The John Grisham Series

Reading some John Grisham novels :

1. The Summons (pub 2005) - the story of the small town Judge Atlee who left a mysterious will entrusting his estate "The Maple Run" to be disputed between his two sons, Ray and Forrest. Ray is a law professor at  Virginia, and Forrest is a truant who is always in trouble with the law. A suspenseful novel with a surprise ending revealing who inherits what!

2. The Street Lawyer (pub 2010) - a very compelling portrayal of our justice system, and how it views the dregs of society. Michael Brock is on his way to becoming a partner at Drake & Sweeney before he momentarily stares at death in the face. When his hidden conscience awakens, he comes to realize the truth about his own firm, the 'have's and the 'have-not's, and what role he has to play to bring justice to those without a voice.

Collection of Short Plays

On Amazon - check out this collection of short plays: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006NIQZIO

New Books on Amazon

1. Collection of short stories : http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006L56MG4

2. Collection of Romance Poems : http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006KTKDQG

Penguins at Play: Kindle Edition

A great collection of children's poems is now available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006K4V3CY

Haiku: States of Mind (Kindle Edition)

A great collection of Haiku from my favorite author is now on Amazon :

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006K8XOI6

Latest Book - a cooking lesson

I just finished reading Julie & Julia by Julie Powell. I loved the movie with Meryl Streep as Julia Child. I found this book hilarious and entertaining as I followed Julie's blog entries while she weaves French cooking through her job as a secretary, her marriage, and friends in Queens, NY. The doldrums of the monotonous life of a thirty-year old are enriched by her culinary pleasures as she attempts to Master the Art of French Cooking, and she emerges out of the kitchen as a vibrant, intelligent, and sophisticatd woman who shares her passion for Julia's French cuisine with the reader. I enjoyed the movie as well.

http://www.amazon.com/Julie-Julia-Year-Cooking-Dangerously/dp/031604251X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323420533&sr=1-1

"The Girl" Series Completed

I finally finished Stieg Larsson's "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" - the last novel in the popular suspense trilogy. The reader gets to learn in depth about Lisbeth's troubled past - which was briefly glimpsed in "The Girl Who Played With Fire". We find out why Lisbeth's father Zalachenko is trying to murder her, and how she avenges the members of the system that sought to ruin her life. Characters from "The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo" like Advocat Bjurman, Holger Palmgren, and Mimi make a final appearance in this very suspenseful novel with graphic violence that keeps you on the edge of your seat!

http://www.amazon.com/Girl-Who-Kicked-Hornets-Nest/dp/030726999X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322722840&sr=8-1

A Great Read: Story of Praj Ltd.

This book is written by my cousin brother about founding of his company Praj, Ltd. - it's a great read!

Check it out on Amazon.com (ISBN 81-7991-284-1) http://www.amazon.com/As-What-Pramod-Chaudhari/dp/8179912841/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322673781&sr=1-1

Latest Book

Just completed Freedom by Jonathan Franzen - voted by Oprah's Book Club as the 2010 selection of the year. An interesting novel about the suburbs of St. Paul, Minnesota where Barrier street is the home to the Burglunds, Monaghans, and the Paulsens. The story focuses on the lives of each Burglund - Walter, Patty and their two children Joey and Jessica. Growing up in the suburban sprawl affects each character's thoughts and actions - like saving the endangered warbler, or Joey's Republican sentiments. Each struggles for upward mobility - sometimes sacrificing middle class values and ethics to achieve anything. What each strives for, on a subconscious level, is Freedom - from their very surroundings that form a fence, (sort of a "Barrier") - defining their limitations. For example, Patty limits herself by becoming a housewife, only later to realize that it's not the love of her life. Joey aims for the upper class, but limitations within his own self pull him closer to Connie, and he settles down at a very young age. Franzen leaves a nice ending for the birds - which symbolize the presence of nature in the modern world - this theme recurrs over and over in the novel - almost reminiscent of the Mockingbirds of To Kill A Mockingbird ("it's a sin to kill a mockingbird...") -  All in all...a pretty interesting read! More books by FSG - here.

India F1 Grand Prix

Following the first Indian Grand Prix at Buddh International Circuit:
Racers :
Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
Felipe Massa (team Ferrari)
Michael Schumacher (team Mercedes)
Mark Webber (Red Bull)

Great New Children's Book

Serena In Outer Space by S. K. | Make Your Own Book

A Great Collection of Haiku

A Great Collection of Haiku on HelloPoetry: http://hellopoetry.com/poet/sharpcastuser/

Great Summer Reading

If you haven't already picked up Stieg Larsson's "The Girl" series - I highly recommend you check out "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo", "The Girl Who Played With Fire", and "The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest" - follow Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander as they uncover ruthless sex traffickers, corporate conspiracies, and more!

I also finished an interesting novel, "Five Quarters of the Orange" by Joanne Harris, who is also the author of Chocolat. This was an interesting tale of a French country girl who inherits a restaurant along the banks of the Loire and comes to terms with her turbulent past. What's neat is that on every other page, she describes a great French recipe!

Summer just wouldn't be complete without a little fire and brimstone. In Milton's classic "Paradise Lost", reenact the "fall of man" in this 640-verse epic poem! I was able to really transport myself into his realm of hell and heaven, where battles are fought between angels and demons, and fates are constantly decided for acts that are good and evil! I also enjoyed his verses on St. Michael the Archangel.

Three New Books

1. Serena and the T-Rex

Serena and the T-Rex by S. K. | Make Your Own Book

2. The Demon Slayer

The Demon Slayer by S. K. | Make Your Own Book

3. Haiku: Collected Works

Check these out! Great stuff!

I'm a fan of ...

1. Marco Andretti - http://www.marcoandretti.com/

2. Daniel Radcliffe - http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7860772/daniel_radcliffe_post_harry_potter.html?cat=40

3. Star Wars - Phantom Menace 3D - http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7833048/star_wars_episode_i_the_phantom_menace.html?cat=40

4. Sting - http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7766978/memories_from_the_sting_world_tour.html?cat=33

5. steven Spielberg - http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7824582/a_look_at_steven_spielberg.html?cat=40

Oracle vs. Google : Who will own Java?

"in August, Oracle sued Google over Google’s use of Java. And now the father of Java is on Google’s side. There has been a lot of speculation around that lawsuit, including the claim that Google will end up owning Java as a result of the lawsuit." (click here for more) The Oracle v. Google Complaint

The Essence of Chaos

I just completed reading "The Essence of Chaos" by Edward Lorenz. It provides great explanation of deterministic behaviour, what is chaotic behavior, bifurcations, fractals, lyapunov stability, manifolds, butterfly effect, strange attractors, and more! I highly recommend this for anyone interested in chaos!

The 1000 core processor

The performance analysis of a

1000 core processor.

Eric Carle Books

My daughter's favorite books are Eric Carle books. She loves The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Grouchy Ladybug, and The Mixed-Up Chameleon. Barnes & Noble Storytime this Saturday is featuring The Very Hungry Caterpillar at the 3600 Stevens Creek location at 11 am!

Concurrency and Parallelism

Some informative videos by Dr. Douglas Eadline explaining concurrency vs parallelism:

Moore's Law in HPC

Moore's Law - his original statement in 1965 paper states:

Moore's original statement that transistor counts had doubled every year can be found in his publication "Cramming more components onto integrated circuits", Electronics Magazine 19 April 1965:

The complexity for minimum component costs has increased at a rate of roughly a factor of two per year... Certainly over the short term this rate can be expected to continue, if not to increase. Over the longer term, the rate of increase is a bit more uncertain, although there is no reason to believe it will not remain nearly constant for at least 10 years. That means by 1975, the number of components per integrated circuit for minimum cost will be 65,000. I believe that such a large circuit can be built on a single wafer.^[7]

Moore slightly altered the formulation of the law over time, in retrospect bolstering the perceived accuracy of his law .^[16] Most notably, in 1975, Moore altered his projection to a doubling every two years.^[17]

Applied to HPC - as processing power increases for smaller die sizes, increasing the number of cores will boost the computation power of smaller devices equaling that of current desktop servers. See figure from

http://www.linux-mag.com/wp-content/uploads/more_and_moore_cores-600x3601.png

Save A Tree!

Serena Saves A Tree by S. K. | Make Your Own Book

Buzzy Buzzy Bee!

Serena And The Buzzy Bee by S. K. | Make Your Own Book

Great New Books!

Check out these great new books:

Penguins At Play by S.K. | Make Your Own Book

Two More Reads Completed

1) Othello - the Classic Shakespeare Tragedy - good reading! Found it more to be romantic but had strong elements of a tragedy (since Rodrigo, Emily, Desdemon and Othello die in the end!) - due to a foulplay by a small person's "whispering" .

2) My Passion For Design - highly recommend it for anyone interested in building their house and collecting art - (also enhancing one's coffee table)

My Haiku Class

I'm taking a great Haiku class - and I highly recommend the following reading for anyone interested in Haiku:

1. The Classic Tradition of Haiku: An Anthology by Faubion Bowers

2. Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, Issa by Robert Haas

3. Haiku: A Poet's Guide by Lee Gurga

These are not only great readings but introduce you to numerous techniques and concepts for understanding its art!