lunatechian (lunatech-ian)

To all those who think that I have left this blog to die, am sorry to disappoint you. My site had been suspended due to some misunderstanding, about which I will write down once the dust has settled on the matter at hand. It was a hard time but I have learnt my lesson. I think it can be best expressed by the following two quotes.

The first one is from The Prince.

And it ought to be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things. Because the innovator has for enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions, and lukewarm defenders in those who may do well under the new.

The second lesson learnt is

A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct.

(That is from the book The Dune by Frank Herbert. Though there is no online book available for Dune, you should check out the great collection of its quotes at Wikiquote)

Yesterday I logged into the yahoo chat rooms after a long time. Man, those guys lack the brains of a piece of rock. One guy kept repeating his question ("Is there anyone who works in the call center as technical support"). Another asshole sent me a personal message "hello, a/s/l plz". Frigging idiots. I cannot believe that at I was once addicted to Yahoo chat rooms. Needless to say, I am not going back to that stinkpile again. Ever.

Been reading the book extract from "how to be idle". Some nice points made in the extract.

It is your patriotic duty to work hard - another myth, particularly convenient to the rich who, as Bertrand Russell said, "preach the dignity of labour, while taking care themselves to remain undignified in this respect". Or as the late, great British writer Jeffrey Bernard put it: "As if there was something romantic and glamorous about hard work ... if there was something romantic about it, the Duke of Westminster would be digging his own fucking garden, wouldn't he?"

The process of sitting or laying down and thinking something through always seems a bit strange to my family and a few of my colleagues. Physical activity does not necessarily translates to more productivity, and especially for programmers. I always distrust someone who immediately starts coding after hearing a project's specification.

Last night I thought of a question. What do you think is the most useless profession in the world ? i.e. if all the members of that profession are wiped out, you would not notice a difference ?

The two professions that I could say can be wiped off safely are

• Models
• VJs
• Weatherman

After much deliberations I could think of nothing else. Like a good geek, I popped this question to one of my friends and he added another profession to the list Newsreaders. (He also added mother-in-law to the list, but I do not think it is a profession. Moreover, if she disappears suddenly, your wife (and consequently, you too) will notice it). Next I put this question in two IRC channels (#phpc, #joito) I frequent. The list now grew up a little

• tanning salon owners
• vb coders - it is a useless profession, but if the vb coders disappeared, people would notice as things would start working.
• Astronauts - but a few people are of the opinion that being a astronaut is not a useless profession. My personal thought is, yes it is [a useless profession]. For space exploration, it is cheaper and better to send robots.
• politicians and lawyers. however people would notice both's departure.
• derivatives market trader? suit in general? middle manager?
• President of India
• queen of england and other royalty stuff - this I consider the moooost useless profession (can you even call it that ?).

I hear kids today aspiring to become a VJ .. I wish I would hear someone say (s)he want to become a sys admin/programmer someday .

Annexure
An interesting bit of conversation that occurred while discussing this question

lunatech: Q-FUNK, michel_v and ppl who answered my hypothetical
question, consider the following answers, President of India, queen of
england, and other royalty stuff

Q-FUNK: lunatech, royalty is fine as long as it manages the transition
to "rich bastard lving on their ancestor's assets" and stop being
allowed to live off the population's taxes or off undue tax exemtions.

lunatech: Q-FUNK, if they disappeared suddenly , will you notice the
loss ?

Q-FUNK: lunatech,  I would not, as I'm not a Brit 

KevinMarks: Queen of England is a handy thing as she provides a
sepration between pomp and politics

travlin: yeah, you know, you can whip her out whenever you need a
little pomp

Suw: plus she keeps Buck House spick and span

travlin: it's a just add water sort of thing

travlin: 

Congratulations to Teju for being the first to put his comment on my new blog. Thanks dude for being a good friend :smile:

Been absent for almost 10 days now. Well do not write me off as yet. Been spending my time writing code, troubleshooting and generally beng lazy. I bought the rajshekhar.net domain name and have put up a website on it. :smile: I have also put up a blog at my new site, at rajshekhar.net/blog, using the excellent wordpress tool. You can syndicate my blog now.