Jun 06

What better way to procrastinate…

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… than to update my blog! I have an exam in about half an hour, but this is so much more fun to do :-)

There is some new stuff everywhere. So feel free to check it out. Oh and don’t forget to look at the Stanford pictures. The weather here is perfect, the campus is gorgeous. Why would I want to go anywhere else? (okay, the ratio in the bay area sucks, but that’s a whole other story for another time! :-) )

written by sneaker

May 28

Procrastinating…

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So what really brought me back here today was the fact that I was procrastinating… I have a project due tomorow, but it’s boring — and so I have very little motivation to do it yet. Also, the number of people who mentioned my website to me in the past couple of weeks hit the critical number for me to think about going and updating it. So here I am.

written by sneaker

Mar 11

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A glimmer of hope…

I have been promising for several months that I will go back to writing more regularly that I have been doing. But I haven’t been able to do so for lack of time. Plus I already spend so much time on the computer all day long that I am beginning to see the early-signs of RSI on my hands and so when I do have some time I at least attempt to stay away from the computer or refrain from typing much even if I am at the computer (BTW, using the thumb to press controls keys is a bad idea).

But I am slowly realizing that in the absence of other avenues, blogging is critical to my mental health since it is the vent that lets the excess thinking in my measly little brain escape in to the expanse of the web. The web has become the garbage dump for the thoughts that I cannot or do not share with other humans. There are so many occassion through out each day when I thnk of different things I could post to the web. Thoughts about people. About classes. About feelings (whew, I said that?) About expectations, hopes and disappointments (fromt he macro level to the micro level). But alas either I can’t do a post right there and then, or am too am too lazy to write them down to post about them later. Plus it doesn’t help that the current structure of this site requires me to manually update the information in two places! (I manually copy the blog entries from the blogs listed below to the what’s new blog). So that is something I need to fix in the near future.

Anyhow, the good news is that I have posted some of my more recent thoughts on the blogs and so there is finally some new content! :-) And I think in an attempt to maintain my mental health, I will probably try to resort to more frequent posts. The key thing I have to remind myself about from time to time is what I said in the About section of this site. “This site is not for you… it’s for me.” It is for me to post what I think ad feel… and it doesn’t matter what you may think of me for sharing my thoughts.

New in Thought — caught in the act!* as of Tuesday, March 11, 2003.

  • Motivation - Trying to find the answer to the question: “And then what!?”
  • Frijdas Laws of Emotion — dissecting falling in love - … It is ironic that as much as people say that love is blind and there is a “soulmate” out there for everyone etc etc, at the end of it all, love itself may actually be more pragmatic than most people realize! Or is Frijda just on crack? …
  • Intellectual Masturbation - … Do academics get off on making things sound more complicated than they really need to be? …

    New in Rants and Raves*

  • Nothing new in here either, but coming soon… Gelato; Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, Ms. Saigon and more..

    New in Eavesdropped!* on Monday, March 11, 2003

  • “Destiny is something we invesnted because we can’t deal with the fact that everything that happens to us is accidental”

    - The character of Meg Ryan (Annie) in Sleepless in Seattle.

  • Ramu: My dad says I was born with two left hands…. and I think I’m right handed!

    - Another infamous Ramu quote sent to me by Dana

  • R: We need to use the pumping lemma for this one.

    Me: Right now the pumpkin lemma sounds better to me.

    - While working on the Automata assignment

  • Me: “Oh, I need to water the plants”

    Ramu: “Why don’t you just get artificial ones?”

    Me: “Why don’t you just get a blow-up doll!?”

    Ramu: “Why don’t you go f#$% yourself!”

    - an unusually witty response even though I say so myself :-)

    • written by sneaker

    Feb 02

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    Phew…

    Well folks. after a week of being down and out of service sneaker.org is back online and hopefully fully operational. The machne that runs sneaker.or is a very old Pentium Pro 200 MHz with 64 MB RAM on it. It was running RedHat 6.2 on it and hadn’t been patched in a while, and so I’m sure it was playing host to some abusive hacker who was molesting the poor little machine while I wasn’t watching. So I decided to finally pull the rug out from under him and rebuilt the machine from scratch. And then of course getting RedHat configured to do everything it needs to do is always a non-trivial task (trivial onc eyou figure it out of course) and so the site was down for a while.

    Anyhow, it’s back up and I’m still testing to see if the blogger connection is working. So this is the first real post to test that. So here is what’s been happening…

    Oh, newsflash! The pictures section still has a ton of new stuff!!

    New in Thought — caught in the act!*

  • Nothing new in here yet, but coming up soon… Frijdas Laws of Emotion — dissecting falling in love; Intellectual Masturbation — a chronic ailment of graduate programs; Motivation; Why George Bush annoys me?.

    New in Rants and Raves*

  • Nothing new in here either, but coming soon… Gelato; Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, Ms. Saigon and more..

    New in Eavesdropped!* on Sunday, February 2, 2003

  • R: We need to use the pumping lemma for this one.

    Me: Right now the pumpkin lemma sounds better to me.

    - While working on the Automata assignment
  • Me: “Oh, I need to water the plants”

    Ramu: “Why don’t you just get artificial ones?”

    Me: “Why don’t you just get a blow-up doll!?”

    - an unusually witty response even though I say so myself :-)
  • “Your nipple doesn’t work.”

    “I’m not used to working without a nipple.”

    “Your nipple is broken.”

    - Dave A. when the trackpoint on the notebook wasn’t working.
  • No, I don’t want to set “munky.com” as my home page.

    - Frank L. upon accidentally going to wincvs.com instead of wincvs.org
  • The Law of Hedonic Assymetry: Pleasure is always contingent upon change and disappears with continuous satisfaction. Pain may persist under under persisting adverse conditions.

    - Nico H. Frijda, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands in his paper on The Laws of Emotion.
  • “Data from questionnaire studies (Rombouts, 1987) suggest that [falling in love] is triggered by a specific sequence of events, in which the qualities of the love-object are of minor importance. A person is ready to fall in love because of one of a number of reasons - loneliness, sexual need, dissatisfaction, or need or variety. A object then incites interest, again for one of a number of reasons, such as novelty, attractiveness, or mere proximity. Then give the person a moment of promise, a brief response from the object that suggests interest. It may be a confidence; it may be a single glance, such as a young girl may think she received from a pop star. The give the person a brief lapse of time - anywhere between half an hour or half a day, the self-report suggests - during which fantasies can develop. After that sequence, no more than a single confirmation, real or imagined is needed to precipitate falling in love.”

    - Nico H. Frijda, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands in his paper on The Laws of Emotion.
  • Satisfaction is less a matter of getting what you want than getting what you have

    - Myers and Diener in their paper on Who is Happy
  • “Happiness is an imaginary condition, formerly attributed by the living to the dead, now usually attributed by adults to children, and by children to adults”

    - Thomas Sasz as quoted in the paper on Who is Happy by Myers and Diener
  • “That man is never happy for the present is so true”

    - Boswell, 1776 as quoted in the article WHo is Happy by Myers and Diener.
  • “Just because someone is educated doesn’t mean that they are right.”

    - Dr. James Gross in my Seminar on Emotion class @ Stanford in reference to a particular work on EI.

    • written by sneaker

    Nov 14

    News No Comments »
    Bloodpressure 120/80, pulse 72…

    Well folks, I just checked the health of sneaker.org and believe it or not, it still seems to be live and kicking!

    A big thank you to those of you who are still coming here to check out the site and an even bigger thank you to those who have bitched and moaned and kicked me in the butt to actually update the information on the site and start posting again. I might just start doing that RSN (really soon now!).

    As things stand right now, a lot has happened — I’ve finished biding time — somehow Stanford let me in to its Ph.D. program, managed to merge my previous company with another firm out of Boston and get myself disengaged from being commited to my company full time, relocated to gorgeous and sunny Palo Alto, California and started at Stanford.

    And oddly enough being in this environment has not only given me enough to think about but also enough to talk about — but given that there are lots of smart people around me I enjoy having discussions more than posting things, that may be one of the reasons I haven’t been posting here as often. I definitely do like it better when someone is willing to argue with me and question me — after all that is what stimulates critical thought :-) But I will start posting things on here in the hopes that it will stimulate more interaction both online and off (latter is turning out to be preferrable in my attempt to not get sucked into geekdom…)

    Oh, newsflash! The pictures section has a ton of new stuff!!

    New in Thought — caught in the act!*

  • Nothing new in here yet, but coming up soon… Frijdas Laws of Emotion — dissecting falling in love; Intellectual Masturbation — a chronic ailment of graduate programs; Motivation.

    New in Rants and Raves*

  • Nothing new in here either, but coming soon… Gelato; Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine and more.

    New in Eavesdropped!* on Sunday, November 3, 2002

  • “I’d lean my head against the window, but you are warmer.” - One very drunk female friend to another male friend of mine while I’m driving them back home from a night out in the city (San Francisco).
  • “A picture is worth a thousand words, that means that video is 30,000 words per second.” - Marc Davis in his talk about Computational Media as part of my HCI Seminar class
  • “If our minds were so simple that we could understand it, then we would be too simple to understand it.” - As quoted by Sendry in my Psych class on Emotion, making the point that Psychology is a recursive subject — we are using our brain to try and understand how our brain works.
  • The more I study, the more I realize how little I know and the worse I feel. - sneaker, on the eve of Comps, 2002
  • Women are like cats - they know they’ll get stuck in the tree, yet they’ll climb it anyways. - The wise words from Q.
  • There are no contradictions. When you come across a contradiction go back to your premises. - Francisco d’Anconia in Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged
  • Every great idea, took birth in one great mind. - Not sure what the exact quote is, but I remember it from somewhere.
  • In the temple of his spirit, each man is alone. - The Unconquered (Equality 7-2521) in Ayn Rand’s Anthem
  • And that night, we knew that to hold the body of women in our arms is neither ugly nor shameful - but the one ecstacy granted to the race of Men. - The Unconquered (Equality 7-2521) in Ayn Rand’s Anthem
  • What are you really seeking?

    Freedom - to want nothing, to expect nothing, to depend on nothing.

    - Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead (the movie)

    • written by sneaker

    May 13

    News No Comments »
    Biding time…

    My postings on sneaker.org have ben far and few in recent weeks. Haven’t had the motivation to really post information for a while, but it’s revealed itself to be something I need to continue doing from time to time to maintain perspective and sanity and more importantly just to vent. Still am not in a position to write about some things, but here is at some new content…

    New in Thought — caught in the act!* on Monday, May 13, 2002

  • Another Taliban in the making - The scum of society will contantly rise to the surface and every so often we will need to go in and clean the pond.

  • Writing about not writing - The primary reason is probably the return of ambivalence in terms of what information I can and cannot share in a public medium.

    New in Rants and Raves* on Monday, May 13, 2002

  • Las Vegas - And not to forget the highlight of my Vegas trip… Blue Man Group. They ROCK. Go see it. Enough said!

    New in Eavesdropped!* on Monday, May 13, 2002

  • I can feel so unsexy for someone so beautiful

    So unloved for someone so fine

    I can feel so boring for someone so interesting

    So ignorant for someone of sound mind

    - lyrics from “So Unsexy” by Alanis Morisette in her album Under Rug Swept

  • Bitches. Just bitches. - sneaker
  • “So are you telling me that the customer is a mental midget?” - a brilliant response from a customer service agent requesting assistance on an issue where the customer just wasn’t understanding how to do something.
  • “I can’t even count how many women I’ve slept with” - One of the female executives of a partner startup company as we exchanged notes on how in the early days of our companies we doubled up people in hotels/ on trips in order to save costs.
  • “It’s all about chicks man, it’s all about chicks” - Random drunk guy in the back of a cab in Cambridge who motioned us to put the window down while I was parked next to the cab at a stop light so that he could tell us his deep thoughts!
  • “Are you guys gay?” - Roxanne. - okay, okay, there is no story behind that other than my friend who I was visiting happens to live in an area which is considered the gay-area (he claims he didn’t know before he moved there.. yeah right ;-) ) And so when his neighbor saw three of us guys returning late at night, she asked us… “Are you guys gay” (maybe I should also menion that she was so drunk that we were afraid she wouldn’t make it up the steps okay).
  • Things you own end up owning you. - the chracter of Tyler Durden in Fight Club
  • Baker. - the character of Dominic Pizzola in The Bread My Sweet
  • we’d gather around all in a room

    fasten our belts engage in dialogue

    we’d all slow down rest without guilt

    not lie without fear disagree sans judgement

    we would stay and respond and expand and include

    and allow and forgive and enjoy and evolve

    and discern and inquire and accept and admit

    and divulge and open and reach out and speak up

    this is utopia this is my utopia

    this is my ideal my end in sight

    utopia this is my utopia

    this is my nirvana

    my ultimate

    - lyrics to Alanis Morrisette’s song Utopia in the album Under Rug Swept

  • It takes more strength of character to wear your heart on your sleeve than to guard it like a fort. - Annie in a comment in response to The Fallacy of Free Speech

    • written by sneaker

    Mar 30

    News No Comments »
    Thought Reviews?

    Couple of new things in the Thought — caught in the act! section and also some new Rants and Raves - mostly raves of some great movies I’ve seen lately….

    New in Thought — caught in the act!* on Tuesday, March 26, 2002

  • The Fallacy of Free Speech - …so there really is no such thing as Free Speech. Yes, you are physically free to say what you want, but you are intellectually, emotionally and rationally bound by your own mind to never be able to practice Free Speech.

  • Five-year Plans and Change - I’m definitely a subscriber of (or at least trying to be) the micro-economics saying that my professor in undergrad would keep repeating in order to drive the point home – “In the long run, we’re all dead.”

    New in Rants and Raves* on Saturday, March 30, 2002

  • The Bread, My Sweet - … All brought to life in a way which actually gave Pittsburgh a sense of character that I have never seen before. … The Bread My Sweet is just one of those movies that you just have to see to understand how powerful it can be and can draw you in to be part of the life it portrays.
  • Italian for Beginners - Of course Giulia was the cutest looking thing you could imagine in the movie :). Overall a good movie and highly recommended viewing.

    New in Eavesdropped!* on Sunday, March 24, 2002

  • I’m too much of a control freak to just let myself go. - sneaker
  • It’s not that you have sex once and you get the jokes. - Janice
  • “That’s the problem when women-friends try to set you up. They always say “She’s sweet”.

    You’re not looking for an additive for your tea or coffe, you’re looking for a girlfriend!”

    - Sanjeev

  • “I’m glad that even the lobsterman can get some” - Rachel Z. in response to the comment that CMU’s lobsterman’s girlfriend visits him from time to time
  • CERTIFICATE OF AMENDMENT OF

    AMENDED AND RESTATED CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF

    ACME, INC.

    - just one more data point to add to my theory that lawyers are evil…

  • With instant messaging it isn’t the global village anymore, it is the global household. - Arn in an IM conversation

    • written by sneaker

    Mar 25

    News No Comments »
    Yes, I’m still here…

    Just haven’t been in a writing mood lately until today. And here is what I came up with…

    New in Thought — caught in the act!* on Tuesday, March 26, 2002

  • The Fallacy of Free Speech - …so there really is no such thing as Free Speech. Yes, you are physically free to say what you want, but you are intellectually, emotionally and rationally bound by your own mind to never be able to practice Free Speech.

  • Five-year Plans and Change - I’m definitely a subscriber of (or at least trying to be) the micro-economics saying that my professor in undergrad would keep repeating in order to drive the point home – “In the long run, we’re all dead.”

    New in Rants and Raves* on Tuesday, March 26, 2002

  • Italian for Beginners - Of course Giulia was the cutest looking thing you could imagine in the movie :). Overall a good movie and highly recommended viewing.

    New in Eavesdropped!* on Sunday, March 24, 2002

  • I’m too much of a control freak to just let myself go. - sneaker
  • It’s not that you have sex once and you get the jokes. - Janice
  • “That’s the problem when women-friends try to set you up. They always say “She’s sweet”.

    You’re not looking for an additive for your tea or coffe, you’re looking for a girlfriend!”

    - Sanjeev

  • “I’m glad that even the lobsterman can get some” - Rachel Z. in response to the comment that CMU’s lobsterman’s girlfriend visits him from time to time
  • CERTIFICATE OF AMENDMENT OF

    AMENDED AND RESTATED CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF

    ACME, INC.

    - just one more data point to add to my theory that lawyers are evil…

  • With instant messaging it isn’t the global village anymore, it is the global household. - Arn in an IM conversation

    • written by sneaker

    Mar 07

    News No Comments »
    Thank you…

    I haven’t been updating sneaker.org in a while… as I’d mentioned feedback is fuel and in the absence of feedback, I don’t feel compelled to keep writing. I love people who challenge what I say and what I think. Give me an argument. Give me a spirited discussion so that there is some fun in writing things. If everyone agrees with me then it’s no fun is it! :)

    Anyhow, in the past couple of days several people… everyone from random people, to net-friends, to highschool friend and even my Mom have told me to go update my site! And you know, it actually feels good to know that someone actually reads this shit I keep posting on here! Anyhow, thank you all for your input and please keep it coming. Again… feedback is fuel… I love to hear from you either via email or IM.

    Here is some new stuff….

    New in Thought — caught in the act!* on Thursday, March 7, 2002

  • Raising the bar… - What Victor Frankl said is basically that the reason why we raise the bar is because we need something to look forward too. It is part of our search for meaning.

  • Transactional Integrity - I think I took transactional integrity a step too far. At the time I thought this is cool… I can apply this to everyday stuff. And so I became anal. Very anal.

    New in Rants and Raves* on Thursday, March 7, 2002

  • Make a Left on Route 66 - …and that’s when it hit… the guy changed the rules on us!! The rules for tonight were - one person, one straw Gulp! (literally!).

    New in Eavesdropped!* on Thursday, March 7, 2002

  • Journal entries are to accounting as hacking is to software development- My comment to Jake since I hate making journal entries when doing accounts :)
  • Amazing how you can try everything in your power to prevent users from doing something stupid and they will *still* find a way. - sneaker
  • When an founder is booted out of the company, they say the company has been foundersized.

    This is also known as The Mushroom Effect for Entrepreneurs –

    - first they keep you in the dark

    - then they throw shit on you

    - then they can you.

    - Nolan Bushnell at the Stanford GSB Conference on Entrepreneurship 2002

  • Leadership is the ability to build consensus in the face of adversity - Jerry Kaplan at the Stanford GSB Conference on Entrepreneurship 2002
  • Venture capitalists have deep pockets, but very short arms. - Kamran Elahian at the Stanford GSB Conference on Entrepreneurship 2002
  • Attitude is the mother of luck - Kirk Perron, Founder, Jamba Juice, at the Stanford GSB Conference on Entrepreneurship 2002
  • I am the Market. - Chip Conley, Joi de Vivre @ the Stanford GSB Conference on Entrepreneurship 2002
  • There is a reason they are called Kamikazes dammit! - sneaker
  • “I’m not looking for Mr. Right. I’m just looking for Mr. Right-place-at-the-right-time” - Rachel (umm.. okay she was a little tipsy)
  • Never a dull moment, always a fire to fight. - sneaker
  • When it comes to taking your money, people are flexible - My response to Q, when he asked if his checks he dated as 02/29/2002 will get cashed.
  • “The biggest tragedy is not death. It’s what dies inside you while you are still alive.” - as quoted to me by a friend during an IM conversation.
  • sneaker: you running a peepshow or something on your cam Q!

    lovicks_30: yup

    lovicks_30: it’s kitty porn






    - Q’s webcam showing kitty porn! :)

  • Technically, we’re all dying. - an astute observation.
  • What if a chameleon was color-blind? - topic of discussion over lunch @ Charlie’s

    • written by sneaker

    Feb 18

    News No Comments »
    Still waiting and waiting sucks…

    Ahh… I realized that I’d been tardy in updating the front page even there was some new content in the blogs. Haven’t been doing much writing these days or much of anything other than a few work related items for that matter. Actually been busy attending lectures at Carnegie Mellon on Psychology and Human Computer Interaction and giving a few lectures on Entrepreneurship and running companies. Plus I’m also taking a Piano course lately since I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the keyboards properly, but never got around to it. Of course, that just gives me one more toy to go window shopping for and I haven’t had much luck getting any of the toys I want — because they’re either out of stock, not yet released or missing that one key feature that I really want. Oh well. Here’s some new stuff…

    New in Thought — caught in the act!* on Monday, February 11, 2002

  • Thinking *about* the box - I have a fundamental problem with how cognitive scientists and psychologists for that matter are trying to understand the working of the human mind and understand human behavior.

  • Top 10 Reasons Why Girls Are Like VCs - …at dinner earlier today with two of my apparently single friends when we were talking about asking people out I made the analogy that asking a girl out is like raising money from VCs (and yes, I have had a little bit of experience with both in order to qualify me to make this analogy, fortunately or unfortunately, my track record with VCs is a little better!)

    New in Rants and Raves* on Saturday, February 2, 2002

  • Richard P. Feynman - All I can say is for anyone who likes to think, you owe it to your mind to read Feynman. And to Richard Feynman - Thank you.

    New in Eavesdropped!* on Saturday, February 2, 2002

  • The Essence of Academia

    You write a paper, and it contributes epsilon to a field. You write another paper on the same exact topic, and it contributes epsilon/2. The next one (on the same exact topic) epsilon/4, etc.

    On the one hand, you can add up the total contribution you make, and it’s 2 epsilon.

    On the other hand, you can generate an infinite number of papers. . .

    - as discussed by Michael Gibson, myself and one of Gibson’s friends @ Stanford.

  • The fundamental goal of human-centric computing is to allow us to do more by doing less - Michael Dertouzos, Diector of the MIT Media Lab in The Unfinished Revolution.

    • written by sneaker

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