I was working on solving an algorithm for detecting odd length simple cycles in a digraph. Well made some headway, some other people did come up with a perfect solution though. Requires a lot of creativity and focus. Two friends of mine went down for plagiarism yesterday. Advice to Indian students coming to the USA for education. Do your own work man, your paying so much money to learn, atleast try and make a goddamn effort. Anyway, Indian students are now officially all cheaters. How unfortunate. Nevermind all that, I have some ideas for a Distributed AI project and I will make a proposal today.
Year: 2002
Homework
I am swamped with it for now. So cannot blog much, hopefully will come back
to my slightly creative writing soon. Until then, I must apply my creativity on
Theory of Computer Algorithms, in determining if cycles of odd-length exist
in DiGraphs.
I have started on my Data Mining project.
Old friends
What stays true in a perpetually woven fabric of life? Is it the colors that gel together that make short work of strife?I got the following off mithuns page, its not in his archive yet, so here it is:
“I was thinking of old friends today
And how many of them have slipped away.
Moved, got married, or stopped calling so much,
Found new friends, got busy, and just lost touch.
It reminded me of falling leaves.
Every autumn the leaves fall from the trees.
Some stay longer than others, but eventually –
Each leaf must fall, I’ m told,
Leaving the tree alone to face the cold.
Why is it that in the time of utmost need
The leaves would seek to leave the tree?
And when we need our friends around
We look and they can not be found?
Of course these friendships come and go
And in the spring new leaves will grow.
But I prefer autumn friends of old
With crackling laughter and colors bold.
It saddens me now I must admit
How somehow, someway, I did forget
Laughing with old friends of mine
During summers when the sun would shine.
And then I thought of you.
That one stubborn leaf that won ‘ t let go.
That clings despite the winds that blow.
Fighting ice, and snow, and winter’s stings
Hanging on right through till spring.
So I guess that’s what you are to me –
The very last leaf to leave the tree.
I know it seems silly, but it’s true.
When I see that last leaf…
…I think of you.”
The Next Generation Internet
Ladies and Gentlemen, we are lucky to be in the age where we can experience the birth of the next generation of Internet services. I shall not be so crude by drawing a parallel to a supernova since we already have witnessed the birth of the Internet, but yes, this is significant.
A couple of months back I blogged about the 802.11b networks sprouting up in coffee shops and airports, allowing people to connect to the network in an ad-hoc manner. Wireless internet will mean that we will witness the proliferation of such networks nationwide. By nationwide I mean the USA, although I would be much happier if I meant India.
How far ahead am I? Well I do have a neat notebook pc, I am still looking for deals on a wireless card though. Once my scholarship increment comes through, It won’t be so difficult to get hold of a good deal on the card. Patience always pays off.
Wednesday Morning
Things are going along really easy this week. But I still have to make a decision about which courses I am going to take this quarter. The dilemma was to pick between DCN-II and DAI. The decision just got harder to make when I attended the Intro to DAI lecture on Tuesday. Michael demonstrated the use of DAI in the making of Lord Of the Rings. The DCN-II Home Page is here!
Data Mining and Theory of Computer Algorithms cannot be dropped as I really feel they are really important and should be taken this quarter itself.
The weather in Rochester really really is downright extreme. Going to have to dress warm today.
Another Personal Triumph
Santosh Dawara has done it again, having taken time off from the other
mundane activities of the world and fished out recipes for Egg Biryani and
Masoor Dal, he successfully executed “Operation Fill Tummy”. The egg
biryani was wonderful and the masoor dal could do with a bit of improvement.
Now with a satisfied and smug smile he can head off and take an afternoon
nap. 🙂
Tomato Rice
Tomato rice is easy to make and goes well with Yoghurt. This is
how I managed to make it. Chop up an Onion, need not do
it fine. Also leep two tablespoons of Tomato Puree handy and
a cup of rice. Heat up 2 tablespoons oil in a frying pan. When
the oils just about hot enough (this is the part that I find tough to
judge) add the Onions. Stir the onions around in the oil till you
get a consistent Golden Brown. Onions are fried mostly in high
heat.
Then add the Puree after reducing the heat to the pan. Once
again stir it around, let it cook for another 2 minutes. Then add
the rice, mix it up to get good consistency and cook for another
two minutes.
Now you can either boil the rice in 2.5 cups of water till its done
or pressure cook it with much less water.
Less than 2 cups of water and 3 – 4 whistles in a small cooker
works for me, I am considering adding in salt before I pressure
cook to simply experiment. Since I made this the first time, I
prepped just a little. If I could just get it right now 🙂
Kudos !!
My work with STARE received an initial acknowledgement today 🙂 from
Prof. Ankur Teredesai ! Way to go.
I finally have a clear specifications for Project 3. The draft for the project will be revised and posted here.
My Distributed Systems Professor Prof. Alan Kaminsky is off to Seattle to attend OOPSLA and present a paper on Many2Many Invocation.
Today out of the blue, as I unwound in the library, I remembered myself at the age 14 (’92). On a fine summer afternoon. Mom was busy in the kitchen. I was hacking away on my first PC game on my XT. At that point I wanted to move a spaceship up/down/left/right so as to blast the incoming alien ships. Two problems dogged me, how do I use the cursor keys and how I might be able to ‘explode’ the alien spacecraft when they ‘contact’ with my lethal laser blasts. It took me some time to figure both out, I did it in both QBasic and in C. The point is not the solution to the problem, but the happiness that wrought my mind 🙂 at that time. I felt as if I had put not just 2 and 2
together, but 2 raised to 128 and 3 raised to 256 together. hehehe.
The spaceship would move and throw laser bolts at alien ships which would then explode. Jeez it was hilarious, I had to tell the first person I met, my mom.
In my opinion such happiness is true and is unfortunately now elusive. As an adult, satisfaction in my work is now masked and mired by deadlines and other peripheral matters, I don’t believe I can find the same thrill in my work that often. I desire to treasure that moment for the rest of my life. In the future I hope to find the same pleasure in my work.
Related Stories (2nd Feb. 2006): “Re-Igniting the Passion” – Creating Passionate Users. Kathy argues that the passion I find elusive is really inherent and that one cannot blame their job or their environment for letting that passion and enthusiasm slide. It is really yours to hold on to in the myriad of jobs that you will yourself indicate as part of your everyday routine.
Empty feeling in my head all weekend
Thats probably what happens when your working too hard :).
I have come up to the part where Frodo Baggins or Mr Underhill meets the
Ranger who goes by the name of ‘Strider’ at the Bree. There is still a long way
to go and things are only getting better. Had to shut myself up in the room
and block away all the other thoughts of work to read further.
Meanwhile, a post on Slashdot on Spam Filtering using Bayes work has
thrown up a lot more links. Google here can also tell you more about the
Bayes Filter.
Mac OS X also has a Bayes Filter.
I also managed to get part of my Distributed Systems Project 3 proposal done.
Now I have to make a choice between using Kerberos or SSL to implement
Symmetric Authentication. I am not clear exactly how the two divide in terms
of pros and cons.
Here are the sources for the Distributed Document Processor. You will also need
the Distributed Systems Course library from Professor Alan Kaminsky’s page.
It still uses rudimentary Makefiles, I have not got it to work perfectly just yet.
All the source is in Java. The license is a Gnu GPL of course.
ITS SNOWING
Ladies and Gentlemen, a soft windy morning has turned into a HAIL OF PURE
WHITE SNOW , VIVA ROCHESTER, and the Snow continues to fall accompanied
by heavy chilly freezing arctic winds :). Superlatives ain’t enough to describe the
experience ! Its November 1st, well the timing is amazing. All the locals said,
wait till November !! Anyway, I better get out and enjoy this cold afternoon !