My Thoughts !

The Indian stock market is going for a swing. Now-a-days whether it goes up or comes down, the % change is above 2%. Gone are the days where the change in the sensex would be less than 50 points. Its now in the multiples of 100s. After the continuous downward journey for the 4 days, today markets recorded a 5% change in the upward movement. As they claim, its a historic day for Sensex, as its has never been bullish before. Did I hear bullish? What does that mean?

"Oh! Yeah", you say. "When the stock prices are going up and market is looking good its called bullish. On the contrary, when the prices are going down and market is called as bearish". Good. But do you know why its called so? Though everyone know about the terms, no one is sure about when they came into use nor the reason behind it. There are two widely accepted reasons.

First one is associated with the way these animals strike. Bulls strike with their horns in an upward movement while bears strike with their hands in an downward movements. So upward market is bullish and downward market is bearish. The investors during upward movement are called bulls and those who invest in a downward movement are called bears.

Second and relatively less accepted reason is associated with their movements. While bears move with caution, bulls are bold and strike right away.

Good to know the reasons? Do you know whether to be a bull or bear in the market? It doesn't matter. Because, there is an old saying: "Bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered". Yes, I know that the investors who look for larger profit in a shorter timer and eventually end up with lose are called pigs. But can someone explain why?

Look at the following code. Its a simple binary search algorithm that has been tought during the first semester of any Computer Science degree. Its the same code which is available in the classic Programming Pearls book for the past 20 years and in the Java library for the past 10 years. Now, can you find a bug in this code?


    public static int binarySearch(int[] a, int key) {

        int low = 0;
        int high = a.length - 1;
        while (low <= high) {
            int mid = (low + high) / 2;
            int midVal = a[mid];

            if (midVal < key)
                low = mid + 1;
            else if (midVal > key)
                high = mid - 1;
            else
                return mid; // key found
        }
        return -(low + 1); // key not found.
    }


Don't worry. I'm not here to prove that I'm technically superior to you, because neither did I find the bug. But someone else did! Check this!

ஹூம். பாட்டு எழுதி பேர் வாங்கறவங்க சில பேர். அந்த பாட்டுல குத்தம் சொல்லி பேர் வாங்கறவங்க சில பேர்.

Train journeys during day are interesting. If you get a ticket for an overnight journey, there is no much happenings. You get into the train; wait till the TTR comes; get scribbled in the ticket; switch off the lights and go to sleep. Next morning your journey ends. Day time journey is something different. You see people.

Last weekend I went home and the return tickets were full. So decided to travel in Intercity Express. I didn't reserve tickets because usually Coimbaore-Bangalore Intercity is not as crowded as the Coimbatore-Chennai one. My coach was not full. I was in the end of the coach and there were a big North Indian family in the middle of the coach. There were talking little loudly, otherwise it was quite. I had a book to read. After an hour or so, I turned my head around. The guy opposite to me had a diary and was writing something. He was writing for the past half an hour. I couldn't remember the last time when I wrote something more than 2 lines. I think it should be my last exam in the fifth semester. After that, I use my pen only to sign. If not, I would write a few lines during a tele-con or a meeting. When I type a blog or a email, I have the delete key. I can type a sentence, think over it and rephrase it. After completing the paragraph, I can rearrange the sentences. But writing something in a diary is not the same. I wish I could type my blog/email like that. Keep typing and click the Submit/Send without a proof-reading/error correction. It would save me a lot of time.

I was indulged in this thought and I didn't noticed that hindi song. When I listened for few seconds, I thought that the North Indian family might have brought a portable stereo. When the song was over, there was a big sound of clapping and cheering. I turned back and what I saw was not a Philips stereo, but a train singer with a Harmonium. Unlike the other singers, he was neatly dressed. He neither had an unshaved face nor a kid with please-pity-me look. His voice was good and they way he sang made the family to ask for 2 more songs. At the end, his collection would have been around Rs 50/-. Then he moved away from them and walked towards the end of the coach where I was sitting. Now he was singing, "வேப்பமரம், புளியமரம்" song from the movie சாமி. I've heard that song before, and never paid attention to it. I'd simply forward it to the next song, which would be "திருநெல்வேலி அல்வாடா" or "இது தானா". This time, I didn't have a choice clicking the forward button and even if I had, I wouldn't have done it. He sang the song so enthusiastically and it was nice to listen. By the time he came near me, the song was over. As the doors between unreserved coaches are not open, he has to wait till the next station to move to the next coach. He sat near me and I started talking to him.

His story was little astonishing. He has a passion in music and wanted to become a singer. His parents, just like everyone else, wanted him to study well and get a job and bring back a pay cheque every month. But his dream of becoming a singer didn't allow him to do that. After completing his B.Com, he left his home and came to Chennai. Just talent cudn't help him in fulfilling dream. Not every singer, who comes to chennai becomes SPB or Hariharan. So to make a living, he started singing in a Music Troop and still looking for a chance. Not all 30 days of a month he would get income from that. So he became a train singer. (I can't call him as a begger. He is not begger. He sings and if you are entertained, pay him)

I asked him one simple question. "If you had listened to your parents, you would have been better than what you are now. Don't you regret for it?" His reply was simple: "What do you mean better? Being rich; married to a beautiful gal and having nice kids? I can't settle down for some 10-5 office job. Thats not me. I'm happy with what I'm now - just being myself. Even thought I'm not making big money or being popular, singing is still my profession; and more importantly I'm still chasing my dreams. I might become a singer or I might not. But I'll try till the end."

I don't know what to say. I've met many people, who would join a course/join a college/go for work/marry people just because their parents wanted to. They throw away their dreams for their parents and this man threw away his parents and chasing his dreams. Which one is better? I don't have an answer. He left at the next station, but his words of "chasing dreams" still in my mind.

There is an old saying "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder". I think it holds equally good for songs as well. Some songs though not very popular, we will like very much. This morning I was listening to the மூளை திருகும் from கனா கண்டேன் movie. The lyrics, the music and the picturization was so perfect that I liked very much and almost for the whole day, I was listening to that song with iTunes. Here is the lyrics of the song:

பல்லவி:

மூளை திருகும், மூச்சுக்குள் அடுப்பெரிக்கும்,
இடப்பக்கம் வலப்பக்கம் இதயம் பென்டுலம் ஆடும்,

வாய் மட்டும் பேசாது, உடம்பெல்லாம் பேசும்,
இது மோசமான நோய், ரோம்ப பாசமான நோய்.

சரணம் 1:

மூளை இருந்த இடம் சூளை ஆகி விடும்
அது தான் நோயின் ஆரம்பம்

கால்கள் பறித்துக்கொண்டு சிறகை இரவல் தரும்
ஆனால் அதுவே ஆனந்தம்

ஒரு கடிதம் எழுதவே கை வானை கிழிக்குமே
விரல் எழுதி முடித்ததும், அதை கிழித்து போடுமே

இது ஆண் நோயா? பெண் நோயா? காமன் நோய் தான் என்போமே.


சரணம் 2:

சோற்றை மறுதலித்து விண்மீண் விழுங்கச்சொல்லும்
அன்னம், தண்ணீர் செல்லாது

நெஞ்சில் குழல் செலுத்தி, குருதி குடித்துக்கொள்ளும்
வேண்டாம் என்றால் கேட்காது

ஒரு நன்பன் என்று தான் அது கதவு திறக்குமே
பின் காதலாகியே வந்த கதவு சாத்துமே
இந்த நோயின்றிப் போனாலே வாழ்க்கை சௌக்கியம் ஆகாதே

Recently I was trying to register a domain and looking for various options. I was surprised by the fact that Yahoo gives out a 70% discount for Firefox users where as there is no discount for IE users. Look how the same URL looks different in these browsers

Found it in YouTube. Its good.

I'm trying out few samples with Google Web Toolkit. Its really nice to play with. I googled for a tutorial. Cudn't find anything good. But I managed to find one small GWT tutorial ;-)

Didn't post any photo for a long time. So here comes a pic. It was taken by me during one of the bike trips to Pondi. The place is near Mahabalipuram. The clean blue sky, the long katamaran and a good pose by Ravi made a good combination. Not to mention about Ravi's tummy ;-)

He is a regular reader of this blog and after reading the Tamil LIP for Win XP he decides to install it. After seeing Tamil UI, She is much interested in this.

She : hey, ithu supera irukuda. eppadi pannina?
He : Microsoft-karane itha kudukaran. But defaulta varaathu namma thaniya install pannanum
She : It looks cool da. Tamila type panna kuda mudiyuma?
He : itho (He opens Notepad and types few words in Tamil)
She : eppadida type pannarathu? Tamila neraya character iruke? ellame keyboardla iruka? illa, nee a-m-m-a innu type pannina athu அம்மா-innu Tamil-la transliterate pannikuma?
He : illa, transliterate pannara mathiri neraya software website ellam iruku, but directa windowsla type pannarthu konjam vithiyasama pannanum. ippo கோ venumnu vechiko first க type pannananum. appuram ஓ type pannanum. க + ஓ = கோ thana? So கோ vanthidum. intha mathiri ம + ஈ = மீ varum.
She : nalla than iruku. but ippadi uyir eluthu, mei eluthu senthu type pannina uyir mei eluthu varumnu namakku theriyum. oru elutha padika theriyathavan vantha, avan eppadi type pannuvan?
He : ஙே!!!

No this is not a post about Google's Calendar or Notebook. Its rather about the GWT - the Google Web Toolkit. Some time back I wrote an entry about Ajax and how hard it would be to maintain a code. Now to make developers life simple, Google has released their Ajax framework. This is the same framework that runs Gmail! At a first look it looks great. I'm going to try it out and give a detailed post later.