The Learner: Learning Things: One by One

Photography Questions Answered: Q1: High ISO

2012-02-22T09:00:00.001-08:00

When I got my first digital camera, I explored the menus, and I discovered there is a section called ISO. I didn't know what it was, but discovered the highest rated ISO was 1600. Not knowing what is ISO, I set it up as 1600. I got a lot of grains in the photos I took in low light. I thought my camera wasn't that good. Later I thought there was dust in front of my camera lens. I started hating my camera.

At that time I didn't know one thing. I didn't know what ISO iss.

ISO is comparable with Film Speed in the film cameras. Higher ISO ensures higher shutter speed, ensures reduced image quality, ensures more noise in the photos. You can think of ISO as light multiplication factor. An ISO rating of 200 means that it is twice as bright as the natural light that you could capture using ISO 100. ISO 400 means it is 4 times as bright as the natural light.

If you are shooting landscape, I will recommend you to use ISO 100. In the early morning, or late afternoon, you can try ISO 200. The less ISO, the better image quality. More ISO, worse image quality.

If I could, I would shoot everything in ISO 100. But I cannot. If I am shooting in low light, and the subject is moving too fast, higher ISO will ensure the sharpness of the photo. Otherwise, the image may get blurred.

Canon, Nikon and other camera companies these days support ISO more than 100000. That is meaningless. You may capture the face of your assassin hiding in your garden with that kind of ISO, but the photos will almost always never be good.

If you are shooting inside your room, keep ISO to 400. At max 800. Use large aperture. If you capturing one face, keep the f-stop in between 1. 8 to 2.8. If you are capturing many faces, use f-stop between 4.5 to 6. If people are moving, use flash.

Forget higher ISO. If you take care of ISO and use it effectively, even with a compact camera you will get stunning quality images.

Check this link. Here, a number of photos were taken by a compact camera. See if you can distinguish them.

www.flickr.com/torumoy

The Good Photograph Hierarchy

2012-02-16T11:59:00.000-08:00

As of 2012,

Photography is 70% capturing, 30% editing.

If you don't capture a good photo, editing won't make it better.

Out of that 30% editing, 60% will go into cropping.

Out of that remaining 40%, 50% will go into proper contrast, 20% into brightness, the remaining 30% varies.

Out of that remaining 30% very often, 60% will go for saturation, 20% for vignette, 20% for unknown things.

Note: I didn't consider if your photo is a colored one or black and white. The figures are not accurate. This is just to give you a rough idea.

The Window

2012-02-15T09:14:00.000-08:00

The window.

I look out of the bus window. I look out of the room window. I look out of the launch window.

I look out.

Things mostly remain the same. My perspective changes.

The river I cross almost everyday, hasn't changed much in the last thousand years.

Sure, the water has been changing continuously. The landscape around has changed a bit. But, the overall feeling and the reason for which it is called the river hasn't changed.

I don't live in the moment. The moment lives in me.

For, hardly anything changes.

The bus route doesn't change over ten years. The shop from where I drink tea hasn't changed it's location. Only my view, my perspective about them change.

I look out of the window. I look at the sky. Everyday I have seen a different sky, yet the sky is same to me.

Same is a thousand books in my bookshelf, same is 5 pair of shoes in my shoe rack.

Who am I?

Where am I?

What is this earth?

Am I too certain?

How can I know that the things I know as true are true.

How can I know I haven't woken up this morning with the entire past in my dreams?

My (Dad's) old buddy Minolta

2012-02-15T00:05:00.000-08:00

My dad had (has) a Minolta SLR camera which fell (has fallen) into insignificance as soon as I bought a digital camera. The reason the camera died is simple. These days no one sees the point in buying a film. There is less film variety now: if you want a film with a speed of 400, you won't find it. Also, after shooting with the film, it is a hard task to develop the film. It wasn't hard years ago, but it is hard now. No photo shop (not Photoshop) wants to turn their machine on just to develop one roll of film.

Recently, I shot with that camera again. I was impressed. My 3 year old Fujifilm digital camera gives a resolution of only 7.2 MP. The Film camera gives at least 25 MP. There is no definite way of confirming it, but that's what the researchers say.

Film is full-frame. 35 mm. It has a large sensor, very good noise performance, deep depth- all the things that are missing in a point and shoot digital camera.

The lens I used is 50 mm and is 30 years old. Still the photos look better than the ones from a point and shoot digital camera that are available today. Cool thing is that I can still mount a large 500 mm lens on the camera and spy on the next building.

The only thing I found hard is the control. A very good knowledge of photography is required to operate the camera. Almost everything in the camera should be operated manually (f-stop, shutter speed, focus). I have taken more than 30000 photos till this date, so I have some experience. I didn't find it that hard. For a novice, taking photos in an average condition would not be tough, but to capture dramatic light would be a tiresome work.

The other problem with this camera is that it is slow. It takes a long time to perform. You may miss the running dear if you have ruined the first shot already.

Overall, I like the camera very much. It has a antique feel to it. Also, it's metallic and heavy body makes it feel like a pro camera. My Dad still longs for a Canon A1 film SLR. But he somehow knows that a Film A1 is surely not as good as a Canon 5D Mark ii or a Canon 7D.

The Road less Travelled

2012-02-11T09:05:00.001-08:00

From today onwards, this blog will feature articles whichhave focus on things other than learning.

It took me time to realize the truth. The truth is “I hatedefinitions”.

Definition is a clear way to limit things. Define yourselfas a vegetarian. Now you have given yourself a proper definition to restrictyourself from some of the finest quality foods in the world (read sushi). You are a customer serviceemployee, so automatically all the great ideas you have for the growth of thecompany will be rejected, doesn’t matter if the CEO is a dumbass.

A portrait of the artist as a young man.

For a long long time, I read the title of this famous bookwrong. I didn’t know how careful James Joyce was with words. I always read “Theportrait of an artist as a young man”.

These different choices of words make a huge difference.

“The portrait” is definite. “An artist” seems arbitrary.James Joyce wouldn’t like to declare himself as too qualified to capture themetaphysical truths masterfully. He knew it is often beyond our limits to captureeven a little bit of the art. He was certain about “The Artist”. He wasn’t sureof the artist’s work of art. He used “A portrait”- which is arbitrary.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you know that theprevious title of this blog was “The science learner”. Then I figured out theword ‘science’ restrains me from writing on other topics. So I dropped the word“science”.

The reason I started writing on this blog was to encouragepeople to learn and experience the world with a little more scrupulousness.Writing only on “science” wouldn’t serve that purpose. So wouldn’t only“learning”. Ultimately there is nothing called “learning”. It is all an experience.

I welcome you to encourage me to go with my new foundspirit. Let’s explore the world of randomness. Let’s give our autographs to ourunique endeavors to bring a collective change in the world.

Travelling

2012-02-09T19:38:00.000-08:00

Haven't you gone through a phase in your life when you find it hard to pass time?

I had gone through that phase. Now I have gone passed it.

I read somewhere, no one ever feels bad after doing any kind of physical work. I agree.

If I don't have anything to do, I just get up and clean my room. Or I rearrange the room. Or I write in my diary. Or I wash my clothes.

I have been travelling so much lately. Last seven days, I was in one place in the morning, another place in the evening. Another country the next day.

I have seen people from more than 40 different countries. I have talked to people from 5 different countries.

I have tried foods of varied taste. I have eaten to the last limit of my tummy.

I enjoyed every bit of it. I was running out of time. I don't have enough to time to everything I want to do. Still it is fun. Still is more interesting than any other thing in the world. Life is wonderful!!

The Science Learner's Quote

2012-01-03T14:39:00.000-08:00

What good has the secondary school education done to you?

- It has made you educated enough to educate yourself for the rest of your life in whatever topic you choose (that can start from archeology, stop at biology, finish at literature....it doesn't matter what you choose- only you need to have enough passion for it).

Pseudoscience 3: How to Wear Shorts on a Cold Winter Day?

2011-12-15T02:17:00.000-08:00

"Rub your chest. Your hands and legs can take care of themselves".- Henri Ducard to Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) in "The Batman Begins".

Have you ever thought about it?

Actually there is no rocket science behind it. It is well-known that the body mechanism works in priority basis. The reason you feel cold in your legs and hands on a winter day is because you haven't protected your upper body well from the cold weather. Two of the most important organs in the body are your heart and your kidneys. When they are not well protected, the body pulls in blood from your legs and hands to give it to your heart, kidney and other important organs in your upper body. As your hands and legs are low on blood, they feel cold.

So, how to wear shorts on a cold winter day?

Option 1: You can wear your usual clothes on your upper body and rub your chest the way Batman did.

or,

Option 2: You can wear adequate number of warm clothes on your upper body.

If your upper body is warm enough, you can wear shorts. No probs.

Why do you shiver in cold? The reason is somewhat similar to the one you just read. If you still can't figure it out, stay tuned for my next post.

[pseudoscience: the information I write with the 'pseudoscience' title may or may not be correct. I simply write what I think and what I guess. The sole purpose I have is to analyze scientific issues in the simplest way possible. Trusting them is upon you.]

The Science Learner sometimes takes Photos

2011-12-14T04:49:00.000-08:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/torumoy/

Hello people.

Let's be casual today. Let's have a visual treat. Look at some wonderful (!) photos.

The science learner has gone out of his way and tried to understand arts. Not to mention he tried to incorporate his knowledge of optics while he was in the adventure.

So why wait? Let's have a look...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/torumoy/

For more photos like this please visit, http://www.flickr.com/photos/torumoy/.

Ohh...I will be giving the original versions with my stamp removed on request. Feel free to ask me.

Happy 11.11.11

2011-11-10T10:40:00.001-08:00

Today is a great day!!

Why?

Because for today it doesn't matter whether you follow the British way or the American way to write dates. In any prevalent way in the world (i.e. mm/dd/yy or dd/mm/yy or yy/mm/dd etc.), you will not be able to make a mistake in writing the date. Today it's 11.11.11.

Have you ever wondered that you have only one such opportunity left in your life to witness something similar?

It will be 12.12.12.

Have you figured out why? I will not answer. Think for yourself.

Clue?

We won't be able to celebrate a similar kind of day till 01.01.01. That will be in 2101. Will you be alive then?

Pseudoscience: 2: Stomach and Winter

2011-11-06T21:11:00.000-08:00

I live in a place where it gets pretty cold in winter. So cold, that I have to wear around 3 sweaters one on top of another.

When I was much younger, I always wondered why suddenly I feel so cold after taking supper (you can also call it dinner part-II). Within 20 mins from the moment I have finished taking supper, I start feeling cold. The only way I know to get rid of that situation is to jump under the blanket. I always wondered why that happens as I was under the notion that I put more energy in my body when I eat and I am supposed to feel strong and warm. I was slightly wrong. Here is why.

When you eat, a lot of energy is needed to digest the food properly. As a matter of fact, our body mechanism sends in a lot of blood to help that process. But body can't take blood away from the vital organs. So the mechanism borrows blood from those parts of the body which can still perform moderately with less blood. And our skin ("outer" surface) can perform very well with less blood except for the fact that lack of blood supply means less energy is being carried there. So there are fewer heat carrying elements. And we feel cold.

[pseudoscience: the information I write with the 'pseudoscience' title may or may not be correct. I simply write what I think and what I guess. The sole purpose I have is to analyze scientific issues in the simplest way possible. Trusting them is upon you.]

Pseudoscience: 1: Shower

2011-11-05T12:06:00.000-07:00

Why do we feel so FRESH after taking a shower? What are the scientific reasons behind it?

The top reason can be that we tend to clean our body when we take shower. We get rid of a lot of bacteria and we feel fresh. However, bacteria start growing back instantly and that's why in a few hours we start feeling itchy again.

But, a clean body is not the only reason we feel so fresh.

When we take shower, our skin temperature (I was going to write "surface temperature") falls sharply. To maintain the thermal equilibrium, blood starts rushing to the tissues near to the skin. So suddenly there is a change in the blood flow. Tissues which were getting moderate amount of blood suddenly get more blood. Also, we move our body in many different positions while taking a shower. So a lot of processes get initiated again and they start affecting the existing process of the blood flow. Not only that, a lot of depressing hormones that have been released earlier may be suppressed or overpowered by newly secreted hormones (which might be happy(!) hormones). So when we take shower, we passively initiate a lot of processes which aid in achieving a new state of body and mind and the new mental state might be labelled as 'fresh' depending on the strength of your previous mental state.

Did you know that, in each seven years, you become a completely new human being? Every single tissue in your body gets replaced by a new one?

For more posts like this, keep looking.

[pseudoscience: the information I write with the 'pseudoscience' title may or may not be correct. I simply write what I think and what I guess. The sole purpose I have is to analyze scientific issues in the simplest way possible. Trusting them is upon you.]

The Role of Science

2011-09-18T03:48:00.000-07:00

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to MOVE in the opposite direction."- Albert Einstein

"An alleged scientific discovery has no merit unless it can be explained to a BARMAID."- Ernest Rutherford

If you find a person using complex descriptions, words, you can immediately come to a conclusion that, that person too hasn't understood anything. He is just wasting your time.

Sometimes what is seeming complex to you may not be all that complex. The problem is not with them, the problem is with you. You need to upgrade your understanding level to accept the idea simply.

For example, I read The Brief History of Time when I was in class 11. I didn't understand it. I have read the same book recently, still I haven't understood all of it. But there is a difference. I have understood more things the second time than I did the first time. Hopefully, if I learn a lot and upgrade my understanding level, I will understand it even better the next time.

The role of science is to explain the natural phenomenons in a simple way. We have developed science for a logical understanding of the things and the happenings around us. Biology, Chemistry and Physics are different ways to understand them. Finally, there is no fundamental difference among Biology, Chemistry and Physics, and all of them are trying to explain the same thing in different ways.

What's the difference between science and technology? More on that in the next post. Keep looking.

Reading and Fantasizing about Science

2011-08-25T21:26:00.000-07:00

A highly recommended article on science would be "The Value of Science" written by Richard P. Feynman. Everyone should read it to understand the real role of science and its rationality (this can be found in the last section of the book "What Do You Care What Other People Think?"- by Richard P. Feynman).

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled".- Richard P. Feynman

Another highly recommended book is "Surely Your are Joking Mr Feynman" by Richard P. Feynman. If you haven't read anything on science before, this can be your starting book.

To find the awesomeness of science, you must read science fiction. I would recommend you start with short stories if you are a first time science fiction reader. And you should read them in the following order.

Isaac Asimov

↓

Arthur C. Clarke

↓

Philip K. Dick

I highly recommend that you start with short stories, telling you again. Go for the Robot series by Asimov first, follow it with Foundation series by Asimov, then you can mix up random titles by Asimov and Clarke. When you have read enough of them, read Philip K. Dick. The reason you should read Mr. Dick later is that you really need to sharpen your senses before you can read him.

So good luck. Enjoy the reading, and spread the awesomeness of Science!

How to access any website from your office?

2011-07-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

Has your FAT-ASS boss instructed your office IT guy to block Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and other popular sites? And do you chew your sleeves being too much bored in the office as you cannot 'poke' your friends?

Or, for any unknown reason, you can't access certain websites that you suspect has happened because your internet service provided (ISP) has blocked those sites?

Well, wait no longer. Here comes the solution.

Click here. Click Here. CLICK HERE. Or note down "https://nite-shift.net/" without quote ("") on a scratch paper in case you can't access .blogspot in your office.

This will lead you to a site which will allow yourself to browse any website anonymously. That means you can practically live like a ghost on the internet.

After going to the page, scroll down a little and on the right side you will find this section in the page:

Paste your link/site address in the box and click Visit.

That's it. No FAT-ASS boss can stop you anymore from achieving your internet FREEDOM.

Boosting your internet experience: a FASTER Youtube, a FASTER facebook

2011-07-20T02:44:00.000-07:00

Carefully look at the screenshot of Youtube front page below. Can you spot the Flash advertisement?

Now again Carefully look at the screenshot of Youtube front page below. Can you spot the Flash advertisement?

When you use the internet for over 10 hours a day, the minorthings start bothering you. When I am watching Youtube videos, I don’t like the 30 second in-video advertisements. On the Facebook page, I don’t like the right hand sidebar advertisements which often distract me and annoy me. I also like don’t likethe flashy flash advertisements which cause nothing but annoyance and take upunusual bandwidth and slow down my internet experience even further.

So what to do? Can’t I get rid of them all? Can’t I evenstop them from using my valuable bandwidth?

Well, here is the solution. Once you get used to this newexperience, you won’t even come to understand how you could survive so manyyears without using this.

This extension is available for both Firefox and Googlechrome. Safari, Opera and Internet Explorer 9 have this option too in different ways, butas you are a reader of this blog, I guess you won’t like those clunkybrowsers.

For Google Chrome, click here and then click on the "install" button.

For Firefox, click here and then click ‘Add to firefox’. Waitfor it to finish downloading, restart and make sure after restarting you clickthe ‘add subscription’ button.

That’s all you needed to do. From now on you will have atotally different and smart experience on the internet.

In a short time, I am gonna make another post onthe must have google chrome apps. So stay tuned and spread the word. You arethe reason I get inspired to write. Never hesitate to let me know what youthink.

How to download Youtube videos? (the easiest way)

2011-05-29T05:41:00.000-07:00

There are a number of ways to download youtube videos. But in this post I wanted to show you one way, which is the easiest of all and requires least effort from the user.

So what you need?
- There is only one prerequisite for this process. You need to have Mozilla Firefox. Version 3.6 is fine, but I recommend Firefox 4. If you don't have it already, download it from here.

[[[[ What next?
- I assume Flash Player is already installed in your browser. If you are watching Youtube videos already, don't worry about it. You already have flash player installed. (otherwise download it from here) ]]]]

After that, click "this link". Firefox will prompt you to "allow" and then "restart". Restart the browser. And your job is done.

Next time you watch any youtube video, you will discover one more extra button next to "share". Click the button, choose the file format (choose "MP4 360p" if you are not sure"), and the download will start. You can choose a location if you want to. Otherwise Firefox will save the file in your default download location (Usually it's on your "Documents/Download" folder or just "Download" folder).

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IF YOU WANT TO USE A DOWNLOAD MANAGER while you are downloading, here is how to do it.

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1. Click this link.

2. Firefox will prompt you to restart. Restart firefox.

3. Next time when you are on Youtube, and you have clicked "Download" button (as mentioned above) to download a video, from the pop up window choose the option shown in the image.

The download manager will accelerate the download process and your will enjoy the video in a video player of your choice (e.g. SPlayer).

If this post has helped you, please share it on Facebook/ Twitter. To keep yourself updated with new posts consider RSS feeds or Bookmark this page.

PLEASE DON'T DOWNLOAD COPYRIGHT CONTENT. THE CONTENT YOU DOWNLOAD IS YOUR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY.

Future of Facebook

2011-05-23T08:26:00.000-07:00

My projections of Facebook if they continue on their success stride:

1. A facebook insurance policy which will cover hacking attacks, security gaps etc.

2. An offline registration desk for children.

3. Inclusion of/ reference to the Facebook page on job resumes.

4. Voting for elections with one vote per account.

5. Account has to be verified by certain authorities.

6. Facebook will merge with the Government.

7. Movies/ music albums will launch on Facebook provided Facebook will start a video sharing service like youtube.

8. Facebook will have deals with Visa/Master card and will start e-book/ music/ movie sharing services replacing services that Amazon or Netflix provide.

9. Facebook will have a Blogging page included by default which will differ from the original Facebook theme and retain the original blog theme.

10. Facebook has already merged with Bing. A greater integration will be interpreted as 'Facebook has replaced the internet'.

How to save your time with RSS feeds?

2011-04-26T09:48:00.000-07:00

You may be one of the many people who loves the internet. So you love going to some specific websites and don't want to miss a single update on that page. But often your efforts go in vain when you find that the page hasn't been updated and you are looking at the same old page that you looked at two days ago.

Now you should know that you are special. The internet wants to take care of you and wants to save your time. So the concept of RSS feeds has been developed to help you with this matter.

In this post, I will show you how to use RSS feeds for your favorite websites and save your time.

WORDS OF CAUTION: Although 80% of the websites support RSS feeds (roughly), 20% still miss them.

For Firefox 4:

1. Step 1: Selecting the link

After opening a Webpage on firefox 4, CLICK the orange button on the top left corner (in my case blue)>; bookmarks>; subscribe to this page>; subscribe the link with the RSS at the end. (click on the image to enlarge it)

2. Step 2: Subscribing

Click the "Subscribe now" button. (click on the image to enlarge it)

3. Step 3: Confirming the subscription

Click "Subscribe". (click on the image to enlarge it)

4. Step 4: Viewing

Now you can check for updates without actually going to the page. Just check the title. See if it interests you. If yes, then check it.

Orange Button>; Bookmarks>; Bookmarks Toolbar or The Title of the site

Don't click unless you want to read the article. Keep on moving your mouse. Click when you want to read it. (click on the image to enlarge it)

For Google Chrome:

Google chrome doesn't support RSS feeds directly, but there is a browser extension to do so.

Considering that you have a Google account (e. g. Gmail account), you can easily subscribe to pages in Google Reader.

ON YOUR GOOGLE CHROME BROWSER, visit this link.

Click the install button which will install an extension on your browser.

Next time when you visit a page you will see the following subscribe button on your navigation bar:

Click that icon (click on the image to enlarge it). It will take you to your google reader page and give you an option to subscribe.

So that's all for the technical aspects of RSS feed.

For you I have collected some RSS feed links. Play with them.

For Firefox:

1. The New York Times.

2. BBC Science and Environment.

3. TIME.

4. CNN.

5. My Blog.

For Google Chrome, just follow the aforementioned procedure:

1. New York Times

2. BBC Science and Environment

3. TIME

4. CNN.

5. My Blog.

If you want to know how to send/receive 2 GB of data for free even using the world's slowest internet connection, read this post. Thank you.

The science learner does not read newspaper

2011-04-23T02:47:00.000-07:00

This idea was originally popularized by MEGA bloggers like Tim Ferriss (The 4 hour work week) and Leo Babuta (Zen Habits).

If you open a daily newspaper, you will discover few amazing things. I will point out a few:

1. Brad Pitt's toilet habits.

2. Lady Gaga's brand of underwear.

3. How many times Britney Spears winked when she was getting out of her car.

There are even more:

1. How scandalous the politicians are.

2. How meanly you can criticize a team's performance.

Coming to this point, you may feel I have exaggerated my points. YES, I have exaggerated my points. The whole purpose of this is to tell you that there is hardly anything worthy to read in the newspaper. And if there is any, you don't need to know them.

All that said, I am not putting down the value of news. When something important happens, you won't have to look for it, the news will come to you. If you don't believe me, think about all the major incidents that happened last few years. How many of them did you discover in a newspaper in the first place?

Newspaper is full of negativity. If a person lives an awesome life, he will never appear in the front page of a newspaper. But if that person makes a mistake, or better, gets involved in a scandal, he has a high chance to make it to the front page.

Again, don't confuse between news and information. News usually vanishes in a week, sometimes in a month. Information stays forever.

What I want to say is that all the things you find in a newspaper are not as important as you think they are. Take a skeptic look at the newspaper articles you have read this morning. Are they really worthy of your time? Do they deserve to occupy a place in your brain memory cells?

Again, the information a newspaper presents is often dumbed down because each newspaper article is written keeping in mind about the understanding ability of the dumbest person in the world. Because even the dumbest person wants to buy a newspaper to look smart, and the newspaper companies don't want to lose the pennies from him.

I suggest you find a website which presents information of your taste and intelligence. As you are reading this article, I have no doubt that you have access to internet. Use RSS feed so that you won't have to check every piece of article. Read only what appeals you.

Remember, by newspaper, I mean the DAILY NEWSPAPER. I have high appreciation for magazines like National Geographic, TIME, Reader's Digest, NEWSWEEK, TOP GEAR, PC WORLD and many many more. Magazines or periodicals are usually written putting a lot of thoughts behind each article and they want people to keep the magazines in their shelves for years. So usually the contents are timeless and worthy of your time.

So, what's your next move? Are you gonna check the newspaper tomorrow morning?

The feedback problem in Time Travel

2011-04-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Imagine Bob Dylan was singing in a concert holding the microphone in his hand. Suddenly a screeching sound occurred out of nowhere, got picked up by his microphone and got amplified by the amplifier. Now the amplified sound will again be picked up (the feedback problem) by the microphone, again be amplified. Again be picked up and again be amplified. Again be picked up, again be amplified. It wouldn't stop until it damaged the whole sound system (in real life filters are used to avoid this problem).

Now imagine Steve who is the only son of Mark. Steve was born in 2000, Mark was born in 1970. Mark was again the only son of Greg who was born in 1940. Steve is a smart boy and knows how to travel back in time. So he traveled back in time and killed Greg in 1960.

Now two problems occur.

1. If Greg died in 1960, Mark was never born. So who is that Mark that Steve knows? Isn't he a ghost?

2. If Mark was never born, how come Steve exists? Who gave birth to Steve?

There is a hypothetical solution to this problem.

When you travel back in time, you can never affect the natural course of incidents. You can only be a observer and you will be invisible. The reason you will be invisible is that if you travel back in time, you will not be in the same time-space coordinates that you are in. There the concept of time will be different and the biological configuration of the humans won't allow them to see you. So you can only observe and cannot change anything.

So even when Steve will travel back in time, he won't be in the same space-time coordinates. And also, he cannot affect things there. He can only observe Greg and his activities.

I remember reading somewhere, some famous person said "I am not I. I am a copy of I". What it means is even if one of the 'I's gets killed, the other 'I's will still survive in another universe.

It will be nice to remember that there is hardly any difference between a sound wave and a radio wave except their wavelength difference. We can hear the sound waves, we cannot hear the radio waves. So if our biological structure hasn't grown to sense that band of frequency, we won't notice it naturally. So in a parallel universe, you have a higher chance to be invisible assuming that the creatures there have responses to another band of frequencies.

Some interesting points come out from this discussion.

1. History won't follow the same pattern for the same person in different universes.

2. History synchronization is not possible. Even if it was possible, it would hardly overlap.

3. People can be treated as variables in a universe. While the number of variables will be same in different universes, they will have their own functions (something like the role of X in different mathematical equations. Based on the equation, X will give have different values (in our case, different life history)).

So what do you think? You wanna meet your other self? Does your other self love the same person you love?

Think!

You may find out some even better logical deductions.

Till then, cheers!!

Disclaimer: The above post is purely a child of thought and should not be used as a reference. The purpose of this post is to encourage the readers to think differently and produce even better ideas.

If you have missed my other two posts on time travel and parallel universe, you can click the green links.

Common Mistakes in English: Text Lecture 1

2011-03-23T06:20:00.000-07:00

Hello!

Oh, we are so dumb and sometimes we don't even know it. We act like smart using wrong information or facts. Am I being too offensive? Well, answer me, how often do you say "It's me! It's me!!"? And you know what, it's wrong.

There are a lot more. Here I have made a collection of the most common ones. More to come. So keep on looking.

Wrong: It's me who did it.
Right: It's I who did it.

Wrong: I like playing guitar.
Right: I like playing the guitar.
# musical instruments always preceded by 'the'

Wrong: Once upon a time Titanic was the largest ship.
Right: Once upon a time the Titanic was the largest ship.
#the name of a ship is preceded by 'the'

Wrong: I waited for her for one and a half hour.
Right: I waited for her for one and a half hours.

Wrong: A boy's hat is different from a girl.
Right: A boy's hat is different from a girl's.

Wrong: Don't make noise when I sleep.
Right: Don't make a noise when I sleep.

Wrong: It was him.
Right: It was he.

Wrong: Jack has not come also (or too).
Right: Jack has not come either.

Wrong: It's me.
Right: It's I.

Well, here were few examples. I suggest you do your own research. I just wanted to give you the heads up.

More text lectures like that are about to come. So stay tuned.

If you have enjoyed the post, please consider following me on Twitter. I will still appreciate it even if you don't. Thank you for your time. Enjoy!

Announcement On Blogging Workshop

2011-03-15T06:42:00.000-07:00

Dear Viewer,

I am going to host a workshop titled "A to Z of Blogging and Online Earning".

The workshop will take place at 6 PM on March 17, 2011 at room A203 of the E&TC Department of MAEER's MIT.

If you are one of those people who have a lot to say and have a lot of new ideas, but don't find a place to express them, consider attending this workshop.

I will share all my experience I have learnt in last 5 years and help you to create your own blog and thereby create your own personal space on the Web.

Come join me and spread the word.

This is the next revolution of online journalism.

See you on March 17, 6 PM at room A203.
Torumoy.

2011-03-13T03:02:00.001-07:00

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” - Steve Jobs

Exploring a parallel universe!

2011-03-04T10:10:00.000-08:00

My friend asked me, "Why don't you publish it on your blog?"

"I don't want people to think I am crazy", I replied.

"If it sounded crazy, I would tell you so. But it seems very logical to me".

"Well then, I will publish it someday".

That was the conversation I had with one of my closest friends. Apparently when I proposed him the idea, being a huge cricket fan, he wanted to play cricket with his other self from the parallel universe immediately. He wanted to bowl to his other self, and knowing that the other him would be thinking the same way, would he be able to guess his bowling trick and defend the ball accordingly?

Nice idea, but I couldn't comment on the plausibility of the situation.

Can I make a tunnel between the parallel universe's' (note universeS: many of them)? I don't know the answer, Stephen Hawking will answer you that.

Let's make things simple.

How the hell it is possible that a parallel universe exists?

Before I answer this, I will give you a scenario.

Human ears can hear sounds which have a frequency range between 20 Hz to 20000 Hz. Any sound below 20 or beyond 20000 is not audible for the human ears. But dogs can hear sounds which have frequencies more than 20K. So the concept that humans cannot hear anything more than 20K doesn't mean that sounds beyond 20K don't exist. Human senses just cannot feel them.

So far we know of only 4 dimensions. Initially we knew only 3 dimensions. That were height, width and depth. Later Einstein brought in the idea of a 4th dimension and that is time. In recent times 6 more dimensions have been discovered but human senses cannot feel (check this link) them. So the inability of human senses to detect them does not prove that things beyond these 4 dimensions cannot exist. If things go on according to the properties of the other six dimensions, events will take place, but humans will not be able to sense them. So even if a parallel universe exists in those dimensions, we won't feel a thing (but here a paradox occurs, if two objects can simultaneously occupy one single space; answer is NO; they need to have different space-TIME coordinates). But that in no way proves that a parallel universe cannot exist.

The things that we can observe depend a lot on the sense of our time. If you take the speed of electrons revolving inside an atom, that will serve as the base of all our observation with respect to time. All the things that we see around us have shapes and meanings to us because our senses have grown to understand things which have properties co-related to the speed of electrons.

If in another universe, the quark (the building block of electrons) have different properties (I cannot explain what), that will affect the speed to electrons, therefore the whole universe will have a different sense of time. And all the creations in that universe will be defined by that. The molecular structure, the speed of light (isn't it highly ambitious?), the sense of time will be different there. I believe even Einstein's famous equation of mass-energy will be multiplied by some deviation factor to be accurate or will have a totally different form.

Hence, we cannot ever reject the idea of a parallel universe. May be we are too dumb to sense it.

Is it possible to exchange things between universes?

May be. But if that happens I believe that will have to follow the law of conservation of energy. The total energy (hence mass) in an universe should be unaltered.

Stephen Hawking once said, if you see a stranger through your door hole, let him in. He might be your great great great grandson traveling back in time.

I say the same thing adding a few more words inside parenthesis (at your own risk!).

However, many scientists oppose the idea of traveling back in time because of the feedback problem. More on that in another post. Till then keep on thinking about this post.

Disclaimer: I am not a scientist. The ideas proposed above are purely mine and shouldn't be taken as references. They might be totally wrong. Accepting them or rejecting them depends totally on you. I suggest you not to accept them; instead, think about them. If you find anything different, let me know and let the world know so that everyone can learn something new.

Exploring Time Travel!

2011-02-26T22:55:00.000-08:00

I am posting some questions which I have in my mind for many years.

I have always wondered, how do we get our sense of time? In my understanding, our sense of time is related to the expansion speed of Milky Way (the speed of Sun and Earth will be dependent on it as the Milky Way is the ultimate container). Considering my point is true, I will get a different sense of time if I was in Andromeda which has a different expansion speed. If the expansion speed of Andromeda is faster than that of Milky Way and if from Andromeda I can observe the events in the Milky Way (preferably the planet earth), won't events in the earth feel slower to me? My sense of time will be more than the people living in the earth, so I will advance in time. So won't it be time travel?

There are few doubts though.

Jupiter takes nearly 250 years to make a circle around the sun. If I stay in Jupiter, what will be the biological change in my body? As I will be living in a faster container (in this case the Jupiter), won't my body metabolism rate change? If the sense of time in Jupiter becomes my normal sense of time (because of the biological change in my body), and if I live for 60 Jupiter years there, won't my life span be (60*250)= 15000 earth years?

The sense of time that we have about the normal life span of a human being, isn't it the same for an ant because of their biological tiny structure?

Theoretically, if you travel in a train which travels at a speed close to the speed of light, and if you travel in that for 7 days, when you will come out of that train, you will discover the age of the earth has increased by almost 100 years.

There are a lot of questions to be answered. If you have any counter proposal, let me know. If you think my understanding is wrong, also let me know in the comments.

How to learn new words!!

2011-02-19T21:27:00.000-08:00

HI there!

I am sure many of you who read this blog are people who use English as their second language. Unless you are a super genius, probably you have faced the same problem that I have faced. So what's the problem?

It is 'Learning new words'.

Why don't you pick up a word list and learn it? It should be that simple.

NO! It's not.

You learn the words, you remember them for a few days and then you forget them. At least it happens with me.

I have tried many ways and I think finally I have found one method that surely will help.

I have used flash cards, word lists, word visualizers, but after a while whenever I have tried to recall them, I have got confused. So I was compelled to think of a new idea. And this idea has been proven effective for me.

I like reading books. So whenever I read the interesting books, I keep a pencil before hand. I don't look up the unknown words immediately, instead I put circles around them. I keep a small notebook where I note those words just for references (NOTE: I don't write any word meaning in this small notebook, only the words). As soon as I finish reading one chapter of the book, I look them up in an offline desktop dictionary (see below). I write the meanings in the book itself (NOT in the notebook). As I am usually reading a story book, I can remember very well in which context the words came up. Even if I don't remember the meanings exactly, I get a natural feeling what the probable meanings might be. And after one or two months, I go through the small notebook, I try to recall the words that I have noted down before and mark the words that I cannot recall at all. I look them up again in the story-book. And when I do that, I happen to look at other circled words as a side effect which further strengthens the process of learning new words.

If you find new words on the web, extract the WHOLE text out of the webpage and put it in a word file. Highlight the unknown words and write their meanings next to them inside parenthesis. Save the page. Keep all the pages of this kind in a folder. Check them out at least once each month.

This method has worked for me. I hope it will work for you too. If you find a better way, let me know. I will include it in the future update of the post.

Download the free offline dictionary from this link.

Isaac Asimov: 'Learning' Redefined

2011-01-29T06:35:00.000-08:00

If you are into your 20s and I have to introduce you to Isaac Asimov, then this blog is probably not for you.

But if you are a newbie and a teenager, here is my brief introduction:

Isaac Asimov is one of the three grand masters of science fiction along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke. He is best known for the Foundation series which is probably the best science fiction series ever written in the history of mankind. It should also be mentioned he has written more books than you have read in your entire life. Don't believe me? Well, tell me, how many years will it take you to read a few above 400 books?

Well, I can write on and on and run out of adjectives. Why don't you check him out in the following videos? It feels like every sentence he uttered in the videos is quotable. Go watch them...

And here is part 2.

If you have liked the videos, consider reading the Foundation series. Or go watch "I, Robot". The famous movie starring Will Smith is based on his book.

Ernest Hemingway- My love for the old man's writing

2011-01-24T00:52:00.000-08:00

Ernest Hemingway- the greatest American author makes me read each page slower and slower. Not that my reading speed has decreased, but I cannot but control myself reading each paragraph twice for the intricate linguistic beauty that lies underneath. My love for his writing started with Green Hills of Africa 7 years ago and became stronger with each book that I read. With A Farewell to Arms, he has proved why he is light years ahead of other writers at least in linguistic beauty.

I remember one paragraph from the book 'I.Asimov' which is an autobiography written by the science fiction God Isaac Asimov. He made a point about Hemingway.

Isaac Asimov when he was still an amateur writer barely in his 20s went to meet an editor. The editor asked him how Hemingway would explain if it was going to rain the next day. After thinking for a while, Asimov came up with a beautiful line which had beautiful adjectives and lot of literary ornaments. Listening to that, the editor replied "If it is going to rain tomorrow, Hemingway would say 'It is going to rain tomorrow'". This shows how straight forward, simple and accurate Ernest Hemingway was in his writing.

When I read the Green Hills of Africa I had little idea about literary facts. I didn't know very well who he was and borrowed the book from the British Council as the cover made me interested in the book. Going home when I started reading it, I could feel that his robust description made me feel even how the air was moving in the valleys of the green hills of Africa. Since then, I have read almost a thousand books, but have hardly found any other writer who could make me feel that way and affect my subconscious mind in a way that I would lose the sense of time and place and feel as if I was moving around in the hills as I read along. The feeling was so deep that still I remember almost all the descriptions in the book.

Now I am reading A Farewell to Arms and enjoying every word of it. Why don't you pick one book by Hemingway and find yourself lost into the beautiful world that Hemingway will create in your mind?

For you, the opening passage of A Farewell to Arms from Wikipedia.

"In the late summer that year we lived in a house in a village that looked across the river and the plain to the mountains. In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels. Troops went by the house and down the road and the dust they raised powdered the trees."

How Newton's girlfriend is the reason you are reading this post now: The Butterfly Efftect, Chaos Theory & The Horse Shoe nail story

2010-12-22T12:30:00.000-08:00

"For uncommon solutions you need to look in uncommon places"- from the book 4-hour body by Tim Ferriss.

Now comes the famous rhyme:

For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

The Butterfly effect from Wikipedia:

The butterfly effect is a metaphor that encapsulates the concept of sensitive dependence on initial conditions in chaos theory; namely that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamic system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system.

The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that may ultimately alter the path of a tornado or delay, accelerate or even prevent the occurrence of a tornado in a certain location. The flapping wing represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, which causes a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events (compare: domino effect). Had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. While the butterfly does not "cause" the tornado in the sense of providing the energy for the tornado, it does "cause" it in the sense that the flap of its wings is an essential part of the initial conditions resulting in a tornado, and without that flap that particular tornado would not have existed.

Well, enough of copying. Now my version:

Sir Isaac Newon had a serious argument with his girlfriend (probably an exaggerated story, don't believe it )

↓

He went to his garden

↓

An apple fell onto his head

↓

He discovered gravity

↓

Gravity became the backbone of classical physics

↓

In nearly 350 years, the focus of physics became from macro to micro

↓

From the micro approach, modern physics was born

↓

Modern physics evolved and gave birth to electronics

↓

In the early 1950 transistors were born

↓

Researchers learned how to make gates

↓

Microprocessors came into this earth

↓

Steve Wozniak built the computer with a graphical user interface

↓

Bill Gates developed on DOS

↓

Windows was born, Mac evolved

↓
IBM had the monopoly in personal computer market
↓

Michael Dell decided to compete with IBM
↓

In 1990 Tim Berners Lee created World Wide Web

↓

Torumoy bought a Dell laptop and with the help of Tim Burners Lee, published this post on the web

↓

Now you are reading this post

So this is how Newton's (crazy) girlfriend is the reason you are reading this post now.

(Note: I am drunk with at least 250 ml of Vodka right now. Any mistake is sought to be seen in a merciful manner)

Trust: The Secret Smile

2010-11-23T11:27:00.001-08:00

I was reading a book lately and there I found the most meaningful description of trust till date.

So here it goes:

"Trust is the safeness we feel in a relationship".

Do you ever feel scared thinking that you will make a huge mistake and your parents will leave you? I guess no. That's the level of trust you have with them.

You have recently started going out with a girl who you dearly like. But she doesn't know that your smoke. So you are always hiding that fact. You are scared that she may not go out with a smoker. That's the feeling of safeness you have, that's the level of trust you have.

You are already deep into the relationship. She knows you all in all. You make the mistakes, she accepts them as they are. Nothing changes. You still plan to go out with her for the latest Harry Potter movie. You enjoy that she accepted your mistakes so nicely. You appreciate that. You love her more for accepting you as you are, for accepting you with all the faults you have. You smile silently. You make a promise to yourself to be better. You try Getting better than yourself everyday so that one day you can make her smile silently by being a nicer person to her than you are today. You don't lie about the cigarettes but feel that she feels suffocated when you smoke. You don't like that. So you start trying to quit. One day you quit. Now you can imagine her silent smile. You feel happy thinking 'right now she is feeling happy thinking she has influenced you to get out of one injurious habit of your life'. You appreciate the life even more, you want her to smile like that a lot more times. Day by day you become more open to her, you learn to admit your mistakes and let her influence you to be better each day. You are an open book to her. She reads it, she does the proof reading. You become the hard cover edition. No more fear of making mistakes again. She trusts you all in all the way you trust her. No giving, no sharing. Just an outward feeling of trust. No strings attached yet the trust is stronger than ever.

(Note: I have never smoked even a single puff in my life, it's just a metaphor).

Google suggests Religion is a Smile on a Dog!

2010-10-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

Which of these is not a web browser?

2010-10-23T06:44:00.000-07:00

Does this post really need any description?

Yes it does.

Why?

Because the participant was unable to choose from these four options. It took an entire audience vote to pick an answer.

Blackmore playing Beethoven's 9th Symphony- When you add speed to feelings!

2010-10-22T12:27:00.000-07:00

People who don't know Ritchie Blackmore and still listen to hard rock and heavy metal music should hold back, pause for a while and show gratitude for the man for whom the maddening rock and roll music has gone into such heights. He alone pioneered these two genres in the late 1960s and early 1970s (Deep Purple). Arguably his guitar riff "Smoke on the water" is the most famous and greatest guitar riff ever composed (you may have heard it in the movie 'The School of Rock'). However in 1997 he completely changed his musical style and along with Candice Night (now his wife) came up with a Renaissance influence folk-rock band named Blackmore's Night . I have been listening to them since then and can't recall how many times I have listened to their tracks (probably 300 times or more than that: I remember every second of their every song, I can even anticipate what guitar sound will come next, the ups and downs of Candice Night's voice, even the way her emotional voice changes).

On the other hand, Beethoven is one of my most favorite classical composers (along with Mozart, Bach, Vivaldi). His 9th Symphony is the first one I learned to play on guitar. I still don't understand whether it represent's sadness, happiness or something else, but it is always good to listen to.

I am so excited to find this video that one of my favorite guitarists is playing Beethoven's 9th symphony in a grand style. He played with a Blues tone and added more elements to the original music. Anyway, no more reading. Enjoy the video!!

SPlayer: One video player to rule them all...!!!

2010-10-18T05:27:00.000-07:00

In my 12 years of computer life I have come across many video players. I remember in 1998, Super Docoder was all I could think of. Later switched to Power DVD when DVDs got popular. When I became a little more pro, I started using Media Player Classic, Hero Super Player was a backup player. When I knew more about techworld, VLC got into my way. But let's be honest, VLC is ugly. I also tested WinDVD. Occasionally I use Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player 12 wieh K-lite mega codec pack.

If you go to www.cnet.com (Download.com), you will find the highest downloaded video players are GOM player, VLC player and KM player. Let's get a little more analytical.

Benefits and limitations of VLC, GOM, KM player.

1. VLC: It plays almost any kind of file, boosts sound to a great extent (sometimes makes it harsh to listen to). It's ugly and often freezes and crashes my system.

2. GOM player: Plays almost any kind of file. Has good default shortcut keys (left,right: for jumping forward/backward; up,down: for volume increase/decrease). It also automatically adds files to the playlist from a folder. It cannot play .VOB files well (DVD copy) and it doesn't integrate with the Windows 7 aero theme.

3. KM player: It overcomes most of the problems of VLC and GOM, but still it has some limitations. I have found if the video file is of low resolution (specially FLV files), it makes the characters feel like robots. Also, it doesn't have a good sound booster.

Now imagine a video player which has all the benefits of VLC, GOM and KM player and doesn't have a single limitation of any of theirs. Yes, that's what I am talking about. It is SPlayer. Probably it is Chinese/Japanese (not sure). But it is superb. It has been my default video player for months and has never made me upset a single time.

Let's look at its benefits one more time:

1. Plays any file under the sun.
2. Has navigation like GOM player (read above).
3. Boosts sound but doesn't make it harsh.
4. Automatically adds files to the playlist from a folder.
5.Automatically downloads subtitles. PLEASE READ AGAIN, automatically downloads subtitles.
5. It makes the pixel smoother. So the video looks better.
6. It has transparent control.
7. One click play/pause control.
8. Double click full-screen toggle.
9. Integrates with Windows 7 aero theme.
10. Doesn't make the system crash.
11. It has Home Theater feature (good news for Windows XP and Windows Vista/7 Basic users).
12. It has one click GPU acceleration feature.
13. In case you mistakenly closed one file, next time you start it SPlayer will resume from the last scene you saw.
12. Finally (but not the least), it is a small download of around 4.5 MB.

Well, SPlayer hasn't paid me to write all of these. I simply felt compelled to write about it as very few people know of it. Download it from this link (click it).

Stuck with 5

2010-10-15T13:38:00.000-07:00

Sleep, sweet sleep, beauty sleep! I have spent a considerable amount of time reading and researching on sleep. But somehow sleep doesn't like me. It only maintains a business relation with me.

I don't remember last time I slept more than 6 hours. 5 hours is my average. Mostly it varies from 4 and a half hours to 5 hours. I have tried many ways, but I can't increase it.

So yesterday I decided to take an ultimate attempt. I worked out in the gym for 2 hours. I was determined not to sleep in the day time (which I never do). I had more than enough rice (I am a massive eater). Ended the dinner with sweet deserts. At that stage my body became so heavy that I felt lazy to move my fingers to type my password. I thought I was ready to have a "death-in-the-hell" sleep. But I wanted to go beyond that point. I opened up a bottle of wine and drank half of it. I was supercharged to drown myself into sleep. But I had to do even more. People say brain exercises before sleep ensures the soundness of it. So I solved one Sudoku puzzle. It was hard to solve considering I had had half a bottle of wine.

Last minute preparation. I went to the restroom to get refreshed. Used some cosmetics as it is known that the aroma of artificial cosmetics makes you feel sleepy. I turned on my laptop and spent some time deciding who should I listen to: Mozart or Beethoven? I like Mozart, but I guess for sleeping no one comes close to Beethoven. Thought of listening to Moonlight Sonata, but got away from that plan as the music is fast paced. Finally ended up listening to another soothing piece by Beethoven and played it on an eternal loop. Opened up all the windows to ensure enough oxygen supply in the room. Drank that much amount of water which would not force me to go to washroom in the middle of the night but would prevent me from getting dehydrated. I was readier than ever.

Though I was extremely sleepy, I decided to do some breathing exercises from Zen Buddhism. I have learned some methods from the book "The Miracle of Mindfulness" by Thich Nhat Hanh. Turning off the light, I decided to do that for 5 mins. Well, I don't remember after that. I slept. I guess that was 4 am in the morning.

The next thing I remember is getting up this morning. I felt so fresh. The wine hasn't made my body dehydrated. I was in a very good mood. Beethoven was still playing on my laptop. Nice smell of the morning breeze came into my nose. I felt I had hell of a sleep. I wanted to break my traditional 5 hour sleep record. I did. Or at least I thought so until I looked at my watch. It was 9 am.

I can't get away with my 5 hour record. It has choked me with its tightest grip. There is no way out of it. At least I would feel better if later in the day I felt dizzy or sleepy. No, I felt totally fine. I won't get my beauty sleep (The phase of sleep when you see dreams. It is usually easier to achieve if your sleep breaks once and then you go to sleep one more time for around two hours). Sleep doesn't like me. I am stuck with 5.

The Probability of Probability

2010-10-08T10:08:00.000-07:00

The probability of probability is 0 or 1.

Recently I read the book 'The Black Swan' by Nassim Nicholas Taleb. The book is highly philosophical and often shows the dumbness of probability. Here is my take:

We may say there is 80% chance of rain today. Truth is either it "rains" or it 'doesn't rain'. The probability is either 0% or 100%.

A coin may have 50% chance to fall on its head or tail. That suggests if you take 100 sample examples, 50 times it will fall on its head, other 50 times it will fall on its tail.

Suppose you experimented with a coin only twice. Both the times head came on top. So based on your two experiments, the probability of getting head is 100% which you surely know (from your practical experiences) is not true.

Well, NN Taleb used some similar examples in his book. Many people criticized this book as he (almost) insulted financial economists (directly). His logics are infallible and he has proved how many times they have been proven wrong (even Nobel laureates). When I read the book I didn't have any particular issue in my mind, I simply wanted to enjoy the book. And of course I had some expectations.

But the book has surpassed most of my expectations. It has taught me to be a skeptic, to be empirical rather than optimistic or pessimistic.

Lets look at another theoretical example (this one from his book).

In 1994 the price of oil per gallon was 27$. Some financial farms (based on probability) predicted in 2024 the price of oil for the same quantity will be 54$. Alas, in 1994 itself, within 7 months from the date of announcement, the price became 54$. So this is how wrong probability can be.

(note: my memory surely has betrayed me while writing the above paragraph. But please don't focus on the accuracy of the numbers, the concept is main and that is accurate).

NN Taleb pointed out one of the prime reasons this probability game fails because we always expect people will behave rationally in the given time which surely people don't do.

You don't know whether you GF is gonna dump you tomorrow. Based on the probability which is based on the statistics gathered from all your previous dates, you are gonna have a wonderful dinner with her tomorrow. But this probability appears to be right till the moment she dumps you. At that moment the value of probability is 0. If you have had 100 dates with her including the day she has dumped you, based on the statistics the chance of having another date with her is 100% (because she has shown up all the previous 100 times). But in reality it is 0. Human beings don't behave rationally and that's why we are human beings.

Forget all this probability game. If you meet an astrologer who is going to tell you your future, listen to him till he finishes and the next moment give him a tight slap. Tell him he is a con man and liar. If he knew his own future, he would not take you as his customer. He would act smartly and avoid the slap!

Spider Woman

2010-10-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

Math Magic: Trick 1

2010-10-07T10:58:00.000-07:00

You can surprise anyone by showing how quickly you can calculate whether one number is divisible by 3 or not.

Say 1235678. How you know if it is divisible by 3?

Add all the individual digits of the given number.

That is: (1+2+3+5+6+7+8)=32.

32 is not Divisible by 3. Hence, the given number is not divisible by 3.

If a number is divisible by 3, the sum of all of its individual digits will also be divisible by 3.

Now let's take this number: 17746404.

Add them up:

(1+7+7+4+6+4+0+4)=33.

33/3=11.

So 17746404 is divisible by 3.

Now it's time for you to surprise someone.

Update:

My friend Anshul pointed out the trick is also applicable for 9. Thanks to him.

Are you ready?

2010-10-07T07:50:00.000-07:00

ready?

ready to get kisses?

ready to kiss me?

ready to be loved?

ready to love me?

ready to hear me singing?

ready to sing for me?

ready to make me smile?

ready to give me your smile?

ready to let me find you?

ready to get lost together?

ready to make our dreams come true?

ready to dream together?

ready?

Send/Receive 2 GB of data even using the worst Internet Connection (An overview of online backup services)

2010-09-25T01:22:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of the upload limits of the popular email services:

1. Gmail: 25 MB

2. Yahoo mail: 25 MB

3. Hotmail: 10 MB.

Google docs and Windows Live Skydrive both let you upload 50 MB of data at once. Though using skydrive you can send a total of 10 GB of photos to someone, but you have to upload them manually and that's a pain in the ass.

There is one more upload service: it's Megauploader and it lets you upload a maximum of 1024 MB of data at once, it supports download managers, but uploading or downloading is still painfull in it.

But here is an easy solution to all these problems. Start using Dropbox right from this link. You can send a single file of maximum size of 2 GB or multiple files totaling upto that much size without a tiny bit of hassle once you have installed dropbox.

So what is Dropbox?

Dropbox is an online backup service having the following features:

1. It is platform independent: so you can use PC, Mac, Linux, iPhone, Android phone and you can access your data from anywhere.

2. It creates a new folder in your My Documents folder (the home folder for Linux users) titled "Dropbox" the only thing you need to do is just "copy and paste" the files into that folder. Dropbox will take care of the rest.

3. Dropbox always saves the last condition of your file. So even if electricity goes off, or if your internet connection fails, the upload/download process won't start from the beginning again. So for dial-up internet users, it is a great news of relief.

4. Dropbox doesn't slow down your internet connection. It uses an intelligent algorithm to find out when you are connected to the internet but not using it. It will only upload/download when you are not doling anything on the internet.

SO what you need to do?

1. Download Dropbox from this website. (around 12 MB for Windows)

2. Install it and register (hardly takes two mins). Remember to remember your id and password.

3. Go to your dropbox folder and put whatever data you wanna put in there (just copy and paste).

4. Tell your ID and Password to the person you wanna send the files to. Also that person must install dropbox in the same way you did.

5. Forget about it. Go to your kitchen and make a cup of tea (You don't have to worry about it anymore, the file will be sent/received on time depending on your internet connection speed).

Well, now it's my time to go to the kitchen and drink some Chinese tea.

Note: you can access your data any time even on the web using your ID and Password.

I wanna enjoy sleeping a little more, I wanna sleep by the beach shore!! (create your own sleeping music)

2010-08-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

I am sure, like me, many of you consider sleeping as an art, an act to perform, rather than just bowing your head to the nature's tool to refresh your body. So how about adding some more colors to that piece of art?

Do you ever wonder how you would feel if you could sleep by the beach shore everyday? How about sleeping in a tin shed room where the continuous rainfall creates music? What if you hear the birds twittering? Or forget everything, how would you like to sleep turning your lights off and hearing the sound of a thunderstorm?

Well, all of these can happen if you simply adjust the sound according to your mood in this website. (click the link)

So my friend, from today add an extra dimension to the heavenly act of sleeping and get lost in your dreams with the background music from nature.

By the way, after composing your own music you can also save it as a wave file and listen to it every night before going to sleep.

Finally Video Chat on Linux is available: Thanks to Google.

2010-08-20T22:49:00.000-07:00

[caption id="attachment_108" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="Video Chat on Linux"][/caption]

You may have made your hands dirty with Empathy, Pidgin, Kopete blah blah blah, but finally you can buy the soap from google and get rid of the trouble.

Yes, now video chat is available on Linux. Lack of a video chat application was the only disadvantage Linux was having over Windows or Mac OS X in spite of being superior in all other ways (zero virus attack: in fact you can try to play with Chernobyl virus and try to execute it).

So guys, now nothing will stop you from switching to Linux. When you are working on your Linux PC, from any browser (e.g. Firefox or Chrome), search for Gmail chat. There you will get a plugin. Follow the instructions and you are ready to go.

I will come up with a lot of posts in the next few months to make Linux simple for you.

Till then, cheers...

Human clone of opposite sex.

2010-07-29T07:43:00.000-07:00

The following song is written by Randall Garrett. Later few stanzas were added by the science fiction god Isaac Asimov.

Oh, give me a clone

Of my own flesh and bone

With its Y chromosome changed to X

And after it's grown

Then my own little clone

Will be of the opposite sex.

(chorus) Clone, clone of my own

With its Y chromosome changed to X

And when I'm alone

With my own little clone

We will both think of nothing but sex.

Oh, give me a clone

Is my sorrowful moan,

A clone that is wholly my own.

And if she's X-X

And the feminine sex

Oh, what fun we will have when we're prone.

My heart's not of stone,

As I've frequently shown

When alone with my own little X

And after we've dined,

I am sure we will find

Better incest than Oedipus Rex.

Why should such sex vex

Or disturb or perplex

Or induce a disparaging tone?

After all, don't you see

Since we're both of us me

When we're having sex, I'm alone.

And after I'm done

She will still have her fun

For I'll clone myself twice ere I die.

And this time without fail

They'll be both of them male

And they'll each ravage her by and by.

Source: I. Asimov A Memoir by Isaac Asimov.

iPod, iPhone, iPad, iTorumoy and some more 'i's

2010-04-05T06:37:00.000-07:00

I got this idea about 8 months ago when I was reading an article about Steve Jobs and found out that he wanted to define his position at Apple as iCEO. I thought if Steve Jobs loves 'i' so much, we can do the same to show him some gratitude for his contribution to all the 'i' Products. Seriously, the first thing that came out of mind about 'i' is "Why can't we replace the term Asshole with an iAsshole"??

That would have been naughty, so I didn't. But I use it sometimes when talking with close friends just to make fun.

One day one friend came to me for a weekend afternoon guitar session. At one point he wanted to use the washroom. I showed him the way. He couldn't stop laughing when he found the label on the washroom door reads "iToilet".

I was thinking why Mr. Jobs loves 'i' so much? Even his book is titled "iCon". Probably, the reason is 'i' is related to imaginary numbers in Mathematics. So if someone has knowledge of basic Algebra, 'i' will trigger a part of his/her subconscious mind which thinks 'i' means 'imagination', 'imaginary' or 'something that you can only imagine'. Hats off to Mr Job's vision.

So far I have experienced Apple's many 'iProducts'. I love iPod (though I think the sound quality of Sony Walkman is better). I have used iPhone and like it. I have always wanted to have an e-book reader and also a netbook; now it looks like iPad will solve this. But it will take some time for me to get it. Also, I wanna wait till Microsoft launches "Microsoft Courier" which may have better features than 'iPad'.

Why you should switch to Linux?

2010-03-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

From Big Bang to This Moment: The Evolution

2009-12-29T21:36:00.000-08:00

The picture talks itself:

Three laws: Arthur C Clarke & Issac Asimov

2009-12-17T05:49:00.000-08:00

The readers of this blog already know my appreciation for the famous two (better to say "The two science fiction Gods"): Arthur C Clarke & Issac Asimov. Many a times I think after 100 years all of Clarke's work will become pure science and after 2000 years Asimov's fiction will become nothing but a shrewd detective story or thriller.

These two are also famous for their three rules about robotics and governing of science.

Asimov stated the three laws of Robotics. The oxford dictionary refers that he was the first to introduce the term Robotics for the first time back in 1941 in one of his stories named "Liar". Leave that; just read the three laws and then watch I,Robot::

1. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.

2. A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.

3. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

What about Clarke? I feel his laws just tell us there is no alternative that science conquers the impossible. Here it goes::

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.

2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Well, you keep on reading the rest of my blog. I have a Stephen King to finish...

A dream Life!!

2009-10-29T08:38:00.000-07:00

It’s tough to imagine the life that you really want. There are attractions everywhere, some will take away your attention, some will make you forget the thing that attracted you before. So it’s hard to decide what you want and it’s harder to stick to it.

I haven’t decided yet what my dream life would be.

But I have few thoughts.

One of them is quite recurring.

I imagine I am in a cradle beside the deep blue pacific ocean. I am writing long hand on my oversized notebook. That will be the draft for one of my many novels. I am entertaining thousands of people by my science, mystery novels and also with a few non-fictions. May be on my ear, I will wear a headphone and listen to Johann Sebastian Bach. I will smell the coconut trees on the beach shore, also the rhythm of the uncontrolled sea waves will make my heart warm. I will drink juice of a colorful fruit. My hand will keep on writing, i will keep on getting ideas from the people around me, from the little kids who will try to make sandcastles in the sand which will soon collapse. I will enjoy the life, I will smell it, I will close my eyes, i will sleep. Then I will see a dream. In my dream, I will dream again…

30 Ghosts on top of our head!!

2009-10-29T08:37:00.000-07:00

Foundation may be the best science fiction series and Issac Asimov may be the best science fiction writer of all time, but there is no argument Arthur C. Clarke is a better writer when it comes to the point of scientific accuracy. Many scientists have stated his science fictions will not remain fiction after 100 years, they will become pure science. On top of that he has a killer writing style. Here is an extract from one of my most favorite books “2001: A Space Odyssey”:

Behind every man now alive stand thirty ghosts, for that is the ratio by which the dead outnumber the living. Since the dawn of time, roughly a hundred billion human beings have walked the planet Earth.
Now this is an interesting number, for by a curious coincidence there are approximately a hundred billion stars in our local universe, the Milky Way. So for every man who has ever lived, in this Universe there shines a star.
But every one of those stars is a sun, often far more brilliant and glorious than the small, nearby star we call the Sun. And many - perhaps most - of those alien suns have planets circling them. So almost certainly there is enough land in the sky to give every member of the human species, back to the first ape-man, his own private, world-sized heaven - or hell.

The Philosophy of Monster!!

2009-10-29T08:32:00.000-07:00

Monster is a Japanese manga come novel come animation series which has got huge accolade from the general people and also the Pulitzer prize winner in literature, 2008 (source: Wikipedia). It is written by Naoki Urasawa who is regarded as the second God of manga (aka Comics) in Japan after Osamu Tezuka.

Here are two songs of Monster which were featured in Monster as the ending song.
It's your choice to think about the philosophy behind this two songs.
"And slowly you come to realize
It's all as it should be
You can only do so much
If you're game enough
You could put your trust in me
For the love of life
We could lose it all
But we will go down fighting"

There is another one:

"Yes, cherish what you know is true in this world
Please believe in the kindness of your eyes
Make it home to your land of harmony
Make it home to your land of purity
Make it home"

Crazy Dialogues!!

2009-10-29T08:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some crazy dialogues I found out from TV shows and other random sources:

1. Michael Scott: Don't drink and drive, you might spill the drink. (The Office)

2. Michael Scott: A cluttered desk is a cluttered mind. The way I see it, an empty desk is an empty mind.

3. Sheldon is a high IQ theoretical physicist. At one point his friend Leonard said, "Sheldon, you are insane!!" Sheldon replied, "No, I am not. My mother got me tested!!" (The Big Bang Theory)

4. "Who says "nothing" is impossible, I have been doing "nothing" for past 3 months". (original source: unknown, alternative source: my friend Sadaf)

5. "Nerd is the new cool!!" (I found it written on Alex Albrecht's t-shirt while watching DiggNation)

6. "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, shame on both of us". (Stephen King in his book "On Writing")

7. I have a black friend. One day when my friend was a little disappointed, his girlfriend, to make him happy, screamed out loudly, "You are the Obama of my heart".

2007-10-19T13:02:00.000-07:00

Is the glass half empty or half full??

Bill Cosby was making the point that true wisdom comes not from a classroom but from life. When he was in college, he said, his class endlessly discussed the question: Is the glass half full or half empty? So Cosby asked his grandmother the same question. She had it all figured out: "Depends on whether you're pouring or drinking."

2007-10-12T03:36:00.000-07:00

Hey Guys!! Feynman is one of my most favourite persons. I suggest everyone to read the book Surely You Are Joking Mr. Feynman. The persons who have no idea about The Great Feynman may get some idea from the picture above.

2007-09-17T03:53:00.000-07:00

What is life? Life is like riding a bicycle; In order to keep balance (or to avoid falling down), you need to keep moving forward.

Albert Einstein

2007-09-17T03:49:00.000-07:00

Let us go then you and I..............................
When the evening is spread out against the sky..................
Like a patient ethrised upon a table.....................................................

2007-08-03T06:07:00.001-07:00

The Beauty of Loneliness

2007-08-03T05:52:00.000-07:00

How happy the blameless vestals' lot?
The world forgetting by the world forgot...
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind,
Each prayer accepted and each wish resigned.....

- Alexander Pope

2007-08-03T05:42:00.000-07:00

Love is always patient and kind.
It is never jealous.
Love is never boastful nor conceited.
It is never rude or selfish.
It does not take offense and is not resentful.
Love takes no pleasure in other people's sins...
...but delights in the truth.
It is always ready to excuse,
to trust, to hope...
...and to endure...
...whatever comes...................