Divisibility tests

I am teaching Mathematics to my nephew. He is fourth standard. I was looking for material to teach him divisibility tests. I found this site very useful: http://www.mathgoodies.com/lessons/vol3/divisibility.html

"12 Angry Men" and "Anatomy Of A Murder"

Recently I happened to see both "12 Angry Men" (1957) and "Anatomy Of A Murder" (1959). I simply loved "12 Angry Men" more than any other court trial movie I have ever seen. The entire movie is taken in a jury room, not set in the exact court room. None of the characters' names are introduced till the end of the movie. The kind of questions that Henry Fonda raises, simply amazing.

Anatomy Of A Murder is another good movie, in which how an attorney asks questions that the jury is driven to acquit a first degree murderer. More than the hero (James Stewart), I loved the arguments raised by George C. Scott.

Well, if you love drama, I bet you would thoroughly enjoy these two movies.

Alfred Hitchcock's movies

Off late, I started watching a few of Alfred Hichcock's movies. I would say "Dial M For Murder" is the best detective movie I have ever seen. I have started liking the subtleness of the characters and the succinct dialogs. Especially when Inspector Hubbard asks Margot, "Madam, you are saying that you didn't see the killer. But you confirm that you don't know the killer. How is that so?." (Pardon me for not being verbatim :-)

These are the list of movies I have watched so far:

1. The Paradine Case
2. Dial M For Murder
3. Spell Bound
4. Notorious

I bet its worth giving a try to watch Alfred Hitchcock's movies :-)

Software Development Best Practices Conference 2007

Last week Friday I attended the Software Development Best Practices Conference 2007. It as an eventful day. There were two presentations which made me feel that I have got much more than what I paid for. They are "Better Software - No matter what" by Dr. Scott Meyers and "Securing Software Design and Architecture: Uncut and Uncensored" by Dr. Herbert Thompson. In the photo, I am seen with Dr. Scott Meyers. (Thanks to Abhishek Pandey from Intuit for the photo)

You can see the presentation slides of Dr. Scott Meyers in the SD Expo web site.

Other sponsored speakers discussed more about their companies and the products that they were advertising.


Dr. Thomson's speech was lively and full of information. He shared three incidents that happened in the past that drove him mad to believe that "bugs are everywhere" and security is the most critical aspect of any product. Of the three incidents I loved the Bahamian Adventure of Soda Machines! Bottom line: I am deeply convinced that one can break any software.

Throwing stones

For the past few days, something is itching my mind. It could be summarized through the words of Jesus Christ.

When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. - John 8:7

Very true. But very difficult to live by.

The fiasco of seeking suggestions

I sought suggestions to my friends to buy a camcorder through the group mail. No one responded, and mean no one did. It is something that I can contribute by writing a camera/camcorder buyer's guide myself, as I consider myself to be "knowledgeable enough" now to buy one for me.

I spent a few days reading things out and understanding different parameters that come into play. A lot of gotchas! As Richard Feynman states, "Its a pleasure to find things out!"

Bertrand Russel Autobiography

For quite sometime in the past, I had been reading the quotes and random publications by Sir Bertrand Russell. And I should admit that I am bewildered by the profanity of his thoughts and the clarity and command of the language. One of the quotes that I simply loved was, "the problem with this world is that the fools and fanatics are so sure of themselves where wise men are full of doubts."

I doubt there are not many men in this world who have made so much contributions to myriad fields like mathematics, philosophy, education, etc. One of his significant contributions had been in the field of nuclear and atomic weapon disarmament by mighty governments of the world. He preached and advocated for that.

Recently his autobiography and many other writings are available in Indian prints. I bought his autobiography and started reading. Its entertaining and engaging.