Insanity Cut Loose

2011-01-05T18:35:00.005-05:00

If you are a promising batsman in India and are planning to debut, these are some stats that one should keep in mind. The bar graphs in Figure 1 represents total runs scored by batters debut per month. In the parenthesis the number of debuts are presented.

Figure 2 presents the average runs per debut per month, with a qualification of at-least 2000 runs. Again the number in the parenthesis is the number of debuts. Another way to say this (very loosely) is that if I debut in January and I score at-least 2000 runs, I will end up scoring close to 5000 runs.

Considering this, I would plan to debut in Nov. Not only SRT debuted in Nov. but also the average is high with high N values.

Note: SMG debuted in March

Batting Averages

2010-12-21T17:25:00.009-05:00

The batting averages of the top 5 Indian batters (current) wrt months.

All of the batters combined:

We could make a lot of conclusions. Firstly, it confirms Andy Zaltman's thoughts. (Inspiration for this post), that the SA have cleverly arranged the series during December where the Indian batting performs worst.

2008-11-19T21:38:00.013-05:00

India Cricket ODI Scores: A few Trivia

India has played as 698 games till date. When India bats first the score about 15 runs (approx. will provide more details in the next post.) more on an average than the the second inings. This is a histogram of the total score in the first and second innings. Following are a few trivia about India ODI scores. The first plot is the histogram of India's first inning's performance.
Trend of the all the games in Kanpur, India.
This is the trend of India's score against England. It is obvious to the 'naked' eye that India scoring more runs against England with time.

Email Frequency

2008-10-23T23:53:00.003-05:00

Better Version can eb found here

My 5 Conclusions from the graphic:
1. Email Frequency (EF) increases whenever we have a tournament going on.
2. Increasing trend for EF. EF could be used as a measure of the enthu in the public.
3. Before MACC our average was about 110 per month which increased to 120 per month. This could be due to more information being exchanged and also due to increased enthusiasm.
4. After any tournament we observe a decrease in EF. For the last three tournaments it has been (max-min in %) 1st Rich:40, 2nd Rich:40, MACC:60. The reason could be backlash. After a period of intense cricket we take it easy for a while.
5. In 2nd Richmond season, EF was less than 1st season.

Bonus: I spent the last 45 minutes in this useless activity.

My New Resume

2008-10-14T23:45:00.003-05:00

For the pdf version go here.

A Card Game

2008-03-20T20:56:00.005-05:00

Card Games are extremely popular throughout the world. The one I will be talking about is very popular in India. It is called "seep'' or sweep. It is a variant of Italian game called Scopone. I am unsure as to which one of these two is the inspiration to the other. I searched a bit in the web but was not able to locate the playing rules of the game. So i will dispense it here.

Card Game: Sweep

The game is played by exactly four players with two teams, partners sitting opposite to each other. It is played using the standard deck of 52 cards.

All cards of the suit "spades'' have points depending on their face value, e.g. King of spades is worth 13 points, spades 10 is worth 10 points. All the Aces have one point each. Apart from this the 10 of diamond is worth 6 points. This makes the total of 100 points in the entire deck.

Now the first dealer is chosen randomly and then the turn to deal passes to the right. The dealer deals 4 cards face down to each of the players. The person to the right of the dealer after looking at his four cards tells a number between 9-13, both inclusive. He must have at least one card of the number he says. If he doesn't have a card higher than 9 then the turn has to be dealt again.

The dealer then deals four cards in the middle face up. Now, the person to the right (who called the number) goes first. Using one of his cards and the 4 face up cards he has to make a pile of card(s) whose sum is the number he had called. Else if one or more face down cards add up to the number he had called, he can use his card of that number to "pick" it up.

Now the dealer deals the rest of the cards equally.
The turn moves to the right. On one's turn a player can either make a pile using one of this cards along with the cards present on the middle or pick an already present pile. If he is not able to do either then he throws a card in the middle.

Making a Pile:

Piles can be formed only of numbers 9 and up.
One is only eligible to make a pile only if he has atleast one card of that number.
If partner has started a pile, one can add on to the pile.
A pile is said to be "pucca" or fixed if there are two sets of the number. e.g. lets say, Player 1 starts a pile of 10 by adding his 6 with a 4 lying in the middle. The pile is now not fixed. That means it can be modified, but not broken. So if a player adds a Ace to this pile, it's now a pile of 11 or Jack. In case the player didn't add anything to the pile, it is still not fixed. If any other player adds his 7 with a 3 present in the middle and put on the top of pile, it now becomes fixed.

Picking up a Pile:

A pile can be picked by a player during his turn by playing the card with the number of the pile. e.g. A pile of 12 can be picked by a Queen.
When picked a pile is placed face down in front of the player.
Cards of dominion less than 9 can also be picked (but not piled).
If one has more than one cards of the number he is making, he has the option of just putting the card on top of the pile and not picking up.
At the end, the left over cards goes to the team that picked the last pile.

The Sweep:

If a situation arises such that there are no cards in the middle, then the teams that picked the last pile gets 50 points. This is called "Sweep" and has to be avoided.

Goal:

The goal id to maximize the points picked.
At the end of the game, the collected/picked cards of the team are added up to get the teams tally. The team that reaches 500 points wins. This can be modified to any number.

Although it is a simple game, it requires a lot of skill and an excellent memory.

A day in my life..

2008-03-18T15:56:00.007-05:00

8:32 AM - Snoozed Alarm Clock
8:42 AM - Snoozed Again
8:52 AM - Third time
9:02 AM - Had to get up due to uncontrollable desire to pee
9:52 AM - Bus to Office
10:10 AM - Check on Prof. M for availability (NO)
10:15 AM - Read the News, Wonder what would life be without Google
11:00 AM - Wake up call to Wife
11:10 AM - Check on Prof. M for availability (NO)
11:15 AM - Think about the things to be done
11:45 AM - Start Working
12:10 PM - Check on Prof. M for availability (NO)
12:15 PM - Call from friend - Meet him -
12:45 PM - Wonder whats new in YouTube
1:10 PM - Check on Prof. M for availability (NO)
1:15 PM - Work on Proposal Document
2:10 PM - Check on Prof. M for availability (YES but NO)
2:15 PM - Reach a New Low - Set Record
2:30 PM - Use Youtube to Pimp up the mood
3:30 PM - Complete the Proposal Document
4:30 PM - Watch cricket basics videos
5:00 PM - Decide to call it a day and start blog

of Absolutism and Happiness

2006-12-23T18:31:00.000-05:00

I won't believe that Plato's absolutism fundaes hold good for human psychology. Thoughts and ideas and opinions are changing always. Again, whats the correct decision for one person might look as a blunder at a different time or in another guy's shoes . So the definition of right and wrong gets blurred in most cases. As our race is developing, our lives are getting more and more complicated. Decisions that were really simple(because there were no options) have become intricate. During our evolution we developed the frontal lobe in our head, which our previous version lacked. This growth was morphological also, due to which was can imagine or extrapolate into future. This is very important is making decisions and leads to happiness. But this power is growing everyday because it is a part of the evolution. One who are not able keep up in this race are left out to perish. It a scientifically proven fact that if we have more options to decide from, we will not be as happy with our decision compared to when we don't have any option. So coming back to my argument, I feel the global average happiness is decreasing with generation. This is the price we have to pay for our evolution I guess. This reminds me of Huxley's 'Brave New World' where the only happiness people have artificial and there is no limit to that. That is the other extreme of the spectrum.

Which option is better? I don't think anyone can answer this satisfactorily. A different and pertinent way of asking that same question is how to define "better"? We again enter the domain of relativism. So I would to propose an absurd idea(not novel though), say we make two strata. One for those who enjoy the advancements and are driven towards artificial happiness. And the other would be living life as a cave man, not literally (what I mean is being laid back and keeping things simple. Any development in life will be a taboo in that society). This is a black and white situation. So people like me who like to hide in the grey areas have to decide a side. Which side will you chose in this hypothetical situation?..

Me thinks.....

The Crane Wife - The Decemberists

2006-11-29T23:04:00.000-05:00

Today I got hold of the new album from the The Decemberists titled The Crane Wife. And from the fact that I am writing about it, it's trivial to guess that either i was really impressed by it or it is one of things that pisses me off. I will not keep the the stupid suspense till the very end like a prime time serial.
Coming back to the music album, for me this would be the best album this year. They are refreshing and invigorating. I don't (read I am not qualified or knowledgeable enough) like to dissect any song or album and comment about the individual items. For me the whole package matters even the album art. And these guys do deliver it. The acoustic song "Shankill Butchers" was my personal favorite if I had to choose one at a gun point (intended pun. If you missed it check the link). And guess what it's informative too. Shankill Butchers was actually criminal organization in Ireland during 70's and 80's. So providing some drinking-talk topic at the same time should be totally appreciated. The rhythm of all the songs is simple and catchy. The songs were very interestingly sequenced, it feels that they were thinking, and thinking right at least for me. They have a couple of 12 minutes songs, and it needs some ass-power to pull it off. And finally about the lyrics, it was dark enough for me. I would rate this the best album of this year. and in the top 5% of my all time.

Global Warming..

2006-11-17T12:50:00.000-05:00

Is there any end to this problem. I have serious doubt. Will there be every a day (in future obviously) that a guy like me opens up the news section and sees something like.. "Global Cooling has to be taken seriously" Damn!! That would be co cool (pun was indented). But sensibly speaking, the proportion of research done on areas/things that produce these green house gases is more than that done trying to reduce the global warming. Forget about the damage already done. With this trend, something has to done to get my confidence back for my earlier dream. I feel rather than asking this question to myself than vaguely pointing it to everyone. I should look at my contribution to this problem. So I am not doing any thing to decrease the warming.. Am I increasing it?? Let me think.. Research-wise I work on hydrogels and cells and AFM. So the processing/operation of these things might cause some bad stuff, but that is same as that of the daily activities like using electricity etc. So I would be somewhere near the national average in this. Not good. So the question here should be.. What should a average working person do to contribute to the cause?

Interesting Proof.

2006-11-10T19:19:00.000-05:00

0.9999.. is identically equal to 1.

a = 0.999999
10*a = 9.99999999
10*a - a = 9.9999999 - 0.99999999
9*a = 9
a = 1

neat.

Insteresting things I came accross today...

2006-11-09T20:04:00.000-05:00

1) We shrink 1/2 inches duing our life time due to gravity. This is because the cartilage disks in our vertebrate shrink due to the weight as we grow old.

2) Goosebumps have lost the functionality in humans. We have goosebumps when (1)when we feel cold (2)frightened. The standing of the hair traps more air insulates the heat. Secondly, the standing of the furs makes the animals look bigger. Scare tactics.

3) Male Oral Contraception. Some lab in New York found some protien/chemical which temporarily stops the production of sperms in men.

4) Ravi Shankar and Swami Sachidanand were the only two Indian performers at the original '69 Woodstock. (Three days of Music and Peace)

5) And its 'yin and yang' and not 'ying and yang'

Will you be the first one.

2005-11-08T11:26:00.000-05:00

I was in a lecture today on some new techniques of graft implantation on spinal cord. It was really an important issue with older people and boy it is some complicated stuff. But the question that kept on lingering in my mind the whole time was not exactly related to this. I might be a little bit guilty of not completely listening to the presentaion, but heck whats life without any guilt. Coming to the point, people talking about new surgical methods, new pills, new medicine, I mean they must have tried those on all the animals they can get hold off. Agreed, but how to convince the first person to fall for it. You don't want to the first person on which some medicine is tried. Ya Ya, the FDA bullshit. But tell me one thing does the FDA accept anything without real life experiments not bovine-real. So the option left with the doctors is to try on themselves. Thats a easy thing to do for medicines, but for surgical procedures. Thats some ugly shit. Or they try it out on their relatives. There are advantages for not related to the doctor also. But on a different prospective I feel there would be a pool of volunteer ready to get their body cut open and the surgeons playing with his body parts. All for the advancement of science. Another idea is to ask the guys on death sentence to sign up for these experimentation. It would be win-win situation for them.
Another question I always had, do the doctors go to another if they fall ill? The question is more crutial and intriguing in another profession - hair cutting. Enough crap for today.

Life's like that.

2005-11-05T21:40:00.000-05:00

I never used to miss the section in the Reader Digest. It was hillarious but the human element in the stories, when narrated by a person makes it more appealing rather than just flat jokes, which is like laughing on a third person. Thats funny but imperonal. This has nothing to do with whats going to follow. Today is the 5th game between India and Srilanka. Eagerly waiting to watch. Being born in India is a good enough reason to love the game. I am a cricket fanatic, almost. I eat food, drink non-carbonated alcoholic beverages and talk cricket. Ok, coming to the point, I am extremely impressed with the present senario of the ICT (Indian Cricket Team, dumbo). I see a resurgent herd, a motivated leader and a knows-what-he-is-doing coach. And more importantly, they are winning. I just can't believe that part, as it is totally a new concept in Indian team. They used to produce a one great game and gloat on that for an year or so, and then realise that they have slipped to 7th in the whole world, fanic sets in as the public is after their asses. But these guys mean business. Ya, I know if they end up loosing the other three badly, they would appear as wretched as they appear good now. But that doen't mean they don't deserve the accolades they are getting. Imagine 7-0.

Lets have it...

2005-11-04T09:24:00.000-05:00

I have to make this quick, as I have a meeting in 30 mins from now. I was surfing this morning and felt to express my views on the topic that has caught bloggers imagination these days. It's about Google Print, the latest tool provided by the software biggie where they have scanned the resourses from 4 of the largest libraries in the world. Though this is in its beta stage, there is a lot of hush-hush going about it. Im my view, this is not a bad idea. Considering the fact that I don't like the idea of ebooks (reading the whole book on a computer screens) and also most of the times it just a page or just a chapter of the whole book which I require, this feature could just work out for me. I would urge the agengies to relax the copyrighting norms to our trusted(???) friend. Go Google!!!!

Am I smart or am I smart....

2005-11-04T05:03:00.000-05:00

Who is the winner here

Good Weather to sleep

2005-10-25T12:02:00.000-05:00

Sometimes then the weather is very dull, one feels the same. I don't know how the body adapts to the change in weather. Today the weather is horribly "english". Seriously, if London sports this kind of weather for most days, I am not going there. Temperature around early 40s, cloudy and raining interemittenly. Whatelse do you want to call it a bad day, when going outdoors is a big PIA. I guess the transition from good sunny summer weather to winter is most torturous. Once you get used to the gloomyness in the atmosphere, then it doesn't affect you that much.
BTW, heard of the song Gloomy Sunday ??

Life without Spam.

2005-10-14T16:40:00.000-05:00

Can you believe if I say that I didn't receive a single spam in my Inbox today? Never, explicitly answering. Let it be emails, mails or even our grocery bills, spamming has become an integral part of our lives. I got the inspiration to write about this from the spam comments I got in my blog. I forgot to give proper attention to my blog for 4 months, but found that someone else has. It's amazing that people have jobs just to think of ways to spam. When it comes to think of it, this is not a bad job. It must be quite challenging and extremely satisfying, sadistically or otherwise. Good or bad, is difficult to label it. But whatever it is, it has crept into our lives as the commercials in the TV. These days we have competition like the best, the most comic TV ads. Which makes we wonder, if there is some kind of award ceremony for the spammers or they just work for the money. Saying that, I don't take anything away from them. I admit that I might have punched the moving monkey or picked the legs of the super model. So they are not stupid as we might think and also they must be profiting from the endeavor. But I have a suggestion, to target the proper audience. I know it is very easy to send email/mail to everyone they can get hold of, instead they can direct their efforts to the people they think they have more possibility to profit from. I anit gonna need Viagra (hopefully) for the next 40 years of my life.

A few days back I read an article where a company claims to protect you from spammers by using your details, making fake emails and spamming the spammers. But I guess there will be a lot of ethical issues regarding this strategy.

Writing my Thesis!!!

2005-05-03T02:36:00.000-05:00

Someone, please help. These days I am writing my thesis. Boy, it's not easy at all. I was under the impression that it wouldn't be such a difficult task. It's not that it's tough by itself. But for people who are not good at organising their work, it is a nightmare. But the goodnews is that I have successfully completed one of the chapters. It's definitely a learning experience.
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu1&leftindx=1&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=187823
It is very heartening to hear such a thing about my place. The only news that I heard was either about draught in some parts or flood in some other. Though it may be truth , it is never going to happen. I am not a pessimist person, but at one point you have to be realistic and remove the tinted glasses. The bureaucracy i believe does more harm than good. I would love to be proven wrong.

Losing My Religion.

2005-04-23T16:01:00.000-05:00

Consider this
The hint of the century
Consider this
The slip that brought me
To my knees failed
What if all these fantasies
Come flailing around
Now I've said too much
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream...

-R.E.M. (Losing My Religion)

Satisfaction.

2005-04-21T23:28:00.000-05:00

Indeed, it plays a very important part in our lives. Today, I spent most of my time writing for my MS thesis. Though I wrote 3 pages in 3 hours (extremely fast in my standards), I am not satisfied with my work. I don't feel like I have done a good job. There are times in your (at least mine) when just a little effort makes you content while on bad days like today you will slog and slog without the slightest feeling of *satisfaction*. The thought of redoing today's work is more frustrating. I don't feel like writing anymore.............

2005-04-17T14:45:00.000-05:00

The final scores has been put up on the wesite:
http://www.people.virginia.edu/~uk5q/cric_mania_login.php3
Congratulations to the Winners. Well played. It was a great success other than the fact that India lost the series.

Thanks a lot for your participation. The enthusiasm level was great considering the fact that this was a beta version. We regret if anyone has any complaints. We apprieciate you all for putting up with it and any kind of positive criticism is always welcome.

We will be launching our final version very soon. The next Indian series is until August. But if you guys promise enough participation, we can also release it before the Ashes. So guys keep your cricket caps on.

Cheers.

S.Ganguly and the Indian Team.

2005-04-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

A lot is being said about the Captain. I don't want to repeat it like the songs of a radio station, but I would like to comment on the future of the team. My question to "dada" (in bengali it means big brother not to be confused with 'mafia character') and the selection committee is : Do you guys see him playing the 2007 World Cup. NO, if you pardon my bluntness. Now is the right time (though the beginning of this series would have been ideal) to start grooming the World Cup team. A new coach will bring a new zest and also we need a new captian to fully compliment this. I feel (totally a personal thought) that 5~6 years is the ideal time for a team to have a captain/coach. After that he/it becomes predictable and as in this case, if he/it is successful makes him complacent, carefree, and more importantly a 'pachyderm' to constructive critisism. This is what caused (again my prespective) a slackness in his batting , hence the current form. Look at his scores. Boy, I just believe that there were days when R. Dravid said "First there is God and then Ganguly(in offside hitting)". Those days are gone, long gone. Having said that I don't want to take anything away from the gentleman (i doubt it) ,the accolades he deserves as a captain as well as a batsman. Anyways, I am not sure about his sense of humour, but considering the current crop of TV commentators, it wouldn't be a bad decision on his behalf to change profession. But whatever may be, I am hell bent on seeing him out; It's time to move on guys...(How can I complete without the inclusion of a cricketing cliche)