knol

Google's latest announcement about it's knowledge pages, Knol, is yet another example of an effort towards being a huge catalogue.

Google

Google is going to be the biggest catalogue in the world. That's all.

Every company starts with a focus and remains in the spotlight of this focus for its whole life.

Microsoft started with the focus of making basic popular software like OS and Office tools, Apple with making cool consumer electronics, Ford with making cars, Coca Cola with making common beverages and consumables.

Google started with the focus of making all the information in the world available freely. It's working well for itself. But that is all.

The point I am making is that the area of popular and complex AI is still open to a company. Any takers ?

My bet is : This will be the biggest thing in business and technology after the light bulb.

Sweet Child of Mine

Damn sexy song

Abhi zinda hoon to jee lene do ...

Aamir Khan's blog

Found Aamir Khan's blog today. Good to read.

http://www.aamirkhan.com/blog.htm

November Rain

It's the last day of November.
Lot of work ahead as final exams approach and research work demands it's proper conclusion.

And there it is :

November Rain

brings strange emotions to the heart and I play November Rain - GNR

Shaaheen

I am standing at the edge,
Waves beat against the cliff,
I spread my wings and jump off,
Without a doubt, without an if!

For years have I sat and watched,
Plagued with self doubt,
While others flew around me,
Inside me there raged a bout.

I didn't fly far and wide,
Yet, a lot have I watched and learnt,
Weathered sun, torrents and hurricanes,
Seen others both high and burnt.

I am falling towards the waves,
They leap to swallow me up,
Drown me, storm me, or ravage me,
I will keep trying flying up.

I flap my wings with passion,
There is no more shame or sin,
The air breathes into my lungs,
And feeds the fire within.

"If you don't, gimme a call,
I'll fly with you"

Incident of the French Camp

This is one of the poems I love :-


YOU know, we French storm’d Ratisbon:
A mile or so away
On a little mound, Napoleon
Stood on our storming-day;
With neck out-thrust, you fancy how,
Legs wide, arms lock’d behind,
As if to balance the prone brow
Oppressive with its mind.

Just as perhaps he mus’d “My plans
That soar, to earth may fall,
Let once my army leader Lannes
Waver at yonder wall,”—
Out ’twixt the battery smokes there flew
A rider, bound on bound
Full-galloping; nor bridle drew
Until he reach’d the mound.

Then off there flung in smiling joy,
And held himself erect
By just his horse’s mane, a boy:
You hardly could suspect—
(So tight he kept his lips compress’d,
Scarce any blood came through)
You look’d twice ere you saw his breast
Was all but shot in two.

“Well,” cried he, “Emporor, by God’s grace
We ’ve got you Ratisbon!
The Marshal’s in the market-place,
And you ’ll be there anon
To see your flag-bird flap his vans
Where I, to heart’s desire,
Perch’d him!” The chief’s eye flash’d; his plans
Soar’d up again like fire,

The chief’s eye flash’d; but presently
Soften’d itself, as sheathes
A film the mothe-eagle’s eye
When her bruis’d eaglet breathes.
“You ’re wounded!” “Nay,” the soldier’s pride
Touch’d to the quick, he said:
“I ’m kill’d, Sire!” And his chief beside,
Smiling the boy fell dead.

Robert Browning (1812–89)

Happyness

This is about a movie called "The pursuit of happyness". It's not a spelling mistake. It was the name of the movie. Well, you can name a thing anyway you like. The movie starred Will Smith. I like him from the first movie I watched of him - Independence Day. I specially loved the scene in the movie, where he sits in the alien craft and before taking off, he hands a cigar to his partner and says - "This, is important !". Aye, aye Sire. When the fate of the planet and of all people on it is in your hands, the cigar is important. So, damn cool !

Technically, the movie isn't great, neither the direction. Probably, the tendency of the director to stick with reality din't give him much space. But there were a few scenes which were exceptional in the essence they carried. Listing as they appear in the movie, they are :-

1) When Chris Gardner sees his wife after she has left his house with their son. He says - "You are weak." This short statement said spontaneously carries a lot of meaning. I am not judging him or her. But this was true. Yet, weakness is not a sin.

2) When Chris tries to run away from the cabbie without paying. Somehow it says to me- "A man is a man. Let him be."

3) When Chris sits behind the locked door of the toilet on the railway station and cries, with his son sleeping in his lap. It is the helplessness of a father, who is unable to provide his son with a safe bedroom. The helplessness of not being able to do, what you want to, for the person you love the most, is the greatest form of helplessness on this earth.

4) When Chris gets the job. His eyes watery, his lips tightly pursed together, unable to control his tears, looking down to avoid making eye contact with people in front, running away from the room ... That's when you are truly happy.

My favourite line from the movie - "You want something. You go get it. Period."

My Mac and me

Finally, my dream of working on an Apple Laptop has come true; specifically, A MacBook Pro ($2499) based on a 2.33 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor running Mac OS X.

It's a beautiful experience. The system works so seamlessly that it sometimes makes me forget the difference between my machine and me. A quality without name, which seduces me into looking at every other OS with a bit of derision.

The layout of the keyboard is so damn sexy that it makes me feel as if the keys pull my fingers towards them with invisible strings whenever they need to be hit. Or is it that the keyboard is re-shaping itself to my wishes. I don't know. But I love it.

Honestly, the opportunity to work on Apple laptops was one of the primary reasons behind my decision to join the startup I am working for. Quite juvenile, some might say. Whatever. The sheer ecstasy of working on my MacBook Pro shadows everything else. :)

GOD is Steve Jobs.

To the spirit of the genius

Look at the sky
And the trees outside.
They are lighted
With the sun's low tide.

I feel the freshness,
I see the hue.
Trees are green,
But the sky is blue.

There is no argument,
There is no fight.
They are both enjoying
The morning sun's light.

I stared and thought,
While the people moved around.
A thing old but new,
That I have found.

Every one here
Has his own right,
Sky or the tree
Standing in the light.

And as I watched
I learned something new,
That many are gifted
But blessed are few !

"Yes, God damn it, the Parthenon!"

My letter to Fear

Dear Mr. Fear,

How are ya, Mr. Devil? Sssssshhhhhhhh ......... don't worry, that's a secret between us. WORRY !!!! I am gonna fall from m' chair. Ha ha ha !! How insane of me to attribute a feeling like that for ya !!! But you must surely be afraid of somethin' ? Wellllllll, I donno. May be I'm just feeling a little envy towards ya.

But you are not even afraid of GOD !!! ....................... Since the birth of religion, you made yourself the tool that He used to spread his fame around. Din't all those self-proclaimed Sons and Messengers of God say that He'll put poor, innocent souls in Hell if they didn't kneel and ask for His mercy. Even God needs ya !

Sometimes I wonder at your craft, Mr. Devil. How you've controlled every nice, gentle soul on this earth !! This whole wonderful society, the human civilization is held in order by you. Wow !! You are some helluva Devil. All those spotlight-hogging men think they are so successful. Huh !! They donno you thrive on their souls. You won't let them cross the line how much ever they might want it, would ya? A "normal" man won't feed your ego that much !! All that devotion for God ...... ain't that nothing but the recognition of your existence? Whoa, I am impressed. What is Hitler down there ? Your butler ??

But Mr. Devil, you are a little worried. Ain't ya. Not all "men" know you. There walk some on this ball of dust who are blind, they don't see you; who are deaf, they don't hear you. Your sharpest weapons - fame, power, money - seem to be toys in their hands, so much that they fail to appreciate your existence. They rock ..... they rule; not the world of men, but the world of joy. They are the movers of this world, for there exists only one brake on this world .......... you, Mr. Fear.

I am writing this letter to you because I wanna inform you about m' decision to end this long standing partnership of ours. You will have one more man to "worry" about from now.

Wishing you all the best in your endeavours,
A Man

Altius ...

"Could you plz give me a window seat ?" - everytime I stand before the foolish beauty, this is what I request for - "A window seat". Having flown both national and international airlines for over twenty times, my affair with the skies doesn't seem to come to an end. Boy! What a smile that is which appears on my face everytime I look out of the window at those large chunks of cotton floating at the heights of Mt. Everest in the azure, at the horizon that's no longer visible and at the golden shine off the consolidated vapour.

"Up above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky !!"

What name do I give to this diamond? Technology? Engineering? or The Human Spirit? An incurable optimist, forgetting all about the petty men I meet every other hour on the soil, my lungs breath and my eyes reflect the fire burning in the Sun. Man broke a frontier, since ever belonging to Gods.

Aviation, space travel in specific, to me is the summary of all human achievement till date. A craft, that bears ten scores of people with all instruments of luxury in it, floats in air with nothing but its wings using some pressure difference in thin gushing wind !!

Life, at that moment, expands to the invisible horizons. And an uncrushable spirit rises again somewhere within, nudging at me and asking - "Can you fly higher than this?"

I know the answer, and it reads - "YES."

"To rust unburnished, not to shine in use!
As tho' to breathe were life."

I believe

I believe that my life is mine,
that I will live it my way.

I believe that living on my terms can be an uphill task,
that walking uphill needs strength,
that strength is the child of confidence,
that firm confidence grows out of soft seeds of effort,
that effort will lead to liberation.

I believe that He gave me all that I need,
that to ask for more is an insult to the Creator,
and shame on me.


"I live, because I love"

To B(log) or not to B(log) ?

Oh, well! What a question of all!
After having created an acount and written the first post, this is what had kept me away from blogging, right away. Lots of choices to make. Whether this blog should a "scribbling pad" or a collection of essays. Well .... currently this blog is there, at the bottom of my priority list. So, after much thought and after-thought, I have decided not to put in a lot many minutes into each post. Might think of changing the status and depth in my priority list if I come to love this written thinking.

"I think, therefore I am !!!"

Only at the "Gates"

This is the beginning of an expectedly long journey and I am Only at the "Gates" of my forecourt. The world outside looks interesting and mysterious. I am eager to step out. I only need to pack up.
I know, the path before me won't move. I know, the roads unseen and untravelled are out there, waiting for me to step upon them. I am looking forward to a pretty exciting voyage. I just need to build my ship strong enough to go down unbroken, if ever.

"This is the power of One ... to do something ... Anything."