Choices

I was walking alone thru a side show
With passion and pain on each side.
Something inside me was calling
For a chance to stay alive.

At the time I didn't know what was calling
As my head was buried in grief.
Today I heard what was crying.
My freedom calling me

And we all make our choices
Like a blind man feels his way,
And the choice I've made is simple;
Passion over pain.

When I got to the end of the side show
And looked back to where I had been,
My eyes filled with teardrops of loneliness
For the ones who will never be free

And we all make our choices
Like a blind man feels his way,
And the choice I've made is simple:
Passion over pain.

I thought of the children in the side show
As they wandered around so confused.
Some day they'll make their decision
But which one will they choose?

And we all make our choices
Like a blind man feels his way,
And the choice I've made is simple;
Passion over pain.

[Uriah Heep]

Racism!

Once again racism. Racism is something I am encountering these days! It is not that other people are judging me, it is my friends(!) are judging other people. Very funny but true. Personally I hate racism, it hurts me when my friends say, stay away from race "X". A decent number of my friends are here in Norman now and unfortunately I have heard most racist comments from them. I don't know why but it hurts me. I hate racism. Segregating people is the last thing I would accept.

Racists are narcissists. Today they are segregating based on your color, tomorrow when everyone would have same color they will segregate based on something else, then something else, and so on. Human beings are social animal, and probably the worst byproduct of being a social being is racism. Its a shame for human civilization if we can't overcome such a small shortcoming. I have heard hundreds time that my friends are judged by their race; I know its true but to me that cannot be a justification of being racist. Racism is an ancient thing. It is taught in family and society, no one born with it.

OUTLIER DETECTION FOR DATA STREAMS

Outlier detection is a well established area of study for statistical data. However, most of the existing outlier detection techniques are designed targeting the regular data model, where the entire dataset is available for random access. Typical outlier detection techniques construct a standard data distribution or model from the entire dataset and execute their detection algorithms over each data point. Evidently these techniques are not suitable for online data streams where the entire dataset, due to its unbounded volume, is not available for random access. Moreover, the data distribution in data streams change over time which challenges the existing outlier detection techniques that assume a constant standard data distribution for the entire dataset. In addition, data streams are characterized by uncertainty which imposes further complexity. In this work we propose two outlier detection techniques, called Distance Based Outline Detection for Data Streams (DB-ODDS) and Automatic Outlier Detection for Data Streams (A-ODDS). Both techniques are based on a novel continuously adaptive data distribution function that addresses all the issues of data streams; but DB-ODDS identifies outliers depending upon a user-defined minimum neighbor density, whereas A-ODDS identifies the most deviated data points as outliers. We also present efficient and online implementations of the two techniques and experiments evaluating their accuracy and execution time using three real-life datasets from meteorological and energy consumption monitoring applications. The performance results show that DB-ODDS and A-ODDS are superior compared with existing techniques, and while DB-ODDS requires domain knowledge to function, it offers better accuracy and execution time than A-ODDS.

In case if you are interested what have I done for last six months. This is what have I done for last six months. I am tired of it.

Downtown train

Outside another yellow moon
has punched a hole in the night time mist
I climb through the window and down to the street
I'm shining like a new dime
The downtown trains are full
full of all them Brooklyn girls
They try so hard to break out of their little worlds

You wave your hand and they scatter like crows
They have nothing that'll ever capture your heart
They're just thorns without the rose
Be careful of them in the dark
Oh if I was the one you chose to be your only one
Oh baby can't you hear me now, can't you hear me now

Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
Every night, every night its just the same
On a downtown train

I know your window and I know its late
I know your stairs and your doorway
I walk down your street and past your gate

I stand by the light of the four way
and watch them as they fall, oh baby
They all having their heart attacks
They stay at the carnival
But they'll never win you back

Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
Every night, every night its just the same
You leave me lonely
Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
All my dreams, all my dreams fall like rain
On a downtown train

Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
Every night, every night its just the same

Will I see you tonight on a downtown train
All my dreams, all my dreams fall like rain
On a downtown train
On a downtown train
All my dreams fall like rain
On a downtown train

[Tom Waits; 1985] [Rod Stewart' 1989] [Youtube] [wiki]

I am suffocating, ..., suffocating, ..., suffocating...

Thesis defense

So I graduate! I have defended my master's thesis today. It was interesting. I did not have to answer many questions, hard to tell why!!! So far it went well. I have passed. I have everything done necessary for masters. So now I graduate!!! At least, I achieve something since I came here. Maybe, it is not too big thing, I know many many people did that before me and more will do after me but it is one of those good things those happen to me! So I celebrate!

The interesting thing about the graduation is the first question people ask is "What next?" True fully, I don't have any answer for that. It's hard to tell no plan. Even I have tried that today. I told one I have no plan yet; interesting, he replied why did I graduate then! I don't what to say! What should I say to this question? All I can say is I can't stay here forever and do research and bla bla bla... Anyway the good thing is I graduated and it took me little less than two years; so I am pretty much on time. It was my first preference, I wanted it done by time and I did it, so I am kind of happy.

Now I need to think what next? I have couple of options: 1) I can go back to home and come back later for PhD, 2) I can start my PhD here, 3) I can get my OPT and start looking for job, 4) I can just sit and do nothing, 5), 6), ... Very many options! I am confused at this point. I don't want so many options. Hopefully, I'll come up with something, something interesting! Right now all I want is to do relax! relax!! and relax!!!

dataset or technique?

An interesting trend is clearly noticeable, Sensor data sharing website. There are plenty of websites on internet collect data from numerous sensor networks and published the data online. With the increasing popularity of micro-sensor network there is no wander that many researchers are exploring different facets of sensors network applications. Myriad of research papers have been published throughout this decade to address fictitious or real problems. I am not sure how many of them are truly useful but at least those papers help to some students to graduate and some professors to be tenure. Quote unquote, "Ian F. Akyildiz" this area is too crowded but industry usage is too restrictive. It is difficult to point the real problem that discourages the industry people. Anyway, it was not my concern what I am trying to point out is that there are numerous sensor data sharing websites on internet and many researcher collect data from those websites.

The scenario becomes too fuzzy now. It's like someone is using some others' data for some other purposes. Based on my observation, the results published in this domain are highly sensitive to the dataset. Now if the dataset doesn't make any sense, how come the results! The websites are providing data only nobody cares about the quality! I know it is neither their responsibility nor concern but this is the researchers' concern. In my opinion any researcher can write a proposal about the quality estimation for these data and get some funding from them. To me it is a clear need now. I was reading a paper this morning, it was a survey paper and in that paper the authors argue, the results do not vary from one technique to another technique, rather the results vary from one dataset to another dataset! So what is more important, come up with a new technique or come up with standard dataset?

Why there is no new post?

I have nothing to say!
I should not say anything!
I have said enough!
I am compensating what I have said...

DBOD-DS: Distance Based Outlier Detection for Data Streams

Data stream is a newly emerging data model for applications like environment monitoring, Web click stream, network traffic monitoring, etc. It consists of an infinite sequence of data points accompanied with timestamp coming from external data source. Typically data sources are located onsite and very vulnerable to external attacks and natural calamities, thus outliers are very common in the datasets. Existing techniques for outlier detection are inadequate for data streams because of its metamorphic data distribution and uncertainty. In this paper we propose an outlier detection technique, called Distance-Based Outline Detection for Data Streams (DBOD-DS) based on a novel continuously adaptive probability density function that addresses all the new issues of data streams. Extensive experiments on a real dataset for meteorology applications show the supremacy of DBOD-DS over existing techniques in terms of accuracy.

In DEXA' 2010.

Life is too Short

Have you ever seen the morning?
When the sun comes up the shore
And the silence teach the
beauty for the sound
Have you ever sat there waiting?
For the time to stand still
For all the worlds and stars
From turning around
And you run
'Cause life is too short
And you run
'Cause life is too short
Have you ever seen the glory?
When the moon is on the rise
And the dreams are close
To the ones that we love
Have you ever sat there waiting?
For heaven to give a sign
So we could find the place
Where angels come from
And you run (and you run)
'Cause life is too short
And you run (and you run)
'Cause life is too short
There's a time that turns
Turn back time
But I don't see I can
It only works
If you believe in the truth
But there's a time to live
And a time to cry
But if you're by my side
I will try to catch a star
I'll try to catch a star
Just for you
And I run
'Cause life is too short
And I run (and I run)
'Cause life is too short
And I run And I run And I run And I run And I run ...

[Scorpions]

Cologne collector

Last few days I am going throw some cologne reviews. I think this is not because I want to buy something rather it is working as an excellent escape goat for me. An interesting escape from real life. I have heard about aroma therapy long ago. However the cologne seller made me buy two new colognes. It's fun reading other people comments on different perfumes. The most interesting thing catch up my attention is the perfume is not judged by the smell rather it is judged by the number of women pay attention on it. If the cologne can drive the girls toward the wearer, then it is the best. Interesting judging criterion! Again if someone wears a cologne and nobody notices it there is no point of wearing it. At the end of the day few very people are bothered by their own body odor.

I had a fascination on fragrances, it's not entirely new. I love wearing pleasant fragrance. It just makes me refresh. I used to wear body spray but they don't last too long. Then I moved toward perfumes/cologne. It works okay. I am from south asia. Spicy food is our daily dish. Spicy food aroma drives everything away. So I have to use some kind of fragrances for daily life otherwise it is hard to stand the aroma. Polo Black is my signature cologne. You may not like it at the beginning but it is very refreshing after one or two hours. They called it "base note is very strong". I have Drakkar Noir, Armani Code and Burberry Touch now by the grace of American marketing policy.