Poovodu Serndha Narum Manakum
(The title is actually a famous tamil proverb. Literally it translates to "the twine used to make a garland smells with fragrance because of the flowers" - used to comment at people who develop certain characters by being part of a group)
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There is this geeky friend of mine. He has always been a computer geek and perhaps knows the pc inside out. This guy used to be a freak in pretty much any tool on the pc - from office to photoshop to goldwave - you name it and he would have had a funky little experience with it. So much was he into it that he chose to work in the software industry rather than making his fortunes by joining his familys masala business.
Then there is this other friend of mine who is nothing short of a cartoon character. It so happened that half a dozen of us got to get together and lived in a house in Bangalore where we were earning our bread and butter in different software companies. Well all popular cartoon characters are eccentric and so was this little creature living with us. I dont remember the last time when someone did not laugh at the funny things he did. Jokes apart, this fellow was also a geek, in his own respect. Atleast we thought so - for he spoke about Linux, open source and other such stuff - which totally sounded Greek and Latin to the rest of us. Since we couldn't make head or tail of what he spoke, but still he managed to speak on them for hours, we finally decided that this fellow is indeed a geek. Copy-paste is the most wonderful invention in computer science is something that he proved to us later.
*************************
It was one of those typical weekends when all of us decided to leave for Chennai - where we are basically from - but the two geeks got together and decided to stay back. God knows what transpired, but on the following monday morning, the masala geek said he is going to join the cartoon geeks company. Perhaps we laughed the whole of the next week talking about it. However, it finally happened. Even more interesting, the two got together in the same team. They were trying to fit a whole damn TV cum reciever cum DVD player plus a web browser into some tiny little match box - or atleast their agenda was something close.
When our masala geek got back home after his first day of work, he was seated as if he lost his lady love in the Titanic. The cartoon geek hadn't returned home as it is his usual tendency to not return home before midnight. Not able to see our beloved roommate in such a state we started enquiring...
"Whats up dude, how was work"
"Well you know buddy, everything looks like crap..."
"Why what happened..."
"Well they gave me an old battered system..."
"okie."
"And then told me Linux works even in low end hardware...and this will be your main work computer..."
(the rest of us laugh...)
"So I thought I will explore it myself...saw this shortcut called Ximian Evolution...thought it must be the latest Linux game and clicked on it....turned out thats the de facto browser in the company..."
(by now perhaps the whole street can hear us laugh)
"Everything looks so sick man, where is the comfort of Outlook 2003 and where is this Evolution with no proper GUI, it sucks man..."
"Well dude you asked for it..."
"They use something called word processor which reminds me of Wordstar..."
Since the cartoon geek wasn't there for the next one hour we laughed to our hearts content on listening to masala geek curse all Linux and other open source stuff
*************************
Now that our masala geek is fully engrossed with his work of trying to fit everything electronic into this tiny little match box, we as usual got into a heated argument on which is better - open source or proprietary software. For a few days the four of us (excepting the two geeks) were shooting emails back and forth on the topic. Finally our masala geek broke out. Much to our surprise, he sounded as if he was personally hurt when we spoke ill about "open source". This is what he had to say in his email..
"There is a place for open source "free" software in this world. If there are no pirated software, I am not sure if many guys would go out and buy 100$+(winxp pro) + 300$(ms office) + photoshop(300$) +....... all that many geeks here have in their comp. I know that linux, openoffice, gimp do not even compare to the above - but i have been using it for over a year now and am kinda used to it. You know they rock and do all the same things that their proprietary counterparts do man and I have no complains for the small issues I have to put up with because its free and its open. I have used mozilla for a while and it aint so bad. Its truely awesome and is much more secure..."
Well "Poovodu serntha naarum manakum"
*************************
There is this geeky friend of mine. He has always been a computer geek and perhaps knows the pc inside out. This guy used to be a freak in pretty much any tool on the pc - from office to photoshop to goldwave - you name it and he would have had a funky little experience with it. So much was he into it that he chose to work in the software industry rather than making his fortunes by joining his familys masala business.
Then there is this other friend of mine who is nothing short of a cartoon character. It so happened that half a dozen of us got to get together and lived in a house in Bangalore where we were earning our bread and butter in different software companies. Well all popular cartoon characters are eccentric and so was this little creature living with us. I dont remember the last time when someone did not laugh at the funny things he did. Jokes apart, this fellow was also a geek, in his own respect. Atleast we thought so - for he spoke about Linux, open source and other such stuff - which totally sounded Greek and Latin to the rest of us. Since we couldn't make head or tail of what he spoke, but still he managed to speak on them for hours, we finally decided that this fellow is indeed a geek. Copy-paste is the most wonderful invention in computer science is something that he proved to us later.
*************************
It was one of those typical weekends when all of us decided to leave for Chennai - where we are basically from - but the two geeks got together and decided to stay back. God knows what transpired, but on the following monday morning, the masala geek said he is going to join the cartoon geeks company. Perhaps we laughed the whole of the next week talking about it. However, it finally happened. Even more interesting, the two got together in the same team. They were trying to fit a whole damn TV cum reciever cum DVD player plus a web browser into some tiny little match box - or atleast their agenda was something close.
When our masala geek got back home after his first day of work, he was seated as if he lost his lady love in the Titanic. The cartoon geek hadn't returned home as it is his usual tendency to not return home before midnight. Not able to see our beloved roommate in such a state we started enquiring...
"Whats up dude, how was work"
"Well you know buddy, everything looks like crap..."
"Why what happened..."
"Well they gave me an old battered system..."
"okie."
"And then told me Linux works even in low end hardware...and this will be your main work computer..."
(the rest of us laugh...)
"So I thought I will explore it myself...saw this shortcut called Ximian Evolution...thought it must be the latest Linux game and clicked on it....turned out thats the de facto browser in the company..."
(by now perhaps the whole street can hear us laugh)
"Everything looks so sick man, where is the comfort of Outlook 2003 and where is this Evolution with no proper GUI, it sucks man..."
"Well dude you asked for it..."
"They use something called word processor which reminds me of Wordstar..."
Since the cartoon geek wasn't there for the next one hour we laughed to our hearts content on listening to masala geek curse all Linux and other open source stuff
*************************
Now that our masala geek is fully engrossed with his work of trying to fit everything electronic into this tiny little match box, we as usual got into a heated argument on which is better - open source or proprietary software. For a few days the four of us (excepting the two geeks) were shooting emails back and forth on the topic. Finally our masala geek broke out. Much to our surprise, he sounded as if he was personally hurt when we spoke ill about "open source". This is what he had to say in his email..
"There is a place for open source "free" software in this world. If there are no pirated software, I am not sure if many guys would go out and buy 100$+(winxp pro) + 300$(ms office) + photoshop(300$) +....... all that many geeks here have in their comp. I know that linux, openoffice, gimp do not even compare to the above - but i have been using it for over a year now and am kinda used to it. You know they rock and do all the same things that their proprietary counterparts do man and I have no complains for the small issues I have to put up with because its free and its open. I have used mozilla for a while and it aint so bad. Its truely awesome and is much more secure..."
Well "Poovodu serntha naarum manakum"
posted by Nana at
5:44 PM
2 Comments:
I would certainly like to read some of those great songs that were written.. and some podcasts of the TR style rendition would be awesome
By
Escape.... Great Escape, at 3:37 AM
forget reading.. we had a fantastic live performance at the Dhaba that the cartoon geek won't forget for a lifetime. His reaction after the performance was something like "Unakku vekkaren da oru bomb". The presence of masala geek's other half and Nana's 'udubi' must have been the reason.
By
sanjay, at 4:28 AM
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