Past Positive, Present Hedonist and Future Oriented

Earlier today I watched this talk by Philip Zimbardo Professor Emeritus at Stanford. He gives us a unique viewpoint on how we view time and how it affects our life along with statistical evidence. Some part of it might seem intuitively evident but naming the different states and showing us how much our time perception influences our life is a great achievement. One interesting part of the talk was about how people near the equator are present hedonist (too much of that is not good) while people away from it are future oriented on account of the stable weather and the wildly varying weather in the two areas.

Scientology, Stupidity

When I was a fresh graduate after my undergrad studies I used to believe that education would cure most of world's problems. In retrospect I see how naive it was of me. I had the notion that the US is a rich country with an educated population where things are close to prefect barring a few exceptions. I thought people here would not be easily swayed by false idealogies. Then two incidents changed my mind. First was Tom Cruise's Scientology inspired psycho rants. Here was an educated, successful man who was somehow subverted by this nasty religion. It is a powerful religion with several celebrities (and lawyers) enrolled. How could this happen? Second was the evolution vs intelligent design debate which was even worse. It was a sad day when established scientists had to oblige to debate with religious zealots who thought they were qualified after a few hours of reading on the net. The best answer to these morons is here.

From what I know, the first time the truth about Scientology was revealed was in South Park season 9 episode 12. It is an amazing episode and I suggest you watch it at www.southparkstudios.com. Scientology spreads by preying on peoples' insecurities. I have myself seen their special meter when I was in Tampa. They seemed innocuous and I believe the first trial is free. Once they get someone hooked on to it they start asking for money. They frame charges against anyone who opposes them and discredit any former followers who reveal their secrets. Sounds like it does not have any ideals of justice like other religions. According to this article they regularly engage in violence and are more fraudulent than I had thought.

Education is obviously not enlightenment, only a means to it. Though literacy is becoming widespread don't think that stupidity central, the dark force that turns unsuspecting people stupid, is taking it lying down. It constantly reinvents itself and mutates into disguises that dupe the masses into taking it for wisdom. Think of the global warming disbelievers, intelligent design proponents and most troubling, the republicans. This is ofcourse not limited to the US. The ongoing Hindutva movement that has hit the educated Indian middle class is IMHO an example (not equating hindutva and scientology here). The richest Indians are probably outside the country. They are highly educated and very succesful people. And they do selective abortions in us and uk even after living for generations in cultures where a girl child is not viewed as a burden.

So where is all this going? To the Dilbert principle ofcourse. People are stupid. You, me, all of us. Its just that some of us are not stupid all the time.

Mighty Roark

Prologue: I have obliged your appeals for a new story. Please stop bombarding me with requests and enquiries about my hiatus from creative writing.

Roark was perched on a shiny precipice when suddenly it was not dark anymore. He scrambled to the nearest shade and took a peek. Though it was blindingly bright he could make out that one of the giants was out there. The shadow of the creature seemed to stretch over the entire horizon. Then it moved towards him. Roark could feel his heart skip a few beats. As it neared him the stench was overwhelmingly nauseating. Fear creeped up over him and it took him all his will power to be still. He knew what would happen if the creature saw any sign of life down here.

It was on a similar day that he had witnessed the massacre of his entire family. One of the younglings who didn't know about the giants was playing outside when one of them appeared along with the blinding light. The youngling panicked and ran back towards the family. He didn't know that the giant's gaze had followed him. In less than a moment they were all mercilessly crushed.

"May be the same would happen to me now," Roark thought rather placidly.

The giant stopped. Something had slipped from his limbs and large yellow globules bounced off the earth making such a ruckus that Roark thought his head would explode. The giant for some reason quickly ran away. Roark felt his fear pass. He was emboldened by the fact that he anyway did not have much to loose. He cautiously walked towards the globules and climbed over one of them. There were many of these wonderful globules scattered over the earth. He seemed to be enthralled by them more and more every minute. Then he took a bite out of it. It felt good, refreshing in fact. He took many more bites of the globule. He gorged on it like he did not care about anything else in this world. He feasted till he knew there was no place left in his stomach for any more. Then he ate some more. The only thought he had before he passed out was that for the first time he took something from them, the giants. He had had his revenge. He was glad.

Next to Roark lay a translucent object with jagged edges on which was a pattern he had not been able to discern. That pattern was "ITAMIN TABL".

"AAHHHHHH." Roark had woken up to terrible pain. There was a storm trying to burst every vein and sinew in his body. In between the violent outbursts of pain he could see that he was growing, with terrible speed. He was transforming or even metamorphosising. He was several times taller and his muscles were at least a hundred times bigger. His wings were a magnificent orange and his antennae were needles of steel. Thus was born the MIGHTY ROACH - protector of the cockroach realm.

Yeesh..... Rubbish. I don't feel like writing today. Sorry readers I am stuck with cockroaches. As compensation I give you this, a story I wrote for a creative writing contest in my old office. Topic was 'Creating our future'. Reproduced with all errors intact.

Creating our future

It was a creepy night... Jark's severed head was rolling down the hill. His wife Julie was singing maniacally "Jark and Julie went up the hill....... Jark is now rolling down the hill". And then she started trembling and cried "Jark come back, come back Jark".

::Flash back: 2 months ago::
Captain Zork was adamant. He wanted his son Jark to join the intergalactic flight school. He always told him "Son this is for your future.... I just want you to be happy". Jark wanted to run away from home to join the circus as a clown. But his love for Julie stayed him. Julie was his childhood sweetheart.

The next morning he went to see Julie. "I cannot live like this. You know how much I want to be a clown, but if I become a clown I might not be able to support you. Oh! What should I do?"

With tears in her eyes Julie said "Your father cannot decide your destiny. We create our future. My destiny is to be with you. So I will join you in the circus and become your partner clown."

Suddenly it started to rain heavily and Jark and Julie were dancing.........

::Flash back: 2 minutes ago::
Two clowns where running up a hill one behind the other. Jark was running for his life. Julie was behind him with a laser gun. They reach the summit. Jark stops. Panting heavily he says "Have you gone crazy?".

Julie aims for his head and fires. The heat ray slices his neck in two. Julie starts singing maniacally......

::NOW::
Julie runs to the well and calls out to Jark. Jark shouts back "I am chained to the well. Shoot at the chains with your laser."

ZAP....ZAP....

{Yes dear readers the real Jark is alive and well. His father had sent an imposter wearing a rubber mask to kill Julie, but she proved to be smart.}

Jark looks at the azure sky and then at his beautiful sweetheart and asks "How did you know it was not me?".

"I didn't."

ZAP....ZAP....

Julie repeated her chant as Jarks head (the real Jarks head) was rolling down the hill "Jark and Julie went up the hill....... Jark is now rolling down the hill. I am no longer a clown. HA HA HA"

We make our future the way we want it, especially if we have a laser gun.

Epilogue: Don't be shocked . I took it as a chance to feed them back all the shit they shoved at me. I e-mailed the work to our HR as follows:

Hi Shurpanaka (name changed to not cause offence),

Attached is my entry for creative writing. I give more importance to participation than winning, but if you want give me a prize for this (??) I will reluctantly accept.
Regards,
Manu

The phantom chick

I usually try to avoid putting up silly events from my daily grind. But the one you are about to read is in no way silly. Its more like an episode of the Twilight Zone.

 

I was boiling eggs for today's dinner when I heard a soft clicking sound from the kitchen. I was afraid we had rats or some other infestation and so went closer to check. From up close it sounded more like chirping. It was coming from the vessel I was boiling eggs in. I lifted it up and checked if there was anything behind it.

 

Nothing.

 

On top of that when I lifted the vessel the chirping increased. There was no doubt; the sound was coming from the eggs. But how? Was there a chick in there? I quickly drained the water.

 

The chirping stopped. I took the eggs/chick in a shell and checked it against a light but couldnt see anything. I tried shaking it, all the while imagining a tiny chick getting knocked around in the shell. But I didn't feel anything solid inside them. There was nothing in them that could have made that sound. I was confused for a second. I finally cracked open all of them to convince myself.

 

After reading all this you might think that I am crazy. I thought so too. I think every once in a while we are faced by such a profound experience that we question the world around us. We ask if we really know whats going on and if something slipped under the veal of reality and manifested in front of you. My tryst with the phantom chick was such a moment. 

 

Also let me clarify that I didn't steal the eggs from some farm. It came from a store where they are supposed to sell unfertilized eggs. So in retrospect I see that there was no way a chick could have been in there. Consider also the fact that the eggs might have been in packaging for several weeks. There is however this. May be the chick was just floating through this space when I heard the sound. 

Netbooks update

I bought one. A Dell inspiron mini 9 for $180 ($169 + tax) from the outlet website. Its the minimum configuration with 512 MB RAM and 4 GB SSD memory running Ubuntu Linux. For the price its simply great. I will compliment the system with a 4 GB or 8 GB SDHC card. Eagerly waiting for the delivery. Today they will release the mini 10 model and so expect more deals on mini 9 and mini 12. I don't think there will be a cheaper deal in the near future.

 

Another good deal that I read about was the sale on ASUS Eee PC 900a in Best Buy stores. The reported prices varied from $160 - $200 in different areas. It is also a good deal but it should be noted that it has very low backup. Its reported to have less than 1 hr 30 mins whereas the mini 9 has about 3 hrs 30 mins.

 

Once I get the system I will also explore online file storage and remote desktop access to my laptop and work server. I might add more RAM later. For Windows netbooks there are several options like Zumo drive, MS Live Mesh and Gladinet for extra storage and remote access. But the Linux models are always cheaper ones.

Netbooks - now is not the time.

I have been scouring the net to find a good deal for a netbook. For the uninitiated, a netbook is a small laptop with a screen thats around 9 inches wide diagonally and weighs about 1 kg. Its processing power is limited and cannot be used to run heavy programs like games or matlab. Most models cant run windows vista, but who cares about that? The most popular models are Asus ee PC, MSI wind, Acer aspire one and Dell inspiron mini. Lenovo, HP, Toshiba and Sony also have models though they not as popular as the others due to the high cost.

 

Apart from its small size and light weight, the good ones also have upto 7 hrs of battery life. Its usually priced between $250 - $400. I think it makes sense to buy one as a second computer for use while travelling and also while going for lectures when you might want to look up pdfs or chat on gtalk. My current laptop is about 3.5 kgs and its a pain carrying it around.

 

That said when I looked deeper into the details this does not seem to be the best time for such a purchase. The machines have a processor called the Intel Atom. It is power efficient but not powerful. Benchmarks show that the performance of a 1.6 GHz Atom is almost same as that of an older Intel processor, celeron M 900 MHz. The Intel platform seems to be unnecessarily costly, atleast thats what the tech forums say.

 

Other processors for netbooks like an ARM based Freescale chip, which would be much more power efficient, are slated for release later this year. Another reason to wait is the impending release of NVIDIAs ION platform which will make the systems much more graphics capable. Also the pricing seems to be wrong. Dell sells their bare bones model for $249, but had just 3 weeks back sold a few refurbished peices in the outlet website for $174. I believe when newer models are released many of the older ones will be available for less than $200. So wait, if not for the newer chips atleast for lower prices.