tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-88291399983365147182024-02-01T22:53:45.866-08:00nandini ki duniyaNandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-69898046102952903442016-11-10T19:17:00.001-08:002016-11-19T07:34:38.620-08:00Facebook and Twitter and their role in democracy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Every new technology upends the social order in some way, big or small. Many centuries ago, when the printing press arrived, it probably raised the level of our collective knowledge and was also used to churn out propaganda. A couple of decades ago, when the internet was arriving as the new gateway to information, there was some skepticism, but mostly there was hope. Skeptics said that the internet would polarize us, that it would be a tool for propaganda and misinformation. While there was some evidence of this happening, it was easy to find counter examples. However, in today's social media driven world, </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I realize that</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> the skeptics were right. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Social media has poisoned our discourse. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Social media is distinctly different from search in how it intermediates information. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I'd like to explain how.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Let's say you have some time and want to read something. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You have limited time and can't go through everything. You pick up an information intermediary that gives you a shortlist of choices after </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">sifting through and selecting what they think you would like to read</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">. </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">You may pick up a magazine, you may look for something on Google, or you could go to Facebook. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The goal of an information intermediary is to give you a list of compelling choices by best predicting your choices based on following four </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">parameters: topic, author, external validation and content:</span><br />
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<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<th style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Google</th>
<th style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Facebook</th></tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Is this topic of interest to you? (title/keywords/content)</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Is this a topic that is similar to things you have liked before?</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Is the author an expert on the topic?</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Did one of your friends write it? (authorship)</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Did one of your friends react to it? (shares/likes)</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Have other experts referred to it and written about it? (links, references)</span>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Is the content linked to or by other pieces of authoritative content?</span></td>
<td><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Would you have the time and the attention span? (virality/short/crisp)</span></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The first infers relevance from a network of content inspired by a system of references and whereas the second infers relevance from a network of relationships and past impulsive behavior, i.e. system 1 decisions. S</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">earch is inspired by how academic research is valued, Facebook by popularity contests in high school.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">The world has become more polarized. People are easily incensed. Rational argumentation has all but disappeared. I feel that technology occupies centre-stage in this transformation. While the weblink structure use in search is open and can be studied independently, Facebook data and network of interactions is invisible and cannot really be studied.</span></div>
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Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-75290329168411247062016-11-10T19:12:00.001-08:002016-11-10T19:53:53.024-08:00Purists liberals pull no punches, spare no one, including their own selves<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">From what I've seen in India and in the US: Liberals are the best at messing with their own. Elizabeth Warren says in a widely circulated video that Hillary Rodham Clinton </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">took money from credit card companies. This has been one of the most damaging attacks on Hillary Clinton.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">So I went ahead and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12mJ-U76nfg">watched the video</a>. In the first four minutes, Warren presents evidence for Hillary's initiative, commitment to women and children, and action. Hillary talked to Warren and understood the issues, and, as a consequence, the White House veto-ed a bill that was bad for women and children. Later, when a Republican President was in power, and Hillary was in the Senate, Hillary voted for the bill. Warren casually and destructively ascribes this reversal to corruption, actually taking money from those corporations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">Hillary explains this reversal as something she was asked to do as a price for including provisions in the bill to protect women and children, under a Republican President, who she knew wouldn't veto the bill if it passed.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;">I believe Hillary. I believe that any one who is actually involved in doing good is faced with difficult choices and has to sometimes deal take a call on what would be the most pragmatic thing to do. Let's not kid ourselves pragmatism is a reality of life. If Bernie Sanders was President, he would have needed to be pragmatic with a Republican house and senate, whether you like it or not.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">Purists need to think about the narrative that they fed - that neither candidate was really good enough. Hillary was not just better than Trump. Hillary was a great candidate. Instead of attacking Hillary, Bernie's supporters should have focussed on down-ballot. But they didn't.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">One of the videos on Facebook that has 11 million views is called "Hillary lying for 11 minutes straight". The only thing that the video shows is changes in Hillary's positions or her articulation of them.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">Yes, people have personal and policy positions and you know what, those positions change. Let's take the example of "gay" marriage. I agree with Hillary's earlier position that I don't believe in gay "marriage", though civil unions make sense.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">In fact, I don't even agree with "straight" marriage. Marriage has strong religious connotations everywhere in the world. On the contrary, my faith in the tyranny of religion is so strong, that I abhor calling my most significant adult relationship a "marriage". Yes, are there legal consequences of this relationship? S</span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">hould </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">sign a contract giving each other special rights over our lives, our property, our person? Yes.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hillary was right on this. She said that marriage is a "sacred" vow between "a man and a woman". She is right. Anyone who says "marriage" does not involve "religion" is smoking something. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;">She eventually accepted that gay people do value the word "marriage" and value their "faith". I eventually decided that I valued my partner enough that I would swallow the bitter pill and get married and live in the marriage in the "traditional way".</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;">Let's say 15 years from today, my view is the popular view, I would like to see today's liberals scurrying to find cover. But that's not going to happen. Because, in case liberals didn't notice, most of the world has taken a sharp turn to the right. The way back will not be easy.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;">Being a woman is all about compromising find a way to navigate the world. Everyday. Working in development is also the same. You believe in yourself and trust that your intentions will guide your actions do good, and better, not worse.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><span style="letter-spacing: -0.24px;"><br /></span></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: -0.24px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #1d2129;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-80167984854938939812016-11-09T06:34:00.001-08:002016-11-10T17:28:16.342-08:00You know who becomes President<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The pussy grabber who questioned Obama's citizenship but did not release his tax returns has won the election.<br />
<br />
White men voted en-bloc. Women did not.<br />
<br />
The message is clear. Glass ceilings will not be shattered. Few cracks may be permitted. But only if you toe the line. Maybe.<br />
<br />
Oh! and let me not forget the emails. Great job on the emails everyone - Comey, Assange, Weiner.<br />
<br />
Also, George Bush did not happen THAT long ago. I'm thinking of the WMDs that never existed, Don't you?</div>
Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-5140028384231841012016-11-08T11:07:00.005-08:002016-11-09T07:25:20.064-08:00Rodham or Clinton?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The US never fails to deliver a nail-biting finish. In 2008, I was supposedly "looking" for a job, but was hopelessly distracted by a landmark election that could expose the deep-seated bigotry of people in America. In 2016, I am "looking" for a job, but have been hopelessly distracted by the a landmark election that could expose their deep-seated misogyny. What? You say, what has misogyny got to do with it? From where I stand, the underlying sub-text of every conversation that has taken place and that has not taken place is gender.<br />
Whether she was likable or not.<br />
Whether she was authentic or not.<br />
Whether she was truthful or not.<br />
Whether she was too much of a feminist.<br />
Or she was too little of a feminist.<br />
Whether she was too independent not to have left her job when she became the first lady of Arkansas. Whether he lost the governorship because she called herself Rodham.<br />
Whether she was too practical that she could pay the bills when Bill was no longer the governor.<br />
Whether he could win if she got rid of her glasses and got a makeover.<br />
Whether he could win if she became Mrs Bill Clinton.<br />
Whether as first lady she had a right to be involved with policy.<br />
Whether she was deceiving the world about her husband's excesses.<br />
Whether she was to blame that he strayed.<br />
Whether she was to blame that she stayed.<br />
(Also, whether she was lesbian or not)<br />
Whether she was so distastefully practical that she cared how she and Bill would pay for the lawsuits after they left the White House.<br />
Whether she was too ambitious that she came into politics after Bill was done.<br />
Whether she was too opportunistic to have become Mrs. Clinton in her quest for power.<br />
Whether she was sincere in her so-called commitment to women and children.<br />
<br />
The hypocrisy of people when faced with a female leader stand starkly exposed. Our inability to think outside our little boxes. Trapped within the limits of our own cognition, we flail about wildly, helplessly, failing to change as we drown. Or not.<br />
<br />
Your move, US of A. Vote for Hillary Rodham.<br />
<br />
Ps: Sam Bee put it so well.<br />
http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/11/sam-bee-hillary-clinton/506936/<br />
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<br /></div>
Update: United we stand in our hatred of women.<br />
<br />
Ruth Graham expresses the sad story of the women in "A lament for Hillary, the woman".<br />
http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/11/09/a_lament_for_hillary_clinton_the_woman_on_election_night.html<br />
<br />
The double standards are so blatant.<br />
It was not ok for her to give speeches to make money. He, on the other hand, could stiff vendors and withhold their due.</div>
Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-51941476703223973262015-02-10T18:58:00.002-08:002015-02-10T19:07:10.815-08:00AK 67<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This is more than Obama for me. This is the story of a people of a city asserting their existence and their will.<br />
<br />
I doubt that the BJP's core voter base has eroded. Jingo-istic Modi-fans and Kejriwal bashers are in particularly strong concentrations amongst my near and dear ones, amongst people I meet at classes, parties and family get-togethers, people I love and respect. I lost the energy to argue.<br />
<br />
In my despair, I didn't notice the quietly hopeful ones. Those who believed in previous elections, that the Congress was the way to keep Modi out, those who bought the 'development agenda' and wondered where it had gone, and those who saw, first-hand, the change that honest government brings to their life. You have kept the flame alive.<br />
<br />
I have learnt a lesson for life - don't sit out. Speak up. Participate.<br />
No matter what or who holds you back.</div>
Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-26979790184710975802011-09-26T21:34:00.000-07:002011-09-26T21:34:52.186-07:00Optimization is Fun, but ...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<blockquote>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="background-color: white; color: #111111; font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'MS Sans Serif', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Geneva, Lucida, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;">The first rule is to avoid premature optimization at all costs. I have literally been at companies that I've seen destroyed by premature optimizations. I can't name names, but just know that doing premature optimization can massively destroy your design and create such a complicated system that when you actually come to your performance and profiling phase, you don't know where to start. The most important thing is to build the right system. Don't take short cuts based on what you believe will affect its performance; build a system that is maintainable, that satisfies getting your functionality out the door, that satisfies getting your system built quickly, whatever your important things are, but don't do premature optimization.</span></blockquote>
Grabbed this from <a href="http://codinginparadise.org/weblog/2006/08/tutorial-how-to-profile-and-optimize.html">a coder's blog</a>. A sentiment that I find echoed in so many places. I can think of many situations where people have indulged themselves in premature optimization. I'm using the word indulged because performance optimization is a very interesting intellectual activity and programmers typically love to say that they're working on optimization. But I am very skeptical of all the imaginary use-cases and performance optimizations that people are forever carrying on before even implementing features and products.<br />
<br />
This doesn't mean that we should purposely implement our applications in a shoddy way - we must follow best practices of whatever platform we are working in, we must create a design and architecture that makes sense - but what we shouldn't do is to bend over backwards to optimize something that barely even exists.<br />
<br />
I want to round this off with an unrelated but nice quote about Test Driven Development that I found yesterday. It is from a book by Kent Beck; he says - Tests are a Programmer's Stone, transmuting fear into boredom. I hope I remember this the next time I am feeling bored writing tests.<br />
<br />
</div>
Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-62530733553947994172011-07-04T22:19:00.000-07:002011-07-04T22:19:14.953-07:00pulse<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">it is easy to grab a hold of the pulse of the american media and really take your pick in which representation you are more comfortable with consuming every day and what level of balance you desire.<br />
<br />
india is a (somewhat) different story. it is easy to pick up two very disparate sources of news (hindu vs indian express). but the spectrum of voices everywhere in between that leads to a better mix of left and right, happiness and sadness, fix-it and let-it-be, is not easy to find.<br />
<br />
here is an evolving list of things i can read to widen my perspective. suggestions are very welcome.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://thehoot.org/">thehoot.org</a><br />
<a href="http://thebetterindia.com/">thebetterindia.com</a><br />
<a href="http://indiatogether.com/">indiatogether.com</a><br />
<a href="http://caravanmagazine.in/">caravanmagazine.in</a><br />
<br />
</div>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-60370720883479609032011-03-05T02:34:00.000-08:002011-03-05T02:35:18.907-08:00All in a day's work<div style="text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;"><br /></div><div style="text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipL8aCkWq3L4ORyaQGU8bPf01u2r0WzCH2Z-7d_2Jaw8aRI2Md3IEYqy-0oP-TLFtdlCndMBtpdk-vZHXhRJEppjEqlgHq6jkPTZFZYJi35yMEl7O6YyLj2NVvjfQPzc5ixo_uPy93H5dH/s1600/DSCN0749.JPG"><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipL8aCkWq3L4ORyaQGU8bPf01u2r0WzCH2Z-7d_2Jaw8aRI2Md3IEYqy-0oP-TLFtdlCndMBtpdk-vZHXhRJEppjEqlgHq6jkPTZFZYJi35yMEl7O6YyLj2NVvjfQPzc5ixo_uPy93H5dH/s320/DSCN0749.JPG" border="0" alt="" /></a> </div><div style="text-align:center;margin:0px auto 10px;">There is definitely something therapeutic about Origami. I spent all of yesterday making Origami boxes. I made atleast 9 of them. Square ones, rectangular ones, one with a lid, couple with one divider, one with five divider. Several false-starts and calculations later, I got the perfect box for my earings - check out the one in the center.<div><br /></div><div>One of the most amazing things about Origami seems to be the math around it. The next thing I want to try is modular Origami.</div><div><br /></div></div><div style='clear:both; text-align:CENTER'><a href='http://picasa.google.com/blogger/' target='ext'><img src='http://photos1.blogger.com/pbp.gif' alt='Posted by Picasa' style='border: 0px none ; padding: 0px; background: transparent none repeat scroll 0% 50%; -moz-background-clip: initial; -moz-background-origin: initial; -moz-background-inline-policy: initial;' align='middle' border='0' /></a></div>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-76548847297823494852011-01-26T08:22:00.000-08:002011-01-26T08:22:00.630-08:00बोल कि लब आज़ाद हैं तेरे<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"></span></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span">On Republic Day, this day, Ilina Sen reminds us to speak up when constitutional freedoms are violated in our country and to hold our democracy responsible for the crimes it commits against its own citizens. She exhorts to no longer stand by the wayside and watch when people are</span> "killed, tortured, humiliated, disappeared, threatened, arbitrarily detained and arrested, falsely charged and under surveillance because of their legitimate work in upholding democratic rights and fundamental freedoms." Her letter can be found in its entirety at <a href="http://www.binayaksen.net/2011/01/ilina-sen-writes-to-all-supporters-of-dr-binayak-sen/">http://www.binayaksen.net/2011/01/ilina-sen-writes-to-all-supporters-of-dr-binayak-sen/</a>. </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">बोल कि लब आज़ाद हैं तेरे</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">बोल ज़बां अब तक तेरी है</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">तेरी सुतवां ज़िस्म है तेरा</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">बोल कि जां अब तक तेरी है</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">देख कि आहंगर कि दुकां में</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">तुन्द हैं शोले सुर्ख है आहन</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">खुलने लगे कुफ़लों के दहाने</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">फैला हर ज़ंजीर का दामन</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">बोल कि थोड़ा वक्त बहुत है</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">जिस्म ओ ज़बां की मौत से पहले</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">बोल कि सच ज़िंदा है अब तक</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">बोल जो कुछ कहना वो कह ले</span></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 25px;"></span></span></b></div></div>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-13219240372704221612010-07-29T13:01:00.000-07:002016-08-03T22:12:48.624-07:00Alchemy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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At 15 years of age, it mattered that someone was "cool". Ravi Uncle was the coolest teacher I ever knew. I had known him since I was born, he was a very close friend of my family, but from the moment I entered his classroom I knew that this interaction was going to transform me. From the very first lecture, I knew I was going to look forward to every Tuesday and every Thursday for the next two years. And since then, I have gone to engineering school and done my Masters, and I have never looked forward to someone or looked up to someone the way I looked up to him.</div>
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The first thing he taught us was Atomic Theory. He said that the atom has wave nature and particle nature, but it is not a wave, nor is it a particle. He said, "If I brought a mule and put it on this table, and you inspected it and you poked it here and there, one of you might say - this animal has such and such characteristic so it is a horse, and another might disagree and claim that the animal has this other property and therefore it is a donkey. But really, what I already knew was that this animal was neither a horse nor a donkey, but a mule." And so, he explained to us the Wave-Particle duality that all matter has, and electrons and light, which we tend to think of as particles and waves respectively, are neither particles nor waves.</div>
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Next we were talking about the Heisenberg Uncertainty principle. This is not an easy principle to understand, particularly since we had just entered XI. The way that I remember it, Ravi Uncle sat us down on this round table and said, "Now imagine that we have these cool ships that somehow allow us to travel into the atom. Our mission is to discover the position and the velocity of the electron. Once we know these two, we should always be able to know precisely not only where it is but also where it will be. And so we get into our ships and zoom into a quantum-scale world and we're looking for electrons. But how do we see something? Well, we throw a photon of light at it, and when a photon collides with an electron we should be able to see it. If we throw a photon that has a small wavelength, so we know more precisely where it is at the moment it collides with the electron. But this means it has a high frequency and therefore a large energy, and when the collision actually takes place, an undetermined amount of energy is transferred to the electron and we can no longer tell how much that energy changed the momentum of the electron. So we change our tactics, and use a photon that has low energy, so that we don't impact the momentum of the electron at the time the collision takes place. But again, low energy implies low frequency implies high wavelength. So this time we can measure the momentum, but because the wavelength is high, we have no idea precisely where our photon is. At the moment that the collision takes place we cannot know precisely where our photon was so we cannot know where the electron was either." There it was, clear as day, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.</div>
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I was moved by how at the end of the class, my mind was waking up from a dream and I found it magical that my teacher had managed to involve my imagination in the "drab" subject of chemistry. Yet, from today's vantage point I see that it is the intersection of logic and imagination that makes science, and indeed life, beautiful.</div>
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I find it fascinating to realize that over two years he was really building something inside my mind, he was raising me to the level that I would be able to grasp and appreciate what was to come. These two lessons that I have described are not an isolated lecture: they are the foundation of everything that was to come. Hybridization and covalent bonding cannot be understood without realizing that all we have is a probability distribution of where the electron may be and that it is impossible tie an electron down to some kind of an oval pathway. This way he continually raised my thinking to a level at which I would be able to grasp what he would say next, and the progression that appeared so smooth and natural was actually a pathway laid carefully by a most wonderfully skilled teacher.</div>
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A few moments ago, I was looking the precise description of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and I found something fascinating yet unsurprising at the bottom of the Wikipedia entry. It seems that the story that Ravi Uncle told us was very similar to how Heisenberg himself had originally argued for it. Ravi Uncle always told us: Read the textbook. He always taught us to learn from the masters.</div>
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I will never forget when Ravi Uncle introduced me to Olah. He not only described the mechanism that Olah had deduced, but he also told us why Olah deduced it, how Olah deduced it, and what conditions Olah had to create to be able to deduce it. I learnt that Science is one never-ending puzzle and it is unto to us to find the little answers that lead to other answers and other questions.</div>
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Ravi Uncle taught me to read textbooks. Once he had fascinated me with Olah and Organic chemistry, I felt delighted to spend my vacation reading Morrison and Boyd. What was more surprising was when I found myself enjoying reading J.D. Lee. Inorganic Chemistry can be endless torture; the memorization is even more tortuous and “illogical” than Organic. But Ravi Uncle imbued those subjects with life; inorganic compounds became characters whose "nature" would define how they would "react". And just like in a book the character that comes more often is often more important, in Chemistry the compounds that we came across more often were more important. They were the big guys that, just as he said, peppered our exams.</div>
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Studying for him was a rewarding experience; he showed us the way to succeed in learning what he was trying to teach. He didn't spoon-feed us, he showed us the way and each time I learnt something I had an "Aha!" moment. He would introduce us to a topic and give us some clues. When we read the book, we found the back-story. Finally, when we put three such different stories (or facts as you prefer) together in a test, we solved a puzzle that he set us up to solve. </div>
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Ravi Uncle taught us to know First Principles. He constantly reminded not to memorize, but to understand. He taught us to know our assumptions. He showed us that facts, formulae, simplifications, generalizations, only stand tall under a set of assumptions, and under a different set of assumptions, the foundation is weak and our solutions fail and fall like a pack of cards.</div>
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He had a deep and abiding concern for all his students. One class we didn't go upstairs to study. He sat us down in the drawing room and talked to us. He had never made any bones about the task that we had undertaken. But he had so much compassion, that he understood that all our hard work and struggle was pointless given the amount of pressure and turmoil that we going through. He reminded us that if we didn't study coolly calmly and smartly, and simply studied hard; it would be painful and worthless. He decided to spend the hour chatting with a bunch of tense teenagers, instead of trying to teach them when they were too worried to listen. He said, study hard and study smart. He would say, "If you work very hard trying to memorize the log table, how is that going to help you?" And he said, don't let pressure take away the joy from what you're learning.</div>
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Before I knew him as my Chemistry teacher, I hated chemistry but by the end of class XII, I thought I wanted to study it for the rest of my life. But then, I realized that what Ravi Uncle taught me wasn't just about Chemistry. He showed me that logic and beauty were two parts of the same coin, and that rationality and imagination did not bifurcate my world, they unified it.<br />
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I receive quite a few messages from people who have known Ravi uncle as a teacher and mentor requesting to connect with Ravi uncle's family, his kids. While I would like to reach out to each of you personally, the blogger platform does not allow me to do so.<br />
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If you would like to reach out, connect and share your memories with his friends, family and fellow students, please join the Facebook group - <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/172807585365/">Friends of Ravi Gopinath</a>.<br />
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All of us there would love to remember him with you ...<br />
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Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-21598981370785364732010-06-11T14:12:00.000-07:002010-06-11T14:12:03.864-07:00Filmy Bhelpuri<object width="480" height="295"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uf24SK7U-G4&hl=en_US&fs=1"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uf24SK7U-G4&hl=en_US&fs=1" width="480" height="295" allowscriptaccess="never" allowfullscreen="true" wmode="transparent" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"></embed></object>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-36278214861877159492009-12-04T17:08:00.000-08:002009-12-04T17:09:43.633-08:00जो जीत वोही सिकंदरwe're performing today and tomorrow.<br />it's a creative, theatre-esque show<br />we've written our own script<br />for a movie scene<br />voices will be ours<br />for the actors on the screen.<br />we will perform our script Live!<br />and we hope you like<br />but even if you holler<br />Vote for Us, with your dollar<br />the money goes to AID<br />a charity with a crusade<br />to help with activities<br />in development and sustainability.<br /><br />टीम का नाम - फिल्मी भेलपुरी<br /><a href="http://seattle.aidindia.org/sikandar">http://seattle.aidindia.org/sikandar</a>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-79859056624089925692009-06-29T07:40:00.000-07:002009-06-29T08:03:33.756-07:00Michael Jackson and the MediaWhen I was studying for my GREs the New York Times was supposed to be the newspaper to read. I still agree with that. For creative writing, the New York Times is the place to go. For example, there's this article I read this morning - <a href="http://bit.ly/12081w">http://bit.ly/12081w</a>. Very nice article about Michael Jackson and race. It analyzes the progression of Jackson's skin color from black to white and his perception among the black community.<br /><br />The ending is too good. I quote -<br /><br />When the video of Mr. Jackson’s “Black and White” came on, her daughter turned to Ms. Deabreu and asked: “Mommy, he said it doesn’t matter if you’re black or white. So why’s he trying to make his skin white?”<br /><br />Michael Jackson suffered from an auto-immune disease called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitiligo">vitiligo</a>. You can watch him talk about it <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufqMSTYQy3g">here</a>. My question to the New York Times is this - why was it irrelevant to news item/analysis to mention that this incredibly famous person actually suffered from a disease that alters his skin's pigmentation. Why is only half the story being told?<br /><br />But this is my problem with the New York Times in general. All too frequently I feel that only facts that further a thesis that the author came up with apriori to a complete examination are mentioned and others are discarded.Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-9838541381844160052009-06-04T15:31:00.000-07:002009-06-04T15:43:54.053-07:00bingthere is no reason for me to blog about bing.<br /><br />or so i thought. except that as a child i loved encyclopedias. the reason i loved them was that they told me about places and people and things through words and pictures that i wouldn't find out about otherwise. i would jump at every opportunity to pull out one of those gigantic books, toss away any vestiges of sense-of-time, and hop and skip from topic to topic, ending up spending hours on the J-K World book. how much that contributed towards improving my general knowledge is debatable, but it was definitely fun.<br /><br />after a long time, i had that same feeling while visiting <a href="http://www.bing.com/">www.bing.com</a>. everyday, they have a new gorgeous image there. an image of a real place, with all these tooltips telling you what it is, where it is, and why it's special. and you can go through all the ones that came before the one they have today.<br /><br />pretty cool! i wonder who thought of this and how!Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-13999580727585716482009-05-07T14:07:00.000-07:002009-05-07T14:08:41.610-07:00NYT: Cellphone in India<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/world/asia/08iht-letter.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=world">http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/world/asia/08iht-letter.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=world</a>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-65709512363226428812009-04-09T23:10:00.001-07:002009-04-09T23:12:09.388-07:00The Marriage Naming ProblemA CS Prof from Boston College solves it <a href="http://david-royal-martin.blogspot.com/2008/12/marriage-naming-problem.html">thus</a>.Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-66415342627095984112008-12-14T00:11:00.000-08:002008-12-14T00:15:12.581-08:00I've had enough!I've had enough of having people react - instantaneously - to it when I play some classical music. These people can tolerate Bollywood, and aaaaall kinds of music, endlessly ... and NO, I'm not a kid anymore, that I don't react to their choice in music and I DONT ask them to turn it off, but their inability to listen and their disrespect of MY choice of music ... makes me feel quite sad :(<br /><br />This rant is not really related to the person in question - it's a sort of letting-it-out for every time that this has happened.<br /><br />I guess it's a pointless rant too. But I had to let it out. :(Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-797428114394940042008-12-12T16:15:00.000-08:002008-12-12T16:21:46.754-08:00WOWVizualization, Interaction, Beauty, Data, Web, Metaphors and More<br /><!--cut and paste--><object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=8,0,0,0" width="432" height="285" id="VE_Player" align="middle"><param name="movie" value="http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/loader.swf"><PARAM NAME="FlashVars" VALUE="bgColor=FFFFFF&file=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/movies/JonathanHarris_2007-embed_high.flv&autoPlay=false&fullscreenURL=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/fullscreen.html&forcePlay=false&logo=&allowFullscreen=true"><param name="quality" value="high"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"><param name="scale" value="noscale"><param name="wmode" value="window"><embed src="http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/loader.swf" FlashVars="bgColor=FFFFFF&file=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/movies/JonathanHarris_2007-embed_high.flv&autoPlay=false&fullscreenURL=http://static.videoegg.com/ted/flash/fullscreen.html&forcePlay=false&logo=&allowFullscreen=true" quality="high" allowScriptAccess="always" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" scale="noscale" wmode="window" width="432" height="285" name="VE_Player" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer"></embed></object><br /><br />One element is surprisingly missing though - Sound.<br />Another is Smell - which maybe doable in this day and age!Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-17829148456736730992008-12-11T15:56:00.001-08:002008-12-11T15:56:50.398-08:00the girl effect<object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/WIvmE4_KMNw&hl=en"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/WIvmE4_KMNw&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br /><br />The Girl Effect at girleffect.org.Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-27906301246980348802008-12-07T15:44:00.000-08:002008-12-07T15:49:54.931-08:00nirvanasince Thanksgiving night, i've been going back to my favourite songs from class XI-class XII. it's been sooooooooo long. and i've changed so much. here's some favourites by nirvana. really like these songs. the wierd thing is that when i listen to these songs, i feel like i'm in the presence of another me - someone from long ago, who's unfamiliar now, but still, it's someone i like.<br /><br /><object width="300" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://media.imeem.com/pl/XVLWlJmLFc/aus=false/"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://media.imeem.com/pl/XVLWlJmLFc/aus=false/" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="300" height="340" wmode="transparent"></embed><a href="http://www.imeem.com/people/KpHXYk1/playlist/XPM7h2ql/nirvanaselect_music_playlist/">nirvana-select</a></object>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-14106451881099049672008-12-06T20:15:00.000-08:002008-12-06T20:28:13.138-08:00in pursuit of laughsi have a daily diet of web-comics that i follow very, very religiously.<br /><a href="http://thisisindexed.com/">indexed</a>,<br /><a href="http://xkcd.com">xkcd</a>,<br /><a href="http://www.thesuperest.com/">the superest</a>,<br /><a href="http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/">geek and poke</a>,<br /><a href="http://www.phdcomics.com/comics.php">phd comics</a>,<br /><a href="http://www.dilbert.com/fast">dilbert</a>.<br /><br />breaks are always spent in pursuit of further breaks. and so on one of those sojourns i found - <a href="http://www.isitfunnytoday.com/">isitfunnytoday.com</a>. it's kinda like <a href="http://www.reddit.com/">reddit</a> for comics. sad part is - there aren't too many people on the site. and not too many of my fav. comics. but, as they say, the more the merrier.Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-41401004998188947172008-12-04T23:56:00.000-08:002008-12-04T23:59:16.099-08:00IGNOU - The Really Open UniversityThanks You, reddit. found this article there and i absolutely have to - have to - read it, when there is more time and space.<br /><br /><a href="http://reganmian.net/blog/2008/12/05/worlds-largest-university-opens-almost-all-its-materials/">http://reganmian.net/blog/2008/12/05/worlds-largest-university-opens-almost-all-its-materials/</a>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-66009223349663948212008-11-28T12:30:00.001-08:002008-11-30T14:29:25.594-08:00mumbaiwith tears in my eyes, i read about this horror.<br /><br />shashi tharoor <a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2008-11-26/terror-in-mumbai/">writes ...</a>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-89139786343200537372008-11-24T21:23:00.001-08:002008-11-30T14:29:50.269-08:00Hilarious Programmer JokesDiscovered on reddit. Available at <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/234075/programmer-jokes-whats-your-best-one">stackOverflow.com</a>.<br /><br />Hilarious. Bordering on self-revelation.Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8829139998336514718.post-44631022968549453922008-11-20T14:49:00.000-08:002008-11-20T16:03:20.389-08:00electroacoustics: resourcessoftware<br /><a href="http://processing.org/"><a href="http://www.openendedgroup.com/index.php/software/">the FIELD system</a><br />processing</a><br /><br />places to go<br /><a href="http://www.bitforms.com/">bitforms</a><br /><br />people<br /><a href="http://www.lukedubois.com/">r. luke dubois</a><br /><a href="http://admin.tisch.nyu.edu/object/ShiffmanD.html">Daniel Schiffman</a><br /><br />books<br /><a href="http://processing.org/learning/books/index.html#ira">on processing</a>Nandinihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05278924835280826284noreply@blogger.com0