Happyness..Epicurus Style...

Here you go again…happiness!

So it turns out that Epicurus was right about Happiness..almost.

http://www.spring.org.uk/2007/12/hedonist-philosopher-epicurus-was-right.php

"If a little is not enough for you, nothing is." –Epicurus

All the more..what’s amusing to me is the fact that philosophers..since ages..have been keen to tell the rest of us.. “how to live” and “how to be happy”.

And..if we go by it…the advice comes to us “with the lustre of intellectual achievement”…WTF?

Isn’t this in itself .. Being happy for them?

So..this is what the dude(err..I mean Epicurus) suggested..

1. Don't fear the gods (or fate, or blind chance)
2. Don't worry about death
3. What is good is easy to get
4. What is terrible is easy to endure

Philosophy: Study of philosophy is central to happiness…can help us deal with both..our fear of death and.. of the gods.

Friendship: Friendship is one of the most important aspects of the good life. Not only does it give us many benefits, it also benefits our friends as well.

Now, this is interesting.. Epicurus advised against getting married. He wasn't that impressed with sex either saying we should count ourselves lucky if sex didn't cause anyone any harm(!).

Prudence: is an excellent way of making decisions. All decisions can be seen as leading to pleasure or pain. Thinking ahead, planning for the future with these possible outcomes in mind will help lead a pleasurable life.

Security: Well you have to agree to it as-is…

 

And, according to the modern school of thought…

1. Epicurus was wrong about the detached life and commune living

2. Epicurus was wrong about avoiding marriage
3. Pleasure is not the opposite of pain

And this is what our dude got right…

1. Using cognitive strategies to deal with death and pain
2. Friendships matter more than status or money
3. Happiness comes from moderate varied pleasure

Hindi in Courts...

There's news about India lawyers want to speak in Hindi during the court proceedings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/south_asia/8255620.stm

But this is only in Delhi High court that they are protesting for. I think it's a positive move which should be supported.

This leaves me wondering what would happen in states like Kerala and Karnataka and Andhra and Tamil Nadu..if it ever gets enforced country wide?

Zen...

I liked today’s Zen quote…

 

Spacious and content,

Without confusion from

Inner thoughts of grasping,

Effectively overcome habitual behavior

And realize the self

That is not possessed by emotions.

Be broad-minded,

Whole, without relying on others.

 

- Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091–1157)

If it's not OKAY, it's not the END...

They say..
Everything would be OKAY in the END,
If it's not OKAY...it's not the END.

source: I don't know..

Nature and Death...

I read this interesting quote today...

"Nature is God's way of killing you."

And it occurs that..
"Aging is Nature's way of killing you".

But, you might want to ask..
Why does God want me to die?

SONY VAIO Notebooks..NO! NO!

We have been searching for a perfect notebook for a while now..

Given the budget we have, Sony VAIO CS36/34 series had all the features we were looking for….

I almost had bought it...until...suddenly I noticed the following two things about VAIO notebooks…(while going through the product demo at Sony Center-Jayanagar, Bangalore):

1. Sony VAIO Notebook does not support Intel VT.

And they never will...PERIOD!

Even if they are shipped with Intel Core two Duo processors, they do not have VT enabled in the BIOS.

BIOS has all the features locked and there is no way you can enable them. (unless you hack your notebook and break support contract). Another how to: link.

I don’t care for the reason why SONY does this (DRM philosophy or saving cost on OEM partnership with Intel)…but I feel cheated even by considering SONY notebooks now.

The reason I am concerned about this is not just because…I will not be able to run 64-bit VMs on this notebook(and no virtualization), but also Windows-7 is around the corner.

Without VT, there is no chance I will be able to run the inbuilt XP mode in Win-7.

On top of that.. The sales guy at SONY Center-Jayanagar told me they are offering a discount for Win-7 for all the VAIO deals made before 10-Aug-09.

SONY, you want me to pay for Win-7 but not expect the full functionality..ha!

This is the SONY's official stance on this: KB C381809

This gets more interesting if you search for VT at SONY KB website. This is what I found.

<---snip---

„…The vPro logo sticker on VAIO computers indicates that the computer meets the requirements for the following vPro features:

Intel Active Management Technology (AMT)
Intel Virtualization Technology (VT)
Intel Trusted Execution Technology (TXT)…“
---snip--->

Well, yes, the CPU does truly support hardware virtualization...but it's disabled.

And..there is no posibility enable it...and this way the notebook really does *NOT* support VT.

There is another interesting thread at Intel's forum: link

2. SONY do not provide you any driver and OS media along with the Laptop.

It’s always assumed that all the drivers and OS media (for which customers have paid) will come along with the laptop. No..not with SONY...I have a lesson learnt…Don’t assume anything!

A notebooks are shipped with pre-installed Windows Vista and other VAIO software.

After probing more on this, the sales guy told me...customers themselves are supposed to take a backup of the notebook (on a 4.5GB DVD media) as soon as they receive it (using VAIO Backup software).

And in case of any issues...they can always re-image the notebook using the backup media.

What If I wish/need to re-configure my notebook (say..want to have different disk partitioning scheme)...or want to try any other OS.. I don’t have the OS media/drivers/licenses to do it myself.

After all I have purchased the hardware and I’m free to do anything with it ..right?

NO!....I’ll lose out on the support contract on trying to do anything on those lines.

And mind you…the above things were obviously not specified anywhere in the product website nor in the product documentation I was provided.

Both the above are true for all SONY VAIO notebooks.

Shame on you SONY and Intel ( if you are responsible or #1 above). !

Bhala kisi ka kar na sako to...

Yadi bhala kisi ka kar na sako to, bura kisi ka mat karna
Amrit na pilaane ko ghar mein to, zahar pilaate bhi darna.

Yadi satya madhur na bol sako to, jhoot kathin bhi mat bolo,
Yadi maun rakho sabse achha, kam se kam vish to mat gholo,
Bolo to pehle tum tolo, fir mukh-tala khola karna.

Yadi bhala kisi ka kar na sako to, bura kisi ka mat karna..

Yadi ghar na kisi ka baandh sako to, jhopdiyan na jala dena,
Yadi marham-patti kar na sako to, khar namak na laga dena,
Yadi deepak ban kar jal na sako to, andhkar bhi mat karna.

Yadi bhala kisi ka kar na sako to, bura kisi ka mat karna..

Yadi phool nahi ban sakte to, kaante ban kar na bikhar jaana,
Maanav ban kar sahla na sako to, dil bhi kisi ka dukhana na,
Yadi dev nahi ban sakte to, daanav ban kar bhi mat marna.

Yadi bhala kisi ka kar na sako to, bura kisi ka mat karna

Yadi sadaachar apna na sako to, paapo mein mat pag dharna,
Kintu na kabhi shaitaan bano, aur na kabhi haivaan bano,
muni-pushp agar bhagwan nahi to, kam se kam insaan bano.

Yadi bhala kisi ka kar na sako to, bura kisi ka mat karna...