California trip: The end

So, we are having heading back to Oklahoma City today. Overall it was a nice trip. Plenty of things to see. California is the place of natural beauty. We have finished it smoothly, no grumpy feeling no complain. We visited several attraction in LA in last day. I would say our tour would not be completed unless we saw Hollywood and Beverly Hills. That's what we did in our last day. In my view it was a successful trip. I loved it.

California trip: Mission Alkatraz

We went to Alcatraz yesterday. It was good. We bought the ticket online from their Alcatraz Cruz's website. We went to the pier 33 about 10 am and our boarding time was at 11am. It was a cloudy morning. The Cruz ship left the dock at 11am. The view was spectacular. They arranged an audio cell house trip. It was super cool. They gave you a piece of machinery and a headphone. A narrator explains everything as you walk by the cells and other places in the cell house. I think the was very entertaining.

Our next destination was pier 39 for lunch. It was total crap. The shrimp I had was either made of plastic or it had been chewed before and nothing left in it. I had real trouble with the food. Jamee had food poisoning after having food there. We did not realize Jamee had that severe condition until yesterday night. Our next destination was Golden Gate Bridge.

But we entered into a super fun neighborhood. It was a roller coaster ride. The roads were very steep and narrow. It looks like a very expensive neighborhood. The houses are on the sides of hills facing San Francisco Bay.

After a quick detour from that neighborhood we reached at vista point for Golden Gate Bridge. We took some pictures and enjoy the sunset. Then we moved toward mountain. We did our grocery and went to Googleplex. Finally we came back to hotel and went to a Chinese restaurant, PF Chang. Usually I don't like Chinese food that much but their food was not Chinese. I would say it was a mix of Thai, Indian and Chinese but the food was good.

Pretty much that's our last day at San Francisco. In my view San Francisco is a golden city. It is the most complete city, it has everything money, beauty, culture. It too perfect to be true. Apart from its recent semiconductor and IT boom, it has lot more to offer. When I came here I had the impression that, maybe it would be couple of tech companies one after another. But discovered life here. It not just tech companies. It is the most complete city I have ever been.

California trip: San Francisco

We went San Francisco today. Although we had a plan to go to Yosemite today, we think it would be too adventurous to go to Yosemite today. So we went to San Francisco today. We wake up late and went the Japanese tea garden. The admission was $7 and I can tell it was a total crap. Bad start for a day.
Our next stop was San Francisco piers and we spend our whole day in piers. San Francisco piers are fun. They are busy and very active. Street shows, crown, scenic and delicious food. It was fun. Pier 39 was the best among all and most of the thing is going on pier 39.

There are plenty of food shops, mostly sea food. We enjoyed our time. Finally we went to a Thai food shop and had our dinner. We pretty much took a break today. Not too many activities. We were relaxed and resolved some of the grumpy feeling we had after yesterday's 12 hours ride.

Some of the streets in San Francisco were really steep and scary. Driving around San Francisco was fun. We have a busy day tomorrow.

I noticed some of my previous posts and pics are not in correct order and time. I'll fix them once I have some time.

California trip: Highway 1

Today we reached San Jose. We took highway 1 from Los Angeles to San Jose. I have heard about highway 1 for long time and all I can say the experience is unique. Some part of highway 1 is superb, in a single word mesmerizing. We stopped in every few hours or so. It took us about 12 hours. We are all tired and exhausted. By the time we reached San Jose we have no energy left. We are staying at Goodnight Inn at Fremont.

At the end we were very tired and I almost hit a car. It was a truck merging from my right and I did not notice it was coming. Unfortunately he decided not to yield me, and I noticed him at the last moment. So I tried to move my car by moving into left lane and there was another car. It was a near miss. Anyway finally we reached San Jose.

California trip: Universal Studio

We went to Universal Studio, Los Angeles yesterday. It is definitely a fun place and I never been place like that. But I thing we were expecting too much, at times it seems like little repeatating. Some of the show was spectacular. We have not been in all shows because it was too crowded yesterday. There was literally explosion of people during the afternoon. We missed some of the great attractions like King Kong and Transformer 3D. I think we attended about 6 or 7 shows.

At the gate "House of Horror" welcomed us. It was okay, a scary tunnel with tons ghost loaded inside it. While you are passing by them some will attack you randomly. The ghosts were very realistic and truly scary. But I think there were too many people there and it was hard to get scared, since you know what's going on and there are too many people in there. It would be really interesting if one has to go alone.

The next show we attended was "Terminator." It was an interesting show. They kind of make some part of the terminator movie. Interesting part is some part was taken before and some part was actually portrayed on the stage. It was 3D show and they made transition between stage and movies amazingly. Not only the transition, they kind of blend the movie and the stage.

Our next pick was "Shrek." it was a pure 4D show, whatever it means to you. What is 4D show? Well it is a 3D movies with special seating arrangement, so that you can get the feeling of some of the things you are watching on screen. Like if the character on screen is soaked into they will spray some water and give you that feeling or the chair will move if the character is riding a horse.

Then we went to the ride section and took "Jurrasik Park" and "Mummy." Both of them was kind of roller coaster ride but I like "Jurrasic Park" better. They took us in a boat ride into "Jurrasic Park" and the entrance was spectacular. I don't know why other people in our group did not enjoyed it much but I loved it. It was so cool. "Mummy" was just a ride, no story no show. As a ride it was great. But there was no theme in it. Anyway the ride was good.

We went to into the special effect stage then. It was cool show. They were showing some of the cool techniques of special effect and other cool techniques. It was sort of comedy, I liked it. Finally we went to the "Water World" show; it was spectacular. The show was unlike anything I have seen before. This is in my opinion a must to go place.

And then, Lipa lost her camera and found it at "Lost & Found" and call our day. The city walk next to universal studio is a cool place. It is a happening place. Full of shops, some concerts.

California trip: City of Angeles

Los Angeles is one of the best cities I have ever seen. It is significantly different from other US cities. So far I like it best among all other cities. Our day started with the church our lady of Angeles. Ironically it ends with the church of our Lady of Angeles as well and interestingly they are not same! Actually the parish these churches belong to has couple of churches with same name. So all of them are church of lady of Angeles.
We went to the Griffin observatory then. It is superb. You can see whole Los Angeles downtown from Griffin observatory. It was super cool. It was close for Monday and Tuesday, so we could not see the planets. I hope we will go back there again.

Our next stop was Topanga state park. We had a plan to stay there for some time but it rained before we been there. So the trails were muddy and Lipa didn't bring her shoes so could not walk too far down the trail.

Finally we went to Zuma park beach, Malibu. We also stopped in some other beaches down the line. Malibu offers some extraordinary beaches in California. We went to LAX from Malibu to pick Jamee and went to Los Angeles downtown. We roam around downtown LA until midnight and finally we returned to our hotel and call our day.

California trip: Adventurer All Suit Hotel

We reserved a suit in Adventurer all suit hotel to save some money. It was cheap place and interesting. I would say something I have never seen before. I think its partitions are made off paper, we can literally hear what's going on in next room. And on the top of that, it is very close to LAX. You can actually count the number of aircraft take off or touch down on LAX. I am taking about LAX, one of the busiest airport on earth. And parking was a test of skill.

However the place is interesting and fun. Lots of things are happening here. Plenty of free stuff. But the place is little congested. Their two room suits are very tiny. This place is not too bad from budget perspective unless you don't mind the sound.

California trip: Santa Monica

At last we reached Los Angeles. Our flight was about one and half hours late and then we had to wait for the shuttle for about 30 min and finally we got the car. It was hell of a driving in LA. It is always confusing to drive in big cities. Anyway, we managed today.

At first we stop by a Japanese restaurant, the food was good and not too expensive. It was near to Venice Beach Santa Monica. We went to the Santa Monica pier and went to the beach. Water was too cold to get wet, so we walk down the coast line upto Venice Beach. And then Venice broad walk.

It was a over cast day and little cold, I think the temperature was around 55. Venice broad walk was fun. It is a hippi place of art, everyone was showing their works. It was fun. Tons of beach parties. The view was spectacular. We all enjoyed the beach. The beach was not as crowded as Florida but I guess this is because of weather. California is not as warm as Florida during winter.

We call it day after sunset. We came to the hotel and went to a Thai restaurant for dinner. Overall the the day was good and we like it very much.

California trip: The take off

At last we took off from OKC for LAX on flight AA 3635. It was about half an hour late. There was a good incentive though, I observed the sunrise on the horizon while I was waiting for take off. Sunrise does not fit well into my life style. I have not seen the sunrise since last year at Ft Lauderdale. Sunrise is always a pleasing thing, it gives me the sense of life. It has its own mind. Slow and steady! Seems no matter how much you want it or hate it, it is going to happen. I wish I could observe sunrise from some place close to pole like Finland.

Coming back to LAX, LAX is the first place that gave me the preview of United States. When I first came into United States, I immigrated throw LAX. It was the first glimpse of rest of my life. LAX! after four and half years! I am sure I would have entirely different view now. But still I have not forgotten that police officer! :) everything is big in US. Sometimes we carry small memories for whole life. So far it looks okay, we will probably arrive around 8:30 am. So far the plan is get the vehicle and drive it to the Santa Monica bay. Maybe stop somewhere for breakfast. What are we gonna do in the beach? Not sure yet, this is something yet to be resolved but I just wanna relax for some time.

The captain said we are flying over Grand Canyon. I have a plan to camp there sometime. I am not sure when it is going to materialize. Anyway, let get back to the trip. I wanna make this trip little different than other US trips. This time I wanna 'go slow' little laid back may be. No pressure no rush, just relax. This is probably our last trip with Zafar and Parisa. They are moving to Wichita and we are going to graduate next semester, so nobody knows what's going to happen next. And finally flying sucks!

I hate everything about flying. The security check, waiting, boarding, and finally flying. I wish there is any thing good about it. I would rather drive coast to coast instead of flying. I wish somebody does something with this whole aviation industry. There is no fun in it. It is pure simple dull and boring.
Here are some shots from my Window. Truthfully, I was hoping for dull view but it runs out that some views are spectacular, since we flying over Grand Canyon. I am sorry about the wing, I could not avoid it anyway so I tried to use it best way possible.

California trip: Preparation

We are flying tomorrow morning. I guess I need to do some preparation for the trip. 1) I need to print all reservations and tickets. 2) I need to do little shopping, I don't have any carry on luggage. 3) I need to clean my photography gears. 4) I need to buy couple of car chargers 5) make some play lists for the road trip. 6) Clean our kitchen utensils. 7) Lipa needs some dresses as well. 8) Check-in into the flight 9) Call hertz to confirm my car reservation, I guess that's it. Ohhh! Of course I need to pack my bag.

Thinking different

I was overhearing a conversation while waiting for a meeting. One student was saying that it is important to think differently in order to solve difficult problem. Interesting we have heard this enough. Thinking different is always the hard thing to do. Now let me say something opposite: research is different beast and it requires significant similar thinking as well.

What I meant to say is thinking like what people have been thinking for years is similarly important in research. Why, because it gives us the perspective of other people. Why other people perspective is important? Because it's the inside that helps to grab the problem in the first place. In research you got to know the problem first and you need to put yourself on the other people shoe to understand the problem. Because they are the people who faced the problem.

Now, not every problem requires bizzarely different solutions. For example people are thinking of the creation of universe as an evolution; an idea two hundred years old. Evolution solves some of the modern physics' problems elegantly. Of course new ideas are very important for research. We have heard it enough but what I never heard of is putting yourself on other people's shoe also very important. Thinking different is not the only thing that guarantees success in research. Research requires significant copying as well. We need to learn how to stand on the shoulder of the giants not just denying them. Denying them would definitely take you to the new direction but understanding them is the starting point.

Blogging vs social networking

I have been blogging for quite sometime. So far I was able to separate my blog from my social networks. The question is why do I need to separate my blog from my social network? I think anything in social networks is crying for other people's attention, after all getting other people's attention is the purpose of social networking. But the way I blog is more like a personal journal. My blog does not meant to be social. It is not crying for attention! It is good by itself. But it seems like Google is really pushing toward unified system and that inherently contradicts my purpose of blogging.

Why? So far my blog serve my purpose. It represents my state of mind at different phases of my life. I can clearly see that. Nobody really cares about my blog unless I publish something and ask other people to see it. That's great. But if my posts start crying for attention throw google+, it would be very frustrating. Some of my posts are really some of my random thoughts. Why do other people care about them? Even worse, I think asking for attention for those kind of posts is just waste of their time. I hope Google would understand that blogging and social networking is not same. Maybe some people use them for same purpose but they are fundamentally different by definition.

I hope Google would let me blogging and would not push me real hard toward google+. In that case I have to find an alternative of blogspot.

Multiple email addresses

Most people of our generation who use Gmail originally migrated from yahoo. At the beginning of 2000s yahoo was the definition of Internet. Some of us still use yahoo. People like me who abandoned yahoo, was due to the fact that it is very difficult to maintain multiple accounts. So we grew the habit of checking one address all the time and check few others occasionally.

I think smartphones have solved that problem. The problem we had is email was pull based, meaning you login into the Web and ask for all your email and you get them. Some people (very few) used to use local client for Web mail. But things have changed a lot in this era with he grace of smartphones. Web mail is no longer pull based, it becomes push based, meaning we no longer go to the Web and ask for the mails. Now we do our things and our phones notify us when new mail received. I don't know other people but that's a big time saver for me who used to check email in every hour. Now I don't check email, emails find me.

That made a huge difference. Now having multiple accounts is much easier than before. You don't have to check all your Web mails every hour; they will find you when necessary. I thing it is now way more convenient to have multiple emails. Those of us migrated from yahoo can actually start checking those old addresses again without adding much workload! Technology is nice!

California trip: The Detail

Here is the tentative schedule of our California trip, times are not exact. We may change everything as we go and enjoy some places more than others.

December 23.

08:05 LAX

09:30 Car pickup & Breakfast

11:00 Santa Monica Bay 

12:00 Venice Broad walk and Lunch

15:00 Santa Monica Pier

17:00 Hotel

18:30 Venice Broad walk

December 24.

09:00 Topanga state park

11:00 Point Dume, Malibu

12:30 Zuma Beach, Malibu

14:00 Griffith observatory

16:00 Our lady of Angeles

17:30 Pick Jamee

18:00 LA downtown walking tour

December 25.

09:00 Universal studio

18:00 Hollywood Boulevard

December 26.

08:00 Drive Highway 1

15:00 Big Sur

22:00 San Francisco, Pier 39

December 27.

07:00 Get up early

11:00 Yosemite national park

16:00 Lake Tahoe

21:00 San Francisco downtown

December 28.

09:00 Pier 39

11:00 Alkatraz

15:00 Golden gate bridge

17:00 Cupertino, Mountain view

20:00 Socializing

December 29.

07:00 Start toward LA

17:00 Socializing

December 30.

09:00 Santa Monica Bay

16:00 Car return

11:00 Norman

OR 

09:00 Car return 

11:00 Manhattan beach

16:00 LAX

11:00 Norman

We deeply appreciate any comment and suggestion.

Apps!

Why do I need an app for Walmart? Same for bestbuy? Sams club? Even PayPal? In all cases apps offer cut down functionality of the Web? You can do very limited things in PayPal app compared to PayPal Web interface. Web was developed to achieve platform independence, Web does its job pretty well. But then now there is growing trend for apps? I don't understand why? There are certain things apps do better, but not all things. The things these apps do is no better than their Web counterpart. All they need to do is design their website for smaller screen size. But instead of doing that they are making apps for different platforms. That sounds very stupid.

Doing something for the sake of doing is not innovation, it is confusion. I think these people are confused, they see the post pc revolution and they think they got to do something. These confused apps are the result of their confusion. They are confused about how they can participate in the post pc revolution. And they think developing apps is the only way. In last decade there was a growing need of Web based application, because Web brought platform independence to the modern computer. Now we are in the same shit again but this time with mobile. What would rescue us this time?

I am sure nobody likes to develop the same app once for iOS and once for android, maybe also for Windows now. Would it not be nice if they can make them once. Well Web was design exactly to so so? But then? The trend seems really backward to me. This trend is really unhealthy for the technology. We need to know what apps are meant for? We don't want to remember post pc revolution as a confused era for technology. I don't think we need an Walmart app, what we need it is an Walmart website for smaller screen size.

Android update!

I updated lipa's S3 yesterday and then first thing I wanted to try is Google Now. I clicked Google Now and it told me that there is a new version available from Google play. I went to Google play and tried to update and I was told I don't have the latest version. What a pity! Didn't I just update?

Well, I follow android development so I know what happened. The latest Google now is for jelly bean 4.2. And S3 just got jelly bean 4.1. I don't mind having 4.1 but the way whole thing came along was very stupid. From lipa's perspective, she just updated to a new version which is already old. Even worse, she cannot get latest software due to her older version. That's the problem.

What if Google now recognized that my version is 4.1 and the newest Google now is not for 4.1, and it never told me about the update? I am sure Lipa would surely be much happier than now. Yes Google kind of marketing against themselves. I am sure people like Lipa would never bother to update unless Google keeps saying that, you know what there is an update and that is not for you.

Throat infection

Some how my throat infection is becoming chronic. I thought it was gone but it came back again last Friday. It really hurts badly. It could be because I tried a smoke last Friday after quite a while.

I had hard time sleeping yesterday. This throat infection thing is really bad. It is causing me sleeping disorder. I was coughing entire night. My dad used to have chronic coughing problem. Am I going in the same direction. He barely could sleep at night. I think I need to a doctor pretty soon. I just finished a high dose of antibiotics.

It could be because our carpet. We have not vacuumed it for last few months. I am really allergic to dust. I really need to get well soon.

California Trip: The Glitch

I made an expensive mistake. I booked a hotel at San Francisco for wrong date. I made the reservation for November 26 through 29. Man! This morning priceline asked me rate my recent stay at San Francisco and then I realized I booked the hotel for wrong date. I called them immediately, but since the dates have passed they are not obligated to refund my money. It's $300! My entire budget for California trip. I called price line and days Inn, apparently both are happy to ripp off my money.
There is nothing called customer service in lodging industry. Everyone is trying get your money. Priceline says since the days have passed, they are not obligated to refund, so they would not refund (they only do what they are obligated to do, nothing called customer service exists in their dictionary). Days Inn says, since it is booked through priceline they cannot do anything (although they got money without selling anything, probably sold the rooms to other guys as well) . Well, I guess it was just an expensive mishap. This is the first time such stupid mistake happen to me. Well I understand these things happen once or twice. But whatever happened was very expensive and cost me $300. Btw, I think from now on I am not gonna use priceline anymore. I think I don't want to do business with a company that doesn't have any customer service. Priceline sucks!
Edit: Lipa gave the biggest argument to avoid priceline: the amount I save in total in my entire life through priceline is just ripped off by one single glitch.

California Trip: A Rendezvous

Jamee called me yesterday and told me, he is willing to join us in California trip. Jamee! It was quite a surprise. When we were in college Jamee was the last guy whom we asked for any trip. He was one of our best buddy but he was not very outgoing type. Zafar explains this event as 'amazing stuff.' He actually bought the ticket for Los Angeles yesterday. He is going to join us on 24th December. I hope the number of people is not too much yet.

I still remember Florida trip. One thing I learned in a hard way in Florida trip: if there is no leader chaos is inevitable. Whenever I have some time, I still think of our Florida trip. I believe it was a problem of leadership. If someone step forward and wanted to play the role of a leader we could have much better result. I am not going to let the same thing happen again.

An amazing thing happened in Florida that changed my philosophy forever. I am still very confused about our behavior in Florida trip. What was wrong? Leadership? Commitment? Respect? Trust? Competition? Pride? Florida trip was moment of truth for me, I am still looking for the mystery of Florida trip.

Experiments

Experiment is kind of boring but results are fun. I am running couple of experiments these days. It is kind of boring, I feel like I am doing nothing. I have to monitor the whole thing in every 10 or 20 minutes. I can't concentrate on anything else within this time and at the end of the day I feel like I did nothing.

The only fun part of the experiment is results. Results are really interesting. I guess every result possesses a hidden treasure inside it. It our responsibility to reveal the treasure. Some results might drive you nuts but once it's secret is revealed the treasure worths even more.

Some experiments are truly test of patience. Right now each of my trial run are taking about 20 minutes. These are trial experiments I would definitely automate the whole process once finalize everything and move to the final experiment. Right now what I do is start the experiment and browse phone and Internet for few minutes and look at the results and repeat the whole process again. I think the amount of real time work is no more than 30 min after whole day.

California Trip: Mission Alcatraz

I bought the ticket for Alcatraz today. We are planning to visit Alcatraz on 28th. Alcatraz is in San Francisco Bay. It is an abandon penitentiary. I think several movies were shot in Alcatraz. I think it was in the movie 'the rock.' There is also a prison break movie named 'Escape from Alcatraz.' I have never been in abandoned penitentiary; I hope it should be fun.

We had to buy the ticket online and long before the visit. I have no idea why they have this kind of system. The ticket is $28 each. We are hoping to take the 11:00 AM ferry from San Francisco pier 33. I hope 11:00 AM is fine. We should be able to drive to pier 33 before 11.

We need to finalize the entire plan. And I need to see whether the total plan makes any sense. In our last Florida trip we have several underestimated our travel time. This time I don't want that happen again. There is problem of perfect plan: there is no surprise left for the guy who does the planning. Again I don't want that either.

HTC Sense

Overall, HTC makes good phone. I was curious about why HTC is loosing business. To me, HTC one x looks much better than Samsung s3. But then I have the opportunity to look at Samsung s3 during this weekend. I think Samsung touchwiz is much better than HTC sense. Touchwiz is robust and way more responsive compared to HTC sense.

Now I think I know why HTC is loosing business. Although HTC is making top quality hardware they need to do much better job with software. I wonder why HTC is not releasing phone with stock android. I think stock android is better than HTC sense. I don't see any point to do something that makes a product worse.

My primary complain is about its robustness. Google Chrome crashes every now and then on htc sense. I didn't like stock keyboard. My wi-fi stops working randomly. The menu button is little weird. That's all I think but random wi-fi glitch bothers me lot. My experience is much better with stock android. However htc sense has much better design compared to touchwiz I think. I am eagerly waiting for their new version of htc sense for my HTC one x.

Thanks giving dinner

I love thanks giving. It is the time of too many good food. Shishu uncle is one who makes our thanks giving fun. Otherwise it would have been another boring holiday. Ron used to prepare a good thanks giving dinner. This he did it early, so I couldn't attend. I just came from Shishu uncle's home and I too full.

I had too much good food today. Particularly I am not a big fan of turkey grill but I like the whole package. Shishu uncle's place was fun, not too many people. It was just the right number of people. I like lot of things about this guy.

California Trip: The Blueprint

I never tried travel blogging. This time I decided to do travel blogging. I am planning for a trip to California this winter. I have reserved the lodges today. We have not finalize the details yet, but tentative idea goes as follows.

We will fly to Los Angeles 23rd December and stay there till 26th. We have a plan to visit universal studio, Hollywood, death valley, Santana monia beach and bay area. Probably we will head to San Francisco on 26th. And of course we are going to take highway 1. I have been listening about this drive since I was kid. This is one of my dream ride. Highway 1 goes along the pacific coastline.

We are planning to stay in San Francisco till 28th. We are not sure yet about where to go in San Francisco. The tentative idea is, we will go to Yosemite for one day, Alcatraz and golden gate Bridge for one day and probably we will visit other part of the San Francisco and San Jose on 26th and 29th.

We will return from San Francisco to Los Angeles on 29th. This the day when we have a plan to see night life in LA. Probably we have to do some socializing in LA as well. I am not sure yet. Finally we will take our return flight on 30th December. We are not sure yet, if we can manage some time, we will probably visit San Diego as well.

Btw, we are four: me, Lipa, Parisa and Zafar.

Unknown question

Well I had interview last week. The interviewer was asking which language I know best and which I know least? Guess what, I was never prepared for that question, and even worse. I said java is my best and c is my least. Obviously I didn't consider python or other languages like that. Even more confusing, I said c++ and c# in the middle. I think the interviewer got confused and I don't think he never heard this kind of answer yet. And from my side that was very stupid, I know c very well, how well? Probably better than many people who consider themselves expert in c. I just could say python or something like that. When I realize the goof it was late and I decided to go with that.

You what he asked me then? How OR, AND, NOT, XOR works, funny. Then he asked name of couple of data structures. When he was asking these questions, I got the idea that it is not gonna fly. But the take away was the unknown question. I think I should be more careful about answering unknown questions. You know what he was even saying "so you saying you know c++ better than c?" I think he was really shocked and thought I know none of them at all. Anyway I am pretty confident he is going to send me the rejection but I think I played really dumb this time.

Life goes on!

My throat was hurting real bad last night. It was bleeding and I hardly could sleep. I think I should not talk at all. The interesting part of the story is it hurts really bad when I drink but not much when I eat. That's funny because drinking was suppose to be easier.

I have enough free time because of throat infection. I am lying on my bed for whole day, watching movies and blogging. Interesting! I practically have enough time for myself. Blogging is interesting; sometimes when I see I have been blogging since 2006, I become amazed. Still I don't feel bore. I pour all my pain into my blog. And my blog has enormous ability of soaking my pain.

Whenever I think of my blog, one comment always hunt me down "you have no self respect" don't I? I never argued with this comment, not because I think it is true but because whoever wrote the comment don't understand self respect. Anyway my blog started its seventh year this November. I think I started blogging sometime is November 2006. Most probably some time in the middle of November. In that sense its birthday should be somewhere nearby. Wow I have been doing this for seven years! Life is amazing.

Two most amazing things I have seen is 'life' and 'computer science' and fortunately I have both.

Whistle of a night train

I am drifting apart. I get bored of a thing pretty quick but one thing I could never learn is give up. So I constantly in the pain of sticking with things I consider boring. But one thing I never bored of is life. Life is so amazing. It is full of surprise, somehow life always finds me for its surprise. No matter where I am, life can surprise me even if I am in the dullest place on earth. I am drifting apart, I am drifting apart from everything.

I am little sick today. I got a bad infection in my throat. First I thought it is rabies, I wish it would but it turns out it is not. But it hurts pretty badly. It even hurts if I drink. I never imagined water could be so distasteful. I have spent my entire day on bed, I am not sure what good 'lying on bed' can bring to my throat infection. But I had to do it. Life is so strange. Life is full of surprise.

When I was a kid I had pertussis once. It was bad, I was suffering for almost six months. At that time I used say my stomach gonna come out with my cough. But I survived. Until now I hate cough. This throat infection for some reason remind me those days. I used to be lying on my bed for whole day, nobody used to come to my room except my mom. Well, I am lying on my bed today far from my mom. But still why do I feel like I am having those days again.

In my school we used to memories phrases, one of them was 'man proposes and God disposes.' I never understand what that suppose to mean. I still don't. But I understand how little we know and predict about our future. Life is a relentless surprise for us. I love being alive, I enjoy every moment of it. I feel privileged when I see can appreciate this amazingly beautiful life.

Android 4.2

Android 4.2 lock screen widget is pretty interesting. It has a serious flaw. It allows me add Gmail widget to the lock screen and anybody can read my email without unlocking my tablet. Well that's not a problem if that's what I want. It is even worse, it allows me to add Gmail widget to the lock screen without any authentication at all.

That's pretty interesting. Let's say I do not have my Gmail widget on the lock screen, and now if I lost tablet any body can add Gmail widget to the lock screen and read my emails. He or she does not have to go through any authentication at all. This is very interesting. How come they miss such a big security flaw. I don't mind if they show my email on the lock screen if that's what I want. But allowing anybody to add Gmail widget is a real stupid things to do. I thing some widget should pass authentication before they are added to the lock screen.

Swiftkey

If you are in android and you write a lot using your phone then you must have SwiftKey. SwiftKey is perfect for fast typing, all you have to do is trust SwiftKey. Sure plenty of your keystrokes would be wrong but at the end you will get right word. I know this is very problematic if you try to write other language words with English alphabet. But for English it is simply great.

The factory keyboard with my HTC one x simply sucks. And hence I had to go to third party keyboard. I am happy I choose SwiftKey. I have not bought the paid version yet, but I surely would. I think my phone without SwiftKey is really incomplete.

One interesting problem I had with SwiftKey was trust. Like I said lots of keystrokes would be wrong and if you stuck in correcting them then you are doomed and no point of using SwiftKey. Even if you point one or two mistakes in your keystrokes you need to move on and then you will realize the beauty of SwiftKey.

I am trying to adopt mobile blogging with my new phone and SwiftKey. I heard that SwiftKey has the ability of learning, and meaning even if you I write other language with it can learn and adopt to my writing style, but I didn't try that yet.

California Trip: The Beginning

Today I book the ticket for California trip. I have been thinking of this California trip for long time. We are planning to go to California this winter.

We are taking 23rd December flight to Los Angeles. We will be back on 30th December.
Air ticket is always a waste to me. I never enjoy air travel. I don't know why but somehow I hate it. Anyway since everybody else preferred air, I had no choice. Rental car is little expensive at airport location, so we are thinking of getting the rental car from neighborhood location. May be we have to take a bus to the neighborhood location but it saves almost 20$ per day.

We have not planed the details yet but roughly we will touch Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Riverside. This time I have a plan to go to universal studio if money permits. I have very tight budget for the trip, I am not sure how everything gonna work out, I am hoping it would.

Blogger app

Blogger app looks much better now. I think it is still far from tumblr, tumblr app is much better for mobile bogging. Interestingly I didn't see much development for blogspot in last few years. I think Google has forgotten blogspot. SwiftKey is also pretty good for mobile blogging. It would be nice if Blogger also have a micro blogging. I think now Tumblr is really cool for personal/mobile blogging.

I am gonna try a new thing for next couple of days, I am am thinking of doing real time blogging for few days. Let's see how it goes.

Would I Still Have You

When I was young I had a dream

That I would meet someone like you

And we would have a happy home

If the world would leave us alone

So it came to pass it all came true

You needed me like I needed you

But the world kept moving on

And our life was changed by a song

Sometimes I wonder and I worry too

If I did not know how to sing

Would I still have you?

That's the time I wished

I'd never bought that first guitar

I'd be out somewhere in Oklahoma

Fixing cars

But maybe after my hard working

Day was through

I'd still have you

It's hard to have loving on your mind

With people lining up for it all the time

And the world I loved went floating by

How did I miss the hurt in your eyes

[Roland Kent LaVoie]

Diversity!

This time I have witness the battle between between Android and iOS; I have heard a lot about the battle between Windows and Mac during 80's. I didn't even witness the reminiscence of the battle. My introduction to the computer was actually way after the battle, in fact way after the battle when all the mess were cleaned up. My first introduction to the computer was windows 3.1. After that when I first saw Windows 95, it was huge blow! Windows 95 was a super cool an super easy. I have grown up listening the story that the tiny piece of thing next my computer is actually invented by some other company and then Windows copied it. I don't know the truth, but I know for one thing for sure, if there was no windows, there would be no computer at my home and there would be no Chronicle of Mundane Life today.  

I don't know what Mac did at that time, but Windows did it so right that it reached every corner of this world. As I grew older I learned there is another kind of computer with linux, they are even cooler but they are hard to work with. They are for what call experts. I have played smart for quite some time in early days :P Then I learned there is another kind of computer even cooler and different from what I have seen so far. It was the revival of Mac. When I was first introduced to Mac, I was thinking it is quite similar to Linux. But they are not intended for so called experts! They are for regular people. I had the idea about how difficult it is to change the hardware in Linux system in early days. Wow! that problem does not exist for Mac at all! Superb! why because they don't support very many hardwares, they are designed for fixed set of things! Ooops! That's interesting! The whole idea of Mac is software can be hardware agnostic! Ouch! That's okay, there are still people in this world who believes Autocracy is the right government; we also see genetically coded animals roaming in this world.

But then in late 2000's the battle between smartphone OS had began. Well lot of people in early days predicted that it is gonna be another 80's war, and surely it is. But many people went far enough to declare the winner. Now in post Jobs era we see they were right, but this time it took less than five years. Interesting! I was thinking exactly what made Android so popular leaving iOS far behind? It is really hard to tell, then I was watching Malcolm Gladwell's TED lecture the other day and it struck into my head, may be there is no right thing for everyone. Why? that is big question; I guess partly because human brain develops beyond the womb and very little part of it actually comes with genetic coded! And that's why there is such a huge diversity among people in the same species. Other than human being two different samples of same species from two different parts of the world would almost behave same. But human is the only exception.

That makes me thinking if Apple makes product for anything else other than human they might actually see great success, because the design of the other animals follows the same philosophy as Apple does. They simply don't understand the beauty of diversity. I don't get it why? There is no wonder America is the greatest country in the world, it the most country in the world as. Every American brought a small piece of their own culture and ideas and together they are more robust than anything else. Diversity does not make something weak, it makes the thing robust. I feel pity when Apple claims something robust; I don't think they know what robust mean.

Android

Finally, I moved to Android abandoning iOS behind. There is nothing wrong with iOS it was just kind of boring after 2 years. Android is so much different and its interesting. It does not have the iOS feeling 'just works' so it is little more engaging. Well, my primary idea is to make some apps for myself, I think it is time for some android development. If you use google products you would definitely find Android platform your home. On the top of that, I saw on news that HTC is loosing money so I decided to contribute a little to HTC and bought their phone :D

Happy birthday Shiblee!

I think I am going to start my 30th year in this little planet and still I have no clue what I am doing? Still I need to learn how live a life? even worse what is life? Am I looking for something? I have a friend who believes human brain is a complicated equilibrium and we are suppose to feed it constantly, maybe someday something will come up out of all these! Could be! Maybe I am just feeding my brain!? or maybe I am preparing myself to for my selfish gene? Someday it will leave me and my purpose in this world well served!? Or maybe life is an example of anthropic principle, it is what we can perceive in our conscious and beyond that there is just a big unknown. Maybe every different things have their own conscious and they alive in their own way! who knows! Sometimes I feel like this world is an amazing place, there is so much unknown in this world that we can't say anything for sure! 

The most interesting part of life is when I am very sure about something that I know it, the next moment I realize I know nothing about it. I think in this queer world anybody can pursue even the tiniest thing possible and never knows the whole. These days I have a feeling, I would continue wondering in this world forever without knowing ant bit of it. Sometimes I feel like there is nothing called life. Is there any glory being alive? Or life is life, just like other things in this world. Richard Feynman once said the purposeless-ness of human life does not scare him at all. I often think 'purpose' is the wrong question to ask, what is the right question then? Well I don't know, I even know less that I do before. Happy birthday Shiblee! Life is fun! So much fun!

One of my friend said this is the best day of my life. I often think why? Maybe because in this day my conscious matched with the conscious of thousands others in this queer world! 

25 rules of wisdom

1. Even the boss must get his fingernails dirty.
2. A handful of luck is better than a mountain of wisdom.
3. For every one word you say, let your enemies say 10.
4. Cash is cash, even if it comes from an elephant's stomach.
5. Never reveal 100% of anything to anyone.
6. Never make a decision when you're angry.
7. A man is nothing without his word.
8. Keep your mouth shut. If you have to lie, keep it short and simple.
9. The best way to dodge an enemy's bullet is by never being in a position where he can hit you.
10. When you can't win a war by playing fair, bend the rules. Better yet, break them.
11. Never forgive betrayal.
12. Whenever you're in doubt about whether an enemy should respect or fear you, always choose fear.
13. A woman's anger can always be subdued with a diamond ring (and a man's with sex).
14. Behind every great man is a great woman.
15. Nothing lasts forever.
16. Never give a tip to someone who isn't looking.
17. If you go to war, always strike first. Strike hard, and hope it's the only strike you need.
18. Peace is only a prelude to war.
19. Have a priest on call if you choose to be a careless man.
20. When in doubt, follow your gut.
21. Man appoints, God disappoints.
22. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer.
23. Overestimate the time something takes, and underestimate its rewards.
24. To make money, you have to spend money.
25. Lucky is the man who suffers humiliation in front of others, for his revenge will be sweeter.

Bonus. Watch your backs and keep your noses clean.

I have stumbled upon this 25 rules of wisdom this morning. They are interesting. It does not matter whether I believe them all or not. Definitely I have some kind of supportive bias toward them otherwise I would not share them. My personal favorite is Rule#16. Never preach an advice unless you are sure listener is crying for it. I think all of them are interpretation dependent and I have my own and I hope you can get one for yourself as well.

Hiking

Finally I managed some time to fix the last hiking photos. I took some photos last time and I am not happy with most of them. I have been using 35/f 1.8 for last couple of months. I don't think I became a fan of this lens but this is lens is very sharp and useful for some situation. However, people like me who think their feet weight ton, this lens is not quite comfortable.

Acer Aspire

I got my second Acer Aspire Laptop last week. It is a Acer Aspire TimelineX. It is a true budget laptop around 400$. I used my last Acer Aspire for about four years. Well, I guess laptops are not meant to be used more than that. I used two hp laptops before and each of them survived about a year. When my second hp laptop broke I broke as well and I choose budget laptop from Acer which I used about four years. It is indeed still running but having hard time catching up softwares. My hp laptops were dead and in both cases mother board was gone. I think I am happy with Acer; well, they are not the best brand in the market but they serve my purpose very well.

In fact I am so happy with Acer that I decided to advertise for them for free :) In case you are curious how much I used my laptops? I used it everyday and I rarely tuned it off. I used my laptop for my experimental purpose and each of my experiments runs for week and use 100% CPU. I have a case where my CPU was 100% used for 10 days in a row. Of course the credit goes to Intel but Acer put it well. The hard drive still runs good and I never any trouble. The only maintenance I did was I opened it up several times and cleaned dusts. One last thing to mention, the left hinge was broken for quite some time but it did not make difference for regular use. I think Acer is worth trying.

Java Generics II

There are so many things broken for java generics. I don't know why java generics is so half baked.

Here is what I wanted to do

Class X<Type>{

public <T extends SomeOtherType> X<T> copy(T param) {

   // do something

   return copy of X

}

Class Y<Type> extends X {

@Override

public <T extends SomeOtherType> X<T> copy(T param) {

   // do something

   return a copy of Y

}

Well, technically my requirement is simple and I see no harm in that. I was just trying to implement a copy method for a class which takes generic parameter. Then I create a subclass of that and trying to override the copy function; guess what? If I use Override annotation, it says no such method exists in base class, if I don't use Override annotation it says name conflict!

Update:
Well, I found the problem; the second class should be written as follows

Class Y<Type> extends X<Type> {

@Override

public <T extends SomeOtherType> X<T> copy(T param) {

   // do something

   return a copy of Y

}

huh! I don't know who is the culprit me, or java generics!

Java Generics

Sometimes JAVA is really bothersome. JAVA has generics for quite some times; okay generics is nice to have. You don't have to cast objects and you can efficiently work with typed objects. I just learned that JAVA does not support the array of generic objects! ooops! Thant's mean you cannot create an array of ArrayList<Double>. What you can do is create an array of  ArrayList<?> or  ArrayList  and later cast to   ArrayList<Double> whenever you try to access. What's the purpose of generics if I have to cast! Even worse if you do that without checking the type, JAVA is going to give you a warning! And apparently you can ignore the warning or you can check the type before casting, which means one more if statement (extra complexity)! This is not cheap when you are considering large number of items!

Interestingly, whatever I have just said is partially true. Actually you can create an array of ArrayList<Double>, but you have to initialize it with untyped ArrayList! Wow! and when you do that JAVA gonna give you an warning because of untyped ArrayList! So guess what, there is just no way to create an array of generics without warning. I don't know whats wrong with the generics array! Sometimes generics in JAVA seems half baked to me.

Knight Rider

I have been thinking about it lately: a android driven car! I think Google is about to deploy driver-less car on the road. Would it not be nice if Android is running on my car? If my car can run by itself and if takes command by my Android phone I don't think Knight Rider day is far away. I don't have to walk to the parking lot, my car will pick me up from Sarkeys! I don't think lot of people will buy parking permit then, they would just let their car go back home, specially in a small town like Norman.

Driver-less cars

I went to a hike the day before yesterday. It was about two hours drive from home, I wake up early morning and reach there by 8:00 AM. It was obviously pretty boring (by the way, I love driving most of the time and I really enjoy driving). But I what amazes me most is during my entire driving time I didn't have take any critical decision. All I have to do is follow the yellow and white line, signals and other cars' light. Well isn't it interesting? All those pretty mundane task. Then I realized if you follow the traffic rule there is nothing to be excited about driving a car. If you don't follow the rule, you know the consequence! 

Interestingly the number of tasks one has to follow in course of driving a car is pretty small and I am amazed we still don't have driver-less car. I wonder why? I don't see any problem from logical perspective, it could be because of hardware. There is a big buzz going on now about driver-less car and plenty of people think it is madness. Most of them are driving fan. I am yet to see a driving fan as well traffic rules fan! One just cannot be both simultaneously.

And finally, when I was coming back, exhausted after eight miles of walking and rock hopping I was dying for a driver-less car. Who loves to drive after a long hike? I think human should get out of the road. We as a human have done enough, it could be a sport but for daily use I don't think it is our job to drive the car anymore. Please leave the street, human being behind the wheel are most dangerous species on earth.

My only concern is driver-less car would definitely increase the traffic on the road and more traffic means more energy! 

Death toll

I just wanted to share one of my albums which I realized one of my favorite subject. Somehow, I can feel the strength of them. Everything is gone still standing tight. Sometimes they make me thinking we know nothing about life. Life as we know it is just an illusion.

How am I doing?

Right now I am trying to wrap up my dissertation, I need to start writing my dissertation anytime soon. I am looking for job! and still coping with life. I am planning to graduate next year and I need to wrap up what I have done so far. I have to put forward everything I have to impress the committee. I have grown enough to realize that impressing people is the hardest thing on earth. Especially it is even difficult if more than one is involved. There is no unique formula that can win the mind of everyone. Anyway, I working on putting everything together. I haven't start writing my dissertation though. I have to start it anytime soon.

The next big task I have to find a job. I am not sure how difficult or easy it would be but based on other people experience I can tell it not gonna be butter smooth. However, I still have difficulty to accept the idea that finding the job is very difficult in US. Maybe, that's because I never had trouble finding jobs before. Let's see how it goes with jobs. I am right now kind of trying to accustomed with the idea of job hunt, career fair, career center, etc. Hopefully I'll find a way out. I don't think that would be too difficult. The difficult part would be finding time for that.

Finally, life! I don't know why I have always trouble accepting what I am right now. I just don't get it. I am not love with my past. I am not big fan of the idea of living in past. If I don't like something I always look forward not backward. I never wish for undo, I wish for the solution that can solve my current problem. These days I feel very tired. I don't know why? Maybe I am stressed! But I am not sure what I am stressed about. I am having hard time paying attention to specific instructions. I never had problem before. I am sure it is temporary but I am not sure what causing it. Probably I need to learn work under stressed situation.

Well, that's it for now.

Tech news!

Last couple of days I have been following tech updates meticulously. I have not done that before but I am kind of amazed by learning how journalists write about technologies and tech companies. I think the entire journalism is based on hoax. People have been publishing rumors shamelessly. Insufficient research behind every article is almost impossible to miss. Many article shamelessly copies other article as well. I am not asking you to buy my words, just pick a tech word (let say "Kindle Fire") and google it. The first few search results are saying the same things and you can find the similarity in wordings as well. 

Now interestingly the things they are talking about are most likely rumor! Ooops! I don't understand how come a rumor become a news! Are we living in twenty first century? Finally, analysis! I have no idea what they were thinking when they were writing those articles. Well, no analysis is full proof but those analysis are far from perfect they are just garbage. Somehow they kind of habituated with the idea that it is okay to write hoax and garbage about technology. 

Back in 07 Google published an hoax about Toilet Internet Service Provider and one reputed Bangladeshi news paper published it in their technology column. Back then I was kind of amazed how come they published something without giving a second thought. I was thinking maybe, we are living in a developing country and where all latest technologies are not readily available; and so it is conceivable that they kind of believe whatever they heard. But when I found the same thing here in most advanced technologically developed county and I kind of get the idea that technology is beyond the reach of journalism. Please leave it alone. 

Chronicle of a Mundane Life

I just learn couple of days ago that my wife has been secretly following my blog for a long time. Well interesting but not unexpected. In this age of information almost everyone does ego searching and it is not quite surprising at all that she found my blog and followed it. I have been writing tons of garbage for so long, so it is not unimaginable that some of my idea is quite offensive for her. Sure it is, some ideas are really offensive. But what I learned from the entire story is implication of blog on my real life and other people perception about my blog.

I think I wrote couple of post regarding purpose of this blog. Well! did I say couple of? Technically if I have to articulate the same things many times then there must be something wrong in the articulation or there could be something wrong in the subject itself. I guess the former is the case here. I think I myself don't know what is the purpose my blog. Having a purposeless thing does not bother me at all, so I don't mind. But all I want to say I am not here to write gospel. My words are not eternal. These are my momentary thoughts. Do they have big/significant implication on me? Could be, but it's a set of independent events arranged in chronological order.

Some of my friends think the entire blog is a bullshit; yes! that's what it is. The entire blog is a bullshit but I like to have this bullshit with me for some time like we all love to nourish our weakness for our entire life. Is it hypocrisy? If you wanna see it that way, I don't mind. It is a chronicle of 'a' me. If it does not go well with your sense of morality, I am a bad person then. Don't come here again. But let 'one' me live the way it wants to.

Carried by the wind

I've crossed the edge where time disappears

My life has been taken by the charm of the seer

My conscience is clear, I committed no sin

My spirit roams free now, carried by the wind

My mission has failed, the spell has been cast

I wasn't the first one and I won't be the last

This can't be the end, so let it begin

My message will reach you, carried by the wind

Out here on Mars I now realize

Mankind has vanished, tears fill my eyes

There must be a world I can live in

My spirit will find it, carried by the wind

My message will reach you, carried by the wind

My spirit will find you, carried by the wind

[Ayreon]

Eid Mubarak

Eid! It always sucks, sometimes it sucks  even more. Festivity is the part of human culture for a long long time and religious festivity is always at the center. Nothing can shatter the world like religious cause and festivals. Well festival is a necessary step of mythological evolution. It gives the cause for the people to be together and share common ideas. I always have trouble with social gathering where I don't have any particular role to play. I get confused what I am suppose to do. I am little bit of unsocial, well may be not unsocial I took little long time to blend and the problem with social gathering is I never had enough time to blend. 

Sometimes the gathering becomes pretty stressful. I was thinking of starting a fresh semester. Starting with a stressful day is not good for me at all. At the end of the week I am stressed feeling low esteem. I had my whole day doing things that really hate to do. Some of these days make the life thinking worse things. I am never good at managing my emotional stress. It is pushed toward worse. The whole thing makes me thinking. maybe, some part of my personal life is becoming more stressful than I can handle and hence it is eventually affecting my work. Well, I am thinking of this possibility; this is not good. I need little more courage to handle. I am always afraid of violent outburst; if it does I am afraid there would be no one to control. Anyway, Eid sucks, as it did before.

Evil in our eyes

We have been brought up with this idea that nature has whole lot of problems and all we have to do is to make our living despite all evil of nature. We have drought because mother nature decided not to pour any more water, we have flood because mother nature decided to pour extravagantly. People is small island die because mother nature decided to take wash them up. We cannot make mega structures because our dear earth can start quaking any time. Then we have learned the glory of human civilization. How we are taming our earth. We made wonderful things so that mother nature listens to us not the other way around. Up until now everything was great. But then suddenly I stumbled upon another view about nature.

Mother nature is so because it is meant to be so and all these are glory of it. They are the beauty of mother nature. They are not meant to be conquered, they are meant to be glorified. All we have to do is adapt with its will. Mother nature is not evil anymore and we did not born with noble of cause of correcting it. We have to live with it. This is how it is supposed to be and we have to embrace it. We know what we have done to the only known planet that can foster us. Why don't we try other way around, instead of taming this beautiful planet why don't we learn adapt with it. Sure, you can tame a wild horse, but the horse would no longer bear the beauty of wilderness.

Well, I am not the first person who found this idea fascinating. I am not a nature lover or protector in any consideration. But I found this idea equally beautiful in other contexts of life. We all fight with each other; we try to make other people believe they are the evil and we are the one who are the chosen being for correcting them. We all complain about each other and we all are right. I wish if we could have the second view. I fight with my dearest people like an animal believing I am the avatar straight from heaven; my noble duty is to show them the right path. I wish I had the opposite view. I wish I learned to live with them, embraced them as they are and learned to adapt with them. I wish I could be little more acceptable.

I saw people dying to correct the evil in their birth. Their is no evil in any birth, there is no right in dying. We see evil in other people's face. It is not in other people's face, it is in our eyes. 

Parallelism

"These are astonishing similarities. And if we believe, as most modern students do, that the Indians' achievement was made independently, and their progress was not stimulated from overseas, then we reach a very significant conclusion. We can infer that human beings possess an innate urge to take certain definite steps toward what we called civilization. And that men also possess the innate ability, given proper environmental conditions, to put that urge into effect. In other words, we must consider that civilization is an inevitable response to laws governing the growth of culture and controlling the man-culture relationship." - Looking backward, Kidder.

Well, the idea is fascinating but equally disturbing.

The Paradox of Our Times

Is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers

Wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints

We spend more, but we have less.

We have bigger houses, but smaller families

More conveniences, but less time.

We have more degrees, but less sense

More knowledge, but less judgement

More experts, but more problems

More medicines, but less wellness.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often

We have learnt how to make a living, but not a life.

We have added years to life, but not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back

But have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.

We have conquered outer space, but not inner space.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted our soul.

We've split the atom, but not our prejudice.

We've higher incomes, but lower morals.

We've become long on quantity but short on quality.

These are the times of tall men, and short character;

Steep profits, and shallow relationships.

These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare,

More leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces;

Of fancier houses, but broken homes.

It is a time when there is much in the show window, and nothing in the stockroom.

~ Unknown Author

Tablets: An Elusive Revolution

When iPad was first introduced in 2010, I was little bit skeptical, I was asking do I need one? Well many people were asking the same question. I was used to familiar with the idea of tablet since early 2000 when Microsoft first introduced the idea. I was not too excited about the product and like other people I was not very convinced. Things have changed so much now, millions of tablets are sold in every month. Some tablet enthusiast even believe that tablet is the next way to go. Tablet will eventually replace mobile phone, pc and what not. You name it they will replace it with tablet. Apparently tablet is in the driving sit of post-pc revolution. Surprisingly my position has not changed since then. I still don't know why I need a tablet.

Truthfully, I am not in a position to spend any money for any fancy gadget. Definitely 'need' is a big word for my spending. Unlike many people 'need' is not the new word for 'desire' for me. So, I have to carefully justify the need before decide to purchase. Sure, for people like me the word tablet has a very little use (if any). Apart from all that I feel like tablet is probably not the right way to go. I know big people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs used to believe tablet is the future of the industry; somehow the whole tablet thing never been able to convince me.

Smartphone was a big step forward from whatever we used to have. Smartphone redefined the use of the cell phone that we used to have. What could be most use of tablets: book reading, browsing, media consumption. Well specifically, tablet is a media consumption device! Aha. so that is the use of tablet! I see the use of tablet as a media consumption device. But my imagination stops right there. I cannot take it any further! Even though tablets are becoming ubiquitous. Some guy is India use his tablet to change the education system, aircraft industry is planning of use iPad as a real-time flight simulator, fire fighters are using it for live layouts. Even I have no trouble imagining tablets as a widespread ad-hoc mobile network that have the potential to replace wired network of today and torrent over that really possesses the possibility of replacing the internet of today. But remember all these can equally be done with a smartphone and they both share a serious problem: input!

The input is simple not convenience. Touch is an interesting way of input but it is not convenient. Technically touch is a mechanical way communication. Being a mechanical way of communication it has high degree of error, hence we are never gonna achieve a touch sensitive device with arbitrary precision. If your device is limited by input, theoretically is limited by output as well. Well that's theory but practically there is no limitation; the biggest problem is smartphones are more convenient (let alone its ancestor pc).

The second problem is no matter how powerful your tablet is there would always be a same powerful smartphone and high powered pc. So the only advantage it offers is its little bigger screen. If a smart phone can come up with bigger screen the requirement for tablet is diminished. When I say bigger screen I mean to say bigger projection of the screen. My point is: a device with only advantage of having bigger screen with whatever display cannot sustain the evolution where more convenient devices compete with it. (I am assuming tablet is not gonna replace pc anytime soon, if you are not convinced why you don't know pc at all) 

The only advantage tablets have over smartphones is in content consumption which is primarily because of bigger screen size. I have no problem imagining a device that solves the problem. Well devices with multiple convenient screen can easily solve the problem. I am sure there would be more innovative way of solving this problem. Well smartphone would be a narrow name for it then; it would be less phone and more of something new then, but not surely not tablets as we know them today.

When a new sustainable technology emerged it would enable countless new technologies to bolster its echo system. Tablets have no such things; everything it has is borrowed from either smartphone or pc. It does not give us anything new. Therefore my bet is tablet would not rule too long. Sure it is a successful business product of today; it is a killer product but it not a technology of future. 

Babe

Babe I'm leavin' 

I must be on my way 

The time is drawing near 

My train is going 

I see it in your eyes 

The love, the need, your tears 

But I'll be lonely without you 

And I'll need your love to see me through 

So please believe me 

My heart is in your hands 

And I'll be missing you 

'Cause you know it's you babe 

Whenever I get weary 

And I've had enough 

Feel like giving up 

You know it's you babe 

Givin' me the courage 

And the strength I need 

Please believe that it's true 

Babe, I love you 

You know it's you babe 

Whenever I get weary 

And I've had enough 

Feel like giving up 

You know it's you babe 

Givin' me the courage 

And the strength I need 

Please believe that it's true 

Babe, I love you 

Babe, I'm leavin' 

I'll say it once again 

And somehow try to smile 

I know the feeling we're tryin' to forget 

If only for a while 

'Cause I'll be lonely without you 

And I'll need your love to see me through 

Please believe me 

My heart is in your hands 

'Cause I'll be missing you 

Babe, I love you 

Babe, I love you 

Ooo-oo-oo-oo, babe

[Styx]

Curriculum Vitae

Humayun Ahmed

I have been thinking about writing about Humayun Ahmed lately. Well another Humayun Ahmed post! I know the entire Bangladesh is in Humayun fever. But in my view this guy truly deserve some attention from many of us, well maybe from most of us. So I think adding one more buzz to the Humayun fever is well justified and not only that, if I don't do it, I am probably not giving enough respect where it is indeed due. Am I a Humayun Ahmed fan? Well fan is rather extreme word for me; technically I am not fan of anybody but I enjoyed reading some of his early novels.

When I heard that he passed away the first thing came into my mind is there will be no 'Himu.' There will be no 'Misir Ali' or 'Shuvro.' Really, that means when a writer leaves he basically leaves with all of his characters. So does it mean all of them also passed away? Well I don't know! Did he have intellectual right for those character? Is there any such thing? or Some other guy can start writing about Himu now? Anyway, until then all of them are gone.

In my view Humayun Ahmed's greatest creation is the juxtaposition of 'what we are' and 'what we want to be'. Bengali literature after Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay was revolving around 'what we are.' Humayun Ahmed was the first man who introduced 'what we wanna be' inside too many 'what we are.' His characters were very strong. Back in 90s and 00s it is hard to find a young adult who does not have little bit of Himu, who does not dream being of Misir Ali, who does not long for the pristine mind of Shuvro. It does not matter we agree or not Humayun Ahmed has an strong impact on all of our life. I am not going to explain how these small things matters Neurologically (if you are interested find Sam Harris on free will), but they do matter and they do change the course of our life.

Let me wrap up the entire thing with a little story. The story goes back in 2004. I don't remember very well but one night I was bored at my dorm room and thinking of going out for fresh air. So I get out of my room and ambling around Dhaka University campus. And after some time I found myself walking unconsciously in the pedestrian path for quite some time. I was a bit surprised when I realized I was walking for some time and I reached Biman Bondor! Apparently the story has nothing to with Humayun Ahmed, really? I have been thinking of that day for quite some time. The only reasonable explanation that hit my mind is I was Himu for that night. I wanted to be Himu knowingly, unknowingly! How come I not write anything about Humayun Ahmed. He was the man of our time, it was impossible to ignore him. 

Image courtesy Radio Foorti. A collage from a picture of Faisal Masum.

me! me!! me!!!

Content credit: Lipa

Don't hate me

Yesterday, my paper has been rejected from CIKM. Well, nothing new in their. My papers had been rejected before. But what is interesting is the comments. It seems like one reviewer really hated me and he didn't even comment anything about the paper rather he sort of comment on my overall character. Yes I mean 'my character.' Interesting thing is CIKM follows double blind review process and the reviewer  somehow manages to find me from my reference list and other things (I don't know why did he take such pain). And then he comment on my research not on my paper! It seems like he has some kind of hatred against me! I don't know what I did wrong to him/her but if I did any I am truly sorry. I had not intention for that. It is probably my ignorance not my intention. Please don't hate me.

Age of Information

If you don't buy my previous argument about age of information. Here is a new one. Leonard Susskind argues that information are indestructible. He calls it -1th law of physics. If something is indestructible, no wonder this is the age of that stuff; in fact all age are age of that stuff.  Leonard Susskind backed his idea with lot of other interesting ideas. I have yet to read his book "The Black Hole War."

Age of Information

I always wondered why this era is called 'the age of information.' Still I am looking for the answer but nothing convincing emerged. I went to wiki and it says all sorts of gibberish which does not make sense to me at all. This is age of information because computers are ubiquitous, information can be transferred freely so and so. I am sorry all these sound stupid to me. Then I stumbled upon the idea this morning (partially coined by zafar). Human being has trouble living without worshiping anything and in this era guess what we worship :)

Atheist view

Sometimes atheist posses similar view as organized religions. Atheists never try to understand religions rather they somehow share similar idea as theists. The theist idea about religion is everything, every bit of it is from God and therefore is correct. So whenever theists argue with atheists they point out the scientific flaws. They imagine science in similar way. The idea is fundamentally wrong, because science does not work that way. Surprisingly atheists often take the similar narrow approach to fight against theists. If such and such of your God is not correct or something written in your holy book is not correct therefore God does not exists! Well this may work well for the sake argument but scientifically this does not prove anything, yet they claim God does not exists! funny! More importantly they never look those books as book rather they look at it the same way theists do.

End of the day those are some books and like all other books and theories they have merits and demerits. Why don't atheists see those books that way? They think they refute one verse of it and therefore they have the right to throw away the entire book. Well, that's not scientific that's religious. If that's what they wanna do, they should not bring science in their argument, they should say they just believe in no God.