A Glimpse of GNU/Linux

Today, I have visited the “ChickenWarrior” game page in Betavine: http://www.betavine.net/bvportal/application/ChickenWarrior/index.html

I was amazed to see the number of downloads for that silly simple game: 902

Now, I really feel sad for what I have done. I just created a small game like program for my K300i mobile out of curiosity. All it did was just added some chunk of code to move the half baked images across the phone and a bit of collission detection code as part of game’s logic. I didn’t even added the code to show the score at the end. All I wanted was just to prove that we can do some game programming in GNU/Linux for our dearest Mobile Phones.  After that, I have never looked into that code again and never even thought of improving the game (images and code quality).

The source code of the game is available in Google Code. http://code.google.com/p/chickenwarrior/

Today I feel guilty for publishing a half baked game.  But on the other hand, I did what I felt right that time.. ” Release early Release often!!” : One of the principles of Free Software Movement. I have done the first part right: I released it early.. after that I haven’t followed it… I haven’t released even it’s next version.

I can’t blame anybody else but myself. I dreamt of a number of applications on Mobile Phones. I will be coding it in the near future .

Year 2008…

In one fine morning, I received a mail from my manager in Sony, informing that, I will be visiting Sony Headquarters, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. I will be visiting japan along with the list of people given below:

1. Satheesh-san (Senior manager)

2. Sonali-san (Senior Engineer)

3. Saneesh-san (Engineer)

blah… blah..

Stay will be arranged in Shinagawa Prince Hotel , Tokyo .. aaha..!!!

I have started the epic journey from Bangalore Airport. This time, transit was in Hong Kong International Airport, one of the best in the world. In my previous journey, transit was in Singapore. So, I was pretty excited about visiting each and every part of the Hong Kong Airport. After that, we have reached Narita Airport (Tokyo International Airport) in time and reached the Prince Hotel in “Airport Limousine”: It’s just a bus , nothing to do with limousine cars

After attending the amazing annual International technology exhibition of Sony in it’s headquarters and some presentations in Osaki gate city office, we started our journey back to India. This time, Saneesh-san had some more activities to be completed on Sony Erickson office. So, me, Sonali-san and Satheesh-san started our journey to India.

In the way back, during transit at Hong Kong Airport, Sonali-san made a shocking discovery. While waiting for the HongKong -> Bangalore flight in Airport, she thought she lost her credit card. Though I tried to convince her that she might have kept the credit card  in one of those big suitcases, she started weeping.In my broken Hindi, I tried my level best to console her.

HongKong: The land of Jackie Chan… All those people, who are sitting besides me and whoever walking near to us were thinking something else .. For them, a lady is crying and a guy is sitting near to her.. both talking in a “pre historic language” . What he might have done .. All those eyes were asking the same question ” Don’t you have mother and sisters ? Moron !!!”

Sonali-san kept on weeping without interruption. Though I am an atheist, this situation demanded the help of gods. My mind started the process of optimally selecting the “God” who fits for this situation.

1. Ganapathy : Rejected.. No…no.. noo… I haven’t started anything new

2. Sri Krishna: Rejected.. No no.. I am not dealing with a number of women

3. Allah : Rejected.. No.. It’s not safe to think about Allah during international travel.. Learn from Shah Rukh Khan

4. Holy Spirit :  Rejected.. No.. though there are a number of “Duty Free” Alcohol shops

5. Jesus:  Perfect fit… here, I am crucified for something that I haven’t done..

One quick idea from God: I have opened my Laptop, booted it and asked Sonali-san to chat with her brother. Luckily, he had the contact number of Bank and along with the necessary details of her card. He made the necessary steps which was just enough to cheer up the weeping girl.

Based on a real story:

Only Jesus saves.. Everyone else make backups

Yesterday night, before sleeping, I thought about the Oscar award night. Watching Hollywood movies was one of my hobbies and I almost never missed a chance for that. My father , who was also a fan of movies, used to take me to watch English Movies in “Priya”, the first 70MM theater in Kollam (now , Dhanya Theater, part of Muthoot group). That relationship made me a fan of Oscars and I almost never missed the chance to watch the award night ceremonies.

Most of the times, I found joy in finding out the “original” hollywood movie behind the Malayalam/Tamil/Hindi Movies. Whenever I got an opportunity to talk about Movies, I found pride in preaching about “the magic in Hollywood”. I thought of me as a man who knows too much about Hollywood movies and most of the times, that arrogance was visible in my talks. All those thoughts were about to change when I joined Sony….

When I joined Sony India, our office was in Maruti Infotech Centre, Domlur in Bangalore. It was a nice place and the Linux Project group was a small group of amazing people with deep knowledge in Linux. In my work place , cubicles were more or less open. I was sitting near to 3 ladies :

1. Miki – san: Our Japanese teacher who was born in First November (never ask the year, she insists ), which happen to be my birthday also.

2. Gayathri-san : My team mate and she is from the most dangerous place in kerala known as Kannur

3. Hiromi -san:  A devotee of Satya Sai Baba and a good friend to us all

Most of the ladies from Kannur knows “Kalarippayattu”: A traditional martial art in Kerala. For the Japanese people, it is part of their curriculum to learn Martial arts. This situation demanded me to concentrate on my work mostly because of the following reasons:

1. I don’t know any form of martial arts

2. I would love to be in a normal shape

However, I couldn’t control the tendency to boast about my “deep” knowledge in English movies. In most of the tea times, I used to talk about the movies that I have watched.. the “inspiration” behind the local movies.. etc.. etc..

Once, I happen to talk about the English movies in my cubicle also. I found myself intellectually superior when I talked about various Hollywood movies and how the actors performed in those movies. With ever growing curiosity about Japanese culture and people, I have voiced my question : “Hiromi san, do you watch English movies ? ”

She smiled and after some seconds of silence, she said:

“Yes, I do, Maxin-san. In fact, I have acted in a number of Hollywood Movies”

That was a great surprise for me and I couldn’t speak for some time. My colleague, who sits besides me, is a famous Heroine in Hollywood and also in Japan.

Hiromi Nishiyama : http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1036751/

Hiromi-san’s famous movies includes “1st Testament CIA Vengeance”, “Soap girl” ,…etc. Hiromi-san’s mother is  a famous Movie director in Japan .Last year, Malayala Manorama news paper has reported about  Hiromi-san and her mother’s visit to Kerala.

Now, I no longer work for Sony. But I got an opportunity to work with a group of amazingly talented people. I will never forget those people in my life.

Finally, Dear friend, don’t boast.. Just shut up and code.