A Short Story

Two little kids playing tug of war.
Much enthusiasm, much fun, unaware of the strength of the rope.
If it broke, both of them would fall.
If one let go, the other would fall.

How to reach TP-Link Service Centre in Chennai

For a change, I thought I'd write something useful. I went to the TP-Link Service Centre in West Manbalam, it was quite an ordeal finding that place that I decided to write a post with the route so that someone else looking for it, might find it easier in the future.

Its located in a small dead-end street(what do they call it, cul-de-sac?) called Swamynathan Street. Its not listed on Google maps. If you are going from Mambalam railway station, take an auto, or be prepared to walk for a while.
From the station:
1. Get down the West Mambalam side(not the Ranganathan street side).
2. Find Station Road(which is the one that you'll find as soon as you come out the station and turn left).
3. Go straight through Station Road till you reach an intersection with Lakeview Road. Turn right here.
4. The first left from Lakeview road will be Jubilee road. Take that left and keep walking. There's a small S-bend. Keep walking past it.

5. You'll reach the end of that road, past Anjugham school. Take a right there.
6. The first left again, will be a street called Raju street. Keep walking till you find the 2nd right. That is Swamynathan street.
7. Almost the end of the street, on the left, is a small building called E-caps, which is the TP-Link service centre.

The map is as follows.

Of course, there are parallel streets that you can use.

Isn't it simple?

"You know I just realized." 

"Realized what?" 

"That its so simple." 

"What's so simple? " 

"We need only remember to board the bus." 

"Umm, do you need a doctor?" 

"Haha, no. Wait, let me explain." 

"Listening." 

"We're standing in a bus stop. Listening to music. Like usual, like always. Someone comes by, and starts a conversation and you take off one ear of the headphones." 

"Okay?" 

"Its usually boring. So we go back to listening to music after a while. But sometimes, the conversation gets really interesting. You are enjoying it." 

"What does this have to do with the bus?" 

"The point is, after a while, that person boards the bus and leaves." 

"So?" 

"So we must board a bus as well. Not one that the person before boarded, but the one we were originally supposed to." 

"What if I forget that during the course of conversation? You said its so interesting and all that." 

"Yes precisely. That is why we must always remember to board the bus." 

The bus came. They boarded it. 

Preparations!

It so happens that the people over at TNEB took the concept of randomness and its applications in industry a little too seriously. TNEB stands for Tamil Nadu Electricity Board if you didn't know. However the truly random powercuts of TNEB make it so famous worldwide that important cryptograhic applications are now replacing the flipping of a coin with "Whether there is power in Tamil Nadu or not?"

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. There is this contingency plan for whenever power fails. Its as follows.

Step 1: Check battery level in phone and laptop.

Step 2: Switch off all other plugged in devices on the spike buster except the laptop charger.

Step 3: No matter what charge the laptop has currently, jump for that cord and plug it in.

Step 4: Reduce brightness in laptop to minimum, stop Wifi and Bluetooth. Do the same for phone. Bluetooth might not apply in case.

Step 5: Call dibs on that one plug which is powered by the inverter. If there are siblings, get ready for war.

Step 6: If control over inverter plug is lost, subscribe for a daily mobile internet pack on phone(if you are not a regular user of mobile internet), and plug it in. Tether to internet.

Last and important step,

Step 7: Pray power comes back.

May your survive the power outage, ladies and gentlemen. These are tough times.

One step forward, One step back

Recently, the inventor of the mouse prototype, Douglas Engelbart died. While there have been many eulogies, obituaries and praises stating that the mouse was the best invention after the computer, I beg to disagree.

Though, it cannot be refuted that the mouse is one of the iconic inventions ever, which almost changed the perspective of a computer, with GUI coming in, made it more user-friendly to the common man, I am going to take the computer geek's perspective here to stand on saying that the mouse is overrated.

Moving one's hand back and forth between the keyboard and mouse? Few things can be more irritating than it. It is funny how Microsoft had to develop a game called 'Solitaire' to make people understand the concept of 'drag and drop'. Who needs the middle button when you have space and shift+space? Page up and page down? Who needs left click when you have Enter? Who needs right click when you have the 'drop down list' key ( the one between right Alt and Ctrl ).

An online experience such as filling out a form, or a list, is almost twice as fast, using keyboard alone than keyboard+mouse. But again all this, this comes from a computer undergrad, who sits in front of the computer almost 12 hours a day, meaningfully during weekdays, and meaninglessly and aimlessly so, during the weekend. Maybe my hands are tuned towards using the keyboard better.

For me, the fundamental reason for moving away from Facebook is the absence of extensive keyboard shortcuts. Just 'L' and 'C' won't do, man! We need better. Twitter and GMail have recognized the potential of keyboard shortcuts and the speed one can achieve with them and have an amazing range of keyboard shortcuts.

All said, I don't hate the computer mouse, I just don't think it deserves the hype that it gets. Especially from the opportunistic pseudo intellectuals who scroll away everyday and come to praise it on the day of demise of its founder alone.

RIP Douglas Engelbart.Your contribution made the computer experience better to the common man.

21 years later

July 2nd, 1992. My parents' wedding anniversary.

Got my first stipend at Microsoft.

Some days are special, but some are uniquely so. This belongs to the latter.

Visual Treat

And finally after 3 weeks of its release, we booked tickets to Man of Steel in Hyderabad's famed IMAX at Prasadz Mall. Must say, it was a wonderful experience. After a little hiccups in the route to reaching the theatre, a small comedy of errors, we reached there and met our friends who were to join us for the movie. Here's what I thought about the movie:

It was an absolute visual treat, probably the best movie that I've seen in 3D. I'm a big time Nolan fan, and like him, I don't favour 3D that much. Avengers' 3D didn't impress me. It gave me the headaches. But Man of Steel was different. I actually liked the 3D experience without getting a headache. The theatre was as awesome as it as rumoured to be; though we could've enjoyed a little better had we gotten seats a little farther from the screen ( we sat in the fifth row from the screen and there was no sufficient space between the first row and the screen - poor people whose necks would've hurt sitting in the first row).

As for the movie itself, I kinda liked it, though it wouldn't be in my "Movies to watch a second time" or "Favourite movies". Definitely felt the tinge of Nolan with the non-linears here and there and the development of Clark Kent as a troubled child. It was a new approach and it paid off, unlike previous renditions which supposed Kal-El to be innately comfortable using his prowess and skills. The development of Zod was good in the way that he was potrayed a little stronger than Superman. The super scale damage was typical of Snyder and was a little taken too far, but it was definitely better than "spinning the world backwards to reverse time" crap. I won't be putting any spoilers here, for the sake of poor souls who mightn't have watched yet.

The story, Goyer's rendition was pretty good and could've done with a little better screenplay. As for the downside of the movie, it was Lois Lane through and through. I mean, what the hell man? She is like this Pullayar kovil (Vinayagar temple) appearing at every corner. It was an eyesore. You don't see Rachel helping Batman defeat scarecrow, do you? The whole point of Lois Lane seemed to be forced and quite unnecessary.

However, it was overall a nice experience and my personal opinion is that Henry Cavill might just be the best Superman yet. Definitely looks super cool in the suit. Looking forward to the Justice League movie, even more after reportedly Bale reprising his role of Batman. Do watch, at least for the 3D :)

P.S.: I don't miss the underwear.

P.P.S.: Hans Zimmer = God. What epic background score! :-o \m/