The good idea about android (and google) about 6 years ago was that one could get a phone that was not controlled by a single company (although samsung, LG, and htc control most). I had the option of installing apps from a market which relied heavily on user engagement. My first android phone was a samsung galaxy S under contract with Att. Att, known for its screw your customer policy, filled my phone with bloatware I never used. Att navigator and some other wifi service app which could never be deleted. On top of that they charged me something like 20$ for about 300mb of data. The month my contract expired with Att I promptly made the switch to Tmobile.
Tmobile is not perfect, but they satisfy most of my needs and are cost effective compared to Att or Verizon. The biggest factor in favor of Tmobile is their customer service, they don't run you around connecting you to 100 departments before actually getting someone who can fix my problem. Simple tasks like changing data plans, activating international roaming to getting a new sim was about 5 minutes in and out with T-mobile. The icing on the cake was I could get my own phone and use it the way I want to, not tied to any contracts.
As fate had it I lost my off contract phone in 2013. I promptly bought a nexus 4, owing to faster updates, better support and being bloatware free. My biggest needs were (and still are) calling, texting, listening to music and watching videos. I started doing mail on my phone and also switched to skype and managing my calendar on my phone (much better than doing it on my laptop).
Fast forward to 2015, android has evolved; but it has evolved in to a dinosaur. I don't understand the need to make a separate inbox application when I am comfortable using my gmail application. Ok screw it, I will bow down to your autocracy google. I install the Inbox app and then you don't support enterprise gmail access. Gallery changed to photos, This is just one example, there is also play music, play movies, play newstand, play books, play games just the shitty bloatware I wanted to get away from. I have now come to the conclusion that in order to support the various hardware android has made compromises. They screw up the youtube application, disallow background playing through terms of service for API use.
Their new design interface is confusing. When a tech savvy person who knows how to root, jailbreak, work in terminal mode, build his own network and server finds it confusing you have definitely thrown the fish out with the water. Simple elements like call history is buried layers deep, it takes about 6 to 10 taps to get to call history and details. I personally liked the interface of gchat, it wasn't glitzy but very functional. Gchat was replaced by hangouts where I can't find out who is online (it now shows when a person was last seen). This was already present in whatsapp, and the interface in whatsapp is much cleaner so its unclear why hangouts exists. Google and Android were at the forefront of innovation and functionality, but apple somehow roped them into playing the glitz and integration game. Google also made the mistake of competing with facebook with google+. Plus has some nice features like circles but the interface is so cluttered and the many dropdowns just don't make sense to me. Google has started to play the catch up game, they are catching up to apple, facebook, twitter and spotify. They have acquired songza and I can't wait for the google+ or play music integration to kick in.
Someone at google shut down the experimental labs section to focus on providing better products. I frankly haven't seen those benefits kicking in. Google might have taken the conglomerate route and started catering to improving their advertising revenue. Analytics has improved and so has google app engine but other areas are not competitive at the highest level anymore. Google seems to repeating history going the old Bell labs route, I can see a reorganization and split along advertising, search, content and analytics.
07 July, 2015
16 January, 2014
Right to keep and bear arms - Right to not bear arms
Gun Control in the US is a widely debated subject. It is also a point to note that many individuals want to keep arms and ammunition in their household. A few of them are farmers trying to hunt foxes, recreational hunters shooting deer and moose. This is fine and dandy, but when a 12 year old gets hold of a gun and shoots in a public setting there are deep moral issues raised. I am quite sure no one says that an violent act of shooting innocent school children/teachers is justified. It is also not justified when an assailant robs a store and shoots someone.
It is staggering to see gun deaths in 2013 totaling to 11,419. A visualization is available at http://guns.periscopic.com/?year=2013. The toll seems to be a question of availability and preparedness. The availability of shotguns is being curtailed with background checks, the NY SAFE act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NY_SAFE_Act seems to be a step in the right direction. Although these measures are good, their implementation and actual education of the public is even more important.
A few measures include storing guns in cabinets, a steel gun cabinet costs $150 on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Stack-On-GCB-8RTA-Security-Assemble-Storage/dp/B004EYTD4W/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hg_2. This should be mandatory for all gun owners to avoid theft and misuse of the arms. Storing of arms and ammunition should be made separate. I cannot think of a situation needing a loaded ready to fire weapon (this is not james bond). A law against misuse of guns should be applied to the gun owner as well as the assailant (the NY SAFE act has some provisions in this direction).
I am a person who will probably never own a firearm. I feel the right to bear arms in the US makes me vulnerable to being shot. I would argue there is a need to put into law "a right to NOT bear arms" or "be protected against armed assailants" which entails people not bearing arms to be protected. This means knowing the folks with gums in the community. This means when they are on vacation (without their guns), they store the guns in a safe place. Another small addition would be to design educations programs and videos mandatory to a gun owner. A drivers license involves untoward scenarios and planning for action, a similar test needs to be conducted for ownership of weapons.
Safety is a big issue and passing the buck will do no good.
It is staggering to see gun deaths in 2013 totaling to 11,419. A visualization is available at http://guns.periscopic.com/?year=2013. The toll seems to be a question of availability and preparedness. The availability of shotguns is being curtailed with background checks, the NY SAFE act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NY_SAFE_Act seems to be a step in the right direction. Although these measures are good, their implementation and actual education of the public is even more important.
A few measures include storing guns in cabinets, a steel gun cabinet costs $150 on amazon http://www.amazon.com/Stack-On-GCB-8RTA-Security-Assemble-Storage/dp/B004EYTD4W/ref=pd_sim_sbs_hg_2. This should be mandatory for all gun owners to avoid theft and misuse of the arms. Storing of arms and ammunition should be made separate. I cannot think of a situation needing a loaded ready to fire weapon (this is not james bond). A law against misuse of guns should be applied to the gun owner as well as the assailant (the NY SAFE act has some provisions in this direction).
I am a person who will probably never own a firearm. I feel the right to bear arms in the US makes me vulnerable to being shot. I would argue there is a need to put into law "a right to NOT bear arms" or "be protected against armed assailants" which entails people not bearing arms to be protected. This means knowing the folks with gums in the community. This means when they are on vacation (without their guns), they store the guns in a safe place. Another small addition would be to design educations programs and videos mandatory to a gun owner. A drivers license involves untoward scenarios and planning for action, a similar test needs to be conducted for ownership of weapons.
Safety is a big issue and passing the buck will do no good.
11 January, 2014
Terminating should be an option
I think it is in human nature to plan and control, I want to know what happens next. It maybe the Bayesian brain, learning to adapt to errors in expectation. Adapting to a changing world and changing your viewpoint is therefore harder than living in an personally ideal world (of course, the ideal world is very personal).
How do I adjust to these errors in expectation and judgement? I think the answer lies in understanding that all models are wrong and not every variable and parameter can be accounted for. Sometimes your model is correct but the data doesn't fit, other times the data fits but the model is irrational and nonsensical. Understanding these subtle differences and variations will help with adapting the Bayesian brain and optimizing the search.
While this sounds rosy and rational there are curve balls you need to watch out for. Sometimes the data is non-linear to such an extent that there is no fit. There maybe hidden variables unaccounted for or it is the single outlier that throws any rational model off its trajectory. In such cases, terminating the search should be an option. If you cannot optimize, accept defeat and blame the data. This is what any good algorithm would do. Its never the algorithm its always the data!!
21 October, 2013
On ventures, new beginnings, failures and struggles
As I begin something new, venture into unknown territories, there is a sense of purpose and great motivation. This motivation is a drive to learn the process, understand the details and eventually say something worthwhile. The process has kept me busy the last couple years.
As I have waded through waters, shallow and deep, an understanding about "the process" has emerged. There are struggles when you start out and its not easy. There are a few gifted people who can make it seem easy but they have put in the effort too (and made mistakes).
The process always starts out with great excitement and you understand the precursory details. The initial focus is on getting the first idea (or project or product) out. Sometimes in haste, I have missed on deep thought and analysis of various facets, possible impediments and pitfalls in the process. The planning stage is critical for it lays the foundation and the precedent for future work. It is worthwhile to take some time, relax and get to a drawing board. Initially, it is very hard to keep track of all the facets and how they connect, this however changes with practice. As I see repeated patterns, I have been getting quicker at processing it and analyzing the pitfalls.
The execution stage is equally important, planning is for nothing if I botch up the execution. The major impediments to execution are: lack of skills, time and money. These three are somehow interrelated and only the right optimization will yield in good results. During execution time, uncertainty on any of three parameters cause a lot of stress. It is important never to be overwhelmed. The best idea is to take it one step at a time, baby steps as I remember it. It is better to take the time, learn the skill or find more money to get the execution right. Of course this does not mean "get it perfect", although I have obsessed on perfection it is unwise and an unending saga. The project should be good enough and the focus should be on the details. Taking the small extra step to add in details makes your end product stand out. The most important principle to rely on during execution is KISS (keep it simple, stupid).
As I have waded through waters, shallow and deep, an understanding about "the process" has emerged. There are struggles when you start out and its not easy. There are a few gifted people who can make it seem easy but they have put in the effort too (and made mistakes).
The process always starts out with great excitement and you understand the precursory details. The initial focus is on getting the first idea (or project or product) out. Sometimes in haste, I have missed on deep thought and analysis of various facets, possible impediments and pitfalls in the process. The planning stage is critical for it lays the foundation and the precedent for future work. It is worthwhile to take some time, relax and get to a drawing board. Initially, it is very hard to keep track of all the facets and how they connect, this however changes with practice. As I see repeated patterns, I have been getting quicker at processing it and analyzing the pitfalls.
The execution stage is equally important, planning is for nothing if I botch up the execution. The major impediments to execution are: lack of skills, time and money. These three are somehow interrelated and only the right optimization will yield in good results. During execution time, uncertainty on any of three parameters cause a lot of stress. It is important never to be overwhelmed. The best idea is to take it one step at a time, baby steps as I remember it. It is better to take the time, learn the skill or find more money to get the execution right. Of course this does not mean "get it perfect", although I have obsessed on perfection it is unwise and an unending saga. The project should be good enough and the focus should be on the details. Taking the small extra step to add in details makes your end product stand out. The most important principle to rely on during execution is KISS (keep it simple, stupid).
17 September, 2013
The memory versus experience riddle
There is this famous TED talk by daniel kahneman on experiences and memory - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgRlrBl-7Yg. The "experiencing self" as he calls it, makes me think of a machine which stores a likely state of the present situation. It stores the context (the state of present situation) and then the "remembering self" comes into effect and passes this context through a "filter" to "decide" if it would be worth retrieving it in the future.
This analogy sounds simple to reason, but are there only two selves? Quite funnily, I think the answer would be a unanimous NO. Well then why does the reasoning here, of the two selves, seem sound? The reason could be because of the way the question was presented, "had it ruined the experience of the event or the memory of it?" The question no doubt is very interesting, do we have a probabilistic matching scheme where we generate predictions, for a finite state, and decide to make error corrections based on the feedback. The prediction of spending money on a concert, is to have a pleasant experience. This matching is violated if we have an unpleasant experience. Does this change if we did not have to pay for the concert? Does this change if the concert was inexpensive? Does it change if the artist dies right after the concert?
In such a probability matching mechanism it would be highly pertinent to store this feedback when it was completely valid and more pertinent when it was negative. (you know to make better predictions) The higher the deviations from the prediction the higher the probability the event should be stored. Of course, we run into capacity constraints, processing bottlenecks and plain random chance. These factors make the process inefficient and reduce the feedback effects for the matching. This said I think it's pertinent to investigate what events bypass one system completely (of the two identified) and go into the next. Can we remember without experience and can we experience without remembering? Can we improve the experience without improving the memory? Can we improve the memory without improving the experience? Can we reduce the experience and still improve the memory?
The bigger question becomes what other projective selfs are evident in such weird defects? Is there a action self, which tries to predict action in unlikely scenarios (say you were hit by a tornado or an earthquake). What information is used in this situation? Do we create false experiences to rely on? Do we freeze in a processing bottleneck?
What other processing selfs can we think of: save your soul self, don't be stupid self, oh no she didn't self!!
This analogy sounds simple to reason, but are there only two selves? Quite funnily, I think the answer would be a unanimous NO. Well then why does the reasoning here, of the two selves, seem sound? The reason could be because of the way the question was presented, "had it ruined the experience of the event or the memory of it?" The question no doubt is very interesting, do we have a probabilistic matching scheme where we generate predictions, for a finite state, and decide to make error corrections based on the feedback. The prediction of spending money on a concert, is to have a pleasant experience. This matching is violated if we have an unpleasant experience. Does this change if we did not have to pay for the concert? Does this change if the concert was inexpensive? Does it change if the artist dies right after the concert?
In such a probability matching mechanism it would be highly pertinent to store this feedback when it was completely valid and more pertinent when it was negative. (you know to make better predictions) The higher the deviations from the prediction the higher the probability the event should be stored. Of course, we run into capacity constraints, processing bottlenecks and plain random chance. These factors make the process inefficient and reduce the feedback effects for the matching. This said I think it's pertinent to investigate what events bypass one system completely (of the two identified) and go into the next. Can we remember without experience and can we experience without remembering? Can we improve the experience without improving the memory? Can we improve the memory without improving the experience? Can we reduce the experience and still improve the memory?
The bigger question becomes what other projective selfs are evident in such weird defects? Is there a action self, which tries to predict action in unlikely scenarios (say you were hit by a tornado or an earthquake). What information is used in this situation? Do we create false experiences to rely on? Do we freeze in a processing bottleneck?
What other processing selfs can we think of: save your soul self, don't be stupid self, oh no she didn't self!!
08 June, 2013
On Travel and company
It is quintessential to travel once a while, preferably without laptops, cellphones, tablets, phablets, kindles, stopwatches and gps. Leaving all these behind and exploring the world with amenable folks is a treasure. On this note, I am hoping to make such travels more possible and frequent; at least once a year. Given the hectic schedules of work and study, the pressures of social life and keeping up with the vapid news how much vacation time is the right vacation time.
The right time seems to be between a week and 3 weeks: anything more or less than this seems dull and effortful. Then there is also the problem of finding things to do on vacations, I have faced problems where I am on a vacation but the rest of the world is working. This makes scheduling and setting up events painful. The second prospect of vacationing is to find the right company to vacation with. Exploring the Jungles of India, the sights of new york, the california beaches or the italian culture each comes with certain requirements and constraints. The right people who can satisfy these requirements and constraints add pleasure to the vacation and make it memorable.
My most recent visit to India has alerted me to possible situations where difficulties arise: inclement weather, medical emergencies and bad planning top the list. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip thanks to the efforts of my close friends and family, but a little planning could have gone a long way.
The right time seems to be between a week and 3 weeks: anything more or less than this seems dull and effortful. Then there is also the problem of finding things to do on vacations, I have faced problems where I am on a vacation but the rest of the world is working. This makes scheduling and setting up events painful. The second prospect of vacationing is to find the right company to vacation with. Exploring the Jungles of India, the sights of new york, the california beaches or the italian culture each comes with certain requirements and constraints. The right people who can satisfy these requirements and constraints add pleasure to the vacation and make it memorable.
My most recent visit to India has alerted me to possible situations where difficulties arise: inclement weather, medical emergencies and bad planning top the list. I thoroughly enjoyed the trip thanks to the efforts of my close friends and family, but a little planning could have gone a long way.
07 April, 2013
The pleasures of sentient beings
This weekend, from among the many past, has been warm. In fact it has warranted yours truly to venture out in shorts and a sports jacket. Despite the fading schoolboy charm I love the shorts. It is a means of expressing your freedom and showing off the hairy beast within. The pleasures of a warm weekend are innumerable.
The ability to bike with minimal drag, speed up at will, practice manoeuvres of acrobatic abilities (read reverse pedaling and ledge dangling). It also means its time for ice creams without worrying about sore throats or colds. This also means the ability to run without layers of warmth. The cherry on top are the colorful folks lazing around parks and ambling outside cafes. This treasured change in aerodynamic superiority, visual perception and enhanced social adventures bring cheer and mirth.
The extended daylight gives you the innumerable hangouts that were once out of reach (maybe basketball at 7, bike to the lakes). This whole plethora of opportunities are only curtailed by the vast expanse of pending work and procrastination. This being said, I am off to finish running my experiment and biking home (time to get productive y'all)
In the words of my good friend Mr Pickles - "Spring is in the Air!!"
The ability to bike with minimal drag, speed up at will, practice manoeuvres of acrobatic abilities (read reverse pedaling and ledge dangling). It also means its time for ice creams without worrying about sore throats or colds. This also means the ability to run without layers of warmth. The cherry on top are the colorful folks lazing around parks and ambling outside cafes. This treasured change in aerodynamic superiority, visual perception and enhanced social adventures bring cheer and mirth.
The extended daylight gives you the innumerable hangouts that were once out of reach (maybe basketball at 7, bike to the lakes). This whole plethora of opportunities are only curtailed by the vast expanse of pending work and procrastination. This being said, I am off to finish running my experiment and biking home (time to get productive y'all)
In the words of my good friend Mr Pickles - "Spring is in the Air!!"
14 January, 2013
On Aspirations
Every person has a dream and vision for life. As a kid I aspired to be a lawyer, I always liked talking and arguing listlessly. Growing up I inculcated the habit of writing. I was impressed by what my mind could fathom, stories and poems, limericks and ballads, the potential to have my name etched in history like Hemingway and Tolstoy. Time passed further and my late teens got me interested in computers. Amazing machines which can let you work out complex problems, communicate with people across the world and play games. I did not know what
10 December, 2012
Making writing a habit
As I plunge into the depths of academic rigor and drown the best years of my adult life in a low paying yet rather fulfilling career I realize the need to make writing a habit. I have learnt over innumerable tasks, its good to take notes. Its also good to compile your notes and make a small sketch of your current work, or even the current paper you are reading. If you find an article or summary, it is important to note that down. A blog does not have to be only for writing the mundane details of your daily life, ranting about culture or anecdotal evidence. It can be a very good place to keep track of your progress and make notes.
Of course not being able to make a latex document with beautiful typography and colorful pictures makes it dull, but its a start. For the more initiated, there are options, dropbox is one of them, create a directory for all your files, update and sync them with dropbox. You can easily view previous versions and look at all your edits. The good part is, its easy to share the file with a reviewer too. I have also been using papers to make a bib of the papers I reference. So here's to more meaningful citations and verbose drudgery.
Of course not being able to make a latex document with beautiful typography and colorful pictures makes it dull, but its a start. For the more initiated, there are options, dropbox is one of them, create a directory for all your files, update and sync them with dropbox. You can easily view previous versions and look at all your edits. The good part is, its easy to share the file with a reviewer too. I have also been using papers to make a bib of the papers I reference. So here's to more meaningful citations and verbose drudgery.
21 October, 2012
My cupppa a la india
http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/19/starbucks-opens-in-india-with-pomp-and-tempered-ambition/
This blogpost about a starbucks opening in india got me thinking along two lines. If I was opening a starbucks in India, what coffee would I serve, would it be nicaraguan, guatemalan, brazilian, coorg or nilgris. The choice between a local and international blend is quite the moot point. I would stick with the coorg simply because you can get it fresh, its local and quite rich. Of course, if you charging me 85rs for a cuppa coorg, I would call you a looter and go to the local darshini for my favourite filter coffee for under 10rs depending on which locality you are in. Of course the competition comes in the form of the delectably delicious flavours of coffee. The latte, frappuccino and other espresso variants. The "coffee" as a black brew is totally burnt at starbucks, if there were other unburnt cheaper options I would definitely say "suck it" to starbucks.
Now again, the lattes and frappuccinos have been around for a while with the coffee days and baristas, so what's the big deal. Starbucks needs to offer something special, to be able to cut the mark. It also depends on which crowd you are catering to. Hailing from bangalore, I have seen the India coffee house/airlines crowd and the coffee day crowd. They are both fashionable, in regards to their standing in the society and their own pompous ego. The ICH folks are generally sitting around for a long meeting or with a newspaper. The coffee day crowd on the other hand is generally more young and are at the coffee shop for a round of the gossip and chatters or a very quick meeting. You get the picture, the holy crap we are going to discuss the world over coffee versus man did you hear what happened to katrina kaif. Starbucks being the esoteric nuthead that it is, offers me that clean hangout and workplace sewn together. I wonder how it looks back home.
This blogpost about a starbucks opening in india got me thinking along two lines. If I was opening a starbucks in India, what coffee would I serve, would it be nicaraguan, guatemalan, brazilian, coorg or nilgris. The choice between a local and international blend is quite the moot point. I would stick with the coorg simply because you can get it fresh, its local and quite rich. Of course, if you charging me 85rs for a cuppa coorg, I would call you a looter and go to the local darshini for my favourite filter coffee for under 10rs depending on which locality you are in. Of course the competition comes in the form of the delectably delicious flavours of coffee. The latte, frappuccino and other espresso variants. The "coffee" as a black brew is totally burnt at starbucks, if there were other unburnt cheaper options I would definitely say "suck it" to starbucks.
Now again, the lattes and frappuccinos have been around for a while with the coffee days and baristas, so what's the big deal. Starbucks needs to offer something special, to be able to cut the mark. It also depends on which crowd you are catering to. Hailing from bangalore, I have seen the India coffee house/airlines crowd and the coffee day crowd. They are both fashionable, in regards to their standing in the society and their own pompous ego. The ICH folks are generally sitting around for a long meeting or with a newspaper. The coffee day crowd on the other hand is generally more young and are at the coffee shop for a round of the gossip and chatters or a very quick meeting. You get the picture, the holy crap we are going to discuss the world over coffee versus man did you hear what happened to katrina kaif. Starbucks being the esoteric nuthead that it is, offers me that clean hangout and workplace sewn together. I wonder how it looks back home.
12 October, 2012
UnVirtualBox
I recently upgraded to the 12.10 quetzal. Yes, I have my gripes about unity and unity3d even more. The latest gripe is with virtualBox, this godforsaken tool has helped me out a few times; when I have been trying something funny in ubuntu or when I needed windows access. Wine sometimes just doesn't cut it (yes, would you believe that!!).
The latest update to 12.10 wipes out the dns server interface from virtualbox. Of course I did not have time to pick through the code and figure out what was happening. A quick search on the internet led me to install dnsmasq which seemed to solve the problem. The reason I say seemed is because I now have a new problem where my connection keeps dropping every few minutes and I have to reconnect to the router. I am not sure if its a 12.10, dnsmasq or my hardware, but by jove it is annoying. Even as I was publishing this blog post I had a couple drops. Maybe, just maybe its time for an upgrade to hardware with super strong wifi.
The latest update to 12.10 wipes out the dns server interface from virtualbox. Of course I did not have time to pick through the code and figure out what was happening. A quick search on the internet led me to install dnsmasq which seemed to solve the problem. The reason I say seemed is because I now have a new problem where my connection keeps dropping every few minutes and I have to reconnect to the router. I am not sure if its a 12.10, dnsmasq or my hardware, but by jove it is annoying. Even as I was publishing this blog post I had a couple drops. Maybe, just maybe its time for an upgrade to hardware with super strong wifi.
03 October, 2012
IRB and other stuff
This last day has been really eventful. I was able to get an IRB approval for my experiment. This means I can test subjects, human subjects according to the procedures described in my form. The process was a little dull and particularly esoteric. The IRB folks although, were a really nice bunch. They managed to give me clear instructions about reviews and documents needed. Despite that, I found it a little hard to understand what they wanted.
It is surprising to me, that if you know the process really well it becomes harder for you to give out all the details. I really saw this with my data analysis. My adviser says, "I can't read your mind, what do these plots tell me." The odd thing is that we generally discuss my work in great detail. So, I learnt that I need to invest my time on more pedagogical tools to make my mind more readable. (where are those beautiful elvish women when you need them)
It is surprising to me, that if you know the process really well it becomes harder for you to give out all the details. I really saw this with my data analysis. My adviser says, "I can't read your mind, what do these plots tell me." The odd thing is that we generally discuss my work in great detail. So, I learnt that I need to invest my time on more pedagogical tools to make my mind more readable. (where are those beautiful elvish women when you need them)
01 October, 2012
Some Changes
This is a news update for all the people who don't read this blog. I am moving my articles on science and tech to a separate blog. For the people who do read this blog, you can continue being bored and delivered unto the path of "ALT-F4" or "sudo poweroff".
The laziness on my part is having the same template as this blog, a easy copy paste job. Blogger let me finish this whole process in under 10 mins. Kudos for such amazing flexibility.
Oh yes before I forget - http://extl.blogspot.com/. "The blog that shall disappear into the humdrums of internet buzz and never be spoken of again."
The laziness on my part is having the same template as this blog, a easy copy paste job. Blogger let me finish this whole process in under 10 mins. Kudos for such amazing flexibility.
Oh yes before I forget - http://extl.blogspot.com/. "The blog that shall disappear into the humdrums of internet buzz and never be spoken of again."
17 August, 2011
A magic wand
The lure of a magic wand is too hard to resist, so is the lure of a time machine. This lure is mainly due to the fact that there are imperfections in our lives that we want to change. If magic wasn't that "miraculous", we would never have had the harry potter series for one.
I imagine the speech where the head of a nation has to address to his public and complain at his ineptitude to fix a broken political system is a pity. There might be veracity to his words and a great deal of gusto to accept the inaccuracies and inefficiencies that have crept into the system. I have seen this happen on two fronts, the indian prime ministers speech and the us presidents speech.
If the head of a nation complains to his republic at his ineptitude to handle a situation with an iron fist, especially when it affects the nation at large. In indias case, just make the law stricter - corruption is punishable by the death penalty, whether it is one rupee or a trillion rupees, make the person who reports it a hero and offer an award. If we can eradicate polio and small pox, corruption should not be that tough to handle. In the us's case, bite the lip and raise taxes, take away tax cuts and stop subsidizing crazy things, stop all the wars until the economy is fixed, stop all foreign aid, tighten the tax rates on the very high income groups. The airline safety instructions clearly says, please put the oxygen mask on first before helping others, should this not apply to a nations economy, fix your economy first before doling out help and tax breaks.
As with any major change there will be dissonance, everyone facing losses and heartache will shout, but eventually they will reconcile and go with it. If you do not have the backbone to make changes for the benefit of a country, step down so at least the looters can enjoy and have their fill; running a nation is a team sport and sometimes you can't play both gerrard and lampard.
I imagine the speech where the head of a nation has to address to his public and complain at his ineptitude to fix a broken political system is a pity. There might be veracity to his words and a great deal of gusto to accept the inaccuracies and inefficiencies that have crept into the system. I have seen this happen on two fronts, the indian prime ministers speech and the us presidents speech.
If the head of a nation complains to his republic at his ineptitude to handle a situation with an iron fist, especially when it affects the nation at large. In indias case, just make the law stricter - corruption is punishable by the death penalty, whether it is one rupee or a trillion rupees, make the person who reports it a hero and offer an award. If we can eradicate polio and small pox, corruption should not be that tough to handle. In the us's case, bite the lip and raise taxes, take away tax cuts and stop subsidizing crazy things, stop all the wars until the economy is fixed, stop all foreign aid, tighten the tax rates on the very high income groups. The airline safety instructions clearly says, please put the oxygen mask on first before helping others, should this not apply to a nations economy, fix your economy first before doling out help and tax breaks.
As with any major change there will be dissonance, everyone facing losses and heartache will shout, but eventually they will reconcile and go with it. If you do not have the backbone to make changes for the benefit of a country, step down so at least the looters can enjoy and have their fill; running a nation is a team sport and sometimes you can't play both gerrard and lampard.
15 April, 2011
Meerkat Monocle Mannerism
The meerkat is a clueless societal animal like me. The actual meerkat is originally from the southern African region. As always nature was kind enough to give us enough variants just to have a laugh with the names we give it.
It has one quirky mannerism which I share.I was probably once bitten by one of their distant cousins or some concoction of the sort. If you look at the meerkat outside of its burrow which is usually how you would have seen it, it keeps shifting its gaze. The meerkat does this to check for predators and makes an early warning system. How I wish we could teach them the notion of money, and then charge them for inventing a infra red/motion sensor predator alert system. (Thats another science fiction I am working on secretly in my burrow while a meerkat keeps a watch for me outside.)
In much the same mannerism, but in the sense of wearing a monocle. Imagine a grad student in a research group meeting, the lead researcher or primary investigator or my favourite "the brains of the operation" has gone on vacation. So now you need to talk about the progress you made that week, for the pennies worth, you are clueless about what goes on, you just sit in your corner and watch youtube videos and kill your time. The professor starts with the infamous question, "so whats the progress on the transmogrifier?". For a moment you can't believe your ears, you just look around once to see if this is a dream, when you signed for the war you never expected to be at the front-lines. I should explain the monocle now, have you seen a person wearing a monocle, does he not have a quizzical look on him. The grad student in this scenario generally has the same look and the hence the inclusion of the monocle.
Well disaster aversion mode, some other "researcher" in the group, the unwise fool I call him, takes the "lead" and starts pouring out what he has been doing all of last week, and the results on the transmogrification. Obviously this guy was such a jerk, the know it all wizard eh, you look around to your friend with a stamp of "what's he acting so pious for?" on your face. That betraying rascal is actually listening to him and has no clue of your irreverent telepathic phonecall. You look around the room, with a look on your face still hanging like it was painted on. The "researcher"'s close friend looks at you with the mocking "what an idiot!" look. You go all crazy and start fervently shifting your gaze to check for attacks before you hear a familiar reference to the KL divergence and flashbulb remember "your research" ages ago.
The period of frenzy gazing to avoid looking like an imbecile, while proving your idiocy is what I call the "Meerkat Monocle Mannerism". You might see a publication of this in nature in the far future.
PS:
For people who have never heard of the transmogrifier - http://members.shaw.ca/newsong/calvin.html
For people who don't know what the KL divergence is; take a course in linear algebra, I'm sure wikipedia doesn't do justice
For people who have never seen a meerkat in action - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWKW-dw9cuY (albeit the video claims its wales, its thanks to the work of the transmogrifier)
It has one quirky mannerism which I share.I was probably once bitten by one of their distant cousins or some concoction of the sort. If you look at the meerkat outside of its burrow which is usually how you would have seen it, it keeps shifting its gaze. The meerkat does this to check for predators and makes an early warning system. How I wish we could teach them the notion of money, and then charge them for inventing a infra red/motion sensor predator alert system. (Thats another science fiction I am working on secretly in my burrow while a meerkat keeps a watch for me outside.)
In much the same mannerism, but in the sense of wearing a monocle. Imagine a grad student in a research group meeting, the lead researcher or primary investigator or my favourite "the brains of the operation" has gone on vacation. So now you need to talk about the progress you made that week, for the pennies worth, you are clueless about what goes on, you just sit in your corner and watch youtube videos and kill your time. The professor starts with the infamous question, "so whats the progress on the transmogrifier?". For a moment you can't believe your ears, you just look around once to see if this is a dream, when you signed for the war you never expected to be at the front-lines. I should explain the monocle now, have you seen a person wearing a monocle, does he not have a quizzical look on him. The grad student in this scenario generally has the same look and the hence the inclusion of the monocle.
Well disaster aversion mode, some other "researcher" in the group, the unwise fool I call him, takes the "lead" and starts pouring out what he has been doing all of last week, and the results on the transmogrification. Obviously this guy was such a jerk, the know it all wizard eh, you look around to your friend with a stamp of "what's he acting so pious for?" on your face. That betraying rascal is actually listening to him and has no clue of your irreverent telepathic phonecall. You look around the room, with a look on your face still hanging like it was painted on. The "researcher"'s close friend looks at you with the mocking "what an idiot!" look. You go all crazy and start fervently shifting your gaze to check for attacks before you hear a familiar reference to the KL divergence and flashbulb remember "your research" ages ago.
The period of frenzy gazing to avoid looking like an imbecile, while proving your idiocy is what I call the "Meerkat Monocle Mannerism". You might see a publication of this in nature in the far future.
PS:
For people who have never heard of the transmogrifier - http://members.shaw.ca/newsong/calvin.html
For people who don't know what the KL divergence is; take a course in linear algebra, I'm sure wikipedia doesn't do justice
For people who have never seen a meerkat in action - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWKW-dw9cuY (albeit the video claims its wales, its thanks to the work of the transmogrifier)
10 April, 2011
Learning to play
The concept of learning itself comes from the idea of playing. The first words we learn, the first time we ride our cycles, the first time you hold a bat. There is something very basic and essential in that "first time". We are eager to pick up and explore the tools at our disposal, only for the fun of it. There is no sense of purpose, achievement or competition to motivate and propel you forwards. That basic "first time" instinct though is lost on us as we age.
A few of the first times happened a little late for me, the first time I ever rode a bike was just a couple of years ago. It wasn't a sense of achievement, "yaay I can ride a bike now" or an inflated ego boost that got me going to learn then. I was afraid at first, to fall down, to go into traffic and not being able to move, but at some point my curiosity got the better of me. I was not flying through the wind, but I was definitely moving. In all this mind you, I never fell down once, albeit I only traveled in the safety of my neighborhood and not in the wild country or the mean highways. The feeling of the first time, the quaint exhilaration and the magical bliss, can propel into an euphoric trance.
Whats the point of that anecdote you might ask? The point is this, you need to take the plunge sometimes in the depths of the unknown not knowing what the rewards are, make a leap of faith and hope to land on your feet. It is not always possible and you might land on your head, this should not deter your ability to take risks, explore and learn to play. Sometimes, infact most of the times, its quite alright to make a fool of yourself. The reason I am writing about this is primarily to remind myself to explore the craziness in the world around me.
In the words of my friend's email signature -
A few of the first times happened a little late for me, the first time I ever rode a bike was just a couple of years ago. It wasn't a sense of achievement, "yaay I can ride a bike now" or an inflated ego boost that got me going to learn then. I was afraid at first, to fall down, to go into traffic and not being able to move, but at some point my curiosity got the better of me. I was not flying through the wind, but I was definitely moving. In all this mind you, I never fell down once, albeit I only traveled in the safety of my neighborhood and not in the wild country or the mean highways. The feeling of the first time, the quaint exhilaration and the magical bliss, can propel into an euphoric trance.
Whats the point of that anecdote you might ask? The point is this, you need to take the plunge sometimes in the depths of the unknown not knowing what the rewards are, make a leap of faith and hope to land on your feet. It is not always possible and you might land on your head, this should not deter your ability to take risks, explore and learn to play. Sometimes, infact most of the times, its quite alright to make a fool of yourself. The reason I am writing about this is primarily to remind myself to explore the craziness in the world around me.
In the words of my friend's email signature -
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” ~ Mark Twain
06 December, 2010
Ubuntu 10.10 Filesystem access through windows 7
For a long time I was waiting for a good app to access my linux FS without booting into it.
Lo and behold, here it is
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2read/files/Ext2read%20Version%202.2%20(Latest)/ext2explore-2.2.71.zip/download
It works nicely for my windows. I havent tried writing to linux, but read works like a charm.
Lo and behold, here it is
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ext2read/files/Ext2read%20Version%202.2%20(Latest)/ext2explore-2.2.71.zip/download
It works nicely for my windows. I havent tried writing to linux, but read works like a charm.
01 December, 2010
Discovering order in chaos and learning to control it
A course I have taken this semester has lent my imagination a new kick-start. When you learn about Karl Sims' creatures, Hod Lipson's data extraction, Turing's reaction diffusion models and Neumann's self replicator, you are dumb founded, inspired, amazed.
To this day I believe in my skills as an observer and experimenter, but when I read about Neumann and his penchant to visualize processes, trace phenomena correctly without any knowledge I am left speechless. Turing's quirkiness was particularly well known, but his thought about finding patterns through morphogenesis and obviously the Turing machine. The present day researchers are not too far behind, Lipson's work seems interesting and very promising.
Now that I have all that out of my system, let me talk about these few guys from the max planck institute who have aroused my curiosity and beckoned my imagination to sit and ponder of the what-ifs and could-bes. This bunch of people who have been featured in nature - http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v6/n3/full/nphys1508.html have observed unique neural behaviour in insects and captured it in a simple neuron model whose ground state is chaotic but is controlled by sensory inputs to generate behaviours. These discoveries in the neural behaviour and contruction could shed light on the actual neural processes in humans leading to potentially simple and effective models of behaviour. In combination with techniques like subsumption architectures(doomed as a failure or atleast not so successful), we could look at simple and evolvable solutions to various problems in locomotion and path planning.
Going further, if we could apply a chaotic organization mechanism to the reasoning process in AI, we would have made great advances. The reasoning scheme in AI has huge problems with representation and these problems will continue to haunt us, but some progress towards such self organizing behavior would definitely go a long way.
To this day I believe in my skills as an observer and experimenter, but when I read about Neumann and his penchant to visualize processes, trace phenomena correctly without any knowledge I am left speechless. Turing's quirkiness was particularly well known, but his thought about finding patterns through morphogenesis and obviously the Turing machine. The present day researchers are not too far behind, Lipson's work seems interesting and very promising.
Now that I have all that out of my system, let me talk about these few guys from the max planck institute who have aroused my curiosity and beckoned my imagination to sit and ponder of the what-ifs and could-bes. This bunch of people who have been featured in nature - http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v6/n3/full/nphys1508.html have observed unique neural behaviour in insects and captured it in a simple neuron model whose ground state is chaotic but is controlled by sensory inputs to generate behaviours. These discoveries in the neural behaviour and contruction could shed light on the actual neural processes in humans leading to potentially simple and effective models of behaviour. In combination with techniques like subsumption architectures(doomed as a failure or atleast not so successful), we could look at simple and evolvable solutions to various problems in locomotion and path planning.
Going further, if we could apply a chaotic organization mechanism to the reasoning process in AI, we would have made great advances. The reasoning scheme in AI has huge problems with representation and these problems will continue to haunt us, but some progress towards such self organizing behavior would definitely go a long way.
04 November, 2010
Player - stage Installation
Installing the player/stage I ran into a few problems and did not find good solutions, I am posting what worked for me-
1. Download the player project
2. Extract the player folder
3. sudo apt-get install python-gdal netcdfg-dev libpq-dev libhdf4g-dev libgeos-dev libatk1.0-0 lib3ds-dev freeglut3-dev
4. Run cmake (if you want create a directory for build like the install guide specfies)
5. Run make
6. Run sudo make install
7. add the following to your .bashrc file
export PATH=$PATH:"/usr/local/lib64"
export PLAYERPATH="/usr/local/lib":"/usr/local/lib64"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:"/usr/local/lib":"/usr/local/lib64"
This should get you to set up.
This link http://www.control.aau.dk/~tb/wiki/index.php/Installing_Player_and_Stage_in_Ubuntu has a lot of information for installing and configuring your player information
1. Download the player project
2. Extract the player folder
3. sudo apt-get install python-gdal netcdfg-dev libpq-dev libhdf4g-dev libgeos-dev libatk1.0-0 lib3ds-dev freeglut3-dev
4. Run cmake (if you want create a directory for build like the install guide specfies)
5. Run make
6. Run sudo make install
7. add the following to your .bashrc file
export PATH=$PATH:"/usr/local/lib64"
export PLAYERPATH="/usr/local/lib":"/usr/local/lib64"
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:"/usr/local/lib":"/usr/local/lib64"
This should get you to set up.
This link http://www.control.aau.dk/~tb/wiki/index.php/Installing_Player_and_Stage_in_Ubuntu has a lot of information for installing and configuring your player information
06 October, 2010
The vienna philharmonic star wars
Any like minded geek would have heard of star wars, seen it, worshipped yoda and lucas. The movie acts at different levels, playing out human relationships and the ever prevalent fight between good and evil. There would definitely have been times when people have referenced the death star, the "may the force be with you" in situations totally unrelated to the empire or the jedi knight.
I have really enjoyed the star wars music, humming "da dada da daaa, pom papapum". This music evokes emotions in humans which can range from "oh no not that song" to "wow" to "what the hell is that?". Surmising these emotions in a word can never be done, so I shall let you see the magic that this music can create.
Recraeted by the vienna philharmonic - the star wars theme in all its glory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9xrmThlsOA
(p.s.: look at the number of people sitting to watch and listen to this, cross cultural, cross planetary, and simply superb)
I have really enjoyed the star wars music, humming "da dada da daaa, pom papapum". This music evokes emotions in humans which can range from "oh no not that song" to "wow" to "what the hell is that?". Surmising these emotions in a word can never be done, so I shall let you see the magic that this music can create.
Recraeted by the vienna philharmonic - the star wars theme in all its glory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9xrmThlsOA
(p.s.: look at the number of people sitting to watch and listen to this, cross cultural, cross planetary, and simply superb)
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