Yay or Nay- for Gay?

Whether I contemplate benevolent men or admire highbrow-ed intellectuals, I notice that all men hitherto have one purpose in common. The purpose of preserving the human race and its values.To ask why,apart from being inexpedient here, would trigger off  blasphemous  discussions which might offend many of my religious co-terrestrials. I live in a world that is flooded with principles and codes of conduct,  a world that is bound by morality and religion, a world that is shaped by  forefathers to groom the present so that a  peaceful future may be secured. To be upfront, I live in a world which is inexorably blindfolded by ethics  that it seems to conveniently neglect the protracted suffering of a diffident section belonging to the ‘modern’ society- the homosexuals.

Did you twitch or decide to close this tab because you considered this post outlandish? I laugh at your baseless trepidation in confronting biological issues of social significance.Ah, that’s precisely why I consider the concept of humanity ludicrous.People who vehemently lambast the ulterior suffering of the silent many and yet barefacedly set out to satisfy their egos by their philanthropic deeds.If not, I presume you are tranquil to handle this sensitive phenomenon with sensibility.

Scientifically speaking, It is known that our idiosyncrasies are a consequence of genes, hormonal responses and intellectual exposure. When I say idiosyncrasies I’m drawing in everything , from reflexes to sexual orientation, to my domain of evaluation.Surprisingly, we seem to have no problem with polygamy, we seem to have no problem with prostitution, we seem to have no problem with any of the sexual indulgences of a person – as long as it is with someone of the opposite gender.What more, our decent-self remarks that such issues are personal and not meant to be hashed out.So what is it so enamouring about homosexuals – that the news channels rope in experts(!!) for their opinions, the print media never skips a day in circulation without devoting substantial length & breadth to evaluate the depth of this phenomenon,the teenagers gossip about a gay amidst sniggers and looks and yea that prods me against the wi-fi administrator who has blocked me from googling the term.Preposterous. Why is there a furore of someone’s sexual preferences? Ain’t that an issue of choice & freedom to choose?Aren’t we violating privacy norms?

We consider it stigma to be friends of homosexuals, we consider it undermined to work with them at offices, we believe it is contagious if we educate our kids with them.We are offended when someone teases us to have ‘curved’ orientation. We make perverted jokes out of it and amuse ourselves at the expense of someone’s helplessness.What are we? Humans, eh?I smell something odd here…hang on, have our grey cells been shortcircuited?

Sex- A three letter word that is capable of altering the life of an individual for three generations thence. Sex is purely personal.Sacred according to religion and exalted according to poets.It is a sensitive concept that’s seemingly smeared with prejudices and superstitions by hypocrites.Perhaps, it is time to dust off the thick sheets of stupidity and acknowledge the essence of such commitments which is pleasure.

Because there are certain things in life that cannot be changed, no matter what may happen. Sexual Orientation is one of those.It cannot be helped that one of my friends was gay.It cannot be helped if your landlady is a lesbian. And here’s the worst feared, it cannot be helped if your progeny would be a homosexual. I reaffirm,it cannot be helped.Whether you protest it or detest it, it remains till death. That’s their biologically determined configuration.That’s there way of life and existence. So, why raise an alarm against this section or banish them from your company?Why make it conspicuous or emotionally challenging for them when such preference doesn’t make them incompetent or talentless? Isn’t harmony the ultimate preaching of any religion? Isn’t respect for your fellow beings a virtue emphasized by any religion?If you answer yes, to any of the above, I suggest that the only breather you can give to them is by accepting the truth with composure.This is not a biological paradox, it is a biological phenomenon to be understood and not feared.

It hurts, as a human, to learn about the excruciations of this class for not being ’straight’. I inquire now,whether, consciousness being the last to develop in the organic, has remained unfinished and unstrong in homosapiens.

A grad student, a post-doc, and a professor are walking through a city park and they find an antique oil lamp. They rub it and a Genie comes out in a puff of smoke.

The Genie says, “I usually only grant three wishes, so I’ll give each of you just one.”

“Me first! Me first!” says the grad student. “I want to be in the Bahamas, driving a speedboat with a gorgeous woman who sunbathes topless.” Poof! He’s gone.

“Me next! Me next!” says the post-doc. “I want to be in Hawaii, relaxing on the beach with a professional hula dancer on one side and a Mai Tai on the other.” Poof! He’s gone.

“You’re next,” the Genie says to the professor.

The professor says, “I want those guys back in the lab after lunch.”

Lucky 15 for Fed

Hey, I am n’t talking about the 15 grand slams in fed’s kitty but the stressful entertaining 16-14 in the fifth set of Wimbledon 2009.What a nail-biting evening it was.Best brand of tennis coupled with indefinite display of character from the two gladiators on court. “Where is this going?” was one question that kept knocking back everyone, perhaps the players themselves, after every game from 9-all in the 5th.

Andy Roddick was at his career best. Even if he didn’t win the title, the clash with fed made him equally deserving to share history. Wonderful service, which fed couldn’t crack even after a 4-hr long meet was as awesome as the 50-odd aces in fed’s account. The 21-shot rally was a manifestation of Roddick’s determination who earned each and every point with his skill. Though there were situations when fed did give a few games to him out of unforced errors, Roddick was proving his return with a calm composure and grit in the hit.

Federer,the No.1, just again.He could have wrapped it up much earlier- but then histories are never made in haste, aren’t they?

Btw, did anyone opine that Rafa’s absence made it easy for fed? Rethink.Rethink.Rethink.

1-0, 1-all, 2-1, 2-all, 3-2, 3-all, good lord these guys stretched out so much to pull it to a 13-all.It was kind of anxious, equally vexing at the same time thrilling that you actually were witnessing some great tennis, on its way to create history. Federer deserved to win his 15th title, but Wimbledon Final 2009, in particular, belonged to Andy Roddick. Magnificent battle on court– the drop shots, the angles, the placement and the service of Andy matched or perhaps at time surpassed the standards which the swiss maestro defined in tennis.Andy rocked!

Fed struggled with his forehand and in cashing on the deuce. But then the finish, the way it ended was kind of sudden. Because the audience were tuned in for an infinite loop of dualling from the two players that the winnning point was just a relief to the marathon of tennis. Terrific show of talent and character ever.

It was fun to watch Pete , Brooklyn and especially Mirka who were equally anxious about the outcome. Perhaps, Mirka should have avoided watching this.

Finally, here’s the tally:

LIST OF GRAND SLAM TITLES

15 – Roger Federer
14 – Pete Sampras
12 – Roy Emerson
11 – Rod Laver
11 – Bjorn Borg
10 – Bill Tilden
8 – Ken Rosewall
8 – Ivan Lendl
8 – Andre Agassi
8 – Jimmy Connors
8 – Fred Perry

Congrats, Fed..Now that he’s No.1, its kind of reassuring that things are back to normal.

(Personal update : This match is now the most reviewed issue whenever people meet at the workplace)

Epic Final

Deathnote

Hmm, finally I’m writing on this. The instigation for this post comes from the demise of MJ, an event which has stirred a walloped response from the human fraternity. Thousands of stories popping up on the news channels, hundreds of messages being posted on social networking sites, ubiquitous pictures of the star gleaming in random websites, phew, that’s definintely an exuberant furore on display.Now, hang on, before I am censured for not acknowledging the grieving departure of the king of pop, let me pay my tribute. (This is to MJ–) Out of sympathy for the person and respect for your talent, I wish that you R.I.P.

Coming back, I will not comment anything on the person in particular.On how he lived or for that matter how he died.Because I’ve not known anything about MJ apart from his music which was regularly played on Sunday afternoons at my home, after lunch. Heal the world topping my favorites chart.

Death. The five letter word, what does it mean to you? People who have experienced it are irretrievable and those who haven’t are not irrecusable either. Painful it is said while it is silent some opined. Whatever may it be, it is definitely accentuated– whether with teary eyes or with glee is a matter of personal choice.

When a person of social standing passes away into the infinite depths of time, a lot of hue and cry is raised. People flood the media with their sympathies and the media plunges itself into excavating the hidden truths of the personality- to smear its spices on the life of the nomore and shoot up the ratings. The family is interviewed, the video-tapes of the past broadcasted and the extravaganza goes on for a few days till the flame goes off. Once it is old, it is no more gold for the media. Life moves on.

How does all this matter to the person who has passed away? Does it make any difference to the deceased? Definitely not. Then why do people cry their heart out, why do they spend hours together writing in the memory of the person, why do they spend money on ceremonies in the name of death, why is it this way,why is there so much pomp, why is there so much fuss, why is there so much…perhaps, insecurity associated with death?

It is fear for the fate. The ultimate destiny any soul is doomed to come face-to-face, once and for all.We fear death, we comfortably disremember its inevitability in our rat race. After all,tell me  who wishes to begin their day on a grim note. We love to be happy, happy in the materialistic world- in the little nest we have spun for ourselves that screens us adeptly from realizing the beautifully simple truths.

But then life is a prankster,ain’t it? Loves to see you cooked up.So, on one of your unlucky days, it poses you with its shenanigans.And how do shallow minds respond..raise the alarm, call for unity, gasp in vain and go unrestrained. Life is not abass. Neither is it cold on us. It is sensitive with hidden lessons carefully woven into its complex fibers. All you need is a pacified mind to understand. After all you must appreaciate your luck to observe and prepare yourself , because once you confront it, you will have no second choice.

**Dedicated to all the souls which have exited in order to  give us space so that we move ahead in the queue.

GOD

King of all abstracts, I must say.This is one concept that has been polymerised, transmorphed and even eroded ,time and again. I’ve always fallen short of the right questions when I seek the answer to its existence.What is God? How does God function? What are its characteristics? How to comprehend its actions? Is it to be feared or loved or understood, why? And the list goes on with a common intersection set that includes (why,what,how,when,where).

To begin with, why am I interested in God. It is a phenomena that seems to altercate a human’s thought and action. Those who believe, those who don’t and those who never bothered to inquire- constitute my sample space of evaluation. I like observing people esp. the way they function and present themselves. From my observation and interactions, I’ve inferred that religion is one of those attributes that seem to be an indicative of certain idiosyncrasies and a negation of some other. To understand the system, you need to understand the configuration and that drove me to GOD.

I’m an agnostic.I’m unsure, as I am still experimenting with this trickiest challenge ever posed.But I’m clear regarding my assumptions which are stated below:

GOD is not an authority that notes your good and bad  and sends you to heaven or hell based on your end-of-life report.

GOD does not ask you to showcase your monetary gains in the form of lavish decorations and glittery offerings.

GOD does not dwell in a cave on ice caps of mountains nor does it move like a white cloud across the grasslands.

GOD does not ask you to starve in its name.

GOD does not feed on animal sacrifices.

GOD does not live nor die.

GOD is impervious to flattery and is impartial.

GOD is definite.

This is my domain of constraints which I have assumed after catechizing various customs, beliefs and mythology.

I’ve gone through some really tough phases in life- Seeing someone dear wither with time, seeing someone succumb to their temptations, seeing someone torturing themselves out of hatred for the world, seeing someone fight against their fate by pleading mercy with GOD, so many countless occurences and so many insidious moments. Some of them moved ahead in the name of GOD and some remained where there with the hope of GOD.It makes me contemplate, sometimes confused, about the positive and negative impacts assosciated with the beliefs and disbeliefs in this domain.

First those who believe. They fought hard, really hard. Visited shrines, dumped exhorbitant amount on their earnings on rituals and sacrifices, followed strict discipline and felt guilty when they did something unconventional.They also prayed on their knees, offered the best materialistic stuff their economic status could afford, listened to bhajans on tapes and then went to suck bribe out of the next client that visited them.

There was another sect. Those who conversed with GOD everyday, carried on their responsibilities as GOD wished them to, said they loved GOD very much and then cried themselves to bed because they weren’t asked out by the most appealing person of the opposite sex.

There may be many other combinations, but then as I don’t intend to write a thesis, I wish to simply restrain myself to merely quoting some of the cases that I found trivial. Because as Einstein said- “if something appears possible, its hopeless”.

And enter the punks. Shaggy low waists, with the f word alternating with every word of their sentence, going astray in search of ‘happiness’. These guys don’t give damn about this entity called GOD. Now, some of them are hard nuts while some are unclear. These are kind of practical but immature at times.But then , they seem to succumb more to frustration when compared to their counterparts who seek consolation in GOD. These people believe in themselves and set out to achieve their dreams.But when they fail, when they surrender their rationale, when they sacrifice their pleasures..only to be laughed at by their fate, they fall depressed, madly and deeply.It is at this crisis that I’ve seen that their GOD- believing counterparts rose out easily, because they were led by the belief that GOD always does something for a reason. Or is it a smoke screen for complacence?Silence.

What business does this GOD have with people? People say it does something to you so that you give something to its world. Trading eh?Some say its not business but love. Love huh?Some ask me back if axioms can be proved in Mathematics?Logic uh? I get myriad responses but no definite answer to the belief that’s been surviving the ebb of time and been taken for granted.

If its trading, what does it have to take from a crippled person who can’t eat a square meals for many days and starves to death?If its love, why are there people being subjugated and why are the dishonest ruling the roost nowadays? If you say mathematics, then I’d ask what is the calculus associated with this function-range , domain, its continuity and differentiabilty and all that the package can include.Most of the times I realised, that you reach a block which becomes insurmountable.

For now, It just dawned on me that this post is never going to end.Because if it did, then it would be worth my life , the struggle I am undergoing to answer it.

With due acknowledgement to Prof. Gerard’t Hooft

I came across this hilarious article written by Prof. Gerard’t Hooft. I’m posting it here so that it reaches out to a wider audience (I wonder):

HOW to BECOME a BAD THEORETICAL PHYSICIST

by  Gerard ‘t Hooft

 

It is much easier to become a bad theoretical physicist than a good one. I know of many individual success stories.

Don’t worry: if I don’t quite agree with your theories or methods, that by itself does not imply you are a bad theorist. You might still make great discoveries, or even win a Nobel Prize if you’re lucky.

Good theorists as well as bad ones all make mistakes. Science advances in spite of people making mistakes. We produce theories, even ones which cannot be entirely correct, and test them in every odd way we can imagine. Eventually, we manage to remove the errors and obtain marvelous new insights. The difference between a good theorist and a bad one is that good theorists are usually the first to detect the shortcomings of their own theories. They are never afraid of discarding a theory if it appears to be beyond repair. While learning about physics as a student, we all have the ambition of making great discoveries, so we soon start constructing our own theories. They are usually wrong, but never mind, we learn from our mistakes.

Here is how to become a bad theorist:  Compare yourself with Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac, or other celebrities in theoretical physics, and reach a conclusion in favor of yourself. Note that good theoreticians do not consider these famous physicists as saints; none of them were infallible, but the few instances where they could be corrected are well-known by historians of science, and do not have any effect on modern physics.

You may consider the option of connecting your work with mystery topics such as telepathy and consciousness. Make outrageous claims of having solved long standing problems. Of course, you expect that you will become famous, but unfortunately, only a few really good theoretical physicists have equations and effects named after them. This is because colleagues recognize their importance and since they want to give names to equations and effects anyway, they bestow the discoverers with that honor.  The bad theoretical physicist, in anticipation, names his own equations and effects, and even his entire theories, after himself right away. The impudence to attach your own name to whatever you claim to have discovered is considered improper in science, and in practice it betrays amateurism and incompetence. If a good theoretician refers to an equation to which colleagues have attached his/her own name, he/she uses a different description if available.

On your way towards becoming a bad theoretician, take your own immature theory, stop checking it for mistakes, don’t listen to colleagues who do spot weaknesses, and start admiring your own infallible intelligence. Try to overshout all your critics, and have your work published anyway. If the well-established science media refuse to publish your work, start your own publishing company and edit your own books. If you are really clever you can find yourself a formerly professional physics journal where the chief editor is asleep. To recognize such a journal, look for one where, in the list of board members on the cover, more than 50 % has already deceased. Accuse all your critics of the short-sightedness that you actually suffer too much from yourself. It is easy and pleasant, it does not require the hard work of checking and re-checking your results, and if you are sufficiently eloquent, you might even gather some admirers.

Your next step should be to advertise your work. Your reputation may have caused the xxx ArXives and Wikipedia to refuse your submissions (congratulations, they are not really peer-reviewed), but in that case you can still start your own weblog, and buy pop-ups in Google. Do not mention the number of citations you received in the established literature (you probably did not receive any) but instead install a counter that identifies the number of times someone by mistake downloaded your papers. Some people just download anything so you are guaranteed to get many hits there, and you can proudly announce those numbers.

A method was devised by John Baez to give you an indication as to how high you have scored. You may also consult Warren Siegel.

Some people only come halfway.  Now here’s for the real perfectionist. Note that you still have a problem.You have convinced your friends at your local bar, your family, your pizza vendor, your dog, and even a local radio station of the superiority of your theory. How come that there are still some obnoxious physicists who seem to continue to work on obsolete theories as if you never did give a deadly blow to established science? Most professional physicists you wrote to never gave you any reply at all; well, that must be because they are too ashamed of all those mistakes they have made in the past, and they must now be busy studying your important work.

But then there are those few physicists such as one bloke called Gerardus ‘t Hooft, who shamelessly have pointed out to you that your theory is nonsense! Should you take them seriously? Of course not. Don’t even try to show them the details of your derivations, which you forgot anyway and you might not be able to reproduce on the spot. Here is what you do to establish your reputation forever: JUST GIVE THEM HELL. Compare those obnoxious puppets of the establishment with nazis and threaten them with law suits. That’ll teach them.

Actually, you may discover that there are quite a few more people like you, who agree with you, saying that Einstein and many others got it completely wrong, and that established science is one great conspiracy. Don’t try to study the details of their arguments (you won’t be able to make any sense of them anyway), but join them in their web logs. Confirm your mutual admiration. Together you will form a mighty block, and your common opponents such as ‘t Hooft will soon back off.

If you expect that this is the way to achieve the ultimate recognition for your theories, you are the true champion of this web page.

For understandable reasons, I decided to refrain from listing names of people who succeeded to gain the title of “bad theoretical physicist”, or to make too overt allusions, as was done in earlier versions of this page. In spite of this, I still receive angry reactions from people who apparently recognize themselves here. There’s little I can do about that. This page was inspired by the activities of real existing people, but none of these descriptions refer to one single existing person.

One exception I fail to resist. Recently a new University was founded: the Myron Evans University. Here, those with a fine taste for perfection can specialize and obtain PhD degrees. I won’t provide the link, but I am sure it will appear right up front if you google it up.

being ‘fair’ in life…

Rummaging through the matrmonial columns of an esteemed daily- it is ubiquitous to find grooms preferring “fair-complexioned” bride as a potential life partner. The innumerous face packs offered in the beauty parlour seem to have one goal- improving the skin complexion.Have you ever seen any top commercial actress being dark? (Bipasha Basu is wheatish, not black please). How about having a pitch-black boyfriend for a change? Funny, isn’t it- that all of us yearn for keeping our hair black and our skin white. My friends don’t think its funny, it’s the way it should be…(apparently).

Why is it that the north indians condescend the south-indians? Why is it that the good looking are always addressed as fair in literature? Why is it that ‘being fair’ considered as a trustable parameter for deciding the relation? I am bemused.

Is ‘fair’ a fair criteria?

Microsoft’s Antivirus

Finally, there’s something to rejoice? Microsoft’s offering free anti-virus as a part of its security package for the windows. In the past, microsoft had to face severe criticism and several reverberations from the user community for not providing an in-built complimentary security software for the windows, making it a compulsion for its customers to go astray for it. However, it seems to have given this issue a thought and has released trial versions in thwe US, Brazil, China and Israel.Known as Microsoft Security Essentials, this package promises to provide basic level protection against viruses, trojans, rootkits and spyware.Microsoft is hoping that MSE, available as a free download from its site, will prove more popular. It has said it will automatically update it for users. The software will b rolled out in other countries as the year progresses…

However, rival security vendors have questioned whether Microsoft can compete with more established anti-virus players.

5 Awesome iPhone Apps created by college students

Stanford University Juniors Kayvon Beykpour and Aaron Wasserman have developed an application for the iPhone that allows fellow students to better utilize campus resources. Students who download this app are able to view a campus map, find contact information for faculty members, pay their tuition, add and drop courses, and stay on top of school sports.  Because of the success of this application, Stanford University has added a course in iPhone application development. Though not every college student goes to Stanford, the developers have plans to expand the software to include other universities.  Following the success of this app, Time Magazine writer Josh Quittner posed this question in an article, “Can iStanford take on Facebook Mobile?”   Time will soon tell.

Radio

Jen Pei Li, Raed Shomali, & Chaitanya Ramavajjala are graduate engineering students at USC that came up with the simple idea to allow iPhone users access to over 6300 radio stations worldwide for only 99 cents. This application allows the user to search and listen to radio stations through directory and genre search from anywhere in the world.  In the first month of Radio’s launch it was downloaded over 48,000 times which made the developers over $35,000.   Even though the download of this application has slowed since its release in 2008, but it continues to be ranked in the top 100 on iTunes.

Movies.app

Carnegie Melon sophomore Jeffery Grossman developed Movies.app to connect iPhone users to local theatre information. After his application was downloaded over 250,000 times, he sold the rights to Flixter for a reportedly generous undisclosed amount.  Furthermore, this is the first iPhone application to be developed independently and acquired by a larger company.  As apart of the deal between Flixter and Grossman, he has signed on with Flixter as a consultant while continuing to finish school.

Air Guitar

Air Guitar provides the user the ability to rock on guitar without talent or commitment to play real guitar. The application was developed by Stanford University students James Anthony and Edward Marks. This was one of the first applications to be officially published from students who completed the iPhone development course.  This application is currently available for download for $1.99, and the most recent version of Air Guitar has received great user reviews.

Speed

A first year Dublin City University Student by the name of Stephen Troughton-Smith developed an application that utilizes the iPhone’s GPS capabilities to determine the speed at which the user is traveling. In the first six days this .99 cent app was released it was downloaded over 36,000 times.  Troughton-Smith continues to develop iPhone apps and has completed 5 and is working on a sixth.  His completed applications are Speed, Lights Off, Nuker, Doom, and Same Game.  His app soon to be released is Chalk, which is a Twitter application that boasts a sleek, easy to use professional layout.

Jaadu VNC

Carnegie Mellon graduate student Jahanzeb Sherwani, has created an application which allows the user to screen share and gives full control of one’s PC or Mac from virtually anywhere in the world. Though the price for this application is $24.99 it confirms the progress of the mobile integration of the personal computer. Sherwani is the first Pakistani born developer to independently develop and release an application for the iPhone.  He is in the process of completing his PHD, and according to an article on Jaadu, he looks forward to further working towards the mobile integration of the personal computer.

iSteam

iSteam has become one of the fastest downloaded applications on the iPhone. Having been released in December of 2008, it has been downloaded over two million times. Kostas Eleftheriou, a college aged Greek entrepreneur developed this application. In the first month of charging for this app, Eleftheriou made well over $100,000. In the months following the release iSteam continue to generate substantial revenue. Since hitting it big with iSteam, Eleftheriou has decided to postpone his graduate studies and start an iPhone software development company called GreatApps.

iDiscover

iDiscover was also developed in the iPhone Stanford course. Software students Paul Wilson and Nafis Jamal developed this application to find articles, videos, and other iPhone applications based on the users interests. This application is free, and it continues to have download growth since its release last December.  Though the download numbers have not been substantial for this free application, both developers have been happy with its growth progress.  Currently both developers are working towards releasing more applications.

Studio App

Released in March 2009, it took only two weeks for this application to top the charts on the iTunes App Store.  Studio App is a mobile studio application that allows the user to program music and record vocals through a multi-track platform.  University juniors from Atlanta, Hayden Kramer and Wesley Miller, developed this software for people who love music and for those who aspire to be music producers.  Studio App has become a top seller in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan and Australia.  Its top ranking peaked at No. 6 on the “Top Music Application” list and was featured in the “New and Noteworthy” section of iTunes.  Studio App is currently ranked No. 17 on iTunes for the top paid music applications.

iProcrastinate

This handy little task manager was developed by Michigan Tech full time student Craig Otis. Marketed directly to students as homework management software, this free app has proven very popular with high school and college students.  This application’s features allow the user to color categorize each task by subject and class.  In addition to iProcrastinate being available for the iPhone it is also available to download to your desktop as an application for your personal computer.

Chores, Wordy, Gratuity, & Fright

“Even though I’m still in college. I want writing software for the iPhone and Mac OS X to be my day job,” recalled University of Mississippi computer science major Deepak Mantena.  Mantena has successfully developed four relatively popular applications since the App Store launched in 2007.  Mantena’s software includes “Chores,” a to-do list application that easily syncs with your PC; “Wordy,” a program that helps expand a person’s vocabulary while on the go; “Gratuity,” a program that tabulates tips easily; and “Fright,” which offers scary scenes and sounds to entertain the user. Chores costs $4.99 and the others are available for .99 cents each.  In addition to releasing these four applications, Mantena has started his own software company called TapeShow.  In doing so, he hopes to continue to produce high quality applications that are aesthetically pleasing and easy to use.

Spacewalk 3D

Robb McMahan, a software engineering major at Texas State Technical College has developed an outer space game for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  The game is unique because it is one of the first to be released that is played through the first person vantage point. McMahan is also in the process of creating another first person game that details the adventures of an underwater scuba diver.  This first person game retails for $1.99 in the App Store.  While this game has not made McMahan an overnight millionaire, he continues to develop iPhone applications at night while attending school during the day.

Trace

Trace is a platform game for the iPhone that puts the user in total control of the gaming environment. In this game, the user needs to travel from the starting point all the way to the goal by drawing a path to travel along. This application was independently developed by brothers Kevin and Taylor Calderone.  When asked in an interview why the brothers released this for application for free, Kevin responded, “I didn’t see this as a get rich quick scheme, I saw it as a good place to start my career. We are both college students, so a career in this is the ultimate goal.”  Trace has boasted over 60,000 ratings on the App Store since its release in October of 2008, and has garnered an average rating of 3 ½ stars.

Awesome Ball

According to its developers, Awesome Ball is not a game, but rather a fun time-killing application.  Regardless, it is currently ranked number one as the top downloaded free app on iTunes (as of April 14, 2009).  College students Jonathan Johnson and Brian Pratt came up with the concept for this application to utilize the iPhone’s real physics capabilities. Having just been released in March of 2009, both developers  agree they want to continue developing software for the iPhone.  The real physics concept for a time-killing app has proven popular, but it remains to be seen how long this app will stay on top.

Tris

Noah Witherspoon, a college sophomore from Atlanta, created the game Tris as a free homage to his favorite game Tetris. Though it was one of the most popular free applications when it was available with over 500,000 downloads, The Tetris Company made Witherspoon take Tris down due to copyright infringement.  Witherspoon believed he did nothing wrong, but as a poor college student with limited resources he was unable to fight the Tetris Company.  Though he did not make any money from his venture, he said he enjoyed the process of developing a popular game and looks forward to creating more in the future.

The five people I might meet in heaven

I just finished reading the novel by Mitch Albom.It begins with the end of a maintainance worker at an amusement park. He is Eddie, the protagonist, who enters heaven and meets five people who help him comprehend his life, which he strongly believed was worthless.Life after death is the interesting angle explored in this book.

Bland language, with a few interesting quotes here and there, this book may serve like a snack during work.

But then, what really stopped me for a while was the thought that who would be the five people I would meet in heaven. A fictitious work, may it be, but then there’s nothing wrong in checking out, ain’t it?

Five people who influenced my life-  the way I am.It’s difficult to point out. There may have been predecessors whose sacrifice was my life, there may have been people whom I sacrificed for, there may have been lot more intricacies about the relationships I’ve had,it way too complex. But one person, I really yearn to meet and I am sure to meet is my father. I know he’s waiting up there to ask me one thing he never forgot to ask- “Did you do your best out there?”. I am confident that when I go up there-he would be there  with sparkling eyes, trying to hide that serene smile to his arm on my shoulder and asking me- “how did it go?” It was just as if yesterday that we left home on our scooter to school- when my father would walk me till the main gate, put the bag on my back, hand over the water bottle and say bye. It was just as if a few hours ago, that we walked into my college clutching my green certificates’ file and the little grey cash bag. His voice still lingers in my memory when he said -” no matter where you go, even abroad, I’m going to come and drop you”. There is a quote in the book which reads- “Fairness doesn’t govern life and death. For if it did, no good man would ever die young.” How very true.

Another person I can think of, who would be desirous of meeting me in heaven, assuming that he’d die before me- would be a person called MR. He was my teacher in 11th and 12th.I’m sure he would have something to say. He belonged to that fragile transitional phase of my life which is still afresh in my mind. A phase that surely has a long lasting impact on my life.It’s neither admiration nor abhorrence I have but a mere acknowledgment  of the fact that he was influential.

Not many love me. Nor do I. I’ve always held the view that most of the love one experiences is obligatory. Very few get to see the core of your character- let alone like it and love you for it.So, apart from these two I don’t think anyone would be there to meet me in heaven, not if  they’re still alive back here.But there’s one person whom I’d wait for in heaven to tell him how much I’ve always admired him and would continue to do so, no matter where I am. He is my godfather.