Entries from Raj Shekhar

Protest against ATI nearly led to the arrest of RMS. I really admire RMS for his firm convictions in the principles of free software

I was checking the scrapbook of some people on Orkut. My findings if you are a female, here is what you will see in your scrapbook

1. hello XYZ this is abhijeet I belong to banglore but live in rajasthan I like to be in touch with new people
2. hi i am from Foobar. can i be ur friend? see my profile and plz tell me ur reply
3. hi XYZ wanna b frnds
4. HELLO AM A SOFTWARE ENGR IN GURGAON TELL ME ABT U AND ADD ME
5. poems
6. ascii art
7. copy-paste stuff (jokes/stupid poems/stupid puzzles) from emails
8. hai fine? actually i saw ur cute still fine, ur studying where and see my profile about me and first make friendship then yeah fine ok cute send me a scrap.

If you are a male, don't expect anything to come into your Orkut scrapbook - thank god for small mercies.

And while I am in the rant mode - guys, here is a message from sanity department. Please take time to get to know the Real World. It is better to know girls in the Real World as opposed to trying to pick frnds in the Orkut forums. There are people I know who masquerade as girls on the forums - to serve as good material for jokes to pass time in the boring meetings.

The names have been changed to protect the fucking idiots. Am I the only one left in the world who is pedantic about spellings :-/

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them

One ring

The one ring is available cheap now

one ring, available cheap

Interesting bits from the paper Managing Impressions Online:Self-Presentation Processes in the Online Dating Environment

In the section Self-Presentation and Self-Disclosure in Online and Offline Contexts

Therefore, if participants aspire to an intimate relationship, their desire to feel understood by their interaction partners will motivate self-disclosures that are open and honest as opposed to deceptive. This tension between authenticity and impression management is inherent in many aspects of self-disclosure.

In section The Importance of Small Cues

For instance, one participant said she looked for profiles that were well-written, because "I just think if they can't spell or" formulate sentences, I would imagine that they're not that educated." Because writing ability was perceived to be a cue that was "given off" or not as controllable, participants noticed misspelled words in profiles, interpreting them as evidence of lack of interest or education. As one female participant put it, "If I am getting email from someone that obviously can't spell or put a full sentence together, I'm thinking what other parts of his life suffer from the same lack of attentiveness?"

This is something I completely agree with. I form an opinin of people based on how they write their emails. Emails with too much slag or sms-lingo turn me off.

In section Theoretical Implications

Additionally, our interview data suggest that online representations of one's ideal self — when combined with the increased accountability engendered by an anticipated face-to-face interaction may serve as a tool to enable individuals to minimize the discrepancy between their actual and their ideal selves.

An example of this is

In another case, a woman who misrepresented her weight online used an upcoming meeting as incentive to minimize the discrepancy between her actual self and the ideal self articulated in her profile: * I've lost 44 pounds since I've started [online dating], and I mean, that's one of the reasons I lost the weight so I can thank online dating for that. [Because] the first guy that hit on me, I checked my profile and I had lied a little bit about the pounds, so I thought I had better start losing some weight so that it would be more honest. That was in December, and I've lost every week since then. (MaryMoon, Los Angeles Female)*

Original Jesus Official Random Quote (TM)

Why do people keep asking, "What would Jesus do?" How the hell should I know? I died for you, damnit! Haven't I done enough for you already? Pop gave you free will for a reason; make your own decisions!

— 'Original Jesus on the tribulations of being Himself.

This is taken from some blog

"Where do you see yourself in five years time?"
"I don't know - I don't have any special powers like that."

I have come to a realization. Any project, no matter how small or big, should have a way to measure how sucessful it is. We should be able to define the metrics which would make a project sucessful and ways to measure those parameters. There should be a objective way to measure these metrics defined before we start the project. I am using the term project in a generic term - it may be something as mundane as learning chess (in which case the metric can be - I should be able to defeat the chess program at level 4) or something as challenging as losing weight.

Some months back, I had written down a list of the areas my life sucked. Here is the status on those things again

• Health - Getting better. Instead of just whining about how I was getting fat, I am taking steps to reduce weight.
• Volunteer work - I am not still satisfied with this. I am a lurker on many lists and irc channels instead of being an active participant. I need to think of ways to change this maybe just concentrate on just a few projects.
• Book reading - I am more than happy about this . My book collection has expanded a lot, to include fantasy and non-fiction books. More importantly, I have read most of the books in my collection.
• Hacking - Not enough hacking. There should be someway in which I can club my hacking and volunteer work together.
• Fun - One of my good friends has moved to Bangalore and I can now hang out with him instead of cribbing about how much Bangalore sucks