Aakash's Blog

Number Systems I

2007-08-31T13:39:00.000+05:30

To me numbers are just some entity that need to be represented. The way we chose to represent them is in base 10 also known as decimal number system, Where we have 10 symbols 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 and we use them to represent any number we want to represent.

Eg: number twelve is represented as (1*10 + 2) or 12
and number hundred and twenty three is represented as (100*1 + 10*2 + 3) or 123

Similarly negative numbers can be represented.

Now the first question is "Why use 10 as the base to represent numbers?"
The answer is fairly simple, we have 10 fingers. If we had only 6 fingers we could have had a base 6 number system too.

And we would have counted as 0,1,2,3,4,5,10,11,12,13,14,15,20 and so on.

The next question is "Why do we use 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9 to represent numbers"
The answer is just because we can. Yes there is no reason to say 1 should represent one and so on. It could have been any symbol for that matter.

Lets say 'A' represents that '0' as we know it
Lets say 'B' represents that '1' as we know it
Lets say 'C' represents that '2' as we know it
Lets say 'D' represents that '3' as we know it
Lets say 'E' represents that '4' as we know it
Lets say 'F' represents that '5' as we know it
Lets say 'G' represents that '6' as we know it
Lets say 'H' represents that '7' as we know it
Lets say 'I' represents that '8' as we know it
Lets say 'J' represents that '9' as we know it

and we use a base BA (10) number system then the number 123 would be BCD.

Confusing, yes a little but not so much if you know how number systems work.

Enough to ponder about in this post. I am going to cover more topics like :

* Negative base number systems.
* How to represent any number in any base number system (except 0 base number system)

Back after a long time

2007-08-27T23:49:00.000+05:30

I am back after quite some time.
I was very busy over the last two months.

* Been to Ladakh, Delhi (twice) and Chennai.
* Released a product.
* Got hooked onto Flickr. (http://www.flickr.com)

and many more things, which will reveal themselves over time.

I made it to the explore page of flickr with this amazing picture that I took at Pangong lake in Ladakh:

Hope you enjoy it.. I hope to find some time for blogging again.

I like to Moo

2007-06-18T16:32:00.000+05:30

Video: crazzee cow

Been there done that

2007-06-10T12:29:00.000+05:30

Displaying the states I have been to in India (marked in yellow).

Thanks Sumeet! Get your own map at here

Temporary disposable email ids

2007-05-29T09:26:00.000+05:30

Do you hate it when you give out your personal email id to signup for some site and then receive tons of spam mail :(
If yes here is a site which will help you get rid of spam.

How does it do it?
Easy. It assigns you a new email id every time you visit. As long as you are on the site it also keeps displaying the emails you receive on your temporary id. So that you can finish your signing up responsibilities. To check the email later you could go to the address http://www.mintemail.com/USERNAME

replace USERNAME with the temporary name that the site had given you.

Try sending an email to joshua896@mintemail.com and then check the mail out at http://www.mintemail.com/joshua896

The only issue is that I could not find a way of deleting the mail, because there are enough lame sites out their which send you password with the confirmation mail. Really sad if someone knows your temp id and is able to login to the site you have registered to.

So here is a thumb rule, For any site that you will use very often use your original email id and for any site that you do not plan to use more than one or two times use the temp email id (Also do not use your regular password for the site, to be on the safer side)

Camera shipped from Mars

2007-05-28T17:29:00.000+05:30

CASIO EX-Z75SR Silver 7.2 MP Digital Camera 1/2.5" CCD 2.6" 115K LCD 3X Optical Zoom 4X Digital Zoom - Retail

is being sold of newegg.com for $189.99

Not bad eh..

Wait till you see how much it costs to ship it.

"3 Business Day Shipping $99,999.00"

Where are they shipping it from? Mars?

Or are they teleporting it to my place?

Funny Dilbert comic strip

2007-05-28T15:44:00.000+05:30

Source : www.dilbert.com

Television you can bend

2007-05-25T15:47:00.000+05:30

WARNING : Do not try this at home. I can assure you, you cannot bend your TV (yet)

Sony has come up with a new digital display so thin that you can bend it with your bare hands. They intend to come up with one that can be rolled up like paper. Waiting eagerly for the day when I can say goodbye to the projector screens and projectors in meeting rooms. I can pull down the rolled up Digital screen in front of the white board in meeting rooms and connect my laptop directly to it. Sweet :)

Check out the Article

Voice

2007-05-24T13:32:00.000+05:30

My song of the day

Top 200 H1B employers for 2006

2007-05-18T15:53:00.000+05:30


Rank    Number  Company
        of visa
1       4908    INFOSYS TECHNOLOGIES LIMITED 
2       4002    WIPRO LIMITED       
3       3117    MICROSOFT CORPORATION 
4       3046    TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES LIMITED 
5       2880    SATYAM COMPUTER SERVICES LTD 
6       2226    COGNIZANT TECH SOLUTIONS U S CORP 
7       1391    PATNI COMPUTER SYSTEMS INC 
8       1130    IBM CORPORATION     
9       1022    ORACLE USA INC      
10      947     LARSEN & TOUBRO INFOTECH LIMITED 
11      910     HCL AMERICA INC     
12      890     DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP 
13      828     CISCO SYSTEMS(CSCO) INC 
14      828     INTEL CORP          
15      817     I-FLEX SOLUTIONS INC 
16      774     ERNST & YOUNG LLP   
17      770     TECH MAHINDRA AMERICAS INC 
18      760     MOTOROLA INC        
19      751     MPHASIS CORPORATION 
20      665     DELOITTE CONSULTING LLP 
21      645     LANCESOFT INC       
22      642     NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
23      637     ACCENTURE LLP       
24      632     JPMORGAN CHASE & CO 
25      611     POLARIS SOFTWARE LAB INDIA LTD 
26      611     COVANSYS CORPORATION 
27      591     PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS LLP 
28      533     QUALCOMM INCORPORATED 
29      529     GOLDMAN SACHS & CO  
30      476     KPMG LLP            
31      475     MARLABS INC         
32      437     UNIV OF MICHIGAN    
33      434     UNIV OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO 
34      432     UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA 
35      432     THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIV MED INSTS 
36      416     SYNTEL CONSULTING INC 
37      413     CITIGROUP GLOBAL MARKETS INC 
38      413     BEARINGPOINT INC    
39      404     UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND 
40      386     KEANE INC           
41      382     HTC GLOBAL SERVICES INC 
42      378     IGATE MASTECH INC AN IGATE COMPANY 
43      362     HEXAWARE TECHNOLOGIES INC 
44      362     CAPITAL ONE SERVICES INC 
45      355     COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 
46      352     LEHMAN BROTHERS INC 
47      347     YAHOO INC           
48      339     US TECHNOLOGY RESOURCES LLC 
49      336     INTELLIGROUP INC    
50      333     HEWLETT PACKARD CO  
51      330     RAPIDIGM INC        
52      329     MERRILL LYNCH & CO INC 
53      328     GOOGLE INC          
54      322     CITIBANK N A        
55      322     DIS NATIONAL INSTS OF HEALTH DHHS 
56      316     YALE UNIVERSITY     
57      314     NOKIA INC           
58      313     TEXAS INSTRUMENTS(TXN) INC 
59      309     CAPGEMINI U S LLC   
60      308     HARVARD UNIVERSITY  
61      305     EMC CORPORATION     
62      303     SUN MICROSYSTEMS(SUNW) INC 
63      301     RITE AID CORPORATION 
64      298     BLOOMBERG           
65      292     GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY 
66      289     AMGEN INC           
67      286     MCKINSEY & COMPANY INC US 
68      285     MORGAN STANLEY      
69      279     STANFORD UNIVERSITY 
70      278     WASHINGTON UNIV IN ST LOUIS 
71      276     VERIZON DATA SVCS INC 
72      276     NYC-HHC HARLEM HOSPITAL CENTER 
73      275     UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH 
74      273     INDIANA UNIVERSITY  
75      271     OHIO STATE UNIV     
76      269     EVEREST CONSULTING GROUP INC 
77      269     UNIV OF MINNESOTA   
78      268     AMTEX SYSTEMS INC   
79      268     UW MADISON          
80      262     STATE UNIV OF NY AT STONY BROOK 
81      262     AMAZON GLOBAL RESOURCES INC 
82      256     CLEVELAND CLINIC FOUNDATION 
83      255     DALLAS INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT 
84      254     UNIV OF CA DAVIS    
85      251     NORTHWESTERN UNIV   
86      250     SYNTEL INC          
87      247     UNIV OF MISSOURI COLUMBIA 
88      247     GLOBALCYNEX INC     
89      246     KANBAY INCORPORATED 
90      242     AMERICAN SOLUTIONS INC 
91      240     UNIV OF FLORIDA INTL CENTER 
92      239     UCLA                
93      238     DUKE UNIV UNIV MED CTR & AFFIL INS 
94      236     MOUNT SINAI MEDICAL CENTER 
95      236     BANK OF AMERICA N A 
96      234     SOFTWARE RESEARCH GROUP INC 
97      234     BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE 
98      232     MASSACHUSETTS GENERAL HOSPITAL 
99      232     CIBER INC           
100     230     VERINON TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS LTD 
101     226     EVEREST BUSINESS SOLUTIONS INC 
102     224     VOLT TECHNICAL RESOURCES LLC 
103     223     OKLAHOMA STATE UNIVERSITY 
104     222     COMPUNNEL SOFTWARE GROUP INC 
105     221     US TECH SOLUTIONS INC 
106     220     SYMANTEC CORP       
107     218     JSMN INTERNATIONAL INC 
108     216     UBS AG              
109     213     CVS PHARMACY        
110     213     THE PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY 
111     213     UNIV OF WASHINGTON  
112     212     NORTEL NETWORKS(NT) INC 
113     211     UNIV OF CA SAN FRANCISCO 
114     210     UNIVERSITY OF MA MEDICAL SCHOOL 
115     209     SPRINT UNITED MANAGEMENT COMPANY 
116     209     HOUSTON INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRIC 
117     208     PURDUE UNIV         
118     207     GLOBAL CONSULTANTS INC 
119     207     EMORY UNIVERSITY    
120     207     UT HEALTH SCIENCE CENTER 
121     207     UNIV OF COLORADO    
122     205     VANDERBILT UNIV     
123     205     OBJECTWIN TECHNOLOGY INC 
124     204     DIASPARK INC        
125     203     HSBC BANK USA N A   
126     203     EBUSINESS APPLICATION SOLUTIONS 
127     203     BROADCOM CORP       
128     203     PRINCE GEORGES COUNTY PUBLIC SCHS 
129     202     MICRON TECHNOLOGY(MU) INC 
130     198     COUNTRYWIDE HOME LOANS INC 
131     198     TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY 
132     195     APPLIED MATERIALS(AMAT) INC 
133     194     SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORP 
134     194     UNIV OF IOWA        
135     194     IBM GLOBAL SVCS IGS INDIA PVT LTD 
136     194     DELOITTE TAX LLP    
137     193     CUMMINS INC         
138     191     ITECH US INC        
139     189     COMPUWARE CORPORATION 
140     186     INTL STUDENTS AND SCHOLARS OFFICE 
141     185     UNIVERSITY OF CA SAN DIEGO 
142     184     WALGREEN CO         
143     184     HOWARD HUGHES MEDICAL INSTITUTE 
144     183     USC                 
145     182     VISION SYSTEMS GROUP INC 
146     180     T MOBILE USA INC    
147     178     MULTIVISION INC     
148     177     EDS ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS(EDS) 
149     175     MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECH 
150     174     CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 
151     173     CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIV 
152     173     UNC CHAPEL HILL     
153     172     THE UNIV OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM 
154     170     DEUTSCHE BANK AG    
155     170     CATERPILLAR INC     
156     169     HALLMARK GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES INC 
157     169     CYBERTHINK INC      
158     167     CORPORATE COMPUTER SERVICES INC 
159     167     ADVANCED MICRO DEVICES(AMD) INC 
160     166     MEGASOFT CONSULTANTS INC 
161     165     ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS INC 
162     163     FREESCALE SEMICONDUCTOR INC 
163     163     UT SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER AT 
164     161     FIRST TEK TECHNOLOGIES INC 
165     161     MICHIGAN STATE UNIV 
166     160     RESEARCH FDN OF THE STATE UNIV OF 
167     160     COMSYS SERVICES LLC 
168     160     VIRGINIA TECH       
169     160     JUNIPER NETWORKS(JNPR) INC 
170     158     THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 
171     157     IOWA STATE UNIV     
172     157     UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 
173     157     FEDEX CORPORATE SVCS INC 
174     156     CREDIT SUISSE FIRST BOSTON LLC 
175     156     BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB COMPANY 
176     156     VERIZON SERVICES CORP 
177     155     EBAY INC            
178     154     AJILON LLC D B A AJILON CONSULTING 
179     153     GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION 
180     152     CAMO TECHNOLOGIES INC 
181     151     MARVELL SEMICONDUCTOR INC 
182     150     CMC AMERICAS INC    
183     149     THE UNIV OF TEXAS M D ANDERSON CAN 
184     149     NVIDIA CORPORATION  
185     147     AT&T SERVICES INC   
186     146     WEILL MED COLLEGE OF CORNELL UNIV 
187     146     AXIOM SYSTEMS INC   
188     146     WAYNE STATE UNIV    
189     146     MAYO CLINIC ROCHESTER 
190     146     NC STATE UNIV       
191     146     GENENTECH INC       
192     145     MAKRO TECHNOLOGIES INC 
193     144     SVAM INTERNATIONAL INC 
194     143     MEMORIAL SLOAN-KETTERING CANCER 
195     143     NUTECH INFORMATION SYSTEMS 
196     143     XPEDITE TECHNOLOGIES INC 
197     143     AUTOMATIC DATA PROCESSING INC 
198     142     LOUISIANA STATE UNIV 
199     141     FANNIE MAE          
200     141     MINDTREE CONSULTING PVT LTD

Source: Information Week

Disclaimer: The information shown on the blog is as shown the the source webpage and I do not take any responsibility of the accuracy of the information.

It happens only in India

2007-05-17T12:04:00.000+05:30

What would you do in this situation? You are traveling in a train in Bihar, India. All of a sudden the train comes to a halt. After some time the driver comes up to all the passengers and asks them to push the train to get it started. So what would you do?

Answer: Obviously you would have to push the train.

See this article by Reuters about what happened in Patna, Bihar, India.

4 for 17 (well almost 5)

2007-05-07T17:55:00.000+05:30

We (Yahoo!) had a cricket match with Microsoft yesterday. We scored 175 runs in 25 overs and got them all out for 104. My contribution was taking 4 wickets (two caught and two bowled) for 17 runs only in 5 overs, a catch and one run out. Infact I almost had 5 wickets. I got a Microsoft player LBW in my second over (the umpire gave him out) but we knew that it was an inside edge onto the pads and that he should not have been given out. So we called him back. I lost my 5th wicket there but then sportsmanship should be a part of the game.

My grandfather : Raghubir Singh Mandhar

2007-05-02T13:15:00.000+05:30

Ever wondered how different your life would be if your ancestors had done something differently?

Well I am glad that my grandfather did what he did.

My great grandfather "Kundan Singh" (the only son of his father) passed away a couple of months before his only child "Raghubir Singh Mandhar" (my grandfather) was born in Arainpura, Haryana. And at the tender age of five my grandfather lost his mother too. Orphaned with no immediate family he could have decided to do whatever he wanted with his life as there was no one to question him. But he decided to study. The distant relatives taking care of him were not even willing to pay his tution fees. When another person from our villiage (who happened to be a peon in Karnal, Haryana) heard about this boy who wanted to study but did not have any resources offered to keep the child with him in Karnal and pay for his tution. My grandfather agreed and decided to go to Karnal and study. After completing his 10th and doing some extra courses he was appointed as an Agriculture inspector in Haryana.

It is only because of his decision to study that he could afford education for his kids. My dad did his Engineering in Agricultural Engineering from Punjab Agricultural University and then MTech (Masters) from IIT, Delhi. All my uncles and aunts are either doctors, engineers or teachers.

It is because of that decision made by an orphan kid in a remote village in Haryana that I am writing this blog and you are reading it. I just cant believe that a five year old kid would chose education over games and fun.

I just can't thank him enough for the decision.

New look

2007-03-29T16:25:00.000+05:30

Indian Startups

2007-03-16T15:45:00.000+05:30

startups.in lists a set of indian startups.
So does this link

Go India!

Hiring at a Mall

2007-03-13T10:59:00.000+05:30

This is a pic taken on 11th March 2007 at the Forum Mall in Bangalore. Surprisingly Google had a stall for recruitement at the mall.

I am sure people would be thinking
<sarcasm>
"Well.. Since today is a Sunday. Let me go to the mall to catch some movies and buy some stuff, While I am at it let me also apply to Google. What a perfect day!".
</sarcasm>

(Click on the image for a larger image)

What is next? Hiring at Aiports, Railway Stations, Bus Stops, Hospitals, Food World?

Microsoft Live Image Search

2007-03-09T19:59:00.000+05:30

One feature that I like about Microsoft's live image search is the pagination or lack of it.
No more scrolling down to the end of the page and hitting next buttons.

All you need to do to see more results is scroll down. As long as there is an image that matches the search term you keep getting results. All on the same page. Looks uber cool.

Look for yourself the search results for "India"

Click here to try it out on a new page.

Small World

2007-03-09T17:02:00.000+05:30

This is the conversation I had with my mom today on the phone.

Me: So what were you up to today mom?

Mom: Nothing much actually. You remember your grandma told me that one of my friends moved to Bangalore to live with her son?

Me: Which one?

Mom: The one who was our neighbour when we lived in Kurali. They are also our distant relatives.
(Then she explained some complex relation but I understood that my mom's aunt and my mom's friend are sister in law)

Me: Oh yes. I remember.

Mom: Her name is Krishna. I called her today and was talking to her for a long time. Her son studied from IIT and then was in USA for a long time and has now come back to India and is settled in Bangalore.

Me: Oh good. Whats his name? What does he do ?

Mom: His name is Bobby. (Thats Mr. Anurag Dod's nick name) He is the CEO and founder of a company called Guruji

Me: Oh Oh... (Flashback of all my blog posts finding issues with Guruji)

Mom: Do you know the company?

Me: Yes I do.

Mom: Doesnt guruji do the same work as Yahoo!

Me: Who told you that?

Mom: His mom did when I told her you work at Yahoo!

Me: Ok.

Mom: We are planning to meet up some day.

Me: Great!

Isn't the world such a small place. Just one of the few sites I try fiddling around and keep reporting issues with is owned by my Mother's friend's son.

Ports on guruji.com

2007-03-08T13:52:00.000+05:30

Poking around the net I come across this on guruji.
A list of open ports on guruji.com and the services they are running
Check these : gnutella, edonkey, gnutella2, bittorent-tracker, fasttrack

PORT STATE SERVICE
22/tcp open ssh
25/tcp filtered smtp
80/tcp open http
111/tcp open rpcbind
135/tcp filtered msrpc
137/tcp filtered netbios-ns
138/tcp filtered netbios-dgm
139/tcp filtered netbios-ssn
445/tcp filtered microsoft-ds
1214/tcp filtered fasttrack
4662/tcp filtered edonkey
4672/tcp filtered rfa
6346/tcp filtered gnutella
6347/tcp filtered gnutella2
6881/tcp filtered bittorent-tracker

Are they trying to index all the p2p networks too or is some employee using the free office bandwidth ??? :P

Guruji yet again...

2007-03-08T00:06:00.000+05:30

After all the guruji bashing I have done on my blog. I decided to do some more :D

Ok, now what would you do if you want to find out the accounts on guruji's server.

Try out the URL of the type http://guruji.com/~user
which tries accessing the home directory of a user called "user". The user does not exist. Fair enough.

It is safe to assume that there would be a root account on the machine so try out http://guruji.com/~root

See the difference?

The first URL gives you a 404 Not found error.

Not Found
The requested URL /~dummy was not found on this server.
Apache/1.3.31 Server at tw-s220.terrawiz.com Port 80

where as the root gives you a 403 forbidden error.

Forbidden
You don't have permission to access /~root on this server.
Apache/1.3.31 Server at tw-s220.terrawiz.com Port 80

So if you have the patience to try out user names and see if they exist on the machine, go ahead.

Disclaimer: this blog post is for educational purposes only.

Artistic photo

2007-03-02T10:42:00.000+05:30

Pics Taken by "Harish JP" with a "Nikon D50" with a 3 second exposure

Check out his stream on flickr

Y! Bai is getting married

2007-03-02T09:14:00.000+05:30

Our Bai (aka maid) at Yahoo! is getting married on 6th April 2007. And now we know why bai was so happy the other day.

And if you are wondering why we call her bai, check out this snap

Finally I uploaded some snaps

2007-02-25T09:52:00.000+05:30

Phew... after almost 2 years I finally found time and the patience to upload my snaps from the Taiwan and Thailand tour.

You can check out the photos here

Some sample snaps shown below:

Plumber of the internet

2007-02-09T13:21:00.000+05:30

Yahoo! launched Yahoo! pipes yesterday. An amazing site by Yahoo! What it basically does is allows users to create mash ups in no time. For a novice a mashup is a custom application made quickly using one or more services.

This site tries to model the pipe philosophy of unix. You can take the output of one program and pass it on to another.

Here is a simple pipe I made to convert my blog to french.

Try it out and make your own pipes. It is very easy. http://pipes.yahoo.com

Oh.. did I mention the site has a kick ass gui..

Flesh meets art

2007-02-06T10:02:00.000+05:30

Remember the whiteboard guy. Well last week he came to life :).. Check it out.

Very creative work by Subbu.