Journey is the Reward

An observation

2012-01-13T11:43:00.000+05:30

Pain is an inverse-square phenomenon.

The Tao of Programming

2012-01-03T18:01:00.002+05:30

Recent Science Fiction

2012-01-02T19:00:00.002+05:30

Certain troubles were going on lately, which barring the details meant I was unable to read anything remotely heavy. Thankfully a (small) pile of science fiction came to my rescue. Here is what

Isaac Asimov : The complete stories Volume I : Asimov has been called the greatest science fiction author of all time (Clark has been too, and I am sure many others have been and will be). Statements concerning 'all time' are perilous, but Asimov certainly was one of the most clever. Read this book to convince yourself (besides spending many pleasat hours). The breadth of themes and plots is simply astonishing.

A Time Odyssey Book I: Time's Eye: I remeber borrowing this one from V a long time back and not finishing it. Did that recently. Enjoyable, if a bit stretched at some points. Full of scientific and historical nuggets like Clarke's other books. Good, but not great.

Quicksilver: Not science fiction per say, but close. Very clever, but descriptions of places and dresses are a bit laborious to read. But dialogues more than make up for it. Some familiarity with the early history of Royal Society and principals involved is (I think) required to fully appreciate it though.

Enjoy!!

My third computer

2011-12-27T15:05:00.002+05:30

First: July 2003. 1.8GHz Pentium 4, 256MB RAM, 40GB HDD. Assembled.

Second: Feb 2009. 1.6GHz Core i7, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD. Dell Studio 16.

Third: Dec 2011. 1.4GHz A9, 1GB RAM, 16GB Solid state drive. Samsung Galaxy Note.

Must read RFC

2011-12-23T17:40:00.001+05:30

Here.

And the field testing report.

With great reverence

2011-12-12T16:08:00.001+05:30

Happy birthday, Sir.

Update: One more link

Tales of the long tail

2011-12-07T20:02:00.002+05:30

Short, interesting and important.

THE 'Book of Jobs'

2011-12-05T18:54:00.006+05:30

If you are not busy being born, you are busy dying.
-Bob Dylan (Quoted by Steve Jobs)

Just finished reading the most anticipated biography of the year. I had read one Jobs biography before, iCon. Curiously it was the only one Jobs wanted banned, I later came to know. To be sure, it does portray him mostly in bad light. Probably it wanted to say 'I,con' instead of 'icon'.

Expectations from this one were high, coming as it was from Walter Isaacson, and it does fulfill them. For me, it dispelled some popular misconceptions. For example, that Apple 'imported' GUI wholesale from Xerox PARC. That is not true. Apple sure got the concept, but Mac team made significant improvements of their own, like overlapping windows and window drag-and-drop. Or that Jobs stole all the credit from Jeff Raskin, the real father of Mac. No. Raskin sure was leader of the Mac project before Jobs took it over (which forced him to leave), but under Raskin Mac was an underpowered machine with minimal graphics. It was Jobs who turned it into the phenomenon that it became. But this is not to say that Jobs was a 'Mahatma' that got vilified somehow. His was a complex personality, not of the typical hero, and the book is impressively balanced in that regard.

Jobs, not the typical CEO, made many specific product improvements. I liked this part because in what I had read earlier, his criticism was acute, but his praise very vague. To be specific, original iTunes had a search interface that required specifying the search parameter (lyrics or album, say); he wanted one where you simply type in the box. Now it has become the default on non Apple products too. And he came up with the idea of iPod shuffle, getting rid of the screen altogether, because he saw that people were heavily using the shuffle functionality on the original iPod. Let me add one last example, a less well known one. The original iPhone was supposed to have a plastic screen, but Jobs thought glass was more aesthetic. So he went searching for a solution and found a company that made 'gorilla glass'. The only problem was, the company, which had pioneered the process of making it in 1960s had found no market and stopped making it. When Jobs placed a large order, the manufacturer was unsure he could do it. Jobs convinced him he can. Gorilla glass is almost a standard on today's cellphones.

The book is full of such interesting nuggets, but there is one important thing that comes through. Jobs made great products because he focused on making great products. Sometimes that meant micromanagment, hurt egos and financial overruns, but his strong will prevailed, and the results are before us. Don't miss this book. You will learn much, but it is also plain old good reading.

Probably misplaced

2011-12-01T19:38:00.003+05:30

Jabberwocky ⊂ 'Alice in Wonderland' the movie.
Jabberwocky ⊄ 'Alice in Wonderland' the book. (The real name is 'Alice's adventures in Wonderland').

And one might as well s/Jabberwocky/Coherence/.

Not that either is bad. Read the latter recently.

Open Sources: Then and Now

2011-11-29T17:47:00.007+05:30

Recently finished reading Open Sources 2.0. That implies there was a 1.0 version. There was and it was published in 1999, and was subtitled 'Voices from the Revolution'. Open source was new then (and on a personal level, I was in the 9th grade, and probably had never touched a computer). On a recent landmark trip I came across the second installment. It was published in 2005, and is subtitled 'The continuing evolution'. Read the second and then reread the first (it is available online). Let me add that most of what I am going to say is well captured by the subtitles.

At the time of the first book, Open source was a new invention, and despite the technical prowess demonstrated by linux, gcc and so on, not many large corporations had embraced it. Programmers wrote most (I think all) of the essays. So we have, for example, essays by Richard Stallman, Linus Torlvalds, Larry Wall and Michael Tiemann, most of them focusing on why, as per the author, open source/free software works. By the time the second installment came out, open source software had established itself as the backbone of many organizations, and it focuses more on how that came about. One persistent theme is commoditization. Open source infrastructure components like OSs, databases and web servers reduce the overall cost of a software solution for the customer, which in turn allows corporations to expand their markets. As can be guessed, most of the essays in the second book are written by business guys. We also see discussions about open source business models (e.g. Dual licensing vs traditional support models), which may sound rather dull, but is not. While the first book focused exclusively on software, in the secod book we see open source principles being applied to law (groklaw), mass collaboration (wikipedia) and even biology. The books are a treasure trove of information. But in the interests of truth let me also add that three or four essays in the second book put me to uninterruptable sleep (none in the first did).

If I had to pick a favorite, Jeremy Allison's (a lead Samba developer) essay comparing and contrasting POSIX and Win32 is unquestionably the winner for the second book. Picking a winner for the first one is not so easy, but I would say Michael Tiemann's essay about the journey of Cygnus. I learned the most from it. Also the Tanenbaum-Torvalds debate in the appendix. It is a mail thread from 1992 with Andrew Tanenbaum (creator of Minix and author of OS and Networking textbooks I am sure you read while in college) and Linus and others discussing minix/linux/portability/microkernels vs monolithic kernels and so on. Consider this, it was thought HURD/BSD would soon replace Linux, and SPARC will do the same to 386. How things turn out!

And here we are at the end, and I wonder, who will be the authors of the third version.

Ludwig Wittgenstein

2011-11-28T16:16:00.002+05:30

Improve yourself, that is all you can do to improve the world.

-Ludwig Wittgenstein

I recently read the biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein by Ray Monk. It is simple to describe who Wittgenstein was. He was to philosophy what Einstein was to Physics, at about the same time. You might have heard Talent does what it can, Genius what it must. We find the most powerful expression of that 'must' in Wittgenstein's life (another would be Ramanujan's). Consider this, he constantly contemplated suicide before Bertrand Russell convinced him that he possessed philosophical genius, and hence (to his own mind) he was worthy of living. His best known work is the Tractatus. In essence, it says the structure of a propostion is similar to the structure of the reality that it describes, that is what makes it describe that reality (of course this is an imprecise approximation, but I hope it is not entirely misleading). But in later life he became dissatisfied with it. Instead of the traditional, analytic way in which all the leading practitoners (including Russell) did philosophy, he proposed that philosophical problems arise because of our confused use of language, and a proper treatment of these problems would make philosophy itself unncessary.

There is much else remarkable about Wittgenstein's life. Having come from a very prosperous family, he abandoned all of it to live on what he himself could make. Having volunteered for service in WWI, he tried (and succeeded) in getting himself transferred to the front, reasoning that a brush with death would make him a better person. I think you see the intensity behind the opening quote now.

There are books, and then there are books that push everything else aside. This definitely belongs in the later category. But why some books have this effect and not others? I leave you with what the Tractatus has to say

Anything that can at all be said can be said clearly; whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.

Interview with Prof. Andrew Tanenbaum

2011-11-21T12:14:00.001+05:30

Here.

[Buzz is giving a lot of trouble lately. And I hear plug is going to be pulled soon. Resorting back to blog for links, short fragments etc (reluctantly, a post is a lot more work). In short, Gudlink is back.

Enjoy!

The divine invasion

2011-11-14T17:56:00.001+05:30

Spent quite a bit of weekend reading Philip K Dick's The divine invasion. The book is clever at a lot of places, but I failed to see the overall point.

Enjoy!

The difference -- version 2

2011-11-11T15:02:00.004+05:30

What's the difference between man and cat?

You can man a man ($ man man) but not cat a cat ($ cat cat).

P.S. Also, as was pointed out by a colleague, you can man a cat but not cat a man.

I totally love this

2011-11-09T10:49:00.001+05:30

Who would've thought..

Ye Dosti..

2011-11-03T14:13:00.001+05:30

Ye Dosti.. Hum nahi todenge..
Todenge dum magar.. Tera saath na chhodenge..

One of my closest (and longtime, we go back more than 8 years) buddies turns 20. Join me in singing 'happy birthday'..

The master switch

2011-11-01T18:42:00.003+05:30

Recently finished reading The master switch by Tim Wu. A tour de force history of information technologies, beginning with telephone in the 19th century, through radio, television and cable, leading up to the present Internet dominated era. We see how each technology began with a lot of promise and openness, and ended a closed, integrated industry. That may or may not happen to Internet, but as Internet has subsumed most other networks, the stakes for losing its openness (so call net neutrality) are much higher. Lucid, highly informative and thought provoking. I think a must read for 'IT people'.

Eon

2011-10-20T19:03:00.002+05:30

[Spoilers ahead]

I recently finished reading Greg Bear's Eon. The reason I originally picked this book was it is in SF Masters series (this was before I realized not everything under SF masters is good SF, as per my definition anyway. But this one I liked). The story begins with an asteroid unexpectedly entering the solar system, the only problem is it is missing 40% of its mass. Probes are launched and investigators discover deserted, human made cities inside the asteroid. Plus the records indicate the stone, as it is subsequently named, came from the future. As the story unwinds, more mysteries reveal themselves. But let me not spell out everything, despite the spoiler alert in the beginning.

The book was published in 1985; cold war was not yet over, and a bit of pro-americanism is apparent. Russians are mostly depiected as ignorant, suspicious or quarrelsome. And the reasonable ones say things (to an american) like, 'yes you are right, but my people will not agree to that'. That will appear quaint, but probably everything had the same flavor then (and of course we have our own flavors). As is the case with most big books (this one is 502 pages), some portions will put you to sleep. I found the latter 2/5th to be much weaker than what came earlier, but good bits keep popping up to keep you going. Overall a good read.

Enjoy!

Alfred Hitchcock

2011-10-04T17:47:00.002+05:30

Last weekend I met Mr.Hitchcock (through his movies) for the first time. Ofcourse I had heard a lot about him, and remember watching a fragment of an interview on TV, but movies came over the weekend. Watched two in fact, and enjoyed both immensely. Dial M for murder is a perfect murder story; not a mystery, but more exciting than most mysteries manage. Rear Window is a different movie; whereas Dial M focuses on the story, in Rear Window we also hear (I think) some of Hitchcock's views on society as well (he also makes a cameo in it). Hitchcock was a master at saying much without words. Not to be missed.

Enjoy!!

Some code

2011-09-30T20:58:00.002+05:30

$ echo "scale=4; $((`date +%s -d '07/20/2012'`-`date +%s`))/`echo '24.0*3600' | bc`" | bc

To tell you the number of days for the Dark Knight Rises release.

Enjoy!!

Time's Arrow

2011-09-30T14:16:00.001+05:30

I am God =>>>>> I am a man.

Enjoy!

Asimov says

2011-09-27T19:25:00.002+05:30

I am not a speed reader. I am a speed understander.

I do not fear computers. I fear the lack of them.

If my doctor told me I had only six minutes to live, I wouldn't brood. I'd type a little faster.

[Found here]

Enjoy!!

Monotony

2011-09-22T15:33:00.001+05:30

There was a young man who said, 'Damn
It appears to me I am
A being which moves
In predestined grooves
Not a bus, not a car, but a tram'

[Read Somewhere]

802.1Q

2011-09-21T17:31:00.003+05:30

Q is for Quantum.
There is no certainty of finding a vlan, only a probability.
Good one IEEE.

TFTN

2011-09-20T19:16:00.000+05:30

He who does not foolishly affect to be above humanity's mistakes, will not be mortified when it is proved that he is but just a man.

-Joseph Priestley.

[TFTN: Thought For The Night]

Sheldon won an Emmy.

2011-09-19T12:24:00.002+05:30

I must say I am very pleased.

This feels great

2011-09-15T11:25:00.000+05:30

We ACTUALLY found an instance of the Birthday paradox today. In a seminar here at the office. I'd been wanting to do it for ages.

Never never never forget

2011-09-14T18:14:00.002+05:30

Wir müssen wissen — wir werden wissen!
[We must know — we will know!]

[From here: I repeat, never forget this].

A description of current->thoughts

2011-09-14T12:38:00.002+05:30

The universe may
Be as old as they say
It wouldn't be missed
If it did not exist

-Piet Hein

[We've met Piet Hein before]

God must be merciful.

2011-09-09T20:22:00.004+05:30

For he knew that I will never take my (enormously) lazy ass to a rock concert, he sent the rock concert to me. Prasoon (who is also my colleague) and his band Ashwamedh performed at our terrace today. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A big Thanks to the Ashwamedh guys.

By the way I couldn't help noticing the huge amount of electronic gear a modern band has to operate. In addition to musical talents (which I don' have) they probably also require a degree in electronics (which I have neither). I also caught some of the terminology; reverb, base and so on. Maybe I will feel less lost in 'rock-type-people' now.

Enjoy!!

Aaj

2011-09-06T18:05:00.002+05:30

Itna khatarnaak code likha..*
Itna khatarnaak code likha..
Ke reviewer ko helmet pahanana pada..

*Kisi ne, maine nai.

Classic Weekend

2011-08-29T17:36:00.001+05:30

1. Frankenstein (1818)
2. Flatland (1884)

Enjoy!

An old photograph

2011-08-26T18:42:00.003+05:30

From a time when the woods were greener and the minds were cleaner.

[Dated 19 Oct 2007 and taken on road to Mulshi. On the boulder from left: Dhaval, Tejas, DJ. Down: Galli and Yours Truly. I don't remember what we're looking at].

And yes, have a nice weekend!

Ear >> 0.5

2011-08-24T18:20:00.001+05:30

My left ear has shifted somehow into my right ear (hence the title). As a consequnce, my right ear is more sensitive than usual, left is half dead. I am not sure how it actually came about; I am sleeping like a rabbit (see here) for a couple of days, which is more than my average, and currently I am blaming it on the heavy headedness that comes with oversleeping. Here are some funny things happening
1) My right ear being sensitive than average, I get startled every time someone pulls a chair (and let me add I am the leftmost member of my row).
1) On a table, I can only hear one side. It impacts my objectivity (hee hee).
2) When someone comes to my desk, I have to rotate my chair, and ask that someone to repeat what he/she just said.
3) When I go to somebody's desk, I spend a lot of time rotating (if I haven't computed my precise standing angle in advance).
4) I pretend understanding something when I don't. But this particular thing has nothing new in it.
5) Edison was almost deaf in one ear. He said that helped him concentrate better. I am yet to experience that.
6) I learned what is the proper name of an ENT doctor. It's otolaryngologist.

Waiting for next funny thing now :)

P.S.
No, I don't remember getting a 'kaan ke neeche'.

Enjoy!!

FD5

2011-08-16T18:05:00.002+05:30

Final Destination 5 (FD5) is a genuine feel good movie. Specifically, it is designed to make you feel clever (by comparison). It succeeds triumphantly (so much so that you might be tempted to take on quantum mechanics or something). This was my first movie in FD series (remember watching a few fragments in college), but I hear that rest of the movies in the series are also motivated by this noble purpose. Kudos.

Happiness..

2011-08-12T13:52:00.001+05:30

Ere Cometh the 64 bit weekend..
(provided you code Java)

A change

2011-08-12T13:03:00.002+05:30

Bugged by the recent versioning issues cropping up everywhere around me, I have decided to subscribe to the school of Parmenides.

Ek Sawaal..

2011-08-08T12:46:00.000+05:30

har malloc() aur new ke baad..
har arr[n] aur *ptr++ ke baad..
itna kya, har int i aur char c ke baad..
mann me uthata hai..
ek sawaal..

HAVE I MADE IT LARGE?

My status of today

2011-07-20T15:13:00.002+05:30

Life is a collection of obsessions. I am but an iterator.

[Saving it for future reference. Currently *iter returns 'dark knight rises'].

Carl Sagan's Gifford lectures

2011-07-18T18:50:00.003+05:30

Recently I finished reading Varieties of scientific experience by Carl Sagan. Carl Sagan, SETI pioneer, Pulitzer prize winning science communicator and a world class scientist, of course needs no introduction. The book introduced a new face of the dynamic man; his deep, rational interest in religion and how it fits in with the new world science has revealed. The book is actually the transcript of the Gifford lectures he gave in 1985 on the topic of natural theology (the theological knowledge achieved through reason alone). He talks about how our understanding of our place in the universe has broadened over time (Aristotle through Copernicus through Hubble and so on, to which probably we should now add the many worlds of quantum mechanics), possibilities of extraterrestrial life, the importance of search for it and its implications. He argues that the fruit of this search would not only be new knowledge, but would also help us see all our fellow humans as one. He discusses the traditional arguments proposed to 'prove' the existence of god and how they fare with our current knowledge (for example, the argument from design (as it is called) says a watch implies a watchmaker and the existence of the superbly well crafted organs (like our eye) implies an intelligent designer. But Darwin taught us that unintelligent natural selection is enough). And he stresses the need to be tolerant (cold war was a big issue at the time) to make progress, or just to ensure survival of the human species. A wonderful read, filled with interesting nuggets, and more importantly, a lot of wisdom.

Enjoy!

QOTD

2011-07-15T15:56:00.000+05:30

To deny our own impulses is to deny the very thing that makes us human.

-Mouse, The Matrix

Surely..

2011-07-14T16:33:00.004+05:30

I did not inherit the lecture gene from Dad.

[Had to present something to a bunch of freshers today. Too bad the thing was not technical. Hopefully they understood something. And to be honest, now that it is over, I feel a bit relieved].

One of the great days of science

2011-07-01T19:21:00.004+05:30

Today. And not only due to the magnitude of the discovery, also because bitter priority disputes are the rule, and this one was a pleasant exception.

Music of the primes

2011-06-29T19:02:00.008+05:30

Music is the pleasure the human mind feels by counting, without being aware that it is counting.

-Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz

Riemann Hypothesis is one of the great unsolved problems in mathematics today. It was first proposed in 1859, and has withstood assault by some of the finest mathematicians so far (that is more than 150 years). Like Fermat's last theorem, the person to crack it will earn eternal glory. And if that is not enough, it is also one of the millennium problems, which means it carries a reward of $1,000,000 (P=NP? is also on that list by the way). And like Fermat's last theorem, there is a nice book for general audience on the topic ($DEITY be thanked).

Before going further, let me try to define what it is. It says that the zeroes (inputs for which the output is 0) of a particular function (the Riemann Zeta function, whose input and output is complex numbers) lie on a particular straight line (line parallel to y axis running through 0.5 on the x axis of the complex plane). Obvious question, why is this important? Answer to that is that a large body of mathematics has been built on it being true (an example, it would allow an exact prediction of number of primes less than a number); if it were to be false, this body will die. The problem attracted many brilliant minds (even before there were a million dollars. What mankind would do without such minds? $DEITY be thanked again). Advances have been made; it has been proved that around 40% of all zeroes lie on this 'critical line'. Computers have been used to check trillions of zeroes and they all obey the hypothesis, but numerical evidence is not enough for mathematicians. The problem lives. One of the great mathematicians of 20th century, David Hilbert was once asked if he were allowed to sleep for 500 years and then wake up, what would he do? He replied, "I'll ask if anyone has proved Riemann Hypothesis."

The major plus point of the book is that it successfully evades a general problem with popular science books, excessive dumbing down of subject matter. The treatment is logical, writing is lucid, and it is altogether hard to put down the book once you start it. The book tracks the historical development of the problem; from Gauss and Euler to today's leading mathematicians, and in the process conveys some of the appreciation for not only the problem but also for mathematics. A worthy read.
[And to my utmost delight, today I discovered this wonderful poem about RH written by Tom Apostol].

A humble question

2011-06-23T18:24:00.002+05:30

There are popular science books for
Poincaré Conjecture
Riemann Hypothesis
Fermat's last theorem
maybe others too..

Why not P=NP?
[It's important, no doubt]
[Or is there one? let me know if you know of any]

book_reviews.tgz

2011-06-13T20:01:00.001+05:30

Weekend was good. Was able to read to my heart's (and eyes') content. Without further ado, here is what.

Dracula: A good novel. Typically victorian, with hardly any grey shades (did I say I enjoy its kind?). But instead of writing more about how good it is, I'll mention a couple of other things I noticed along the way..
Bram Stoker (the author) graduated in pure mathematics from Trinity College, Dublin. How many good novelists you know fit that criteria?
Dracula was first published in 1897. Early in the book, a character mentions using his 'kodak' to take photos of the dreaded castle. I knew the dates, but snap clicking tourists are hard to reconcile with castles, counts and horse driven carriages, and it still came as a surprise.

Hothouse: It is a science fiction novel, published by Penguin (lest you be confused). The story of earth in the far future (talk billions of years), with sun on its way to extinction, and its energy output gone through the roof. Unlike most science fiction, humanity does not occupy centre stage in this future; plants reign, animals are few and far between with their niches occupied by still more plants, and humans have returned to their ancestral home, trees. You'll meet ever stranger things along the way; plants which grow crystals to focus sunlights on their enemies; plants which drop cages onto their victims, using their dung, and later when they die, their bones to make their own compost; and mysterious entities which transplant beings in this world to other realms of existence in an attempt to control overcrowding of the planet. And if this sounds too weird, just imagine how weird you reading these words (and me writing them) would have seemed to someone in the cambrian. Seriously. Boring at places, fascinating at others, but probably not for everyone.

Enjoy!

Preserve..

2011-06-10T12:20:00.001+05:30

Light rains..
Magnificient clouds..
Fine wind..
Ample greens..

Preserver your sanity! :)

Strange true story

2011-06-09T20:48:00.005+05:30

Dictionaries are a neat idea (and not only on your shelf; in your programming language too, Thank you Python). But that's where my thoughts pretty much ended about dictionaries. Dictionaries are hardly fascinating I mean. But there is this book I recently read that forced me to change my opinion, at least for one such learned tome. I am talking about The Surgeon of Crowthorne.

You are sure to be familiar with the central character of the book, the Oxford English Dictionary, known to affectionados as OED. One sight of the immense multi-volume tome is enough to convince anybody of its learned pedigree. OED was begun because people were not very happy with dictionaries available at the time, the mid 19th century that is. Just like many open source projects begin from a developer's etch. (At this point you would be right to question your truly's mental state. Open source? Where did that come from? But please bear with me). So back to the story, a system was set up, and a new approach was decided upon. OED guys wanted to illustrate the words through published quotations; what was the first documented use of a word, how its use changed over centuries, what different senses the word could be used in and so on. And OED guys also realized that commendable as the goal was, it was too much to ask for from a single team. So they sent out a call for volunteers (just like an open source project). Volunteers were to read books, dig out illustrative quotations, and report them back. The team would also publish a list of the words it was presently looking for (much like an open bug tracker). To send a quotation, the volunteer should write the word on top left of a half sheet of paper, write the citation (book name, author, published year and so on) below it, and then follow it with the actual quotation. In case you wanted to submit more than one slip, they were to be alphabetically sorted, packaged and sent (and doesn't it sound like the coding guidelines you must comply with before your patch gets accepted?). I guess you got my point.

And there is more drama here. A volunteer turned up, a certain Dr Minor, who impressed everyone back at the headquarters with his systematic and prodigious work, over a period of more than two decades. Sir James Murray, leader of the project, casually assumed that he was 'an established medical man with a good deal of leisure'. Murray wanted to thank him personally for his work. And here comes the punch, Dr. Minor turned out to be a convicted murderer, confined for the last two decades to a lunatic asylum. The crime was committed under the effect of the psychiatric disorder from which he was suffering. And born in an era when psychiatric treatment was just beginning, he essentially remained uncured, losing his mind bit by bit; his work on OED providing a much needed link to the real world. It is hard not to be moved by this tragic story.

The writing is good and I think certified bookworms (you know if you are one) will derive a not-easy-to-explain tingling, seeing this story of words unfold (I did). Highly recommended.

Timescape

2011-06-06T19:57:00.003+05:30

I just loved Timescape. There is a dearth of good science fiction, what bookshelf volumes say notwithstanding (who had this bright idea of cataloging science fiction and fantasy together anyway?) and it's been quite a long time since I had read good sci-fi. Timescape was a welcome break. The science is plausible, there is no mumbo-jumbo whose allure is hard to ignore even to the greats. But the thing that sets Timescape apart is that it would qualify as a good novel in its own right too. Character development is good, and realistic. The narrative keeps you glued. And it leaves deep traces, especially the part towards the end, which reminded me of story of sissyphus. A very good read. And if you actually give a damn about a science fiction, you cannot miss this one.

ps a

2011-06-02T19:02:00.001+05:30

The river of wisdom emrges from the mountain of pain. Life just flies away. That completes the picture.

If anything is true, it is this moment. Not past, not future. What meaning is there and what is the sum total we call life. Does it actually converge to a meaning, or the only way is to re-normalize, ignoring the infinites?

A lowerer resolution would have been better, each photon decoheres me.

It is raining.

A recent conversation

2011-05-19T23:40:00.002+05:30

Participants:
Yours truly
A friend from another city

Venue:
Aroma's on FC road

Me: Aare, [gaali] kadhi aala tu?
Friend: Kaal...
Me: [gaali1], [gaali2], message vagaire karayachi kaahi paddhat..
Friend: Aare facebook var kevach takalay me...

Updates on Facebook? Hell, I am too old even for my own generation..

blog_post(this);

2011-05-19T00:07:00.000+05:30

// For someone wait-ing.

bored.. bored.. bored..

2011-04-21T18:31:00.001+05:30

I mean aai shappath!!

2nd April 2011, Saturday

2011-04-02T23:58:00.004+05:30

Thank You Team India for this great joy!!

Jeet ka Ahsaas
Ab aur bhi khaas!!!

Now Playing..

2011-03-04T20:38:00.004+05:30

Oooh.. Dilkashi ke jo rang hai, hain tere..
Ooh ooh oooh.. Dosti ke jo rang hai, hain mere..
Tanwdanwadanw.. Tanw.. Tanwdanwadanw..
Inhi rango me chhupe, saare khushi ke rang hai..
Dekho na, dekho na..
Ye gahre halke, halke gahre, zindagi ke rang hai..
La la la laaaaaa..
kuch ghadiya.. lambi khamoshi..
kuch ghadiya.. poori madhoshi..
Life is Crazy..

Have a nice weekend.

@rooftop

2011-02-27T19:05:00.002+05:30

Chai on a Sunday evening after a good, long nap, and followed by a stroll is one of those things that makes a Sunday, well, Sunday (and the following week bearable :) . I skipped the stroll, and went to our rooftop today. The building I live in is quite tall (eight stories) and naturally, terrace affords a good view. Once there, I located a short stump of a pillar and made myself comfortable.

The view is obstructed by a number of buildings in every direction, but mercifully a fair amount of vegetation is still seen. I located three or four kites in the sky, which rather amused me. Birds were returning to their homes, and as they were travelling at right angles to my spot, and due to the distance, the up-down motion of their wings was not visible; they appeared like a bunch of black marbles gliding across the sky. The sun was setting steadily, going behind one cloud after another in its course and illuminating their edges in ever more beautiful patterns, to reemerge a moment or two later, only bigger and redder. Now this happens every day, but it is also new every day. Did you know that the Deccan plateau (on which most of you are standing right now, just like me) was created by the volcanism ensued by the asteroid strike which also ended the age of dinosaurs 65 million years ago? That was what came to mind when I cast my eye towards the distant mountain ranges. But forget distant things, even the road in front of the building, on which I travel every day, looked different. Maybe I never noticed the suru trees by its side before. There is a mangal karyalaya nearby, and I would not have missed the band had it been absent, but curiously, all the songs being played were at least 20 years old, say from Don or Ashi hi banwabanawi. The patch of highway had started glowing against the backdrop of the nearby hill. Sat there till the sun was invisible, strolled for a few more minutes, and came down.

Now Playing

2011-02-18T16:28:00.003+05:30

Jeevan ke safar me raahi..
Milte hai bichad jane ko...
Aur de jate hai yaadein..
Tanhayee me tadpane ko...

[A sad song (if you look at the lyrics) but sung in a cheerful voice. Was it this attitude towards life that Kishorda hinting at?]

Fred Hoyle's universe

2011-02-17T22:51:00.005+05:30

I was fortunate to get my hands on Jayant Narlikar's science fiction books as a schoolboy. Narlikar, as you might know is a cosmologist of international repute, and also a well known popularizer of science (he has won the Kalinga prize given by UNESCO for popularization of science). In preface of one of his books (Yakshanchi Denagi I think) he expounds his views about science fiction, what it should be, and how he came to it. He tells us that his idol in this field is his mentor, who is also a well known astrophysicist and science popularizer. That's how I came to know Fred Hoyle.

Fred Hoyle was one of 20th century's great astrophysicists. He is remembered today for the B²FH paper (named after the initials of its authors, Geoffrey and Margaret Burbidge, William Fowler and Fred Hoyle) which explained how heavier (than helium) elements get formed inside stars. He was also a co-founder of steady state cosmology, which was a chief rival of big bang theory in its earliest days. According to this theory, universe is expanding, and the intervening space gets continiously filled with new matter, so universe always looks the same (so called 'perfect cosmological principle'). Interestingly, it was Hoyle who gave the name 'big bang' to what was then known as 'evolutionary cosmology'. Critics later claimed this to be an attempt at ridicule, but Hoyle said he was just trying to be vivid. And the name stuck. He did for science popularization on Radio what Sagan later did on Television. But in later life, Hoyle came to champion a host of unpopular, and deemed by many to be unscientific, ideas. I will quote just one, that disease causing bacteria are being bombarded on earth from space, and these are the main source of mutations. He went as far as to claim that interstellar clouds are swarms of bacteria. He was ridiculed and criticised but he never compromised on things that he considered right.

But why this post today? Well, because I recently finished reading a biography of Hoyle (Fred Hoyle's Universe, by Jane Gregory). Good points first, the book is well researched, and quite extensive. It is light on technical points (too light I think), but that may be considered a plus by some. My main complain is that the author spends a disproportionate amount of time on the beurocratic details of things in Hoyle's life, e.g. details like the names of all the people who formed a comittee when Hoyle was leading an effort for building a large telescope. Such details might be important from a scholarly point of view, but too much of it wearied me down. Reducing this coverage might have shortened the book by 1/4th, and made it much more readable. This is the first biography of Hoyle that I read, so I am not sure if this is the best one. Hoyle's life itself remains worth knowing about at any rate.

Meri Kahani, tags ki Jubaani..

2011-02-15T18:17:00.003+05:30

I will keep this one short. When I added tags to my blog, I said something like 'the number of tags, number of posts in each category, and such are insights to you about yourself'. Taking that to be true, the tags that I use (and miss if any) these days will reflect the changes that have occured in the meantime. So here we go. 'WeekendPosts' and 'TVShows' are totally out of use. 'WeekendPosts' was my way of using some of the ample time available over weekends to make a record of that ample time. Not anymore. 'TVshows', I don't watch any. Not even TBBT. 'GudLink' has mostly moved to buzz, and 'Movies' to the movie blog. 'ApparentlyTechnical' has gone into shadows, but I sincerely wish it returns. 'MyOwnRantAKAPersonal' sees an occasional post here and there, and 'Books' is thriving. 'GhumnaFirna' - nil. The posts here were mostly a product of the office group, and not surprisingly, it has dispersed somewhat in this year or two. That leaves us with 'AboutBloggersAndBlogging', and I was going to put a 'nil' there too, but then I realized this post itself will come under it.

So we come to the big conclusion, 'variety' has gone down. Probably it's high time to start looking for some new tags.

Your Inner Fish

2011-02-13T22:50:00.010+05:30

I spent a sizable chunk of this weekend reading Your Inner Fish by Neil Shubin. I had assummed (when I bought it) to be a detailed account of the Tiktaalik story, to which I was familiar from Remarkable Creatures (a wonderful book, but to which I never got around to writing a review). Tiktaalik was a big story in 2008, whose fossils were then uncovered in Arctic. It's name literally means 'large freshwater fish', and it lived around 375 million years ago. What makes it distinct is the fact that it is major transitional form (so called missing link, which can now be considered found) between water and land dwelling animals. It shows features of both, e.g. it's a fish but with a neck, and it's fins show primitive hand like limbs. It has been described as 'the fish that could do pushups'. Neil Shubin was the leader of the team that made this discovery.

As I was saying, I was looking for a story, but the book offers more than that. It is a book about evolution without explicitly saying so. The main focus is on the unity of life, by reconnecting our bodies with our ancestors. These include fish, reptiles and even microbes. To quote an example, take the mammalian ear. One of the three bones that make the inner part is a repurposed (and reduced in size) jaw support bone found in Sharks. And the other two bones have been repurposed from the multi-boned-jaws of our reptillian ancestors (in process, giving us a jaw with a single bone). Take another example, our teeth. The machinery used to make them has been reused in making hairs and breasts. The book ranges over a wide variety of topics, including how embryos develop, when did we acquire color vision (about 55 million years ago) and why single celled creatures who had dominated the earth for billions of years started body-building (became multicellular) about a billon years ago (it was the rise in oxygen levels that allowed synthesis of large amount of colagen, the protein which holds bone tissues together), without getting dry and in a remarkably compact form. A fruitful and enjoyable read!

Delight

2011-02-11T17:54:00.003+05:30

My school library had a somewhat strange policy, there were these green and gray shelves filled with books, but we were not allowed to touch them. Instead, there used to be this moderate sized pile of books on the librarian's table from which we were to select. Predictably, the pile replacement period was measured in years, so if you liked to read, you ended up reading the same book many times over. I have cherished memories from this time, Edison's biography has etched itself on my mind (coincidently, it's his birthday today. Thanks VR), similarly a book about fishes with color plates. But like every other schoolboy, adventure stories were my favorite.

Fast forward to yesterday. I was strolling through Crossword when a book caught my eye, King Solomon's Mines. The name Solomon is there in so much fiction that it was bound to seem familiar. It looked intersting and I ended up buying it. Later at home, I was browsing through it when a came across these words: 'evil witch gagool'. And then it suddenly came to me. It is the same book (well, a translation, to be precise) I had devoured in school, so much so that I can still recall phrases from it. I can still recall the sketch of the map where the action took place. Apparently the name 'gagool' had left its mark deeper than others. It was like meeting an old friend. Delight, pure and simple.

Naturalist

2011-02-11T00:08:00.012+05:30

A wonderful book I finished reading today, E.O.Wilson's autobiographical memoir, Naturalist. Wilson is world's leading myrmecologist (one who studies ants. You are welcome.), and a world class scientist who also has a gift for lucid prose. And you don't have to take my word for it; he has won Pulitzer, twice. The book is about his journey from a boy with a deep love for nature to a world class scientist and beyond. Wilson contributed to our understanding of many things insect, and in later years became an important conservation activist. The thing that I liked most was the simple, straightforward tone in which Wilson talks. He will say I did this, without mincing words. Excessive modesty is a burdern really. And he will say I did not see this, or felt insecure at this point, also without mincing words. Such writing touches the heart directly. His passion for his field shines throughout, and is something a young mind can learn a lot from. A genuinely good read, I think for everybody. I am glad that I joined the library where I found this book, because it is not seen in bookstores and I would certainly have missed it. Certainly worth rereading.

Enjoy!!

Now Playing

2011-01-11T20:48:00.001+05:30

I used to be my own protection
but not now..
my path has lost direction
somehow..

Holiday Time

2010-11-05T19:53:00.006+05:30

Diwali Holidays are going on (OK, coming to a close, but I don't really want to admit that). Holidays are always good, but this time they are turning out to be remarkable (for purely personal reasons of course). For one thing, I am reading at least as much as to please myself. The list of completed projects now includes Rosalind Franklin: The dark lady of DNA by Veena Gawankar, Antimatter by Frank Close, Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges and Not even wrong by Peter Woit [let me add that each one is good enough to deserve a review of its own, something which I haven't gotten around to yet]. A couple of empty rooms, devoid of any furniture except the bare minimum, but which allow complete isolation are proving to be my reading haven. I am also spending a lot of time observing a) beautiful cloud patterns and b) the biodiveristy around here (which frequent rains exponentiate). And every time my (untrained) eye finds something new. Another important thing is that after a long time the holidays of me and sis have coincided, so another big chunk of my time goes into pretending to be ten years younger. Distractions are to a minimum, I hardly watch TV and rarely access Internet. Calls and messages are down to a minimum. I can almost pretend these things haven't been invented yet. Today was the first day I left town, but in return it allowed some precious time with bhaanje-bhaanji to their now rather old mamu. I don't care much about food, but that front is well covered too (Gulab Jamuns are waiting as I write this :). All this , together, makes this time so remarkable. And dear reader, thanks for reading so far, but this post could've waited. Holidays won't last forever, make the most while they last. I am getting back to the same thing..

Enjoy!! [And a belated Happy Diwali]

Highlights: How I won a bunch of cookies..

2010-10-28T17:30:00.014+05:30

I had never won a bunch of cookies before (except from a webserver). That happened yesterday, and consequently, I believe my ~~excitement~~ hubris over it would be quite understandable.

The occasion was Diwali party at office, and a new game was proposed, Dumb C++. Contrary to what I thought, there were no technical questions. A homegrown (or rather officegrown) variation on 'guess the movie' theme, and a lot fun too.. Teams as usual, but here the whole team enacts the movie and one guy guesses it. Should have been called Dumb 3 (if why 3 is your question, ~ is the answer).. So here is Sandip enacting a movie for yours truly..

Your's truly doesn't get it, so Rahul jumps in.. Look at the two photos carefully and you can guess the movie name (or cheat and take a look at Zarin's blog).
Tick....
Tick....
Tick....
[Actually there was no real ticking, and if there was, nobody heard it amidst all the shouting].
But I finally got it. Yippeee!!!

Winning is sweet, especially when the prize is cookies :p. As usual 'loser' teams wanted their share (which in a fair world is zero (I would say that now, wouldn't I? :p)). Here with the teammates and the trophy.

And finally Rasna.. The drink of the Winners

There was much besides cookie-winning at the party, superb food being one prominent item. For a less narcissistic (and more complete) account, see Zarin's blog.

Enjoy!!

[This post is tagged under GhumnaFirna, cuz the party definitely brought everybody out of their respective shells].

टॉलस्टॉय: एक माणूस

2010-10-24T22:24:00.007+05:30

Just finished reading a biograpgy of Leo Tolstoy (टॉलस्टॉय: एक माणूस, सुमति देवस्थळे). My knowledge of Tolstoy so far ended with the name 'War and Peace'. But here is a story of great drama, of the highest in human values and also the lowest in human nature. The name of Tolstoy is more famous for his literary work, what is less well known (it seems to me) is that the philosphy of non violent, truth based opposition that was so successful in giving us our freedom first originated with Tolstoy (Gandhiji also considered himself his follower). While rote learning and strict discipline were the norm of the educational system, his come-and-go-when-you-like school, with the responsibility of keeping the attention of students being that of the teachers proved a successful reform, and many of its principles were later adopted by modern educational systems. He did not feel that the textbooks were good enough, so he wrote his own, which are still read. He was a promoter of education of the elderly, but when we noticed that the literate among those still hardly had anything good to read, he wrote his own books for them too. In later life he became a champion of reform of and for the poor. He accepted God but rejected all the superstitions and rituals. His compassion made him a shining ray of hope for the whole world.

But Tolstoy's life was also one of paradox. He was often disappointed in his experiments, because the same people he wanted to help were not sufficiently patient, or focused on short term gains. He preached restraint, but was not very successful in his own life with this (as his very frank diary entries show). He preached love for all humanity, but his focus on high ideals led to ignorance of his children (the story of Gandhiji and his son Harilal has some parallels here). He rejected all compromises about his principles, so he was unable to see their practical limits and chose to ignore very valid objections. Towards the end of his life he was torn between the demands of his publicity hungry, materialistic and (later) hysterical wife, and those of his followers who wanted Tolstoy to live all his principles to satisfy their idealogical needs, but forgetting he was human too. And this son of rich landowners who voluntarily rejected all comforts, died a tragic death beacuse of it. But in the end all this, the strengths and the shortcomings, the triumphs and the defeats together make us human. And the book does a commendable of job of portraying the human side of Tolstoy. As for me, I am glad to have read and learned from this book. Maybe I'll pick War and Peace in my next trip to landmark!

Re: Documentation missing

2010-10-22T23:32:00.006+05:30

Writing documents is considered by ~~many~~ all to be a boring activity. But they are useful, and I learned this the hard way. A certain amount of documentation always helps, no matter how great your code is. (If you disagree, you are probably thinking about documents as those written using MS Word and seven different fonts. Not necessarily. Remember, a manpage is also a document. And if you can code without RTFMing, congratulations, You are God, so see if you can do something about World Peace). Anyway, as I was saying, good documentation is very important for any project. But as can be seen by worthy souls still lurking around here (I am hoping there are still some left), this aspect of the all important project called life (also known by the alias Journey) is being increasingly ignored (The last patch was released more than three weeks ago) by its lead developer (that is yours truly) (and despite claims to the contrary, see here). Of course he is not the only developer, lots of contributors being vital to the development, but bearing the ultimate responsibility for how the project turns out, it is also his responsibility to provide relevant documentation. So here is he announcing that even though the powerful bugs of boredom, laziness and nihilism (present in module cerebral_cortex) have not been entirely eradicated, they have been tamed enough to allow for at least a few releases of the missing documentation. The team (that is your's truly again, with all his alter egos) sincerely hopes that those interested in the project will find the documentation useful (in at least some sense of the word).

Enjoy!!

Now playing

2010-09-29T00:04:00.003+05:30

ख्वाब ना सगे
हो ख्वाब ना सगे
ज़िन्दगी ठगे
हो ज़िन्दगी ठगे
फिर भी जाने क्यों
फिर भी जाने क्यों
उम्मीद जगे.....

एन्जॉय...

It's good to be back..

2010-09-13T23:08:00.004+05:30

I am back after my worst illness in last ten years. It was 'only' a normal viral fever, but strong enough to knock me out of action for a full week. And for the first three four days I was too weak to even change the channel. Good news is, I am almost normal now (as normal as I usually am) and you can expect some action in this (and other) space. A word of thanks to all those whose invaluable support made all the pain bearable.

Enjoy!!

Recently Read

2010-08-24T19:37:00.010+05:30

Quantum by Manjt Kumar. Saying this book is comprehensive, masterly or highly readable would be an understatement. A history of quantum mechanics from Planck to Bell, which importantly focuses on ideas as well as people. The story of quantum is a story of paradox. Einstein, who pioneered the use of quantum to explain the photoelectric effect, spent many later years trying to show the standard Copanhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics to be inconsistent / incomplete (the most famous example is the EPR paper). And Bohr, later the staunchest proponent of Quantum theory, went so far as to suggest the abandonement of conservation of energy when Compton effect proved the reality of light quanta (the BKS proposal). The book keeps you glued to your seat like a good novel, and you will learn a lot in the process. Highly recommended.

Blackberry by Rod McQueen. The device is in news recently and the book does a good job of profiling the company which created it. Worth your time, and I personally liked the fact that Mike Lazaridis, founder and co-CEO was instrumental in getting Perimeter Institute started.

The large, the small and the human mind by Roger Penrose. The book is not as long as the title :). It grew out of the Tanner lectures Penrose gave in 1995. The topic was 'values of the mind' and Penrose talks about his approach to the problem of consciousness which is detailed in The Emperor's New Mind and Shadows of the Mind. Afterwards there is commentary, from two philosphers of Science and Stephen Hawking. The reply from Penrose is also printed. I did not understand everything (as expected) but the book still classifies as a fruitful read.

माझे पौष्टिक जीवन

2010-08-16T22:09:00.016+05:30

लाल पेटीवाली पोष्टं इतिहासजमा होऊन त्यांची जागा आता blog पोष्टांनी घेतली. पण ओळी तिथे पण खरडायच्या, आणि इथे पण.. [आम्ही भाग्यवान, दोन्हीकडे आमच्या एंट्र्या.. पुढच्या किंवा मागच्या पिढीचे ते भाग्य नाही].

तीन वर्ष, ३०६ posts आणि एक आनंददायी प्रवास.. माझे पौष्टिक जीवन, पु.ल. स्मृतीस सादर..

Rest of the weekend

2010-08-15T20:09:00.020+05:30

Great Dictator येतोय World Movies वर, अभिजात विनोद म्हणजे काय ते Chaplin कडून शिकावं.. Chaplin चे सगळे सिनेमे पाहिले पाहिजेत..

अजुन पुस्तकं ढीगभर आहेत.. वाचायला आहे भरपूर, वेळ सोडून..

घरी राहण्याचा सगळ्यात मोठ्ठा फायदा म्हणजे 'चहा'.. त्यासाठी पायपीट आपल्याला मंजूर नाही.. [आता dinner साठी पायपीट..]

पुस्तकातले धड़े जिथून छापतात ती पुस्तकं आत्ता समजू लागली, म्हणजे त्यावेळी आपण गाढव होतो का?

मराठीत पहिलाच post, त्यामुळे मस्त वाटतयं.. त्यातून आता 'च्यायला' वगैरे अस्सल शब्द.. उदा. उद्या monday, च्यायला.. :) ['नाद खुळा', 'चक्कीत जाळ' वगैरे पण आहेच.]

माणसाच्या घराला खिड़की ही असावीच.. दोन चार झाड़ं, आणि मोकळं आकाश दिसावं.. सांगून कदाचित पटणार नाही, पण फार फरक पडतो त्याने..

चला हादडायची वेळ झाली.. परत भेटूच..

Weekend so far

2010-08-15T12:21:00.006+05:30

And some other stuff..

The weekend started with a party. Let me say this is print, I do not have any respect left for people who build two hotels in the same galli with the same name (differentiating in the third word doesn't count, note for the nitpicks). It was a lot of fun, but afterwards my mind kept coming back to this, in IT your almost entire friend circle changes every few years (assuming you make friends at the workplace, some people successfully manage to not but I am not the one). My dad (who is a professor) has workplace friendships going back more than my age. I am sure that makes our lives a little less rich, a little less complete.

Finished reading Massive, on the enginneering scale a pass-class book (a distinction (not the grade) your truly used to enjoy while in college). Next came H.G.Wells' The Time Machine. I had heard so much about it that I was bound to like it :).

The mistake is to say life is one thing or another. It's an optimization problem. Which means most of philosphy is ruled out and you can not die in peace.

TV continues to insult and madden me, nowadays more than ever. They should design a game where you can shoot TV shows.

The sky is pale blue, I can see a few trees through the window. A bird flies by. The road buzzes with traffic. Life goes on..

Dialogue

2010-08-09T20:52:00.005+05:30

Monday, around 9:00 PM,
A remote corner.

Pal do pal ka sath hai.. Ab na jaa..
Chhoti si ek baat hai... Ab na jaa..
The Machine says.

For the record

2010-07-28T17:31:00.001+05:30

I had certain 'opinions' about Malcolm Gladwell's books (without having actually read them, I might add, but based on what I heard from one or the other). I recently read one of his pieces online, and said, wth, I might as well actually read and see. I read Outliers yesterday, and report enjoying it.

Enjoy!!

An important book

2010-07-26T18:31:00.004+05:30

Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life. The longing for love, search for knowledge and unbearable pity for suffering of mankind.

So begins the autobiography of Bertrand Russell. We have met Mr.Russell before, and the chief reason for me picking up this book (apart from a general curiosity about the life of Mr.Russell), was that I wanted to know how Principia Mathematica came about. I wanted to know the intellectual milieu that fuelled its creation, the decade long effort that went into making it and so on. OK, so on that one count the book disapppointed me. There is not a lot about the things I mentioned above in the book. But the book on the whole is so good, and so important (so it seems to me) that that one particular point dimineshes into insignificance. I knew Russell as a first rate mathematician and a first rate writer, what was new to me was his public life; his countless battles for women's rights, disarmament, justice for war crimes and a number of other issues fills one with awe. Russell was blessed with a long life, ninety-eight years in which he retained all his mental faculties almost to the end, and more importantly, continued utilizing them. Almost all the leading intellects of the era were in his touch, and sought his counsel. A curious feature of the book is that after each chapter, letters from and to Russell from that time are also printed, which make for great reading. Some are personal, some seek counsel, some even heap scorn on Russell, and all in all make the book a lot more interesting. On a personal note, I tend to read more books about facts, because I like to know them. On that count, I learned very little from this large book. But there is also a kind of learning, shaping of thought that I don't think I can express in words, and I learned a lot on that count (I think). Just one concluding observation now, Russell's clarity makes (almost) all others seem like schoolboys. I haven't been able to read anything since last night (when I finished his book) because of it :).

Enjoy!!

Impressions

2010-07-22T22:28:00.000+05:30

server rooms are great for contemplation (even when they freeze you to death)

bash is beauty, SHLVL is your totem

hungry like a dog, mad like a dog, basically a dog (and that is called duck typing)

when will I learn?

A short note

2010-07-13T19:40:00.007+05:30

On a short book, John Gribbin's In search of the multiverse. OK, just to be clear, there is no 'The Multiverse'. The basic idea is that our visible universe is just a part of a much bigger (possibly infinite) thing, called multiverse. Why do you need it? To explain say, why the universe had low entropy to begin with, or say, why it is so supportive of life (I won't go in much details (the author does it nicely), except mentioning that there are multiple ways to go theorizing about it, for example the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, or chaotic inflation, or cosmic landscape of string theory, and so on). The writing is accessible, but certain parts were not very clear to me (though not due to any fault on the author's part, I think at a certain level words are no substitute for equations, but then you have to go to textbooks for them). Importantly, it packs a lot of information in just 200 pages. A good read if you have read a few popsci books before, and want an upgrade.

Enjoy!!

Bad Science

2010-07-09T19:38:00.003+05:30

You know how ICUs came about?
Polio causes paralysis of muscles, and in case of an attack on the chest muscles, patient can die because loss of breathing. But these attacks are also known to retreat spontaneously, and hence doctors came up with the idea of `just keep'em breathing and we might save them`. And to cater to this need was born the Intensive Care Unit.

Just one of the interesting tidbits from Ben Goldacre's Bad Science (which I finished reading recently). But this book is far from just a collection of interesting stories (of which it contains many). It is a serious attempt at public education about science focusing on the medical domain. There is a highly readable discussion of how clinical trials are conducted (and what does a double-blind-placebo-controlled study means). We learn about the caveats in conducting and interpreting these studies (something to which even the researchers are not immune sometimes). We meet some high profile new age health gurus (not local to this land, but you might be able to draw parallels). But probably the most important part of the book is about statistics (note: it's good but could've been better) and how to use it to 'read' news. We are constantly bombarded with miracle cures (and no, not the jaduii pendants (we all are too smart for those) but pills for concentration, creams for bedaag gorapan and not to mention, machines with which you can lose weight (our public seems to be obsessed with this one issue) without exercise). Next in line are health drinks which help your kids grow dugani teji se and even garmiyo me. Next, a drink which has both nature aur science ke guun. Well, my friend, science is not a substance, it's a process so you can't put that in a product [and also, having a robot as mascot for science doesn't help, that's technology]. I can go on, and you can come up with your own list, but that isn't helpful. What this book sets out to do is develop a more sceptical, more rational outlook. And that makes it a must read. Ben (himself a doctor) appears as a supporter of a normal healthy diet, something your mom told you about; and it's a piece of advice soarly missing in our supplement obsessed world, I think.

I am more than willing to share my copy of the book so if you are interested, let me know. Also there is a lot of good stuff on the author's website. Do check it out.

Enjoy!!

P.S. Trick or Treatment would be nice complementary reading to this. You can find my review of it here.

Aah Consistency!!

2010-07-05T18:56:00.003+05:30


# 1 + 2.1 ;;
Error: This expression has type float but an expression was expected of type int

# 1.0 + 2.1 ;;
Error: This expression has type float but an expression was expected of type int

# 1.0 +. 2.1 ;;
- : float = 3.1

More of the same

2010-07-04T11:45:00.008+05:30

I seem to be losing (rather quickly) whatever little capacity I had had for writing posts about one topic. Welcome to today's collection of random notes

Cartoons - Their importance can't be put into words, neither can their impact. For me, almost all of the favorites remained those I picked up as a kid. Not that I stopped watching cartoons, but somehow no one entered the inner circle (the area occupied by Johny Quest, Aladin, Darkwing Duck and Centurians, just to name a few). That's not the case now. Gates have been opened for another worthy candidate, Phineas and Ferb. Thanks to bangi for introducing us.

This one again relates to childhood. Your truly (and many of his friends) still retain their fascination with stationary section of a shop (along with Toys, and yes, Tools). In one of those leisurely strolls, I came across a package. It was almost a compass box, ruler, protractor and stuff but for one thing, it also had a pocket calculator. Now what does that tell you?

I finished reading the 2007 Edge book [more about edge in the linked post]. The question for that year was 'What are you optimistic about?'. Wonderful reading, as expected. It's hard for me to pick the best response, so I'll tell you the one which I liked most
Sometime in the 21st century, I will understand 20th century Physics.
Something yours truly is optimistic about too. Now time to get the new Edge books [haven't seen them in the bookstores yet. but for the impatient: they are available online]

Started reading Anathem recently. Haven't read much yet, but am wondering, how much of the alternate universe created by an author (prime example: Middle Earth and Tolkein) with all the hard-or-impossible to pronounce names (remember kwisatz haderach?) is genuine requirement of the story, and how much is it a vehicle for showing the writer's genius? The answer would vary per case, and it's too early to draw conclusions (at least in this case).

And the last point, WHERE ARE THE RAINS?

Enjoy!!

The fifteen year old question (approximately)

2010-07-02T19:12:00.003+05:30

Why do red ants bite while black ones don't?

When I was a kid (hence fifteen years in the title), the prevalent theory was that because black ones were from god and red ones from devil, and hence it was ok to kill red ants. And as far as I remember, I did buy it. Now today, and it's a little hard to explain why, the question popped back in my mind while having lunch. And having the great power of the internetz at my fingertips (which my ten-year-old-library-scavenging self would have been totally awed at), I decided to put it to good use. And the short answer is, not sure. Stinging is the dominant defense mechanism in the ant family tree, but recently evolved subspecies lack it. Which means the black ant I met as a kid (most likely some relative of black carpenter ant) is younger than the red ant (most likely some relative of fire ant) in evolutionary terms (again my ten-year-old-self would have been totally awed by this, having no concept of evolution). In the process I learned a bit about different defense meachanisms employed by ants, bite-and-spray-acid vs sting-and-insert-alakoloid etc (red ants do not actually bite, they sting. Some workers from black ant family do bite) and discovered this interesting blog (in fact, many of the facts in this post come from this post). Take a look, gooood stuff!! To top it all, there is even a sting index (so sting like a bee is 2.x if you are a honey bee). Fundoo!! As for me, I am just glad, you know that pure gladness which we all knew as kids (which now seems to have deserted for the most part), that kind of glad to have made a little more progress :).

Enjoy!!

P.S. I realize there must be more to this than my few minutes worth of googling revealed. If you do come across further info, please let me know. Thanks in advance.

Sixty-three minutes

2010-06-30T20:08:00.003+05:30

The Eight-Minute XML Tutorial
The Ten-Minute XPath Tutorial
The Ten-Minute LDAP Tutorial
The Twenty-Minute SNMP Tutorial
The Fifteen-Minute SQL Tutorial
[All from oreillynet]

Well wasted.

We've come a long way

2010-06-30T13:39:00.002+05:30

From here to here.

I say Progress.

Worst Thing

2010-06-29T20:34:00.006+05:30

Being at the mercy of network latency.

Things to do if this happens to you.
1) Run 'ping' and try to look for a pattern in 'time=' value. Based on its value imagine what the sharks might be doing (next point)
2) Run a quiz 'What happened to the transatlantic cable?' Options
a) Sharks nibbled the bytes
b) Captain Nemo
c) The little mermaid
3) Hate sharks, Captain Nemo and The little mermaid
4) Try to remember names of the last five books you read, in order.
5) See who else is around. Try not to feel lonely.
6) Read blog. No understand. Write blog.
7) Try to think of the seventh option. Make it the seventh option. To infinity and beyond.

$Enjoy!

An exercise in logic

2010-06-29T19:05:00.002+05:30

Just finished reading Alfred Sloan's My years with General Motors. For those who don't know, Mr.Sloan was chief executive of GM from 1920s to 1950s, fundamental to the spectacular growth of GM in that era, and the book is his business autobiography. And a business biography it is through and through. Never once Mr.Sloan says I was happy or frustrated or sad, but he'll painstakingly explain the logic of his decisions. There is not a single reference to the events of his personal life, but there is a lot about evolution of GM, modeling of competition and market, design of employee benefit programs and so on, in a tone rational but not cold, humane yet detached. An intersting point, GM being the giant it was at that time, the general response to any crisis was 'I created a committee'. Only that (contrary to popular opinion), it seems to have worked. Of course some parts of the book went over my head, the book being (supposedly) aimed at professional managers, but having never really managed anything of value (including myself) , I was still able to enjoy (and hopefully learn from) it. Give it a try!

Enjoy!

Assorted (but not sorted) list of updates

2010-06-16T19:42:00.002+05:30

[Note: You were supposed to be reading this rant 48 hours ago but for the thing in the last para, appended today].

The last book I read was The Strangest Man, a balanced personal + scientific biography of quantum pioneer Paul Dirac. Dirac was single handedly responsible a lot of great ideas in the early days of quantum theory, and singulary eccentric. A good read!

Recently I purchased a sony NWZ E443 8GB Mp3 player. I wanted once since long, but was confused between iPod and Sony. There is not much difference in the music quality, some 'music experts' told me, and I took their word. iPod has this awesome feel about it, but lack of FM and the restriction of always going through iTunes and price difference of around 2K meant I purchased sony. When I bought it, only songs were on my mind. It was only later that I realized the wealth of knowledge spread around the net in the form of podcasts. I have already started building my podcast library. Let me know if you know of any good podcasts. One especially good one that I found was the weekly sciam science talk. Good Stuff!

Watched Rajneeti yesterday. The first half is nicely done, but the second half is copy-pasted from B R Chopra ki mahabharat. Some scenes are so out of place (eg the nihattha scene towards the end) that they cannot be there by accident. Prakash Jha wanted it to be a copy. But why? we all have seen mahabharat on doordarshan. Is it for the younger generation who hasn't heard of DD? What explains the bunch of steamy scenes then? In short, a one time watch.

Prasad Musale aka aaba (my college buddy) was here on Sunday. What started as a 10AM breakfast plan at Goodluck expanded to 10AM breakfast at Wadeshwar (one of us thought GL is not hygenic enough, can you believe that?) + Rajneeti at Mangala + lukkhagiri on roads + evening snacks at GL with a lot of bakar bakar interspersed throughout and ended at 7:30, only because aaba had a bus to catch. A day wonderfully spent!

Weather here has been exceptionally good for a last couple of days. Makes me feel like singing a crappy song from a crappy movie, but with rather nicely fitting words, mausam yeh, awesome bada! :)

The awesomeness mentioned earlier turned into freaking awesomeness on Monday. Really heavy rainfall combined with the changed geography (new buildings etc) meant the water found safe haven in our parking lot. And by a stupid chain of events I found silencer of my bike filled to the brim. Bike is currently recuperating at the mechanic's, but the knee-high water in the parking lot, taking out the bikes with one carried over the shoulder cuz the owner was not present and the maddening traffic was a fun experience in a strange sense. And what a sight!

That's it for now. I hope I will return sooner with the next bunch of updates.
Enjoy!

Today =

2010-05-07T18:11:00.003+05:30

Joro ki hawa + halki barish + dhool mitti + french fries (bhajiya would've been better though) + do cup chai = Total freaking awesomeness.

Enjoy the Winds!

Hattrick

2010-05-04T20:17:00.003+05:30

I was looking for it since long. Thankfully, my latest Landmark trip proved fruitful and I was able to gift myself a copy of Galileo's Daughter (Why the word 'gift'? Well, I had declared (in one weak moment, no doubt) April to be a 'No books month'. Which meant I was not to buy even a single book for a whole month. Now if you know me, you also know that's quite a challenge for me. My friends understandably expressed their concern in the beginning (and astonishment in the end when I did complete it). Hence the word 'gift'. Anyway).

As I said, I was looking for this book since long, having read and liked both Planets and Longitude by Dava Sobel. Again, Sobel did not disappint. This book is a biography of Galileo, but an important part is the correpondence between Galileo and his daughter Virginia (who became a nun and adopted the title 'Suor Maria Celeste'). So here we meet the man who on one hand is creating the foundations of modern science and on the other hand is caring enough to cater to even the smallest requests from his daughter, like silk for making collars. Virginia had inherited her father's intelligence, as is apparent from her requests for manuscripts of Galileo's works. The drama of trial of Galileo is covered well and will connect to your heart. Specifically noteworthy is the part in the end, where Galileo is allowed to return to his home after his trial and after many unnecessary delays, but his daughter who is eagerly waiting for him succumbs to an illness before he reaches. Like other Sobel books, it's completely unputdownable. That's why the title. Highly recommended!

Enjoy!

QnA

2010-04-19T19:50:00.002+05:30

Q. If they make a 3D version of Snakes on a plane, what would it be called?
A. Snakes in a Space [According to Wikipedia].

OK. I am bored.

Longitude

2010-04-17T13:25:00.003+05:30

Just finished reading Longitude by Dava Sobel. We've met her in planets, and Longitude delivered on the high expectations set by the earlier book. The story revolves around the solution of the 'Longitude Problem', namely, determining your longitude in the sea (lattitude could be determined from the elevation of the pole star, which is overhead at the north pole and at the horizon at the equator). This was a pressing issue, a single accident in 1707 due to the miscalculation of longitude turned into loss of four ships and two thousand lives. This led to the Longitude Act of 1714 in UK, where a prize of 20000 pounds was declared for the correct resolution of the problem. The problem could be solved if a clock reliable enough to work accurately in the unsteady sea could be constructed. Then you can set the clock to some known meridian time, take it with you on the ship and compare its reading with the local time. The time difference can be converted to a longitude reading. But constructing such a clock was an undertaking of no small magnitude. Pendulums could not be kept steady in the turbulent sea, temperature differences meant different parts might expand and contract by different amounts, and there was the general problem of reliability (it's a bit hard to appreciate these difficulties in our age of Rs20 digital watches, sold by kilos, and more accurate by orders of magnitude than the best of that era). A self taught clockmaker named John Harrison, using novel techniques invented by himself succeeded (his still surviving masterpieces are named H-1 through H-4), but had to struggle long to claim the prize money because the evaluation committee, composed of Astronomer Royal and other learned men was predisposed towards astronomical solutions and against what 'mechanics' wrought. Especially, Nevil Maskelyne, the fifth A.R. did everything to make Harrison's life miserable [As a side note, Maskelyne was instrumental in establishing Greenwich as the de facto prime meridian which had earlier resided in Rome, Pisa and Paris among other places. And as a side note to this side note, the de facto standard became de jure in the 1884 International Meridian Conference]. But Harrison and his clocks triumphed in the end, and launched into a new era of marine clockmaking and it has been suggested that the source of naval power that made the British empire was this advance in navigation.

Sobel's writing is as is to be expected, wonderful. The Longitude Problem occupied all the great minds of the time including Galileo, Halley, Newton, Hooke and Cassini, but interestingly, we do not hear much about their contributions in this area. I am just glad that I picked this book.

Enjoy!

The Equation that couldn't be solved

2010-04-16T14:03:00.007+05:30

Talent does what it can, Genius does what it must.

-Owen Meredith

The Theory of Groups is the branch of mathematics in which you do something to something and then compare the result with the result obtained by doing the same thing to something else or something else to the same thing.

-James Newman

The book I recently read, The Equation that couldn't be solved is about these two things chiefly, Genius and Group Theory. I say chiefly because it really does cover a very wide range of topics, but aforementioned themes stand out. The equation in title is the general quintic (which is a just a fancy name for an equation of degree 5, like the quadratic is an equation of degree 2). If nothing else, all our schools taught us the formula to solve the quadratic. Solutions to ax² + bx + c = 0 are

[Image from Wikipedia]
This formula is effectively known since the time of Babylonians. But what about equation of higher degree? Mathematicians over the years discovered similar (but more complex) formulas for third and fourth degree equations (known as cubic and quartic respectively). It was thought that the trend will continue for equations of higher degrees until two nineteenth century genius, Abel and Galois proved that no such formula (expressed in terms of coefficients, and using only the four arithmetic operations plus extraction of roots) can exist above quartic. But both these genius' led tragic lives and died in their twenties. Consider this
1. Abel proves the insolubility of quintic and sends it to Gauss, the best mathematician of his day. After Gauss' death, Abel's letter is found in his papers, unopened.
2. Mathematical establishment fails to consider even his later work.
3. Abel dies at twenty seven, in his own words 'as poor as a church mouse'.
Irony: Abel prize, which is given in his memory, is worth $992,000 today.

Or about Galois
1. Galois loses his father in political intrigue at a young age.
2. Galois submits his landmark work on the insolubility of quintic (the progenitor of Group Theory) for a prize contest. One of the judges, Fourier takes the work home, but dies after a few days and the work is lost.
3. Galois dies in a duel at twenty, after spending time in prison in the politically turbulent climate.

But despite this not-too-promising start Group Theory survived and has become a keystone of modern science, and the book covers the basics well. The chapter on Galois is a short and very readable mini biography. The history of the solutions of cubic and quartic is worth a separate book in itself. As Group Theory is the official language for describing symmetries of a system (e.g. an equilateral triangle under rotation by 120, 240 or 360 degrees, there is even a bingo ad about this ;-), the book also touches on fields ranging from visual perception to anthropology and music to evolutionary psychology where symmetry pops up. All in all, this book is a masterpiece. Don't miss!!

Enjoy!

The Loom of God

2010-04-12T18:40:00.007+05:30

Mathematics is the loom upon which God weaves the fabric of the Universe.

-Clifford Pickover

Mysticism fascinates all. Math fascinates (remarkably) few. So it might come as a surprise that a lot of mysticism has its roots in math (admittedly ancient though). Take for exaple the tetrektys of pythagoreans, who lived about 2500 years ago

It was a symbol they worshipped. It shows important musical intervals (3:2-fifth, 4:3-fourth, 2:1-octave), and pythagoreans beleived that just as simple numerical ratios create harmony in music, so is true for the Universe. The total number of dots is 10, which a triangular number. Or consider the sacred pentacle,

the digonal of which is in golden proportion with its side, which is considered to be the most irrational number of all (if you want to know why, go here). And if you want more of this stuff (and chances are you do if you've read 'Da vinci'), be sure to pick a copy of The Loom of God by Clifford Pickover.

Pickover takes us through many places and times, we visit ancient monuments like stonehenge, see ancient computing devices like quipu, and even hear many predictions of apocalypse (many of which have passed their expiry date). There are programs in the end to compute many of the number sequences discussed (beware that many of these are in BASIC though). Overall the mathematical material is not significantly different from what is found in other popular science books, but the blend with mysticism is worth a try!

Enjoy!

[All images taken from Wikipedia].

More books..

2010-04-09T11:40:00.005+05:30

The last long long weekend (as the long weekend was appended by 2 days leave) allowed me some much needed time to read, in quiet. Here I am always surrounded by some kind of noise, but my hometown gives me a nice break. I managed to finish one-and-a-half books actually, with the remaining half taking last two days.

The first one was Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot, sequel to the legendary Cosmos. I liked it even better than its predecessor. The book present Sagan's vision about the human future in space. He ranges over our planetary system and the places where life may be found (Titan for example), the social issues surrounding spaceflight (who needs it when thousands are dying of hunger), the achievements of past missions and what we can expect in the future. Sagan's acclaimed writing style means you won't want to leave this book once you start. Read this book even if you are not a fan of space, just to see how the master wrote (and as a bonus, you might in fact become a fan in the end).

The second one was Gurcharan Das' India Unbound, which is a fundoo look at our journey as a nation from the independence to the 21st century. The book can be divided in two parts, with the first part talking about the polito-economic history from independence to the reforms of 91, which is a tour de force. The second part talks about the post reform India and the rise of the information economy, but it has a kind of the-world-is-flat feel about it and it rather bored me. But there is a lot to learn in this book, and the writing style will keep you glued. And as an added bonus, after reading it, you might be better able to appreciate 80's bollywood movies :).

Enjoy!

I too had a dream..

2010-03-30T20:42:00.003+05:30

[I have worked myself into a worse-than-usual blogger's block. [For example, see this]. I am trying to get out, and you might see a series of small posts in this space in near future, but let's leave that for later and see what we have today].

Recently I finished reading I too had a dream by Verghese Kurien. The name is not as well known as it should be. Mr. Kurien was the architect of the white revolution (popularly known as Operation Flood), the project that propelled our country to self sufficiency in milk and derived products. Kurien is the guy behind 'Amul' and 'Dhara', household names today. He is straightforward and blunt in his writing, mincing words neither in criticism nor praise. I found the book a riveting read. I have often heard the opinion that all our heroes lived before the independence. I knew of one glaring exception, Kalam. Now there is one more.

Thanks to Zarin for sharing the book with me.

Enjoy!

I need to do something..

2010-03-26T19:00:00.001+05:30

..about my blogging frequency.

QOTD

2010-02-10T20:53:00.000+05:30

Excellence in any department can be attained only by the labor of a lifetime; it is not to be purchased at a lesser price.

-Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

I am getting lazier by the day

2010-01-30T20:47:00.002+05:30

How else would you explain my failure to document my experiences with paranormal activity (not the movie, the real PA I mean). Thankfully other people are not so lazy. Go read Vinaya's blog.

Enjoy!

The days after!

2010-01-27T20:32:00.002+05:30

The days after a wonderful vacation are tough. High spirits, laughter, fun, a break from all your worries, and the vacation evaporates before you realize. It's like an equilibrium (and a highly desirable one at that). Afterwards, when you return to your 'normal' life, all the tiny (and some not so tiny) problems reappear on your radar. And there are some that you wish/hope/pray would just disappear as if by magic. Now this has its own equillibrium state (how else would we survive otherwise). You solve some problems, ignore some and (re)start whining about others. But this second equillibrium takes time to set in. And in between the two equillibriums exists an ongoing case study in cognitive dissonance.

To our beloved frisbee

2010-01-26T20:27:00.003+05:30

We are all frisbee lovers here. What if I am a bit late? Happy Birthday Frisbee!