What happened to my name?

I am Mr. Raghavendra! Note that dot after Mr. My full name, as it used to be in my mark sheet however is, Raghavendra dot K dot S.

Well you must ask me a question. What is my name?My name is Maximus Desimus Marideous! Commader of the depleted fleets of Hans, loyal servant to the true emperor whatever, not yet married and no known children!

Getting little serious, to be honest I do not know my name. Really believe me. My first name used to be that you see on top.Anyway, I was supposed to be named Sandesh (Literally 'message' may be an sms:)). Then I was named Raghavendra. (Supposed to mean charming one after a complex mythological survey). But all turned in to hell when my passport was to be ready.I had to choose First name Middle Name (which I did not have) and surname (Again I had none). After a careful thought I selected my middle name to be 'Seetharamaiah' which actually is one of my father’s name (Note the apostrophe and my father having N names is a different issue altogether (That is his name anyway!)). I made my last name 'Kattinakere' which actually is my village. That was a nice choice indeed. I just avoided being called by father's (I hate apostrophe but I do not want to mean something else you see) name if I was to make it my last name. So I became Raghavendra Seetharamaiah Kattinakere. Probably one of the longest names in the subcontinent.

Then I was called Raghu as well. I leave its pronouncement for heavens. I decided to be what they call me rather than insisting them to call my version of my nick name. Then I changed it to simplify. Avoid that South Indian 'H' pronounced 'hech' instead of 'yech'. I became Ragu. Then when I changed my employer my boss was also a Ragu. I had to find a way to distinguish. I made a e-trick. I became ~rAGU (Linux users would call it @home rAGU). Tilde Ragu was my nick for a while. I still use that to distinguish between the mushrooming Ragu`s in India.

I then left India. Nobody was ever able to call my first name after that. I always showed my passport when somebody asked my last name. Because nobody knew what my first name actually was, all mails addressed me as Ragu Kattinakere. Short form of my legal name then is Raghavendra S Kattinakere.

My last name I said is name of my village. Yes, I am called by my villages name in the west. It's like calling you Mr Bangalore or Mr Amsterdam after you city. I am formally Mt Kattinakere!

My colleague asked me "what name to put in the labs` website". Your full name please?My full name as in passport would consume whole row, as it does in Department’s grad students list. I asked him to write 'Ragu'. I told him, "It does not matter. None of them are my names anyway ".

~rAGU :))

Why big governaments are bad.

I was reading a poem that nicely put forward the thought: "too much is too bad", in an interesting way. (Forgive my puctuation. I am still learning!) . ...

An Algorithm for Segmenting Elements in an Image

-Write-up defending a hypothetical algorithm

Segmenting patterns and objects in an image is a challenging problem. Several segmentation algorithms are in use, offering distinct advantages of their own. We propose an algorithm that segments elements in an image taking a totally different approach.

The algorithm that we have developed needs more computation and memory compared to the existing algorithms. Segmentation efficiency however is no better. Yet the algorithm has its place in the research as it opens a new paradigm in approaching the segmentation problem. Instead of seeing segmentation from image processing stand point, we choose to look at it in human interaction stand point. The result is that the segmentation reduces to, focused element identification problem. Humans focus on certain portion of the image where the element is concentrated and try to recognise it. Segmented element then need not precisely be an object corresponding to real word but can be the portion of the image that contains it.

The algorithm that implements this change in approach opens a new avenue for research. We hope that, the shift in approach that the algorithm introduces will result in more practical and efficient solutions to the problem.

~rAGU

Sriram, My Nephew. 5 Months old.