Social Hacking

It is not advisable to prod a topic that one is not completely sure of - But, to overlook this well-accepted wisdom has been one of my characteristics; It stems from the belief that an idiotic thought or question from a "newbie" might spur some useful,concrete activity in the minds of the "experts".

With the above excuse, I proceed to talk about what i would like to call as Social Hacking (unfortunately, the same term is used elsewhere to mean something different - some pages that google returns for social hacking/hackers are not connected to what i propound in this blog).

I describe social hacking as using one's skill and abilities to the betterment of the society with the hacker's attitude.

Let me give an (hypothetical) example of what I mean: you find your cafeteria to be inefficient, they use systems that require unnecessarily long queues which everyone tolerates with irritation. You device a method wherein the waiting time is reduced considerably - for example, majority of the customers come only to buy coke from the cafeteria, so your solution is that having a sperate counter just for coke will reduce the average waiting time - moreover, it is cost-effective to implement too!

Whatever we do in our daily lives as professional workers is to put our skills to use so that we are of some use to our society- for which you get paid.

But, a social hacker actively tries to solve real-world societal problems without monetary intentions- He just loves to solve problems.

Teaching a bunch of kids how to do maths is one way of Social Hacking too (According to me).

One should realize that:
* Social Hacking is not a form of charitable work.
* It is just using your skill to solve societal problems.

Putting it very simply, if you find a barbed wire on the Highway, and you stop your car to remove it, you have kinda started to hack the society.

statutory warning - I am not a well-known/self-proclamied hacker, my understanding of the concept of hacking stems from reading the works of the masters. I might have misunderstood them.

Book Review - God of Small Things

God of small things is the best book i have read.
So, i think it is my duty to present a comprehensive review of this wonderful book.
One of the intentions of this review is to make the people who read this also read the book.

* Arunthati Roy , the author of the book, got the prestigious booker prize for this work.
* It is her first work
* The story is set in Kerala - God's Own Country
* It is her unique, self-styled, bounds-free use of the english language that is most fascinating.
* If you are expecting, a masala story or one that is filled with twists and turns, sorry - this is not your kind of book
* If you are expecting to read a great story, something you will remember with its finest details, you're on!
* Most of the book talks about simple concepts and ideas, no metaphysical thingy.
* But, it analyzes human relationships in a smart, amazing way.
* The potrayal of children is work of a genius.
* It has the wiredest lead of all characters - twins (one boy and the other girl) who come from the same zygote - so they seem to feel as a single unit not as two.
* The story is not linear. Events are a bit jumbled up , to create a remarkable impact.
* It is hard read - not the book to read in a beach while you take sun tan.
* Some of the event are grouse - you have to endure it.
* To simply put, it is how the author explains a set of real-life events.
* In one chapter, the author potrays a bunch of (drunk) kathkali dancers playing out important scenes from the mahabharta all through the night at a temple to (an unwelcome) audience of two (the twins). I consider this part the jewel of the book.
* Important characters - Ammu, Velutha, Estha Estappen (twin 1), Rahel (twin 2), Sophie Mol, Chacko etc..
* Overall, a must read for someone looking for some serious read which goes to the heart to stay till you live.

brain tsunami

hi all,
let me tell you what.... my mind is a terminal for thoughts to come and go. I don't know where they come from and don't know where most of them go to. But, a few lucky (unlucky) ones end up here as blog posts..
Yes, these posts are raw thoughts... they are a chosen few based on categories like impact, concentration, duration etc.,

ok, the following lines are the outcome of the numerous discussions i have had with my good friend Ramnath... this is what i got by listening to him.

Now, ramnath's credentials- tnpcee rank 9. doing ece in anna univ (where else). going to tcs (lo).

* there is no definitive definition for charge (as in charge of electron)
* the difference between living things like us and machines is consciousness - make a thing that is as human as possible.. but is it conscious of itself?
* electronics is not science - proof, if i connect a set of components together to form a circuit i cannot predict the output.. ece guys let the circuit work and based on its output behaviour they observe, they come up with a possilbly satisfying explanation and model.
* Lord of the Rings facts - J R R tolkein talks about three ages off the middle earth. during the first age, middle earth was made and many mythical beings like valors came to settle in it. the most powerful of them becomes morgorth and his assitant is souron who becomes very powerful after the other valors some how push morgorth out of the middle earth. souron himself is not a valor.

there might be many mistakes in the above statements... no guarantees given...