Sunday, July 24, 2005
I don't know this guy but I loved what he had to say:
"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum"
[I think that I think, therefore I think that I am]
"Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum"
[I think that I think, therefore I think that I am]
Thursday, July 21, 2005
American Media Bashing
For the past many weeks each time I watch CNN, there is this one news-story that is always being reported. "Natalie Holloway lost in Aruba for 15 days...30 days... 52 days". America get over it!! I wonder why the media is so fixated on this story. So the girl made out with a guy and wasn't seen thereafter... Reporting it may be once or twice is fair for a month. Devoting 10 mins to the story everyday, is just plain badgering. Don't get me wrong, I know it's unfortunate and her immediate family must be going through hell, but CNN please have some sense of proportion.
I have a theory about this piece of news though. I think Michael Jackson bribed some of these news channels and brought Natalie Holloway to the spotlight. Think about it... missing girl comes to the forefront, weird paedophile is relegated to the back pages. Sounds completely logical!
May be it is George W Bush who is pushing his own failures in Iraq into obscurity. Devote more time to the missing blonde girl and people will stop paying attention to the hundreds dying in Iraq every week. Apparently the ratings for FOX News have fallen by 58% since the November elections.
Newspapers in America are rather strange too. Local news is so prominently reported that one wouldn't imagine that a world outside the Bay Area existed. BBC News is the one beacon of hope in the vast wilderness of bad news coverage. It has become a part of my staple diet of sorts now. I am certain that the BBC News webpage is immensely popular among Indians but if you haven't visited do give http://news.bbc.co.uk a shot.
My own recent discovery in the Bay Area is Radio Humsafar. It is an AM radio station that broadcasts in Hindi and Punjabi. 1200 AM.. The broadcast signal is a little weaker than the rest of the stations, but it's good to hear an Indian language on the radio waves. Plus with the amount of advertisements and pop-ups that inundate your screen on the Times of India website, alternative sources for news about India are always welcome.
For the past many weeks each time I watch CNN, there is this one news-story that is always being reported. "Natalie Holloway lost in Aruba for 15 days...30 days... 52 days". America get over it!! I wonder why the media is so fixated on this story. So the girl made out with a guy and wasn't seen thereafter... Reporting it may be once or twice is fair for a month. Devoting 10 mins to the story everyday, is just plain badgering. Don't get me wrong, I know it's unfortunate and her immediate family must be going through hell, but CNN please have some sense of proportion.
I have a theory about this piece of news though. I think Michael Jackson bribed some of these news channels and brought Natalie Holloway to the spotlight. Think about it... missing girl comes to the forefront, weird paedophile is relegated to the back pages. Sounds completely logical!
May be it is George W Bush who is pushing his own failures in Iraq into obscurity. Devote more time to the missing blonde girl and people will stop paying attention to the hundreds dying in Iraq every week. Apparently the ratings for FOX News have fallen by 58% since the November elections.
Newspapers in America are rather strange too. Local news is so prominently reported that one wouldn't imagine that a world outside the Bay Area existed. BBC News is the one beacon of hope in the vast wilderness of bad news coverage. It has become a part of my staple diet of sorts now. I am certain that the BBC News webpage is immensely popular among Indians but if you haven't visited do give http://news.bbc.co.uk a shot.
My own recent discovery in the Bay Area is Radio Humsafar. It is an AM radio station that broadcasts in Hindi and Punjabi. 1200 AM.. The broadcast signal is a little weaker than the rest of the stations, but it's good to hear an Indian language on the radio waves. Plus with the amount of advertisements and pop-ups that inundate your screen on the Times of India website, alternative sources for news about India are always welcome.
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Intel V AMD : Nasty Intel Compilers!!
"In AMD's recient anti-trust lawsuit AMD have examined the Intel compiler and found that it deliberatly runs code slower when it detects that the processor is an AMD. "To achieve this, Intel designed the compiler to compile code along several alternate code paths. ... By design, the code paths were not created equally. If the program detects a "Genuine Intel" microprocessor, it executes a fully optimized code path and operates with the maximum efficiency. However, if the program detects an "Authentic AMD" microprocessor, it executes a different code path that will degrade the program's performance or cause it to crash."
"In AMD's recient anti-trust lawsuit AMD have examined the Intel compiler and found that it deliberatly runs code slower when it detects that the processor is an AMD. "To achieve this, Intel designed the compiler to compile code along several alternate code paths. ... By design, the code paths were not created equally. If the program detects a "Genuine Intel" microprocessor, it executes a fully optimized code path and operates with the maximum efficiency. However, if the program detects an "Authentic AMD" microprocessor, it executes a different code path that will degrade the program's performance or cause it to crash."
Gun Germs and Steel
I have referred to the book here on many occassions, though I haven't been patient enough to read it. So if anyone is interested in watching a National Goegraphic TV show about the same Pulitzer winning book and Jared Diamond's theories please visit:
http://www.pbs.org/gunsgermssteel/
Please support you local PBS station!
Monday, July 11, 2005
Inspired by Sumedha...
Monday, July 04, 2005
Science @ the movies
I watched "Batman Begins" for the second time this week at the IMAX. It is a spectacular movie and I think I liked it better than Spiderman. The dialogues are especially witty. But I couldn't help noticing a logical fallacy. Something to do with the microwave emitters in the latter part of the movie. Microwaves have the ability to vibrate water molecules inside objects. Thus if a strong microwave source comes close to us, we would get baked because our bodies contain a large amount of water. Secondly, the Batmobile is such a huge and bulky vehicle that it makes me wonder what gas mileage it gives and if Batman can ever be seen at a gas pump complaining about high fuel prices in Gotham.
Sidenote on mainstream movies @ IMAX... Don't go there! I dont think the medium is designed for regular movies. Scenery looks great and real and so do the first person pictures. But a dome theater is unsuitable for viewing people's faces and fast moving fight sequences. During some conversations people talking to each other are about 180 degrees apart and you have to twist your neck in both directions to see the people responsible for the words.
I also saw War of the Worlds this week. It was a good movie but definitely not as brilliant as Batman. I didn't particularly like Tom Cruise's acting and I thought some of the alien devices were unusually primitive. I mean a race that is capable of the feats shown in the movie definitely would have invented infrared vision to count the number of people inside a room.
On a sidenote, I think Steven Spielberg didn't do a great job with the conclusion of the War of the Worlds. The reasons for the alien defeat are so subtlly introduced that even smart people don't understand them.(Case to point Sumeet and Manish). I don't want to be the one who divulges the suspense of the movie. If you came back from the theater feeling ripped off and don't understand why the aliens die, think about this. When the Spanish Conquistadors reached South America, Mayans were wiped out because they weren't immune to the viruses that the Spaniards brought along with them.
I watched "Batman Begins" for the second time this week at the IMAX. It is a spectacular movie and I think I liked it better than Spiderman. The dialogues are especially witty. But I couldn't help noticing a logical fallacy. Something to do with the microwave emitters in the latter part of the movie. Microwaves have the ability to vibrate water molecules inside objects. Thus if a strong microwave source comes close to us, we would get baked because our bodies contain a large amount of water. Secondly, the Batmobile is such a huge and bulky vehicle that it makes me wonder what gas mileage it gives and if Batman can ever be seen at a gas pump complaining about high fuel prices in Gotham.
Sidenote on mainstream movies @ IMAX... Don't go there! I dont think the medium is designed for regular movies. Scenery looks great and real and so do the first person pictures. But a dome theater is unsuitable for viewing people's faces and fast moving fight sequences. During some conversations people talking to each other are about 180 degrees apart and you have to twist your neck in both directions to see the people responsible for the words.
I also saw War of the Worlds this week. It was a good movie but definitely not as brilliant as Batman. I didn't particularly like Tom Cruise's acting and I thought some of the alien devices were unusually primitive. I mean a race that is capable of the feats shown in the movie definitely would have invented infrared vision to count the number of people inside a room.
On a sidenote, I think Steven Spielberg didn't do a great job with the conclusion of the War of the Worlds. The reasons for the alien defeat are so subtlly introduced that even smart people don't understand them.(Case to point Sumeet and Manish). I don't want to be the one who divulges the suspense of the movie. If you came back from the theater feeling ripped off and don't understand why the aliens die, think about this. When the Spanish Conquistadors reached South America, Mayans were wiped out because they weren't immune to the viruses that the Spaniards brought along with them.
