I was reading an article on the sundara-kanda of ramayana and a particular usage of words by the author, which went like "Hanuman had to present his credentials to sita before proceeding further" caught my attention. All these days , i thought the concept of presenting security credentials like certificates before initiating a communication was a comp invention. But now, we had Hanuman doing the same thing, lots of years ago, even before the abacus was invented. May be i was wrong in letting the cs guy in me "assuming" things.. may be there are a lot more ideas in our epics lying out there, just waiting to be put in the right context. Next time i read something similar, I should probly cull out the idea and see if it can be applied in CS.. But wait a minute.. isnt that against the entire idea of our religious works.. Am i trying to tie the meta physical with the wordly and thereby be lost in the ensuing chaos.. I dont know.. Probly time shall tell.. or has already told.. just waiting to be rediscovered.
On a related note, I was surprised to meet someone today who thought Hanuman was a god of the north, and wasnt famous in the south.. And given that, Lord Rama and his entire entourage had to go to Lanka through the south, this was quite surprising indeed.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
two talks and a gala time
We had 2 talks this friday.. One by Richard Stallman, the Free software guru, and the other on aware home by Dr Slonim.
The talk by RSM was great, albeit not awesome though. ANybody who had read the wiki article on him probly knew what was coming.. But he is a relly good speaker, and the St.iGNUcius attire really dons well on him. A couple of interesting snippets from his talk,
"When u talk abt free software, think abt it as free speech, not free beer". I think that really captures it all.. free in FS is to be free to do ethically right things in a free manner.
He also ranted about how linux is just a small piece in the big jigsaw puzzle that is GNU, and how crediting Linus for everything open source was not the right way to go abt it.. Infact Linus, made the linux kernel open by mistake. The right way to call a linux distro is to call it GNU+linux..
We got a couple of free stickers, but his autographs meant that u buy his books.. Not sure if that was right on his part.. but if thats the way he wants it.. its fine.. after all, its his signature..
The second talk was the most animated talk here at UMBC i have seen for a long time. Not because of the speaker, but due to an esteemed member of the audience, who also happens to be a prof here. The talk was how they were building an intelligent home for the aged, and how CS meets Medicine kinda talk. The slides looked more like a brochure.. surely not for the techies out there..
Sometime though the talk, the esteemed member asked how would all this improve the state of the art in CS.. a valid question i would say.. and what metrics they were using to see if their solution made any sense. The speaker wasnt happy with the question, and shot back why he dint think about this so called simple idea, when he was at NASA. I liked the reply which went, "I was more concerned with the universe up there than the beds down here". Kindof threw the entire audience into a ball of laughter.
Anyways, during lunch, i was cribbing to anand about how i was getting no ideas out of reading papers. He gave a valid suggestion.. Read papers to understand the problems, not to find solutions. Kindof simple, but to the point i thought.
Had a bad headache... slept at 645 and woke up at 9 in the morning.. God.. save me..
The talk by RSM was great, albeit not awesome though. ANybody who had read the wiki article on him probly knew what was coming.. But he is a relly good speaker, and the St.iGNUcius attire really dons well on him. A couple of interesting snippets from his talk,
"When u talk abt free software, think abt it as free speech, not free beer". I think that really captures it all.. free in FS is to be free to do ethically right things in a free manner.
He also ranted about how linux is just a small piece in the big jigsaw puzzle that is GNU, and how crediting Linus for everything open source was not the right way to go abt it.. Infact Linus, made the linux kernel open by mistake. The right way to call a linux distro is to call it GNU+linux..
We got a couple of free stickers, but his autographs meant that u buy his books.. Not sure if that was right on his part.. but if thats the way he wants it.. its fine.. after all, its his signature..
The second talk was the most animated talk here at UMBC i have seen for a long time. Not because of the speaker, but due to an esteemed member of the audience, who also happens to be a prof here. The talk was how they were building an intelligent home for the aged, and how CS meets Medicine kinda talk. The slides looked more like a brochure.. surely not for the techies out there..
Sometime though the talk, the esteemed member asked how would all this improve the state of the art in CS.. a valid question i would say.. and what metrics they were using to see if their solution made any sense. The speaker wasnt happy with the question, and shot back why he dint think about this so called simple idea, when he was at NASA. I liked the reply which went, "I was more concerned with the universe up there than the beds down here". Kindof threw the entire audience into a ball of laughter.
Anyways, during lunch, i was cribbing to anand about how i was getting no ideas out of reading papers. He gave a valid suggestion.. Read papers to understand the problems, not to find solutions. Kindof simple, but to the point i thought.
Had a bad headache... slept at 645 and woke up at 9 in the morning.. God.. save me..
Thursday, April 19, 2007
What a life
Lots of things have crossed my mind of late, and this is my vain attempt to pen.. ahum.. type them down..
I am going to begin with my grad life here.. something i am going to be stuck around with for a couple of years to go from now.. I am just not happy with my classes here.. When I applied for the grad program here, I was always under the illusion that every grad class lecture would be enlightening.. enlightening to the state, that at the end of the day, one can sleep peacefully, with a sense of accomplishment of having learnt something new and cutting edge, something beyond the realms of an ordinary mind.. of having had heated discussions dissecting the most minutest of details unaware of the external world as it may be.. of having acquired the skill to analyse any idea to its barest minimum.. but alas.. as i said.. its just been an illusion so far. Grad classes here are boring.. not even the enthusiasm of an undergrad class is to be seen any where close. Lots of hand waving.. and yeah we students.. what can I say.. are the most uninterested bunch in class..No participation unless needed.. and participation when not required, dont expect us to take the first step. I have seen a couple of lectures of OCW at MIT, and i am sure .. its not completely our mistake.. Period.
My research.. aah.. that one thing which has ever been successful in evading my pursuits. I am still unsure on what to do for my thesis. I want to work on ad hoc networks, particularly multi radio ad hoc networks to better deliver network services. But my advisor wants to put it in the context of the medical environment. I am just afraid that this medical thingy would be an engineering feat, no useful research would come out of it..but i am unsure of it.. And as such.. the CS world would be happy with any engineering feat anyways..
The Indian news media.. its really painful to see what the news media in india has done to itself. The indian news media today looks more like an entertainment channel than a serious disseminator of news content. Just look at the coverage of the ash-abhi marriage and prove me wrong if u can.. Not that i have any grudge against them.. but come on guys.. its time to get urselves back in order.. I have no respect for american news channels geiven the way they always monger to sensationalise an albeit isolated incident.. looks like news channels back home are no better than their american competitors... or shall i say..compatriots..
I am really concerned with certain developments in myself.. need to make a serious u turn in life..
I am just not enthused about my work and this is not a good feeling.. I feel like I need to be challenged more.. like prove a theorem kindof work.. but thats not happening in the near future..Hope i can find the right question for my thesis that will keep me engaged with full enthu all through my grad stay..
I am going to begin with my grad life here.. something i am going to be stuck around with for a couple of years to go from now.. I am just not happy with my classes here.. When I applied for the grad program here, I was always under the illusion that every grad class lecture would be enlightening.. enlightening to the state, that at the end of the day, one can sleep peacefully, with a sense of accomplishment of having learnt something new and cutting edge, something beyond the realms of an ordinary mind.. of having had heated discussions dissecting the most minutest of details unaware of the external world as it may be.. of having acquired the skill to analyse any idea to its barest minimum.. but alas.. as i said.. its just been an illusion so far. Grad classes here are boring.. not even the enthusiasm of an undergrad class is to be seen any where close. Lots of hand waving.. and yeah we students.. what can I say.. are the most uninterested bunch in class..No participation unless needed.. and participation when not required, dont expect us to take the first step. I have seen a couple of lectures of OCW at MIT, and i am sure .. its not completely our mistake.. Period.
My research.. aah.. that one thing which has ever been successful in evading my pursuits. I am still unsure on what to do for my thesis. I want to work on ad hoc networks, particularly multi radio ad hoc networks to better deliver network services. But my advisor wants to put it in the context of the medical environment. I am just afraid that this medical thingy would be an engineering feat, no useful research would come out of it..but i am unsure of it.. And as such.. the CS world would be happy with any engineering feat anyways..
The Indian news media.. its really painful to see what the news media in india has done to itself. The indian news media today looks more like an entertainment channel than a serious disseminator of news content. Just look at the coverage of the ash-abhi marriage and prove me wrong if u can.. Not that i have any grudge against them.. but come on guys.. its time to get urselves back in order.. I have no respect for american news channels geiven the way they always monger to sensationalise an albeit isolated incident.. looks like news channels back home are no better than their american competitors... or shall i say..compatriots..
I am really concerned with certain developments in myself.. need to make a serious u turn in life..
I am just not enthused about my work and this is not a good feeling.. I feel like I need to be challenged more.. like prove a theorem kindof work.. but thats not happening in the near future..Hope i can find the right question for my thesis that will keep me engaged with full enthu all through my grad stay..
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