Saturday, September 21, 2013

Isn't it simple?

"You know I just realized." 
"Realized what?" 
"That its so simple." 
"What's so simple? " 
"We need only remember to board the bus." 
"Umm, do you need a doctor?" 
"Haha, no. Wait, let me explain." 
"Listening." 
"We're standing in a bus stop. Listening to music. Like usual, like always. Someone comes by, and starts a conversation and you take off one ear of the headphones." 
"Okay?" 
"Its usually boring. So we go back to listening to music after a while. But sometimes, the conversation gets really interesting. You are enjoying it." 
"What does this have to do with the bus?" 
"The point is, after a while, that person boards the bus and leaves." 
"So?" 
"So we must board a bus as well. Not one that the person before boarded, but the one we were originally supposed to." 
"What if I forget that during the course of conversation? You said its so interesting and all that." 
"Yes precisely. That is why we must always remember to board the bus." 

The bus came. They boarded it. 

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Preparations!

It so happens that the people over at TNEB took the concept of randomness and its applications in industry a little too seriously. TNEB stands for Tamil Nadu Electricity Board if you didn't know. However the truly random powercuts of TNEB make it so famous worldwide that important cryptograhic applications are now replacing the flipping of a coin with "Whether there is power in Tamil Nadu or not?"

Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. There is this contingency plan for whenever power fails. Its as follows.

Step 1: Check battery level in phone and laptop.

Step 2: Switch off all other plugged in devices on the spike buster except the laptop charger.

Step 3: No matter what charge the laptop has currently, jump for that cord and plug it in.

Step 4: Reduce brightness in laptop to minimum, stop Wifi and Bluetooth. Do the same for phone. Bluetooth might not apply in case.

Step 5: Call dibs on that one plug which is powered by the inverter. If there are siblings, get ready for war.

Step 6: If control over inverter plug is lost, subscribe for a daily mobile internet pack on phone(if you are not a regular user of mobile internet), and plug it in. Tether to internet.

Last and important step,

Step 7: Pray power comes back.

May your survive the power outage, ladies and gentlemen. These are tough times.