Free as in Freedom

Free as in Freedom is a book ( open book rather) which narrates Richard M. Stallman's journey of Free Software. I finished reading three chapters and can't leave this book aside. It's fantastically narrated and articulated written. The depth of details and style of narration shows that Sam Williams, the author, has taken a hell lot of efforts in bringing the life and career of RMS to larger audiences. It's a typical biography kind of book that tells us how a simple incident of a jamming a printer's paper in MIT's AI lab could be the harbinger of a big movement of open software. Also an incident when a professor at Carnegie Mellon denies to share his copy of a program with Stallman has a tremendous effect on Stallman's mind that it totally changes his path of career.

Stallman's life, his great contribution towards Free Software Movement, the respect that he earned in programmer's community all over the world by his elite yet free programs definitely deserve the attention. Almost everyone who is somehow related with computers knows Richard Stallman. I remember watching a video of his speech on my friend's computer but did not get a chance to read about this revolutionary hacker. This book will certainly add to my knowledge and introduce me to the concept and history of Free Software Movement.

One more notable thing about this book is, for its electronic version, you can pay in free software manner, i.e. by contributing towards it. The book is distributed under GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) , so that we can help improving the work and can create a personalized version and release that version under the same license. Just like any other free software program, this book will also accept patches.... Interesting !!!, I haven't heard of any other book which accepts patches !!!

So, that's what I want to say about it... 11 more chapters to go... I need to finish it up as soon as possible :)

Diwali...

Diwali is one of the most awaited festivals for me because it brings at least 2-3 days of vacation with itself. And those 2-3 days + a weekend can easily make up a half week leave for you. You get an official reason to run away from the work. :) Let me tell you one thing, on the day before the vacation starts, I do nothing. Nothing means nothing related to work, I use my precious time in planning what to do and what not to do in those 2-3 days. Earlier I used to write postcards ( mind you, postcards and not mails) to my friends which generally have a poem of a famous Marathi poet followed by a Diwali wish. I left doing it from last 2 years when my Grandmother and Grandfather passed away.

My mother always complains that I am too busy with my friends when I go home and seldom stay with her. This time I tried to be with her for almost all of the time. I had an urge to meet my school teacher Mr. Kaundinya sir but somehow could not manage it for many days which I finally did now. He is having his by-pass surgery today. My mavashi ( mother's sister) and her two kids ( Pratik and Pratiksha ) were our guests for this Diwali. Pratik is a biggggggggg fan of cartoons , Pratiksha is very cute and loves to dance ( even if she is in lower kindergarten). As always, I met other relatives and had a chat. I went to Shaggy's place ( Shaggy = Abhishek Dnyate) along with Sanket to meet his parents and wish them a happy Diwali.

This Diwali, I had a continuous thought running all over of my mind. This is going to be my last Diwali in India. At least for two years. I will not be here for 2 years, if I get an admit from some university plus the rest of the process goes smoothly. And that, added some tinge of sorrow in the celebration. My mother said it twice or thrice that she will be missing me a lot in next Diwali. I replied saying that we can celebrate Diwali together through web cam, but that did not stop her saying the same thing again and again. I am kind of confused and emotional at times, sometimes I think that I am very selfish in the sense, I am leaving my family and home at the time when they look at me as a responsible person and going away just for my future. And sometimes I feel that this is the right time to achieve something in life and one should take all kinds of risk for it. But many times the second thing overcomes the first one... I should slowly start adapting to it. And that's why I will be going home regularly from now onwards.

Arsenal vs. Manchester United

What you see when you have Arsenal playing against Manchester United? A thriller... This match wasn't an exception. William Gallas's injury time equalizer exemplified the greatness of the game of football, its uncertainty. I was almost breathless when the captain pushed it in the nets. What a relief !!!!

But I must admit that the red devils were superb on the ground. In the first half, Arsenal was having 57% of the possession and they still could not score a single goal. Of course, Adebayer, Fabregas, Hleb and others were trying their best, but somehow could not get the ball through . On the other hand it was the impressive Rooney who gave ManU a breakthrough. Arsenal must be missing Van Persie at that time. Rooney was continuously accompanied by magical Ronaldo and veteran Giggs. But gunners were not sleeping, they are known for bouncing back hard. Eboue gave a lofted pass over the head of the defender; Van Der Sar defended against Adebayor's ground shot but made a big mistake. The ball was going to the byline and ManU's defenders were static, waiting for the ball to go out of the game. There came Sagna who slided the ball to Fabregas. The Spaniard scored his 11th goal of the season.

There was a desperate try form the 18-year old Theo Wallcott who replaced Eboue. His attempt was almost a goal but missed it by a few inches, quite resembling to that of Ronaldinhio's one of the goals in World Cup.With about eight minutes remaining, Evra pushed the ball back to Ronaldo, piercing Gunners defense and Ronaldo slammed it to the empty net. I thought it was the end since ManU were looking aggressive and the gunners were loosing their grip on the game. It was frustrating. It went on to the last two minutes to see a decider and yes, gunners made it. Call it a luck, but still, it was sweet stealing the victory from the visitors.

Hail the gunners !!!!

GRE

I had my GRE on Tuesday, 16th. This was my second attempt and was hoping to score more. I had a poor 1030 in my first go and this time its 1200. So, I did improve but not sure if this improvement is enough to get into a decent school. My scores in mock tests were consistently above 1300 and was quite sure to fall into the same range in the final. But, something went wrong and my plans went awry.

First section of Issue was quite easy. Second one ( The argument) was like a lolly-pop . I took more than expected time in solving first 10 quantitative questions and that sucked. I remember it took me around 5 minutes to solve first problem :( , and it was not that difficult but I was over-cautious at that time. So, having messed up with timings, I should have recovered from the early loss of 4 minutes. but didn't. I am quite sure of solving first 10 questions correctly, but later I must have made some serious and series of mistakes that landed me in a poor show of 690. Verbal was comparatively easy, easier than what I expected. I have a great faith in my vocabulary and that helped me somehow to get into an average score of 1200.

So, that was my second tryst with GRE. I made a same mistake of fumbling at the most important moments and thus incurred a loss of around 100 marks. If it would have been 1300+, I would have been on cloud #9. My academics are not convincing though they show a rising graph, and scoring around 1300 was a must for me. That could have bolstered the chances of getting into some of the good universities. But alas, I did not make it. After talking to some of my friends, I learned that 1200 is not bad at all, and can take you to a decent place, but I am a bit skeptical about it. So what's next? Need to find out a good counselor and search for good recommendations from professors, I am having few names to request for. On 28th I will be having TOEFL, and after that, I have to look into a list of universities for selections. I am god damn sure that this process of selection, getting reco's and SOP's , transcripts. sending them to the concerned persons will definitely take a hell out of me.

I am prepared for one more hectic month!!!

The boys are back!!!

I am back and so is The Indian Cricket Team. The only difference is they are back with a bang!!! They say that India vs. Pakistan Cricket match is more like a war than a normal game and the Twenty20 final on Monday is just the manifestation of it. Our team has done it and created a history of being the first team to win the first T20 world cup.

After 'thrown out' of the world cup, the team must be aching with the bruise and T20 gave them a way to thunder. Remember, these guys are considered as underdogs and someone who are unaware of even the basics of Cricket ( remember Ricky Ponting's bitter remark ?). But boys showed their mettle and rose up like a Phoenix.

One notable thing about this new team is its energy and zest. Young and Restless. Something that Team India never had before, a strong determination of giving an individual's 100% out there on ground. World cup title, fame and all, are secondary outcomes of this win, more important reward is a great confidence booster. And when you have a team of beginners who present itself as a compact, bundled package of talent, unity and professionalism , this confidence is just THE THING which makes such victories possible.

But it's not the end of the world, it's the beginning. On his column in TOI, the veteran Alan Border said that Dhoni and company must keep up with this tempo. They must not get carried away with the praise. Winning for the first time is easy if you have a talent of doing so, but the most difficult thing is to have a habit of winning, something that Australians are used to of. So, if we want to really perform like the world champions, we better start studying ourselves from today. There is still a lot of scope for improvement.