The Phoenix

Random thought !

2007-01-16T18:16:00.000-08:00

Clouds are smoke sculpted by wind...

*with all due poetic license*

Bharathi / physics

2006-11-05T07:12:00.000-08:00

Was listening to this aweseome song "Nirpathuve" from Bharathi. These few lines struck me hard.

Kaalamendrey oru ninaivum
Kaatchiyendrey pala ninaivum
Koalamum poykaloa?
Angu gunangalum poykaloa?

I was wondering if Bharathi was trying to write about the concept of unification of space and time here. Considering the fact that the paper was published in 1905 and Bharathi lived till 1921, i wouldn't rule out the possibility.

Here is the entire lyrics of this awesome song..

Nirpadhuvey, nadappathuvey, parappadhuvey
Nirpadhuvey, nadappathuvey, parappadhuvey
Neengalellaam sorpanam thaanoa?
Pala thoatra mayakkangaloa?
Sorpanam thaanoa?
Pala thoatra mayakkangaloa?

Karpadhuvey, kaerpadhuvey, karuguvathey
Neengalellaam arpa maayaykaloa?
Ummul aazhntha porul illayoa?
Arpe maayaykaloa?
Ummul aazhntha porul illayoa?

Vaanaghamey, ile veyilae, mara cherivey
Vaanaghamey, ile veyilae, mara cherivey
Neengalellaam kaanalin neeroa?
Verum kaatchi pizhaithaanoa?

Vaanaghamey, ile veyilae, mara cherivey
Neengalellaam kaanalin neeroa?
Verum kaatchi pizhaithaanoa?
Paarpathellaam kanavinai poal
Pudhainthazhinthey poanathanaal
Naanum oar kanavoa?
Indhe njaalamum poythaanoa?

Kaalamendrey oru ninaivum
Kaatchiyendrey pala ninaivum
Koalamum poykaloa?
Angu gunangalum poykaloa?

Kaanbethellaam marayum endraal
Marainthethellaam kaanbam endroa
Naanum oar kanavoa?
Indhe njaalamum poythaanoa?

Movie making...

2006-08-10T17:06:00.000-07:00

In the era of wikipedia type of knowledge (collective); movie making should be geared in such direction. After all movie should cater to audience utlimately; so I propose a movie in which people collectively write scripts; dialogues; situations etc. There could be a vanilla plot; say it is the story of a guy and girl meeting each other in college and a story that revolves around them; (hey thats the story of 90% of tam movies anyways), there should be a website where we can write our own plots, dialogues etc. One should also be allowed to vote for their favourite scripts so that we come to a conclusion on what the movie is gonna be.

I think this will be a cool way to make a movie. The flip side is that the people already know the story dialogue etc; but it is the case with most of the movies right?

But people definetly turn up to see their own creation.

Existentialism

2006-06-07T17:33:00.000-07:00

Unlike tools which are created for a specific purpose, e.g., hammer to drive nails; man's existence is without a meaning or purpose.

Advaita

2006-06-05T15:55:00.000-07:00

A physicist would remind us that the things we see "out there" are not ultimately seperate from each other and from us; we perceive them as seperate because of the limitations of our senses. If our eyes were sensitive to a much finer spectrum we might see the world as a continuous field of matter and energy. Nothing in this picture resembles a solid object in our usual sense of the world. The external world of physics has thus become a world of shadows. In removing our illusions we remove the substance, for indeed we have seen that substance is one of the greatest of our illusions.

- Sir Arthur Eddington

2006-05-17T05:43:00.000-07:00

I looked anxiously around me; the present, nothing but the present. Furniture light and solid, rooted in its present, a table, a bed, a closet with a mirror-and me. The true nature of the present revealed itself: it was what exists, and all that was not present did not exist. The past did not exist. Not at all. Not in things, not even in my thoughts. It is true that I had realized a long time ago that mine had escaped me. But until then I believed that it had simply gone out of my range. For me the past was only a pensioning off: it was another way of existing, a state of vacation and inaction; each event, when it had played its part, put itself politely into a box and became an honorary event: we have so much difficult in imagining nothingness. Now I knew: things are entirely what they appear to be- and behind them... there is nothing.

- Jean Paul Sartre

2006-04-24T21:03:00.000-07:00

Thank God, I am an atheist.

why not?

2006-03-14T18:25:00.000-08:00

Happy pi day
Guess pi deserves its day...

The Simpsons

2006-03-07T05:00:00.000-08:00

The Simpsons (a footage) is shot with some real life characters. Here is a short footage of the opening shot where as usual Bart is being punished, Homer throwing nuclear waste on the road etc..

I could not agree with the title of the news article which said The Simpsons come to life. For some reason the footage seemed so artificial...those of you who watch the cartoon may feel likewise.

Randomness

2006-03-02T15:16:00.000-08:00

He was bored of his routine. Getting up in the mornings, taking same route to his work. Same collegues, same topics, similar issues. Firing up same editor, solving similar problems. Getting back on the same route, doing similar chores till he hits the bed.

Trapped in the routine and in an attempt to break it, he decides to do 'one new task each day'.

Soon the ritual of doing 'one new task each day' gets added to his routine.

He was bored of his routine. Getting up in the mornings...

Quip

2006-02-25T19:01:00.000-08:00

It took 300 years to build and by the time it was 10% built, everyone
knew it would be a total disaster. But by then the investment was so big
they felt compelled to go on. Since its completion, it has cost a
fortune to maintain and is still in danger of collapsing. There are at
present no plans to replace it, since it was never really needed in the
first place. I expect every installation has its own pet software which
is analogous to the above.

- K.E. Iverson, on the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Choice

2006-02-21T16:54:00.000-08:00

I choose, therefore I am.

-St. Phoenix

The Dance

2006-02-20T20:47:00.000-08:00

Dancin to the tune of my life...
Sometimes, I let myself flow into the past,
Sometimes, dive into the future...
Though i always swim in the present.

Why?

2006-02-11T15:44:00.000-08:00

Why should our choices be clouded by (a) reason(s)?

Makin a million

2006-02-08T19:17:00.000-08:00

Did you realize that you are seeing more than a million pixels now and if you could sell a pixel at $1 you could make a million easily.Apparently, it might be a little too late for that...there is one guy already with that idea...check this out..I think it is totally cool...

Update:
I think oppurtunity lies in front of our eyes, only if we want to see it.

Encyclical

2006-01-27T06:33:00.000-08:00

...and pope says anbe sivam. Interesting to note a head of faith defining god not in a form of diety/individual.

The pianist?

2006-01-24T10:59:00.000-08:00

Ten years of coding,
Hundreds of sleepless nights,
Thousands of lines of code,
Millions of key strokes,

If i had spent all those time,
playing a piano.....

(an attempt to write an impressionist style something...it makes no sense or rather makes sense based on what you interpret...Guess i am influenced by Nausea)

2006-01-19T15:57:00.000-08:00

A square is a rectangle.

Unimportant acheivement

2006-01-17T12:35:00.000-08:00

The title may sound oxymoronic, but this is what i thought when i read this news.

I wonder who sat through the classes for that much time, there is gotta be some award for that too...There is teaching and then there is arva kolaru...i guess this guy falls in the second category...

funny

2006-01-13T08:13:00.000-08:00

it is funny when people at one part of the country rejoice when temperature climbs UP to 50F while people at another part of the country crib when temperature goes DOWN to 50F.

new

2006-01-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

Just not to ostracize myself i felt it is necessary to have a new year wish somewhere in my blog...

happy = new year(2006);

Nausea

2005-12-17T21:09:00.000-08:00

Man, beginning in his loathsome emptiness of his existence creates his essence - his self, his being through the choices that he freely makes.
- Hayden Carruth on Sartre's work.

~~I agree to it, except for the loathsome emptiness part. Is that really significant to make a free choice?~~

Communicate by blinks

2005-12-14T12:58:00.000-08:00

Happened to watch Stephen Hawking lecture and it was interesting to note one of the methods he uses to communicate. For those of you who don't know, he is affected by motor neuron disease and cannot move his body parts.

Latest research in assistive technology aims to detect eye blinks of the user, uses the duration of eye blinks and position as a means to communicate. It was totally cool to know such advancement in research. One group from MIT works on such things.

!Random rant..

2005-11-25T10:21:00.000-08:00

Life is a lot like playing music. You might have played hundered's of tunes in the past or a would play a thousands in the future but all that matters is the tune that you strike now, music is enjoyable only if 'this' note is hit properly.

Same goes with life, past has given you an identity, future might give you a hope but gift to be relished is the present.

- St. Phoenix

Jump in

2005-11-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

This is a totally cool ad, for X Box...full of energy and excitement...gels well with idea of x box.

http://www.bestadsontv.com/ad_details.php?id=897
PS: Copy paste this link, for some read anchor tag doesnt work

Be the Change

2005-11-18T16:26:00.001-08:00

Be the change is one of the most powerful phrases I have come cross; popularized by Gandhi. I think this phrase is packed with a lot of energy. This post is not about Gandhi or philosophical aspect of this phrase but is about an album by Prasanna which is titled Be The Change.

I first listened to Prasanna's music from Music India online. For those of you who dont know Prasanna, he is the key person to popularize using guitar for carnatic music; which used to be unconventional until he popularized it. Being an fan of carnatic music i was thrilled when I listened to carnatic compositions in guitar. Infact I started listening to carnatic music on guitar so much that I liked the one of my all time favourite songs 'Venkatachalanilyam' from Prasanna's acoustic guitar rather M.L. Vasanthakumari's awesome voice. (It is best compliment I could think of for Prasanna's music)

I listened to Prasanna's Be the Change album and it is one of the coolest works by him I have ever listened to. It is a fusion of Jazz, rock and Carnatic. Packed with energy and innovation it is the best music I have listened to in the last few months. Shalini's carnatic vocals in a rock base is just amazing. If you like Carnatic, Jazz, rock (or even otherwise), you should checkout the CD !!

I happened to read a review of the same album online and I am borrowing a few words said there:

The music of Prasanna is verily about possibilities — of a coming together, of emergence, of dissolution, of transformation, of a going beyond, of the very note. In that endless field of possibilities there remains the singular truth - of a transcendent experience.

The Upanishads probably talk of the same, only infinitely more beautifully so.

Tranquil, let one worship It
As that from which he came forth
As that into which he will be dissolved,
As that in which he breathes.

Things to think about !

2005-11-09T14:42:00.000-08:00

Without inertia, will we be persistently at rest or in motion?

Without time, will everything happen at once?

Diwali

2005-11-01T09:34:00.000-08:00

I decided to go with the junta on this festive occasion and post something about Diwali...North Indians celebrate Diwali and South Indians Deepavali..though it is the same thing both these juntas have different stories for celebrating the festival. Deepavali is celebrated because Krishna slayed Narakasura (the demon).. Northies believe it is the home coming of King Rama from exile.

I happened to read this version online of why Diwali is celebrated; the home coming story ...It is by a desi dad who describes Diwali to his ABCD son...

Son : Pop... what is the Diwlai stuff that all my friends in school talk about..

Pop : So, like this dude Rama, had, like, a big cool kingdom and people liked him. But, like, his step mom, or somethin', was kind of a bitch, and she forced her husband to, like, you know, send this cool dude, to some national forest or reserve or somethin'.

Since he was going, for like, somethin' like more than 10 years or so, he decided to take his wife and his bro along. You know... so that they could all chill out together. But dude, the forest was reeeeeeal scary shit, really man, they had monkeys and devils and shit like that.

But this dude, Ram, kicked their ass with darts, bows and arrows, so it was fine. But then some bad boys, some jerk called Ravan, picks up his babe (Sita) and lures her away to his hood. And boy, were our man, and his bro Lakshman, pissed! And you don't piss this son-of-a-gunz 'coz, he just kicks ass and like, all the gods were with him.

So anyways, you don't mess with gods. So, Ram and his bro get an army of monkeys. Dude, don't ask me how they trained the damn monkeys, just go along with me, OK. So, Ram, Lakhs, and their monkeys whip this gansta's ass in his own hood. Anyways, by now, their time's up in the forest and anyways, it gets kinda boring. You know no TVs or malls or shit like that. So, they decided to hitch back home. He, his bro and the wife are back home.

People thought, well, you know, at least they deserve somethin' nice and they didn't have any bars and clubs in those days. So they couldn't take them out for a drink, so the people decided to smoke. And they also had some lamps, they lit the lamps too. So it was pretty cooool... you know with all those fireworks really, they had some local band play along with the fireworks, and you know what, dude, that was the very first, no kidding, that was the very first musical-synchronized fireworks. You know, like the 4th of the July stuff, but just more cooler and stuff, you know.

And, so dude, that was how, like, this festival started. Cool!!! Diwali Rocks Maaaan! Got it...

And the argument continues....

2005-10-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

Tanenbaum has released latest version of Minix, Minix 3...he claims it has come a long way from being a OS used for instructional purposes to being used for regular use...I am amazed to know that the OS kernel is just 4000 lines of binary code...kinda cool !!

Minix is based on Microkernel architecuture similar to big bro's OS (Windows family) ! Release of Minix made me recollect the awesome debate between Linus and Andy T'bm about Monolithic Vs Microkerenel.. Here is debate ...

Raccoon is the mascot for minix, the reason tanenbaum gives for that "Raccoons are small, agile, cute, clever, and eat bugs".... Let us see how much apetite Raccoon has to eat its bugs :)!

and if any of you guys plan to try out Minix let me know if it is stable....

Wanted

2005-10-21T08:42:00.000-07:00

Just Incase you did not understand this post click here

and God said....

2005-10-18T16:17:00.000-07:00

and there was light !!

Significance of Hindu way of greeting

2005-10-15T10:15:00.000-07:00

There are different style of greetings handshakes, hug, kissing cheeks, rubbing noses...i wonder why Indian way of greeting lacks a physical contact. Curiosity which kills the cat normally... made the difference here ;) ! Googled for "namaskaram" and landed up in a feww interesting pages and here z the summary of it.

I was amazed to find the spirtual significance in greeting in Hindu culture. In hindu cluture greeting or praying is by joining both the hands together at chest height accompanied by a slight bow.

First before explaining greeting let me address to why we pray that way. When one does a "namskaram" (greeting/praying) by clasping two hands and bowing while praying, it signifies your submission or surrender to God. You say that you belong to him(God) by doing the namaskaram.

Now what we say to God interms of surrender we say to fellow human beings too so does it mean that we belong to him/or suddender to person whom we are praying..the answer is yes..the spirtual significance here does'nt change but you are acknowledging that you belong to him/her who ever you are greeting too....which is the essence of Advaitha philosphy. It is totally cool that we carry huge message of the philosophy of oneness in a simple thing like greeting.

If you like this post, you may find this post interesting as well.

Amazed...

2005-10-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you know what z happening by looking at the code, but never know why it has to be written that way...This piece of code is one such thing and it really amazed me today to learn why it needs to be written this way....

void send (int *to, int * from, int count)
{
int n = (count + 7) / 8;
switch ( count % 8)
{
case 0: do { *to++ = *from++;
case 7: *to++ = *from++;
case 6: *to++ = *from++;
case 5: *to++ = *from++;
case 4: *to++ = *from++;
case 3: *to++ = *from++;
case 2: *to++ = *from++;
case 1: *to++ = *from++;
} while ( --n > 0 );
}
}

Answer from wikipedia is here and the original mail about the inventor of this code is here . I have stopped my long time crib of needing break; in switch statements :) C is flawless !!!

Darpa grand challenge

2005-10-10T13:25:00.000-07:00

From no cars finishing last years grandchallenge (2004) and with the longest distance convered by a single car being 7.4 miles out of 132 miles track; Darpa grand challenge (2005) is finally conquered by stanford this year. Stanford team completed the course (132 miles) from LA to Vegas in less than 7 hrs...They take home a cool $2 million, in a car race with no drivers...For more results check out this site

Break ...

2005-10-02T09:57:00.000-07:00

Matrix Revolutions and philosophy

2005-09-24T08:52:00.000-07:00

Perhaps it is too late to blog a movie review for matrix revolutions..but then there is one aspect of the movie which was amazing and hence this blog. I felt that the dialogues in this movie was really awesome. I really liked the ending dialogues of the movie between Agent Smith and Neo. Agent smith beats up neo and when neo tries to get up to fight he rants this dialogue.

Agent Smith: Why, Mr. Anderson? Why do you do it? Why get up? Why keep fighting? Do you believe you're fighting for something? For more than just your survival? Can you tell me what it is? Do you even know? Is it freedom? Or truth? Perhaps peace? Could it be for love? Illusions, Mr. Anderson. Vagaries of perception. The temporary constructs of a feeble human intellect trying desperately to justify an existence that is without meaning or purpose. And all of them as artificial as the Matrix itself, although only a human mind could invent something as insipid as love. You must be able to see it, Mr. Anderson. You must know it by now. You can't win. It's pointless to keep fighting. Why, Mr. Anderson? Why?! Why do you persist!?

Neo: Because I choose to.

I think these two dialogues are very powerful and the movie could not have ended any better without this dialogue. Throughout the trilogy what we see is the consequences of Neo choices, right from choosing the Red Pill in part 1 to fighting every single agents and centinels everything is because Neo chooses to. So I feel that the ending dialogue of the movie just summarizes the whole concept of the philosophy of the matrix in two lines. Also, Existentialism is beautifully brought out in this dialogue basically outlining the power of choice. We are result of the choices we make and we are free to make our own choices and will be facing the consequences of it. Here is my previous post on existensialism.

Exercise

2005-09-23T09:08:00.000-07:00

New study finds that exercise is good for your brain...here is the link for the article. So the way to do good math is prolly running a mile rather than eat lot of 'vendaikai' (lady's finger) and sleep at home :) ! I was wrongly guided about vendaikai's when i was a kid, perhaps !!! ;)

So what is your take on this exercise funda after reading this post about studies made in science/medicine

Slowboards

2005-09-14T11:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes i feel that the keyboards are a little too slow, esp when i am typing some code. I wish somebody discovers a techique to bypass this keyboard and let the code appear as we think...
would'nt that be cool?

ok will get back to churning code !!

Irony

2005-09-13T10:07:00.000-07:00

He wanders through a land,
with nothing inspring in his journey.
He incessantly looks for motivation,
to make his journey joyous and meaningful.

He reaches a city and meets some people
The people in the city look at the wanderer,
their eyes are filled with admiration for him,
for the journey he has made thusfar.

He hears their adulations about his motivation,
for having made an inspiring journey thusfar.
In masses they throng and want him to speak about motivation,
to make their journey inspiring like his.

The wanderer smiles and passes on without saying a word
for he knows what z he going through..
But people in the city think they get the message and inspiration.

Ashes

2005-09-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Will England win the ashes?

If,
Red Sox did beat the Yankees
Mike Slackenerny did graduate
Bush did win his second term
Rajini's crappy movie can make millions
Microsoft ponders on buying Redhat

England will win the ashes (going by the trend unexpected happenings), what say folks??

If..

2005-08-26T13:49:00.000-07:00

If you don't know what you want, how will you know what you are getting is good for you??

Swimming pool

2005-08-19T21:37:00.000-07:00

*Ludivine Sagnier fans, sorry to disappoint you it is not about her or the movie ;)*

Imagine you standing in a swimming pool, you start disturbing the water creating small waves, the waves you create hit the boundaries and travel back and hit you back. Inference: you are affected by the disturbance you create. Now imagine a lot of other organisms in the pool. The disturbance you create affects the oragnisms in the pool. The organisms inturn(or even otherwise) might create some disturbance that affects you. You not creating disturbance is also a disturbance in a way(something analogous to disturbance =0 and that also affects you in a way if you think about it)

Now take the swimming pool example and imagine your body as the boundary of the 'pool' and all the disturbances that is created internally affects the way you are. And you inturn affect the proceedings in the 'pool'. A lot of organisms inside you affect the way you are and you inturn affect the behaviour of the organisms inside you...

Now extending the boundary of the pool, the universe is one giant swimming pool and YOU are a tiny organism in it. You affect the pool by your existence and internally get affected by disturbances in the giant pool...

Bottle, wine; old, new

2005-08-18T23:02:00.000-07:00

The title is scrambled just for the heck of it ;) !

#0 EMPTY_VESSEL ^ NOISE == NaN ;

#1 question = toBe || !(toBe) ;

#2 Prefection->Direction ! Destination ;

#3 All = Roads= Rome;

#4 Beauty << Skin != Deep;

#5 OldHorse != NewTricks;

#6 Necessity & Mother == Invention;

#7 Catch (Worm)
{
Early_Bird;
}

#8 #define NO_NEWS GOOD_NEWS

#9 if (GLASS_HOUSE)
throw ( !Stones) ;

#10 if (will==1)
way =1;

#11 1_IN_HAND > 10_IN_BUSH

Pearl

2005-08-10T13:14:00.000-07:00

Got to know of this small funda about Pearl...A pearl is formed when a grain of sand irritates the oyster flesh, and when the oyster responds to this irritation by forming a protective covering around it. Interesting to note how something which is really irritating can be converted to something beautiful and elegant.

Do we also have the capabilities (like oyster) to respond to the irritations and difficulties we face by making something beautiful and worthwhile out of it instead of yeilding to irritations and difficulties? *sets me thinking*

Interpolation

2005-08-09T02:04:00.000-07:00

It is real fun to see the concept of math taking shape into reality...I am going to yap about one such thing in this post. I had this course in undergrad on Numerical Analysis, learnt a lot about interpolation and extrapolation and stuff like that..I learnt that "Interpolation is constructing new data points based on a set of known data points"... and I could fit a new data points based on bunch a different approaches but I never asked the question why am I doing that or what is the application of these new data points until sometime back.

Background: Pixel refers to a picture element these are tinest dots that occur in digital image, basically encode the intensity (color) values

I learnt a few months back about scaling images (zoom)...Let us say you have to increase the size of images by a factor of two, there are several ways to do it.

Original Image

1) Easiest way to do is to copy the nearest neighbour pixels. Basically you say that for every pixel in original image you have two copies of that pixel in the target image (to increase by factor 2). The result of which is given below.

Nearest Neighbour

2) Another way to do it is through bilinear interpolation which is averaging in 2 X 2 neighbourhood, which means that for each pixel in target image you are going to look into 4 pixels and take an average of the four pixel values. The result is given below.

Bilinear interpolation

3) Another way to do it is through bicubic interpolation which is using a 4 X 4 neighbourhood for deciding a pixel value.So the more values sampled the better the result..The result of which is given below.

Bicubic interpolation

As you can see the quality of scaled (zoomed) image improves as the order of interpolation increases.

I really enjoyed learning about one such practical applications of interpolation !