Monday, June 18, 2012

Why is the crow black?

I was taking my post lunch walk today when a crow flew-by. At this point one of my friends would have started calculating its speed, but it occurred to me that I don't know why is it black. After all it hunts in the day so its color is not an aid for hunting (as it would be for hunting in night). Or maybe crows got their color in some other region and migrated here. But then probably they would discolor over time. But never the one to prefer thinking over googling, after coming back I put the question in the search box. Here are three answers I found, you are free to take your pick.
One
Two
Three

Friday, June 15, 2012

Days--;

What_exactly++?    //TODO

Sunday, June 10, 2012

A short review of Prometheus

It was disappointing. And not only because I went in with high expectations. The story begins with promise, but soon degrades into second rate, incoherent bamble. Special effects, some of them spectacular, fail to save the day.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Interesting stuff of the day

[Which on the work side was pretty hectic. Anyway.]

The recent transit of Venus at the big picture. If you missed the transit, at least don't miss the pictures. You (and I) most probably will not be around when the next one takes place in 2117.

Schemaverse - A galactic conquer game written inside PostgreSQL and played by typing SQL statements. I don't think I will be able to play it, but the idea is fundoo. Reminds me of the flight simulator in Excel.

For what it is worth, here is an article about Color models. I think UI people would find it useful. I am yet to finish reading it, but looks interesting.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Chaar Shabd

Dolyansamor mast divasaachi vaat.

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Colors for Ears

I forgot my headphones today, so had to borrow a set from a friend. Normally headphones are like bridges, they faithfully pass on (or don't) what they receive. This one had NAT; it looked at what it received, 'decided' where it needed to go, modified accordingly and then passed it on. I am not well versed in the language of bass and treble to explain what exactly it was doing, but it was crazy. For some songs, barely audible notes that I had never noticed were playing full steam. For others, solos had turned into chorus. Tones had shifted and words had vanished, all over the place. It was like looking at the world through colored glasses.