could surprise them. Trinidad & Tobago might cause the other 3 teams a few problems.

Group C

The most difficult group to predict, and also the most exciting to watch. Argentina and The Netherlands ought to qualify, but both Serbia & Montenegro and the Ivory Coast can easily upset them.

Group D

A relatively easy group to predict. Portugal & Mexico should qualify, though Iran can give them a few scares. Angola is an unknown quantity.

Group E

Another very interesting group. Italy and the Czech Republic are my picks, although the US could very easily turn the tables on both of them. Also, Ghana normally do well in the African regional tournaments, so they might cause a few scares.

Group F

Brazil should win this group. However the battle for the second spot between Croatia, Australia and Japan could get interesting. Japan made the knockout stages last time, Croatia finished 3rd in 1998, and Australia are in good form.

Group G

France should qualify here, though it is short of form. Switzerland and South Korea will battle it out for the second spot. Togo do not appear to pose any threat.

Group H

Spain should count themselves lucky to get one of the easiest groups in the tournament. Ukraine are expected to take the second spot. Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, though good on their day, do not appear to pose too much of a threat to the 2 European teams.

Sarva Quota Abhiyan

Well, with all this racket over the decision to increase quotas for OBCs(Other Backward Castes) in India, I figured it was time I added my voice.

Now, I'm not exactly for quotas in any form, but since we already have them, and are not going to do away with it any time soon (for reasons regarding political expediency), we might as well have quotas for everybody. Yes sir! Hence the title of this post "Sarva Quota Abhiyan"(Quota for all scheme).

Why just restrict quotas to only a few classes like SCs(Scheduled Castes), STs(Scheduled Tribes), OBCs, and MBCs(Most Backward Castes). Let's include all other groups of castes, such as WTWBCs(We Think We're Backward Castes), WWBBCs(We Wanna Be Backward Castes), WGLBANWBCs(We Got Left Behind And Now We're Backward Castes), and the Undecided, who don't know anything about their castes(Can't leave out anyone now, can we?).

On a more serious note, reservations ought to be on the basis of economics, not birth. So, maybe we can base reservation on some threshold determined by the student's family's tax records. This would probably be a boon, as it would force everybody to register with the income tax department. On the other hand, the tax department would need to be bolstered, so that it can prevent underdisclosure of income.

But, frankly, it makes a lot more sense than the solutions that are currently being discussed. It's important to note that reservations are a pretty nifty way of uplifting backward classes, there are many examples of people getting in on a reserved seat, turning out to be quite successful. It's just that caste-based reservations aren't theway to go.

Down with variety

Variety is the spice of life, so they say. But, in the Indian entertainment business, it's bad for your bottomline. A good example is the recent case of Go 92.5 FM.

Go was a radio station that played a good amount of English music. The rest of the private radio stations in Mumbai play entirely Hindi music, and that too only recent stuff. You don't get too much of classic Hindi music during prime time. Then all of a sudden, Go decides to switch to playing only Hindi music. Now, with the Himesh fixation, browsing through channels is like Himesh, some other silly song, Himesh, some stupid remix, Himesh again, and All India Radio(AIR), the public broadcaster.

Now, we have lost seriously nice programs like "The Night Shift", which played quality English classics, and even had a special hour devoted to rock music.

The only oasis left in this desert is AIR, which still plays a few hours of English music. It even plays Western Classical, cool. And somebody said that private companies are better than government-controlled ones?

Probably, the only reason that AIR still plays western music, is that, being state-controlled, it doesn't have to fight for survival. So, it doesn't have to worry about mass appeal. A real pity actually.

Let's hope the policy for granting licences to radio stations changes to improve the variety of programs we get to hear.

Project story

Now, this is a story that needs to be told. Our project presentation took place on Tuesday the 25th of April. Here is the leadup to that major event in our lives(or so we say):

Friday, April 21

Today is the day we are supposed to get the project report ready and send it for printing. And guess what, we decide to proofread, and this takes up most of the day. To top it off, I have to rewrite our rather messy trial code. So, it's another late night. Anyhow, at the end of the day, the report is ready without any errors (or so we think) and so is the code.

Saturday, April 22

Today is a relatively slow day. Just a little bit of our project presentation is done. Oh, the big news, apparently despite all our proofreading, where we found even misplaced commas, we missed out the fact that there was an error in our project name on the cover page. Brilliant!!

Sunday, April 23

Rest day. Much needed.

Monday, April 24

One of those extremely long days that come along uninvited. We has to finish the presentation, and all of a sudden, our project stops working. Not good.

It takes me till about 10:30 pm to figure out the problem, which is basically due to an error in some pointers. Also there is our presentation to be completed, along with the CD containing our code, documentation etc. Fortunately, all ofthis is completed albeit at 11:30 pm, which breaks my previous record for staying back in college i.e. 11 pm.

At 10 pm, we find out that our reports are still not ready, and would probably be ready by afternoon, and our presentation is supposed to be in the morning. Hooray! Looks like time to panic. Anyhow, Gerard and Hardik, two of our 4 team members (the others being Savio and I), decide to go to the shop to hound the guy till we got the reports. Wound up reaching home after midnight.

Tuesday, April 25

Ah, the day of the presentation dawns. After 2 hours, we finally get the project reports. Those 2 hours were pretty tough as we were rather worried, but our presentation was fortunately delayed on request.

Anyway, all's well that ends well. Our presentation was a hit with the external, the principal of MET (a very nice lady).

Thank God. Now that hassle is over, and our vivas(the last we'll have in Mumbai University) have begun. We ought to be getting sentimental, but fat chance we will.

Project is over

At last all the work related to our B.E. project is done. Now I can start blogging regularly. More on this later.

Programming contest fortunes

Ah! Programming contests. Places where crazy geeks code like madmen to solve ridiculously pointless problems. Well I've always found them good fun, although I've never really done too well in them. Generally, I get the right algorithm, but get confused for some reason or the other, and then modify it so it doesn't satisfy all test cases.

Well, I finally had some success at a programming contest. I managed to qualify for Round 1 of Google Code Jam India 2006. Although, I must admit the problem I solved was easy, I did solve it very quickly. For once, none of the gremlins that normally turn up when I program stayed home.

Round 1 was yesterday, and well, the gremlins returned. I was misled by one test case and modified the algorithm I had. Even this algorithm I got on the second try( I didn't read the question thoroughly :D ). Plus the usual goof-ups, like typographical errors and improper conditional statements, returned to haunt me.

One good thing though, is that I quite liked the TopCoder interface used for the contest. So, I went and registered at TopCoder, so I can keep practising. In general, I find the problems a lot more solvable than those at ACM-ICPC.

The contest manager used by TopCoder is also pretty cool. I also like the contest manager CCPE made by Sreepathi and Keyur (who are good pals of mine). They, along with Ankur, are also the best programming team in our college. The manager used at CRCE, Bandra is also pretty good.

Let's hope I can keep improving my programming and at least win something.

Cricket today

Ah, I'm improving! It's now less than a month since I last blogged. Anyhow, I figured I'd write on the state of one of my favourite sports, cricket.

First of all, a brief history. Cricket was this game invented in England which very effectively provided 5 days of pretty enjoyable timepass, the games being pretty exciting in the old days. But, in the 50's and 60's, cricket captains figured a boring draw was better than an exciting defeat, and this led to reduced attendances at cricket grounds. So, they introduced one-day cricket. This proved relatively successful. Then came Kerry Packer's "circus". Essentially most of the innovations that we see today such as day-night games, coloured clothing etc. can be traced to World Series cricket. Now, cricket, especially the one-day variety, is very popular in South Asia, but less so elsewhere.

Test cricket is considerably less popular than one-day cricket. This is despite the fact that tests, in my opinion, are my opinion are more exciting than one-dayers, which have fallen into a more or less set pattern with few exceptions. The pattern is something like, biff-bang-pow in the first 15 overs, followed by 20 overs of consolidation, and then 15 overs of more biff-bang-pow.

Plus, the wickets have less for the bowlers than previously, mostly to encourage big shots, that many feel crowds come to watch. Unfortunately, this has led to matches where one team scores 300 plus, and the other team matches it with ease.

One-day cricket has also led to the demise of the technically-correct batsmen like Rahul Dravid. In fact, he's the only batsman who can anchor an innings in the Indian team. So India is almost always in trouble when he gets out.


Fortunately, the recent Ashes series has shown that people are interested in test cricket which is result-oriented, and if the pitches have something in them for the bowlers. Let's hope this prods the powers-that-be into improving the standard of cricket.

Doordarshan is going down

Yikes, haven't blogged for over a month. I really ought to be more regular. Any how, my search for a topic has come to an end. After messing up all the TV related questions in an entertainment quiz, I have decided to write on the declining state of Doordarshan.

For those who haven't lived in India, Doordarshan(DD) is the state-owned public broadcaster. In fact, before the arrival of cable television, DD was TV. In the early days, DD was a godsend to the Indian public who had never seen a TV. It had a nice, balanced selection of programs, like a weekly Hindi film, some decent serials, and on Sundays, "I love Lucy".

However, after the arrival of cable television, DD went into terminal decline. The quality of programming, which had already declined, dropped further because of lack of advertising revenue. Nobody bothered with watching DD National and DD Metro, now that there were channels like Star Plus and Zee.

However, DD still got all India's home tests and one-day matches. Now, even this is being taken away, and the only reason DD viewers still get cricket is because of the courts.

Now, they are so down in the dumps that they don't cut serials where they are sure of making at least some money, for sports events like the Olympics for which they get the rights and then proceed to transmit on DD Sports, which is a cable channel.

At least, previously they used to show a one-hour highlights package, but that was not there for the 2006 Winter Olympics. This was irritating, to say the least. This is probably due to the fact that they have a news channel, DD News, in place of DD Metro.

There was a failed attempt to rework DD Metro, with some new content that they got with help from Channel 9 of Australia. But, that flopped after a while. Then, they tried to resuscitate their old serials. But, that failed too, and they dropped DD Metro for Dd News.

However, let's hope that there is some hope for the beleaguered broadcaster. The choice of movies has improved. Previously, it used to be one reasonably good(or relatively recent) movie on Friday, and an average(or, if you're lucky, a classic) movie on Saturday. Now, it's 2 reasonably good, recent movies on Friday and Saturday, and a classic movie on Sunday afternoon.

Command line v/s GUI

Ah! The perennial battle in computing. Which is better the command-line or the GUI?

Well, ever since Xerox (not Apple and definitely not Microsoft!!) developed the GUI to make things simpler for newbies, they have opened a can of worms. Though it is undeniable that this has resulted in an explosion in the number of computer users, ultimately, a GUI can only do so much. Indeed, in many operating systems, particularly the Unices, a GUI program will just translate the option selected by the user into options that would normally be entered on the command line. This make things much easier for newbies, but much more restrictive.

Another major grouse I have with the GUI is the mouse. Personally, I find it very irritating to move and click for anything I need to do, when a short command may be all that is necessary. This particularly rears its head while copying and renaming files.

Another good reason for using the command-line over the GUI is that it enables a lot of work to be done remotely over the network, unless you use web-based administration (for example, on Debian GNU/Linux).

Finally, a very esoteric reason for disliking GUIs. Personally I feel that commands like "cp source destination" are a lot closer to English than just dragging and dropping files.

However, when trying out new programs, I often do prefer the restricted environment of the GUI, mainly to avoid wrecking any hardware thanks to wrong settings. At the same time, though I still find the command-line more convenient if not quicker.

This also contributes to my preference for Unices over other operating systems which have a limited command-line environment.