Tuesday, August 30, 2005

So far,so good

Pehla Nasha,Pehla Khumar... No,no, I have not fallen in love (I am generally scared of falling and the same holds even in case of 'falling in love').That was the alarm tone on my mobile that went off at 5.45 early(very very early for me)today morning.After much trepidation & self-cursing, managed to pull myself out of the bed.The reason why I was behaving like a masochist was because of an impulsive decision that I took yesterday.This decision was, courtesy my increasing waistline.You can compare its growth with the rate at which petrol prices are going up in Bangalore.And that is quite high for comfort(Literally in this case,as I found out my pants were getting tighter around my waist).So,I finally decided to do something about it.

The best and the cost-effective way,I thought,to acheive this would be - jogging.
I called up one of my friends in the night yesterday and told him about my decision.He seemed quite inspired and promised that he too would join me today.I found out,he was not all that inspired, for he did not turn up today morning.But not to be deterred by this,I upheld my decision and started out alone.Being the first day,I thought a brisk walk would be advisable rather starting jogging right away.At that, I clocked a good speed too.Then I made a mistake of over-estimating myself.Thought why not jog from day one - after all,that was my decision in the first place.
Its about time to sleep now and I am having quite a pain in my legs and knees.
But I am not going to give up so easily.In Swami Vivekananda's words, "Arise,awake and stop not till the goal is reached".So,I will arise and awake very very early(you know what time) every morning and jog till my goal is reached.

Its been "So far,so good".Only that "So far" here refers to only one day.But I really plan to go far tomorrow morning.The alarm is again set at 5.45 and the clock is ticking.Pehla Nasha,Pehla Khumar...

Sunday, August 21, 2005

One simple question

The question is rather simple, but I am not sure if the answer is all that obvious.
" Why do we think the way we think ? "

I recently read an article that talked about the "cosmic law" as proposed by the Buddha. According to this law, all that is happening was just meant to happen that way.It could not have happened otherwise.It goes on to conclude that one should not have any hatred towards someone for something bad that he did to you, because whatever happened to you simply had to happen and that person was merely following the cosmic law to generate that event.

Now, as a fall out of that argument can it be implied that the effect was already decided ? Then, the cause was so generated as to produce the required effect. In summary, the effect was the cause for the cause to produce the effect.The "principle of causality" is violated in this case and there remains little distinction between cause and effect.

I have read in a number of places that "you are what you think you are" and other such numerous versions of the above statement that basically translate into "You can become what you choose to become".Agreed.

But,at the cost of repitition,my simple question is "Why did we think in a particular way".Why does a winner think that he can win and on the same lines why does a loser think that he will lose.
Building upon the cosmic law, can it be argued that the winner was already chosen and his thought process, was merely in a manner, conducive for him to win ? (Though I don't know what algorithm is used to choose the winner !!)

Is it possible that we already have our destinies decided and we think in a given way in order to fulfill that destiny ? I know that sounds kind of a defeatist attitude where you are accepting that things are not actually under your control.But could it be the truth.I don't know....

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

022

This is not a post, as to why Mumbai has 022 as its dialing code. 022 is the name of the utility that I concocted during the spare time at work that I am having these days.
It stands for “ 0 to(2) 2 ”,with 0 as in 4:2:0 and 2 as in 4:2:2. Now, 4:2:0 and 4:2:2 are two formats for representing raw video data in digital format. The three numbers represent the luminance (Y), and chrominance (U, V) information respectively. The difference between them is in the amount of chroma information that is stored. In 4:2:0, the resolution of the chroma samples is halved in both the vertical and horizontal directions. For instance if your luma information is represented as 176 x 144 pixels, each of the chroma samples, U and V are 88 x 72 pixels. On the other hand (It feels quite funny to use this expression – “On the other hand”, but nevertheless..), in 4:2:2 the chroma samples are halved in only the horizontal direction. So in 4:2:2 , the chroma samples are 88 x 144 pixels each. Then there is also the 4:4:4 format where the amount of chroma information stored is the same as the amount of luma stored. The chroma information, then, in 4:4:4 is 176 x 144 pixels. Don’t bother too much about why the number “4” is used to represent the various formats. There is some reason, which I cannot recollect right now. Its not too significant in this context,either.

So what is the fuss about having so many different formats to store the YUV. Supposedly, the human eye is more sensitive to the luminance aspect of an image than the chroma information. To take advantage of this weakness, they have resorted to the various formats. An image in 4:2:0 requires half the number of bytes than that required by an image in 4:4:4 without much loss (actually any) in visual perception.

Finally, what does 022 do. Not much actually. It takes a YUV file in 4:2:0 format and converts it into 4:2:2. How does it do it? Well there are a number of ways like interpolation, replication and so forth. 022 being simple, just uses the replication method wherein the pixels are replicated line by line vertically. There, you have the 4:2:2 file as output.
This talks about converting from 4:2:0 to 4:2:2 using interpolation.

In all probability, this could be my first and last post on a technical issue. There are sites reserved for technical discussions and I feel this is not the right place. You can interpret that, as a euphemism for saying, “ I am dumb, so please do not expect anything technical from me”.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

Mirage

Wrote this article a long time ago.Thought of posting it here and this is how it goes...

Why is it that we find so many people around, whining every moment? They desire to possess the best things under the sun. Why does the human mind always crave for the good? Nothing but only the best can satiate its thirst. Even as I write this piece, a part of my mind is already ‘craving’ for the adulation that I would get, if this chunk of text can impress upon an august audience. Why do we always want to succeed? Oblivious to the fact that failures are a part of life, we cannot accept any failures in our professional or personal lives. It is a rarity to find someone ‘pleased’ at his inability to do something. Status, wealth, and fame…the ‘most wanted’ ingredients in the recipe for a so-called ‘successful life’ go on.

Precisely speaking, there is no formal definition of a successful life. It is all left to your perception as to what you see in a successful person. It is nowhere stated that the person who the makes the greatest of discoveries or the richest man alive can be termed ‘successful’. That makes success a subjective issue. You see a sweeper who relentlessly goes about doing his mundane job, as successful and so he becomes. But that again, is only your perception. The world might not even be aware of his existence.

Then what is it that makes success a common or a disparate perception? Ostensibly, success stems from the ability to do something that others have not been able to attempt or have failed if they have done so. When people fail to understand your work you have good chances of being labeled successful!! For instance, I might be a ‘successful’ writer for someone, not very adept at the English language. At the same instant, the author of a best seller could tag me a ‘miserable failure’ at writing. Consequently, success or failure is only relative. There is no yardstick to measure your success. It is like a mirage you encounter in the blistering heat of the desert. The moment you feel you have reached it, it has eluded you.

That teaches us an important lesson. Do not run after success, just like you should not be running away from failure. That is because, it is just like trying to breathe in vacuum. There is no air and you wish to breathe? You will not find success or failure in your lives no matter how fast and how far you run. They are non-existent entities in reality, which find place only in your minds in the form of an illusion. The only reality is YOU and your duties in life.

If only everybody, myself included on top of the list could realize this, the world would be a much better place to stay in. Ah! There goes the mind again craving for better things. You cannot correct the mind, can you?

Saturday, August 06, 2005

I am infected...

Yes,the blogging bug has finally hit me.I never thought that I would get into this thing.But here I am.I am trying to follow the simple-yet-so-complex zen philosophy, "Eat when you are hungry and sleep when you feel sleepy". I am feeling like blogging now,and so this post.But I don't know if I will have the enthusiasm to keep going and it doesn't matter.

I must admit, the very process of creating a blog was extremely irritating.Without exaggeration,I must have typed atleast 30 different names for the username. 'mighty duck', 'memd', 'thisisbad', 'ksrisgod' were some of my unsuccessful attempts at creating a valid username.Much to my consternation, none of them were available. Then, almost pleadingly, I just gave in 'whatnamedoigive' as the input, and lo and behold !!,it was available.So you see, the very process of not getting something, got me that very thing.Much,like in life,I guess. The moment you let go of something, you acquire it.

So much so for my very first post.