Una verdad simulada

I write papers in either LaTeX or MS Word. With the former, I use BibTeX to insert references, and Endnote with the latter. Since my post-doc, I have been using Endnote for managing references since the references are well categorized and it has decent search capabilities. Moreover, I could directly export bibliographic information from the Web of Science database.

I recently reinstalled windows on my laptop and the Endnote software cannot be installed since I don’t have the license anymore. I looked into some free reference management softwares and narrowed down to a couple: Zotero and Mendeley.

Have you or do you know of anyone who has used either of these softwares? Do you have any recommendations?

Tags: General by Niket
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Earlier this evening, we were walking towards the vegetable shop for weekly purchase. At the signal (12th Main and Indira Nagar 100 ft Road), we saw a rickshaw nudge a bike rider, who then fell off his bike. The biker was not hurt much. We saw this all happening. The rickshaw was taking a left turn and had the indicator on (surprise!). Still, the biker tried to overtake from the left, just as the light turned green. As the rickshaw turned, its front touched the rear end of the bike; the bike fell and the biker stumbled a little.

I saw that the biker was fine. Clearly at fault, the biker was still shouting at the rickshaw driver (who just carried on his way). I did not go to help him. I was fairly conflicted… the right thing to do was to perhaps help him pick his bike up. But somewhere in my mind, I felt “justice served” and I didn’t move forward.

I still don’t know if it was the right thing to do. May be the Indian traffic does bring out the worst in us. Or may be its just karma.

Oh yes, talking about karma, it did feel great when, driving back, I was one of the two responsible for vehicles obeying the red signal. We both (two Maruti Swifts) stopped at red. Two fairly aggressive bus drivers tried to overtake us, but the road wasn’t wide enough for two buses to pass our cars. Not only that, the buses were so positioned that not even bikers could go through. We got honked at for almost half a minute… and believe me, it felt just great. I only wish that red signal should have lasted a little longer.

Tags: General by Niket
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Gaurav writes about his experience at an upscale restaurant in Mumbai, where the waiter was pleasantly shocked when he received a tip of Rs. 300.

I had a similar one too, back in December 2000. I had lunch and the bill came to a paltry Rs. 360. I left Rs. 410 and left. The waiter came running behind me… I thought I had perhaps put 310 by mistake. Nope. He actually came because he thought I forgot to take the fifty rupee change. I told him it was his tip. He thanked me and started to return back to the restaurant. Then, he saw me trying to flag down a rickshaw to get home. He came back and asked me where I wanted to go. When I told him the destination, he crossed the street, spoke to a rickshaw driver (who until then refused to acknowledge my attempts to get his attention) and got the rickshaw for me.

The most surprising part came at the end, when I reached the destination. The rickshaw driver told me that the waiter had paid him twice the fare (Rs. 18).

During my next visit to India in 2002, the restaurant management had changed and the waiter was no longer working with them.

Tags: General by Niket
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When the last time there were scares about bird flu and SARS, I was in US. This time, I am amazed at the information network in India. Even small children know about the flu and the poor folks have also started taking precautions they can afford. We have received more than 15 emails in the last 24 hours on our institutes announcement email list: from faculty, students and the institute hospital.

What was most amazing was that three kids in the second grade were talking about wearing masks to the school. One said that it was compulsory to do so, the second said that it wasn’t, whereas the third kid said that they ought to wear it anyway as a precautionary measure.

While there is bound to be some misinformation that will get spread around, most of what I have heard in and out of the campus makes me at least a little happy.

Tags: General by Niket
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Am I being anal if I point the difference between marriage and wedding?

Marriage: A social / legal / religious authorization for copulation

Wedding is the act, rituals or ceremony for getting married.

So, you post your wedding (not marriage) pictures. A failed marriage (not wedding) ends up in a divorce.

A failed wedding, on the other hand, is when death eaters gatecrash your wedding ceremony.

Tags: humour by Niket
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One of the best episodes of The Daily Show (and there have been some excellent ones of late): Sarah “Quitter” Palin’s resignation and Bill Kristol’s interview.

Tags: humour by Niket
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When I was a graduate student in GaTech, I lived for 18 months in Cobb County, which became famous recently for putting anti-evolution stickers in biology textbooks. It was therefore heartening to read that a local atheist gave “invocation” at a meeting of Cobb County Board of Commissioners (via Pharyngula):

Rather than any form of deity, [Smyrna atheist Edward Buckner] invoked “the 700,000 people who live in this county — especially the majority (yes, over half) of those 700,000 who are not members of any church, mosque, temple, or other religious organization,” he said.

“I speak as well for those political leaders who despair that success in politics cannot be achieved without hypocritical piety from politicians and who would prefer to run for office and to govern based on competence and political philosophy rather than on beliefs, real or pretended, in any supernatural beings.”

I have written about invocation in India. Somehow, I found invocation in India to be bit more of “culture and tradition” thing while that in US to be purely a “religious” thing. In that sense, invocations here, though more frequent, have been less annoying than those in US. Perhaps this is because I was born to Hindu parents in India; so I find Indian type of invocation less of an affront to my secular sensibilities.

Interestingly enough, my grandmom, were she alive, would invoke 330 million gods (tehtis koti dev). I can’t help but wonder if her invocation was somehow similar to Buckner’s invocation of 700,000 people of Cobb county.

Tags: General by Niket
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