Sunday, October 30, 2011

Halloween android scare!

*Disclaimer: No androids were harmed in the writing of this post :|

Annual pumpkin-carving contest prize-winner :D

What can I say? Fanboys will be fanboys anywhere, and my workplace is no exception :P While I gave an amused smile that translated to "you wish!", my phone started vibrating angrily and almost jumped out of my hand. I think it wanted to enter the battlefield, apps in hand, and fight the evil and rotten "fruit". Or probably it was expressing its chagrin at me for clicking this highly inaccurate picture of its fellow androids. Or maybe, just maybe, it was a call that my phone refused to answer while in serious contemplation of its enemy (if that's not a good reason for not answering calls, I don't know what is!).

But I must say: Well played, apple fanboys and fangirls. Well played. We may be those nerdy software developers working on antiquated dell desktops, but we never fail to give credit where credit is due, even to our uber-cool UI counterparts wielding sleek and shiny imacs. So, haha! Good one. Touché.


P.S.: Now that apple fans all around the world are done lamenting their lives away, let me just mourn in peace the demise of Dennis Ritchie (Who is he, you ask? *sigh* Your pretty macs and phones would be pretty pieces of junk had it not been for him, but never you mind. Go on living in your iBubble). R.I.P. Dr. Dennis Ritchie. Thank you for your original contributions to computing, because of which we are where we are today. In a world where glitter and shine are valued more than true genius and innovation, and how well you sell and how much you earn is appreciated more than what you create, you may not have turned many heads, but you will be missed by the grateful few of us.

9 comments:

  1. High five for the post on Ritchie. A true genius, indeed.

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  2. And yet, it's sad that nobody heaps on him the praise he deserves. Nobody writes books about him. But maybe a true scientist and genius doesn't care for those things.

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  3. That is the fate of tech people. :(

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  4. You missed John McCarthy??

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  5. Agree on Ritchie though!!!

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  6. @Anonymous: I wasn't sure if I ought to put up this post at all, as I didn't want to sound flippant about Steve Jobs' death. But at some point I felt I was over-thinking and just hit publish. I did end up missing John McCarthy though. In spite of his stupendous work, he sadly had a lesser chance than even Ritchie of being as well-known in general circles as he deserved.

    It may be unreasonable to expect every stalwart in a particular field to be appreciated by those outside it. But it's saddening that someone like Jobs, who was more of a dazzling showman rather than a techie, is proclaimed to be IT's greatest loss, while Ritchie and McCarthy and many others who made significant advancements to the field are sidelined (and probably forgotten by now). It's a strange world we live in.

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  7. @Palls: I knew you'd say so! Actually I wanted to show this to you on one of your visits, but the pumpkin began to rot so it had to be thrown away. Interestingly enough, the paper androids still live on to this day. What does that tell you? :P

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