Cheers to precision in Technical writing

From Section 13.1 of the IEEE standards style manual:

• The word shall is used to indicate mandatory requirements strictly to be followed in order to conform to the standard and from which no deviation is permitted (shall equals is required to).
  

• The use of the word must is deprecated and shall not be used when stating mandatory requirements; must is used only to describe unavoidable situations.
  

• The use of the word will is deprecated and shall not be used when stating mandatory requirements; will is only used in statements of fact.
  

• The word should is used to indicate that among several possibilities one is recommended as particularly suitable, without mentioning or excluding others; or that a certain course of action is preferred but not necessarily required; or that (in the negative form) a certain course of action is deprecated but not prohibited (should equals is recommended that).
  

• The word may is used to indicate a course of action permissible within the limits of the standard (may equals is permitted).
  

• The word can is used for statements of possibility and capability, whether material, physical, or causal (can equals is able to)

cricket & more ...

The Australians take home the future cup with a 4-2 series win, but many will agree that it has been a very significant series for Indian cricket. Lacking a polished pace attack, the Indian camp under its new leadership managed two emphatic wins and a close game (which they lost) against the mighty and meticulous Aussies.

Watching Mumbai celebrate after the T20 cup win, I felt that enough headiness had been induced in the team for a 7-0 defeat. A debacle was averted in Bangalore with Lord Indra offering some perspective to the Indians without letting the spirits dampen too much. The returning "veterans" were also a cause of concern. Having said that, I did not for once doubt the value they were going to add in terms of the cricket, but the concern was about their impact on the cohesion of the team. Dhoni has to be appreciated for the gutsy move to play only two of the trio per game. I just hope there aren't any hurt egos around to interfere with the programme.

Once again Dravid has set out to re-invent his game. Last time he did that in South-Africa he earned himself "the wall". If he can learn to pull-off this new thing he wants to try while maintaining his sturdy defense, it would be indescribably invaluable for the team. And we will have to come up with a new title. Maybe Superman? :)

All in all, I get the feeling that the indian worm is looking skyward and there are some exciting times ahead. Cheers to that, lets move ahead ..

The final match of the ODI series offered some important lessons to be learnt. The way Australia managed to rattle the top order yet struggle against the tail-enders proved how much they depended on their research. How knowing the opposition made a difference. All the people, including BCCI supremo, who believe India can do without a coach, should be listening. We are in dire need of a non-tyrannical coach cum analyst, who can provide vital inputs and direction to the team.

There was some drama off the field that I feel needs some retrospect. I am referring to the hue and cry over the "racial abuse". Now there's no denying that there was sneering and jeering from the crowd, which is very very natural and not local to this part of the world. And it is well understood that there are always going to be some some jack-asses who would also cross the line. Symonds was affected but even he was not willing to take it too far. Everything would have settled just fine, up until the BCCI denied the whole thing and the Vadodra police commissioner offered some absurd explanations. Now you tell me who the real jack-asses are.

Also within the realms of the sport, is the Woolmer inquest, where there are testimonies being revised and explanations being offered. Somehow it doesn't give one that comfortable feeling. We all know there's an underbelly to the sport which has been exposed earlier, leading to major disenchantments. And don't we all know that there are powerful boards and bodies which will be working towards the "best interest" of the game? To me, at least it causes more disenchantment if justice is not met, but then I guess we would never really know. I pray for strength and reason to Bob Woolmer's family to believe and accept whatever comes through from the inquest.

xkcd.com

Thanks to Bat for introducing me to it, XKCD is now being savored for being nerdy and beyond. And also very educational.

I brace myself for being born on the right planet.

Two games and a concept

Okay first off, if you too are a sucker for tetris-like games, here's a windows port of the addictive linux game called "Frozen Bubble". Try running the exe with a -h option from the command window to see some useful options like -l42 gets you directly to Level 42. :)

Then another beauty here, reaffirming that you don't need complex renders, vertex or shader operations for having a good time. Presenting Cat with a bow golf.

And finally, here is an interesting concept in development. A system that measures your heart activity and perspiration to get an indication of how stressed are you. Imagine there being a video game which takes these inputs and modifies that level you are playing accordingly. Letting you through to the next level only when you work your way through it calmly, thereby teaching you how to stay cool under stressful conditions. That's cool stuff definitely.

A dream?

After decades of research we have finally gained significant control over silicon and learned to make CMOS devices that behave exactly how we want them to. I wonder how far away are we from this dream.

Click on the picture for a better look.