:: rushabh ::

My Name is Radoshi

I finally finished "My Name Is Red" Orhan Pamuk's Nobel Prize winning novel. I'd started it in December when I was still in India and just finally got done. I'm also coreading "The God Delusion" (Richard Dawkins) and working at a startup and going on drinking binges; all excuses for taking so long to complete one book.

About the book: Set in AD 1500-ish Istanbul, the novel is a murder-mystery of sorts along with a commentary on our fear of the new, even if, at some level, we can appreciate its beaty or eloquence, we still fight tooth and nail to stick to the old ways. I loved the meta-message; I found the writing exquisite and the overall book fairly boring only because it moved so slowly and my attention span has been drastically shortened thanks to TV. (Heroes!!!)

The Code Book

The next book on my list if Simon Singh's "The Code Book". I read half of one chapter and came across a substitution cipher which Singh throws in with "... What follows is a step-by-step guide to cryptanalyzing the ciphertext, but if you feel confident then you might prefer to ignore this and attempt your own independent cryptanalysis"

An afternoon of post-drunken-revelry recovery was lost trying to figure out this:


PCQ VMJYPD LBYK LYSO KBXBJXWXV BXV ZCJPO EYPD KBXBJYUXJ LBJOO KCPK. CP LBO LBCMKXPV XPV IYJKL PYDBL, QBOP KBO BXV OPVOV LBO LXRO CI SX'XJMI KBO JCKO XPV EYKKOV LBO DJCMPV ZOICJO BYS, KXUYPD: \"DJOXL EYPD, ICJ X LBCMKXPV XPV CPO PYDBLK Y BXNO ZOOP JOACMPLYPD LC UCM LBO IXZROK CI FXKL XDOK XPV LBO RODOPVK CI XPAYOPL EYPDK, SXU Y SXEO KC ZCRV XK LC AJXNO X IXNCMJ CI UCMJ SXGOKLU?\"

OFYRCDMO, LXROK IJCS LBO LBCMKXPV XPV CPO

Answer in the extended.

The afternoon wasn't a complete waste since I got to learn a little bit more of python while working on the cipher. Did I mention that I really, really like Python? Probably deserves a post of its own though.

NOW DURING THIS TIME SHAHRAZAD HAD BORNE KING SHAHRIYAR THREE SONS. ON THE THOUSAND AND FIRST NIGHT, WHEN SHE HAD ENDED THE TALE OF MA'ARUF SHE ROSE AND KISSED THE GROUND BEFORE HIM, SAYING: \"GREAT KING, FOR A THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS I HAVE BEEN RECOUNTING TO YOU THE FABLES OF PAST AGES AND THE LEGENDS OF ANCIENT KINGS, MAY I MAKE SO BOLD AS TO CRAVE A FAVOUR OF YOUR MAJESTY?\"

EPILOGUE, TALES FROM THE THOUSAND AND ONE

RAW

Ted got on my case about not shooting in RAW and using JPEG instead.

He also sent me a bunch of articles to back up various things he was talking about, including this one about why one should shoot in RAW.

I'm convinced.



Oh and I also just downloaded Photoshop Lightroom Beta and I absolutely love it. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

Seattle Sculpture Park in HDR

Tried out photomatix to make HDR photographs. Still on the trial version, so I've got the watermarks on the back of the image.

For those that don't know about HDR, read up about it here

Great lines

"Yet another infosys guy is taking a month off to go marry a girl he met over web cam"

-- Ryan Gordon, over IM

Fun with Google Transit

I was using Google Transit to see how I can get myself from work to SEATAC airport later tonight.

GT worked, kind of.

It got you near the airport and then had you "walk" for 25 minutes.

Across.

The.

Runway.