with all due respect, i sometimes believe that the team that writes speeches for george bush is from the democratic party OR george bush is plain stupid to be vocal about his thoughts rather than just sticking to the script!
cheers
Monday, January 12, 2009
spare change
how do you pass a judgment on, when you see a person in his/her mid 30-40s asking for alms on the street, whether to part with some spare change or refrain from it?
this question has been poking me around for quite sometime now.
cheers
this question has been poking me around for quite sometime now.
cheers
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
free will
lets get on a topic that has been hotly debated.
is there such a thing called free will? as always you will find people from both sides of the camp.
in my opinion free will doesn't exist. it is analogous to the observations of a third party in an event or simply put, to the participant an action might seem random, but for an observer unaffected by the system of the experiment, the actions would be deterministic (chaos theory?)
my stand comes from the fact that our understanding of a state is causally ordered. and because of the dependence relationship, it is deterministic.
for e.g.:
you are reading this article. i didn't coerce you to read this article. it was you who chose to read this article (thus exhibiting free will). now lets make some assumptions. lets assume there is a guy named Fred who was created right after the universe was and is omnipotent, he knows all. thus he knows that you are reading this article because that is a fact. you are reading this article because you were led to it from somewhere. your actions were based on a certain influences (which is the cause). and if you walk back this causal chain, you eventually reach the start of the universe.
obviously there is no such guy named Fred, so the question remains, if you actually came here by your own volition or was it pre-determined? if you reason that if you had chosen not to read this article, what then? then the proposition that you read this article is a fallacy and hence would not exist in the causal chain.
along this line of thought, can this be associated to fate?
fate / destiny is commonly attributed to something that is laid out for you, in the shadows, revealing itself only when necessary. this is similar to the above discussion in that no matter how independently you think you are doing, you actually are working like a cog in a machinery.
so now i ask you, is there such a thing/concept of free will?
cheers
is there such a thing called free will? as always you will find people from both sides of the camp.
in my opinion free will doesn't exist. it is analogous to the observations of a third party in an event or simply put, to the participant an action might seem random, but for an observer unaffected by the system of the experiment, the actions would be deterministic (chaos theory?)
my stand comes from the fact that our understanding of a state is causally ordered. and because of the dependence relationship, it is deterministic.
for e.g.:
you are reading this article. i didn't coerce you to read this article. it was you who chose to read this article (thus exhibiting free will). now lets make some assumptions. lets assume there is a guy named Fred who was created right after the universe was and is omnipotent, he knows all. thus he knows that you are reading this article because that is a fact. you are reading this article because you were led to it from somewhere. your actions were based on a certain influences (which is the cause). and if you walk back this causal chain, you eventually reach the start of the universe.
obviously there is no such guy named Fred, so the question remains, if you actually came here by your own volition or was it pre-determined? if you reason that if you had chosen not to read this article, what then? then the proposition that you read this article is a fallacy and hence would not exist in the causal chain.
along this line of thought, can this be associated to fate?
fate / destiny is commonly attributed to something that is laid out for you, in the shadows, revealing itself only when necessary. this is similar to the above discussion in that no matter how independently you think you are doing, you actually are working like a cog in a machinery.
so now i ask you, is there such a thing/concept of free will?
cheers
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
my life.....a soap opera
well its official. my life is a soap. the one with weird camera angles in split seconds, to emphasize the plot. i am not sure if i am to be proud of it.
every other moment when you feel that yes, life can't screw you anymore, up comes a whopper that knocks your pants off! and with the shocking twists in the plot in the soap, so seems to be my life ( yea so what if i am dramatizing a bit, i did say it is a soap! bunch a puritans).
so it all started when i was talking to my folks and my mother usually shows restrain on one particular topic whilst talking with me. she asked me about the job scene and i said its pretty lame and dont expect to look up before the start of the new quarter. as i completed that sentence, my mom uttered that she had shown my birth chart to some astrologers and they assured her that i would be hearing some good news regarding my career in the week of dec 8 - 15 2008 (irrespective of the economy). i ridiculed it but at the back of my mind, i thought if it was already written that, something sort of a fatalist line of thinking. i dismissed the idea because i knew i had no offers on hand and the one i was working with didnt seem too bright. it was on my mind nevertheless (monologue / thinking out loud here).
that said, the next morning, i hear from my manager about a possible extension. gleefully i call my mom to relate the news only to hear, i told you so ( soap intro song here) . fast forward a week later, i get the information that i wouldnt be able to get the extension because i graduated and the position only was for someone who didnt graduate ( weird camera angle and music here).
when i first heard about the extension, i went to the extent of questioning the veracity of free will or non determinism but seems like there seems to be a hint of it around.
i guess i will have to wait and see how the story unfolds for like the soap opera, you never know what turns up next.
every other moment when you feel that yes, life can't screw you anymore, up comes a whopper that knocks your pants off! and with the shocking twists in the plot in the soap, so seems to be my life ( yea so what if i am dramatizing a bit, i did say it is a soap! bunch a puritans).
so it all started when i was talking to my folks and my mother usually shows restrain on one particular topic whilst talking with me. she asked me about the job scene and i said its pretty lame and dont expect to look up before the start of the new quarter. as i completed that sentence, my mom uttered that she had shown my birth chart to some astrologers and they assured her that i would be hearing some good news regarding my career in the week of dec 8 - 15 2008 (irrespective of the economy). i ridiculed it but at the back of my mind, i thought if it was already written that, something sort of a fatalist line of thinking. i dismissed the idea because i knew i had no offers on hand and the one i was working with didnt seem too bright. it was on my mind nevertheless (monologue / thinking out loud here).
that said, the next morning, i hear from my manager about a possible extension. gleefully i call my mom to relate the news only to hear, i told you so ( soap intro song here) . fast forward a week later, i get the information that i wouldnt be able to get the extension because i graduated and the position only was for someone who didnt graduate ( weird camera angle and music here).
when i first heard about the extension, i went to the extent of questioning the veracity of free will or non determinism but seems like there seems to be a hint of it around.
i guess i will have to wait and see how the story unfolds for like the soap opera, you never know what turns up next.
Saturday, December 13, 2008
.... and then it happened
it was a thursday evening like no other. as the christmas break was coming closer, my roommates and i were deliberating over the details of a roadtrip to new york from la. and we had a good reason to be excited about it. it was daring and adventuresome. whilst making our way towards the gym for the daily routine ( we were still deliberating then), a glance on the person walking past us reminded me of someone i knew.
a tad unsure, but later pacing towards her, i called her name out. she stopped her walk, stood there for a split second and turned around. still a couple of feet from her, i waved at her. it was not a full wave. i stopped short half way through. and then it happened. my heart beats went from a steady beat to a panic attack. i said to myself," calm down now, she is not going to bite you". as i assured myself, i covered the ground and was in a conversation distance to her.
and so there i was, with tousled hair, shorts and a windcheater. a scene right out of a teen flick: a pavement, grass on one side, an underdog, and the chick of the flick. we conversed and conversed a little more. the steady beating of the heart resumed and i asked her if i could interest her in a cup of coffee. a few pleasantries later, we bid each good bye and parted ways.
until next time,
cheers,
kyos
a tad unsure, but later pacing towards her, i called her name out. she stopped her walk, stood there for a split second and turned around. still a couple of feet from her, i waved at her. it was not a full wave. i stopped short half way through. and then it happened. my heart beats went from a steady beat to a panic attack. i said to myself," calm down now, she is not going to bite you". as i assured myself, i covered the ground and was in a conversation distance to her.
and so there i was, with tousled hair, shorts and a windcheater. a scene right out of a teen flick: a pavement, grass on one side, an underdog, and the chick of the flick. we conversed and conversed a little more. the steady beating of the heart resumed and i asked her if i could interest her in a cup of coffee. a few pleasantries later, we bid each good bye and parted ways.
until next time,
cheers,
kyos
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
snooping
over a couple of months something struck me.
it is common knowledge that the google search results were populated based on some ranking alogirthm. hence i wondered if it is possible to poison those results such that your websites get populated first. obviously if you had some relavent content, over a period of time it will be somewhere in the top list. but i didnt have any relavent content interesting to the masses out there. (Note: BTW i am not doing something new, look up search engine poisoning, only that i didnt refer to any of the material online to do what i did).
then i reasoned, what would be the most popular search queries in google? the first thing that struck me was movies. mp3s, clips. basically any media that can be mooched for free (bunch of deadbeats!). and i did know that sites such as rapidshare , megaupload etc hosted such media. if one is adequately familiar with the naming conventions of movies, they usually are titled with divx, xvid, rmvb etc.
so here is what i did: i created a post with the following text:
rapidshare
megaupload
rmvb
divx
xvid
700mbs
thats about it. and i published it. and viola! within about a week or less i began receiving hits from people who were searching these terms. in good amounts as well! and more the number of hits, the Page Ranking algorithm gets duped. even the above text will cause numerous hits.
now if i were a virii author ( I AM NOT, SO GET OF MY BACK!), just hypothetically, that would mean that with some amount of social engineering, i could have links to text in the post pointing to some viruses and the rest of the story is all too familiar these days.
well thats about from me,
cheers,
p.s.: this was done purely with the motive of research and with no other intentions!
it is common knowledge that the google search results were populated based on some ranking alogirthm. hence i wondered if it is possible to poison those results such that your websites get populated first. obviously if you had some relavent content, over a period of time it will be somewhere in the top list. but i didnt have any relavent content interesting to the masses out there. (Note: BTW i am not doing something new, look up search engine poisoning, only that i didnt refer to any of the material online to do what i did).
then i reasoned, what would be the most popular search queries in google? the first thing that struck me was movies. mp3s, clips. basically any media that can be mooched for free (bunch of deadbeats!). and i did know that sites such as rapidshare , megaupload etc hosted such media. if one is adequately familiar with the naming conventions of movies, they usually are titled with divx, xvid, rmvb etc.
so here is what i did: i created a post with the following text:
rapidshare
megaupload
rmvb
divx
xvid
700mbs
thats about it. and i published it. and viola! within about a week or less i began receiving hits from people who were searching these terms. in good amounts as well! and more the number of hits, the Page Ranking algorithm gets duped. even the above text will cause numerous hits.
now if i were a virii author ( I AM NOT, SO GET OF MY BACK!), just hypothetically, that would mean that with some amount of social engineering, i could have links to text in the post pointing to some viruses and the rest of the story is all too familiar these days.
well thats about from me,
cheers,
p.s.: this was done purely with the motive of research and with no other intentions!
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
work work work
one thing that i realized after coming to the us or perhaps it was bound to happen eventually, is the work life balance; something which hadn't occured to me while i was in india, but then again, perhaps it was bound to happen eventually.
and then once this sank into me, i realised how important it is. and i ensure there is a healthy mix of both. with that in mind, there is a meeting at 8 PM today. I am set to go off at 540 PM. given that this happens like once in a blue moon, i still feel a bit restless. maybe because it takes me an hour to reach home and by the time i am there, the day is already over!
crap!
anyway, till i find some other thing to do ( i wish i had attention deficit disorder right about now for 3 hours).
cheers
and then once this sank into me, i realised how important it is. and i ensure there is a healthy mix of both. with that in mind, there is a meeting at 8 PM today. I am set to go off at 540 PM. given that this happens like once in a blue moon, i still feel a bit restless. maybe because it takes me an hour to reach home and by the time i am there, the day is already over!
crap!
anyway, till i find some other thing to do ( i wish i had attention deficit disorder right about now for 3 hours).
cheers
loser!
you have a laundry bag. in it there are lots of innerwear / couple of shirts / couple of jeans / couple of vests. what is the probability that you will pick the innerwear? pretty bad if you are a loser!
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
paathshala
na koi padhne wala na koi sikhne wala
apni toh paathshala masti ki paathshala
chehare ki kitaabein hain ham woh padhne aate hai
yeh surat teri meri mobile library
yaaron ki equation hain love multiplication hain
jisne dil ko jeeta hain
woh alpha hain deeta hain
talli hoke girne se samjhi hamne gravity
ishq ka practical kiya tab aayi clearity
na koi padhne wala na koi sikhne wala
naata yeh sannata hai dekho lambu shor hain
har dil mein bud bud karta h2so4 hain
na koi padhne wala na koi sikhnewala
apni toh paathshala masti ki paathshala
apni toh paathsahala masti ki paathshala
Monday, September 22, 2008
dekha hai aise bhi
Dekha hai aise bhi kisi ko aise hi
Apne bhi dil mein basaaye huye kuch iraade hain
Dil ke kisi koney mein kuch aise vaade hain
Inko liye jab hum chaley nazaare bhi humse miley
Sunday, August 10, 2008
of alcohol and inhibitions
inhibitions. one of the occasions where you experience this is while dancing. not everybody does, but quite a many do. they have this notion of being the laughing stock just because they dont know how to hit the beat.
i went to a club with other day and found people usually in pairs dancing, which was very sexually oriented. nothing wrong with that. they are only laying the foundation for the rest of the night. and so quite a lot of the moves turned out to be really crazy / simple moves that actually dont require any skill.
now one thing that can make you loose your inhibitions is alcohol. whether you like it or not, alcohol just shuts those centres in the brains off and lets you lose. this actually is the best preparation you can have before you go to dance, in case you have any inhibitions. and even if you dont, you can down a drink or two and just go hopping around the floor.
not that i was shy, i still downed a jack and coke and hurled myself at the dance floor, doing mindless stuff basically, but at that point you really dont care what you are doing as long as you are shaking your hips and hands.
so that was one of the occasions i shall remember and will continue to do that. getting high ( no, 1 drink is far to less for me to get high) and senseless jumping is way too much fun. of the other things that i like is to walk after you are REALLY high, on the roads with a group. the antics that happen can be enjoyed only when you are drunk especially when you see a cop. and since we are in a foreign land, we put our fingers on the lips and go F-1 International obedient student whenever we see a cop nearby.
so drink up and enjoy life!
i went to a club with other day and found people usually in pairs dancing, which was very sexually oriented. nothing wrong with that. they are only laying the foundation for the rest of the night. and so quite a lot of the moves turned out to be really crazy / simple moves that actually dont require any skill.
now one thing that can make you loose your inhibitions is alcohol. whether you like it or not, alcohol just shuts those centres in the brains off and lets you lose. this actually is the best preparation you can have before you go to dance, in case you have any inhibitions. and even if you dont, you can down a drink or two and just go hopping around the floor.
not that i was shy, i still downed a jack and coke and hurled myself at the dance floor, doing mindless stuff basically, but at that point you really dont care what you are doing as long as you are shaking your hips and hands.
so that was one of the occasions i shall remember and will continue to do that. getting high ( no, 1 drink is far to less for me to get high) and senseless jumping is way too much fun. of the other things that i like is to walk after you are REALLY high, on the roads with a group. the antics that happen can be enjoyed only when you are drunk especially when you see a cop. and since we are in a foreign land, we put our fingers on the lips and go F-1 International obedient student whenever we see a cop nearby.
so drink up and enjoy life!
Monday, July 28, 2008
well, i feel different today. for the record, its monday and the usual office hour and i am not groaning about the week ahead of me. and also i am writing a post as soon as i come to the office.
no motive, no purpose. just random typing of words forming a sentence. until i find out the reason ( i could live without finding it out, more or less the stars have aligned in positions to make me happy :P ) joi de vivre to ye all.
no motive, no purpose. just random typing of words forming a sentence. until i find out the reason ( i could live without finding it out, more or less the stars have aligned in positions to make me happy :P ) joi de vivre to ye all.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
for the past few days a lot of thoughts passed through my mind. arbitrary in nature, no specific cause or reason but then emotionally loaded.
and so today whilst everyone is asleep i am awake. those thoughts keeping me awake. in a conversation once with a good friend, i said that i want to think nothing. nothing at all. my! what an experience would that be.
i have actually imagined it and looks very alluring. you don't do anything. just float around in nothingness. feels very peaceful. for me it looks like a black background and wherever you go, blackness stretches even further.
listening to pink floyd at 2:30 am is a very different experience. lights out and with high hopes on the playlist, you just let your thoughts go free. with pink floyd playing their psychedelic music, the ambiance is just perfect. and with that all the random thoughts that earlier plagued me are fast disappearing leaving me alone. i guess music heals the spirit.
with that i end my post and look forward to Hey You that would soon croon.
pz
and so today whilst everyone is asleep i am awake. those thoughts keeping me awake. in a conversation once with a good friend, i said that i want to think nothing. nothing at all. my! what an experience would that be.
i have actually imagined it and looks very alluring. you don't do anything. just float around in nothingness. feels very peaceful. for me it looks like a black background and wherever you go, blackness stretches even further.
listening to pink floyd at 2:30 am is a very different experience. lights out and with high hopes on the playlist, you just let your thoughts go free. with pink floyd playing their psychedelic music, the ambiance is just perfect. and with that all the random thoughts that earlier plagued me are fast disappearing leaving me alone. i guess music heals the spirit.
with that i end my post and look forward to Hey You that would soon croon.
pz
Monday, July 14, 2008
Friday, May 04, 2007
the power of nightmares
i had chanced upon a spectacular bbc documentary, which gave a thorough analysis and a stunning expose of the present times. i however lack the vocabulary to describe this to the fullest so please bear with me.
nation and religion stand to be the only two reasons that are known to cause demarcation amongst people. yet, it is religion ( read : moral stand / morality) that assumes a bigger picture and dictates our lives, because we want to go to heaven. we all believe in freedom, but it is the very definition of freedom that is so distorted.
we go around doing deeds with a notion of doing good. but even this notion of doing good is very askewed. take for example a liberal society. you can do anything you please. to a conservationist this is a nightmare. he construes this as a society with flimsy morals and selfish interests. with people like him in power, they will ensure that people "cleanse" themselves. they believe that they are doing with "good" intentions and they techniques that they use to materialize their intentions are very questionable if not preposterous . they have nightmares of the society gone awry and hence use their power to weed out their nightmares.
this is exactly what u.s.a. and islam went through. i have deliberately used islam because sadly it has been now misconstrued as a religion of hatred and violence rather than peace. the nature of the present situation today can be cornered down to 2 individuals. one leo strauss and the other sayid qutb.
leo strauss was an american professor who postulated that liberalism is a cancer for the state, which affects people in the long run. sayid qutb, an egyptian sent to america to study the system and implement it back in egpyt, too held the same views. he believed that such liberalism gave way to loose morals and this he attributed as the quality of not being a muslim and stated that he didnt deserve to live any more. it is funny how he distorted religion and the right to take life.
their motive was to create a sense of fear and insecurity amongst the fellow men and in that hour of "darkness" they would look to their all-mighty God and thereby putting an end to the flimsy morals (egypt then was imitating the west).
disciples of leo strauss came into power and did the damage in the u.s. they were paul wolfowitz, donald rumsfeld to name a few. i will leave the whole description aside and will only say that, they were the ones responsible for cold wars, al - qaida etc.
sayid qutb also started working towards an organization to achieve the same. sadly he used violence to prove his point. he was executed but the seeds he had sown, began to sprout into saplings and one such sapling was aymaan al zawahiri. convinced of sayid qutb's beliefs, he worked steadfastly towards materializing it. he is a very educated man. and he is now the left hand man of 0sama. violence is never a key to prove a point.
i have painted a very nebulous picture of the situation today as an off-shoot of their beliefs. but little thinking will give you the exact picture i was trying paint all the while.
so what have we got here? a bevy of paranoia ridden people in power, trying to allay the unfound fears of masses by introducing their paranoia to them and swearing to stand by them and fend off the non-existing axis of evil. a new political propoganda? no comments, but if it is, seems like it worked out all to well.
and the funny part is we elected these leaders who will take us into the glorious future that awaits us.
cheers
kyos
p.s.: all the information was taken from the documentary
nation and religion stand to be the only two reasons that are known to cause demarcation amongst people. yet, it is religion ( read : moral stand / morality) that assumes a bigger picture and dictates our lives, because we want to go to heaven. we all believe in freedom, but it is the very definition of freedom that is so distorted.
we go around doing deeds with a notion of doing good. but even this notion of doing good is very askewed. take for example a liberal society. you can do anything you please. to a conservationist this is a nightmare. he construes this as a society with flimsy morals and selfish interests. with people like him in power, they will ensure that people "cleanse" themselves. they believe that they are doing with "good" intentions and they techniques that they use to materialize their intentions are very questionable if not preposterous . they have nightmares of the society gone awry and hence use their power to weed out their nightmares.
this is exactly what u.s.a. and islam went through. i have deliberately used islam because sadly it has been now misconstrued as a religion of hatred and violence rather than peace. the nature of the present situation today can be cornered down to 2 individuals. one leo strauss and the other sayid qutb.
leo strauss was an american professor who postulated that liberalism is a cancer for the state, which affects people in the long run. sayid qutb, an egyptian sent to america to study the system and implement it back in egpyt, too held the same views. he believed that such liberalism gave way to loose morals and this he attributed as the quality of not being a muslim and stated that he didnt deserve to live any more. it is funny how he distorted religion and the right to take life.
their motive was to create a sense of fear and insecurity amongst the fellow men and in that hour of "darkness" they would look to their all-mighty God and thereby putting an end to the flimsy morals (egypt then was imitating the west).
disciples of leo strauss came into power and did the damage in the u.s. they were paul wolfowitz, donald rumsfeld to name a few. i will leave the whole description aside and will only say that, they were the ones responsible for cold wars, al - qaida etc.
sayid qutb also started working towards an organization to achieve the same. sadly he used violence to prove his point. he was executed but the seeds he had sown, began to sprout into saplings and one such sapling was aymaan al zawahiri. convinced of sayid qutb's beliefs, he worked steadfastly towards materializing it. he is a very educated man. and he is now the left hand man of 0sama. violence is never a key to prove a point.
i have painted a very nebulous picture of the situation today as an off-shoot of their beliefs. but little thinking will give you the exact picture i was trying paint all the while.
so what have we got here? a bevy of paranoia ridden people in power, trying to allay the unfound fears of masses by introducing their paranoia to them and swearing to stand by them and fend off the non-existing axis of evil. a new political propoganda? no comments, but if it is, seems like it worked out all to well.
and the funny part is we elected these leaders who will take us into the glorious future that awaits us.
cheers
kyos
p.s.: all the information was taken from the documentary
Friday, April 27, 2007
hey chum, gimme that and make it snappy
knowledge is power - so goes the adage. i really have not come across an instance where this was proved wrong.
anyway arguing about it is not the motive behind this post. what i want to talk about is the cost behind accessing the knowledge. we live in a materialistic world where everything is up for sale. money will do your talking.
people put a price on knowledge today and earn a buck out of it. legitimate or not is for the recipient to decide but if the same or higher quality of knowledge is dispensed for free, no one or very few care, just because (i think) the general masses may think it doesn't have proper credentials etc. etc. i still realize that i am not making any sense. i shall give you an actual example that i have experienced myself. and throughout the example, i want you to know that i am certainly not boasting, i am just recounting what i experienced and what i know, however if you think otherwise, i don't care!
i believe knowledge should be free. price tag on knowledge is absurd for me and i know scores of people who will concur. i had chanced upon a certain entity that helped you to enhance your skills in a particular area. intrigued i tried to absorb the information to my capacity and tried to devote time to it. i think i have learned quite something from it. with this, i wish to fulfill my part of spreading this knowledge that with capacitate people for sift information from dirt and for free. even the entity offered its services for free. more importantly, the topic isn't esoteric and will prove helpful in your everyday life!
hence, whenever people came to me to solve a query relating to the above mentioned area, i first helped them and they were amazed by the outcome. i then suggested the entity from where they could learn it. i also offered to put in my thoughts and opinions, with the intention that they would be able to fend for themselves and have no dependence whatsoever. but i was wrong. and time and time again, i was proven wrong. people are just not interested in it. the knowledge that the entity has to offer is available nowhere, and a price tag on it would be too dear. but it is for free. they are far too materialistic. materialistic meaning they want snappy results without putting effort into it. alas, this is a bane. this is not how things are supposed to be, at least in my notion.
they seek to be dependent and feel comfortable with that idea. i, however; fail to reason, how is this going to be good. if i add a price tag to my services, they are still going to come to me and others like me because they have nobody else who can do it.they could have had it for free with a lot of time and energy saved.
the world moves fast enough for anyone to stand and cogitate. but once one does, he can get things to work for him.
i have altruistically tried to help them, but they just aren't interested and so i stop telling them. they will come when they really want to know .
i take this moment to pay my respect to the those people who have strived not to make knowledge a commodity. in no particular order:
+fravia, zero, woodman to name a few amongst the scores who couldn't be named here.
pz out
kyos
knowledge should be free.
anyway arguing about it is not the motive behind this post. what i want to talk about is the cost behind accessing the knowledge. we live in a materialistic world where everything is up for sale. money will do your talking.
people put a price on knowledge today and earn a buck out of it. legitimate or not is for the recipient to decide but if the same or higher quality of knowledge is dispensed for free, no one or very few care, just because (i think) the general masses may think it doesn't have proper credentials etc. etc. i still realize that i am not making any sense. i shall give you an actual example that i have experienced myself. and throughout the example, i want you to know that i am certainly not boasting, i am just recounting what i experienced and what i know, however if you think otherwise, i don't care!
i believe knowledge should be free. price tag on knowledge is absurd for me and i know scores of people who will concur. i had chanced upon a certain entity that helped you to enhance your skills in a particular area. intrigued i tried to absorb the information to my capacity and tried to devote time to it. i think i have learned quite something from it. with this, i wish to fulfill my part of spreading this knowledge that with capacitate people for sift information from dirt and for free. even the entity offered its services for free. more importantly, the topic isn't esoteric and will prove helpful in your everyday life!
hence, whenever people came to me to solve a query relating to the above mentioned area, i first helped them and they were amazed by the outcome. i then suggested the entity from where they could learn it. i also offered to put in my thoughts and opinions, with the intention that they would be able to fend for themselves and have no dependence whatsoever. but i was wrong. and time and time again, i was proven wrong. people are just not interested in it. the knowledge that the entity has to offer is available nowhere, and a price tag on it would be too dear. but it is for free. they are far too materialistic. materialistic meaning they want snappy results without putting effort into it. alas, this is a bane. this is not how things are supposed to be, at least in my notion.
they seek to be dependent and feel comfortable with that idea. i, however; fail to reason, how is this going to be good. if i add a price tag to my services, they are still going to come to me and others like me because they have nobody else who can do it.they could have had it for free with a lot of time and energy saved.
the world moves fast enough for anyone to stand and cogitate. but once one does, he can get things to work for him.
i have altruistically tried to help them, but they just aren't interested and so i stop telling them. they will come when they really want to know .
i take this moment to pay my respect to the those people who have strived not to make knowledge a commodity. in no particular order:
+fravia, zero, woodman to name a few amongst the scores who couldn't be named here.
pz out
kyos
knowledge should be free.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
where is india going to?
well, what is india coming to? the recent developments in india surely give out the message that india isn't a democracy anymore. i may have gone a bit far in saying that but, democracy in its true sense has lost its meaning in india.
we are a developing nation and we have tons of issues to address to, yet what do our politicians go around doing? well working tooth and nail towards materializing their vested interests. their lack of interest on issues , that were promised to be taken of and the reason why they are where they are now, is pretty evident from the current developments.
we are a proud nation which has so much diversity. i dont think a lot many people realise this. i do because i have experienced it. yet what we do about it? demand a reservation of seats based on caste and creed. while i sincerely abhor this to its very core, i do support the need for supporting those people who have the calibre but not the financial support. due to the gold mine of votes in the reserved section, officialdoms are rooting and tooting for passing this bill . and how? based on a 1931 census. surely any half witted moron could figure out that it needed a more credible need.
that narayana murthy said something objectional , that should not have been said, spread like a forest fire. he apologized for it and i guess think that should be end of matter. instead he is being charged for his comments by politicians . surely they would have better things to do!
garlanding a the statue of a man conveys respect for him. regardless if the one garlanding it wears footwear or not! na... the bjp criticizes the congress for "committing such a heinous act".
the man charged with the murder of jessica lal is contesting for the assembly polls. and his mother is going around gathering votes for him. but murderers and politicians go hand in hand atleast in india. the constituition has time and time again been sneered at by politicians with a shady past in commanding positions . the supreme court has though wisely rejected his plea to contest.
these are just the few instances that are notified to the public. there are numerous incidents that arent reported. with this awful scenario do you think it is wise to invest time, effort and money in activities that yield no fruits when we arent able to provide 3 square meals a day to the population of india? while this post has largely been critical about the politicians, it is also our (citizens) lack of interest in matters of the state. we have been promised of facilities during the elections and we know they arent going to be fulfilled and yet we decide to remain mum and complain. fews the reasons that make it into the politician's speech are the failure of the party in power to do anything better and how he will be the change they so sorely need. and next time around he will be the brunt of his rival though the situation wouldnt have changed much. they promise a better lifestyle everytime but dont you think they have gone too far with their lies and we with our hibernation?
it is time to change.
india prevails,
k
we are a developing nation and we have tons of issues to address to, yet what do our politicians go around doing? well working tooth and nail towards materializing their vested interests. their lack of interest on issues , that were promised to be taken of and the reason why they are where they are now, is pretty evident from the current developments.
we are a proud nation which has so much diversity. i dont think a lot many people realise this. i do because i have experienced it. yet what we do about it? demand a reservation of seats based on caste and creed. while i sincerely abhor this to its very core, i do support the need for supporting those people who have the calibre but not the financial support. due to the gold mine of votes in the reserved section, officialdoms are rooting and tooting for passing this bill . and how? based on a 1931 census. surely any half witted moron could figure out that it needed a more credible need.
that narayana murthy said something objectional , that should not have been said, spread like a forest fire. he apologized for it and i guess think that should be end of matter. instead he is being charged for his comments by politicians . surely they would have better things to do!
garlanding a the statue of a man conveys respect for him. regardless if the one garlanding it wears footwear or not! na... the bjp criticizes the congress for "committing such a heinous act".
the man charged with the murder of jessica lal is contesting for the assembly polls. and his mother is going around gathering votes for him. but murderers and politicians go hand in hand atleast in india. the constituition has time and time again been sneered at by politicians with a shady past in commanding positions . the supreme court has though wisely rejected his plea to contest.
these are just the few instances that are notified to the public. there are numerous incidents that arent reported. with this awful scenario do you think it is wise to invest time, effort and money in activities that yield no fruits when we arent able to provide 3 square meals a day to the population of india? while this post has largely been critical about the politicians, it is also our (citizens) lack of interest in matters of the state. we have been promised of facilities during the elections and we know they arent going to be fulfilled and yet we decide to remain mum and complain. fews the reasons that make it into the politician's speech are the failure of the party in power to do anything better and how he will be the change they so sorely need. and next time around he will be the brunt of his rival though the situation wouldnt have changed much. they promise a better lifestyle everytime but dont you think they have gone too far with their lies and we with our hibernation?
it is time to change.
india prevails,
k
Friday, April 06, 2007
the story of search engines
once upon a time, not too in the distant past, there was a world that was plagued with unsorted files over the internet and was waiting for a messiah who would aid his believers in accessing the files from the utter chaos that was rampant or so goes the prophecy.
then came 1994 and with it the calling of the messiah! two students graduated and paved path for millions to help them access any files they chose to, with relative ease and the believers revelled in glory basking in the splendor of what became to be known as the father of all search engines - Yahoo!
five years went by and yet again another messiah answered the calling of his people. but? the world already had its messiah and who was this brat to hog up the spotlight. it so happened that the former had indexed the forbidden site and with that ensued all the commercial crap of the e-world. ensnared in its grip, Yahoo! tried to escape but in vain. no more could it cater its people with search results they desired but hiding them beneath the bloated commercial garbage.
and so the world needed another savior and then came Google and things have been pretty much the Google way. a folklore suggests it is the Yahweh of search engines.
so what was the silver bullet that Google possessed and Yahoo! didnt? before beginning, i would like you all to know that i am writing this from a totally my point of view ( which happens to be not so broad considering i am unaware of the events during 1994, so cut me some slack!)
coming back, what did Google have? from my point of view Google kept it simple. the motive of Google was that of a search engine and that it sought to provide with exemplary standards. and it did. but wait a minute wasnt/isnt Yahoo! also a search engine with more experience than Google? yes, but i think there were couple of mistakes that Yahoo! made which cost it.
Yahoo! had started out as a search engine and later on progressed to various other activities to keep its customers on its pages as much as possible and thereby earning more revenue. cool,but what happened was, it also invited a lot of commercialization. with commercialization comes degradation in quality if not watched over carefully. this is exactly what happened. it crowded its page with varieties to lure and this went on fine as long as there was no competitor. and then suddenly providing meaningful search results wasnt a priority anymore.
stating that Google didnt vie on commercialization would be wrong, but Google had its priorities straight. it started out as a search engine and maintains its image as a search engine. if one would glance at the interface that Google has provided, it hasnt changed much. the main essence remains the same. a text box to type your query in and a search button. cant get simpler than that.
where Yahoo! failed Google succeeded. i guess it understood the thinking of the common man. rather than dumping him with a plethora of meaningless options, it thought of keeping things simple and direct.when it announced of a 1 gb mailbox, all Yahoo! could reply to it was with an increase of 100 mbs.
Yahoo! revolutionized chatting (started with AOL). it mandated the download of the client to enable chatting. Google went one step further. it embedded the chat feature in the inbox. hence if you want to chat and though you dont have the client, you will still be able to accomplish your work.
Google's approach to mail- GMail is lightening fast and a clutter free interface. Yahoo! tried to give a fitting reply by sprucing up its looks but the time taken for loading, where it mattered the most, was too long.
then GMail came up with online text/document editing. this helped the user not to make any assumptions of the system he was sitting on. he would have his tools everywhere. Yahoo! was nowhere near this scene. GMail isnt commercial free either! rather than images that distract our attention as in Yahoo!, it resorted to using text that didnt divert our attention. but placed strategically enough to catch our attention.
one of the things that Google became instantly rich was because of its AdBots. these were scripts crawling through the cyber space either collecting information or displaying an advertisement pertaining to the subject of the site (if you would notice there are adwords in Gmail when a mail is read, and they are close to the words / content in the mail. and also if the mail happened to contain the number through which checking the status of an activity was possible, it would on its own provide a link to the site with the results corresponding to our number. no hassles.
these are some of the many examples that point to only one fact: Google was far adept in its social engineering skills than Yahoo!. it had the correct notion of the common man's needs and sought to it that they are catered yet keeping its focus on producing refined search results all the time. this translated as more "quality" time spent on Google's pages.
so there wasnt much to think over, quality wins over quantity.
i guess i am pretty much done now. Google seems to be the messiah and lets hope it is here to stay.
cheers,
kyos
P.S.: the post might have sounded pro-Google and anti-Yahoo! but i assure you that i have given an impartial observation of what i have experienced and have not placed either in bad light.
then came 1994 and with it the calling of the messiah! two students graduated and paved path for millions to help them access any files they chose to, with relative ease and the believers revelled in glory basking in the splendor of what became to be known as the father of all search engines - Yahoo!
five years went by and yet again another messiah answered the calling of his people. but? the world already had its messiah and who was this brat to hog up the spotlight. it so happened that the former had indexed the forbidden site and with that ensued all the commercial crap of the e-world. ensnared in its grip, Yahoo! tried to escape but in vain. no more could it cater its people with search results they desired but hiding them beneath the bloated commercial garbage.
and so the world needed another savior and then came Google and things have been pretty much the Google way. a folklore suggests it is the Yahweh of search engines.
so what was the silver bullet that Google possessed and Yahoo! didnt? before beginning, i would like you all to know that i am writing this from a totally my point of view ( which happens to be not so broad considering i am unaware of the events during 1994, so cut me some slack!)
coming back, what did Google have? from my point of view Google kept it simple. the motive of Google was that of a search engine and that it sought to provide with exemplary standards. and it did. but wait a minute wasnt/isnt Yahoo! also a search engine with more experience than Google? yes, but i think there were couple of mistakes that Yahoo! made which cost it.
Yahoo! had started out as a search engine and later on progressed to various other activities to keep its customers on its pages as much as possible and thereby earning more revenue. cool,but what happened was, it also invited a lot of commercialization. with commercialization comes degradation in quality if not watched over carefully. this is exactly what happened. it crowded its page with varieties to lure and this went on fine as long as there was no competitor. and then suddenly providing meaningful search results wasnt a priority anymore.
stating that Google didnt vie on commercialization would be wrong, but Google had its priorities straight. it started out as a search engine and maintains its image as a search engine. if one would glance at the interface that Google has provided, it hasnt changed much. the main essence remains the same. a text box to type your query in and a search button. cant get simpler than that.
where Yahoo! failed Google succeeded. i guess it understood the thinking of the common man. rather than dumping him with a plethora of meaningless options, it thought of keeping things simple and direct.when it announced of a 1 gb mailbox, all Yahoo! could reply to it was with an increase of 100 mbs.
Yahoo! revolutionized chatting (started with AOL). it mandated the download of the client to enable chatting. Google went one step further. it embedded the chat feature in the inbox. hence if you want to chat and though you dont have the client, you will still be able to accomplish your work.
Google's approach to mail- GMail is lightening fast and a clutter free interface. Yahoo! tried to give a fitting reply by sprucing up its looks but the time taken for loading, where it mattered the most, was too long.
then GMail came up with online text/document editing. this helped the user not to make any assumptions of the system he was sitting on. he would have his tools everywhere. Yahoo! was nowhere near this scene. GMail isnt commercial free either! rather than images that distract our attention as in Yahoo!, it resorted to using text that didnt divert our attention. but placed strategically enough to catch our attention.
one of the things that Google became instantly rich was because of its AdBots. these were scripts crawling through the cyber space either collecting information or displaying an advertisement pertaining to the subject of the site (if you would notice there are adwords in Gmail when a mail is read, and they are close to the words / content in the mail. and also if the mail happened to contain the number through which checking the status of an activity was possible, it would on its own provide a link to the site with the results corresponding to our number. no hassles.
these are some of the many examples that point to only one fact: Google was far adept in its social engineering skills than Yahoo!. it had the correct notion of the common man's needs and sought to it that they are catered yet keeping its focus on producing refined search results all the time. this translated as more "quality" time spent on Google's pages.
so there wasnt much to think over, quality wins over quantity.
i guess i am pretty much done now. Google seems to be the messiah and lets hope it is here to stay.
cheers,
kyos
P.S.: the post might have sounded pro-Google and anti-Yahoo! but i assure you that i have given an impartial observation of what i have experienced and have not placed either in bad light.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
imagine- john lennon
i had this wonderful opportunity to see the documentary on the life on John Lennon. and who better could be relating it than John himself!
i guess divorce, troubled childhood and drugs are something that a successful musician must have gone through. i have yet to come across a musician who is successful and hasn't gone through any of the above!
as the world remembers gandhi for his stand with non violence, john lennon is remembered for his effort to spread world peace.
having girls go la la over you at a youthful age of 20s or even in the teens, can fill an individual with arrogance and reckless disregard for anything. but there was something different about john. simplicity pervaded through him and his stardom didn't seem affect his thoughts / motives. he tried to live like a normal man, pursue his interests.
but then things weren't so simple for him. he was caught up in the mania that was "The Beatles". a tumultuous world in a way. with the fame that he achieved anything that he said was something sort of a dogma. often misconstrued, his statements provoked widespread discontent, yet that didn't seem to affect even a little bit of his position in the hearts of his people.
he had this down to earth disposition which you would fail to see in other celebrities, to the extent that he suggested one of his followers to get a real life rather than following him as he meticulously explained that it wasn't doing any good to him. strange eh? who would turn down a fan?
after the beatles split up, he concentrated his life in spreading the message of peace. sadly though he was assassinated, just because there was a consensus that he was responsible for "splitting up" the beatles by introducing yoko ono.
an defiant spirit who was his own master.
his song imagine still resonates in many a people.
imagine- its easy if you try...
//o-o\\
i guess divorce, troubled childhood and drugs are something that a successful musician must have gone through. i have yet to come across a musician who is successful and hasn't gone through any of the above!
as the world remembers gandhi for his stand with non violence, john lennon is remembered for his effort to spread world peace.
having girls go la la over you at a youthful age of 20s or even in the teens, can fill an individual with arrogance and reckless disregard for anything. but there was something different about john. simplicity pervaded through him and his stardom didn't seem affect his thoughts / motives. he tried to live like a normal man, pursue his interests.
but then things weren't so simple for him. he was caught up in the mania that was "The Beatles". a tumultuous world in a way. with the fame that he achieved anything that he said was something sort of a dogma. often misconstrued, his statements provoked widespread discontent, yet that didn't seem to affect even a little bit of his position in the hearts of his people.
he had this down to earth disposition which you would fail to see in other celebrities, to the extent that he suggested one of his followers to get a real life rather than following him as he meticulously explained that it wasn't doing any good to him. strange eh? who would turn down a fan?
after the beatles split up, he concentrated his life in spreading the message of peace. sadly though he was assassinated, just because there was a consensus that he was responsible for "splitting up" the beatles by introducing yoko ono.
an defiant spirit who was his own master.
his song imagine still resonates in many a people.
imagine- its easy if you try...
//o-o\\
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