Warbux' Mansion

STOP SOPA

2012-01-17T14:51:00.000-08:00

Exam 4 - Operating Systems

2011-08-12T13:45:00.001-07:00

Ah, the dreaded OS - the epitome of CS and UW.

First off, the course basically deals with operating system construction and functionality. It's one of those courses that teaches theory and forces you to heavily learn (via assignments) from practice.

Overall, the course wasn't nearly as terrible as many people seemed to describe (sleepless nights doing assignments, etc..). The disconnect, however, between the classroom content and the assignments (where we're given a half-baked OS and forced to implement bits and pieces) was a bit annoying since the half-baked OS came with very, very limited documentation.

I would've preferred a more....experienced prof I guess (he was a grad student who seemed like he came from India recently). While you could understand the gist of what he says, the broken English was annoying at times (and for an important course like this, would've been nice to have someone more experienced).

The exam was LONG and focused on crap we briefly touched on in class/in the notes. Not the ideal way of evaluating shit, but not terribly unreasonable I guess.

Course: B+
Prof: B-

...and then 4A was over.

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Exam 3 - Economics

2011-08-11T15:22:00.001-07:00

To put it plainly: a waste of a course. Not much real info or enlightening material here. Just some stupid graphs and equations that shift whenever the government (or BOC) decides to make some sort of change...and you determine how that change affects everything else. In short, blah.

I give the prof. kudos for using her insane life-experience antics to try and liven up the class in what would otherwise be a tremendously mundane classroom experience.

The exam was pretty standard. 60MC followed by some short answer nonsense. I don't think I did much justice to the short answers, but hell, I don't really care at this point.

1 more to go.

Course: C-
Prof: C+

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Exam 2 - Critical Thinking

2011-08-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

May very well be the course I most enjoyed this term. Essentially, it dived into aspects of arguments, what makes up arguments, what makes arguments sound, valid, etc... and dabbled a bit into the first order logic stuff that was done with Shai in CS245. Then, moved onto how whacky statistics are fudged in making arguments, and summed up with some other argument-related stuff.

It was interesting stuff to thinking about in terms of identifying fallacies related to acceptability, relevance, and grounding and the whole notion of how to decipher bullshit arguments from genuine ones.

The prof came across as a real laid-back fellow who, while not incredibly entertaining or engaging, did manage to maintain my attention for most of the 3hr weekly class. Assignments were straight-forward and tests were reasonable.

Prof: B+
Course: A-

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Exam 1 - Derivatives

2011-08-04T11:21:00.001-07:00

So at first, this seemed like it would be an enjoyable course where there would be tons of new and interesting things to learn.................boy was I wrong.

Don't get me wrong, the subject matter IS an interesting area of study, especially when you start combining derivatives with other exotic securities and determining how things are fit nicely together. There are a lot of 'eureka' moments throughout the course.

Unfortunately, the course was being taught by someone straight out of industry who would drive down from Toronto every Monday to lecture us for 3 hours at a time. Now, I got nothing against profs from industry. What I do take issue with is when a prof acts in a condescending manner towards students, purposefully calling out on students for the sake of embarrassing them, and fails to post necessary course material even based on their own proposed timelines. Even if we disregard the unprofessional manner in which this course was conducted, the missing exam booklets and formula sheets during the final exam kind-of capped off a terrible classroom experience in an almost poetic manner.

Here's to hoping I never get the displeasure of studying ANYTHING finance related under this 'industry professional' ever....again.

Prof: F--
Course: B+

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UBB - Round 2

2011-07-28T10:17:00.001-07:00

As requested by Liz:

Alright so about a week ago, the CRTC hearing surrounding wholesale internet billing methodologies wrapped up with some pretty interesting developments.

To bring everyone up to speed, back in February, Bell was able to get the CRTC to approve the ability to start charging its wholesale customers based on the volume of internet packets it sends through its network (i.e. usage-based billing). What ensued was a massive online protest with 400,000+ people signing a petition started by OpenMedia. This in turn prompted at-the-time Industry Minister Tony Clement to call for the CRTC to review its decision since UBB was not considered appropriate. Players in the market appeared before a Standing Committee on Science & Technology, were grilled about why UBB was good, bad, how to deal with pipe congestion, etc...

And that's where we stood until last week when new proposals for wholesale billing models were put forward.

Not to get too wrapped up in the details of the hearings (or list off the ludicrous number of analogies put forward to try and get the CRTC to understand how a fucking network works), the crux of the hearing boiled down to two competing views:

Bell - given the disaster that UBB caused, they came forward with a new model known as AVP (Aggregate Volume Pricing). Essentially, it's UBB but instead of billing on an individual customer basis, they'd bill each ISP based on the aggregate amount of data used. In addition, ISPs can buy data in bulk up front (at something like $200/TB) and any overage charges would be extra (don't remember the exact rate, think it was $0.1768/GB or something).

CNOC - the group of individual ISPs have said they should be billed based on the peak capacity (measured in MBps, not GB) that they cause on the incumbents network. Measurements of their capacity (not volume) usage would be measured at 5-minute increments over the month and the 95th percentile would determine the level at which the ISP would be charged for the month. Brief description of 95th percentile is here.

Other players in the market has suggested slight modifications of the two above approaches (95th percentile with commitments, average AVP over the month, etc..).

Personally, I think Bell's AVP is the same wolf that UBB was, just with a pretty pink tutu put on it. The basic problem is that AVP measures the wrong metric when determining costs associated with a network. It was made pretty clear during the UBB uproar that the cost of transporting a GB across a network cost pennies (if that) and Bell is charging rates that are at least 10x higher. Not only that, when networks are built out and created, they're created on the basis of the capacity usage, not how much volume goes through.

CNOC's proposal does attempt to measure the appropriate metric when determining cost and it pointed out that other regimes around the world that have wholesale internet access policies use 95th percentile to compensate incumbents. That being said, it's pretty clear that building out networks (as Bell, Rogers, Telus, Shaw, Videotron have done) is bloody expensive. Using simply 95th percentile may not be sharing enough of the business risk associated with expanding the facilities, especially given the CRTCs decision on speed matching that says incumbents can't offer speeds in retail for some services unless they're also offered in wholesale.

So where does that leave us? Well, my feeling is that the model put forward by MTS/Andrew Moore [slight alterations of each other] makes the most sense. Essentially, usage would be billed on the 95th percentile, but commitments/access charges on how much capacity the ISP wants on a monthly basis would be charged up front. What this allows is for the incumbents to use that money to provision the appropriate size of the pipe to be given to the ISP. Once that's been done, the ISP is able to use as much of that pipe as possible and would be billed on the 95th percentile. In addition, if the ISP begins to exceed the capacity they've been allocated, their customers would experience packet loss, slow down, etc...Why this makes sense is it forces ISPs to make judgements on the amount of capacity they wish to purchase up front and compensates the incumbents for that cost, while still billing on capacity basis [which is the appropriate usage metric for networks].

The CRTC is scheduled to render a decision sometime in November and my hope is that they see the MTS model as a good compromise between the two polar opposite views of Bell v.s. CNOC. It's important that we measure internet usage on the appropriate metric, but incumbents must be adequately compensated for the investments that they do make in their networks (on a cost + small markup basis).

"The more you limit my tubes, the more time I have to protest" - Unknown Protester

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Exam 0 - Financial Statement Analysis

2011-07-26T18:08:00.001-07:00

Blah, it's once again time for the semi-annual course/prof evals.

I wasn't particularly looking forward to this course, given the bad rap it got from upper years as being mind-numbingly boring and atrociously hard. To be honest, I thought it was a relatively fair course. Just goes through the basics of company valuations, methodologies, considerations, corporate governance, etc...

I guess the only complaint I'd have is how stringently the textbook 'key' was used to mark assignments, presentations, and the midterm (no final for this course). It's an analysis course and to merely award marks based off of whether or not student mentioned points outlined in the key instead of the merit of their arguments was a bit disappointing.

Excellent use of IClickers and class participation though, I must say.

Course: B-
Prof: A-

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That time of year again....................

2011-07-26T12:02:00.000-07:00

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Bhagg DK Bose....

2011-07-05T08:01:00.000-07:00

Blast from the past....

2011-06-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

So a while back ago (I think Gr.11 or Gr.12), a couple of us were taken aback by the news that a gym teacher at Mac was accused of some pretty nasty things and was forced to leave the school. In an effort to find out more, we went forward and attended his court hearing (which proved to be useless). The issue pretty much died.

I stumbled upon this while trying to lookup some information about my elementary school teachers who I've lost contact with.

While the summary doesn't sound nearly as sinister as some of us may have thought....still pretty disturbing.

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Food for Thought...

2011-05-11T18:28:00.000-07:00

Food for thought...

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Only Colbert....

2011-04-04T11:28:00.000-07:00

could take something as terrible as this and turn it into this

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Happy Holi

2011-03-18T20:37:00.001-07:00

Happy Holi!!!

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A Battle Back Home

2011-03-17T22:00:00.000-07:00

So while I've been away enjoying the rain and gloom here in Seattle, a nation-wide battle has been going on back home. It has to do with UBB. While it's been entertaining to watch all the testimony (and lies) by the various parties, it continues to baffle me as to how the CRTC can continue to be so......ugh.

Anyways, I was gonna go on a nice rant about how important this entire discussion and my view on it, but I came across a video that pretty much sums it all up. It's posted below.

"The more you limit my bandwidth, the more free time I have to protest"
- Anonymous protester

Save the tubes!

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Exam 5- Databases

2010-12-23T20:04:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I'm torn on this one. On the one hand the project for this course was extremely fun and interesting and gave me a chance to toy around with a bit of PHP debugging and whatnot, but the prof was just...ugh. Not only were we not provided ANY feedback on any of the project components, the prof fails to answer emails, glosses over theoretical concepts and then completely screws everyone on the exam with insane questions. Here's to hoping it all works out in the end for this course.

Course: B+
Prof:C-

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Exam 4 - Investments

2010-12-21T12:02:00.001-08:00

So after a 6-day hiatus which consisted primarily of sleeping, eating, and watching this over and over again (I gotta admit, the music video is utterly ridiculous, the lyrics nonsensical, but it's pretty catchy), I went off to the treacherous PAC (I hate writing in there) to do a brain dump on everything I knew about investments. The exam overall was pretty straight-forward and self-explanatory. I finished about an hour-and-a-half in and left.

The course overall was annoying at times, but you can see the prof has potential and is willing to take a couple risks along the way in an effort to make the stuff more interesting, including forcing everyone to partake in this.

Enjoyable experience overall.

Prof: A-
Course: A-

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Exam 3 - Econ

2010-12-14T18:50:00.000-08:00

So not much to say about this course. It was quite mundane, shed very little light on the dynamics of international markets and the exam was (for the most part)...a joke. Prof needs to improve how she teaches though, that's for sure.

Prof: C-
Course: B+

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Exam 2 - Algo

2010-12-14T10:24:00.000-08:00

Oh Algo,

We've had a difficult relationship this past term, I must admit. At times, you were stubborn, difficult and quite frankly a pain in the ass. But there were other times where you produced a 'Eureka' moment and those will be remembered. I must say though: it was totally unnecessary to say good-bye with an incredibly difficult final exam. It leaves me with a bitter taste in my mouth.

Farewell Algo, for I do hope we never meet again.

Prof: A-
Course: B-

UPDATE: mark in the course reflects how complicated our relationship was.

P.S. Who broke the build?!

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Exam 1 - Stats

2010-12-11T08:30:00.000-08:00

And it's that time of year again...Exams -sigh-.

So the first one went relatively well. The course on a whole didn't really teach much in terms of actual material, but it was nice to get a different perspective on statistical interpretations of data from a professor who, for the most part, focused primarily on concepts and didn't really give a hoot about the 'math' behind it all. Interesting approach that hopefully pays dividends in the future. In summary, stats can be fun. Yay.

Prof: B+
Course: B+

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Exam Time Food for Thought

2010-12-09T13:32:00.001-08:00

Seeing how it's exam time, thought I'd post something of some relevance.

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Exam 4 - Logic

2010-04-20T17:41:00.000-07:00

This was, by far, the most interesting course I've had thus far. The most refreshing part was the prof basically taking everything that used to be taught in the course, throwing it out the window and adapting his own unique, interesting, and possibly inspiration approach the realm of logic, ranging from Kolmogorov to Godel to Rice to...a bunch of other things.

The exam...well, was more difficult than expected and quite challenging, but the rest of the course teachings and material probably made up for it.

Prof: A-
Course: A

....and another term is over.

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Exam 3 - Accounting

2010-04-16T12:29:00.001-07:00

It's amazing how much I actually 'learned' from simply reading the damn textbook for this course over the span of 5 days compared to the countless classes I attended with this bumbling-idiot-of-an-excuse-for-a-professor. She is, by far, the most condescending, horribly organized and quite possibly illiterate professor I've come across in my time here at UW. Here's hoping I really don't run into her. Ever...Again.

The exam was straightforward-ish, but that's about all I can conclude.

Worst...Professor.....Ever.

Prof: F
Course: D-

One more to go.

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Exam #2 - Economics

2010-04-14T14:28:00.000-07:00

The course was a joke -- the professor was a joker (an extremely lazy one as well). It is, however, one of the only 'efforts-based' courses I've had thus far. But seriously -- purposely not handing back the 3rd midterm and then using it as the final exam? C'mon..........

Prof: C-
Course: B-

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Exam #1 - Finance

2010-04-09T14:56:00.000-07:00

Figured I might as well do this blog some justice and write...something.

Finance exam went basically as expected -- concept definitions, essay questions, calculations, and MC (brutal!) all bundled into a nice package. Seeing how I studied about 4 days straight for this thing (when not watching Mr.Bean reruns or playing Robot Unicorn Attack), I'm pretty sure I did well on this. The prof showing up an hour into it was a bit surprising.

Enjoyable course, cool in-course project, decent prof, learned a bunch.

Prof: A-
Course:B-

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New Decade Post -- And then some

2010-01-01T14:01:00.000-08:00

Happy New Decade, all. I'll spare everyone the formalities and just say that I certainly hope the upcoming decade goes better than the last. Then again, if the Mayans have it their way, we'll all be dead soon anyways.

A question I thought I'd ask in response to a certain 'war' erupting in the Bollywood realm: when filmakers 'adapt' a book/story and turn it into their own motion picture:

1) how much credit should be given to the author (naturally this depends on many factors, but just generally speaking)

2) At what point does a movie 'inspired by a book' become a movie 'based on a book'?

Back to 'loo in 2. Fun.

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"Soft" Power of India

2009-12-03T18:41:00.000-08:00

Pretty interesting TED I came across recently.

Worth a watch.

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Food for thought.

2009-11-24T13:41:00.001-08:00

Food for thought

The CRTC thing...

2009-11-19T17:42:00.000-08:00

So, some of you might know, there's an epic battle going on now between broadcasters and cable/satelite providers over some pretty big issues. Just thought I'd rant about this, seeing how working @ Extend has instilled a bit of interest in the tv/broadband spectrum.

So, the gist of it is this: As of right now, cable/satelite providers use over-the-air (OTA) signals broadcast by broadcasters, bundle'em together with their specialty channel and sell'em to the end customer (us). So, where's the issue? Well, OTA signals are generally available for free. In fact, anyone can just grab a pair of hangers, twist'em up a bit and add the appropriate connectors, you'd probably grab a few channels. So, the broadcasters (in light of the recent downturn in advertising revenue) start saying that cable/satelite people owe them money for caring their signals. The cable/satelite people obviously refuse since it would cut into their profits and what-the-hell, the signals are available for free.

So, where do we stand now?

Broadcasters are broke and start threatening to stop cable providers from carrying their signals unless they pay up. Cable/satelite dudes retort saying they'll just buy more popular american cable feeds and broadcast those instead, since most popular shows on canadian channels are - well - made in the U.S. of A anyways. If, as the broadcasters are trying to persuade the CRTC to do, cable/satelite companies are forced to pay broadcasters for their signals, they vow to pass on the cost to the end consumer (us), which obviously is a real piss-off since they already gouge enough of my income as it is.

Kinda sucks being a cable customer, eh?

So, what to do about it? Well, my personal preference would be to just divert some of the money I'm paying for the cable signal to the appropriate broadcaster, but of course this brings up a whole slew of issues: What percentage goes to who? Should the CBC even be included as it's already funded by the public? blah blah blah.

So, the steps I see to reforming this broken system:

1. Complete a-la-cart cable choices: gimme a checklist of channels I can get, I'll tick off the ones I want and you give'em to me. It's ridiculous how in order to get one simple cricket channel, I'm forced to purchase regular cable ($29.99+), an asian television channel ($14.95) and then can add $5 in order to get the damn channel. Let customers choose which ones they watch and don't shove stuff down their throats (honestly, who watches CTS or Sun TV?).

2. Divert what I pay for each channel (a certain percentage) to the appropriate broadcaster. What cable companies are doing now is sort of like me downloading firefox and then handing it over to someone for a fee - it's a bit absurd, really.

3. Work to introduce a lot more competition into this market since it's severely monopolized at the moment. Same goes for the wireless spectrum (stupid CRTC, not letting Globalive in).

I've been trying to persuade my parents to cancel cable for 6 months, just to see how much more peaceful and cost saving it is. The asian channels are a bit too good to let go though. Damn indian soaps....

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Happy Diwali!!!!

2009-10-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

I want your opinion.....

2009-09-08T17:42:00.001-07:00

is it a bad thing to keep siblings from being your friends on Facebook? I just fail to see the point of it.....thoughts?

and, for your quasi-entertainment, below's a nice little dance-skit thingy I did a while ago with a couple of friends. I'm the hobo in the center.

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A Quasi-Update on life

2009-08-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

As of this writing, all marks (but 1) came out. All low 80s. I can't say I'm entirely dissapointed seeing how my effort level this term was atrocious (as well the quality of the professors).

Spent the last 3 days at my grandparents. It's amazing how relaxing it feels away from home, by the lake, watching BBC all day. Billiard skillz are rapidly declining and hot damn, do I suck at table tennis.

Trying to get a damn router configured with my grandfather's network, dunno what the Bell guy did but whatever it was, it royally fluxed any possibility of getting the damn thing installed.

Ending off the visit with dinnar at the Pickel Barrel was a real treat. That girl with the extremely cute smile still haunts my dreams.

UPDATE: The last mark came in. Shameful.

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Final Exam - CS240 Review

2009-08-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

....I just hope I pass. This professor needs a serious lesson in how to teach difficult courses like this one.

...Just let me pass.

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3 Days, 4 Exams, 0 hours of sleep

2009-08-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

Day 1:

Finance Exam - prof was a prick all term and didn't really make up for it with the exam. Just hope I don't get stuck with him in upper year(s)

Business Law Exam - felt like a Tersigni test, just longer and a lot more...wordy. Why there were questions on that stupid video, we'll never know.

Day 2:

Statistics Exam - the one exam I actually feel I aced and had a blast writing it. Likelihood functions are so much fun ^^.

Day 3:

Combinatorics Exam - working off of no sleep, this one went horribly. As long as I didn't fail, I'll be happy. Stupid Euler didn't work out right.

And now, to rest...until CS.

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Q: What do you do when....

2009-08-02T16:21:00.001-07:00

...the guy you know who's on the Indian version of the Bachelorette ends up winning?

A: .....nothing, really.

Just extend heartfound congrats to the new couple!

Congrats Elesh!

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Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2009-07-15T20:12:00.000-07:00

The Good: Visual effects, acting by senior actors

The Bad: Acting by Radcliffe, emphasis on teenage romances

The Ugly: Ginny

3.5/4

UPDATE: Saw the movie a second time. My above analysis did not change.

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Q: What do you do when....

2009-06-30T13:03:00.001-07:00

you're watching an indian rip-off of The Bachelorette and you end up seeing someone you know as one of the potential grooms?

A: Freak the fuck out.

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Kill me now....

2009-06-21T13:51:00.000-07:00

Ugh...

this summer term is really getting on my nerves....

and having a black eye don't help either.

Blah.

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They Revived Scofield.......

2009-05-25T21:19:00.000-07:00

...........but killed the poor bastard in the end.

Final Break - final absurd plot twist to ever boggle my mind.

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They Killed Scofield!

2009-05-16T07:42:00.001-07:00

.....wtf.

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The Vegas Trip, End of Co-op + Back-to-school

2009-04-29T19:31:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I admit it: I've lagged in keeping this damn thing up to speed with all (however limited 'all' may be) that's been going on with me for the past...while.

Las Vegas: So, I took a few days off from my co-op term and headed down to vegas with the family. Quite an interesting experience really - getting thrown into an environment that thrives on the pure scent and fragerance of gambling. First thing I see when I walk into the airport in LV are a bunch of slot machines. Expected, given the reputation Vegas has, but still a shocker. Getting a chance to walk up and down 'The Strip' and see all the hotels, motels, no-tels, and shops, stores, booths and people peddling hookers was kinda...eh. The amount of work that's gone into making the hotels live up to their reputations is quite astounding, especially the 'city-themed' based hotels (NYC, Paris, etc..). Bellagio water show was also pretty kick-ass.

That being said, not being able to actually legally engage in the Vegas pastime of chugging coins into a dinging slot machine was a bit of a drag. That being said, there's absolutely no entrance security present at any of the hotel-casinos so literally a 5-year-old can walk in and start pumping coins inside the machine. Blah.

Visiting the Grand Canyon's was pretty damn amazing, especially taking a helicopter through the canyons and getting that boat ride through it via the Colorado River. Pretty nice scenery and the sheer ambiance and silence of the place is breathtaking.

All-in-all, Vegas - not great, but worth a one-time-round-about-tour.

Now, the co-op term.

By far, an extremely enjoyable and fulfilling term filled with laughs and (pretty painful) failures on my part, but an intense learning experience and an absolute change in perspective in terms of how 'modern' companies should go about conducting their business for greatest employee output. The philosophy of 'keep your employees happy and they'll keep you happy' really goes a long way in this place. Naturally, I'm going back and it looks as though Felix'll be joining me this time. We'll see how that turns out in due time.

Back-to-school: summer school blows and the classes this term suck. Can't say much more. Gah.

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Why i want to go Meditate in the Himalayas?

2009-04-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

Ok, so before I begin, I just wanna clear the air about a few things:

1. This post is not going to be nearly as insightful as that of Stevens and Lisa's surrounding why/why-not so-and-so wants/doesn't want to enter the field of financce. What I do hope to do though is convey what I've gathered from the two arguements (+1 rebuttal from Lisa) that have been posted to date.

2. This is as much an attempt to stipulate commentary and thought-provoking comments as it is to get my blog activity up.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I guess it all really starts with a question - what do I wanna do in life?
Odd - yes, but necessary. Having indulged myself in University studies in Computing & Financial Management (CFM), I think it's a unique perspective to be coming from.

The world of computer science is very much about absolutes. I've done 2 co-op terms now with software development companies and the one thing that really stands out is: 'The truth is in the code.' And it's true really. What's also true is that this truth is very much an absolute. Simply put, following the sequences of if and breaks and continues, you're able to land yourself at a logical (as we call it in the WebService world) endpoint: a finite location. As well, the process by which we arrive at our endpoint can also be very much mapped out and charted or graphed or what-have-you. The point I'm getting at here is that the field of computer science deals primary with things that are 'fixed' or 'determinable'. It was indeed this attribute of comp sci that probably drove me to fully-engage in it through highschool and further pursue it now.

In contrast, the finance realm deals with the (as pointed out by Steven) "unknowable." Or rather, people working the finance realm deal with the unknowable. Can we draw a sequence diagram that'll point out all the cause/effect relationships available when dealing
with the finance realm? Likely not, but that's not to say portions of finance are not lurking behind the clouds in a little crystal ball. It may very well be the mediocre level/quality of finance education or what-have-you that I've been exposed/exposed myself to thus far, but
much of the 'finance' nonsense I've dealt with has had to do with using the past to determine the future. The entire notion of 'predicting' something was very much focused on utilizing past results to formulate a logical conclusion of what should happen - but not what will happen. Personally speaking, I doubt there's anyone that can actually predict the future with full certainty - life would be too boring if that were the base - but this unpredictable nature of finance is indeed the luring factor that perhaps drew me towards persuring finance as well.

So now we ponder. On the one hand, there's comp-sci whose predictability I enjoy and on the other, finance which had this alluring attribute of being unpredictable. Quite an oxymoronic merger to say the least....Wtf was I thinking? =/

Well, the very same thing every other dude/dudette was thinking when they applied for CFM. How can I use my comp-sci/finance skills to improve the way in which comp-sci/finance is conducted? If you've found an answer to that, lemme know, cuz I'm still at a loss.

The question I set out to answer with this blab was: what do I wanna do in life?

Have I found the answer?

No, but I have found what I don't want the answer to be: complicated. Life's a bit too short to make things like these (however 'important' life may be) mind-wrenching and troublesome.

KISS - Keep It Simple Stupid.

Eat, survive, fuck, die. Let's just get it over with.

Time to head for the Himalayas.

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Sidenote: These constant marriage proposals phone calls are really getting on my nerve.

My Trip Back to Mackenzie

2009-02-27T17:41:00.000-08:00

yes yes, call me nostalgic or whatever the word is, but I decided to take Thursday evening to enter the hallways of doom for one (ok, maybe not) last time.

Ultimately, the goal was to enter the building, buy a ticket for their latest musical and walk the hell out of there without being noticed.

Before the show
Well, naturally, ran into a crapload of teachers (Moore, Berenstein, Scott, Mancini, Gruzy,Tersigni) who really just give you the 'Hey, how's it going?' generic convo topics before heading off in the other direction.

Oddly enough, a couple of old Annie cast members dropped in to take in the show as well. Catching up with the ry-high & montrealers was good good fun.

After grabbing a bland-tasting cupcake, everyone took their seats and prepared for mayham (sorta).

The Show
Incredibly entertaining, I must say. Few bland parts in the midst of it, but impressive nonetheless.

Post-Show
ah yes, meeting the cast afterwards was also good, good fun, especially the former Annie-ites.

Post-Show Thoughts
Perhaps the only real 'thought-provoking' portion of the blogs, but after seeing their musical and attempting to compare it Annie, a couple things came to mind:

1) It really is hard to compare these two fairly since I obviously hold a sentimental bias towards Annie. That being said, I have seen it on tape and whatnot, so...I kinda know it from the eyes of an audience.
2) Being on the other side of the mackenzie stage did feel quite weird, especially when former cast-mates are performing

So it ultimately boiled down to one pounding question that still irks me:

Does watching this years performance waterdown the stellar-ness or amazing-ness of Annie that I've held sacred for all this time?

Probably overreacting a bit, but I don't know.

My head hurts. Too much NHL.

-End of Entry-

Jai Ho!

2009-02-24T18:02:00.000-08:00

Just thoughts I'd recap in case people weren't avidly reading the jabs me and steven are taking at each other in the comments of his most recent post:

Slumdog - 8 oscars (including best picture)
Curious Benji - 3 oscars (didn't get best picture)

The above results earned me $5 bucks off Steven and bragging rights for eternity =D.

Aside:
NHL09 is getting very difficult with 4 human players jabbing at 1 puck. Blah.

-End of Entry-

Review: Valkyrie

2009-01-03T08:16:00.001-08:00

Understandably, the plot to kill "the greatest monster that ever lived" would be complicated....But did it have to be so bloody boring?

Geez.

4/10

-End of Entry-

Review: Slumdog Millionaire

2008-12-25T14:48:00.000-08:00

One word: magnificant.

Might just be my utter obsession with Bollywood and everything else India-related following the tragedy of 26/11, but this movie really brings to light the other side of life in India told through the eyes of a simple boy who's incredible life story serves as a timeline for the questions he receives as a contestant on the Indian version of 'Who wants to be a millionaire.'

And heck, even Katsup enjoyed it, so it must be good.

Watch it.

11/10

-End of Entry-

Exam #5 - CS (C++, etc...)

2008-12-16T16:17:00.001-08:00

I won't lie, it was challenging.

Worst off: it was ambiguous.

Best part: it's over ^^.

-End of Entry-

Bedtime Ramble

2008-12-15T19:47:00.000-08:00

So, it's the night before my final exam (phew!), haven't studied a heck of a lot. Don't really know how you can go about studying for a CS exam aside from reading notes and going on code rampages at random intervals. Ah well, we shall see.....

So, what's left to say? Just saw another ep. of Prison Break. I'm really starting to get annoyed with the producers or directors or whoever the hell decides to drag this bloody thing on for so long. Could've ended the entire series peacefully a couple of episodes ago, but no -- they decide to prolong this already-spread-pizza-thin story line. Bleh.

Time for bed. Mebbe I'll enjoy some nice Bollywood entertainment after the exam. We shall see.....

-End of Entry-

P.S. Steve, the reunion is happening at your place, right? =P

Exam # 4 - Computing (Engineering-ish)

2008-12-13T13:56:00.000-08:00

Pipelining, Multicycles and Caches, oh my....

The lack of sleep didn't help either =/.

-End of Entry-

Exam # 3 - Economics

2008-12-13T13:54:00.000-08:00

100 MC --> My wrist hurts from bubbling those bloody bubbles.

Interest rates didn't work in my favor and neither did inflation.

Blah.

-End of Entry-

Exam # 2 - Accounting

2008-12-13T13:52:00.000-08:00

Not as hard as expected.

Realized losses on investments was not a pleasant sight, especially when the balance sheet is out of balance.

Oh well.

-End of Entry-

Exam # 1 - Stats

2008-12-09T21:02:00.000-08:00

Exam was easy.

Food that followed was eek.

CS Review session that followed that was insightful.

Note to self: Why so serious?

-End of Entry-

Blank Entry for those killed in the India terrorist attacks (Nov 26, 2008)

2008-11-26T19:09:00.000-08:00

Quantum of Solace - Review

2008-11-14T18:15:00.000-08:00

3/4.

Adding complexity to a character like Bond is well achieved by the latest flick. That being said, more action sequences, less Bourne-esque hand-to-hand combat and a longer runtime would've made for a much more enjoyable viewing.

The lack of one-liners was also a surprise and it's clear they're milking the plot for the next 3-4 flicks.

- End of Entry -

3 weeks and counting...

2008-11-12T19:13:00.001-08:00

So, the end of term is coming up, which can only really mean one thing: more procrastination before those bloody exams come along to screw with me.

Anyhows, recently managed to acquire the entire James Bond movie set, and been screening'em over the past week. I find it interesting that I enjoy watching the older Bond movies, despite the fact that their dialogue delivery is horrendous. Everyone (aside from Connery, and [not to be sexist or anything] the female actresses especially) deliver their lines in such a montonous/robotic manner. Quite amusing to see actually. Rationale for the screenings: QOS is out soon, so much like with the Bourne series, gotta build up the hype/anticipation/nostalgia to go see the ruddy film. RT has it at a 76%, so should be an ok watch.

What else.....

Midterm friday, not studying a heck of a lot. Don't really give a hoot what happens when the supply curve shifts left or right....

I'm le tired. So I'll take nap...THEN FIRE THE MISSILE!

- End of Entry -

Writing a book

2008-11-11T14:56:00.001-08:00

Acquired the sudden eagarness to do so after walking from Uni-> Home.

- End of Entry-

The Thanksgiving Ramble

2008-10-12T10:25:00.000-07:00

So, as some of you have noticed (particularly Steven), this blog has been pretty dead for the past...while. It's not that I don't have much to ramble or scream or let loose about (well, mebbe I don't) but it's just been super super busy. So, let's start off.

First off, Liz -> I hope you've started having a bit more fun in Philly.

Chau->when's the beach party?

Mr. Queens -> My english is gooder than ever so hush =P.

Now, to ramble.

School's been a bit of a pain. There's the work, the tests, but worst is the stupidity of the professors (and the fees we pay to have them). So, I'm not usually one to complain about money (although Russell Peters would disagree --> speaking of which, I saw his show in Kitchener. It was kickass), but being one of the few programs who has his 2nd year fees doubled from his first, I wanted to know one thing: why?

The reasons: Apparently the incompetent profs we have are in such demand that we pay them abnoxious amounts of money to retain them. Makes some sense (just lacks the justification for keeping incompetent profs). If you're interested (specifically Chau & Liz), check out a subset of the salaries here.

So that's my ramble for incompetent profs. Now, onto incompetent jobmine.

Well, it's not so incompetent, although apparently a flaw in the system allows for early viewing of an offer, which...kinda kills the surprise aspect of each of the posting cycles. In general, job search has been a bit slower (possibly since I started applying for senior level positions which are way out of reach). Still got a handful of interviews..Few of them look pretty swell...We'll see how that rolls out.

Other things:

Living w/ Jack & Felix is a blast. Free tech. support, free ridiculous jokes, free laughs, unlimited bandwidth and a nice little torrent box (well done Jack).

So, what else....

Decided to show up in Toronto for the Thanksgiving weekend. With my sister and grandmother both having taken a trip to india, parents felt the house was kinda empty with only 2 ppl...so I bounced in. Turkey dinner with (grandma + grandpa) # 2 should be swell. Mebbe a few games of pool to top things off.

Dinner @ The Indian Rice Factory was not really as expected...Aside from being super overpriced (~$100 for a 3 person meal =/), i learned something about indian food that I didn't know before: When they say 'this dish is very hot', they're not lying. That vindaloo chicken was very hot and you can gurantee that you'll feel it the next morning (I sure did).

Is this a good enough let-loose session steve? Or are you now gonna read through every ity bitty detail of this post and scrutinize it for its horrible english and coherency problems?

Oh wait, almost forgot...

Saturday = I ended up going to see 2 first-class international cricket matches (played somewhere in King City) with my cousin. Canada screwed up at the end and handed a victory to Zimbabwe. Pakistan made a valiant comeback to edge out Sri Lanka and the York Region Police force had a really hard time handling the Pakistan fans who kept running onto the field. Having two guyz get into a fight 2 rows above us and cops running into the stands to break things up made for an interesting afternoon outing with my cousin.

My sister is apparently getting marriage proposals...I have no comment.

- End of Entry -

This didn't help

2008-08-02T19:21:00.000-07:00

I find it kinda funny how I thought I'd be using this blog thing a bit more often to let loose and....guess I don't have much to say....

This blog deserves a better owner......

=/

- End of Entry -

P.S. Work is almost over. Working w/ Felix has been one heck of an experience...Still contemplating returning...who knows =/

TTC - EPIC FAIL

2008-05-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

It was bound to happen eventually....

- End of Entry-

It's times like these....

2008-05-10T18:44:00.001-07:00

...when I wish I were away from home...

..away from the drama.

-End of Entry-

If I get an e-mail about it, it must be true?

2008-04-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

This message is to confirm that you have successfully completed all
required PD1 activities and will receive a credit (CR) for PD1.

Congratulations!

Sincerely,

Kerry Mahoney (PD1 Instructor) and Judene Pretti (WatPD Program Manager)

.....only 5 more to go.... -.-;;

-End of Entry-

Bragging Rights....

2008-04-03T14:55:00.000-07:00

weeeeeee...................

So, I met her in gr. 8. She's beaten me at almost everything. Tricked me into wearing yellow stockings..And she's off to Harvard.

Congrats Maria (Yuying), Malvolio salutes you.

*salutes*

-End of Entry-

Employed

2008-03-03T12:42:00.001-08:00

Took the offer, will work with a familiar face. Should be good.

....not liking the travel time, but hey, we all gotta make sacrifices.

- End of Entry -

JobMine overflow - Rnd.1

2008-02-14T16:44:00.000-08:00

*collapses*

.....okay, so as most of you do know, I've been overcome by a tidal wave of interviews during this first round of job hunting, landing double-digit interviews when jobmine expects one to obtain 1 interview for every 50 applications.

So naturally, it's time to reflect:

The Process
-time consuming: didn't realize I'd acquire a trigger finger where I'd try and refresh jobmine every 5 minutes to check for updates.
-researching companies really doesn't help as much as I would've thought. The interview is a lot more about 'you' as opposed to 'them,' and essentially a check of technical skill and ability to fit within the work environment

The Results
- happy with most of the firms I did get interviewed by. Wish I was a bit more filter-ish about my applications instead of throwing a Hail Mary.
- been ranked by most, so now it's up to luck & the bloody computer matching algorithm

The Conclusion
- JobMine needs serious tech. improvements and longer operating hours
- Can't wait for term to be over =D.

T - 5 weeks

QED.

- End of Entry -

'loo is....

2008-01-17T07:30:00.001-08:00

lonely.....ish. o.0

-End of Entry-

-poke- reunion

2007-12-21T14:43:00.001-08:00

It was a blast, I must say. Kudos to my sis for helping (well, essentially doing everything....almost :P) in the food department. I've come to realize that my translation skills are far from where I thought they would be, as my feeble attempt at making 'Main Hoon Na' make sense did the movie little justice. Oh well, everyone was having laughing fits when something surreal came up...which was often enough. Hope you guyz enjoyed it.

Now, off to clean the mess =/.

-End of Entry-

P.S. Steve, ur apartment is next :P

Writing Exams in the PAC

2007-12-08T14:24:00.000-08:00

....is alot more intimidating than I imagined.....

-End of Entry-

Dissapointment

2007-11-02T10:45:00.000-07:00

The system that I once loved, served and honored.......has ousted me from their public eye, and pretended that I never existed.

God: Nietzsche is dead

Mackenzie: Warbux is dead

-End of Entry

In conclusion

2007-10-22T11:15:00.001-07:00

............ So in conclusion, I wish I was back @ Mac.

-End of Entry-

Brain Overload

2007-09-17T18:53:00.001-07:00

Too much info...too little time.

Mayur.brain.fry();

-End of Entry-

Grrr.....

2007-08-27T16:21:00.000-07:00

Decisions...Decisions...

I hate making them.

-End of Entry-

P.S. Cell phone companies should go screw themselves.

First Post

2007-08-19T13:45:00.001-07:00

yay...I'm a copycat.

-end of entry-