The new Liberation Fonts for Linux

Check out the fonts released by RedHat to substitute the widely used microsoft fonts like Arial and Times New Roman.

I feel they look crisp.


They even look great at low resolutions. Most importantly when someone sends you a document containing those fonts you'll find they show up similar or better ;) in openoffice.

Also some of the website layout problems I earlier faced in FF3 kinda vanished because of the new substitute fonts. Yay to RH !

They are available in almost all the distros by now.. Be sure to install the Liberation Fonts

The Phalanx

Now of those, who dare, abiding one beside another, to advance to the close fray, and the foremost champions, fewer die, and they save the people in the rear; but in men that fear, all excellence is lost ...

What was it ? Wait and read ...

Heart beats faster. The pounding drowns the chaos around. Will I fall or the the one next to me. Hope its not me..... Not yet ..... At-least I don't fall alone.
Things will change if everyone falls. Good that things never change. Nothing will change....
...

So thinks a soldier you would say and hardly be near the truth.
These are the thoughts of an Indian pedestrian, a compelled jay walker if you will. Compelled by poorly planned walkways, road junctions in India. The pedestrians are forced to resort to one of the oldest military formations known. The Phalanx.
There is nothing martial about it per se. The common compulsion to achieve a goal viz. cross a busy junction brings the people together, regardless of their differences. Together they move step by step ...

I lock eyes with one of the others. The Others who cross our path with impudence. They bear more power but they stand alone. We bear us ...

A game of power and risk. And yet with an assurance of change if not rewards. So then are pedestrians the only ones who use it ?
Not really. Everyone does. The drivers ( the Others ) use it too. Against a bigger group of others. Confusing ?
Shouldn't be if you have driven on Indian roads. Vehicles on the narrow roads which join the bigger roads, face a problem when there are no signals to stop the on slaught of the stream of vehicles going orthogonal. The crowd of vehicles grows on the narrow road. Honking increases. There is reluctance. Yet the compulsion grows and grows.

And then The Phalanx takes over. The brash ones in the front move a foot ahead with a sneer. The timid ones add the inches. The ones behind add to the numbers. Step by step ...

I stand in the middle, neither the front nor the rear. Saved by the front and driven by the rear. I am ready, for when my time comes I lower my spear and pull up my shield, to protect me and my left. I hear the cries from the front. Yet we don't care, for our shield is the front and for our rear, we....

Far from the dramatic clash of shields there is something different at work with the pedestrians or the vehicles. The fear of clash. A deterrent far more powerful than the clash itself.
And strengthened by this, the phalanx of men and vehicles move ahead, constricting the flow one by one, step by step ...

The front is strong. We push and get pushed back. And back. Then we heel and jostle ahead. The Others are blocked by the ones who push and by us who heel. They know they dare not breach the phalanx. Because some other time they have to be a part of one....

The effort pays off. The vehicles slow. Some from the deterrent. Some out of respect. And when then slow they ponder for a second how they did the same when they crossed the road, step by step ...

Ah ! They stop ! The phalanx is safe. I live yet another day !

The flow has ebbed. And it does not matter how, as the pedestrians / vehicles cross to the other side safe and to their lives, not together but disbanded.

Only to join again at the next junction, step by step ....

The Jar

A trip to European lands can quickly turn into pain if you don't know the native language. More so because of their rabid opposition to including English as one of the languages for the tourist dear. You are quickly left with no choice but to resort to gestures and cues.

With so much of discomfort you begin to wonder if there is indeed anything to the glitter of "far-away-lands".
However just when you are about to give up in despair and begin towards your dear ol' home land, the prime attraction of a "phoren" trip strikes you - chocolates !!!

Thankfully this thought was always in my mind when I was in Germany, so I never really felt the despair. Instead I focused my energies on trying out different chocolates in the limited time and money that was available to me then.

It is said that European chocolates are the best in the world. And having tasted quite some varieties of chocolates both American and European, I can say this is true. Lets talk about their differences.

American or European ?

American chocolates are exactly that - mass produced. There is absolutely nothing unique or special about them. Its big, fills your mouth with chocolate and increases your weight by atleast a kg.
European chocolates have a hint of homeliness to them. How they do it is beyond me, but they have that element. What is that element is not entirely clear however we'll try to theorize with some known facts.


How to distinguish a good chocolate

The test for a good chocolate is simple if you understand what a chocolate actually composed of.
A chocolate is composed of sugar, milk (if needed), additional flavors and the crucial cocoa butter. It is the last element that gives chocolate its flavor and body. In an exercise thats more economic than taste oriented, the big companies reduce the cocoa butter content and replace it with something synthetic or with more sugar and other materials.
How does it make a difference having more cocoa butter you ask -
Ah. Bingo. Here comes the simple test. If you have a chocolate with more synthetic stuff and sugar it leaves a coat on your tongue. However a true chocolate will never leave a coat on your tongue. It is meant to dissolve and vanish. Leaving a taste lingering on your taste buds. Ask your local choco-meister for more details on further tests. ;)

Cocoa butter is a costly ingredient and hence it is often substituted with some other materials. American companies often tend to mass produce on a gigantic scale at low prices. Hence most American chocolates fail the simple coat test.
European companies often don't worry about the price of a product and tend to focus on the quality and richness. And I was experiencing this perfectionism all around including chocolates, during my stay in Germany.


The quest in Neverland

In my quest to alleviate my despair, I was trying out different chocolates from the local food chains. It was in one such chain that I picked up the jar.

I picked it up for no special reason. It was a chocolate spread and I wanted to have it with my bread at breakfast. First day of trying it proved a disappointment. I should say it was more due to the fact that I had no means to heat or butter the bread in a sensible fashion before spreading the chocolate. And I was almost dejected. Then I thought of trying it with milk. That should taste good ? But no such luck. It simply wasn't soluble !! It would melt and stick to the bottom of the glass.

However I dutifully added it to milk and tried stirring it for long time. All while along I kept concentrating on the taste of the "chocolate shake" I was making. Then it struck ! Why am I having the feeling of "eating" the shake everyday ? Why does the shake taste better at the end ?

Then I understood, it was the not milk shake. It was the chocolate. It was not a spread. It was a chocolate. It was supposed to be had as a chocolate. You take a spoonful of it and just put it in your mouth. The first thing that you should do or m'be I should say not do is try to taste it. Why ?

You might have heard of wines. And how they are tasted. You first sniff them, right ? Well you don't sniff a chocolate, but you don't taste a chocolate spread either. You simply let it stick to your palette. And do not take the spoon out of your mouth. Let it melt because of the temperature in your mouth. And talking of temperature, the temperature in your mouth is something very interesting. Something that makes it the ideal part to kiss. :)

So, the warmth of your mouth caused the chocolate to melt and drop to your tongue from the roof of your mouth. Now which part of your tongue do you taste a chocolate with ?

Its not the middle. Its not the back. Its the tip of your tongue. You let it spread all inside your mouth. Do not eat it yet. Next with the tip of your tongue start licking it off the different areas in your mouth. The tip will tell you the story.


First Tongue View

Here's what my tongue has to tell you -

"Its smoooooooooth. Rich. And nutty. And its not terribly sweet. Oh no. Its just right. Its got a thick body, yet it thins out and goes in real smooth. I check the front teeth.
Hey its gone from the front teeth. Let me check out the other part of the mouth. Hmm. There's a heavy bit on the spoon. I lick it out of the spoon. Ummm.. No. Made a mistake ! That heavy little lump of chocolate didn't give me the fun that small drop on front tooth gave me. Well I'll be a little more careful.
I check out the roof of the mouth. Its dripping with the smooth chocolate. Wooooooow! It gives me the kick ! Yessssssss! I be a little more adventurous now and try out that small pocket between my teeth and cheek. Wohooo! Its there and its even more tastier. Wait. Chet has turned the spoon. I taste the bits on the spoon. Theres much on the small neck of the spoon. The metallic spoon and the smooth chocolate make an explosive combination, doesn't it ? Man, Chet, you should try some more of this dynamite. I shout out to the brain. Hey you there. How did ya feel ? Have some more ;)"

Out goes the spoon and comes the next spoonful and ...

So it continues. The heavenly feeling continues taking away every bit of thought and stress you might have.

Chocolate life

Life is something like that. Taste it with the tip of your tongue. Thats how it will taste sweet. And don't forget to explore it between the teeth :)

Want some ?

The kiss that never was

Disclaimer : This is not meant for bigots and taboo believers. An open mind is the only one most welcome to read this. You've been warned.

Internet has been the source of some of my most cool, refreshing and amazingly different experiences in life. If not for internet, I would’ve net met the uber cool friends I have online. Nor would there be the day which gave me the experience. An experience so wonderful, that even to think about it gives me the bumps.

It all started with a typical jaunt on my then favorite instant messenger ICQ.

On this icq, I had found an ideal chat-mate online. She was perfect. Both of us were relatively new to internet and fiery in our outlooks. We found chat the ideal medium to play with words for what they were worth. And we didn't mind what we talked about.
We were passionate in our chats. Not worried about the consequences. Un-hassled by tomorrow. It is in those sessions that I trained to be a chat jedi. It was there that I began to see what the fuss of words was all about. I was also then expanding on my reading with some classic literature from gutenberg. And experimenting.
I never really stopped experimenting but it was far more un-restrained then.
Thank you so much dear friend. You know who you are. And thanks for letting me write about this.

So, like any other day I wanted to try a direction, with her, on chat, that I hadn't tried before. I wanted to taste passion. It was something I had not experienced then as a teenager. I was curious. And scared.
What would she think? Will she understand? What if I lose her?
Although I had interacted enough with her and knew that my fears were unfounded, I was scared. Like any typical teenager on his first close encounter with the opposite sex.

I decided on my tried and tested approach – shock. It is one of the most simplest way of getting anyone curious and listen to you. The approach is rather simple - First shock. Then explain. However you have to be careful enough to be different in your explanation. Else it becomes weird. I was lucky. It became an unforgettable experience.

I began with my shock and awe - "Have you ever kissed?", I said. There was silence. Few seconds passed. Every second increasing my heart beats. She answer - "Yes. Did you [kiss] ?”.
Here was my chance to go and brag. I went on, “No. But I know a lot of type of kisses !”. I didn’t want to sound inexperienced and naïve. How the answer made it less obvious is beyond me even to this day. :D
She laughed and began the interrogation, “Really !? Tell me about them.”.
I had never thought on this line. I had assumed that she would shyly drop the topic and let it go. But boy, was I wrong ! She was just like me. Curious, fiery and passionate. And a good rebel.
I began in the conservative fashion, going on the wilder track. All the descriptions that I had read in the cheesiest paper articles were then coming to my mind. I was describing kissing as an art and more of a lip lock. And I knew it was god-damn uninteresting. But she was good to me. She said it was a nice way of describing kisses. She egged me more. “What more kisses do you know about?”


Without a thought and in an attempt to be different I said, “I know the kiss that is not a kiss”. There was silence.

“Tell me about it.”, she said simply.

I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. I am usually quick with my words and thoughts. But right then, I had none. I was forced to think harder. Think beyond what I ever thought before.
What could a kiss like that be? It had to be something so good and different that would leave you asking for more. I was about to quit.
And then something clicked. I understood that I had to feel it. Soon I stopped thinking and began to feel it.

And so began the unforgettable experience. A joyride of a lifetime. I chose her as my subject. And like the wonderful person she was, she agreed.

The kiss

You ask her to close her eyes. There is darkness all around. Except for the dim light that is just bright enough to please your senses, but one that does not intrude on your mind. This light is initially enough only to let you see each other.
Soon the light begins to reveal more things than before. It soon opens you on the banks of a lake that looks serene with the rays of a molten sun dancing on its shimmering surface. The lake is a pot of molten copper and gold. Right then it is both cool and warm. The cool wind blowing on the two warm people sitting on the bank of the lake.
She is seated to your right, close enough to feel her arm touch yours. You touch her arm lightly. You don’t look in her eyes, instead at her shining and soft hair. She is sitting still with her eyes closed, breathing in softly all that is around her.
You turn towards her and face her completely. Then you gently grasp her left elbow with your right hand. Slowly you move in closer to her ear. And breathe softly into her ear. And in a whisper say her name.
You then move close to her hair. Close enough, till the soft wavy wisps are all that you can feel in your face. You smell their fragrance and move your lips ever so slowly through them. Your lips are close to the base of her neck and you nuzzle her neck with your nose.
Suddenly you taste her with the tip of your tongue. She twitches but lets you go on. All this while you breathe slowly and with every breath take her in. You now move to her cheeks and slowly to her eyes. You touch her soft closed eyelids with your lips.
She feels unsure and twitches with the soft touches to her face. But you reassure her with a gentle grasp on her right elbow. All the while you rub her left arm with your hand. She feels reassured and keeps experiencing.
You then, lightly move your lips down her eyebrows, ridge, nose and close to her lips. But you don’t kiss her. She knows your lips are close to her. So very close. Yet you don’t kiss her.
You let her feel this distance for a long time. Her breath is fast. Faster than yours. Fast because of the tension. The tension that fires her mind. You hold it for a long time.
She feels your breath. You feel her breath. And your gentle grasp and rub to her arm assures her. Soothes her. And calms her, till they become one like yours.
And then, you move away. Quickly. And let her go.

That is the kiss that is not a kiss.

Warning : Do not try this at home. :D

You've gotta make your own kind of music !

This old tune sung by Mama Cass Elliot, gripped me and a hundreds of others when it aired on the Lost episode "Adrift". A 1969 classic, it creeps on you and grows on you in a very special way.

Creepy because the score does create the necessary creepy and racy ambiance required for the specific scene in Lost. Its lyrics are very good. Far better than a whole shitload of rap and pop that floats around in the name of music. n|m to all the cartel that promotes money over music and creativity.

Back to the song under dissection. It goes like this -

Nobody can tell ya
There's only one song worth singing
They may try and sell ya
Cause it hangs them up to see someone like you

But you've gotta make your own kind of music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kind of music
Even if nobody else sings along


Heck, I don't about others, however am quite a reflection of this part of the song. There's got to be someone in your life at every step to tell you this - "make your own kind of music". Don't do this and you did nothing. Regret has no place in this composition.
I met a whole lot of people and friends all along who reflected this in their own ways. And most importantly they were happy. They are uber cool. They gave me the courage to follow my own convictions at every step until now. I do unto others what they have done for me. I like to help people "make their own kind of music". They are free to choose from my song but that's their choice.
It didn't hang up people to see someone like me. Atleast not that I know of. Its wonderful to know that the path you chose was your own way and that others loved you for it.


Goes on the song in its so very melancholy way -

You're gonna be nowhere,
the loneliest kind of lonely,
It may be rough goin',
just to do your thing's
the hardest thing to do.

To be less like someone is very difficult. We are pretty much sponges of a special kind. We take on colors as we go along. Colored by life and sketched by our own ideas we are a painting of a different brush. And when a color runs out we panic and don't make the music we want to. We desperately try to replace the color. Not to use the other colors we have. I did that too. But there was always someone to show me other colors. Lucky dude, I am !

And it ends thus -

So if you cannot take my hand,
and if you must be goin',
I will understand.

Something we all find so very difficult to do for the people most close to us. Your parents did it when you went away. They live with it. You'll have to live with it when the time comes. Or maybe you've done it for someone or something special to you in your life. Someone special had to do it when I had to be going. She made her own kind of music and sang her own special song. Hats off gal, you rock!

Make your own kind of music, even if nobody else sings along.

P.S: Music is my next post. Keep watching the space.

SEP, POS and an engineer

These two concepts are something an engineer invariably encounters in his career, life or otherwise.

A problem that is not SEP :)

Simply put SEP is a virtual field first described by Douglas Adams in his mega inter dimensional, inter galactic, inter whatever epic - Hitch Hiker's Guide to Galaxy. In more simpler terms its "Somebody Else's Problem".

This field is so applicable to any engineer that he simply cannot proceed ahead without accounting for this and utilizing the virtuous power of this field.

Quick example

This will help this topic becoming shrouded in SEP.

Say somebody has hard-disk crash, we very quickly click tongues and express mock surprise and empathize appropriately. Then comes the very funny thought process - This won't happen to me. Ever. Period. We go on with our lives, work and existence in SEP field.
This, my grasshopper, is SEP. Somebody Else's Problem.

Funnily its this SEP that allows one to indeed get on with life with minimal bothering. And then when the SEP changes something you experience a deja-vu. And a problem on your hands. A la matrix.

SEP is almost viral. We like SEP and we live in it. And it becomes our prime enemy number 1 when it becomes our problem.

Engineer and SEP

Engineer utilizes this field to the max. Not for anyone's benefit but to save his own posterior. Engeering is not about solutions but SEP. They teach you to put any problem in SEP field. That simply makes the problem go away until the next engineer encounters it.

Engineers also provide solution. But thats when they realize that the problem is more than the invisibility cloak of SEP.

SEP is defined by requirements and scope. Anything beyond scope is SEP matter. Engineers love SEP. All successful people are incedentally greats in SEP field creation.


So far so clear. What about POS ?

This is a powerful pill that we feed ourselves to remain in the SEP field. And we do it every day, every hour, every minute. Makes you sound like an addict of the worst kind, no ?

Here it comes - Power Of Suggestion

Without this pill its simply not possible for you to exist in the SEP. This pill has an acceptability that would put any standard published or unpublished to shame.

We love to take the POS pill created by ourselves first and equally enjoy getting it from others. POS allows you to believe in your own thoughts and beliefs and in those of others. POS is so powerful that you can virtually sell it to some one.

Don't believe me ? Try this - Casually tell a girl that a pair of sandals doesn't suit her. That is enough to give her the motivation to buy a new pair.

Marketing people use it. Advertisers live by it. Engineers hate it.

Engineers don't like to be played around. Not because it ain't right. But because if it does go wrong then its the engineer who is at fault. Not the POS dealer.

Engineer likes to use it. On his manager. He feeds atleast a year's stock to his higher up. Just to be sure. That gives him the leeway and the cherished freedom to do nothing.

POS feeds SEP. Beware of POS if you are the visionary types. Beware more of SEP if you want to be visionary. Every problem has to be your problem till you have vision and POS pill to make it truely a SEP. You can then sell that pill as your vision. Gosh. I just spilled the secret to make the visionary POS pill.

What the heck was the aim ?
Was there supposed to be one ? :) But now you have two more cool acronyms to tout around.

Disclaimer

It ain't me. I speak sparingly about few things. You listen. And laugh. If you can't help laughing later when you see that thing, IT AIN'T ME >D \m/