The Oscars were presented last night leaving me with the feeling that its the tip of the iceberg with a lot more goodie movies under the glacier.Anyways compiled a subset of movies to check off during the course of the year.( I frequently scratch my head at the video store trying to figure what to rent. I will use keep updating this post for instant decisions next time.)
0. The Dreamers
1. Finding Neverland
2. The Door in the Floor
3. Look at Me (French)
4. Closer
5. The Last Shot
6. The Sea Inside
Of course this is apart from the good ones I've seen like Before Sunset, Some Spanish movie whose name I couldnt recollect, The Incredibles, Sideways and some others which I cant recollect now.
Monday, February 28, 2005
More Elevator Funkiness
I have a brand new addition to append to my earlier post on elevator funkiness. The last post was about the elevators in my old office. We have moved into new premises where everything is spanking new and have seen the new elevators run with smoothness (The richness of a recorded woman's voice telling you "Going Up" or "Going Down" status was considerably admired)
Now, As Usual I came up to my office and pressed the button for my floor.A red LED on the 5th floor told me that the elevator was happy to serve my choice. A stop at the Second floor made it felt the need to be selective about memory. I mean there were 4 people in the elevator who needed to refresh the elevator's memory by repressing the switches for their respective floors.
Third floor shows up because somebody wanted to get out and again the elevator turns off all the LED lights (the only interface used to assure us that it is working). We needed to do our thing again.
We all came to the conclusion(hope you'll agree) that Alzheimer's Disease is not restrcited to humans alone.Sigh!
Now, As Usual I came up to my office and pressed the button for my floor.A red LED on the 5th floor told me that the elevator was happy to serve my choice. A stop at the Second floor made it felt the need to be selective about memory. I mean there were 4 people in the elevator who needed to refresh the elevator's memory by repressing the switches for their respective floors.
Third floor shows up because somebody wanted to get out and again the elevator turns off all the LED lights (the only interface used to assure us that it is working). We needed to do our thing again.
We all came to the conclusion(hope you'll agree) that Alzheimer's Disease is not restrcited to humans alone.Sigh!
Saturday, February 26, 2005
Random Things
I see that the word 'random' occurs in most blogs in some or the other context. Sometimes its not really random but probably absolves people of making any connection/relevance.(Atleast I do it for that purpose)
The topic of my favorite randomness is that of a 'fortune cookie'.The ones you find in chinese restaurants at the end of the meal or in your carryout bags. There is an urban myth floating around that says you should append the words "in bed" to every fortune cookie saying.Makes you laugh sometimes. :)
There is a Unix equivalent for this. Simply type in "fortune" on any of the Unix machine you might have access to and you get a nice random quote loaded from a prebuilt datasource. If you are unlucky, It might not work at all ( Go find the SysAd and ask him to enable it. Tell him its very important). In order to write a custom "fortune" program, I have collected some of these papers as my raw data.( I had to eat a lot of chinese even to make a decent collection)
Now my enthusiasm for writing the program faded away because mentally the challenge is over.
I just hit an idea to disburse my fortune sayings collection. I am going to keep one in every library book that I am going to borrow, so that the next patron would have a nice surprise. Far better than the program idea methinks.
Here's to another weekend..
The topic of my favorite randomness is that of a 'fortune cookie'.The ones you find in chinese restaurants at the end of the meal or in your carryout bags. There is an urban myth floating around that says you should append the words "in bed" to every fortune cookie saying.Makes you laugh sometimes. :)
There is a Unix equivalent for this. Simply type in "fortune" on any of the Unix machine you might have access to and you get a nice random quote loaded from a prebuilt datasource. If you are unlucky, It might not work at all ( Go find the SysAd and ask him to enable it. Tell him its very important). In order to write a custom "fortune" program, I have collected some of these papers as my raw data.( I had to eat a lot of chinese even to make a decent collection)
Now my enthusiasm for writing the program faded away because mentally the challenge is over.
I just hit an idea to disburse my fortune sayings collection. I am going to keep one in every library book that I am going to borrow, so that the next patron would have a nice surprise. Far better than the program idea methinks.
Here's to another weekend..
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Good Riddance
Another random stream of ramble thats running in my head
On particular interpretation of Inertia is that it is " The property of an object to resist acceleration. As one of the most basic concepts of physics, it is still poorly understood. It is believed to be a property of bodies primarily due to their interaction with masses at the edges of the Universe." Inertia is measured by Momentum (mass times velocity) .
Anyways, the topic of my concern has to do with Inertia of Lifestyle. Humans, being a creature of habit, like the status quo of their daily humdrum. Talking to people, In realise that inherently people want to make changes to their existing lifestyle but are pre-empted by the local gravity of their environment (read wife,kids,parents or some other intangible bonding that keeps them tied).I believe this field increases in strength as one grows older. (The older you get, the greater mass you accrue and slower you become thus increasing your inertia).This is not a problem for people who consider home is where they park.
"Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road."
Forks always make you think "What is it I really want?" . They make you conscious of the road you left behind and the ground beneath your feet. Reminds you of the richters you survived, shade grown delights you savored, golden sunrises and other things that usually direct your choice at the fork. Its nice to think of those decisions which are made by "you" and not by "reasons". I say this because there are certain decisions, where if I remove the scaffolding of your rationale, you would still stick by your guns. Now those are exactly the calls the decide a particular game in your favor or turn the tables.
Usually a Change is met with a Squirm because of the Uncertainity involved.(Unless you yourself initiated that change Even in that case you still have crossed fingers despite the gut feeling). Most of us just adjust to a change initiated by some or something like environmental factors.( I use the term Environmental very loosely here). I am not saying Change in itself is hard, adapting to the change definitely is, and a good reason for me to stay put rather than rock the boat.
5 years back, I did do something that eventually panned out Okay discounting some minor perturbances. Its that time of the decade for me again.About to do something that has some semblance to my earlier decision except that the stakes are higher this time and the consequences a little harsher than the last time. Nor will I have the support structure that was offered earlier to solace me. Its not as bad as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walking into fire or something. I guess I will be alright.Just need to shed one more skin here.
On particular interpretation of Inertia is that it is " The property of an object to resist acceleration. As one of the most basic concepts of physics, it is still poorly understood. It is believed to be a property of bodies primarily due to their interaction with masses at the edges of the Universe." Inertia is measured by Momentum (mass times velocity) .
Anyways, the topic of my concern has to do with Inertia of Lifestyle. Humans, being a creature of habit, like the status quo of their daily humdrum. Talking to people, In realise that inherently people want to make changes to their existing lifestyle but are pre-empted by the local gravity of their environment (read wife,kids,parents or some other intangible bonding that keeps them tied).I believe this field increases in strength as one grows older. (The older you get, the greater mass you accrue and slower you become thus increasing your inertia).This is not a problem for people who consider home is where they park.
"Another turning point;
a fork stuck in the road."
Forks always make you think "What is it I really want?" . They make you conscious of the road you left behind and the ground beneath your feet. Reminds you of the richters you survived, shade grown delights you savored, golden sunrises and other things that usually direct your choice at the fork. Its nice to think of those decisions which are made by "you" and not by "reasons". I say this because there are certain decisions, where if I remove the scaffolding of your rationale, you would still stick by your guns. Now those are exactly the calls the decide a particular game in your favor or turn the tables.
Usually a Change is met with a Squirm because of the Uncertainity involved.(Unless you yourself initiated that change Even in that case you still have crossed fingers despite the gut feeling). Most of us just adjust to a change initiated by some or something like environmental factors.( I use the term Environmental very loosely here). I am not saying Change in itself is hard, adapting to the change definitely is, and a good reason for me to stay put rather than rock the boat.
5 years back, I did do something that eventually panned out Okay discounting some minor perturbances. Its that time of the decade for me again.About to do something that has some semblance to my earlier decision except that the stakes are higher this time and the consequences a little harsher than the last time. Nor will I have the support structure that was offered earlier to solace me. Its not as bad as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walking into fire or something. I guess I will be alright.Just need to shed one more skin here.
"For what it's worth,
it was worth all the while.
It's something unpredicatable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life"
ps : Lyrics are from a Green Day track of the same title as this post.
it was worth all the while.
It's something unpredicatable
but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life"
ps : Lyrics are from a Green Day track of the same title as this post.
Monday, February 21, 2005
The Jaguar Smile
There was a young girl of Nic' ragua
Who smiled as she rode on a jaguar
They returned from the ride
With the young girl inside
And the smile on the face of the jaguar
-Anon
This is the opening page I have just read from the first edition of "The Jaguar Smile". I guess the Jaguar is a metaphor for the revolution and the young girl a symbol of Nicaragua itself.
Who smiled as she rode on a jaguar
They returned from the ride
With the young girl inside
And the smile on the face of the jaguar
-Anon
This is the opening page I have just read from the first edition of "The Jaguar Smile". I guess the Jaguar is a metaphor for the revolution and the young girl a symbol of Nicaragua itself.
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Post Darwinism
There is nothing like in flight reading. This is where I see some execs catch up on something like "What the hottest trend in IT now?" and go back to implement the said things in a magazine. I call this "reading edge" (Though you lack the depth in the subject, the shallowness is more than compensated by the fact that you can draw some conclusions based upon it because the language is so accesible and sounds simple) as opposed to "bleeding edge".
Anyways I had a flight back home and caught up on my magazine reading. Freeman Dyson actually wrote a review on a paper published by Carl Woese called "A New Biology for a new Century". I am writing a summary on a summary, though I will be quoting his words mostly.
The paper raises a profound question, When did Darwinian evolution begin? Apparently he presented evidence that darwinian evolution did not go back to the beginning of life. This was called "horizontal gene transfer" (as sharing of genes between species was prevalent).This meant that separate species didnt exist because Life meant a community of cells sharing the chemical tricks and processes invented or discovered by one could be inherited by all of them.Evolution then was a communal affair.
One fine day a cell decided to find itself a notch higher than the rest of the cells in efficiency. So it separated itself from its community and refused to share. Its offspring were the first species.Its superior efficiency helped it to evolve and prosper separately.Imagine this process recursively dividing the community until all life is divided into species.
Now Darwinian evolution is slow because individual species evolve little. ( Imagine its very easy for you to get 90% but after that you have to put a lot of fight for each single percent point).As per Dyson, three innovations helped to speed up the pace of evolution. (Much like catalysts!)
Anyways I had a flight back home and caught up on my magazine reading. Freeman Dyson actually wrote a review on a paper published by Carl Woese called "A New Biology for a new Century". I am writing a summary on a summary, though I will be quoting his words mostly.
The paper raises a profound question, When did Darwinian evolution begin? Apparently he presented evidence that darwinian evolution did not go back to the beginning of life. This was called "horizontal gene transfer" (as sharing of genes between species was prevalent).This meant that separate species didnt exist because Life meant a community of cells sharing the chemical tricks and processes invented or discovered by one could be inherited by all of them.Evolution then was a communal affair.
One fine day a cell decided to find itself a notch higher than the rest of the cells in efficiency. So it separated itself from its community and refused to share. Its offspring were the first species.Its superior efficiency helped it to evolve and prosper separately.Imagine this process recursively dividing the community until all life is divided into species.
Now Darwinian evolution is slow because individual species evolve little. ( Imagine its very easy for you to get 90% but after that you have to put a lot of fight for each single percent point).As per Dyson, three innovations helped to speed up the pace of evolution. (Much like catalysts!)
- Sex: which was a form of horizontal gene transfer within species
- Multi Cellular Organization: helped opening up a new world of form and function.
- Brains : resulting from co-ordination of sensation and action.
For new evolutionary ventures, add a mass extinction here and there.Here is the meat of the paper.After some 3 billion years , the darwinian era is over.The epoch of species competition came to an end because one species (that of Homo Sapiens) began to dominate and re-organize the biosphere.When was the last time you saw a human mutate into something (though secretly I belive brains evolved by different laws)
So, Cultural Evolution seemed to have displaced biological evolution as the catalyst for change.
Now Culture does not spread by genes and hence not Darwinian in nature. Whats more cultural evolution is running 1000 times faster than Darwinian( I blame it on 'paper' for spreadin it).As the boundaries diffuse between species, we'll move into a post darwinian era where life is once again communal and species no longer exist.Because Co-Operation is now becoming more important than Competition.
----------
Something to think about. Strange, because Freeman Dyson is a genius and he is to be taken seriously when he writes about something like this.My own thoughts when I read this (though factually I might be wrong)
Now why does this sound familiar to me as the six stages of communism (1.Primitive Communism 2. Feudalism 3. Monarchy 4. Democracy/Capitalism 5. Socialism 6. True Communism or something to that effect, I dont remember)..
Why does this also sound like Linux is going to out-evolve (if there is such a word) other OSes, if whats being said in theory is true in practice)
That apart., I love "post-anything". Initially in the 1980s, I thought 'Modern' was a cool word because nothing can succeed it. This was until I read some lit crit stuff where they introduced the term "Post Modernism" ..Wow! Even Modern could be succeded with something like that.
If thats the case then nothing in this world is final.Sigh!
So, Cultural Evolution seemed to have displaced biological evolution as the catalyst for change.
Now Culture does not spread by genes and hence not Darwinian in nature. Whats more cultural evolution is running 1000 times faster than Darwinian( I blame it on 'paper' for spreadin it).As the boundaries diffuse between species, we'll move into a post darwinian era where life is once again communal and species no longer exist.Because Co-Operation is now becoming more important than Competition.
----------
Something to think about. Strange, because Freeman Dyson is a genius and he is to be taken seriously when he writes about something like this.My own thoughts when I read this (though factually I might be wrong)
Now why does this sound familiar to me as the six stages of communism (1.Primitive Communism 2. Feudalism 3. Monarchy 4. Democracy/Capitalism 5. Socialism 6. True Communism or something to that effect, I dont remember)..
Why does this also sound like Linux is going to out-evolve (if there is such a word) other OSes, if whats being said in theory is true in practice)
That apart., I love "post-anything". Initially in the 1980s, I thought 'Modern' was a cool word because nothing can succeed it. This was until I read some lit crit stuff where they introduced the term "Post Modernism" ..Wow! Even Modern could be succeded with something like that.
If thats the case then nothing in this world is final.Sigh!
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Ratha Sapthami
In my last call home, my father told me of to bathe praying to sun(with a leaf of a tropical plant which is not available to me) as yesterday was "Ratha Sapthami" and its significance being that Sun's horses change their direction to the north. I translate it as Sun crossing the constellation of Capricorn and getting into Aquarius (You thought Zodiac signs were limitied in their use:).
Essentially this means that seasonally it is time for the countries up North of 23.5 latitude to get their Spring.Its always like this, he prescribes me some ancient ritual and occasionally I try figuring out the significance or the physical meaning of whats being said. More often than not I dont find any explanations.
That brings me to another ritual he was talking about a couple of months back.Its called "Sahasra ChandoDarshanotsavam" which literally means festival-to-commemorate-1000-sightings-of-the-moon.Not simply a moon but a full moon (how many of us go out and watch the full moon despite knowing that fact, but then whom am I to question).
I set to calculate how many full moons past I am.It comes up to 324 and I hardly could recollect 4 instances. While I am at it I calculated that date I would be eligible for this celebration. Comes out to be exactly on February 8,2060.(I would be 82). Buddha is alleged to had his at 80 years. I have this pet theory that the least age for this would be 80 years and at most 84 years (still havent worked out the Math there but am sure could be done.Calendars could be nasty).
I figured watching full moons is not as much a calendrical notion for the 21st century.So let me denote the new calendrical notion that people ought to be more comfortable with should be the concept of a weekend. I counted the number of weekends I have been through so far. Comes to about 1376 as of today.I will imagine the first 300 odd weekends were when I was a kid and hence wouldnt count.So I guess I am going to celebrate crossing my 1000 weekend party this Friday.
I completely lost track of what I started to say, but whatever...On a sidenote there is this wonderful movie by Shyam Benegal's called "Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda" which has a studded ending.
Essentially this means that seasonally it is time for the countries up North of 23.5 latitude to get their Spring.Its always like this, he prescribes me some ancient ritual and occasionally I try figuring out the significance or the physical meaning of whats being said. More often than not I dont find any explanations.
That brings me to another ritual he was talking about a couple of months back.Its called "Sahasra ChandoDarshanotsavam" which literally means festival-to-commemorate-1000-sightings-of-the-moon.Not simply a moon but a full moon (how many of us go out and watch the full moon despite knowing that fact, but then whom am I to question).
I set to calculate how many full moons past I am.It comes up to 324 and I hardly could recollect 4 instances. While I am at it I calculated that date I would be eligible for this celebration. Comes out to be exactly on February 8,2060.(I would be 82). Buddha is alleged to had his at 80 years. I have this pet theory that the least age for this would be 80 years and at most 84 years (still havent worked out the Math there but am sure could be done.Calendars could be nasty).
I figured watching full moons is not as much a calendrical notion for the 21st century.So let me denote the new calendrical notion that people ought to be more comfortable with should be the concept of a weekend. I counted the number of weekends I have been through so far. Comes to about 1376 as of today.I will imagine the first 300 odd weekends were when I was a kid and hence wouldnt count.So I guess I am going to celebrate crossing my 1000 weekend party this Friday.
I completely lost track of what I started to say, but whatever...On a sidenote there is this wonderful movie by Shyam Benegal's called "Suraj Ka Satvan Ghoda" which has a studded ending.
Sunday, February 13, 2005
Penelope Strings Her Bow
I am Penelope; I am tired.
My fingers ache from 20 years of weaving,
Sitting straight at my distaff and loom.
Each morning I unseal my eyes to the sound
Of your movements across the sea,
Sailing farther and farther and farther
From me and love.
I've slept alone, shivering in an olive bed,
Chained and chaste to its great solid roots,
While you sail, sail to women who love you hard.
Oh, severe mercy of Death!
Why not send me away to brave deeds too?
The greatest punishment is to be left, cold.
Rumors of your conquests slip through old ladies' teeth.
Menacing whispers tickle my ears.
My weaving is done, the unraveling too.
I will weave my own shroud of death.
So, just as I return to a lonely bed each night,
My beloved Odysseus will return to sadness as well.
-Author Unknown
Friday, February 11, 2005
The Free Radio Experiment
Not so long ago there was foundation team who was trying to teach birth control in India.They gave an incentive in the form of a free transistor radio to anyone who attended their educational lectures. Despite their best efforts the birth rate remained at a steady average of 4.6 per family. This unchanging fact was a source of great dismay and perplexity to the team of Americans who were about to deem the project a failure. The solution to this mystery illustrates the counter intuitive behavior in social dynamics of the Welfare State.
They discovered that in India there are no retirement benefits, social security or unemployment benefits. The retirement system is based on three sons. It takes an average of 4.6 births to produce three sons, so guess what?
They discovered that in India there are no retirement benefits, social security or unemployment benefits. The retirement system is based on three sons. It takes an average of 4.6 births to produce three sons, so guess what?
There is a nice short story plotting around this by Salman Rushdie in his book East,West: Stories .He subtly twists this to show that people who got the Radio, had access to information other than the state media (e.g Radio Ceylon) and thus defeating the purpose of the state's propaganda.(or so I understood)
If you are really into the these kind of tragico-comic character tales of the Welfare State, I wholeheartedly recommend Upamanyu Chatterjee's sequel to "English, August" titled "The Mammaries Of the Welfare State". (Warning: The sharpness of Agastya may be a li'l too good for comfort)
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
The Board and Carly
I am happy to hear this news that Hewlett-Packard has finally gotten rid of its controversial CEO Carly Fiorina. She was a celebrity CEO that led HP down a very adventurous path in the last six years and almost destroyed HP's culture. I personally had friends who quit due to some of her management changes. Remember HP is the first company in Palo Alto that started the Silicon Valley.Nevertheless she is still regarded as the most powerful woman in the business today.
First off "The HP Way", which was the guiding philosopy that borderlined on religion for some, helped keep employees glued together. She apparently has tried to alter it to some unrealised corporate advantage. For example her act of cutting down 6000 jobs in a company which has never heard of a layoff. This definitely brought down the morale of the employees in a bleak economy. Her process oriented ways to change the geekiness of the company was probably a castalyst for all the good ones to leave.In fact if you look at HP's core competency, "The HP Way" is way at the top, just like Mercedes' core competency is its heritage.
People do give her credit for taking Lucent public, but we all know now what a mess Lucent is now. Of course it is difficult to untangle her involvement because the market was booming and Telecom was leading the way for that then.It would be unfair to hold this against her, so we
'll let bygones be bygones.
Next the Compaq Merger. The scion of HP was because he opposed the merger whereas Ms.Fiorina actually is credited to be the Mastermind of the merger. Guess which side the Board listened to.Fine. Now what? HP is gonna take Dell on its home turf? We know how good the competition is in that business.(Hint : IBM recently sold off its PC division to Lenovo of China). To beat Dell, you need to be producing a higher than Dell quality for lower than Dell price which was definitely not HP.
Next she tried to position HP as a e-services company among other things.In short she tried to take on competition from both the low end PC maker to high end enterprise service providers.
I am a witness to the process of IBM edging out HP at our client's location despite some very good solutions.The only reason HP could maintain some figures were due to its leadership in Printers.
Om Malik has an interesting opinion, in that the entire board should be booted because they were the very ones who threw out her predeccesor and supported her.The reason his opinion counts is because of this prophetic open letter addressed to her in 2002.
First off "The HP Way", which was the guiding philosopy that borderlined on religion for some, helped keep employees glued together. She apparently has tried to alter it to some unrealised corporate advantage. For example her act of cutting down 6000 jobs in a company which has never heard of a layoff. This definitely brought down the morale of the employees in a bleak economy. Her process oriented ways to change the geekiness of the company was probably a castalyst for all the good ones to leave.In fact if you look at HP's core competency, "The HP Way" is way at the top, just like Mercedes' core competency is its heritage.
People do give her credit for taking Lucent public, but we all know now what a mess Lucent is now. Of course it is difficult to untangle her involvement because the market was booming and Telecom was leading the way for that then.It would be unfair to hold this against her, so we
'll let bygones be bygones.
Next the Compaq Merger. The scion of HP was because he opposed the merger whereas Ms.Fiorina actually is credited to be the Mastermind of the merger. Guess which side the Board listened to.Fine. Now what? HP is gonna take Dell on its home turf? We know how good the competition is in that business.(Hint : IBM recently sold off its PC division to Lenovo of China). To beat Dell, you need to be producing a higher than Dell quality for lower than Dell price which was definitely not HP.
Next she tried to position HP as a e-services company among other things.In short she tried to take on competition from both the low end PC maker to high end enterprise service providers.
I am a witness to the process of IBM edging out HP at our client's location despite some very good solutions.The only reason HP could maintain some figures were due to its leadership in Printers.
Om Malik has an interesting opinion, in that the entire board should be booted because they were the very ones who threw out her predeccesor and supported her.The reason his opinion counts is because of this prophetic open letter addressed to her in 2002.
Tuesday, February 08, 2005
Ramanujan's Work
Most Indians know that Srinivasa Ramanujan as a mathematical genius. Ask them atleast one equation that he conjectured/proved or in general to summarise his contribution to Mathematics in general, you will draw a blank most of the time.Not that this is a bad thing or everone is expected to answer, but just for the sake of holding yours in the conversation.
For example take the simple identity of
1+2+3+4+5+6.... infinity = - 1/12 (negative one-twelfth)
Chew on that!Yeah! Ramanujan proved that if you sum all whole numbers to infinity, the result is a negative fraction.Not simply that, he conjectured so many equations and identities, that a good chunk of what he wrote is still left open to proof. (He conjectured that 2 power N minus 7 is a square only for 3,4,5,7 and 15 which is verified till 10 power 40)
Consider the equation n! +1 = m ^2 . (That is n factorial +1 equals a perfect square. )
Ramanujan conjectured that n=4, 5, 7 are the only solutions. So far it has been verified till 10^9 and it is almost 'virtually certain' that he was right.
There are so many like these. There is this new site (that is still being constructed ) that seems to have his collected papers, questions, notebooks and other miscellaneous information scanned in to the site. It is an excellent resource to get acquainted with his life/work.
When he was on his death bed he was working on mock-theta functions, these are functions that are not theta functions but imitate them. His work on continued fractions is still modern enough.
Just some random notes on him..
For example take the simple identity of
1+2+3+4+5+6.... infinity = - 1/12 (negative one-twelfth)
Chew on that!Yeah! Ramanujan proved that if you sum all whole numbers to infinity, the result is a negative fraction.Not simply that, he conjectured so many equations and identities, that a good chunk of what he wrote is still left open to proof. (He conjectured that 2 power N minus 7 is a square only for 3,4,5,7 and 15 which is verified till 10 power 40)
Consider the equation n! +1 = m ^2 . (That is n factorial +1 equals a perfect square. )
Ramanujan conjectured that n=4, 5, 7 are the only solutions. So far it has been verified till 10^9 and it is almost 'virtually certain' that he was right.
There are so many like these. There is this new site (that is still being constructed ) that seems to have his collected papers, questions, notebooks and other miscellaneous information scanned in to the site. It is an excellent resource to get acquainted with his life/work.
When he was on his death bed he was working on mock-theta functions, these are functions that are not theta functions but imitate them. His work on continued fractions is still modern enough.
Just some random notes on him..
Monday, February 07, 2005
Fractional TimeZone
Whenever I call home, I have to do this li'l math of timezones to keep track of the time in India.Who decided that India has to have this perverse GMT+ 5.5 hours as the IST. The Geography or Politcs or something else entirely?
A little whirl back in 1884 lead up to a conference in Washington DC standardized the entire operation of timekeeping by dividing the world into 24 zones with GMT as the base reference.It could have been anything but this one is convenient as there is hardly any major landmass that gets divided by the International Date Line.(Imagine living in a place with 2 dates at the same time). So far so good. Most countries rounded off ther local time to differ by GMT in whole hours and as long as everyone followed, they differed from their adjacent timezones by a single hour.
How was time kept before this conference.Simple.Maharajas used Jantar Mantars to calculate the local mean time by taking noon as the reference.Those exotic sundials should still tell us the local mean time.
After the 1884 conference, India was straddled between two timezones of GMt+5 and GMT+6 and guess what we choose.Neither. I say the seeds of Non Aligned Moment were sown at that moment.(Does that rob Nehru of the originality for the idea?) What happens to Nepal. They decided to beat us10 minutes from us and started using GMT+5.6 .Excellent.Way to go! I dont know of any other major country that has fractional timezones. Enough Said.Let me make my call.
A little whirl back in 1884 lead up to a conference in Washington DC standardized the entire operation of timekeeping by dividing the world into 24 zones with GMT as the base reference.It could have been anything but this one is convenient as there is hardly any major landmass that gets divided by the International Date Line.(Imagine living in a place with 2 dates at the same time). So far so good. Most countries rounded off ther local time to differ by GMT in whole hours and as long as everyone followed, they differed from their adjacent timezones by a single hour.
How was time kept before this conference.Simple.Maharajas used Jantar Mantars to calculate the local mean time by taking noon as the reference.Those exotic sundials should still tell us the local mean time.
After the 1884 conference, India was straddled between two timezones of GMt+5 and GMT+6 and guess what we choose.Neither. I say the seeds of Non Aligned Moment were sown at that moment.(Does that rob Nehru of the originality for the idea?) What happens to Nepal. They decided to beat us10 minutes from us and started using GMT+5.6 .Excellent.Way to go! I dont know of any other major country that has fractional timezones. Enough Said.Let me make my call.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Music of the Day
Raj left for India to get married.Wonder why people need to marry? Anyways was just lazing around the house today.Listened to Music whole day with occasional outings for food and coffee.
Music grabs of the day
Channa Vey by Kunal Ganjawla - This track has some mystic quality.The guy simply croons with the mike with no balle balle kind of stuff. I cant catch much punjabi(despite living in Jalandhar) but essentially very melodious.Struck as a very different Punjabi song(has some country beginnings) and haunting.
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams by Green Day - Excellent song . I guess would have liked it even if it were not by Green Day. Reminded me of the lines of Tagore's 'Yadi tor dak shune keu na ase tabe ekla chalo re' (If no one comes to respond to your call, go forth all alone)
Nightie Night!!
Music grabs of the day
Channa Vey by Kunal Ganjawla - This track has some mystic quality.The guy simply croons with the mike with no balle balle kind of stuff. I cant catch much punjabi(despite living in Jalandhar) but essentially very melodious.Struck as a very different Punjabi song(has some country beginnings) and haunting.
Boulevard Of Broken Dreams by Green Day - Excellent song . I guess would have liked it even if it were not by Green Day. Reminded me of the lines of Tagore's 'Yadi tor dak shune keu na ase tabe ekla chalo re' (If no one comes to respond to your call, go forth all alone)
Nightie Night!!
Art of Motoring II - Grace in Driving
This is in continuation of part one
You're never a motorer than when you are surrounded by drivers.But perhaps other drivers will take your cue and begin to motor themselves.Because at any moment drivers can become motorers.They dont need a car.It is possible to motor on a tractor.Of course its possible to go swimming with all your clothes on, but it's not the best way to do things.
If you are going to motor, motor in a strange and wonderful alchemy of steel,aluminum,graphite,dreams and sweat.Motor in something built by designers who use pencil and paper instead of computers.By designers who listened to their hearts not focus groups.
If you are using a parking meter and you see a meter maid in the vicinity writing tickets,check to see if the meters for the cars parked near you have expired.If so, drop in some change.Just enough for a few more minutes and time to let the cop pass.Dont hesitate to look out for someone just because you'll never meet them.Sometimes you dont help someone for gratitude but to keep them from having a bad day. Motorers look out for one another.At a toll booth on days when you're feeling particularly motoresque, consider paying the toll for the car behind you.Not because you are saving them from something but because it feels good to put a smile on somebody's face. You've just given them a story to tell their friends. And all it cost you was a few cents. Who knows? May be they'll return the favor to another driver and become motorer's themselves.
While one can easily motor by themselves, the company of others often adds to the experience. And when friends are unavailable,remember, dogs love to motor.Never underestimate the value of a co-pilot. A passenger's suggestion may lead to a more interesting route than what you had in mind . And there's no such thing as a bad idea.A motorer understands that on any given street amazing things can happen.However this idea is not so altruistic as to claim the stereo is now open to everyone.Let's not get carried away here.The owner still has the final say when it comes to sound system and retains all veto power even when another passenger has been placed in temporary charge.Anything else would be anarchy.
Motorer's strive to be accomplished commanders of their cars.Of course, they're not born with the gift.Moves have to be practiced. Skills must be honed.While average drivers shy away from parallel parking,motorers jump at the chance.Its an opportunity to shine- to be so dead-on accurate that people on the sidewalk toss them a compliment.The same principle of perfection holds true for cars with a clutch. There's no no shame in practicing. Fill a cup of water and place it on the dash.Practice until your moves are so smooth and steady that not a drop of water spills.No certificates will deem you a master motorer.Only a fluid shift.Or a textbook parking maneuver.Or an apex climbing turn. Or a graceful lane change.
+ve to +ve,-ve to -ve, start your car, start the car with a dead battery.A motorer could recite these steps in his or her sleep.Motorer's ears perk up when someone walks through their office asking for jumper cables. Together with their car they get to play hero.They take pride in the fact that during the process of connecting their car to a car in need, they donate a li'l bit of their car's life.A car may never be able to give blood but there will always be the jump start.Even when you are the only one motoring in your car, you wont be alone.Any journey you take, your car will be with you.And it'll let you know how its doing and whats its ready for.A car's brain is continously analyzing the way you motor and tells you when its time to take it to the pit stop. If the car had a mind you would be able to read it.it works both ways.On a proper stretch of road, you'll feel as though your car is reading your mind.
Remember the first day you got your license? That was some good motoring.Stripe it.Chrome it.Dashboard figurine it.Fuzzy-dice it.Whitewall it.Hyraulicize it.Trick it.Shiny-mama-mud-flap it.License plate frame it.Number plate it.Hula girl it.Graduation-tassel it.baby on board it.Decal it.Paint it.Bumper sticker it.Window sticker it.Nothing it.Do whatever to it. You wont hurt the manufacturer's feelings.Everybody wants their car to say something different about them.It only makes sense that what it says about us be left to us.
And never underestimate the power of bumper sticker.Its your personal bill board.Given the impulse people have of reading bumper sticker on a car in front of them, it becomes a message to every driver who will ever be behind you. You have the power to make them smile. To make them think.To make them like you.Or to piss them off. Choose wisely.
Even though a car is great when it's in motion, dont for a minute think that you have to be moving to motor. If you're at a stoplight flirting with someone in the next car, you're motoring.If you are pulling a cooler out of the trunk at a tailgate party, you are motoring.If you're in your driveway looking up the stars through your sunroof, you are motoring. And if you're parked in your car making out, you're definitely motoring. All you need is a motoring spirit. So find yours, stop reading this and let's motor.
You're never a motorer than when you are surrounded by drivers.But perhaps other drivers will take your cue and begin to motor themselves.Because at any moment drivers can become motorers.They dont need a car.It is possible to motor on a tractor.Of course its possible to go swimming with all your clothes on, but it's not the best way to do things.
If you are going to motor, motor in a strange and wonderful alchemy of steel,aluminum,graphite,dreams and sweat.Motor in something built by designers who use pencil and paper instead of computers.By designers who listened to their hearts not focus groups.
If you are using a parking meter and you see a meter maid in the vicinity writing tickets,check to see if the meters for the cars parked near you have expired.If so, drop in some change.Just enough for a few more minutes and time to let the cop pass.Dont hesitate to look out for someone just because you'll never meet them.Sometimes you dont help someone for gratitude but to keep them from having a bad day. Motorers look out for one another.At a toll booth on days when you're feeling particularly motoresque, consider paying the toll for the car behind you.Not because you are saving them from something but because it feels good to put a smile on somebody's face. You've just given them a story to tell their friends. And all it cost you was a few cents. Who knows? May be they'll return the favor to another driver and become motorer's themselves.
While one can easily motor by themselves, the company of others often adds to the experience. And when friends are unavailable,remember, dogs love to motor.Never underestimate the value of a co-pilot. A passenger's suggestion may lead to a more interesting route than what you had in mind . And there's no such thing as a bad idea.A motorer understands that on any given street amazing things can happen.However this idea is not so altruistic as to claim the stereo is now open to everyone.Let's not get carried away here.The owner still has the final say when it comes to sound system and retains all veto power even when another passenger has been placed in temporary charge.Anything else would be anarchy.
Motorer's strive to be accomplished commanders of their cars.Of course, they're not born with the gift.Moves have to be practiced. Skills must be honed.While average drivers shy away from parallel parking,motorers jump at the chance.Its an opportunity to shine- to be so dead-on accurate that people on the sidewalk toss them a compliment.The same principle of perfection holds true for cars with a clutch. There's no no shame in practicing. Fill a cup of water and place it on the dash.Practice until your moves are so smooth and steady that not a drop of water spills.No certificates will deem you a master motorer.Only a fluid shift.Or a textbook parking maneuver.Or an apex climbing turn. Or a graceful lane change.
+ve to +ve,-ve to -ve, start your car, start the car with a dead battery.A motorer could recite these steps in his or her sleep.Motorer's ears perk up when someone walks through their office asking for jumper cables. Together with their car they get to play hero.They take pride in the fact that during the process of connecting their car to a car in need, they donate a li'l bit of their car's life.A car may never be able to give blood but there will always be the jump start.Even when you are the only one motoring in your car, you wont be alone.Any journey you take, your car will be with you.And it'll let you know how its doing and whats its ready for.A car's brain is continously analyzing the way you motor and tells you when its time to take it to the pit stop. If the car had a mind you would be able to read it.it works both ways.On a proper stretch of road, you'll feel as though your car is reading your mind.
Remember the first day you got your license? That was some good motoring.Stripe it.Chrome it.Dashboard figurine it.Fuzzy-dice it.Whitewall it.Hyraulicize it.Trick it.Shiny-mama-mud-flap it.License plate frame it.Number plate it.Hula girl it.Graduation-tassel it.baby on board it.Decal it.Paint it.Bumper sticker it.Window sticker it.Nothing it.Do whatever to it. You wont hurt the manufacturer's feelings.Everybody wants their car to say something different about them.It only makes sense that what it says about us be left to us.
Even though a car is great when it's in motion, dont for a minute think that you have to be moving to motor. If you're at a stoplight flirting with someone in the next car, you're motoring.If you are pulling a cooler out of the trunk at a tailgate party, you are motoring.If you're in your driveway looking up the stars through your sunroof, you are motoring. And if you're parked in your car making out, you're definitely motoring. All you need is a motoring spirit. So find yours, stop reading this and let's motor.
--------
The name of the Car is Mini. and I have taken some liberties in editing the text suitably so as to mention Car in place of Mini. for a heightened suspension and failed :-)
The name of the Car is Mini. and I have taken some liberties in editing the text suitably so as to mention Car in place of Mini. for a heightened suspension and failed :-)
Friday, February 04, 2005
For Whom The Ma-Bell Tolled
Founded in 1876 by Alexander Grahambell, American Telephone & Telegraph Company is a legend in the Hall of Business fame. 128 years of existence (2 raised to power 7) came to a close, in a tad bit oedipal fashion, when it was acquired by one of the baby bells called SBC(Southwestern Bell Corporation) . SBC acquired AT & T for $16 billion and the current merger valued at $70 billion.
Telecom industry is revitalizing itself with internal rebuilding after 4 years of glut to create a vibrant industry( (MCI is fingered as the next target by other bell companies such as Qwest, Verizon and BellSouth). Nevertheless AT & T, fondly called Ma-Bell by hackers, nerds and others alike, reserves a special place among them because it is simply more than a corporation.
There can be very few corporations like AT&T. It was the largest firm on the planet both by revenue and market capitalisation for most part of the last century. Ma-Bell's legendary research wing, Bell Labs, created some of greatest inventions, from the transistor to the laser, and fielded 7 Nobel laurates. It was instrumental in ensuring the success of the US in WW 2. It was a rare government sanctioned monopoly that made it a good target for punks and enabled the creation of hacker culture. It was under this Bell's shade that Claude Shannon published his most influential paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" which is the underlying theory thay enables data transmission from Satellites far across the universe. Bell Labs was the birthplace of Unix operating system that still powers the most mission critical computers today. If such a glorious history went into its evolution then What went wrong ??
My Take : It got so specialised with its own internal culture that when environmental changes in the sector demanded that the company change, it choked, because of the very factors that made the company unique. For example consider the split of Ma-Bell into Baby Bells in 1984 due to the Sherman Anti Trust act (the same one which was used in the Microsoft Antitrust case). This split was not as smooth as Rockefeller's Standard Oil company broken up into babies like Exxon,Chevron and Texaco because they dealt in commodities.AT & T provided services which a li'l bit different. To ease this pain AT & T responded voluntarily split itself into Lucent Technologies and AT &T dividing itself into services and products. I would not venture into Lucent's misgivings that came about in its short term attempts to make the shareholders happy.(e.g They delivered their equipment to customers for free who didnt order the equipment, just so that they can cook their books to record a sale and bump the share price). No wonder Sarbanes- Oxley Act was passed in 2002 just to prevent these kind of corporate misbehavior.
The Rise of a stupid network called Internet changed all that.While Ma-Bell invested itself in pumping intelligence into its voice networks, buying cable companies, entering late into wireless market, the Internet changed the world as Ma-Bell knew it. Customers demanded more data networks (which ironically ran over its very own circuits) while Ma-Bell ran into a dep debt crisis responding to their changing requirements. The problem was that AT & T, Lucent had the most wodely held stock base in the US. Those holding the stock couldnt sleep and decided to pull the plug.It makes business sense.
I lament thy demise, O' Ma-Bell...For whom did you toll :(
Telecom industry is revitalizing itself with internal rebuilding after 4 years of glut to create a vibrant industry( (MCI is fingered as the next target by other bell companies such as Qwest, Verizon and BellSouth). Nevertheless AT & T, fondly called Ma-Bell by hackers, nerds and others alike, reserves a special place among them because it is simply more than a corporation.
There can be very few corporations like AT&T. It was the largest firm on the planet both by revenue and market capitalisation for most part of the last century. Ma-Bell's legendary research wing, Bell Labs, created some of greatest inventions, from the transistor to the laser, and fielded 7 Nobel laurates. It was instrumental in ensuring the success of the US in WW 2. It was a rare government sanctioned monopoly that made it a good target for punks and enabled the creation of hacker culture. It was under this Bell's shade that Claude Shannon published his most influential paper "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" which is the underlying theory thay enables data transmission from Satellites far across the universe. Bell Labs was the birthplace of Unix operating system that still powers the most mission critical computers today. If such a glorious history went into its evolution then What went wrong ??
My Take : It got so specialised with its own internal culture that when environmental changes in the sector demanded that the company change, it choked, because of the very factors that made the company unique. For example consider the split of Ma-Bell into Baby Bells in 1984 due to the Sherman Anti Trust act (the same one which was used in the Microsoft Antitrust case). This split was not as smooth as Rockefeller's Standard Oil company broken up into babies like Exxon,Chevron and Texaco because they dealt in commodities.AT & T provided services which a li'l bit different. To ease this pain AT & T responded voluntarily split itself into Lucent Technologies and AT &T dividing itself into services and products. I would not venture into Lucent's misgivings that came about in its short term attempts to make the shareholders happy.(e.g They delivered their equipment to customers for free who didnt order the equipment, just so that they can cook their books to record a sale and bump the share price). No wonder Sarbanes- Oxley Act was passed in 2002 just to prevent these kind of corporate misbehavior.
The Rise of a stupid network called Internet changed all that.While Ma-Bell invested itself in pumping intelligence into its voice networks, buying cable companies, entering late into wireless market, the Internet changed the world as Ma-Bell knew it. Customers demanded more data networks (which ironically ran over its very own circuits) while Ma-Bell ran into a dep debt crisis responding to their changing requirements. The problem was that AT & T, Lucent had the most wodely held stock base in the US. Those holding the stock couldnt sleep and decided to pull the plug.It makes business sense.
I lament thy demise, O' Ma-Bell...For whom did you toll :(
Thursday, February 03, 2005
Snow and The Handicapped
I live in a country where people occasionally like to pretend they are Physically Handicapped, just to get a Parking Spot.
I saw another Physically Handicapped person trying to negotiate his walk over the thin ice. Even with timberland shoes, I occasionally skid and usually fall atleast once per season. The inclement weather is cruel to those disabled, for whom a fall on the wintry surface could be disastrous.I learned to turn a blind eye since the last time I saw one.
Then again, I wonder where do those guys in the Toll Booths pee.I never see a restroom nearby the toll booth. Good Night!
I saw another Physically Handicapped person trying to negotiate his walk over the thin ice. Even with timberland shoes, I occasionally skid and usually fall atleast once per season. The inclement weather is cruel to those disabled, for whom a fall on the wintry surface could be disastrous.I learned to turn a blind eye since the last time I saw one.
Then again, I wonder where do those guys in the Toll Booths pee.I never see a restroom nearby the toll booth. Good Night!
Tuesday, February 01, 2005
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