pehli pehli baar

George Carlin on saving the planet.

2010-05-29T12:28:00.004-07:00

The great master of Comedy, George Carlin, puts this serious note in such a humorous way. This is exactly what I meant in my earlier post about human beings thinking themselves of master and being in control of everything. The idea of "saving" the planet. Watch and enjoy.

The one who cannot be named ...

2009-04-20T00:04:00.005-07:00

I just finished watching a documentary. The kind of documentary that scared me so much that I am not sure if I talk about it I might get in a lot of trouble, but most of all a documentary after watching which you start to loose all hope and faith in the human kind. The need and greed of a few, overpowering the entire worlds population. How a corporation can knowingly experiment with the worlds population only so they can harvest a nice profit. Are we running after technology so much that we have started to blurr the distinction between life and death, between natural and synthetic, alive and mechanical. Are humans completely under the illusion that they are the master here. The link contains a video (which I am sure will be taken down soon) which is about 2 hours long and somewhat boring. But if you have any concern about anything alive (including yourself) do take those 2 hours to watch this.

http://current.com/items/89964242_the-world-according-to-monsanto.htm

A few years back I was shocked to learn about the oil industry and our unsustainable ways. It made me very depressed to know how we were being so irresponsible and I was certain that we humans would be responsible for the end of this beautiful planet. That feeling of depression lasted for a few months as I continued reading on the topic. Then one day I had a realization and I calmed down. I was no longer depressed, just sad, very very sad. The realization was that I am insignificant. The human race is insignificant, and I was sad that the human race in its infinite pride will never realize that. We are a blip in the time line of this planet and if we continue our ways we will be wiped clean and replaced just like an artist would wipe clean a tiny mistake in his masterpiece. The very thought that the human race can in any way "save" the planet is preposterous. At the very best we can try and save our selves.

Today I feel a similar feeling. I feel hurt and depressed. This is worse than the unsustainable and polluting ways we are trying to mend. This has much deeper impact and practically irreversible. The only ray of hope I see here is that this might actually speed up the wiping out process if we don't pay attention anytime soon.

Fear!

2009-03-22T14:30:00.000-07:00

Whenever I hear the words "security concerns", which by the way its all too common nowadays, something stings inside. Its like the people who plan on terrorizing the masses and the governments, are getting what they want. Isin't the point of terrorism to induce terror in the minds of common public. Then when you see events been canceled, dates being changes, long queues at the security check and basically changing the future of an individual or a nation, all because you are concerned about the security, basically means you are afraid, you are in terror. So haven't the terrorist achieved what they set out to achieve. I am not saying that there is something wrong with being cautious and careful and everyone has the full right to their safety, but living in constant fear?? what kind of life is that. The worst part I think is people getting used to it, taking it as a normal part of life. It is not.
There are enough problems or rather crisis facing the entire human population today. When will people get over their petty differences over, land, religion, beliefs or whatever they hold dear and stop trying to change everyone else and just work together. Probably that time would never come, probably there was never such a time either. Today the world runs on the fuel of fear, creation of fear, distribution of fear, anticipation and illusion of fear. The entire advertising market runs on selling fear, the magazines are designed to make you feel bad about your body, fear you might get sick, make you look less adequate. The governments get elected by inducing fear. I think fear is one of the most potent mind control tool out there. Some are afraid of change, some are afraid of dying and some of the consequences after that. People are so afraid of dying that they forget how to live!
We no longer want to help others in need, because we are afraid that it might backfire, we don't talk to strangers because we are afraid they might harm us. Yes there are dangers out there, but shutting ourselves in a cocoon and hoping everything will become all right, is not a solution.

A little bit of fear is a good thing, that is why it is part of our psychology. It helps us avoid doing really stupid things, but when we let fear control our lives, are we really alive?

Mozy Awesome Process

2008-07-15T18:03:00.003-07:00

I received this email from Mozy (online backup solutions), and since they choose to send this email and stressed that I should spread the word, so I think there is no problem in sharing. I found it quite hilarious.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometimes people come up to me and say, "Paul, how is it that Mozy has created such an unrelenting output of Awesome?"

Today I have been authorized to share with you some of the unique facets of the Mozy Awesome Process that until now have been tightly controlled trade secrets of Mozy, Inc. It all starts with giant robots (virtually perpetual sources of raw Awesome). We attach them to special Awesome Siphons of our own design and pipe the yield directly into our engineers' development workstations. Further, peripheral Awesome needs are farmed from old He-Man reruns, a roomful of ninjas wailing on electric guitars, and our captive Happy Fun Ball.

The crude Awesome is skillfully transformed by Mozy engineers into powerful software and hardware configurations, then carefully inspected and regulated according to a host of eldritch acronyms: SWAGs, PMQs, PRDs, and the ever-inspiring CFRRCs. Once a successful creation is stamped with the Seal of Acronymic Approval for Mozy (SAAM), it is subjected to final endorsement by the mystical, revered Mozy Leprecorn*. Finally, a highly trained team of Box Monks put the new Awesomery into place in the Mozy systems, where it becomes available to you, the user.

Our rigorous Awesome Enforcement Policies and Magical Oversight have brought us to what we believe is the most Awesome-efficient development process in the world of backup software.

Be safe,
Paul Cannon
Mozy Software Engineer

*Leprecorn (noun): a rare but phenomenal creature; half Unicorn, half Leprechaun, and all magical.

You are a Marrow Match!

2008-07-15T13:53:00.006-07:00

Yes! My tissue type has been found to be a match.

A couple of years back I volunteered to be part of a Marrow donor program and submitted my DNA samples. I know what you must be thinking DNA sample?? but it was just a cotton swab rub on the inside of my cheek, a saliva sample infact, nothing fancy. So a few days back I was contacted by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), stating my tissue type has matched a patient.
What does this mean? This means after a few more tests if I am found to be a match, then my blood will be able to help someone recover or atleast stay healthy from a disease like Leukemia. I had to answer a long list (~50) of questions which ranged from past medical history to tattoos and piercing. Finally an appointment was made for blood sample collection for further tests. Today a blood sample (a really big sample ~ 100 ml) was collected from both my arms which will undergo some more tests for the second phase of matching. There are still many ifs lurking around. They will check for any infectious disease and the HLA (Human Leukocyte antigens) match. A document was given explaining the procedure and relevant information. Now I have to wait for a few weeks before the test results are in. At this stage there is a 8% chance that I will end up being the donor.
I am both excited and scared to some extent. The donation will be made using one of the two process.

The Bone Marrow is collected using a hollow needle, from the pelvis bone while the donor is under anesthesia. The recovery time is about 3 days before normal physical activity resumes. The marrow is replenished in 4-6 weeks.
The second procedure called PBSC (peripheral blood stem cells) requires injecting the drug filgrastim 5 times (once daily) before the day of collection. This increases the stem cell production. The blood is then removed from one arm, passed though a filter to collect stem cells and then returned in the other arm. There is no anesthesia and the donor is all set soon after the procedure.

This would be my first major medical procedure and its making me a little anxious, but the fact that I would be able to contribute to someone's well being in such a direct manner is a great feeling. But as I said there are still many iffs lurking around. I sincerely hope the patient finds the right match, whether it be me or someone else and recovers soon. Due to their privacy laws neither the patient or the donor is given much information about the other. I might know the age, sex and the disease of the patient and that's about it.
Lets wait and see.
Thanks for reading and I encourage you all to be part of such volunteer organization. Donating money is one thing, but donating a part of yourself to save someone is a feeling which just cannot be expressed in words. Its no longer a passive after thought, but an act of being human and feel human. All it needs is some commitment.
Join here

All the information is available on their website too:
http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/When_You_re_Contacted_as_a_Pos/index.html
http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/When_You_re_Contacted_as_a_Pos/How_Donors_Are_Selected/index.html
http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/When_You_re_Contacted_as_a_Pos/Medical_Guidelines/index.html
http://www.marrow.org/DONOR/When_You_re_Asked_to_Donate_fo/index.html

100 Pushup Project - Update

2008-07-15T13:41:00.005-07:00

Description	Date	Pushups	Total	Rest (sec)	Total Time
W2D1	Monday, July 14, 2008	12,12,9,7,19(max)	54	60x4	6 min 30 sec
W1D3	Friday, July 11, 2008	15,13,10,10,18(max)	66	120x4	11 min
W1D2	Wednesday, July 09, 2008	12,12,10,10 (finger tip),17 (max)	61	90x4	--
W1D1	Monday, July 07, 2008	10, 10, 8, 6, 22(max)	56	60x4	--
Initial Test	Wednesday, July 02, 2008	28 (max)	28	NA	--

100 Pushup Project - Week 1 Day 1

2008-07-08T01:38:00.002-07:00

Date: July 7 2008
Rest between sets: 60 sec
Pushups: 10,10,8,6,22
Total: 56

The first day seemed quite manageable.

100 Pushups project - Initial test

2008-07-02T16:53:00.024-07:00

This entry is to keep track of my progress on my personal challenge to train for 100 consecutive pushups in 6 weeks following the routine outlined here http://hundredpushups.com

My usual conditions would be morning 8-9 am, empty stomach, with some warm up.

Phase	Date	Rest Period	Level	Target	Achieved
Initial Test	7/2/2008	NA	1	Max	28

Learnings from Masters Thesis

2008-03-18T13:05:00.004-07:00

I just gave my Masters thesis presentation a week back and think its a good time to record my experience, in case I decide to pursue higher studies.

Literature review: Its like a chicken and egg problem. Unless you do literature review you don't know what is out there and what needs improvement. But unless you choose a topic how do you do the literature review. So my advice is to pick an area and read the basic few papers. See what interests you and then use google scholar to find related papers. Look for which other papers referenced the papers you have already read. Always keep copy of the papers you read and maintain a summary. Keep adding them to your reference library. Be prepared to be surprised. While writing my final paper I came across an article published 3 years ago with the exact same work as mine. That added another month to my work (and delayed my graduation by a semester) as now I had to extend my work beyond what I had already done.
Research Topic: Don't worry to much about the research topic. Being flexible is the key. Do decide on a title but its not written in stone until its published. So don't worry, let the research take its course.
Documentation: This is very important specially if there is various different codes and datasets. Keep track of naming conventions. Give meaningful names.
Backups: Take regular backups. If possible sign up for a online backup service (like mozy) and point them to your important files and folders. Take a full backup after anything significant happens, like sending your file for review. You might have the actual file in the email, but if the file is not self contained (like LaTeX files) having a copy of the supporting file is a good idea. Memory is cheap now a days.
Presentation: Keep a separate power point file or word document where to record any significant ideas, graphs, links, commands, references, change of course etc. For important plots save the editable graphs, as some annotation or label change etc. might be needed if its decided to include it in the final report.

समय कि धारा

2007-08-29T12:14:00.000-07:00

अपने देश से दूर मुझे अब २ साल हो गए और अपने घर से दूर ७ साल।
मैं इन्टरनेट का आभारी हूँ कि इतनी दूर से भी मैं अपनों कि खबर रख सकता हूँ। लेकिन ये तो बस अभी कि बात है। पिछले कुछ सालों में बहुत कुछ पीछे छूट गया है।
कुछ दिन पहले मेरी भांजी ने मुझे ओर्कुत पे add किया। सालों बाद फिर से बातें हुई। कितनी बड़ी हो गयी है वो। कालेज में है। आज मुझे ये पता चला कि मैं ७-८ महिने पहले नाना बन गया था। मुझे अहसास हुआ कि कितना कुछ पीछे छोड़ आया हूँ मैं।
समय कि धारा तो अपनी गति से बहती रहती है। अचानक बचपन कि वो सारी यादें वापस आ गयी। मैं इतना बड़ा भी नही हूँ। वो तो हमारा परिवार इतना बड़ा है कि मेरे भांजे, भांजी भी मेरे उमर के हैं। वो साथ में छुप्प-छुप्पी और लंगडी खेलना। कॉमिक बुक्स पढना और कागज़ के नाव बनाना। आज मन थोडा उदास भी है और बहुत उत्साहित भी। सबसे मिलने का कितनी इच्छा हो रही है। लेकिन जानता हूँ जब वापस जाऊंगा तब भी इतना समय नही मिलेगा कि सबसे मिल पाऊं। अब तो बस यादें ही हैं।
आजकल यादों को क़ैद करने के कितने तरीके हैं। लेकिन यादें कहॉ है। सब कितनी दूर होते जा रहे हैं।

Embarrasing moment

2007-04-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

Well its not that bad as it sounds. There was a drug test schedule for my internship offer. It was quite close to my place so when I saw I have about an hr left before the center closes, I just took my bike and rode off. Upon reaching there and doing the paperwork (5:00 pm) I realized they need a urine sample oh-oh!. I was not feeling like going and was actually quite thirsty and dehydrated.
The attendant guessed that and old me I could have some water and wait if I wanted to (5:10 pm) ( I guess they get such cases often). So I took a cup of water and started sipping (it was chilled so couldn't' drink any faster) So after waiting for sometime I decided to give it a try (5:20 pm) to my utter disappointment I couldn't even make half of what was required. So decided to give it another try. I took another cup and helped myself with two full cups of tap water (non-chilled) then after a small stroll another cup. By now my stomach was so full but I was still feeling dehydrated. Then half a cup ... now it was not possible to even sip water and it was getting late. The center closes at 6:00 so I was wondering if I should come back later. But then that would be Monday! in the meanwhile I had made some nice nail art on the Styrofoam cup I was holding. I wish I had taken a few pictures of it. Finally at 5:50 I mustered enough courage to go ahead with it. After drinking another half a cup I decided to wait a little more. Now I was growing impatient. Somehow my kidney was not in a hurry at all. I tried everything; tightening my belt, squatting, strolling, twisting. Finally at 6:05, after drinking 5 1/2 cups of water, I went in and came out with just enough to meet the requirements. But I was wondering where did it all go. Well I was soon going to found out.
Back in the lab and at around 7:00 pm I could feel the pressure mounting. I decided to wait and by 7:10 it was so bad I had to limp to the restroom. Now after an hour later (8:20 pm now) I need to limp again. Can't hold anymore. will blog later .... oooo!

कोशिश करके देखे

2007-04-13T01:19:00.000-07:00

अरे वाह ! ये तो सच में काम कर रहा है। मज़ा आ गया।
कितने दिनों बाद हिंदी में लिखने का अनंद आ रह है। यहाँ तक कि फुल्ल स्टोप भी "।" कि मात्रा में बदल जा रही है। वह वाह वाह कितना मजेदार है। हाँ ये बात ज़रुर है कि अंग्रेजी के शब्दों का इस्तेमाल करने कि temptation को हटा पाना मुश्किल है। उसकी मुख्य वजह है हिंदी के शब्दों का अभ्यास ना रहना।
गूगल ने एक और कारनामा कर दिखाया। वैसे अंग्रेजी वार्ता प्रदेश में रहने से अब तो हिंदी में सोचना भी कठिन होता जा रह है। ऐसा लग रह है जैसे बहुत मेहनत करनी पद रही है। चलो आज के लिए इतना ही काफी है। जल्दी ही मैं एक नयी सोच नयी धरना के साथ फिर आऊंगा। तब तक के लिए मेरे हिंदी भाषी मित्रों को धन्यवाद।
आपका रोहित

Assumptions

2007-04-13T01:09:00.000-07:00

Before stating the problem in hand let state the assumptions.
As the name clearly states this blog is composed of IDENTICALLY and INDEPENDENTLY DISTRIBUTED RANDOM thoughts. Yes you guessed it right I am a stats person.
Like many other random people I have numerous random and completely pointless points. In fact some of them are pretty blunt circles even bumps. Till now I thought the world was not ready for that but now I don't care. Life is too short to keep wondering about the world. I am a normal guy, I like to be pampered, I like hearing good things about me and constructive criticism (yeah right!). I do not follow a pattern and since i am slow at typing I miss out thoughts. So if you plan on reading this be warned, you might end up with less hairs on your head.
So what am I going to talk about ? weren't you reading ... jeesh ... its all random thoughts.