Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Feeling like asshole
I feel like a complete-fucking-asshole.
Why do I need to be the know-it-all-providing-solution-to-everyone's-every-problem?
I do not know how to solve everyone's every problem...But I find myself like a jerk. A friend was sharing some problems with me and I was acting like I know every solution to those problems...what a jerk I am..
Friday, November 8, 2013
An Honest Confession
"Programmers are procrastinators. Get in, get some coffee, check the mailbox, read the RSS feeds, read the news, check out latest articles on techie websites, browse through political discussions on the designated sections of the programming forums. Rinse and repeat to make sure nothing is missed. Go to lunch. Come back, stare at the IDE for a few minutes. Check the mailbox. Get some coffee. Before you know it, the day is over."From here
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Tuesday, October 8, 2013
Hackers and Software Engineers
A very interesting write-up about what has been going on in my mind for last few weeks!
Friday, September 27, 2013
VirtualBox USB Support
Just upgraded my Virtualbox on Wheezy and found out that it now has USB support. All I had to do was download Oracle Virtualbox Extension pack and add me to vboxusers group.
This is going to be a nice thing because now I do not have to reboot my machine with XP just to vpn to my work PC. The guest XP was able to recognize my smart card reader. I installed Card OS in the guest OS and everything worked perfectly!
Tuesday, September 17, 2013
Correcting a juvenile mistake
If you are past twenty, I bet you had some moments like this in your life; where you fall for the fancy shiny things even though there isn't any good stuffs in those. Since you are a kid at that time, you can easily ignore those mistakes.
For me, when I first ungraded from Windows 98 to Windows XP in fall of 2002, I fell for Windows Media Player 7. I was really fancy and much better than it's predecessor. Also it seemed like WinAmp was a redundancy in my system. And then it happened. I don't know why I did this but I started ripping my music in Microsoft's native wma format ditching mp3.
I carried along these wma files with me half way across the globe. But on last weekend, when I was copying music to my phone to play on new car stereo, I found that my android does not support wma natively. Then I said, "OK! This is it". I have to get rid of these shitty things. And I finally did with this simple shell script that I hacked from various internet sources. It recursively goes in the directories and looks for wma files. Once it finds them, it converts them to mp3 and deletes the original ones.
For me, when I first ungraded from Windows 98 to Windows XP in fall of 2002, I fell for Windows Media Player 7. I was really fancy and much better than it's predecessor. Also it seemed like WinAmp was a redundancy in my system. And then it happened. I don't know why I did this but I started ripping my music in Microsoft's native wma format ditching mp3.
I carried along these wma files with me half way across the globe. But on last weekend, when I was copying music to my phone to play on new car stereo, I found that my android does not support wma natively. Then I said, "OK! This is it". I have to get rid of these shitty things. And I finally did with this simple shell script that I hacked from various internet sources. It recursively goes in the directories and looks for wma files. Once it finds them, it converts them to mp3 and deletes the original ones.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Commute
My commute to work just received a huge upgrade. Last weekend, I changed my car stereo with a new one which has an aux port. Now I am listening my coursera lectures on my way to work. Life is awesome!
Monday, September 9, 2013
Note to Self
It looks so wonderful from outside, that I am almost sold to the idea.
But, deep inside, my stupid-rational brain knows that it's a trap...a trap that I have seen so many times...if it happens it will only bring inconvenience to all those people I love and also to me :(
I wish I knew a way out!
But, deep inside, my stupid-rational brain knows that it's a trap...a trap that I have seen so many times...if it happens it will only bring inconvenience to all those people I love and also to me :(
I wish I knew a way out!
Saturday, August 17, 2013
After Reading "The Social Animal"
Can a book be fun and enlightening, sad and depressing at the same time?
Just finished reading The Social Animal by David Brooks. I came across this one when I was waiting at ORD on my way back from California. I was looking at the books at a airport stall when the name caught my attention. I got it from the public library as soon as I was back to Cincinnati.
This is a book which tells the story of two people, Harold and Erica. But underneath that, it is dissection of US societies using neuroscience and psychology. It helped me to understand a lot of mechanics that exists in societies that I currently live in. It's really hard to summarize the whole book in a blog post.
I really enjoyed the way it presents the phases of human life; how human goes through the transitions. There were times when I felt like I am Harold, there were times I envied him, hated him. And there were times, when I really felt bad for him. This book tries to answer few questions about human life; at the same times it raises a lot of questions to the reader about his own life. What is happiness, what is the great purpose of life and where should we hold the line between chasing success versus attaining internal satisfaction.
I liked the way Erica worked hard in her life and also got rewarded for that. But at the same time, I felt she lost her purpose of life at some point. She was achieving great success and chasing big dreams but at the same time she ignored her loved and nearest ones. I don't know whether she regretted that later.
I felt sad reading about those last moments of Harold's life. The inevitability of human life has always made be sad since I was a kid.
After finishing it, I looked at my life and started to ask critical questions about it. What should be the goals of my life? How far should I go chasing my own dreams without ignoring the loved ones of my life? How can I become a part of something big? How can I contribute more to people's life? I am glad that I read this book when I am young so that I still got some time to plan and steer my life to a right direction. But, wait! What is a right direction?
Just finished reading The Social Animal by David Brooks. I came across this one when I was waiting at ORD on my way back from California. I was looking at the books at a airport stall when the name caught my attention. I got it from the public library as soon as I was back to Cincinnati.
This is a book which tells the story of two people, Harold and Erica. But underneath that, it is dissection of US societies using neuroscience and psychology. It helped me to understand a lot of mechanics that exists in societies that I currently live in. It's really hard to summarize the whole book in a blog post.
I really enjoyed the way it presents the phases of human life; how human goes through the transitions. There were times when I felt like I am Harold, there were times I envied him, hated him. And there were times, when I really felt bad for him. This book tries to answer few questions about human life; at the same times it raises a lot of questions to the reader about his own life. What is happiness, what is the great purpose of life and where should we hold the line between chasing success versus attaining internal satisfaction.
I liked the way Erica worked hard in her life and also got rewarded for that. But at the same time, I felt she lost her purpose of life at some point. She was achieving great success and chasing big dreams but at the same time she ignored her loved and nearest ones. I don't know whether she regretted that later.
I felt sad reading about those last moments of Harold's life. The inevitability of human life has always made be sad since I was a kid.
After finishing it, I looked at my life and started to ask critical questions about it. What should be the goals of my life? How far should I go chasing my own dreams without ignoring the loved ones of my life? How can I become a part of something big? How can I contribute more to people's life? I am glad that I read this book when I am young so that I still got some time to plan and steer my life to a right direction. But, wait! What is a right direction?
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Being Averarge
Do you feel the agony of being a mediocre?
I have always felt this through out my life. The sadness associated with being average has always with me since I was a kid. It was there in the cricket ground where I struggled to bat; it was there when my friends were pleasing crowd with there awesome social skill and I was standing in the corner, shy and sad, just wondering how on earth they do it. Being average always kept me on my toes, scared and in-secured.
Even now, I feel that nauseating feeling when I am around someone really good; a good hacker, a good musician or may be someone who is rocking on the dance floor. I always wonder how people can be that good at what they do. And also what is the purpose of me trying those things if I am not good enough. Until recently, I was always baffled by this question. Few weeks back, I was reading Atul Gawande's Better where he talks about improving performances. How can we look at critically and quantitatively at performances, analyze the trends and bottlenecks and create work-around for improvement. My biggest take away was what he points out about "Averageness".
I guess I will have to seek the path of continuous development. I know that I might not become the best hacker or something like this but this will at least save my live from entering a limbo.
I have always felt this through out my life. The sadness associated with being average has always with me since I was a kid. It was there in the cricket ground where I struggled to bat; it was there when my friends were pleasing crowd with there awesome social skill and I was standing in the corner, shy and sad, just wondering how on earth they do it. Being average always kept me on my toes, scared and in-secured.
Even now, I feel that nauseating feeling when I am around someone really good; a good hacker, a good musician or may be someone who is rocking on the dance floor. I always wonder how people can be that good at what they do. And also what is the purpose of me trying those things if I am not good enough. Until recently, I was always baffled by this question. Few weeks back, I was reading Atul Gawande's Better where he talks about improving performances. How can we look at critically and quantitatively at performances, analyze the trends and bottlenecks and create work-around for improvement. My biggest take away was what he points out about "Averageness".
... I could tell myself, Someone's got to be average. If the bell curve is a fact, then so is the reality that most doctors are going to be average. There is no shame in being one of them, right?
Except, of course, there is. What is troubling is not just being average but settling for it. Everyone knows that averageness is, for most of us, our fate. And in certain manners-looks, money, tennis-we would do well to accept this. But in your surgeon, your child's pediatrician, your police department, your local high school? When the stakes are our lives and the lives of our children, we want no one to settle for average.
I guess I will have to seek the path of continuous development. I know that I might not become the best hacker or something like this but this will at least save my live from entering a limbo.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Note to Self
It's basically like this: I can buy a Porsche right now, but life will not be comfortable affording that one!
Monday, June 17, 2013
আবজাব
একটা সময় ছিল যখন শুধু একটা চিলেকোঠায় যথেষ্ট ছিল।
আর এখন চার কামরার একটা বাড়ি ও ছোট লাগে।
আমাদের জীবনের সবচাইতে বড় ট্রাজেডিটাই হল কি চাই তা ঠিক মত বুঝতে না পারা।
Friday, May 24, 2013
Which way I am heading
This came up from a Paul Graham essay where he describes programmers as of two kinds: the corporate drones and the brilliant hackers. This made me to ask myself which one of those am I or which way I am heading. Surely, I don't want to end up as a corporate drone!
Tuesday, March 12, 2013
Note To Self
When I am looking for a career, I am looking for a infinite loop of problems and problem solving...that's what excites me, not the money that comes as the by-product!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
10 Best Things That Happened to me after Leaving Ubuntu
1. Survival skills for Vim
2. How to set up wireless network manually
3. xrandr - what goes behind the screen resolution and additional monitor setup
4. dpkg
5. Basic shell scripting
6. Gphoto2
7. Mp3blaster
6. Gphoto2
7. Mp3blaster
My Old Man
I know at some point I have to let my old man go. But I am pretty sure this is not the time. There are so many things we have still left to do together... I am totally not ready to let him go...
Friday, January 11, 2013
The Art of Computer Programming
A good digression on Friday morning.
"I do it because.. to me, it's beauty... that's all I can say..."
"I do it because.. to me, it's beauty... that's all I can say..."
Friday, January 4, 2013
Note to Self
No one has promised that nice guys will finish first; at least not in this world. So why do you get so pissed off when you feel that you are finishing last even though you are a nice guy?
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Looking Back and Planning Ahead - 2012-2013
Although this is not 31st December yet, I decided to write about my new year's resolution now. I am doing a little road trip with my friends and I am afraid that I might not get enough time to write this down before 31st if I don't start early. So here I am, in a Starbucks neat BWI airport in Baltimore, waiting for my friends to arrive and looking back at how last this year was for me and what I want to get done in next year.
As I did for the last few years, first I want to do a look-back on what I planned last year and how far I have achieved.
I wanted to finish my MS as early as possible and start Phd or job. Although I got a good PhD admissing, my luck with assistantship was not that great. I had few interviews with some professors but no one assured me anything positive. But, at the same time I got an internship offer from Simulia. Just when I was about to accept the offer, I got a better offer from Siemens to work for NX Nastran team as a software engineer. All of them happen within just two weeks of my thesis defense. The NX Nastran job description was very close to what I call my dream job. So, there was no hesitation in accepting that offer. So far, it seems that was a good decision.
Secondly, it was MANG! I can not say that I had success in this project but I showed some improvement comparing with last year. Logistically, I am in a better position now and I think I am heading in the right way even though not sure how far down the road I have to travel.
I think I am 40~50% done when it comes to getting in shape. I have been closely watching what I am eating. And I also have plans for next year on how to continue for getting in shape.
I was able to complete two out of three UC projects that I decided to do. The IMLD was a huge success for Cultural Connection. I also made a few good friends that. I am not sure how much impact the career development seminar had on CEAS graduates but I was glad that I got the chance to organize it and brought somethig new to the table for SDS GSA. I think, it played an important role for SDS GSA being selected as the best GSA of the year. I am not sure whether current guys will continue arranging this type of stuffs in future. The other project that I never got a chance to start was creating a forum for people at UC who are interested in using computational methods in their research. I made a presentation to the GSGA meeting to create a strong case for the forum. I think part of the reason was I did not find enough interested party to start. Also I was quite busy with my transitional situtaion (finishing MS and what to do next). Then, as I left UC to start my job, I had the last nail to the coffin of the project.
As I promised to myself, I started learning a new language. I never thought it was going to be Turkish. But you never know, what lies in the next bend of the road. I think I am doing OK although I need to spend more time with it.
I started a coking blog and did not go far with that. Only three post. Someday, I will make it up :-(
I started some business idea with Tareq but right now I feel it was not the wisest decision that I made. Partly because, I am not sure how exactly I can make an impact to the business and partly because I do not have enough logistical support to so the stuffs that I want to do.
I started learning Ukulele but guess what... I kind of suck at music...I have really very little musical sense and I find my ears are not trained to differentiate between different sound of music. But I am not giving up. Next year, I am going to put some more time and see how things go.
Now, lets come back to the stuffs that I want to do for the next. This time I am planning to do it in a little different. The idea came to me after reading this blog post. Instead of just listing this activities in a random order, I want to arrange them based on certain theme so that it makes more sense.
1. Getting more active
I want to get more active and I figured out there are few things that can help to to get there. I do not know what of those things I will like doing/ end up doing consistently but here is a brief list of things that I feel interested in.
# Tennis, Boxing, Running, UC Rec Center
2. MANG
I do not have a specific plan for this. But, I want to learn dancing hoping this might give me some extra yards on the field.
3. Technical development
I have not yet got a chance to complete my 5-years plan. I need to do that very soon. Meanwhile, I plan to attend Coursera lectures to get a better hold on computer science stuffs. I will enroll in the relevant algorithms, data structures and programming courses.
4. Personal development
I want to increase my breathing spaces. A good advice I received few days ago is not to put all my eggs in one basket. Though no one can tell me exactly how many basket I should choose, I have few in my mind. I am going spend few more hours in learning Turkish. I want to do more photography and if possible learn to play Ukulele.
As I did for the last few years, first I want to do a look-back on what I planned last year and how far I have achieved.
I wanted to finish my MS as early as possible and start Phd or job. Although I got a good PhD admissing, my luck with assistantship was not that great. I had few interviews with some professors but no one assured me anything positive. But, at the same time I got an internship offer from Simulia. Just when I was about to accept the offer, I got a better offer from Siemens to work for NX Nastran team as a software engineer. All of them happen within just two weeks of my thesis defense. The NX Nastran job description was very close to what I call my dream job. So, there was no hesitation in accepting that offer. So far, it seems that was a good decision.
Secondly, it was MANG! I can not say that I had success in this project but I showed some improvement comparing with last year. Logistically, I am in a better position now and I think I am heading in the right way even though not sure how far down the road I have to travel.
I think I am 40~50% done when it comes to getting in shape. I have been closely watching what I am eating. And I also have plans for next year on how to continue for getting in shape.
I was able to complete two out of three UC projects that I decided to do. The IMLD was a huge success for Cultural Connection. I also made a few good friends that. I am not sure how much impact the career development seminar had on CEAS graduates but I was glad that I got the chance to organize it and brought somethig new to the table for SDS GSA. I think, it played an important role for SDS GSA being selected as the best GSA of the year. I am not sure whether current guys will continue arranging this type of stuffs in future. The other project that I never got a chance to start was creating a forum for people at UC who are interested in using computational methods in their research. I made a presentation to the GSGA meeting to create a strong case for the forum. I think part of the reason was I did not find enough interested party to start. Also I was quite busy with my transitional situtaion (finishing MS and what to do next). Then, as I left UC to start my job, I had the last nail to the coffin of the project.
As I promised to myself, I started learning a new language. I never thought it was going to be Turkish. But you never know, what lies in the next bend of the road. I think I am doing OK although I need to spend more time with it.
I started a coking blog and did not go far with that. Only three post. Someday, I will make it up :-(
I started some business idea with Tareq but right now I feel it was not the wisest decision that I made. Partly because, I am not sure how exactly I can make an impact to the business and partly because I do not have enough logistical support to so the stuffs that I want to do.
I started learning Ukulele but guess what... I kind of suck at music...I have really very little musical sense and I find my ears are not trained to differentiate between different sound of music. But I am not giving up. Next year, I am going to put some more time and see how things go.
Now, lets come back to the stuffs that I want to do for the next. This time I am planning to do it in a little different. The idea came to me after reading this blog post. Instead of just listing this activities in a random order, I want to arrange them based on certain theme so that it makes more sense.
1. Getting more active
I want to get more active and I figured out there are few things that can help to to get there. I do not know what of those things I will like doing/ end up doing consistently but here is a brief list of things that I feel interested in.
# Tennis, Boxing, Running, UC Rec Center
2. MANG
I do not have a specific plan for this. But, I want to learn dancing hoping this might give me some extra yards on the field.
3. Technical development
I have not yet got a chance to complete my 5-years plan. I need to do that very soon. Meanwhile, I plan to attend Coursera lectures to get a better hold on computer science stuffs. I will enroll in the relevant algorithms, data structures and programming courses.
4. Personal development
I want to increase my breathing spaces. A good advice I received few days ago is not to put all my eggs in one basket. Though no one can tell me exactly how many basket I should choose, I have few in my mind. I am going spend few more hours in learning Turkish. I want to do more photography and if possible learn to play Ukulele.
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