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Recursive descent, LL and predictive parsers “Although I've written some recursive-descent (RD) parsers by hand, the theory behind them eluded me for some time. I had a good understanding of the theory behind bottom-up LR parsers, and have used tools (like Yacc and PLY) to generate LALR parsers for languages, but I didn't really dig into the books about LL.”

A History of Decision Tables “Tables are easy to read and can convey more information in a smaller space and clearer format than flowcharting, pseudo-code, narratives and other conventional documentation techniques. They are also easier for both analysts and users to construct and alter than conventional system analysis techniques. The non-analyst user can be given an empty decision table and be asked to fill it out himself. He can provide information to the systems analyst which would normally require intensive interviews and a great deal of time to obtain.

Tables can be used to automatically generate source code in any programming language which supports if/then/else or switch/case control constructs. While the time saved by generating code would be worth the effort of learning decision tables, there are other benefits.”

D-BUS “At the protocol level D-BUS can be used as a peer-to-peer message transport for applications to communicate directly with each other. The real power of D-BUS comes from the bus daemons which act as routers for messages. There are two standard buses that a developer can rely on always being around. These are the system bus and the session bus.

The system bus is a global daemon that any application running in any context can use as a transport. It is a single point where applications can export services that anyone can use. Only one system bus daemon can be run at a time.

The session bus is a bus local to the current user's session. It is used for communication between applications running within the same X session. For every login to X, a session bus daemon is started.”

Relativity/Quantum Mechanics “One concept of time is the idea that there is a state called the present which divides the universe into two different realms: the past which cannot be changed from the future which cannot be exactly known. The second concept of time is that it is the reading off a clock. These concepts are fundamentally inconsistent with one another.”

Concurrency “This is a wonderful time to be a software engineer.”

Ourvie.ws

It was early 2000. The recession was months away, the markets were at all time highs and techies were generally a happy bunch.

We had just done a major release and were waiting for fresh work from our client. Waiting is never an easy task, especially when one has had a busy phase just before that. IE and Outlook kept me engaged on otherwise boring days.

On one such day, I remember getting a mail from Vijay asking me to check out a new language called Ruby. Being a programming language junkie and having nothing else to do, I downloaded and tried writing a few basic programs. It felt different and programming was fun again. In the coming months, I wrote automated test solutions with Ruby and cut down the time it took us (and our client) to test our releases.

Years passed. I occasionally visited the ruby language website. Always left with a tinge of sadness, sad at the lack of popularity of this wonderful language among the programming masses.

Sometime last year, things started changing. Came by way of a strange name => rails. Been following the buzz for a while now. Extremely happy for ruby for it deserves the attention.

Finally got tired of being just an observer. Took the plunge a few days back and whipped up a small bookmarking tool. Put in a bit of AJAX as well to be buzzword compliant ;)

Will be doing more if time and work permits.

Watch Wikipedia change in real time Topics : wikipedia, real, time, change

Time and Classical and Quantum Mechanics: Indeterminacy vs. Continuity Topics : einstein, lynd, mechanics, newton, quantum

The Apu Trilogy Topics : apu, ray, satyajit, trilogy

Pyaasa Topics : dutt, guru, pyaasa, rehman, waheeda

Nayakan I would have picked Mouna Raagam as Mani Ratnam's best Topics : mani, nayakan, ratnam

The 100 Best Movies Of All Time Topics : 100, best, movies, time

Flickr integration is over

I am now aggregating my flickr pictures on tamizhan.com. Overnight, my plugin runs and grabs any new picture I post at flickr.

The sync is an one time static import i.e if I change the title of an existing photo in my flickr account, the change will not get reflected here. I thought of making it dynamic but that would mean checking every photo every night for changes, which has huge bandwidth implications as my flickr account grows (which it should in the coming year).

These fun projects are a welcome diversion, especially since I am having a hectic time at office.

Anyways, next on my plate is AJAXification. Probably followed by a grease monkey user script. That space is looking more and more interesting with every passing day.

The Flash Timeline Clock Topics : clock, cool, flash, time

Cool Programs! Need to check them out when I get some free time Topics : programs, cool

Jason kottke

Jason wants to do blogging full time! Here is what he has to say about this whole “blogging thing”,

Looking back on it all, this little hobby of mine has been the most rewarding, pleasurable, maddening, challenging thing in my life. I've met so many nice, good people, formed valued relationships with some of them, traveled to distant lands (and New Jersey), procured jobs & other business opportunities, discovered new interests, music, movies & books, and lots of other stuff, all for putting a little bit of me out there for people to see.

Feb 12, 05

The afternoon sun bounced gently off her dress, lighting her face in a delicate shade of pink. Her fingers valiantly fought with the wayward breeze trying to re-arrange her hair. Light was dancing merrily on the edges of her diamond earring.

Time waited while they talked that day.

Staying Alive

I am still very much alive. These days, time is mostly spent in excel sheets and microsoft project documents :(

Took a few photographs during my trip to trivandrum. One of my personal favourites,

A few more can be seen at my flickr page.

Comments have been disabled because I got tired of fighting comment spammers. They seem to get around blacklists, captchas and what not. Trackbacks are still available. Waiting for my first trackback spam...

Leaving you with a quote,

“The less confident you are, the more serious you have to act.”
- Tara Ploughman

After two centuries of Western domination, China and India are poised to claim their places

“The second wave of globalization began at about the time of the founding of the United States, with the onset of the Industrial Revolution. The steam engine and new manufacturing technology multiplied productivity and wealth a thousand-fold. Over the next 200 years, this further accelerated the rise of Western wealth and dominance. In 1776, the year of the American Declaration of Independence, China still had by far the world's biggest and most powerful economy, with the area we now call India and Pakistan following close behind. Indeed, at this time, Asia accounted for well over half of global gross domestic product. Industrialized mass production dramatically reversed the balance; by the end of the 20th century, the US and Europe accounted for two-thirds of global GDP, while Asia was responsible for only 20 percent.”

Olympics and India

“It's not that India lacks competitive spirit, as anyone who has queued there can attest. Nor national pride: the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Research Center's 2003 Global Attitudes survey found India was the most nationalistic place on earth, with 74% of respondents "completely agreeing" that Indian culture is superior. How, then, to explain the nation's supreme and rather refreshing unprofessionalism in sports?”