Pursuing Dreams: Jerry Seinfeld on Show Business

A young, rising stand-up comic, Orny Adams(A), talks to Jerry Seinfeld(S) about a career in show business:



...
...
A: I see all of my friends, they’re making a lot of money, making a lot of money on Wall Street.
S: What?
A: I just see that my friends are moving up? And I’m worried that…
S: They’re moving up?
A: They’re moving up.
S: Are you out of your mind?
A: No, I’m am not out of my mind. I just uh..
S: This has nothing to do with your friends.
A: I’ve upset you. I’ve upset you.
S: No, No, this is a special thing. This has nothing to do with making it.
A: Did you ever stop to compare you life, OK I’m 29 my friends are all married, they’re all having kids, they all have houses.
S: Yechh!
A: They have some sense of normality about them.
S: Yechh!
A: What do you tell you parents. You know, how do you deal with that.
S: What do you tell your parents?
A: Yes, your parents.
S: I have to tell you a story.

Glenn Miller’s orchestra, they were doing a gig somewhere and they can’t land where they were supposed to land because it was snowing, so they have to land in this field and walk to the gig. And they are dressed, and have to carry their instruments. So they are walking to where they are supposed to perform and its wet and slushy, and in the distance they see this little house, and there are lights on and there’s smoke coming out of the chimney. So they walk up an look in the window and they see this family: a guy and his wife, she’s beautiful, and two kids and they are all sitting around this table. They’re smiling and laughing and eating. There’s a fire in the fireplace. These guys are standing outside in their suits and they’re wet and they’re shivering. They’re holding their instruments. They’re watching this incredible Normal Rockwell scene.

And one guy turns to the other and goes, "How do people live like that?"

That’s what it’s about.


Love of the craft!

The band much rather struggle doing what they love the most, than be "comfortable" in a place they hate.

Chasing your dreams, or letting your dreams chase you?

That's what it's about!

Peace...

A Holiday for the rest of us

Get your aluminium poles out and air your grievances...

Happy Festivus!



It's also one of the few festivals that gets displayed on the steps of Capitol in the US, along with Christmas and Hanukkah:



For those wanting to observe traditional rituals, there's also a handy how-to guide!

Peace...

The Great Dream: An Inexistential Quest

The Huffington Post is my favourite news website, essentially a news aggregating blog. Though it can often be Americentric, well, so is today's world, though the American exceptionalism is gradually giving way to cater to a more global audience. Its contributors include politicians, celebrities, academics and policy experts such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Michael Moore, Madonna, Alec Baldwin, Larry David, John Kerry and Bill Maher to name a few. Just 5 years old, HuffPost has already won a number of webbies, has a huge community (over 1 million comments/month) and is notable for being completely free of cost.

Last week, surfing its Comedy section, I came across the following interview:



It's Conan O'Brien interviewing Arianna Huffington, discussing a wide array of topics, including divorced people stripping, handling 3-blackberries at once, and why HuffPost doesn't charge its readers (to which she famously replied, "People don't like paying for news and opinion...unless it's financial stuff or very, very weird porn."). But it was really the first minute and a half that caught my attention.

Born and brought up in Greece (as visible in her thick accent), Arianna has seen everything there is to see in American politics, and is a prominent voice in policy, environmentalist and liberal circles. As the founder of HuffPost, which has been recognised to be amongst the most prominent vehicles on the Internet by the likes of TIME, she is widely considered one of the world's most powerful and influential women.

When the host of "Conan" discussed her amazing success story: running a large arm of the American media, and being the voice of an animated bear (named Arianna, Tim the bear's wife on The Cleveland Show), she mentions that she got what she always dreamt of as a child. Being the voice of a cartoon bear on a hit American TV show, and a successful blogger.

In other words, she aspired to non-existent things.

And isn't that remarkable. As Conan continued, isn't that what everyone coming to America dreams of.. Aspire to something that doesn't exist, yet!

We've all come across these facts and prophecies somewhere.. so many professions of the early 20th century don't even exist anymore, replaced by those of today, that will cease to exist within another decade... the top 10 jobs in 2015 don't even exist in 2010.. new industries, new opportunities, will keep taking birth, and we'll have to prepare ourselves to face them, and when they aren't even there...

While there are many versions of the great dream out there, the American, the Indian, the IITian, and so on, I think this really clinches the one truly great aspiration for me.

A great dream: the non-existent.

Just like jeggings in 2008.

Peace...

Update: AOL has now acquired The Huffington Post for US$315 million, making Arianna Huffington president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will include The Huffington Post and existing AOL properties such as Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch Media, and StyleList.

Awesome! Like a 100 Billion Hot Dogs!

awesome /ˈɔsəm/ –adjective

1. Causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement.
2. showing or characterized by awe.

Modern usage of awesome

Awesome is all about inspiring awe, described as an emotion similar to wonder but less joyous, and more fearful or respectful. It's something of a combination of surprise and fear.

awe   
/ɔ/ noun, verb

1. an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like: in awe of god; in awe of great political figures.
2.  power to inspire fear or reverence.
3.  fear or dread.
   –verb (used with object)
4. to inspire with awe.
5. to influence or restrain by awe.

So, the breaking of huge waves on a rocky shore, a dinosaur skeleton, the thundering roar of a massive waterfall, the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Grand Canyon and the vastness of open space in the cosmos are awesome.

Awesome is not how you describe EVERYTHING (along with 'Omygod' and 'Shit'). Awesome is not the new 'cool'. And contrary to popular belief, Barney Stinson is not, I repeat, not awesome.

Bonus: Eddie Izzard

Let's leave the Dog's Bollocks discussion for some other day. But isn't he awesome?

Peace...

Aana Meri Jaan Sunday-ke-Sunday...

Came across this gem of a song sometime ago, and was surprised to find it on youtube. A very famous number from the film Shehnai (Not there on Wikipedia) released in 1947,the lyrics are by director P L Santoshi himself.

While it's adaptation by the National Egg Coordination Committee (India) is pretty well known, do go through the original:

Singers : C Ramchandra, Meena Kapoor and Shamshad Begum
Song : Aana Meri Jaan Meri Jaan Sunday Ke Sunday
Lyricist : P L Santoshi
Actors : V H Desai, Indumati, Kishore Kumar
Music Directors : C Ramchandra



Lyrics:

Aana meri jaan meri jaan
sunday ke sunday
aana meri jaan meri jaan
sunday ke sunday

Meri jaan meri jaaa
sunday ke sunday
aana meri jaan meri jaan
sunday ke sunday

I love you
bhaag yahaan se tu
o ya ya I love you
bhaag yahaan se tu

Tujhe paris dikhaaun
tujhe london ghumaaun
tujhe brandy pilaaun
whisky pilaaun
aur khilaaun khilaaun

murgi ke murgi ke
ande ande
aana meri jaan meri jaan
sunday ke sunday

main dharam karam ki naari
tu neech videshi abhichaari
main dharam karam ki naari
tu neech videshi abhichaari

maama hain ganga pujaari
maama hain ganga pujaari
baba kaashi ke kaashi ke
pande pande
aana meri jaan meri jaan
sunday ke sunday

aao haathon mein haath le
walk karen hum
aao sweet sweet aapas mein
talk kare hum
arre hat..

saiyaan mera pahalwaal hai
maare dand hazaar
haan haan maare dand hazaar
saiyaan mera pahalwaal hai
maare dand hazaar
haan haan maare dand hazaar

bhaag jaayega bedum bandar
dega jo lalkaar
bhaag jaayega bedum bandar
dega jo lalkaar

maare gin gin ke
gin gin ke dande dande
aana meri jaan meri jaan
sunday ke sunday

o my saab come come come
tum romeo juliet hum
o my saab come come come
tum romeo juliet hum

o dear come here dont fear
tatada papapa
ye gaaon ki native ladki hai
ye dil ki beating kya jaane
ye chasing hunting kya jaane
ye love ki meeting kya jaane
right righ right allright

aao dear hum chalen there
aao dear hum chalen there
where
there
gaade muhabbat ke
muhabbat ke jhande jhande
aana meri jaan meri jaan
sunday ke sunday

Peace...

Earth appoints Contact for Aliens !?!

Heard of Mazlan Binthi Othman? A Malaysian astrophysicist and Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. (Yes, there is one.)

But the best is yet to come. If aliens ever do land on Earth, make no mistake, and step aside to let this 58-year old Malaysian greet them. Mazlan Othman has been tasked with coordinating humanity's response to an extraterrestrial visit, if ever required.

Apparently, with the recent discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting around other stars, the detection of alien life is becoming more and more likely.

"The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day human kind will received signals from extraterrestrials.", said the soon-to-be appointed Space Ambassador for Earth. And don't worry, she's perfect for the job, armed with a Ph.D in Physics and an expertise in "Space Law" (Laws governing human activities in outer space: e.g. ownership of land on other planets or moons etc.).

Am I the only one who finds this weird?

Anyhow, at least now you know where to point your finger at when faced with a "Take me to your leader."

Sources: Telegraph UK, Mazlan Othman on Wikipedia, UNOOSA
Peace...

Common Cement

I'm just doing what I do when I come across something worth sharing... and when I have no time or ideas for a new post and still want to maintain a respectable frequency. Here's the second best commencement speech I've come across, second only to Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech. Incidentally neither of these possess a college degree.

Please, please, please go through it. Funniest common-cement speech (by a non-aluminium) I've come across, Ellen DeGeneres taking on Tulane University's Class of 2009.




Transcript:

Thank you, President Cowan, Mrs. President Cowen; distinguished guests, undistinguished guests - you know who you are, honored faculty and creepy Spanish teacher. And thank you to all the graduating class of 2009, I realize most of you are hungover and have splitting headaches and haven't slept since Fat Tuesday, but you can't graduate 'til I finish, so listen up.

When I was asked to make the commencement speech, I immediately said yes. Then I went to look up what commencement meant. Which would have been easy if I had a dictionary, but most of the books in our house are Portia's, and they're all written in Australian. So I had to break the word down myself, to find out the meaning.

Commencement: common, and cement. Common cement. You commonly see cement on sidewalks. Sidewalks have cracks, and if you step on a crack, you break your mother's back. So there's that. But I'm honored that you've asked me here to speak at your common cement.

I thought that you had to be a famous alumnus - alumini - aluminum - alumis - you had to graduate from this school. And I didn't go to college here, and I don't know if President Cowan knows, I didn't go to any college at all. Any college. And I'm not saying you wasted your time, or money, but look at me, I"m a huge celebrity.

Although I did graduate from the school of hard knocks, our mascot was the knockers. I spent a lot of time here growing up. My mom worked at (?) and I would go there every time I needed to steal something out of her purse. But why am I here today? Clearly not to steal, you're too far away and I'd never get away with it.

I'm here because of you. Because I can't think of a more tenacious, more courageous graduating class. I mean, look at you all, wearing your robes. Usually when you're wearing a robe at 10 in the morning, it means you've given up. I'm here because I love New Orleans. I was born and raised here, I spent my formative years here, and like you, while I was living here I only did laundry six times. When I finished school, I was completely lost. And by school, I mean middle school, but I went ahead and finished high school anyway. And I - I really, I had no ambition, I didn't know what I wanted to do. I did everything from - I shucked oysters, I was a hostess, I was a bartender, I was a waitress, I painted houses, I sold vaccuum cleaners, I had no idea. And I thought I'd just finally settle in some job, and I would make enough money to pay my rent, maybe have basic cable, maybe not, I didn't really have a plan, my point is that, by the time I was your age, I really thought I knew who I was, but I had no idea. Like for example, when I was your age, I was dating men. So what I'm saying is, when you're older, most of you will be gay. Anyone writing this stuff down? Parents?

Anyway, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and the way I ended up on this path was from a very tragic event. I was maybe 19, and my girlfriend at the time was killed in a car accident. And I passed the accident, and I didn't know it was her and I kept going, and I found out shortly after that, it was her. And I was living in a basement apartment, I had no money, I had no heat, no air, I had a mattress on the floor and the apartment was infested with fleas. And I was soul-searching, I was like, why is she suddenly gone, and there are fleas here? I don't understand, there must be a purpose, and wouldn't it be so convenient if we could pick up the phone and call God, and ask these questions.

And I started writing and what poured out of me was an imaginary conversation with God, which was one-sided, and I finished writing it and I looked at it and I said to myself, and I hadn't even been doing stand-up, ever, there was no club in town. I said, "I'm gonna do this on the Tonight Show With Johnny Carson"- at the time he was the king - "and I'm gonna be the first woman in the history of the show to be called over to sit down." And several years later, I was the first woman in the history of the show, and only woman in the history of the show to sit down, because of that phone conversation with God that I wrote. And I started this path of stand-up and it was successful and it was great, but it was hard, because I was trying to please everybody and I had this secret that I was keeping, that I was gay. And I thought if people found out they wouldn't like me, they wouldn't laugh at me.

Then my career turned into - I got my own sitcom, and that was very successful, another level of success. And I thought, what if they find out I'm gay, then they'll never watch, and this was a long time ago, this was when we just had white presidents - this was back, many years ago - and I finally decided that I was living with so much shame, and so much fear, that I just couldn't live that way anymore, and I decided to come out and make it creative. And my character would come out at the same time, and it wasn't to make a political statement, it wasn't to do anything other than to free myself up from this heaviness that I was carrying around, and I just wanted to be honest. And I thought, "What's the worst that could happen? I can lose my career". I did. I lost my career. The show was cancelled after six years, without even telling me, I read it in the paper. The phone didn't ring for three years. I had no offers. Nobody wanted to touch me at all. Yet, I was getting letters from kids that almost committed suicide, but didn't, because of what I did. And I realised that I had a purpose. And it wasn't just about me and it wasn't about celebrity, but I felt like I was being punished... it was a bad time, I was angry, I was sad, and then I was offered a talkshow. And the people that offered me the talkshow tried to sell it. And most stations didn't want to pick it up. Most people didn't want to buy it because they thought nobody would watch me.

Really when I look back on it, I wouldn't change a thing. I mean, it was so important for me to lose everything because I found out what the most important thing is, is to be true to yourself. Ultimately, that's what's gotten me to this place. I don't live in fear, I'm free, I have no secrets. and I know I'll always be ok, because no matter what, I know who I am. So In conclusion, when I was younger I thought success was something different. I thought when I grow up, I want to be famous. I want to be a star. I want to be in movies. When I grow up I want to see the world, drive nice cars, I want to have groupies. To quote the Pussycat Dolls. How many people thought it was "boobies", by the way? It's not, it's "groupies".

But my idea of success is different today. And as you grow, you'll realise the definition of success changes. For many of you, today, success is being able to hold down 20 shots of tequila. For me, the most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity, and not to give into peer pressure. to try to be something that you're not. To live your life as an honest and compassionate person. to contribute in some way. So to conclude my conclusion: follow your passion, stay true to yourself. Never follow anyone else's path, unless you're in the woods and you're lost and you see a path, and by all means you should follow that. Don't give advice, it will come back and bite you in the ass. Don't take anyone's advice. So my advice to you is to be true to yourself and everything will be fine.

And I know that a lot of you are concerned about your future, but there's no need to worry. The economy is booming, the job market is wide open, the planet is just fine. It's gonna be great. You've already survived a hurricane. What else can happen to you? And as I mentioned before, some of the most devastating things that happen to you will teach you the most. And now you know the right questions to ask in your first job interview. Like, "Is it above sea level?" . So to conclude my conclusion that I've previously concluded, in the common cement speech, I guess what I'm trying to say is life is like one big Mardi Gras. But instead of showing your boobs, show people your brain, and if they like what they see, you'll have more beads than you know what to do with. And you'll be drunk, most of the time. So the Katrina class of 2009, I say congratulations and if you don't remember a thing I said today, remember this: you're gonna be ok, dum de dum dum dum, just dance.

(Source)

See you next week.

Peace...

Horoscopes, Personality Tests, Facebook Quizzes...

If you're interested in astrology, then let me begin by telling you that I was born when the sun was in the Capricorn House of the Zodiac.

By the way, have a look at the following description:

You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.

Do you believe the above Personality Analysis applies to you?
Uniquely?

The description above is not unique to me, or you, but you do believe it applies well on you, right? Well, if you're a Capricorn... or not!

In 1948, the psychologist Bertram Forer conducted a Personality Test amongst his students, after which he gave them each a unique personality analysis supposedly based on the test results and asked them to rate it on a scale of 0 to 5 on how well it applied to themselves. On average, the rating was 4.26, after which it was revealed that each student had received the same analysis, the passage quoted above.

The interesting part is that Forer had assembled this text from horoscopes.

This is called the Personal Validation Fallacy, according to which, we very easily believe personality descriptions supposedly tailored specifically for us, and deem them accurate, while they are actually vague and general enough to apply to a wide range of people. It can be used to explain the widespread acceptance of astrology, fortune telling, and personality tests.

Another interesting result is that the result of such Personality Quizzes and Horoscopes are held in higher esteem by the subject if:

• The subject believes that the analysis is uniquely generated for them
• The subject believes in the authority of the evaluator
• The analysis lists mainly positive traits

I don't say I'm not a narcissist. Just that I'm not the only one.

Facebook Quizzes, anyone?

Peace... :P

Behind everyone successful... The Girl Effect

After 19 hours of one hell of a train journey with Aditi, Divya, Anubha, Swaty, Nikky and Ram, otherwise referred to as the 'Freaks n Geeks' of IIT-Kgp, I am back in Delhi for the Summer of '09. Let's see what I end up doing this time.

Oh, and about the effect:



This video by the Nike Foundation and NoVo is about the cycle of poverty in rural regions, and the impact one person can create by breaking it. Behind every successful economy, is a prosperous Girl. Just felt like sharing it.

As for my plans for the summer, I'm looking forward to learn a lot, blog a lot, live a lot... While I do have some stuff on my plate, I'm somewhat jobless for the couple of months to come. And an internship's not just about the only thing I am looking for(the title could be a clue).

Either ways, the only thing for me to do is to keep looking. In case anyone reading this has an opportunity to suggest, pleaaazze do, and I say this with reference to either of my requests.

Happy Holidays everyone!



Peace...

Google April Fool's Hoax 2009: Google Chrome with 3D

Google has done it again this year: April Fool's Day Hoaxed!!!!

Google Chrome Blog: Introducing Google Chrome with 3D should be enough to explain you how Google plans to take Chrome 3D. For this, they've taken the help of CADIE, and you can give the browser a shot by first downloading and printing the 3-D glasses, and then downloading the new version of chrome itself.

CADIE, the world’s first "Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity" is a computer that’s come alive and is making changes at Google. “Earlier today, for instance, CADIE deduced from a quick scan of the visual segment of the social web a set of online design principles from which she derived this intriguing homepage.”

YouTube just flails with upside down video viewing.

Gmail now has AutoPilot.

Google Brain Search uses CADIE technology to index your brain.

Google Australia introduces the gBall, which will change Australian rules football as we know it.

There is also a featured YouTube video of a panda by the user ‘cadiesingularity’ with a profile stating “Cadie - the world’s first Cognitive Auto-Heuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity”.

When browsing Street View in Google Maps, a panda is shown in the bottom right map instead of the yellow person usually shown.

CADIE even has its own blog on Blogger.

There is also a “CADIE’s recommended places for humans” link in Google Maps, which leads to the “Panda Mapplet” and includes several marked locations with “CADIE’s” commentary. Under Redmond WA a link is listed which will rick roll the viewer.

I'll end this post with an observation that I agree with:

April 1 - The day upon which we are reminded of what we are on the other three hundred and sixty-four. -- Mark Twain

Peace...

The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 2/2)

(Continued from The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 1/2) )

...this kaand brought us and our LAN to national publicity for the first time ever.

The RaviRaj kaand [More popularly referred to as the DPS MMS case outside Kgp]. Kgp became notoriously famous overnight as a giant Hub of unlimited porn. It was an extremely embarrassing situation for every Kgpian. Most of them were at their homes when this news broke out. Everyone was asked by some parent or a nosy aunt or a distant friend, "Raviraj tera dost tha kya ??"

After this huge turmoil, when KGPians returned to college in January, explicit notices were put up everywhere and for a couple of days, DC++ was off too. Even uttering the word 'porn' was serious sacrilege. There was a rumor that someone somewhere is monitoring your computer. It was during this period that vast amounts of 'resources' were destroyed and people had turned into puritans, temporarily of course.

Then after a few days, no one knows how or from where, a term was coined, a term that would become as popular in the KGP lingo as ‘Bhaat’, 'peace' or even 'makhana'. This was the term 'Bhajan'. Slowly with time, people started sharing more bhajans on DC and soon life was happy as ever for the KGPian. This was the time when SERVER™, mkd, Nukem and MrMast ruled the Kingdom of LAN.

Later in this semester came along another craze. Google started Gmail. Gmail was then on a purely invitational basis and it was a privilege to have a Gmail account. It was the first e-mail service to offer 1GB of storage (to store all the junk fwds in the world).


The Google Age:
(2005-2006)

As soon as people returned from the summers they were introduced to Gtalk which eventually changed the way KGPians chatted with each other. Gtalk was small, fast and people could use it as a phone too. Yahoo messenger was becoming a pain with every passing day. I remember I read a status message on a friend's YM, "Yahoo is History.. My Gtalk ID is ***"

Soon Gtalk became the norm. People started blogging quite often. All the hidden poets and journalists started off with a simple blog.

Soon Orkut and Blogger were integrated with the gmail account and the Kgpian had one password for all.

Nukem, Frosty, Nefilim, nullchar and ReligiousMonk ruled the Kingdom..


The New Age:
(2006-07)

KGP's LAN had evolved at a tremendous pace and had reached saturation. Soon the LAN became bigger and better. DC++ had taught people to share more, so much so, that people had bought more hard disks to share stuff on LAN. There was a race to share more stuff on LAN. For the first time the total size shared stuff on DC++ had became more than 1 TB in Spring 2005.Today it has around 15-20 TB of stuff at any point of time.

Yahoo had INFACT become History.

-- Funda by Anish Thanatil on his blog. I take the baton from here.

The Current Age
(2007 - Present day)

The evolution has continued to the present day, and faster than ever. Very soon, people started bringing over external hard disks to increase their share size, which resulted in some of them sharing over 1 TB individually (Yo garrett !!) A minimum sharesize of 8 GB was fixed, and DC++ saw over 50 TB being shared for the first time in Spring 2008, during the inaugral IPL session. The min.sharesize went from 8 GB to 16 GB, to 24 GB as of now. The average total share is around 60-70 TB nowadays, and over 97 TB has been touched, during the last India/NZ T-20 series. DC++ pundits expect to cross the magic figure of 100 TB during the oncoming IPL season.
 ]-[ELLFRAGGER, Garrett, ak_rulz and THE_DON are emperors of the LAN. DC++ also got its first ever female "VIP" recently.

LAN has started showing new colours, with useful stuff like eBooks, video lectures, good documentaries, funda files etc. So now we have LAN for the froost, LAN for the maggu, LAN for the nerd, LAN for the geek, LAN for the dude, and for pretty much everyone there is... If it exists, it's there on DC++.

Streaming TV from the common room is quite popular nowadays, with everyone enjoying the broadcast in their rooms. Even during key cricket matches, the common rooms can be seen empty except for the occasional fachcha waiting for his lappy to arrive. The number of TV series available and watched has exploded as well, which now include, besides Friends; How I Met Your Mother, Roadies, Prison break, The Big Bang Theory, Boston Legal, Coupling, Heroes, 24, Two-and-half Men, House, 8-Simple-Ways... etc. to name a few. Animés, and other cartoon series (I have surely managed to offend some people by comparing Animes to cartoons) are largely popular as well, with Naruto and Dragonball Z being the favorites, though I wonder why. A HUGE number of movies, from Mackenna's Gold to Mithun's Gunda, are available and watched with fervour.

A very recent development would be the new campus "radio", kNUTS, started by a handful of enthusiasts, which is streamed using an internal proxy, and slowly gaining listnership.

CS still remains the most popular timepass (Again, some people may be offended by me calling it a timepass), while AOE, NFS and FIFA are popular as well. Gaming freaks have come up with their own battle grounds by forming Cyber Leagues to find out the most HuHaa player of all.

Blackberries, iPhones, iPods have begun showing up (and disappearing as well)!!

Orkut looks ready to give way to facebook as the ultimate social networking website. Yahoo is completely out of the picture now, with most fests and societies switching over to Google Groups. Blogging is the rage, with more and more Kgpians joining the Blogosphere every day. Even fests and societies are realizing the importance of Blogs and consequently, of Bloggers, with some of them outsourcing the Chronicler's job to makeshift "Official" bloggers. Some students even maintain 2 or more blogs, and some go in for niche subjects like litt, tech, quizzing, art etc. Microblogging is also catching up, though most people wouldn't know what I'm talking about unless I actually mention twitter.

And how can I close on DC++ without mentioning the part everyone loves to hate, the MainChat. It is used as a platform to express opinions and vent frustaapa, while maintaining anonimity under nicks like toofan and jaanam_samjha_karo. I would have loved mentioning some of the topics discussed, but this is a family blog afterall... :)

The response to my previous entry has been overwhelming, and I've been flooded with "eagerly awaiting the next post..." messages, which goes on to show the kind-of "sento" people have for their beloved LAN. Recent rumours about the insti "taking control" of the LAN have especially heightened the sentiment. One only needs to read the History of Kgp's LAN once, all that it has went through in so few years, yet only growing stronger, to realize that it has become something more than just a network, something bigger than all of us, cause afterall, HiT Hi FiT Hai!! For us, it is as much of a "symbol" of the insti, as the insti tower or its Halls, the difference being that these remain static don't grow with time. We shall come and go, and LAN will continue to evolve and influence the lives of whole generations of Kgpians.

Yo Kgp... Yo LAN!!!

If you liked the posts, please don't forget to leave a comment. Kgpians could, as well, discuss the post on Mainchat... :)

Peace...

The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 1/2)

Dedicated to the spirit of IIT-Kgp, and it's LAN...

Ask any Kgpian you may know, about the significance of LAN in his/her life... maggu or non-maggu, gult or non-gult, dude or non-dude, bong or non-bong, juice or non-juice, fresher or senior (or even super senior for that matter), batti or ghaasi, chhagi or nehli, makhau or studd, Patelian or RKite... no one, absolutely no one can deny that their lives would have been very different if not for LAN.

If you don't believe me, read on...

[Reproduced from a post written two years ago by Anish Thanatil. Some of the stuff is no longer applicable, but has been left unaltered for the sake of nostalgia.]

The STD Age
(2001-2002):

Very few people had computers at this time. The trend was to rent a CD/video from tech market for Rs.10 and watch it in the TV room. Most people used to go to STD booths on a weekly basis to talk to their families or on daily basis if you had more than just family to talk to! ;)

The hostel phone was always a zone of activity. There would be guys making fun of the others talking to their bandis on the phone, or the guy on the phone asking the other fellow to hush-up the swear words because his mom could hear him. I even remember people running to the phone booths when they heard they got a call from an IIM.

It was around the mid-semesters of Spring 2002 that everything in KGP was about to change. HCL had provided the students with the subsidized computers. Obviously, the guys screwed up their mid-sems. Then by end-semesters of Spring 2002, the institute provided them with an amazing gift of LAN. They screwed up their end-sems too.


The Shareaza Age
(2002-2003)

By the time we entered KGP (after summer), LAN was being used to its fullest. Shareaza was the most popular software then. It allowed multiple user download and even then getting 1MBps was considered good. There was no share limit and people didn’t bother to share. Sharescan was another popular choice. But even then, KGP was still wasting most of its time playing cards (LAN was going to kill that soon).

Yahoo Messenger was the favourite IM amongst the masses, while Yahoo/Rediff/Indiatimes/Sify were the most used email services.

SERVER™ hosted the only CounterStrike server in the insti and it was rampantly popular.


A prized few had Cell phones. Only Reliance and BSNL were there to offer service. Reliance was costly and to get BSNL you would either have to wait for long or you needed to have the correct contacts in the BSNL office.


The Yahoo Age:
(2003-2004)

Yahoo messenger was the backbone of communication in Kharagpur (Most SF and Kshitij work is still done using YahooGroups). The LAN did not have any Latest™ Offliner and Friends and Seinfeld were the funniest shows available. TV rooms were reserved for Cricket matches only. There is a Murphy’s Law associated with things on LAN – “All good things on LAN come during the mid-sems or the end-sems.”

During the mid-sems of Spring 2004, a new trend came up - SKYPE. But Skype did not have the mettle to dislodge Yahoo from its top position. Yahoo was so popular that people had two yahoo accounts because you could have only 100 friends on one account. I even know someone from my Hall who got married to his chat friend from abroad. Can You Beat That!! [ Trying my best :)   --Shrey]

This was the last year Kgp has Direct Connection.

For a few days in the Spring Sem, TV was aired on the LAN using the TV-Tuner card. Various channels including the Saas-Bahu mega-thrillers were popular. (I remember watching the Oscars Live on my comp that year.) It was soon stopped when the people realized that it was eating too much bandwidth and moreover, it was illegal. :P

By the end of Spring 2004, something came up that would become an integral part of a KGPians life… ORKUT.

The best part about Orkut was (is) that it gave the guys something they badly needed – Hope. With Orkut spreading fast every KGPian had only one bubble floating over his head, “I never knew there were so many good girls out there.”


The DC++ Age:
(2004-2005)

ORKUT grew to its full potential in the autumn of 2005. [The cynic in me refused to believe that Orkut could be of absolutely any use, and it wasn’t until 2 years later that I joined Orkut]

I remember I was spending my second yr summers at home when Hazro told me about the 'In-Thing' in Kgp. It was called DC++. Even today I don’t know what DC stands for, but the first time I heard about it I didn’t care at all because there was a 5 GB share limit which I wasn’t very happy to comply with and people were using both Shareaza and DC simultaneously. Pretty soon everyone shifted to DC and. Soon after that there was a Latest™ [and the sub-sections in latest were introduced soon after]. Unlike Shareaza, you could get kicked from DC for any reason. DC was controlled by the admin, who would be one of the quietest fellows in the real world but a real cat on DC.

When I was spending my December vacations of the third year at home someone from Kgp told me that Kgp was embroiled in some big-time controversy. It was this kaand that brought us and our LAN to national publicity for the first time ever.

Continued >> The History of Kgp's LAN (Part 2/2)


Peace...

The Slumdog... effect

What must have inspired Rafael, an Israeli Arms firm, to come up with this:



This, uh... advertisement, was "released" at the recently held Aero-India 2009 in Bangalore. It seems the leading man here, representing the defence company, is trying to woo the Indian (or Russian?) dancers, who then probably represent the country's defence forces. So the Indian Military is like the helpless womenfolk who need(s) to "feel safe and sheltered". Let's see what Rafael gets out of all this.

So we have a Bollywood-esque video featuring bare-midriff girls, flower-draped missiles, and the catch phrase "dinga dinga dee"... Now which recent Oscar-winning (don't ask me how!) British film does this song remind me of?

Peace...

Me in MENSA

What connects Isaac Asimov (Author), Asia Carrera (Pornographic actress), Scott Adams (Cartoonist), Buckminster Fuller (Architect, inventor, futurist... Polymath!), Geena Davis (Oscar-winning actress), Martin Cooper (Inventor of the cell phone), Julie Peterson (Playboy Playmate), Alfred Hinds (Criminal/Prison escape artist) and Bobby Czyz (Boxer).

If you're already confused, add to the list Derek Barbosa (Rapper), Cyril Burt (Psychologist), Rolf Gindolf (Sexologist), Jeremy Hanley (Politician), Maurice Kanbar (Inventor of SKYY Vodka), Richard Lederer (Punster), Andrzej Majewski (Writer, photographer and director), Steve Martin (Emmy Award-winning actor, comedian, writer, playwright, producer, musician and composer), Adam Osborne (Created first commercially available portable computer, the Osborne 1), Gareth Penn (Private Investigator), Sir Jimmy Savile (DJ, actor and television/radio personality) and so on...

Well, the connection here is that all the personalities described above (kindly prefix "celebrated" or "famous" to their descriptions in the parentheses) are, or have been, members of Mensa .

And yes, do add to the list, me.

Actually not yet, the membership formalities are yet to be fulfilled. But I have qualified the test, falling within the 99th percentile of the standardized IQ test, the Cattell Culture Fair Intelligence Test if I remember(the actual score is yet to be confirmed) and its just a couple of weeks before I get my Mensa Card. But let me tell you about Mensa first.

Mensa is the largest, oldest, and best known high-IQ society in the world. It is a non-profit organization open to people who score at the 98th percentile or higher on a standardized, supervised intelligence test.

Mensa's constitution lists three purposes: to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity; to encourage research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence; and to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members.

Mensans come from all walks of life and almost every job and profession, representing almost every age group. There are many famous and prominent members (As you might've seen above...), which deserve further detailing.

Isaac Asimov, perhaps the most prolific author of all time, wrote/co-authored more than 500 books, and has been published in nine of the ten categories of the Dewey Decimal System. This Novelist/ Short-story Writer/ Essayist/ Historian/ Biochemist/ Textbook Writer/ Humorist was a long time member and Vice-President of Mensa International.

Asia Carrera is an AVN-award winning actress, who frequently describes herself as "the nerd of porn".

Scott Adams is the creator of the Dilbert comic strip (Please don't tell me you haven't heard of it...) and the author of several business commentaries, social satires and experimental philosophy books.

Buckminster Fuller, an American architect, author, designer, futurist, inventor, and visionary, who lends his name to a family of complex carbon structures called Buckminsterfullerenes or "Bucky Balls.", was the second president of Mensa.

Geena Davis is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-winning and Emmy-nominated American actress, film producer, writer and fashion model, known better as the Thelma of Thelma and Louise.

Inventor/Entrepreneur Martin Cooper is considered the father of the mobile phone.

Julie Peterson, or should I say Doctor Julie Peterson, is an American model and actress who was chosen as Playboy's Playmate of the Month in February, 1987. Dr. Peterson graduated from Life University as a chiropractor.

Alfred Hinds was a British criminal and escape artist who, while serving a 12 year prison sentence for robbery, successfully broke out of three high security prisons. Despite the dismissal of thirteen of his appeals to higher courts, he was eventually able to gain a pardon using his knowledge of the British legal system.

Bobby Czyz, a retired American Boxer, who is both a former world light heavyweight and cruiserweight champion, once even wore a shirt with "MENSA" on it while walking to the ring for a match.

And the list goes on and on with other prominent authors, cartoonists, film/television/other media personalities, scientists, inventors, entrepreneurs, politicians, sportspersons, lawyers...

And me...

Peace...

Lyrics & Translation to Praan - The where the hell is Matt song

I have found myself humming the song from that video of a guy dancing all over the world, or rather trying to hum it, continuously over the past few weeks. In case you're facing the same difficulty, try the following:

Bhulbona ar shohojete
Shei praan e mon uthbe mete
Mrittu majhe dhaka ache
je ontohin praan

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami
(Repeat 2X)

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
dao more shei gaan

Shei jhor jeno shoi anonde
Chittobinar taare
Shopto-shindhu dosh digonto
Nachao je jhonkare!

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami
(Repeat 3X)

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
Shei shurete jagbo ami

Bojre tomar baje bashi
She ki shohoj gaan
dao more shei gaan

The lyrics of the song are from the poem "Stream of Life" taken from the Nobel-prize-winning collection 'Gitanjali' by Rabindranath Tagore. The translation for the same is as given below:

The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life that is rocked in the ocean-cradle of birth and of death,
in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages dancing in my blood this moment.

Suits the video pretty well.

Thanks to Matt Harding, Gary Schyman (The composer) and Palbasha Siddique (For singing it so beautifully). And of course, Thanks to the late polymath, Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, may he rest in Peace.

Peace...

Recap 2008: End-of-the-year Nostalgia

20 years from now, what will be the first thing that comes to your mind when you come across something dated 2008? Besides the fact that that 'something' is no longer in its warranty period/edible, what will it be? Of course, it may be something personal, but how am I to know that. All I can do is list out a few events which I think 2008 will be remembered for. In no particular order (or rather the order in which they come to my mind, thus dependent on their importance, their taking place in January/December and whether they fall in my areas of interest):

• The year of the meltdown
  Sadly, the first thing that comes to mind is the Economic Recession. The time when every other news item/advertisement reminds you "in these hard times"... But then, every other decade has had its recession. Let's just wait for the global economy to rise back and hope we ride the boom in 2009.
  
  
  
  
  Alternately: The year the stock markets fell, The year of the mortgage crisis,  The year the investment bubble-burst, The year of the Recession etc.
  
  
• The year of Heath Ledger
  I could have bulleted it as the year The Dark Knight was released, but this is just too close to my heart, as to anyone's who's seen this guy play 'The Man who laughs' the way nobody ever has. On a related note, I plan to blog about the movie as well as The Joker's philosophy in the coming year.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Alternately: The year of The Joker, The year Heath Ledger died, Why So Serious?

• The year of Obama
  
  2008 will always be remembered, by me and the rest of the world, as the year Barack Obama was elected President, of a nation half-way across the globe from where I'm writing this. 2009 will see the Presidential Inaugration of Obama. This makes 2008 the year we all said, Yes We Can. I will be blogging on Obama pretty soon as well.
  

  Alternatively: The year we said Yes We Can, The year Obama became President, The year Bush left the White House, The year Hillary almost became President, and quite possibly: The year Obama First became President.
   
• Mumbai Attacks
  No one can ever forget the attack on India's largest city that took place on 26/11, often dubbed as India's 9/11. While the crisis was massive, with 10 coordinated attacks taking place in the city, they were rather dwarfed by the reactions to the crisis. A range of resignations and political changes, and almost insurgent movements my civilians. International reaction for the attacks was also widespread. Media coverage highlighted the use of new media and internet social networking tool in spreading information about the attacks, observing that internet coverage, especially the blogosphere, was often ahead of more traditional media sources.
  
  Alternatively: The year of 26/11, The year of the Mumbai Hostage Crisis, The year of Taj, The year we realised it was enough
  
  
• The Year of the Iraqi Shoe
  Oh, nobody can forget Muntadhar-Al-Zaiydi, though nobody knows how its spelt either. The guy who did was millions of people in Iraq, in the United States, and across the world wanted to do. Though it's a pity Bush dodged the farewell kiss, and quite quickly at that.
  
  
  Alternatively: The year Dubya got his farewell kiss, The year Iraq thanked Dubya with all its sole, The year of THE shoe

Of course, these are not the only major events of 2008. I am just predicting that these are the ones that'll be remembered throughout.

Now for those for which 2008 will NOT be remembered: (in no particular order, as before)

• Our Olympic Medalists
  Nobody cries about not winning medals at the Olympics more than India. No one celebrates their victories and joins their orkut fan clubs more quickly than us. And nobody forgets them the way we do too.
  
  
  How many medals did India win at the Beijing Olympics? And which ones? And who won them, and in which events? Was he a colonel or a major who won that Silver last Olympics at Athens? And what was his name? And did you have to use Google to check any of this out?

  I think I need not say any further.
  
  
• Possibly, the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks:
  While we are all up in arms against the politicians at the moment, aren't we going to vote the same bunch of goons back to power again? Not something that I hope, but expect.
  
  
• Chandrayaan, and the record-setting 10 satellites sent into orbit with a single launch by ISRO.
  The next time you complain about India lagging behind in technology, try sounding C-H-A-N-D-R-A-Y... in your mind.
  
  
• Ghajini
  Sorry guys, for bringing this up again, but I just couldn't resist all the forgetting/amnesia punny situation. I hope we DO FORGET this one. I also hope I forget certain scenes from Harold and Kumar's escape from Guantanamo Bay. While the aforementioned The Dark Knight holds the record for being the highest-grossing movie of the year, this one is the most Gross movie I've ever seen.
  
  
• I'm sure there's some more, but I seem to have forgotten already.

So there you are, 2008 for you. The new year's eve is also seen as a time when people take stock of their lives, but I prefer doing that on my Birthday, which falls in the same week anyways.

My resolutions will be coming up on my Birthday. You make sure you keep up with yours atleast till the next weekend. Let's try make this world a better place to live, and we'll see what we've got by this time next year. With these thoughts, I wish everyone reading this, a very prosperous 2009. Happy new year, everyone.

For the last time this year, I bid you, Peace...

This is a farewell kiss, Mr.Bush

If you want the facts, it's a size 10 shoe that he threw.
--George W.Bush

US President George Bush, who was on a surprise visit to Iraq, was in for a bit of surprise himself. An Iraqi journalist just thanked him with all his sole.



Muntadhar al-Zaiydi, a local television correspondent, in Prime Minister Nouri-al Maliki's palace threw his pair of shoes, one-by-one, at President Bush during a joint press conference with Maliki. The president quickly had to duck to avoid the shoes, while Maliki stretched out his right hand to try to catch the second one. Neither leader was hit. As he threw the shoes the man, Zaiyadi yelled "This is a farewell kiss, dog!" and, "This is the end!". It may be noted that just over 5 weeks remain before Dubya hands over the Presidency to Barack Obama.

Displaying the soles of shoes or throwing shoes is not polite behavior anywhere, but in much of the Arab world the shoe is used as a special tool of insult or affront. Before the Iraq war, Saddam Hussein had a mosaic of former President George H.W. Bush on the ground at the entrance to the main foreign hotel in Baghdad, the Al-Rashid. You had to step on Bush's face to get in.

Right after the fall of Saddam, men beat his ubiquitous posters with their shoes.

Mr Zaidi, a correspondent for Cairo-based al-Baghdadiya TV, was then wrestled to the ground by security personnel and hauled away.

Bush, who reacted spryly as he saw his assailant winding up, joked about the incident, saying, "That was a size 10 shoe he threw at me, you may want you to know. "

As security grabbed the man, White House press secretary Dana Perino got knocked beneath her eye by a microphone and ended up with a small shiner.

After order had been restored to the room, the man could still be heard screaming from another room. Al-Baghdadiya's bureau chief told the Associated Press that he had no idea what prompted Mr Zaidi to attack President Bush, although reports say he was once kidnapped by a militia and beaten up.

Shrugging, Bush said, "So what if the guy threw his shoe at me?"

"It's one way to gain attention," he said. "It's like going to a political rally and having people yell at you. It's like driving down the street and having people not gesturing with all five fingers."

I don't know what you think about Zaiydi, but I'm a fan.
Peace...

The Guy the British celebrate their own Diwali for

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I see no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent

To blow up the King and Parli'ment.

Three-score barrels of powder below

To prove old England's overthrow;

By God's providence he was catch'd

With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

--Traditional rhyme

The above have been taken on Fireworks Night, also called Crackers Night or Bonfire Night, of the previous years. If you still think its Diwali I’m talking about, you’re surely mistaken.

It’s Guy Fawkes Night. And no, Guido Fawkes was neither born nor martyred on this day (or night). This guy (or Guy), along with some other conspirators, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London exactly 403 years ago, which was actually an assassination attempt on King James I of England. However, he was captured possibly moments before lighting the gunpowder, finally being hanged, drawn and quartered.

This event is commemorated by lighting bonfires and fireworks in England and the Commonwealth. Effigies of Fawkes, sometimes alongwith George W Bush, Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden, known as ‘Guys’, are burnt as well. It is a matter of opinion whether it commemorates the failure and subsequent execution of the Guy, or his courage to attempt the plot. Personally, I consider Fawkes a hero, for he had the guts to stand up against the government he didn’t believe in. Guy Fawkes is omnipresent in popular culture today, whether it’s popular media (references in Charles Dickens’ to J.K.Rowling’s works, John Lennon’s song, or the Simpsons to V for Vendetta), politics, Geography (A river, a national park, islands...), and even our everyday lexicon.

November 5 usually falls within a week of Diwali and Hallowe’en(which is also associated with fireworks in some cultures). In fact, most Northern hemisphere cultures have some kind of light/fire festival around this time – there are theories that it is connected to the human desire to defy the on-rushing winter hence occurring at the autumn equinox (midway between the summer and winter solstices). So Hallowe’en, Guy Fawkes Night and Diwali probably come from the same desire to celebrate life in the darkness (as does my obsession with night-outs, but more about that later). Imagine about a 1000 years from now, somehow the 5th of November gets linked with Deepavali and it either Ravana (a south Indian Guy) or Narakasura (A north Indian Guy) or Guy Fawkes (an Irish Guy) who’s effigy gets burnt. But it is still a great excuse to scare the shit out of your neighbour’s dog!

Peace...

Google's Goggles against Drunk Emailing

Necessity is the mother of all inventions. If that be so, then 'Mail Goggles' is just another offspring conceived under the influence of alcohol, with Google Labs playing midwife. Before you start accusing me of Blogging under alcoholic influence, I present to you the ultimate Sobriety Test that cops never had...................... MATHS!!!!!

In case you're confused by the above (which puts your BAC in question),  I would like to introduce you to Google Labs' latest innovation, Mail Goggles, which checks your sobriety (Soberness, if you will) before you send any Friday late night Gmail.  "And what better way to check than by making you solve a few simple math problems after you click send to verify you're in the right state of mind?" (in the words of Jon Perlow, Gmail Engineer). Sample this:

When I first heard of this thing, I thought it was one of their hoaxes, until I read it on their own Blog. You can choose the days, timings (By default set to Friday & Saturday, 10 pm - 4 am) and difficulty levels of the test as well. In case you're wondering, the above is difficulty level 5, the highest. Which brings us to one very important bug: it's practically useless for a good number of Gmail users, especially the ones living outside the United States of America(unless you're an Asian immigrant of course).

In case you're an IITian reading this, you know what I'm talking about. I cannot think of a single classmate of mine who can't solve the above in their sleep (or even boozing + sleep). Baby Math is not Rocket Science afterall. Once the Autumn break is over, I'm sure many of us would be giving a try, the only result being our Dean's overflowing Inbox.

But Google has the last word on it. I wonder if 'Goggles' refer to how a drunk Employee spelled Google (Which itself was probably an attempt to spell the number Googol with the aid of Vodka). In case it was an American, he may not even be drunk!!!

Peace...

In Popular Culture [citation needed]

The neutrality of this article is disputed.

In case the term WikiGroaning is new to you, the first thing you might have already done, or possibly planned to do before reaching the end of this sentence, is clicking on the link to its Wiki article. I assume that you've already done so by now, and are somewhat startled NOT to find a wiki entry on it (which may not be true by the time you're reading this, given the dynamic nature of the very large, popular free content encyclopedia). I don't really hate wiki, despite the occasional occurrence of "Mike's a faggot" and other assorted such delights hidden mid-paragraph here and there. In fact, I'm about to introduce you to a great game you can play with wikipedia. I'm not talking about hiding a clue to the supposed sexuality of your high school nemesis in the article about Lord Voldermort. A nondestructive Wikipedia game was invented by "Dr." David Thorpe and Mark D'Arensbourg, and I have to say that it blows that pedestrian-ass googlewhacking right out of the water. 

First, find a Wikipedia article on a "useful" topic that normal people might read. For example, the article on former Indian President and nuclear scientist, Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam (Yes, some people do need introduction to this guy), or maybe the one on Observable Universe. Then, find a somehow similar article that is longer, but at the same time, useless to a very large fraction of the population. In this case, we'll go with another scientist, Dr. Ross Eustace Geller, or correspondingly, Transformers: Universe. Open both of the links and compare the lengths of the two articles. Compare not only that, but how well the respective topics are explored, and the greater professionalism with which the longer article was likely created. Are you looking yet? Get a good, long look. Yeah. Yeeaaah, I know, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. (It's called Wikigroaning for a reason.) 

Then there's

•  Nehru-Gandhi Family and Potter Family
  
• Shape and Shapeshifting
  
• Japanese Mythology and Japanese Toilets
  
• Latin and Klingon
  
• Love and Masturbation

and the list goes on and on, which will be discussed sometime in the future...

Wikigroaning.com should be a useful tool at such a point (You can compare "Nerd Points")

The next step is to find your own article pair and share it with your friends, who will usually look for their own pairs and you end up spending a good hour or two in a groaning arms race. The game ends after that, usually without any clear winners... but hey, it beats doing work.

Now you've got it! You're well on your way to starting Wikigroaning clans and clubs in your college, school, city or prison. If you find a really great pair, please do share as comment, and I'll follow up Wikigroaning in the future on the blog, where I'll also tackle the associated wiki-controversies.

And before Doctor Evil does Something Aweful to me, I'd like to redirect you to his original article about Wikigroaning.

And just one last thing... Don't forget to rate the post and leave a comment...

Peace...