Friday, December 28, 2007

Cool Sorting animation..

If you have ever taken an Algorithms/Data Structures class, you must have came across sorting algorithms. Today I stumbled upon this cool animation. I am sure you will much better appreciate the difference between O(n^2) and O(nlgn) after watching it.

Monday, December 24, 2007

What is Unix, after all?

Came across this amazing link, on Dennis Ritchie's home page. It's a collection of Unix ads dating from 1981. Just take a look, and you will realize that Unix (and computing) have come a long way. It boasts of 2000 Unix installations, and today we have millions of GNU/Linux installations, not even counting *BSD and proprietary Unix systems. It talks about supporting 48 programmers simultaneously, today's Unix derivatives support hundreds (and maybe thousands) of simultaneous users. It also warns that Unix comes 'as-is and with no technical support'. But this has spawned an entire industry of commercial support for Unix like systems and many a people have made quite a fortune in that niche (And you will also notice that there is no email address in contact information, no sonny, these are old days). Also notice the ad for 'Microsoft Xenix'. The love affair seems to have ended (if you doubt this, search for 'Halloween Documents'), but now after the M$-Novell deal, we may again see something of this sort.

But Unix has transcended the computing world, (ok at least the Unix name), just take a look at this. A bunch of disparate 'things', somehow named Unix. So you have Unix nails, Unix TV antennas and even Unix trash cans.

But you will notice this kind of variety in the Unix computing world as well. So we have Unix like systems that run on watches and Unix like systems running Supercomputers. No other operating system can boast of such a colorful history, and no other operating system has stood the test of time so well.

Consider all this and I am reminded of Neal Stephenson's words,

"Unix is not so much an operating system as an oral history."

Monday, December 10, 2007

The man who knew infinity

Just finished reading 'The man who knew infinity', a biography of the Indian mathematical genius 'S. Ramanujan'. Born in a poor south Indian family, with access only to a little preliminary (and outdated) mathematical literature, Ramanujan discovered theorems that have baffled the best minds of mathematics ever since. Comparable in originality to the likes of Euler and Jacobi and cut off from the latest mathematical research, he rediscovered much of the mathematics of the past century for himself and made profoundly original contributions in the areas of infinite series, partition theory and highly composite numbers. His notebooks are still being studied to discover hidden nuggets. So startling were his contributions that Hardy once remarked, "These theorems must be true, as nobody could have imagined them".

While in India, owing to his single minded obsession with mathematics, Ramanujan was unable to pass the degree exam and get a job. He mailed some of his work to British mathematicians (one of whom was Hardy). Hardy recognized the brilliance of his work and brought Ramanujan to Cambridge. And so began one of the most fruitful collaborations in mathematics. But after just a few years, Ramanujan had to return back because of his ill health and died at the age of just thirty-two. But in such a small lifetime, Ramanujan managed to do so much that one can't keep but wonder what if had he lived a decade or two more?

But apart from mathematics, what he (IMHO more importantly) did was, give confidence to the youth (and in particular Indian Youth), that you can make it against all odds. And you don't have to barter your Indian-ness for success. Generations of mathematicians and scientists all over the world took inspiration from him, which include such luminaries as Freeman Dyson and Nobel laureate S. Chandrashekhar. Where Indians were once looked upon as too backward to achieve anything, he set a shining example.

But his life is also a word of warning, had Hardy ignored him just like almost everybody else, how much would that have cost us? His work in the realm of pure mathematics, that might seem (to some), useless in 'real life', has found applications in diverse fields ranging from crystallography to cryptology. But what about todays Ramanujans? How many are being pushed in obscurity by mindless bureaucracy? That one question is sure to bother us all.

Monday, December 3, 2007

A weekend (well???) spent..

Last weekend slipped through my fingers like sand, had a lot of things to take care of, but managed to get some longtime pending work done (which is unusual for me on a weekend).

So here is what happened..
Fri 7:45 PM
I am just back from work and thinking of taking a nap. But I have a party to attend. I am not very excited at the prospect of getting out of the bed, but hey, its a chance to meet old friends.

Sat 10:15 AM
Ohh S*it, we have to move to a new place today and we haven't even yet packed our .., err stuff. Wake up everybody, miles to go before we sleep (again).

Sat 11:43 AM
It seems like eternity since I am packing these books. But on a positive side, I became pretty good at tying 4-5 books together in a bundle using a thin rope. Then I realize why Henry Ford was so successful with the concept of Assembly line. People really get good (but also bored) by doing the same thing again and again.

Sat 1:03 PM
Where is the tape? (In case you have forgotten, duct tape is a very important part of life. It holds everything from broken toilet windows to wires in your hand-assembled-positronic-time-machine together (maybe it also holds the universe together, who knows). To know about many other important things in life (like towel) read h2g2)

Sat 3:17 PM
Finally at the new place. A quiet, residential neighbourhood. And BIG rooms. But the kitchen tubelight does not work. Gotta talk to landlord.

Sat 6:42 PM
Since time immemorial I am postponing the purchase of a new hard disk. Today is the day to do it.

Sat 11:37 PM
Sabayon managed to f*** up the partition table, time to reinstall..

Sun 12:00 AM
Happy Birthday Anna.

Sun 2:23 AM
What has happened to linux distributions? My debian DVD won't work, and fedora is unable to start X-server after full installation.

Sun 01:12 PM
Unable to sleep, I am at Crosswords. Found 'The man who knew infinity', a biography of the great Indian mathematician, S.Ramanujan. I will be busy for a few days now, my friends.

Sun 03:40 PM
At home, I am very tired, need some sleep. The reinstallation did allow me very little sleep last night.

Sun 4:00 PM
Here comes the electrician and there goes my sleep. But no choice. Let the drilling begin..

Time Unknown
What is this trr, trr. And (to my horror) I realize its my alarm clock. It shows the day as Monday (but to appreciate the horror you must be an IT engineer). But I have very little choice now. Gotta get ready for work. Hope next weekend will arrive sooner.

Disclaimer:
The timings mentioned above are entirely made up and present only for the effect.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

On Slashdot, with Love..

If you are someway related with the IT field, chances are you have already heard about slashdot. And chances are also that you have already made your (possibly negative) opinion about it. The official line goes 'News for Nerds, Stuff that matters', but it is more than just a technical news site. More than the stories themselves, it's the comments that appeal me. Some of the heavyweights from science and tech. and IT frequent the discussions and hearing (reading actually) their opinions is a pretty enlightening experience. But you will say, this happens on every newsgroup worth its salt out there, so what makes slashdot special?

The important thing is that slashdot has evolved a whole culture around it, with its own slang and style (e.g. consider this sentence, "foobar.com was slashdotted", which means after the foobar.com link appeared on slashdot, the massive traffic generated caused a server meltdown at foobar.com). Comments cover the whole spectrum of attitudes, from witty to sarcastic and from insightful to downright flaimbait (but this is the nature of cyberspace). And the most funny thing are the polls, with must-have 'CowBoyNeal' options. You can't post anonymously, but as 'Anonymous Coward', and on the polls page, you get the warning "This whole thing is wildly inaccurate. Rounding errors, ballot stuffers, dynamic IPs, firewalls. If you're using these numbers to do anything important, you're insane." It just can't get any funnier than this. Slashdot also has its own form of social networking, on other sites you have friends and fans but here you also have foes and freaks. And if you don't have a fan, you get the message "You are either loved by all, or just invisible."

Some people (correctly) point out the incorrectness and somewhat sarcastic nature of some of the posts (some of the comments about Outsourcing to India really got on my nerves), but what needs to be remembered is that it is a human gathering. As in any other human affair you will have opinions, and some of them wrong (well, at least from your point of view). It just can't be eliminated (and if done so, it will take the fun out of it). So I am going to keep reading it (and having fun) in the near future.

Here is the link
http://slashdot.org/

and for some the best comments posted on slashdot
http://seenonslash.com/

and hey, hey remember "My UID is prime". :-)





Monday, October 22, 2007

About 'NightFall'

Yes, you guessed right, I am talking about what is considered to be the greatest science fiction story of all time by none other than the godlike Isaac Asimov. I recently got a chance to read it and surely it rocks. It is a story of a different world, a planet surrounded by 6 stars. Now this is not as absurd as it may seem, there are many more binary and ternary star systems than there are single stars. So on this particular world, sentient life evolves without a concept of night or a star filled night sky. But there is a catch, there is another planet in orbit which is not visible because of the stars, but it causes a total eclipse every 2500 yrs. The population at large fails to cope with this unimagined situation (of night), with the sense of claustrophobia taking over, and nearly destroys the civilization (and the cycle repeats..).

Apart from demonstrating the genius of Asimov's imagination, the story also shows how different can be a different level of consciousness and how much limited we can be in just speculating about it. Natural Selection shapes the life in a particular habitat and as far as I understand, it may have certain chaotic points where small changes in external conditions can change the system in a big way. So the question arises, do our current efforts for Search of Extraterrestrial life make sense? Can we find a common ground on basis of which two fundamentally different civilizations can communicate? Maths is often touted as this common ground, but an intriguing idea I came across in another science fiction story (I forgot the name and the author) is to use Games as the common ground for communication, as however advanced a civilization, it will have a need of recreation.

Or maybe, Life is not such a divergent system after all. Certain chemical elements might be the basis of 'All' Life, and Life, even if started with different initial conditions may ultimately converge according to some deep law. Only time will tell, and until that time comes, keep wondering..

Monday, July 23, 2007

Potter Mania.. is this the end?

Finished reading 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'!! Potter mania reached its peak on 21st, when the book was released worldwide at 12:01 am. (I myself was waiting for it since 3-4 months when the date was declared). Here in Pune, shops opened early (I was in a queue at about 6:40 AM, with about 60 more people already there, this considering that the book is a bit on expensive side). Many started reading it as soon as as they stepped outside. I also could not contain my curiosity, and kept aside all my other chores, until I had finished with the book. Now such hype surrounded every other Potter book as well, but more so with this, because this is (at least supposedly) the last book of 'Harry Potter' series and JKR herself was quoted as saying 'at least 2 important characters are gonna die' and 'For some people to like this book, others must loathe it'. And yes there are plenty of deaths on both good and bad side. The book is more brutal than earlier Potter books, with a lot of bloodshed. And here is the deal, no really central character dies although that was what many were lead to believe. The book really does not end the series, next part may be in the coming (though unlikely). Is this a common problem? The readers are so emotionally bound to a particular character that the author really can't get rid of it. I remember reading somewhere that when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off his creation, 'Sherlock Holmes', there was such national dismay that he was forced to bring it back. Is something similar in works here? Does the author lose 'right' of the character this way?
Anyways I am more than happy with the book, filled with all-too-familiar JKR wit and some not-all-too-familiar twists. (though I was left with a couple of doubts). JKR as always, succeeds in keeping you on your toes. And if you are a Potter fan, no suggestions as you are gonna read it anyway. I would like to close with my favorite line from the book
'Wit beyond measure is a man's greatest treasure'

Thursday, July 19, 2007

About my first post

Wow, my own blog.. and my first post..
Now this was meant to be a grand event, to let the world know that 'I have arrived'. But because of a terrible miscalculation (or let me say overcalculation) of the importance of the first post, the first post itself was delayed too much and finally (that means 5 minutes ago) I just decided to write it once and for all and go home (happily)..
The talk of the first post and my mind is as full of ideas as the sky is full of clouds in April (OK.. terrible analogy.. forget it..).
So the point is I don't have any particular topic for this post.. lets see what comes out..
Maybe this is a good time to explain the somewhat cryptic name of the blog.. jitr4me
It stands for 'Journey Is The Reward For Me'. This phrase is generally attributed to Steve Jobs (except the 'for me' part) of whom I am a great admirer. Speculation on why I chose this particular name out of thousands that popped in my mind when I created this blog and interpretation of the phrase itself is left as an exercise to the reader..
Now something about myself.. I am Mohsin (you probably know that already). I like to read (you probably don't know that already). Currently I am reading 'The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy' by Douglas Adams (and that book is amazing). I also like to talk (you might have guessed that by now..) and sleep (there is probably no way you can guess it, hehe).
OK enough for the first post..
gotta go home..
Chal bye..