lunatechian (lunatech-ian)

one relating to, belonging to, or resembling lunatech

PHP Community Gazette

A few days back, we (Lig and me) were able to put up the first version of the PHP Community Gazette online. There are quite a few minor things we had overlooked, which we will rectify in the second edition. If you have some feedback, please leave a comment here. We will have a mailing list to get the reader's feedback soon.

what is patriotism

I have been thinking about what is meant by "Patriotism". Loosely defined, a patriot is someone who loves his country. However, let me dig a bit deeper into this definition. What does one mean by the "country" ? Does it refer to all the people living in the country ? Or does it refer to the geography of the country ? Most people think of patriotism as loyalty to the government. Most would say, it means loyalty to the constitution ? But how can anyone be loyal to a bunch of people you have hardly met or to a piece of paper ?

The reason for my questioning what patriotism is arose from a flame-war on some mailing list I am on. This particular list has been created for discussing e-governance issues. However, more often than not, people end up calling each other corrupt, money-minded (personally, I do not think there is anything wrong in making money) or accusing each other of trying to advance his own personal agenda. I am sick of it. At the drop of a hat, each one of them will swear that he is a patriot, but I doubt if anyone of them will be able to define patriotism to me.

I think Patriotism is one of those words which have been politically abused for a long time. It has now become a loaded word, anyone who says he does not like something about his country, might very easily be labelled as "unpatriotic". In worst case scenario he might even get hauled off to the jail on charges of treason. Personally, I am quite unpatriotic. I find it hard to show my show my loyalty to the machinery which is good at sucking up money (taxes) but giving back nothing in return. I even find it hard to believe in the constitution of India i.e. the words of our founding fathers. Sometimes I think Gandhi and Bhagat Singh were fighting not out of patriotism, but for their right to free speech and against injustice. Perhaps the title of a "just and thinking man" would be more apt for him. I am still confused whether saying someone a patriot is a compliment or a veiled way of calling him a unthinking follower.

value of the network

Devdas Bhagat has a nice observation about the "value of the network". The question he was answering is in italics

Seen from this perspective, the value of the network probably would be between n to the power 1.414 (square root of 2) and 1.732 (square root of 3).

I would say that it does grow a bit faster than that. Also, as people learn to use the network better, they create value that the original designers of the network never dreamt of. That act of creation drives up the value of the network even more.

Who is a slacker ?

This is a work in progress

My email sig prouldy proclaims that I am a "DBA, programmer and slacker". Most people assume that I am a Slackware user (I am not, I prefer Ubuntu ). In worst case, some assume I am a lazy bum.

Slackers are not lazy. A good slacker knows how to do just the optimum amount of work. This is a hard line to draw. For example, if I have to replace some text in a file, I will use a sed one-liner to do the replacement, rather than using a text editor to do a search-and-replace. The first time I do this, I will take more time than the guy using a text editor, since I will have to read the manual and do a bit of fiddling around. However, the sed method is more sclable - when the time comes for replacing text in 5 files, I will have to just modify my one-line script. However, most people who will see me reading the manual and fiddling with the one liner the first time will definately think - "This guy is wasting his time". Being a slacker is the reason why I put up my website. I noticed that on the mailing list and IRC there are some questions that are asked more than the others. So I started documenting my answers in my Wiki. Next time someone asked the same question, I had to point out a single webpage instead of typing in a whole (gasp!) email

Some people think that being a slacker means "doing the least possible in the workplace". I think a true slacker applies slacker-techniques to all parts of his life.

does your page really matters

When I started my website (on Geocities), one of my first thougths was - What good will it be (beyond helping my ego) ? There are already so many webpages out there and I possibly cannot say something that others have not said before . I now realize that differences in ideas and opinions matter a lot. When I am looking for a review, I want to hear the good sides as well as the bad sides of the product (book/piece of hardware). I think I am an (almost) normal human being. So, if I want to see ten different opinions about something before investing money into it, I assume others do that too. In a world where companies are always in the run to create a positive image about themselves, it is good to see a page which is not afraid to pull off the ugly mask. If I want to listen different opinion, maybe it would be a good idea to put up my opinion up there too. Maybe someone else will find it useful.