Vivek’s Blog

The inaugral World Science Festival is being held in NYC this week(end) and I’m really happy to see the event getting tremendous support from New Yorkers and others that came to the city just for the event.  I was fortunate enough to catch the Richard Leakey give a talk at Columbia and then I went to the street fair near NYU today.  I was being lazy and forgot to buy tickets to a couple of events that I thought were interesting - I had the schedule of events for more than a week and procrastinated.  Oh well.

But coming back to the participation - I’ve seen a crapload of people showing up to all these events and I think that’s terrific.  All the events with simple science experiments got all the kids excited and there were plenty of lectures for the grown-ups.  It’s science, bitches, and it works.

Oh God, this has got to be the most difficult question ever.  Most of the time, it comes with no context, is highly non-specific, and is usually posed by people I have just met.  There are some variations on this question.  One such variation that I simply cannot answer is about the differences in the education systems.  I did not go to high school in the US and I’m certainly not in an Indian college/university.  How the fuck am I supposed to compare systems when I’ve only been in one or the other?  Others include “How’s the life in America different from that in India?” and “Do you like India better or the US?”

Without any specifics, this comparison is nearly impossible to deal with and my standard response involves me blabbering about how it’s difficult to make a choice and that “it depends.”  It gets them off my back.  Unless they’re the super-curious type.  For these people, I need to provide a less vague response but only after I can persuade them to be more specific.

There are things that are better here, and there are things that are better in India.  For example, my ENTIRE family lives in India, the food is great, know some cool people back there, I get to watch cricket and football on TV, etc. etc.  Here, I study at a well-known university, the interwebs are good, I know even more cool people, I get to watch my favorite bands live, etc. etc.  But this is about as good an answer as I can give if you’re not specific enough with your question.

Oh man, did anyone see the Lost season 4 finale?  That was so tits!  Too bad we have to wait a few months for it to return.  BSG ends soon.  And all the other shows have wrapped-up as well.  Summer really sucks as far as TV shows go.

In conclusion, please stop asking me this question.  I mean it.  Also, I just realized that 99% of the people who ask me this question will never read this.  DAMNIT!

I met with my adviser and talked about my summer research.  Nothing else to report.  So, enjoy the following video:

I am looking to buy a new laptop.  Soon.

I had planned on using my current laptop for about 4-5 years in total.  I paid a premium for it, but it was worth it in the long run.  However, since the backlight on my laptop display gave up, I’ve moved up my plans to get a new laptop.  End-August is my current target since the best back-to-school deals show up then.

I was going to buy a new one by early August, but Intel’s Centrino 2 processors have been delayed, consequently delaying my purchase.  My plan for early August was also influenced by rumblings of new mobile GeForce graphics cards coming out in June/July.  I’ve heard nothing on those so far, however.  I’m hoping for a 9600M GT with 512MB or more memory.  Since the 9500 series is based on the 8600 series, the 9600 should be based on the 8700 or the 8800 series.  This would provide a significant boost in gaming performance compared to the current 256MB 8600M GT card that’s become a standard on mid-high end machines.

Which laptops am I looking at right now?  There are very few contenders.  I have no laptops from Sony, Toshiba, or HP in my shortlist.  I’m looking at a couple of ASUS offerings, particularly the G1 series, and the Dell XPS M1530.  I could consider a 14.1″ screen if the rest of the configuration is enticing.  I’m leaning towards the Dell since I’m not very confident in ASUS’s tech support setup in the US.  Granted, Dell might not have the best tech support around, but ASUS is still relatively new and doesn’t have an extensive setup.  Further, I don’t know anyone who owns an ASUS laptop.  A friend of mine just ordered an M1530 with the LED-backlit display so I’ll get my grimy hands on it soon.

I am also tempted to get a MacBook Pro.  The only thing holding me back is the price - the student discount doesn’t help much at all.  I can get the same config in the Dell for a lot less, even though I wouldn’t have Mac OS X.  Plus, I would install XP and/or Vista on it anyway, so that it can run my games and other apps not made for OS X.  So what’s the point really?

There’s also the question of what I’ll do with my current laptop once I get the new one.  I doubt anyone would buy it since the display doesn’t work right.  I might use it as a Linux box or some kind of storage server or something.

Oh have I got a tale to tell!  You might want to hide the kids.

As I’ve made it mind-numbingly clear, I moved into my summer dorm on Monday.  So, on my first morning (Tuesday), I went in to my “semi-private” bathroom to take a shower.  When I tried to get out, however, I realized that I had locked the bathroom door from the outside before entering the bathroom.  Crap.

So, I couldn’t get from the bathroom to my room.  I tried using force to open the door but gave up quickly - my body was already aching from all the moving.  So, I took a risk and opened the door to the room next to mine, which shares the bathroom.  There was nobody there.  Turns out, the guys who were supposed to move into that room, haven’t moved in yet.  So, with *only* my towel on, I walked out of their room and out into the hallway.  From there, I walked down to the lobby to get help.  Apparently, people lock themselves out of their rooms all the time and the guy at the front desk was quick to help me out.  He sent one of the cleaning people up with me to open my room for me.

It was a little embarrasing to walk around with nothing but my towel on - but it had to be done.  I got lucky that there was no one in the adjacent room, else they would’ve been surprised to find a half-naked dude walking through their room for no apparent reason.  I’m now going to double-check the bathroom door each time I walk in for a shower.  I’m developing a habit of locking myself out within the first 24 hours of moving into a new room - it happend in August when I walked out of my room with my keys sitting on my desk.  Fortunately, I was wearing clothes then.