Exhibitting recursion

It all starts with a query, a search for something, something essentially not important yet sought eagerly. And then after google shows the first ten results, there are options. But what follows after this is a chain reaction. A markov process depending on only one previous state, a control system with one memory unit like the google's random surfer jumping from one page to another randomly. But even these simplistic models can not capture the effect of branching aka "Open in new Tab". The best and the worst functionality.

Today morning, it started with a search of "raag bhatiyar". And one of the results was this blog page. Impressed by this post, i started on a ride, to see what other things has he written. One of the things that hooked me was the collection of the greatest dumbest celebrity lines. And so on and on....

Scientist are trying to study how people use internet, how do people meet in social networks, what friendships mean in virtual world etc etc but their research is plagued by non-availability of data. In my case, i have observed this phenomenon several times with high frequency too but still a unable to come up with a valid explanation. Why is it that i dont find time to complete my exercises but still have time to go on these odysseys. And now comes the recursive argument: How do i have time to even write a blog post on this insane phenomenon.

Now that i have exhibited recursion in my argument, i feel satiated.

The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover

This is a soundtrack from the movie: The cook, the thief, his wife and her lover.
It is quite possible that this song may not make sense who has not seen the movie, but after seeing the movie, i love it.




This movie is directed by Peter Greenway. It was my first Peter Greenway movie. In addition to a catchy title, this movie is a fundoo arty movie. Great use of colors, lights, and, ofcourse, music! I absolutely love the character of Albert Spica portrayed by Michael Gambon. He also stars as Dumbledore in Harry Potter series and is a delight to watch after you have seen this movie.
Here is an excerpt of his lines from the movie:

Albert: What you've got to realize is that the clever cook puts unlikely things together, like duck and orange, like pineapple and ham. It's called 'artistry'. You know, I am an artist the way I combine my business and my pleasure: Money's my business, eating's my pleasure and Georgie's my pleasure, too, though in a more private kind of way than stuffing the mouth and feeding the sewers, though the pleasures are related because the naughty bits and the dirty bits are so close together that it just goes to show how eating and sex are related. Georgie's naughty bits are nicely related, aren't they, Georgie?

Big or small

I am often confused by the dilemma of big vs small. The dilemma arises often in the context of social change, research, office work and in daily routines. The big vs small debate is stated as follows:

You have lots of work to do. Work comprises of big tasks and small tasks. Big tasks means bigger implications and small tasks mean not-so-big implications. Now which one should be done first. Bigger task would mean that you are tackling the main problem first while working on the smaller on would mean that you can get over it quickly and focus on main tasks. Which one should be done first??
Clearly a round-robin algorithm is one of the worst one can think of, i am not an OS..i am human. Weighted round-robin (where time quanta is proportional to task size) may work for some but not for me.
Another aspect of this problem is that many argue that there is no big task, only small ones...if you see a big one, you lack modularity.....I wonder if this rule is a general rule.
Psychological aspect says that prolonged attachment to a single problem may lead to de-motivation.

Is there a general rule to solve this problem???

Joke

A mathematician (or you can also assume a cs theorist) was fed up with his work not getting anywhere and decides to do something else. He plans to become a fire-fighter and goes to a local fire station for an interview. The interviewer impressed by his intellectual record asks him to demonstrate some of his skills. He takes the mathematician outside through the back door and sets up a garbage bin on fire and asks him to extinguish the fire. The mathematician well versed with this practice pours water on the bin. After the fire is quelled, he says done. The interviewer says fine and now sees that smoke is still there. He asks the mathematician to get rid of smoke. Our mathematician thinks for some time and being a mathematician naturally has no idea on how to get rid of smoke. After some thinking, he again sets up a fire in the bin. The interviewer is perplexed now and asks the mathematician what he is doing, "why have you set up fire again in the bin"? The mathematician replies " I have reduced the problem to a state from where i can solve or atleast do something about it now. This should lead me to the correct solution"

ऐ मेरे दोस्त

ऐ मेरे दोस्त, यह कैसा सवाल
की चिट भी तेरी और पट भी तेरी
पूछते हो कि वापस आने का है क्या इरादा
जो मैं न कहूं तो मंद मंद मुस्कराते हो
और अगर हाँ बोलूँ तो तपाक से कहते हो
"सब येही कहते हैं, वापस कोई नहीं आता "

बहुत गलतियाँ करने के बाद अकल आई हैं हमें
ऐ मेरे दोस्त देख मेरा जवाब
अब चिट भी मेरी और पट भी मेरी
जो तू पूछे वही सवाल, अब में संभाल लेता हूँ
"तुझे क्या लगता है " यह कह कर टाल देता हूँ
जो तू यह कहे तो क्या तुझे लगता हूँ में ऐसा
और जो तू वह कहे तो तू दोस्त कैसा ?

Gulzaar

I have been wanting to do this since a very long time. I guess today must be a lucky day

एक रोज ज़िंदगी के रुबरु आ बैठे .
ज़िंदगी ने पूछा ..दर्द क्या है ..? क्यों होता है ..?
कहाँ होता है , यह भी तोह पता नही चलता ....
तन्हाई क्या है आख़िर ...?
कितने लोग तोह हैं ...फ़िर तनहा क्यों हो ...?
मेरा चेहरा देख कर ज़िंदगी ने कहा ...
मैं तुम्हारी जुड़वाँ हूँ ...मुझसे नाराज़ न हुआ करो ...!!



Tujhse naraaz nahin zindagi hairaan hoon main
Tere masoom sawaalon se pareshaan hoon main

jeene ke liye socha hi nahin, dard sambhaalne honge
muskuraayen to, muskuraane ke karz utaarne honge
muskuraaooN kabhi to lagtaa hai
jaise honTon pe karz rakhhaa hai

aaj agar bhar aai hain, boondein baras jaayengii
kal kyaa pataa inke liye aankhen taras jaayengii
jaane kab ghum hua kahaan khoya
ek aansoo chhupaake rakhaa thaa

zindagi tere gham ne hamein rishte naye samjhaaye
mile jo hamein dhoop mein mile chhaon ke thanDe saaye..

Kimya Dawson

Well for the last 15 days or so i have been blessed by the magic of Kimya Dawson.
It all began with the movie Juno. Juno is a good movie, nice story, good acting, direction but what makes it special is its treatment and how music defines it. Its music is given by Kimya Dawson.
The dictionary meaning of chirpy is : Characterized by liveliness and light-heartedness.
Chirpy defines the genre of Kimya Dawson, chirpy lyrics, chirpy voice and ofcourse the music.
To give you just a flavour:

Song: Tire Swing
I took the Polaroid down in my room,
I'm pretty sure you have a new girlfriend.
It's not as if I don't like you,
It just makes me sad whenever I see it.
Cause I like to be gone most of the time,
And you like to be home most of the time.
If I stay in one place I lose my mind.
I'm a pretty impossible lady to be with.

Joey never met a bike that he didn't want to ride,
And I never met a Toby that I didn't like.
Scotty liked all of the books that I recommended,
Even if he didn't I wouldn't be offended.

I had a dream that had to drive to Madison
To deliver a painting for some silly reason.
I took a wrong turn and ended up in Michigan.
Paul Baribeau took me to the giant tire swing.
Gave me a push and he started singing
I sang along while I was swinging.
The sound of our voices made us forget everything
That had ever hurt our feelings.

Song: Anyone else but you
You're a part time lover and a full time friend
The monkey on you're back is the latest trend
I don't see what anyone can see, in anyone else
But you

Song: Loose lips
We won't stop until somebody calls the cops,
And even then we'll start again and just Pretend that
Nothing ever happened.
we're just dancing, we're just hugging,
singing, screaming, kissing, tugging
on the sleeve of how it used to be

Song: So nice, So smart
you're so nice and you're so smart
you're such a good friend i hafta break your heart
tell you that i love you then i'll tear your world apart
just pretend i didn't tear your world apart

Her website is : http://www.kimyadawson.com/
Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kimya_Dawson
Imeem playlist: http://profile.imeem.com/nhxxUiG/playlist/PZkFx0BZ/kimya_dawson_music_playlist/

Absolutes

There is no truth, only perspectives.

This means that you are saying that it is a truth that there is no truth. It is a logical contradiction.

I came across the above lines in the movie: The life of David Gale.

Technical

I think this will be my first technical post on this blog. Here i am writing some ideas that does not exist as of now but i strongly feel that these should be implemented. These ideas are some observations from me - things that i would like to see or features that i would like to use. They may be technical challenging or not (but if facebook can be a hit, then anything can be!). The idea behind this exercise is to document them and a little subtle idea is to see if they are implemented lets say 3 years from now. So here it goes:

1. Culture + wiki + kosmix:
Kosmix creates a homepage for every search query by searching and indexing data that looks like a webpage. Currently into health, autos etc, it creates a webpage for any heatlh disease, treatment etc. Wiki lets you add content, normal users can add content, edit it , verify it etc. Kosmix just searches data from internet, categorizes them, and displays in a good fashion giving links and references. Data includes video, audio, imiages, text links, good webpages, maps, etc - its a huge list. Now looking at internet i do not see a centralized place where i can get cultural information. What i mean is like lets say i am looking for sikh culture, how they conduct their prayers, information about gurdwaras, its architecture, sikh traditions, gurbanis, songs, meanings, info about pagdi, how to tie a pagdi etc. This is one such culture, similar ideas such as in arya samaj - how to conduct a hawan, its ingredients, sholokas, their meanings, different bhajans etc. Things like what spicmacay is doing, info about indian classical music, carnatic etc, its all part of our culture. So there is a huge list. And there are many cultures. So what i want is :

1. The search engine should be able to search all results pertaining to culture, make a webpage for each culture, categorize the webpage into lets say - prayers, temples, Gods, traditions, origins, images/videos of customs, languages spoken, grammar of languages and all sorts of things.
2. Allow the functionality for users to add/edit content, upload photos, videos, bhajan/aarti recordings etc, allow users to rate content.
3. A search engine does everything dynamically , i.e. given a query it creates a webpage of that query dynamically. I want to have a static webpage with content added by
(a) crawling web, this content will be refined by ratings and user inputs
(b) By users who write their experiences, add videos etc
4. Provide a search option for things that do not already exist. So lets say i want to know some culture followed by people in Andaman Islands..if it does not exist, create a webpage for it.

Advantages:
1. Example Case scenario: I want to know how to tie a pagdi, i go to the sikh culture, i look around for a video/tutorial. If it exits, i see it and then rate it. If it doesnt exist, the search engine gets the best possible results for me.
2. It will provide a centralized place for all cultures. It will be a great place to learn about our roots and history. In the current age, several of us has felt that they still dont understand their identity. It will be a warehouse of all information possible. For e.g. i can not write k,kha,ga in hindi, leave alone sanskrit. I dont know its grammar. I can always go to this website and look at this kind of stuff. (Sidepoint - One can add tutorials to learn language etc)
3. One can look at other cultures to know more about them.
4. Can be linked with tourism - temples, muesuems with map info etc
5. Many cultures are becoming extinct day by day, many languages of andaman islands are spoken by only 100 people today, after 20 yrs no one will know that they even existed. I want to document them here.
Advantages are many and mainly social.


Revenue model:
1. Ad sense.....
2. I dont know...i just want to do it because i feel like it...somebody should sponsor..please!


2. Right to Information
Its simple - a place to apply for information from govt offices using internet. You go online, fill a form, submit it, and the information that you seek is searched from the official documents (automatically) and the relevant information is emailed to you. The search is intelligent enough to say that these documents are confidential and you cant see. I agree the main challenges here will be to get the permission from govt. to allow to index all these documents and provide this kind of service. But my point is that such kind of application do not exist. If someone makes it and proposes it, who knows someday we will have it online. Mind you that RTI was not approved till 2005 and it looks so obvious that such kind of act should be there from the beginning. But it wasnt. Similarly, this kind of software is obvious. Technically also it will require some skill - machine learning to understand scanned docs, indexing them , searching them etc. May be it reuires some human intereference too to check that the results are valid etc. Google has already implemented most of its modules for different applications but for this purpose there is no application. Moreover, it is not only in India, such applications exist nowhere. We can also do this: Each office has a kiosk. you go there and submit your query and your results are printed then and there. We can by-pass the bureaucratic procedure that exists today. This way people without internet can also use such feature. Ability to read and write is however required.
Revenue model: Govt should pay this application.