Ranjith Vasireddy PhD Candidate in ECE at Duke University Durham, NC, USA - 27708 Phone: 919.660.5217 (O) Email: rv5[at]ee.duke.edu

Vasireddy Dynasty

I recall my relatives telling me that my fore-fathers were kings; however, I never had a chance to learn about my family history. Until recently, I came across Vasireddy Dynasty web site. Among several Vasireddy rulers, Raja Vasireddy Venkatadri Naidu is famous and ruled 33 years. He was assumed charge in 1783 at Chintapalli. Later he crossed Krishna river and made Amaravathi as his capitol till his death. He is a well named philanthropist. He built so many temples in Amaravathi, Mangalagiri, Chebrolu, Ponnuru, Vijayawada, Srisailam and other places.

Thanks to Srinath Vasireddy of Microsoft for providing me this link to the website.

Miscellaneous

• My Non-Academic Reading

Favourite Quotes

Hamming's Talk
Edison says, Genius is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. He may have been exaggerating, but the idea is that solid work, steadily applied, gets you surprisingly far. The steady application of effort with a little bit more work, intelligently applied is what does it. That's the trouble; drive, misapplied, doesn't get you anywhere. I've often wondered why so many of my good friends at Bell Labs who worked as hard or harder than I did, didn't have so much to show for it. The misapplication of effort is a very serious matter. Just hard work is not enough - it must be applied sensibly. Source: http://www.mccurley.org/advice/hamming_advice.html

Quotes about Ramanujan
Right from the start Ramanujan's collaboration with Hardy led to important results. Hardy was, however, unsure how to approach the problem of Ramanujan's lack of formal education. He wrote:

"What was to be done in the way of teaching him modern mathematics? The limitations of his knowledge were as startling as its profundity."

Littlewood was asked to help teach Ramanujan rigorous mathematical methods. However he said:-

... that it was extremely difficult because every time some matter, which it was thought that Ramanujan needed to know, was mentioned, Ramanujan's response was an avalanche of original ideas which made it almost impossible for Littlewood to persist in his original intention.

Source: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Ramanujan.html

Quotes
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity -Louis Pasteur

The difference between people who exercise initiative and those who don't is literally the difference between night and day. I'm not talking about a 25 to 50 percent difference in effectiveness; I'm talking about a 5000-plus percent difference, particularly if they are smart, aware, and sensitive to others. -Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

It is better to play safe, rather than to say sorry.

Good research often starts with a hypothesis. -Prof. Don Smith

To work with results of field X, must be a professional in X -Allen Newell