ThisBlog
Friday, March 25, 2005
Do try this at home!
6:38 PM
Howazzat!
Used to be that google just showed the URL... but now there's
some excerpt too... Now I suppose I should put in some metatags and get my
nanotechnology connection out there... and, of course, do some good research
too! :)
On a related note, we just sent off a big research funding
proposal to the NIH, which we were working on for the past month or so...
so perhaps I'll blog more now. or not.
Monday, January 03, 2005
RealClimate
2:24 PM
This is good... I've now added another blog that does the talking for me. Check out RealClimate.org. Now I only need to add some blogs that talks about India, Photography, Geekstuff etc, and I won't have to blog much at all!
Delegation. It's the smart thing to do :-)
update:Here's more -
The Panda's Thumb on evolution/creationism.
India Uncut
Edited on: Monday, January 03, 2005 5:37 PM
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Saturday, September 25, 2004
3 questions
3:49 PM
1) Where can I get scores (for playing on the piano) of Indian and western music? Fr free of course...
2) Which is a good domain name seller/DNS hosting service? Does it work out cheaper to buy the domain name for longer term?
3) Which is a good chess book for learning basic strategies, tactics, opening and endgame moves etc?
Friday, September 03, 2004
Back to work!
11:39 AM
So here I am! Back after a long three month break!
Feels great to be back in the labs nad getting my hands all covered with nanoparticles [ok not really... we use protection ;)], but my apartment is still a mess with people moving in and out, guests and what not... But I guess the dust will settle down soon enough [and I will have to do a lot of vacuuming after that :) ].
Anyway, in a new lab now with a new comp, 17" LCD screen and Nvidia 9600 card with 256MB dedicated memory being the highlights.
Also a blazing hot Thingamablog v.1 to blog with! [BTW, it seems I have done some "cool stuff" with my blog!]
What more could a geek ask for!
So once again, come here once in a while, to see what I find as I explore my stochastic consciousness.
Edited on: Sunday, September 05, 2004 12:38 PM
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Monday, January 19, 2004
Through my eyes/screen
1:55 PM
A little colour for the blog...I looked at it for the first time on another computer, and it looked really bland...
I've been using this colour for window background (with the 'Rainy Day' scheme) for about 3-4 years now...
So now you see the blog like I see it...
Edited on: Monday, January 19, 2004 1:55 PM
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Thursday, January 15, 2004
Coincidence?
2:27 PM
Is this a coincidence or what? A few miuntes ago I posted Reatuality, and now I stumble upon an article on a computer wearing cyborg! This guy - Steve Mann - is an engineering prof at the University of Toronto. Check out his own website - EyeTap -- "By various modes of thought we can take a picture, or tune the brightness, or change the contrast on the EyeTap system, all hands-free. Also, a new feature of the code, is a display of the various waveforms that a user might want to see. This will allow the user to practise, and train on our system, so that precise thought control can be acheived. It also looks neat."
Cool toys! I can't wait to make myself one! ;-)
Edited on: Thursday, January 15, 2004 2:34 PM
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Cheating?
1:20 PM
Admittedly, putting old stories on your blog as a recent entry might be called cheating, but what the heck...
It's a good way to allow more people access to good literature ;-)
Saturday, December 20, 2003
Over and Out
5:12 PM
Finished! Acabado! Fertig! Fini! Rifinito! Terminado!
Off to Jacksonville now!
Will blog if I can figure out the VPN access thingy.
The professed long post is off for now...
Sorry!
Bye now...
Oh BTW, got A in Electrochemistry...
Bye...
Gone!
Really...
Friday, December 19, 2003
2 dn 1 2 go
12:09 PM
All right! Another subject vanquished! Now for Biochem.
Meanwhile, taking inspiration from my roomie I've started collecting the US State Quarters series. I've managed to collect 12, I think, out of the 25 released till now... I was thinking that would be a good list to fill up the space on the left :D So there it is! Will update with numbers soon...
Also, since I'll probaby not be able to post for the next two weeks, I think I'll dig up somehing big and post it to compensate for that ;-)
Edited on: Friday, December 19, 2003 12:28 PM
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Tuesday, November 25, 2003
Back to the Blogging
7:01 PM
Much to the chagrin of my regular and loyal readership [the same numbering around 3], the blog has been silent for a week and a day now, so this is the time to put things right. As you might have noticed, I was busy stirring a storm in a few e-cups for the past week. After that, I suppose I was just plain lazy.
Don't have much to write even now, since I spend most of my time looking at F828 on sony's website [not sure the link will work, they prbably have session ID], and dreaming about the moment when I will first hold it in my hand ;-).
But in any case, I'm back, and will post more or less regularly henceforth. Meanwhile, I've just added one more short paragraph to the story.
Edited on: Sunday, January 11, 2004 9:05 PM
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Monday, November 10, 2003
The Blog rests
6:11 PM
Apparently I have too much work to do [e.g. PhD Applications, Exams, Research, Homework...] and too litle time. Expect the next post sometime this weekend....
Meanwhile, here're some links to send to people who send you useless chain mails and scare mails without checking the facts - TruthOrFiction.org, BreakTheChain.org, HoaxBusters and there are a zillion more.. Of course, just googling the operative word from such emails with 'hoax' will usually tell you if the email is a hoax or not. I wonder why people don't do that. For example, today I got an email about Progesterex. Now in itself the mail was certainly something to be concerned about, but googling it gives nothing but hoax info pages. Oh Well...
Sunday, October 05, 2003
The Blogging Iceberg...
6:36 PM
Here's some news that should cheer up all bloggers - according to a recent survey, " The "blogosphere" will number ten million souls by the end of 2004, but almost all of them will be dead. That's the conclusion from one of the first comprehensive studies of weblogging conducted by research company Perseus, which has analyzed over three thousand weblogs." So it's a fad in essence. Check the news article on the Reg and the original survey report. I must say I'm one of the blog abandoners too, with my one entry stint of blogging last year. Rather embarrassing, that entry. However, this second try seems to be going well, despite the occasional hiccup.
In passing: Universities spend HUGE sums on building climbing walls, tanning decks and movie theaters, ostensibly to attract better students.
... and a cool IBM-Linux ad
Edited on: Sunday, October 05, 2003 6:39 PM
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Saturday, October 04, 2003
Maintenance
2:39 PM
Some maintenance going on! Hopefully I'll get the page to look like I want some time soon. :-)
UPDATE: Something is not right! Can somebody tell me why all the text [below the first horizontal line, where the table starts] is bold? I couldn't find any unclosed bold tags or heading tags in the template...
Maybe I should just blame it on Microsoft! ;-)
UPDATE: Look what happens to people who don't study their html! the bold thing was because I used TH tag in the tables - which is apparently 'Table Header' now everything is ok with the TD tags. To my defense though, I used OpenOffice to make up the table...[If at first you don't succeed... blame it on someone! ;-)]
Edited on: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 4:15 PM
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Sunday, September 28, 2003
Charter
6:38 PM
I've been thinking about writing up a 'What you can expect o read here' post, but it's getting tougher and tougher nowadays to sit down and write, what with all the mid-sems, poster presentation and research report deadlines looming on the horizon [No, not like ominous clouds, think more on the lines of annoying mosquito swarms that distract you from your picnic ;-)]. In any case, I'm going to start with this post, and keep adding to it as things come to my mind. Suggestions, of course, are quite welcome.
***What you will find here:
-Thoughts on various news that I come across
-Mesmerizing tales from my amazing adventures in researchland ;-)
-Miscellaneous posts as related to the various categories I've made up...
-Update on what's going on my life - not very frequently...
***What you will not find
-My deepest and most secret desires :D
-My nefarious plans to take over the world
-Irrelevant trivia - however amusing - as eats up my webspace and your time!
-etc. etc.
More later....
In passing, a bunch of articles in Science - Networks in Biology Haven't read them myself yet, but looks interesting...
Edited on: Monday, September 29, 2003 10:40 AM
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Monday, September 22, 2003
Now fully online! (I think....)
1:55 PM
Back after three gruelling days of memorizing names and structures of amino acids, lipids and what not - and a good exam! Biochemistry helps those who help themselves ;-)
Blog update - commenting issue is resolved! Now if you click on the 'Comments(#)', the resulting popup window will contain comments related to that post, and if you write a comment, it'll be linked to that particular post. So that's that. Another thing, now the blog - like most others - will have the latest entries first - obviates all the unnecessary scrolling down...
The commenting solution has however removed Ajit's earlier (and rather flattering) comment about being tech savvy etc - to quote
Feynman - "I have to understand the world, you see." :-) My view is this - the technologies that we use are changing so rapidly, that if we don't keep up, a) we won't be able to use them to their full potential and fall behind those who can; b) within the next five to ten years everything will seem like magic! (Arthur C. Clarke's laws, and more stuff..., and also - Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature. LOL)
If there's one thing I don't like, it's using 'black box' technologies.. (or magic - unless I'm playing Diablo! haven't done that in quite a while...) and c) I just like playing with new toys...
Knowledge is indeed power - the more the better.
That said, I have to start working now on understanding my own research! Will be carrying out some experiments to see if my three weeks of doing mostly nothing (other than reading a LOT of research papers) has paid off :-). Then wait some more, then more experiments, then... Plus I have to give a presentation - MS thesis outline - on October 14th... and another exam on 17th. Oh the fun of being in school! :-|
I'm thinking about writing a 'Charter of Contents' for the blog. No point in writing drivel about my day to day activities. I'll start working on that too...
Edited on: Monday, September 22, 2003 3:37 PM
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Thursday, September 18, 2003
A little about the title
2:59 PM
This is going to be a long and perhaps a little heavy post, so hold on!
But first, thanks to Bob for all his help with setting up the blog, and
for developing Thingamablog.
That
said, a little explanation of what I mean by the the name of this blog -
According
to WordWeb
explore
(verb):
--Inquire into
--Travel to or penetrate into; of unknown
territory, for scientific purposes
--Examine minutely
--Examine for
diagnostic purposes, as of organs
Don't think that need any more
explanation...
stochastic (adjective):
--(statistics)
being or having a random variable
I was recently reading a little
about Artificial
Neural Networks and a chanced upon the word stochastic,
which I found really interesting. A little more reading revealed that a
lot of complex systems can be best described as stochastic, some even
using stochastic
equations. I suppose it is a good way of qualitatively describing the
whole universe too! Even though (we think) we have significant
understanding of the basic principles that govern the universe, there are
are a lot of events (perhaps almost all of them!) that we cannot predict.
This is where the stochastic, chaotic, random, unknown, or undetermined
variables manifest themselves. As science progresses, and we understand
and define these variables, we increase our predictive power. I'm hoping,
however, that the world will never be completely deterministic for human
beings - that there will always be insufficient
data for a meaningful answer for at least a few questions. A little
randomness makes for a more interesting world!
consciousness
(noun):
--An alert cognitive state in which you are aware of
yourself and your situation
--Having knowledge of
Although this
is probably good enough for a dictionary definition, 'consciousness' -
perhaps the defining characteristic of being human - is a much more
complex and misunderstood phenomenon. In a book that I read recently - 'Understanding
Consciousness' by Max Velmans; the author talks about a new theory of
consciousness that he (and others) have developed. The gist, a little
oversimplified, is that there is no perception 'apart' from what you
actually see. For example, if you see a cat, there is no 'image' of the
cat somewhere in your mind/brain, even though this perception is
understood in two ways - an external observer can observe (via FMRI,
for example) a subject's experience, thoughts etc. as neural activity and
connections, but to the subject, the experience is what they experience, a
thought is what they think. Thus a theory of consciousness and how it
relates to reality should include these complimentary ways - what Velmans
calls 'Ontological monism combined with Epistemological dualism' - of
understanding both.
What all this boil's down to, in my own
layman's way of thinking, is - concousness is reality.
So...
there you have it. I'll leave the task of putting the explanation of the
parts together in order to decipher the intent of the whole as an
excercise for the reader.
:-)
Wednesday, September 17, 2003
Ponder, ponder....
8:07 PM
This post is just to see how thingamablog handles multiple posts - since I'm using it in a way that it's not really designed to use (I'm just posting on my network drive, whereas it's designed to port the log to a ftp space - not that that should make any difference...)
Another question that arises is, now that I have a blog (hopefully regularly updated...), should I just post all the interesting stuff I come across here rather than e-mail everybody the 'junk' that I find quite interesting... I guess people who read my mails regularly can just check my page...
If anybody knows how to incorporate a reader feedback system - that everybody can read - on a blog, please let me know...
Edited on: Thursday, September 18, 2003 1:13 PM
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First entry
10:50 AM
Using thingamablog to make this first entry on my blog! I'll go with plain text for now, but hopefully integrate the blog in my website soon. This is nice!
Let there be more blog noise :-|
Edited on: Thursday, September 18, 2003 4:49 PM
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