The CyberScrawler

Open Data : Looking beyond Open source

2011-08-15T01:12:00.002+05:30

Open Source

Open Source is a buzzword anyone who uses computers beyond a casual extent would've heard about. Its the term we use to describe software whose source code is available. You can see how your software works. If required (and if permitted by the author), you can use the code as a part of something of your own. Open source primarily represents the hacker mindset of “No problem solved twice”, when someone makes his project code open source ,he's telling you that,"There was a problem, this is how I've solved it, Like the solution, use it , dont like it improve it"

Open Source is useful because it supports the incremental nature of innovation. You take one step forward, someone takes another, together we all move forward. Open source is about getting as well as giving, it is community driven and its fruits arent motivated by profit but by the good that comes out of helping eachother.

Open source started off as something about sharing code but has gone way beyond. Today even cars and datacentres are being designed collaboratively.

However

There is a very fundamental thing to realize when thinking about open source; that it is centered around the creator not the consumer. When talking about software, this creator is the developer while in the case of say a car, it is the engineer who designs the car. For most systems, there are far more people who enjoy its benefits than those involved in its creation or maintenance.

We interact with most of the things in our lives as Consumers rather than creators.

And in an increasingly digitized world, more and more of our previously physical interactions are entering the digital domain. As this happens, these interactions are becoming easier to store and monitor Each one of us is creating an electronic footprint that is getting larger and larger. What we're essentially doing is creating information about ourselves, data sets that are unique to us and are our own property. Well, if it is information you created and that too about you, then you should be able to completely control how it is used and be able do whatever you want with it. This sadly is not true in many of the web applications,mostly notably Facebook. This information about yourself that you create could be used in tailoring services or creating deals that are highly specific and customised to give you exactly what you need. Such kind of deal tailoring already takes place; anyone who's visited shopping sites will soon be bombarded with ad banners about the items he searched for. In this case the information was taken from you mostly without your permission, how about a time when you decide who gets such information.

Open Data

What we need then is a set of standards that define the data healthiness of a an online service. Just like labels on food products show us how much fat we're putting into ourselves, we need to know how our data is being used,who has access to it, how easily can it be moved/exported. The third point about ease of exporting data is according to me very crucial to growth of new online services. Just as developers build over an open source product and build something better with it, so also do users need the ability to try newer services and allow these service to access their data and create something better with it. This would prevent users being locked into a service because their data is stuck there. We could call this movement about putting you in control of your data , 'Open Data', a direct analogue to Open Source but with a more far reaching impact as it affects us as consumers, the role we play most of the time.

Current Scenario

Google has done a fantastic job with regards to Open Data by allowing Google+ users to export all their data. This is in start contrast to the approach of Facebook which requires tricks for extracting the contacts of your own friends!

Hopefully many others will follow in Google's footsteps.

Bypass SonicWall

2011-07-17T13:59:00.002+05:30

If your internet is censored using SonicWall,

just use https instead of http in the URL to access whichever site u want.

Drawback : Doesnt work on sites which dont support secure browsing.But Facebook and Google support it, so WTH.
You can overcome this too by using an https proxy like Kproxy

LokPal : From Cynicism to Optimism

2011-06-17T01:24:00.003+05:30

Cynicism

Anyone who has been living in this country for long enough to appreciate how its government and political bodies function will sympathize with me when I say that I’ve become a complete cynic, a hater, pessimist.
I deem any effort to change the pathetic status quo as nothing but failure in written in stone. Investing time and labour in such an effort would be like “accepting a post-dated cheque on a crumbling bank”; these words by the father of our nation who envisioned a united and prosperous India, a father who is all but forgotten today.
The democracy which our nation’s greatest and brightest men set up for us has been reduced to nothing but a sham and a complete farce. Adult franchise, the power to choose your leader has been reduced to a silly game of choosing between the lesser of the evils. Politicians and political parties make and break alliances and change sides quickly in desperate efforts to grab power while ideology takes a backseat.
Parliamentary debate today is anything but a debate, every parliamentary session is another chance for a publicity hungry political party to stage a walkout. Looks like our politicians prefer to walk the walk rather than talk the talk and debate! Or maybe if they’re too tired to walk they’ll just come and throw wads of cash in the air to show their integrity!
And there’s corruption, in every nook and cranny of the administrative setup, from the clerk to the cabinet minister, everyone has a price and some lucrative deals to offer. It’s been going on for so long that it’s accepted as part and parcel of life and very few shudder or even think twice before greasing someone’s palm.

And then you want me to be an optimist….

An optimist I may not be but I’m not one to sit idly and do nothing. I dream! I dream of a better India and also sometimes dream of ways of make that happen. How do we get ourselves out of this mess? Smart educated people don’t want to get into politics, it’s too dirty and full of crass, they’d rather work 9 to 5 and live an easy life, your choice, fair; unfortunately like a self-fulfilling prophecy, the people who do join politics aren’t a far cry from the being the dirt of this country. How do we beat this vicious cycle?

REVOLUTION!

Wait the smart educated people won’t do this, it’s easier to just care about your job and your family as if nothing else exists and be oblivious to it all. It’s easier to be a cynic. And all the not so smart people are already in politics. Oh we’re stuck in this mess forever, are we?

VENDETTA

A concept completely borrowed from the movie V for Vendetta.
How about an anonymous group of assassins serving as a watchdog over our beloved politicians.
No judicial proceedings, no bickering, no bail, no hopping in and out of jail. . One scam, one mistake and that’s it, game over, the end, justice served fast and cold. Step out of the line once and that’s the last time you’ll do it. But what if someone falsely accuses someone, Oh! That’s a crime too and shall receive its punishment. And there’s only one punishment we offer, a one way ticket to meet your maker. Every move a politician makes is under the scanner, any wrong move can be your last. Imagine a world where politicians run around scared for their lives, with a sword hanging above their heads all the time.

Alas! Such a scenario may be a dream come true for anyone who come to hate India’s politicians but there are several factors that would keep it just that, a dream.
1. Who will guard the guards? If we can’t control or question who they kill, they might as well be called terrorists and not watchdogs 2.The government can’t function effectively if its people are always scared of losing their life. 3. Violence and bloodshed can never be a permanent solution to bring about peace!

So now what!

The solution and The beauty of democracy

Reality they say is stranger than fiction! In a true mixture of Gandhian philosophy and revolutionary courage, we present: The fast unto death. Instead of an anonymous group of assassins going around killing, we have here a very visible bunch of revolutionaries ready to lay down their lives for a good cause, all they’re saying is “Get to work dear ministers or I will starve myself!” . Isn’t this approach wrong, aren’t there better means to voice an opinion and initiate change. Well if there were any that worked, we would’ve tried them. And the best part, democracy, it turns out isn’t such a bad deal after all! where else would people have the chance to openly challenge the government’s inaction as long they remain peaceful. If our politicians don’t work, Anna Hazare along with his supporters has shown us how to get them to work and sit up and pay attention. All this for empowering the people through the Lokpal Bill. Not everyone with a grievance can start a fast unto death and this is exactly what the LokPal Bill addresses by allowing people to file complaints against corrupt activities and promising them a guaranteed redressal within a year.

BUT

But the cynic in me cries out again. Remember RTI? There’s no doubt that it has been helpful in unearthing many illicit activities and wrong practices going on in government institutions but sheer lack of infrastructure threatens to render this powerful tool ineffective as thousands of cases pile up and average time for disposal increases. What stops LokPal from going this way? Only time can tell

The World's most Powerful Force

2011-05-20T13:21:00.002+05:30

Inertia is the world's most powerful force . . because you can never measure what you didn't do

Humans love the status quo. Call it laziness, call it satisficing, avoiding going for the best, taking a route other than the optimal because involves it some real hard work or some risk. This is but a manifestation of Inertia.

Getting the most out of anything isn't easy but then no one said it would be and why should it be

The Best is sometimes invisible

2011-05-20T12:52:00.003+05:30

The best stories are sometimes those which you will never hear
The best and the biggest robberies are those where the robber's never got caught
The biggest cover-up is of course the one which did live up to its name

Sometimes the thrill of an adventure will remain the personal treasure of the person who decided to undertake it

BarCamp Goa Poster

2011-04-15T20:30:00.001+05:30

Client : BarCamp Goa /Anubhav Khanduja

Concept : Dalan Mendonca

Artwork/Design : Smit Vora

Check out what exactly is a BarCamp here

Thermal Imaging Poster

2011-04-04T15:19:00.002+05:30

Thermal Imaging, a photo by dalanMendonca on Flickr.

A neat little poster I pulled off in around an hour / hour and a half for explaining my project. The strongly contrasting black and white backgrounds along with image/caption at the top emphasize the power of Thermal Imaging.The other images thrown in showcase other advantages of Thermal Imaging.
This poster was used when my project was displayed at Open Showcase during Quark 2011[Technical festival of BITS-Pilani,Goa Campus]

The Marketing Paradox : Changing Messages

2011-04-02T04:33:00.001+05:30

I just happened to read this interview of Jason Fried who is the founder of 37Signals, a highly successful web application development company.In the interview, Jason offers some tricks of the business trade that he has learnt.

The very first tip that he offers is "Understanding the buyer is the key to being a strong seller".
To illustrate this example, he talks of the time when he was 15 and worked as a store help in a Golf and Tennis goods shop.
He says that peoples reasons for buying shoes weren't exactly in sync with manufacturers reasons for selling them. Companies make and market shoes with new and great performance enhancing technologies but thats not what people care about once they're in the store.

Once they're there, the main things they're concerned about are look and style, comfort and of course price.
This insight says Jason helped him sell a boatload of shoes that summer in the store.

Well! Isn't that a little paradoxical.

All that sports goods companies talk about in their ads are their superior performance and amazing new technology which are presented along with the endorsements of a few sport-stars while on the other hand all that people are looking for is style,comfort and price.

But the truth is,customers start worrying about style,comfort and price only once they ENTER the store.
The million-dollar but totally off the point ad campaign is what makes them enter YOUR store/ Choose your brand (Its not really off the point if it attracts customers!).

Here's the deal, we bring the customer to our store by making him believe that new technology is going improve his experience(We throw in his favourite sports persons in sweaty but sexy avatars to further his misbeliefs) Once he's in our store, to actually convert him into a customer we now have to actually listen to what he wants.This it turns out is looks,comfort and price.Extra-grip? More Aerodynamic? Actually what I want to know is the price! The paradox

So wouldn't it be a revolution if one day a sports goods company decided to chuck all its hi-tech jibber jabber and sell its wares saying something like 'Sexy Shoes'. No wait , the normal shoe companies already do that!
Would it make the company look a cat among the tigers if it were to focus on any of its non performance-related advantages in its marketing. Whatever the company looks like,it wouldn't matter.If a company can market itself in such a manner without looking too tawdry or downmarket, its creates a whole new genre of sport goods not for sports persons.The non performance-related advantage needn't be that great too because you're directly addressing what people want.The market already exists but no one is taking a direct shot at it.

Another important thing is that how the message must be changed to fit medium/situation.On TV it may sound ridiculous if all you're talking about is how good your shoes look while your competitors are showing off their super hi-tech shoes while this is exactly what is needed in a one-on-one interaction with a customer in a store.

Its essential to give a customer what he needs but the customers needs keep changing even in the process of one purchase and we must satisfy him accordingly.

The Age of The Pirate

2011-03-28T01:25:00.003+05:30

The Internet is changing the game.Change with it.

Just finished watching 'Steal This Film' -parts I and II. They're documentaries about the Pirate Bay and the movement to free information and change the view on intellectual property. They're free for download by the way!

It was very enlightening to hear that when recorded music initially came musicians were very sceptical about it.

As it happens, musicians at that time made money primarily by performing live and they felt that if people could have/listen to the music at home they wouldnt show up for their concerts.

Yeah thats exactly what happened!

Then cassete purchases exploded,the Walkman came and recorded music came to accepted as way to reach out to millions more people than you could on an typical concert tour.It became an alternate revenue stream and musicians continued to make money.

What happened?

New Technology, initially perceived as a threat became a whole new medium.

Technology didnt rob any musicians, it just changed the way they made money.

Technology didn't change the profits ,it changed the profit model.

It wouldn't be difficult to argue that something similar is happening to Music, Movies and Television today

The internet is allowing you to access any content you want for absolutely free (albeit illegally!).

Some say this is a crime and we're robbing the producers. I completely disagree.

The people who keep screaming that piracy is a crime are mostly those whose incomes are directly related to the record sales. They've become comfortable to certain modus operandi in their business and they see new technology as violating their rules. Well my friends,the game has changed and you better change with it.

Musicians dont make music just to earn money. New Technology doesn't break the rules, it changes the game.

Phase out Facebook

2011-03-17T07:36:00.001+05:30

Tired of Facebook requests, Farmville gifts,liking this and commenting on that. Facebook with its ever changing privacy rules [see here] and default 'public' attitude isn’t exactly everyone’s ideal social network.

Plus everyone has noticed that Facebook has overtime increased the space for Ads on its website and also nowadays there are more notifications from apps that are more like adverts.

Facebook feeds off your data and gets happier every time you give a status update or share a photo or ‘like’ something.So the best way to save yourself from Facebook is to get your data out of it and into other services in a more decentralized manner suggested below.

Here’s a way to disconnect from Facebook while still maintaining your digital identity.

Step 1 : An Online profile : Google Profiles

The newly revamped Google Profiles offers a new way to put a face on your online identity and apart from the regular ‘Write something about yourself ‘, it allows you to add links to your other web properties.Yahoo profiles is also a decent but still behind alternative.

Step 2: : Sharing Photos : FlickR

FlickR is by far the undisputed champion when it comes to sharing photos.It allows you to set which photos are private and which are public.Also,you are totally in control of your photos and no one can tag you unnecessarily.

Step 3 : Status Sharing : Twitter

Get away from facebook and start Tweeting. Twitter is the simplest and fastest way to give updates about whatever and whenever.

Also,there are apps like Selected Tweets which allow you to post your twitter updates to Facebook so tha you dont leave your Facebook friends high and dry.

Step 4 : Direct Messages : E-mail and Twitter

Want to directly a person a message directly ,E-mail him of course. E-mail too formal for you? Head to twitter and send him a message in form of a tweet or a direct message.

Step 5: Gaming : Kinect

Seriously stop playing Farmville and buy a Kinect or a Wii or even a PlayStation Move. Play with the next generation of motion-controlled games and lose those pounds.Video games are no more the land of gun-toting killers and ghastly monsters. Motion-based games are as socially acceptable and enjoyable as you'd want them to be.

Step 6 : Sharing Stories and Notes : Blog

Want to rant out long tales of fun and frolic or write about your thrilling adventures.Get a blog. No need to use Facebook notes. Write a blog post filled with Images and even videos and tell your story in style.Blogger and Wordpress are the best places to make a blog

Step 7 : Sharing Favourite Movies : IMDb

IMDb allows you not only to rate the movies you watch but also to make lists out of those and share them

Step 8 : Sharing Favourite Music : Like.FM

Like.FM allows you to track what you play across a variety of different music players and even on sites like YouTube and Pandora,thus automatically building a list of what music you like and love.You could also try Zune Social but it works only with the Zune Media Player.

The basic idea is to get your stuff out of Facebook without losing the ability to share it with whoever you like.

Education today . .

2011-03-07T21:37:00.001+05:30

.. is a highly competitive business.

The smart do not really need it
The dumb will not really get it

For most,its just the safest way of finding a way of earning a living.
Education should never be the answer to a job search but many a times is.

McDonalds and The Power of Pairs

2011-03-05T09:52:00.000+05:30

Just happened to go to McDonald's after a long time(there's no McD in Goa and I sort of prefer KFC nowadays)
What caught my attention was this new ploy by McD( cant call it a scheme as it isn't really available).

Here's the thing:
Right next to each counter are placed a couple of sandglasses .as soon as you're done ordering the assistant flips over a glass. If your order isn't ready in 1 minute (the time of the sand glass ) you get a complimentary small Coke.

Why this rocks?

It gives you something to do while waiting by turning the whole drab affair into a small race against time
It probably motivates their employees to turn out orders faster.
Most importantly,it encourages BUYING another burger.How?

because people just love seeing things in pairs :

Socks & Shoes

Fish n Chips

Crime & Punishment
... and guess what else .. Burger and Coke

A single unpaired coke on a plate may just not feel right and can nudge u into buying another burger.

Here's the fun part: even the cheapest burger is costlier than a small coke, say the coke costs $20 and the cheapest burger is $40 . They need half (conversion rate : 50%)of the people to act on their impulse.If a person already bought a big meal, he may not mind spending a little more.Also, since there are costlier burgers, the conversion rate isn't that harsh.

The Time for Linux is now

2011-02-26T05:23:00.013+05:30

Windows is the worlds most popular operating system

Linux is the world's most popular free operating system
The creators of Linux do not see the word free as in freebie but free as in freedom.Linux is built on the principle that if its your computer, you can do goddamn whatever you wish to do with it.

Linux started out as an alternative to UNIX(the dominant OS at that time) and initially found usage among computer savvy crowd. But Linux today is far from the geeky and difficult to fathom thing that you may imagine.

Linux Today

Today,Linux distributions look good and work great.They come with well designed interfaces that get the learning curve out of the way and even people who've used Windows all their life rarely have much of a problem(Though software interfaces on Windows are still years ahead). Some Linux distributions are built specifically with the purpose of working out of the box (Think LinuxMint) unlike Windows which requires you to install a hundred things before you safely start working.

There's way too much wicked shit to do to your PC in Linux

Some people have a difficulty coping with software installation process on Linux (Seriously,nothing beats exe's and press 'OK to Continue' ) but I've settled on Ubuntu after switching quite a few distributions and find that efforts like the 'Ubuntu Software Center' are a big step in the right direction.

Whats the problem?

Linux works faster,hangs less and has to deal with less viruses than Windows. So then why would anyone ever use Windows? Because Windows just shows up on your computer uninvited and people just don't bother switching an OS.

Looking Ahead

But today there is an opportunity for Linux to change this scenario.
Slowly but surely computing is moving over to the cloud and more and more of our time is spent on network based applications.We can watch movies online,listen to songs online,draw pictures online and do many more things that were once restricted to the desktop.

The latest version of HTML(the internet's underlying language), HTML5 gives developers fascinating new opportunities to move traditional desktop based applications into a browser-based environment. Google (through Google Docs) has tried to implement a complete office suite within a browser and has done a fantastic job of it.
As more and more applications become browser/network-based, the role of the Operating System for most users will become secondary. Google tried a radical approach to this when it launched its Chrome WebOS.(I call it radical because you to be log in with your Google Account to use the OS).
But this demonstrates that there many people who believe the OS as we see it today is in for a change.And what better replacement than the OS that was and is being built by people sharing code over the Internet.

Also happening

Another trend that we may observe is the divergence of the computer market (triggered especially by the rise of netbooks and tablets).
Want a device to just read books along with some music, then tablets it is.
If your computer activity is restricted to simply browsing the web,coupled with some movie watching and office work, then go for a netbook.
If you're into gaming, then you'd choose a laptop with a decent graphic card
. . .and so on.

Each of these market segments requires a different kind of OS and at least the first two are goldmines for Linux. All that is needed is a consolidated effort to convince device manufacturers into switching and then there'll be no looking back. Think this kind of an effort is too extreme, you couldn't be more wrong. Have you heard of Android !?
Device manufacturers had no shame in switching as long they were assured that the OS that were switching to was well supported and that there was loads of software to go around.And there was the added bonus of getting a completely-built modern OS for FREE.

Linux is already well-supported
Linux already has loads of software to go around.
In case you forgot, Linux is FREE.

Bottomline

So,summarizing I would like to say that the rise of internet-based applications and the amazing community support and software base that Linux enjoys havent made a more compelling argument for OEM's to switch to Linux as their default OS and Linux evangelists need to grab this opportunity.

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An Ad by ~~Google~~ Me

Nearly 100% of the world's supercomputers use Linux. All the really smart computers are using Linux they say. Why should your computer stay behind?

The Microsoft Nokia deal

2011-02-23T05:48:00.000+05:30

Will it work?

Nokia was, is and for some time may still be the world's top selling phone manufacturer,though its position has been severely weakened in recent years.

Nokia was the leader of the pack in both spheres of the mobile world i.e. hardware and software .. Nokia was almost always ahead of the curve in terms of phone features and its Symbian OS worked well.Nokia phones were trendy and reliable .Also Nokia had no real competition as its phones were much better than those of others.

Then there was the emergence of smartphones which split the phone market into two parts : The High-end smartphone market and the low-end/feature phone market. While Nokia's success in its earlier years ensured that it continued to sell a huge number of low-end phones wherever phones networks expanded on earth, this did not ensure Nokia's success in the smart-phone market. Nokia's upgrades to Symbian were slow (and mostly iterative) and though there are a huge number of apps written for Symbian, a effort to form something like an App store didn't come until 2007 which was the year of the iPhone Launch.

Despite the iPhone and the huge amount of buzz it generated, Nokia did not compete aggressively enough with Apple and continued a sluggish approach, probably because it did not expect data intensive smart phones could be so successful contrary to what had been true all along for Nokia.The company did make some efforts like first developing Maemo and then joining forces with Intel to build MeeGo.But Nokia's efforts lacked a definitive strategy. Slowly Nokia's position in the smartphone declined.

The other thing to hit Nokia hard was the emergence and success of a huge number of competitors in the low-end/feature phone market.This trend is especially visible in India where Nokia's market share fell from 74% to 51%.Once the default brand, Nokia position has been hurt by the emergence of many local players in the low-end market who have been much more aggressive in marketing their products and also whose products are more in tune with the local tastes.

These losses on both fronts left Nokia on a sticky wicket. This prompted Nokia into making some changes,the first was some management changes (including its first non-Finnish CEO Stephen Elop) followed by the announcement of deal with Microsoft

So how is teaming up with Microsoft going to help?

This is clearly an effort to regain a foothold in the smartphone market after silently being on the losing to Apple iPhone and Google's Android. Microsoft has recently launched the latest version of its Mobile Phone Operating system and it has received surprisingly good reviews.If you take a look at the UI, you will notice that 'Windows Phone 7' (as the OS has been christened) interface isnt merely an iterative improvement over previous versions of the OS but a rethinking of the OS for touch-screen phones. Many experts have appreciated the OS though it is yet to be seen whether it's going to be the much awaited iPhone killer or even and Android killer.

Nokia benefits from this deal because it gets a brand new and better OS for its smartphones while Microsoft gets to leverage Nokia's far-reaching brand in phone market to trigger a surge in the developement of Apps for the Windows Mobile 7 platform.

Shouldn't Nokia have adopted Android instead given the huge number of apps that have been written for it and the brand value associated with Android(Many handset makers tout Android as one of the key features because of the humongous no. of apps). It could have and there would have been some immediate benefits but joining with Microsoft instead gives Nokia the oppurtunity to kill two birds with one stone (or one phone :D). Also,the Android platform which is under rapid development and constant improvement isnt without its troubles.Since Android is Open source, handset manufacturers come up with their own versions of the OS creating a separate software ecosystem for their devices and virtually negating the advantage(or should say point) of the Android marketplace.

So overall,we may say that the deal is a smart move and both companies gain something but will this be enough for Nokia to regain its once-dominant position. Atleast, two things must necessarily happen for Nokia's success.First,Nokia (and even Microsoft) must market their phones more aggressively and create a buzz that was once associated with Nokia's (then)cutting-edge phones. Second,Microsoft (and Nokia) must convince developers to create apps for the Windows Phone 7 platform (which today has just above 3000 apps).Enticing Symbian developers to move to Windows Mobile 7 instead of iOS or Android may surely help.

PS:I'm a Nokia fan

I wanna do an MS but my CG..

2011-02-20T00:17:00.002+05:30

....is low.

You wouldn't be mentioning your CG if you didn't see it as much of a problem.

You're about to graduate .You've got a great amount of interest in the subject.You have the desire to learn more.You feel like you should do your Masters to become an expert in the subject.You want to do your Masters at a good university.

Except that your marks aren't something that you could boast about.

Problem ...Not a problem

Sit down and think why you wanted to do the MS in the first place . How do you imagine yourself after completing that MS.

Working abroad , in a big company , working on new projects that interest you and make work a pleasure.

Motivating work and doing what you like

These are THE reasons you wanted to do an MS for. It's not the MS that you're chasing but THIS. Sit down and think ,is the MS the ONLY way to achieving your dream.It does seem like a safe bet but Risk begets reward.

Different Roads

There will be more options ; Join a company ,many companies encourage (even sponsor ) higher education for their employees;can you work as a freelancer , why don't you join a start-up that's working on things that are more in tune with your interests or better (but riskier and maybe more rewarding) start something of your own.

The problem with Academia . .

is thats sometimes its just that : academic . Its a system that cherishes people who do well WITHIN THE SYSTEM.

How did the Duck Hunt gun work?

2011-01-25T01:34:00.003+05:30

Just found out today how the gun for Nintendo's Duck Hunt game used to work.
Though I had always found its workings to be a bit mysterious, I never gave the problem a serious thought and still find the solution quite elegant(because its pretty simple too)
The answer is sort of counter intuitive because being a gun,you'd expect the device to fire or shoot something but the NES Zapper does exactly the opposite!
Here's the lowdown,
The gun contains a photodiode (a diode which can conduct according to the intensity of light incident upon it)
The detection of the target happens as follows:
When you press the trigger, the controller blanks out the screen (the screen becomes completely Black)
The controller also activates the photodiode.
After this,the controller flashes a white block in the region where the duck originally was.
If you're pointing in the right direction the photodiode will register a high else its a low and a miss.
(How synonymous 'low' and 'miss' seem ,though their usage here puts them in completely different domains) .
Of course, all of the above happens in a matter of milliseconds and you hardly see a thing.

Simple but Awesome!

If you want more than the simplistic description above, check out:

[How Did the Duck Hunt Gun Work?] via [MentalFloss]
[The Patent for the Zapper]

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Some humour while on the subject

Losing my virginity - A really good book

2011-01-25T00:55:00.001+05:30

Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way by Richard Branson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

My first autobiography perhaps,
The book provides a really enjoyable account of Richard Branson's journey from a wonderfully talented albeit rebellious kid to being the driving force behind a multi-billion dollar conglomerate.
Synonymous with his reputation, the book is filled with stories of his daredevil exploits not only in the upper reaches of the atmosphere as a hot-air ballooning enthusiast but also on the business front where Branson defies conventional wisdom to emerge on top.
Though one may expect this book to be a fun-filled tale of Branson's wonderful(as we see it) life ,the book maintains a rather down to earth tone even when discussing huge business deals or celebrity encounters,you are never offered an outsiders view but instead every emotion and thought experienced by Branson along his journey.
His totally unique take on life which overflows into his business about only doing things that are fun(or injecting fun into otherwise staid affairs) resonates throughout the book. The book also showcases his bold risk-taking nature which he attributes to his parents.
Throughout the entire book you live every moment of the Richard Branson's first 20 years of creating the Virgin business,savouring every win and surviving every crisis.Branson draws the reader in with his magnetic persona which emanates from his book too!

View all my reviews

Confessions

2011-01-24T17:20:00.000+05:30

A play whose mainstay is the gruesome killing of 3 children isn't really the place where you'd expect doses of humour dotting the grim landscape filled with mentally retarded killers ,crazy parents who crucify their kids and their like.
But this is precisely what made 'Confessions' - A play by a group from the Prithvi Theatre stand out as a brilliant and tactfully executed performance.
The story is about a writer who for no rhyme or reason finds himself sitting face to face with a bunch of hard nosed detectives ready to wrangle out a confession.The writer it turns has been writing consistently on the theme of children who have been either tortured by their parents,had their toes cut off by hooded strangers or experienced other unforgiving circumstances.
As it plays out ,someone has been going around killing children in the deranged fashion lifted straight from his book.
The play goes on to explore how the writer came into chalking up such gruesome tales,why his brother is a dimwit and ultimately who is behind the killings.
The play is filled with short stories which put a unique spin to things that are otherwise looked at with a fearful mind;a notable one being 'the Pillowman' that convinces the audience into condoning the act of suicide by a child as a compassionate and agony preventing choice. Its blend of the the horrifying served up with the funny that keeps the audience from going into a complete depression.Brilliantly executed today by the team from Prithvi Theatre who managed to stir up tensions and then diffuse then amidst bursts of laughter(The audience was a bit too generous in this area i suppose) ,'Confessions' was something to be watched again

Researchers turn USB cable into attack tool

2011-01-21T00:27:00.000+05:30

This article talks about a new security exploit computers which uses an (Oh-theyre-everyhhwere) USB device to gain access to a computer.A university professor and his student from George Mason university modified a Android to 'take control' of a computer.What they basically did was alter the device drivers/device ID of the phone so that it was recognised by the computer as an HID(Human Interface Device) or in simple terms .. a keyboard.Since the device was now recognised as a normal keyboard ,they could now use it as a normal keyboard!The basic premise of the attack is that the USB protocol doesn't require any authentication of connecting devices.I don't know how this is termed as 'exploit' because this very technique (of making one device get recognised as another) is widely used by Electronics hobbyists to control electronic devices using their PC's.Also, as noted by commenter's on the post(the post has some really funny comments BTW ) ;if you're close enough to plug in your phone (which is then recognised as keyboard ) ,you might as well use the attached keyboard!

The Ultimate Anti-Virus

However, a possible scenario where this could be security threat would be if the attackers made a small chip that gets recognised as a keyboard and communicated with that chip wirelessly.(Still requires you to ignore an unknown small thing stuck in your USB port!)

Who feels like a plastic bag ?!

2011-01-12T17:04:00.000+05:30

In the first line of her new song 'Firework' from the eponymous album , Katy Perry asks us

"Do you ever feel like a plastic bag

Drifting throught the wind

Wanting to start again"

You may feel like a doormat used by all and uncared or maybe just like piece of shit but I doubt anyone feels like a plastic bag ,that too one which is floating through the wind.Hey,lost birds drift aimlessly through the air not plastic bags.Has anyone ever seen a swarm of plastic bags going south for winter (Oh!Maybe it happens in California where Katy comes from!).

The rest of the song is OK btw.

Religion : Say bye to that

2011-01-07T23:17:00.002+05:30

I recently happened to watch ‘Religulous’ ,it is a documentary by American comedian Bill Maher questioning the very need for religion in today’s times and citing it as one of the gravest dangers facing mankind today. It sparked me on a little quest to review religion;its importance and place in my life as well as in today’s world order.

So what is this religion that we’re talking about .It’s something like your hair colour, you’re born with it but you can change it if you like. It’s something like race, different races keep vying for superiority and people keep getting discriminated against on the basis of it. It’s something like music, it brings people together and gives them a reason to bond. But these are all things religion is like, but what is religion itself. Religion is a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature and purpose of life and the universe. This set of beliefs usually attributes the creation of the universe to an all-powerful and supernatural being (Lets call him GOD!) and its functioning to his divine will. Accompanying most religions is a set of religious texts and practises that allow us to participate in religion today.

Before challenging the premise of religion we must look into the evolution of religion. How did religion come into being? Most historians note that modern religions appeared around 5000 years ago and primitive religions appeared much before. The rise of religion was the answer to the confoundedness and bewilderment that human beings of that era felt when they observed nature and its many phenomena .One can truly understand that humans in that day and age would resort to religion and its explanation of everything by means of a supernatural being when faced with the (then) mysterious and inexplicable events like sunrise, floods, rain, etc. Some early religions (and many modern ones too) do not bother creating a God who then creates the universe ,they simply make Gods out of nature itself .So that’s what religion was, an explanation of the unexplained ,an answer for questions that men couldn’t answer themselves.

Now fast forward 5000 years ,man has ushered in the era of science , an approach to existence which began with the Renaissance , where everything is questioned ,all beliefs are put on trial in the court of reason ,through science man has found consistent explanations for almost every aspect of his world. Using science and its sister technology ,man now lives in a universe where he can fly, produce rain and do other wondrous things that were either unimaginable or reserved for the gods. Man’s universe now isn’t the whim of an angry god but the slave to nature‘s laws which are now within man’s understanding .Not exactly the place where religion must thrive right? Well then aren’t we surprised. Religion today still commands as much a place in an individuals mind as it held millennia ago.

Religion holds sway even today because of the very same reason that it did thousands of years ago; it provides answers where there are none, it shines a light in the dark corners of human perception. Many argue that religions answers are as good as no answers at all but for billions these shallow answers offer something more welcoming than the uncertainties and doubts cast by science. Science accepts that life is full of uncertainties and randomness but a human mind always seeks to find order in everything and many a time, the answer takes the form of religion.

Most people marry, make friends and die in the same religion that they were born in .As a Christian , when I go to church , I may not truly believe that I am consuming is the blood (represented by wine) of my messiah but all religions have an underlying moral code, a set of guidelines which tell us how to lead a better life .Though these guidelines could have also come from logic , but being in a community which centers round and urges you to be a better human being is maybe what keeps people from abandoning their religion though they may not fully agree with all the beliefs of their faith.

We could call this approach to religion ‘Religious Moderation’; an approach to religion wherein one participates in religion just for social upkeep and some solace and hope when required while otherwise rejecting totally the beliefs that reside in the supernatural.

Image Courtesy : Fernando Gregory

A really good question posed by Bill Maher in his documentary is that whether by participating in religion in any measure (devoutly or ‘moderately’) do we encourage religious extremism which is the direct cause of the Terror threat plaguing the entire globe .It may seem funny but I reckon the answer is an undeniable yes. When anyone decides to take up religious extremism , he implicitly assumes the support of his fellowmen. Even though some of his fellowmen may totally disagree with the said extremist and express their views plainly, he will always think on the lines of ‘God will enlighten them one day ‘ or ‘’He doesn’t know what God wants me to do’.It is because he is allowed to think that he has so much support and that he has so many people to fight for that he probably takes up extremism . If the above described moderates were to give up religion altogether and make it as unfashionable as possible ,I think the world be unburdened by quite a few problems. Maybe Bagism is the answer.

Well thought of Philantrophy

2010-12-20T23:49:00.009+05:30

Azim Premji has given to India much more than his money.His $2 Billion donation has to be appreciated for more than its financial value.He deserves an additional applause not for the 'How much' but for the 'How' of his outpouring.

The $2 Billion which he donated will be given to the Azim Premji Foundation.It will be used among other things,to set up and nurture the Azim Premji University .The focus of this foundation and also of the university is primary and school education. If you search,you'll find that the only programs that are offered are those related to bolstering the reach of India's primary education.

The programs offered are Masters in Education,Masters in Teacher Education and Masters in Development. No, none of these programs produce ready to employ people for India booming IT sector neither do they aim to create tomorrows corporate hotshots. The effort addresses just one grave need ;the need for every child in India to have the opportunity to a quality education.The Right to education for all children below 14 years of age is promised by our Constitution but our politicians have guaranteed that even 60 years after Independence only the privileged or lucky kids get an education worth talking about.

Our education system sucks from top to bottom.Even the best colleges in India struggle hard to compete globally.But to get to college you have to get past school and that for the average Indian is the trickier part.We have excellent schools in our cities but step into the countryside and suddenly you find rampant absenteeism amongst teachers,forged marks,poor education standards,etc.Some studies have shown that kids in rural schools in the 10th grade scored as much as the urban kids did in the 4th grade.This is more than clear sign of how the quality how education suffers as we enter rural India.

Well,primary education isn't the only area where our education system falls behind but it is the the one that hurts the most.Many reports indicate that many graduates from India's numerous engineering colleges lack sufficient skills to be directly employed.But the good part is that the corporates themselves make up for this lack of quality.Well, MNC's want cheap employees and if they cant find them,they will create them.A good example would be the Infosys Global Education Center in Mysore.A huge machine which will produce cut and dried employees ready for hire.

But Azim Premji has decided to look the other way.He has left any vested corporate interests behind.By singularly focusing on primary education he has decided to take on the harsh challenge of improving the quality of India's primary education system,the level of education at which any shortcoming severely restricts a persons choices in life.

Kudos to Azim Premji because he put both his money and his mind where his heart is .

Of Man and his friend

2010-12-04T03:38:00.006+05:30

A long time ago ,I remember my aunt describing to me a scene she had witnessed on her way back home from her workplace.

She was travelling on a bus back home,when the bus had stopped in traffic.The bus happened to be standing right next to the walkway alongside.This afforded my aunt,who was sitting near the window , a good view of the scene outside.She noticed a rather plump lady walking her dog on the street outside.The street was an unpaved and muddy path. Now, those of you who have been a bit observant may have realized that ‘walking’ the dog is just the correct way of saying that you’re taking your dog out to answer nature’s call. As my aunt looked outside, she saw the dog restlessly sniffing the ground and straining his leash. The dog was agitatedly sniffing around looking for something. As he was doing this, his owner kept pulling him in the opposite direction.While pulling the dog ,the lady kept saying to the dog,“Come here Come here, its not dirty here”. As my aunt came to realize after sometime, the street outside was a regular ‘walking’ spot for the dog. Also, every time the dog came here, he always sniffed around till he found a spot on which he had not ‘walked over’ previously and set out to work ,walking all over it.

Darn dog! I thought,when i heard this story.Comes here everyday and uses the heightened of smell he has to find a clean spot so that he can now make it dirty!

With this thought of the dogs stupidity, this story left my conscious mind and was buried deep in there for a couple of years till a funny coincidence brought it up.

I happened to be staying in a dormitory where we had a bathing area at the intersection of two corridors. This bathing area consisted of a four bathrooms built in a manner such that two of them faced the other two.Out of these four bathrooms; because of reasons like a better water flow or more sunlight, I happened to be regularly bathing in just two of those bathrooms.One of these two regular bathrooms is closer to the entrance than the other.One evening I was in a hurry as I went for a bath, so I automatically looked in the bathroom closer to the entrance to see if i felt like having a bath there. On looking in ,I found that someone had just taken a bath there, the floor was wet, water droplets were splashed all along the wall and the bathroom felt a bit warmer too. Immediately, I turned and took a look into my other regular bathroom. To my delight, I found it completely dry, no smell, no water splashed anywhere, nothing. Perfect, I thought.

That’s when it hit me, I had just behaved exactly as the dog i had darned. The poor dog whom i had declared stupid, had he been standing here would have cried ‘Hypocrite! Hypocrite!’. Though my situation wasn't completely the same as that of the dog’s(It wasn't me who had dirtied the first bathroom!).It was too similar for me to pass it by. I too had searched for a clean spot so that I could make it dirty!

Developing a Rational Instinct

2010-11-27T01:53:00.004+05:30

As we journey through life , we are but rarely in a state of happiness.But apart from the few of us who may really be unfortunate enough to repeatedly face difficulties in life,most of us are in a situation that is mostly neither good nor bad .. life just is what it is.Well,if we look at the overall picture,it may actually be pretty good, the fact that you’ve lived up to this age may be regarded as an achievement in itself .But the problem with the human mind is that we tend focus our attention(or should i say our Tension) on the Now.The latest problem at hand is often the only thing on our mind.We tend forget all that we are ,all that we’ve ever learned when ,all of our experiences that make us wiser and work in a sort of survivalist mode,constantly pondering how to get past the problem at hand.What we then end up doing is acting totally based on instinct.This method of unthinkingly racing towards any means to get rid of a problem works most of the time(in fact, almost all of the time);this is because the problem that we faced wasn’t that big a deal to begin with.You may think that you may have been extremely lucky or fortunate to get rid of your previous problem but the fact is that if you managed to get rid of the problem,there is no greater proof of the fact that you always had the ability to solve the problem.

What i want to bring to your attention is that instead of relying on instinct , if we constantly step back,constantly rationalize and move towards our problems with a definite plan ,with a definite objective (however much of a compromise this objective may be,given the immensity of the situation at hand ) , we will always come out satisfied with the outcome whatever it ends up being.Being in control ,executing a set of actions that you’ve thought about before rather that doing whatever comes to your mind first will naturally produce a much better result in any situation.

The worst part is that we may implement the above strategy once, but once this article is out of your mind we will again fall prey to our instinctual reactions because that is what evolution has made us do. Hence,we need to change our instinct itself and develop it into a more controlled rational artifice.

This change wont happen automatically ,it must begin with some changes in our environment that remind us of our commitment towards this goal of reacting rationally.It could be anything that catches your attention constantly like your desktop wallpaper, a note on the wall,etc.

Another thing we must remember is to not ignore what that wallpaper or note stands for. Every time we see that note we must ask ourselves what it really stands for and how am i going to implement that today.This constant reminder of rationality ,we must hope will slowly grow into an instinct of rationality.

Batch Script to Bust Viruses and Recover folders

2010-11-19T22:34:00.005+05:30

Found a lot of people becoming victims of a stupid (but kind!) virus which makes all your folders hidden and replaces them with shorcuts of the same name.

There's a simple way to recover your data using DOS commands and i ended up doing it too many times for too many people .

So i decided to write a small batch script to save myself the trouble

del *.lnk
FOR /F %%G IN ('DIR /A:h /b') DO attrib %%G -s -h

Just paste the above two lines in a text file and save the file as Anti_Vir.bat
Then copy this file to the drive affected by the virus (in the root directory) and double click to run it.
Presto! Your folders should be back and the shortcuts gone.

P.S. This is only a temporary solution . You should find a way to remove the virus in the first place.