The geeks have a word for this apparently inability of the end-users to read a manual – RTFM or Read the Fine Manual. The impatience of getting to use a brand new gadget quickly wears off once you cannot get it to work despite several attempts. The immediate reaction seems to be to reach out for the phone than to read the manual. You begin to raise queries to Tech support when the instructions have been clearly given in the manual. This is where the problem starts. The waste of your time and the Tech support’s time is exactly what the user manual tries to avoid. We will try to explore why this happens.

Why don’t we just read?

It is not the technology users or programmers who are guilty of committing the “Ask before you check” crime. This a common malaise and can be seen everyday while mailing or sending documents for review. It seems there is hardly anyone who does a thorough job of “Reading” these days. In fact, if you know someone who actually reads every line that’s send to him/her, I am sure that person is a quite valuable asset to your team for that particular “skill”.

The vast majority of us are either skimmers or ADHDs (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). The former prefer to gloss over the details and absorb the high level details from 30,000 feet. Once their 5 minute power-read of a document is complete, they bask in the satisfaction of having completed an arduous task of understanding the document in a fraction of the normal time. These superhuman feats are often fraught with the hazard of missing significant detail, but often skimmers are influential enough to disregards such minor details completely. The ADHDs are the ones with coffee coursing through their veins. They often try to start reading and few seconds later, completely give up hope. They procrastinate endlessly about the pile of documents waiting for them at their table. They might eventually turn to skimming but even then it turns boring pretty quickly.

These specimens of our species have been evolved by the forces of nature at work in the last few decades. Call it “Information Overload” or the “Twitter Effect”, there are simply too many streams of information competing for our attention at any given time. The email pop-up on your mail program, the tweet from a celebrity, an SMS from your friend and your phone rings at the same time on a particularly crazy moment. This multitasking is immensely taxing for your brain and in a desperate attempt to cope up, your brain tries to focus on the high-level details rather than the smaller details. The smaller details sometimes get overlapped with each other or completely forgotten and lead to embarrassing situations. Nonetheless we seem to be trapped in this multiple-thread hell as a necessary evil of modern life.

Can we ever truly multitask?

We often think that we are good or bad at multitasking depending on our assessment of ourselves. But the question remains as to if we are even capable of multitasking? This might sound like a silly question at first. Surely we can eat while talking over the phone. Or even listen to a radio show while driving. But have you ever taxed your brain for activities that involve thinking simultaneously? Have you tried writing something while talking over the phone? By writing, I don’t mean a routine chore like signing a cheque. I mean writing a prose or a report which is independent from the telephonic conversation. It might be extremely hard or even impossible to focus on both at the same time.

This leads to an interesting school of thought that our brain works best when there is a single thread of thought. To explain it in analogous terms to computer geeks, our brain is a single processor ¹. The only way we can multitask is by time sharing. We convert each activity into tiny slices which require our attention and quickly juggle through each slice like a skilled juggler. But at any given point of time there is only one slice on your mind, one ball in your hand. The rest are, so to speak, in the air and waiting for their turn.

Many Indian and oriental meditation techniques try to train your mind to develop focus on one particular activity at hand. There might be several other activities but treat them temporarily as distractions and try to train your mind to take the current activity to a logical end-point. The distrations can be blocked mentally, however it is best to actually prevent such distractions in the first place.

Next time you try to read a long document, turn off all the potential distractions. Most mail programs can be disabled to supress pop-ups. You can also turn off your twitter client and put your phone on silent/vibrate. Resisting the temptation to switch to a new activity is the key. Even at an early stage, the rewards of such focussed sessions are easy for one to see. The clarity it brings to your communications is also quite noticeable.

TL;DR

There is prevalent practice in most online forums to write a short summary of a long passage or comment for impatient readers called TL;DR i.e. Too Long; Didn’t Read. I might say that the TL;DR for this writeup is that one’s reading comprehension can be vastly improved if you can focus solely on the task of reading. But that would defeat the purpose, as you would miss the exploration of the problem, classification of the worst offenders or even the analogy of a juggler to the brain elaborated in this writeup.

But then, if you have reached this far, you are not the one who should be reading this!

These little nuggets of wisdom are the ones I always wanted to share to my clueless pedestrians. Sometimes, I have wanted to pull down the glass and scream till its drilled down into their thick skulls. But generally speaking, ignorance is bliss. They look so happy without this knowledge. That’s definitely not normal.

So without further ado here are the top things that every person who comes within 100 meters close to a road must know:

1. Hang-up – I know you love the ones you…ummmm love. But if you are walking close to the road, please do, in the name of Graham Bell, turn off the damn mobile. Unless you want your beloved to hear a live audio of a road accident, it is best to keep a close watch on the road first. I know, I know, you can multitask. But trust me, from a driver’s seat, I have honked at so many mobile-zombies till my hands ache.

2. Don’t be shy to look at the right direction while crossing – Since you are in India, you know that vehicles come from your right. Yet, so many of us choose to carefully watch your left before leaping to the middle of the road. There might be an oil tanker blaring its horns from your right, an auto squawking endlessly in an annoying tirade and even a friendly pan-walla kaka mouthing obscenities, yet you would be transfixed to your left. I mean, what form of dark physical humour is that? Unless, you have recently completed a very long onsite trip from US or the Middle East, you ought to know that the things with wheels come from your right. No, not that right. The other right.

3. Don’t cross in an underlit road – It is a long day and you are walking back home with that blessed device on your ear. Streetlights are alternately working and in some places pitch dark. Guess what, in your infinite wisdom, you pick the dark spot to cross the road. The next thing you know, a speeding Honda City missed you completely. Yes, they come with headlights these days. But being seen on the road and not seen, is the difference between life and death.

4. Don’t dance in front of cars – I know that you know some moves, but tarred roads are not the best dance floors. I am referring to those half-minded pedestrians who cross the road, see an approaching vehicle, pause, then moonwalk, then pause, then move forward, then do an about-turn. Imagine the horror of the guy in that incoming vehicle. He is in a hurry and all he can see is chicken dance. So the advice is – JUST CROSS SLOWLY, the drivers will take care of manoeuvring the vehicles. Don’t be a moving target.

5. Don’t hold hands – Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against PDAs (not the electronic kind, the kind that couples do). There is a split second difference between a person in the line of an incoming vehicle and outside it. So don’t drag someone along while you cross. Unless the person is a clueless toddler, let that person decide whether to cross or not.

6. Don’t pretend to be a traffic cop – There are so many not-so-old fellows who have been given the honorary tile of traffic cops… IN THEIR DREAMS. They tend to authoritatively stretch their palms to signal a stop for an incoming vehicle. They also get to decide if they have goofed up and cannot cross, to signal that we should continue driving along. Thanks, but no thanks. You are of no help, but I appreciate the straight face in times of absurdity.

These are the ones I could think of straight off my head. But I am sure there are more. The clueless pedestrian will never cease to amuse me.

We lead such pumped up lives that eventually we are maxed out. We badly need a recharge. We badly need that long overdue vacation. I had mine last weekend. It was an getaway to Munnar in Kerala. Though it was not my first trip, it was more special with my family. Climbing those long winding roads along the misty slopes covered with tea plantations, you find a place where you can finally recharge. And thank god for that! :)

Munnar, if you haven’t been there before, is a very different experience from, say Ooty. It has not yet been a victim of heavy tourist commercialisation where every pore of its surface has been clogged with teeming mercenaries. It still retains some of its pristine virginal green meadows and tall imposing eucalyptus trees. Even in this off-season, its lush green freshness practically invites you to spend many idyllic evenings sipping hot garden fresh tea.

Kavya was literally on her toes all the time. With her newly gained ability to balance on her own, she has successfully crossed from a limited 2D experience to a full fledged 3D experience, as its fashionable to say these days. Her shriek expressing sheer happiness sometimes crosses into the ultrasonic barrier and is quite effective in confusing bats. Her greatest weapon is of course her oh-I’m-so-sorry smile, to which even the most stone cold hearts turn into putty in mere seconds.

We all returned with memorable moments and saturated cameras (which seem to have more memory than us these days).

I had earlier sought suggestions for things to buy from USA which is not easily available in India. After much research, I realised that most of the things in USA are made in China. Well, no surprises there :). After some more serious research, I was able to come up with some items which are not easily available in India, yet have a really good value for money.

This was 6 months ago. Fast forward to the present and the goodies bag have finally arrived. Let me list down it’s contents:

• Leatherman Skeletools CX : One of the lightest multi-tools having a knife, wire cutter, universal bit driver (screwdriver) and bottle opener that fits your pocket. Has 25 years warranty

• Stylus pro: Lightweight ultra-bright pen flashlight made of aircraft aluminium. Uses normal AAA batteries.

• Board games (Pandemic, Carcassone, San Juan): Some of the most innovative and educational games ever developed for children and adults alike are not computer games but Board games. These three are probably the highest rated (at least two-player) and best value for money I could find.

• Pound of Dice 100 Pieces: Are you into RPG games? Need a 20 or 30 sided dice? This might be the cheapest way to get a decent collection of dice. You will never be short of dice anymore.

• Dragon Shield 100 Sleeves : This is for those innovative card games that one might design one day. Need sleeves for your freshly cut card printouts? Look no further.

It is an eclectic collection, matching my tastes; but I hope there is something for most people here.

Without sounding too cliched, let me say that some of the best things in life are not expensive. Here are some of the best things you can buy for less than Rs. 8K (around $160):

Wifi Router

This is a blessing for those with frequently off working hours calls or if you have multiple laptops. The convenience of being able to work near the balcony enjoying the quiet scenery and sipping tea is divine.

Small Water Heater

This is a pet peeve of mine. Hot water is absolutely essential for a bath. Even in summer. Yep. Nothing gives you a better satisfaction that a hot bath after a warm day. And in Mangalore it’s either raining in buckets or it’s hot and humid. I would recommend that you go for a 8l one if you want a good tradeoff between heating time and power consumption.

Portable Harddisk

I am sure most of us have tried using CDs for backing up all those wonderful photos and songs we have. The problem is – CD are not really great for organising data. It is readonly and once you burn it, there is no way to go back and change it. There are, of course, other problems like limited space and suceptibility to scratches.

Harddisk prices have gone down… a lot. So there is really no excuse for not getting one. There are sub-terrabyte ones at throwaway prices. I recommend the Western Digital’s handy Passport 500 GB.

Ebooks

Can anyone guess what’s the most heaviest thing to transport? Yep, it is undoubtedly books. The weight of a carton of books can exceed that of a TV, Microwave or even a carton full of iron boxes. I think everyone who love books would have had to part with them if they have had to travel a lot. They would have given away most of it to friends or relatives, never to see them back again.

This is sad. I don’t like giving away books. Neither do I want to kill my desire to create a personal library. I suggest an eco-friendly compromise – make a digital library. Do invest in Ebooks and Audio books. I have invested heavily in a collection that I am sure I can use anywhere once ebook readers become more cheaper. For now, I don’t mind reading them on my laptop. And yes, my library weighs less than a kilo ;)

Gamepad

I am a guy who is always tempted to buy game consoles. I have made up my mind a hundred times to buy a playstation or a nintendo, only to find that the latest PC is much better at it. And you know what PCs are always ahead in terms of sheer processing power. Except that they have clumsy input devices. Ever tried to play a racing game with a keyboard? Then you will know what I am talking about.

This is easily fixable. A USB gamepad (which looks like a PS2 Gamepad) comes in for less than Rs. 500. It is a great value for money. It has all the 4 way controls, shoulder buttons and 2 joysticks. Plus it has a built-in vibrator (no batteries needed)! I am planning to go for a second one. Now you can safely give your PC to your 5-year old cousin to play Mario Kart without fearing that he with smash your keyboard to bits shouting ‘Maaario’:)

Decent Mattress

Some one rightly said that we spend one-thirds of our life on a mattress. So why not in a really good one? There are cots in the market all the way from Rs 200 to branded mattresses worth several tens of thousands. Go for a really good branded mattress. It might cost a couple of grand, but you will not lose sleep over it ;)

Portable Home-kit

A briefcase sized kit that contains a small drill, spanners, measuring tape, pipe wrench, screwdriver set etc costs less that Rs. 2000 these days. I think it is well worth the price.

Those were, in my opinion, the best little things that don’t cost you a fortune. What are the ones you feel give you great value for money? Do add in your comments.

The talk was about creating a simple casual game using Pyglet called ‘FruitCatch’. The source code is really small and very readable. I also compared Pyglet with Pygame and why I prefer Pyglet (in certain situations:)). The demo showed the working game in the end.

You can download the game source code and presentation slides (PDF) here. I’ve shared this with the organisers as well, so it will be put up at the http://in.pycon.org/ site as well

UPDATE: The video of the lightning talk is now available and has been added below:

You might suggest a lot of ‘diff’ tools which can do the job in either Word or Textpad. The issue was that they were working with Excel spreadsheets rather than text files and I couldn’t find any free or open source solution for them. So I ended up creating a new tool called Office Diff. Interestingly, it handles not just Excel, but also all the Office 2007 and 2003 file formats plus PDF and HTML formats as well. It features an intuitive GUI interface and is completely written in Python.

The next best thing was to open source it. I am using the BSD licence. I found sourceforge a good choice because they support Bazaar, my version control of choice at the moment.

Please visit Office Diff homepage for screenshots and check out the first release.

Fast forward to 2009, most people now use Office 2007. The new Office is vastly more ….well…new and the preferred file formats all have changed. There is a x at the end of the all filenames so we have .docx, .pptx and .xlsx floating all over the place (how do you pronounce these anyways?!). The documents are still religiously sent as zipped files. Except there is no 40% reduction. Actually it isn’t even 10%. Why?

Because you cannot zip a file that’s already zipped. Yep…. all the new office documents are already zipped anyways. You can even open them using Winzip by simply renaming their extensions to .zip.

So folks, next time you mail someone, don’t bother to zip it. There is only the added annoyance of the recipient having to unzip before opening the file.

I’m 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010

I will explain in this post how to crack this simple code with the help of some Python one-liners (Google’s favourite language). If you are a Google aspirant (who isn’t? ;) ), this might help you clear the interview. So pay attention.

To most people it is immediately obvious that it is a text encoded in binary. Since each binary word is 8 characters long, it is most probably written in the extended 8-bit ASCII code. In fact, it is and you can read this with a simple ASCII chart.

But they have made it slightly difficult for you by writing in binary. Since most charts would provide you a lookup from decimal or hexadecimal numbers to ASCII representations only. So how do you convert from binary to decimal? It’s quite simple:

decimal = lambda s: sum(int(j) * pow(2,i) for i,j in enumerate(reversed(s)))

This line defines a function decimal which works in a manner similar to how we would manually convert binary numbers into decimal. Each position is multiplied by increasing powers of two from the right. Then, these numbers are added together. for e.g. ‘1010′ will be 1 * 8 + 0 * 4 + 1 * 2 + 0 * 1 = 10.

Next, we split the binary part of the tweet string and apply the decimal function on each part

tweet = "01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101100 01110101 01100011 01101011 01111001 00001010"
print ''.join(chr(decimal(s)) for s in tweet.split())

The result is something that you might have already guessed seeing the first 2 words:

“I’m feeling lucky\n”

Hope you learnt some interesting python constructs. If there are other ways of decoding this in Python, please comment below.

A. It is the same as the difference between TV and Cable TV. TV is a technology. However, Cable TV is a business model using this technology.

Cloud Computing refers to an architecture where web applications can scale easily to any number of users. Software as a Service (SaaS) is a business model where computing software is provided in a ‘pay as you use’ model. SaaS is often built using Cloud Computing. But all Cloud Computing apps don’t use the SaaS model.

Therefore Cloud Computing != SaaS