One of my earlier posts covered a few esoteric programming languages. As it turns out, MarkCC (of 'Good Math, Bad Math' fame) has an entire series on these (though he prefers to call them pathological). I haven't read the entire series yet (hope to do so in near future), but his coverage is as always amusing. Take the trip here.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Monday, May 26, 2008
Movies and Movie tickets
What do you do when you want to watch a movie?
1. Select a theater (on a bore Sunday afternoon, this means the nearest one).
2. Select a movie (Generally, the movie you want to watch has no show in the theater or else has a show at 11:45 pm, which is unthinkable on a Sunday. why? man what is the next day? so select at random).
3. Go and buy tickets (Simple step).
4. Watch the movie (whatever crap they throw at you).
Is this all there is to it? No man.. as it turns out, the aforementioned 'Simple step' is no simple at all. A few acute souls have already noticed, 'Verify the ticket' is an important step I missed. Now, I always believed 'Verify' means check the time of the show and class (golden/silver etc). But there is one more thing, 'Movie name'. Yes, even if you go and ask for a comedy movie ('Dhoom Dhadaka' in this case), you can get a ticket for a kids animated movie ('Ghatotkach' in this case). I don't know how 'Dhoom Dhadaka' can be confused with 'Ghatotkach', but it can happen (man, it happened to me). And if you are stupid enough not to verify the movie name too, you get to watch a half-baked animated movie with whole bunch of kids and their parents (and also to play blame game of whose fault it was later :-p). [Sitting in the theater you are waiting for the pre-movie trailers, you neither notice too many kids in the audience nor you pay attention to the Pogo ads. Suddenly a kid starts singing, "mai hu Ghatotkach..". A look at the tickets and it crashes on you..] So the lesson?? Verify your ticket (or go rent a DVD, but again, verify it :-p).
1. Select a theater (on a bore Sunday afternoon, this means the nearest one).
2. Select a movie (Generally, the movie you want to watch has no show in the theater or else has a show at 11:45 pm, which is unthinkable on a Sunday. why? man what is the next day? so select at random).
3. Go and buy tickets (Simple step).
4. Watch the movie (whatever crap they throw at you).
Is this all there is to it? No man.. as it turns out, the aforementioned 'Simple step' is no simple at all. A few acute souls have already noticed, 'Verify the ticket' is an important step I missed. Now, I always believed 'Verify' means check the time of the show and class (golden/silver etc). But there is one more thing, 'Movie name'. Yes, even if you go and ask for a comedy movie ('Dhoom Dhadaka' in this case), you can get a ticket for a kids animated movie ('Ghatotkach' in this case). I don't know how 'Dhoom Dhadaka' can be confused with 'Ghatotkach', but it can happen (man, it happened to me). And if you are stupid enough not to verify the movie name too, you get to watch a half-baked animated movie with whole bunch of kids and their parents (and also to play blame game of whose fault it was later :-p). [Sitting in the theater you are waiting for the pre-movie trailers, you neither notice too many kids in the audience nor you pay attention to the Pogo ads. Suddenly a kid starts singing, "mai hu Ghatotkach..". A look at the tickets and it crashes on you..] So the lesson?? Verify your ticket (or go rent a DVD, but again, verify it :-p).
Monday, May 19, 2008
Reminiscences of a seminar..
We have a small group around here which meets (quite informally) every Monday and one of the guys gives a seminar. The topic can be anything, a couple of examples are 'Global Warming' and 'Doing a Startup'. Now when it was my turn (which means today), I chose a mathematical topic (like I am a mathematician, but I said, no no cut that, I emphasized IANAM in the very beginning). What I wanted to convey was the remarkable unity of mathematics, through Euler's famous formula,
by tracking the historical development of 'e', 'pi', 'i' and '0' by many different mathematicians/scientists and over a period spanning millenia, culminating in the discovery of the above formula by Euler in 18th century. The concepts which originated for a variety of reasons were later found to be connected by this beautiful formula (Which RPF cited as the most beautiful formula in mathematics).
I don't know how much I succeeded, I guess I rushed a bit towards the end. But here are a few lessons I learned (nothing new I guess)..
1. Prepare (I mean slides, not a scrap of paper which just idly sits in your pocket all the while).
2. Choose your topic wisely, e.g. mathematical topic = not many questions in the end (as opposed to say 'Startups').
3. Adjusting the whiteboard is an Art and a Science, work out the optimal angle in advance.
4. Add drama (this was a comment, I guess a whiteboard and my kind of handwriting does not add much to drama).
5. And most importantly, decide which marker you want to use (Red or Black) at least two days in advance (it's pretty funny to ask somebody in the audience).
But overall I guess it went through well, and I hope there was some kind of takeaway for everybody (I hope).
by tracking the historical development of 'e', 'pi', 'i' and '0' by many different mathematicians/scientists and over a period spanning millenia, culminating in the discovery of the above formula by Euler in 18th century. The concepts which originated for a variety of reasons were later found to be connected by this beautiful formula (Which RPF cited as the most beautiful formula in mathematics).I don't know how much I succeeded, I guess I rushed a bit towards the end. But here are a few lessons I learned (nothing new I guess)..
1. Prepare (I mean slides, not a scrap of paper which just idly sits in your pocket all the while).
2. Choose your topic wisely, e.g. mathematical topic = not many questions in the end (as opposed to say 'Startups').
3. Adjusting the whiteboard is an Art and a Science, work out the optimal angle in advance.
4. Add drama (this was a comment, I guess a whiteboard and my kind of handwriting does not add much to drama).
5. And most importantly, decide which marker you want to use (Red or Black) at least two days in advance (it's pretty funny to ask somebody in the audience).
But overall I guess it went through well, and I hope there was some kind of takeaway for everybody (I hope).
Thursday, May 15, 2008
What is the name of your dog?
Aamir's latest post 'Settlers Of Panchgani' has created much controversy. Aamir happens to have a dog named 'Shahrukh', which does all the doggy things (like licking feet and all) just like other dogs. But in a world where only SRK and one other thing sells, this is understandably infuriating to many. I read a few comments on that post (which are still pouring in) and the tone is uniformly of disappointment. I guess just like me, many others took Aamir for a balanced guy, a shattered illusion it now seems. Some comments curse Aamir (I can smell diehard SRK fans hahaha..), while a few others claimed this to be a publicity stunt for 'Ghajini', but I can't to see how this will help the film. If anything, 'Ghajini' will lose on SRK fans (and many Aamir fans too). So here is piece of advice, you can name your dog whatever you like (even after somebody seen as your rival), just don't put it on your blog. You never know which guy (or dog) might object.
On a different note, this is a colorful example of our species bias, whereas Darwin told us centuries ago that all species are just products of the same process of natural selection (not that I will be particularly happy to have dogs named after me, thanks to Dharamji, Kutte is still the de facto gaali).
On a different note, this is a colorful example of our species bias, whereas Darwin told us centuries ago that all species are just products of the same process of natural selection (not that I will be particularly happy to have dogs named after me, thanks to Dharamji, Kutte is still the de facto gaali).
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
hbl n d shrt msg srvc
A nice little article from physorg..
Dr Nigel Bannister from University of Leicester worked out that text messaging is more than four times expensive than downloading the same amount of data from Hubble. Now I for one will be rather happy to receive some cool supernova pics (from Hubble, no less) rather than all those stupid sms :-p (and it will save some money too, but does data in the above statement means pics? I don't think so). And if I appear anti-SMS now, let me admit of being something of a SMS-joke-fwd-addict in my engg. days.
According to wikipedia, The first SMS was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1992. Compare this with 43 billion text messages sent over 2007-08 new year period. What a growth in just 15 years!! But also bear in mind the amount of spam it contains!! I guess soon it will rival Email spam (with 100 billion spam messages a day),or maybe not, sending sms costs some money while sending Email is virtually free AFAIK. So what next?? Mobile spam filters, anyone??
Dr Nigel Bannister from University of Leicester worked out that text messaging is more than four times expensive than downloading the same amount of data from Hubble. Now I for one will be rather happy to receive some cool supernova pics (from Hubble, no less) rather than all those stupid sms :-p (and it will save some money too, but does data in the above statement means pics? I don't think so). And if I appear anti-SMS now, let me admit of being something of a SMS-joke-fwd-addict in my engg. days.
According to wikipedia, The first SMS was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the United Kingdom on 3 December 1992. Compare this with 43 billion text messages sent over 2007-08 new year period. What a growth in just 15 years!! But also bear in mind the amount of spam it contains!! I guess soon it will rival Email spam (with 100 billion spam messages a day),or maybe not, sending sms costs some money while sending Email is virtually free AFAIK. So what next?? Mobile spam filters, anyone??
Monday, May 12, 2008
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