Excursions

Here’s a word cloud of my posts created in 2008 – I had been writing for around 2 years then. I find it funny that even then I wrote the most about “blog”. Meta commentary never goes out of fashion.

Kane and Abel by Jeffrey Archer

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First two chapters down and I knew am in for an epic saga. The book had me right from the stories of the two protagonists being christened.

This was one of the finest examples of how the characters are built. Every single one, even the supporting ones, was well shaped. With that done in the backdrop of the historical events, they felt real. To see how each one of the events impacted the characters had a smile on my face. I was emotionally with them in their rise to success, rooting for one at times, while the other at others. Their stories might feel cliched, but I felt them. And then they met, right around the middle.

I felt the second half was a bit weak. The events became forced every time the characters had to meet. Kane and Abel, as individuals, had me intrigued. But Kane and Abel together? Not much. The rivalry felt contrived, childish. Agreed, I was interested to know what unfolded next. But it played out just the way I predicted. Interested, and then disappointed not to be proved wrong.

And I have to mention that the romantic parts were the weakest. Such lifeless, boring mentions of jumbled adult words. There for just no reason. Good they didn’t last long, I cringed every time.

Having said all, I did enjoy the novel, an entertaining read. It had me interested in Kane and Abel till the end. And that’s where it succeeded.

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Some years ago, executives at a Houston airport faced a troubling customer-relations issue. Passengers were lodging an inordinate number of complaints about the long waits at baggage claim. In response, the executives increased the number of baggage handlers working that shift. The plan worked: the average wait fell to eight minutes, well within industry benchmarks. But the complaints persisted.

Puzzled, the airport executives undertook a more careful, on-site analysis. They found that it took passengers a minute to walk from their arrival gates to baggage claim and seven more minutes to get their bags. Roughly 88 percent of their time, in other words, was spent standing around waiting for their bags.

So the airport decided on a new approach: instead of reducing wait times, it moved the arrival gates away from the main terminal and routed bags to the outermost carousel. Passengers now had to walk six times longer to get their bags. Complaints dropped to near zero.

There is some great theory there. Man I love human tendency to fool oneself into not hating something.

Make us fools, but we hate waiting.

Inside Google’s secretive X laboratory, known for inventing self-driving cars and augmented reality glasses, a small group of researchers began working several years ago on a simulation of the human brain.

There Google scientists created one of the largest neural networks for machine learning by connecting 16,000 computer processors, which they turned loose on the Internet to learn on its own.

Credit where it is due, Google has to be lauded for encouraging the open research on topics so varied. There is so much potential with computing power and data at Google.

At cost of being cynical (a bit), I felt this would be so so useful (?) to Google with all the data that it has with it. And equally frightening to the users watching. Obviously Google is looking at that, no? And then I read this.

Google scientists said that the research project had now moved out of the Google X laboratory and was being pursued in the division that houses the company’s search business and related services. Potential applications include improvements to image search, speech recognition and machine language translation

And bingo!

On a side note, NYT had to ruin it by changing the headline to “How many computers to identify a cat? 16000”. Underplays the success that this is.

Evidence of Machine Learning scratched at Google X Laboratory

… I won’t be surprised if BJP tags this loss as the failure of UPA government. Someone, mostly Gadkari, might go so far to claim that there is a big conspiracy behind the loss. UPA planned and executed the loss just to divert “aam aadmi’s” attention away from the zillions of unearthing scams.

UPA on the other hand will appoint a committee to look into the loss and give out the steps to be followed, “Committee will come up with the report which will go to PAC that will come to parliament where it will be discussed over and, if any irregularities found, will be open for discussion on action to be taken, followed by the actual action to be taken, given it is decided that another committee need not be formed to investigate the report submitted by the first committee.”

Diggy Singh would suddenly wake up and blurt out “Right-wing Hindu organisation RSS has to be behind this. I have evidence and can prove if I am asked to.” No one will ask him to stop spreading his bloody verbal  dysentery and he will happily go back to sleep.

Manish Tiwari, if asked for comment or if isn’t either, will go on and on with his heavy words artillery and pose another hundred questions at the end of which the initial question will remain unanswered.

Well cricket fans will burn few effigies and wait for the next tour/series/gully challenge trophy where India will play again as favorites.

BCCI will plan another tour (2 tests, 3 ODIs, 2 T20s) against Zimbabwe accepting their offer to pay the money won through win against Bangladesh in return.

New breed cricketers will continue their wait for IPL and play the international matches as practice sessions for IPL.

And Manmohan Singh? “Lammmbiiii khaaamoooshhiiii”.

We, the people of India; the divided people of India.

We are divided by states. We are divided by religion. We are divided by language. We are divided by accent. We are divided by names. We are divided by color.

We are divided by views we hold. We are divided by acts we preach.

We are divided by who we follow. We are divided by who we don’t.

We are divided by what we own. We are divided by what we don’t.

We are divided even by one’s own identity.

So divided we are. We, the people of India. Yes, we are the nation of a billion divided identities.

Least we can do to make ourselves feel better is name this nation “United States of India”. “United” we would be then, at least by name.

Another day, when things did not go as planned. Things worked out well, almost, but did not go to plan. Nothing happened as I thought it should, but I did not complain because it did not affect me negatively. I consoled my mind “all is well”.

Though it did not end the way it should have. I knew something needs to change. And the change is brought. Vague, but truth. Isn’t that how the truth is most often?

Interesting read this about an experiment involving Joshua Bell. You feel for him when we says this:

With “Chaconne,” the opening is filled with a building sense of awe. That kept him busy for a while. Eventually, though, he began to steal a sidelong glance.

“It was a strange feeling, that people were actually, ah …”

The word doesn’t come easily.

“… ignoring me.”

What is even more puzzling though is this thought from Mark Leithauser.

"Let’s say I took one of our more abstract masterpieces, say an Ellsworth Kelly, and removed it from its frame, marched it down the 52 steps that people walk up to get to the National Gallery, past the giant columns, and brought it into a restaurant. It’s a $5 million painting. And it’s one of those restaurants where there are pieces of original art for sale, by some industrious kids from the Corcoran School, and I hang that Kelly on the wall with a price tag of $150. No one is going to notice it. An art curator might look up and say: ‘Hey, that looks a little like an Ellsworth Kelly. Please pass the salt.’"

So life-less we have become. Or were we always like this?

If a great musician plays great music but no one hears, was he really any good?

Change is important. Change is inevitable. But if not, it has to be forced. Change is one thing I plan to undergo every time there is nothing happening around.

Change the way I commute to office. Change the route I use. Change the time I travel. Change the schedule at office. Change the schedule at home. Change the services I use. Change the products I use. I.e. Change everything that’s changeable.

Change something. Change at least one thing. Because that cascades down one’s life to change everything. And this change is important. It freshens one up. It pushes one out of his comfort zone. Rather it just doesn’t allow him to enter a comfort zone; a zone of mechanical activeness.

It was second incident in last 2 weeks when I had to select a mobile number for myself. Now this activity may sound simple and non-important. But I always find it an extremely confusing experience.

Think about it. In front of you are the numbers “available” for you to select as your contact number. Now first thing you have to make sure is the number should be at least easy enough to remember yourself so you do not have to open your contact list every time someone asks for your number.

Now I always find one which is easy enough to remember myself. But it so happens that the way I say the number is always different from how the person who listens to it utters.

To elaborate, I speak the number this way 4 2345 85 15. (Spaces are the pauses I take.) So simple right. Now this is how the other person repeats it 423 458 515. I am like what the hell. It takes me few seconds to realise both of them are the same.

So the aim is to, if possible, select a number which is easy to remember/recognise, whatever way one utters it. And I very rarely find one.

That’s not all. Lets move back to the initial situation. As I said, in front of you are the numbers “available” for you to select. Available. For you. Only these numbers.

So basically these are the numbers which no one, who has selected his contact number earlier, found easy enough to remember. And I have to select one from them. I could, till date, never prevent this thought from entering my mind.

In the end, I always end up selecting some number which neither I, nor someone else could fathom at the same time.

PS: Just received a compliment of my number being awesomely simple. So mission accomplished the second time.