Fudge » My Experiments with…

Bilinear Interpolation

Aman Yajurvedi — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 17:04:15 +0000

They say the greatest weakness in a kingdom is the king’s mind ; and an empire can rise and call depending on how he think and feels. Wars waged over ego, love and power all originate from the mind of a king. Former president of the modern day empire, also grew and suffered with the the collective minds of a few great men. Our greatest weapon of mass destruction is our mind itself. Human beings are gods. We are advanced in our thought, our brains have mutated to great extents. A great man’s mind once questioned a fallen apple which led to him discovering the strongest force in nature. Another discovered that mass exists beyond what we can see ; another made it possible to see what could not be seen. We are ruthless and we wont stop. The universe lies as man’s biggest mystery today.

Since our existence we have unraveled mysteries spanning few years before and few years after. And with each year we continue this bi-directional growth of discovering the unknown. This phenomenon can be compared with Bilinear Interpolation. In simplest terms, If we are to assume our existence with respect to time is somewhere on the horizontal X-axis, then we progress each year in both the negative as well as the positive direction.

Coming back to our human mind, Who controls the human brain? Doesn’t our brain control the interaction between various body parts. A common example, If we wish to lift our arm – we tell our brain that we want to lift our arm, which triggers nerves and activates muscles to generate a moment in our arm, to which our eyes register and sends a notification to our brain that the arm moved in a direction. The brain then inspects this direction and tally’s it to a previously trained colloquial terminology called UP. So, our arm moved up. Its kind of is a full circle originating at the brain and coming back to it. If our arm were to move down and our eyes registered the opposite movement, imagine how we would be living today.

Now lets talk about a highly debatable organ, much loathed by the brain, as it tried to steal its thunder. I am talking about the heart. Over centuries this debate has been dragged on. Does the heart ‘think’ ? Is it capable of influencing actions and decisions of our brain? Is our heart our soul? Is it our conscience? Scientifically, its a slave to the brain, providing it the basic necessity of blood. The relationship is highly interesting though and it will reveal a common link to lots of relationships both superficial and natural. The brain is made up of tissues and other biological components that like every other organ needs blood. The brain however does not produce blood. The heart functions to produce blood, independent of the brain at least on a voluntary level. Involuntarily the brain maybe controlling that too, maybe the brain does secretly produce blood in a sense.
We dont know what the brain is capable of involuntarily. Maybe its beyond our control, but then we would have to define ‘control’ for that. So by stating what is not true we are trying prove a something false. So if it did control everything, why would it let the body deteriorate with diseases? Maybe it shares a symbiotic relation with another organ, maybe the heart.

When in a dilemma, or a choice we often say that we can listen to either our heart or our mind. Almost often they are different. Perhaps another reason to disbelieve the supreme authority of the brain. Now what if we were able to artificially influence the brain. Our brains would be working to develop a means to counter itself. Kind of a paradox situation? Will our brains allow us to ever do that? Or is it not under our brain’s capacity to do so. Is it why we still dont know about the existence of the universe? Why does a brain end its own life? Why do we commit suicide?

The author wishes to convey that he is depressed and of highly unstable mind. Here is wishing him a fast recovery and hope he feels better soon

Life is a Sitcom

Aman Yajurvedi — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:34:00 +0000

You have people complaining about their lives so very often. For some its about monotony, for some it is a loss or failure and for some its simply the ‘not-knowing’ that’s frustrating. I think the sweetest part about life is this ‘not-knowing’. To be more accurate, it’s the ‘not-knowing’ that will soon unfold. For me life is like a sitcom or a drama TV show (prison break). Its funny, nerve racking, exciting and sad. Of course this is a modern day explanation of the saying ‘Life is full of ups and downs’ but a little different in its own mysterious unknown way. You are always waiting to see what happens next; you know that the future is inevitable and someday you will have to face it, but not just yet. No matter how badly you may want to know, you will never know what turn your life is about to take. Its like a TV episode that has not yet been scripted, shot or aired. Often you get stuck in a moment that you can’t get out of and you wish you had a remote control to fast forward and see what happens next. That is stealing away the fun and robbing yourself of your life. If anyone of you has seen the movie Click, you’d probably relate to what I am talking about. Living life in the fast lane, driving at a hundred kilometer per hour and watching the trees go by in a blur, desperate to reach some destination. When you do reach there, all you can think of is trying to remember how the ride was – but you find yourself left with no answers. So guys put down that remote control and watch your sitcom unfold itself episode by episode, savor the advertisements and make sure you are biting your nails when you reach the finale. Just make sure you give your best performance on every shot

Linux Conquours

Aman Yajurvedi — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:49:05 +0000

The Open Source Movement is upon us. Despite Microsoft slapping cases of violating patents (ya right ! ) Linux has emerged as a clear winner between the battle of OSes. With the failure of Vista and release of Linux Distributions, targeted at home desktop users, like Ubuntu the shift to GNU/Linux is clear as the difference between oil and water.

My personal experience was one such. I have a Laptop with mediocre specs (Intel Pentium IV and 256 MB Ram). Recently the laptop had started to get awfully sluggish. The booting time shot up to 3 minutes and right clicking the desktop required you to wait for 3 good seconds untill the context menu came up. Frustrated, I tried everything. Spyware Scan, AntiVirus Scan, Defragmented, Rootkit, Bootkit(?), Cleaning-with-harpic(?) ! Nothing seemed to work. Well knowing Windows for a long time now, I knew it was time for a clean format and reinstall. The problem this time was that the Laptop was pre-loaded with Genuine Windows XP (No No! It came PRE-LOADED, I didn’t commit sin! ). Having no clue where the bundled CD was, I had two choices – Format and Install with ‘my XP CD’ or Format and install Linux. The latter appealed to me more. I had always been fascinated by Linux but unfortunately the fascination never lasted more than a week. Taking a bold decision, I popped in the Xubuntu CD and proceeded with a clean install (Key data backed up). I chose Xubuntu because it is been known for its light-weight XFCE Desktop Environment. The installation was quick and simple. Within the hour I was already downloading my favorite applications .

Its been about a week now, and I have faced no, absolutely NO, problems using Xubuntu. THe community support is fantastic and applications run, eh sprint rather, smoothly. Boot up time is now under 1 min and I see no turning back to Windows after this. Farewell XG, oh what was it ? XP ?

PS : A very good friend of mine texted me about his computer dying a slow death. His XP showed the infamous NTLDR Missing error. I suggested Xubuntu to him and yeah!, he is now installing Linux !

When you say “I wrote a program that crashed Windows”, people just stare at you blankly and say ‘Hey, I got those with the system, *for free*’.

–Linus Torvlads

[Photoshop] Changing Background

Aman Yajurvedi — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:53:32 +0000

Google for the word man. This is the first picture. I changed the background of it using Photoshop CS3. Nothing great but it just goes to show that digital modification is easy. SO be careful the next time you upload a your picture somewhere (hint : Orkut )

Pidgin with iChat Skin

Aman Yajurvedi — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:50:19 +0000

An alternative to using trillian , pidgin is the best IM client IMO .
For all Mac , OS x lovers , heres is pidgin emulating the iChat skin beautifully

OS X Pidgin by ~Maverick340 on deviant ART

read more | digg story

New Display Pics for Physics and Maths

Aman Yajurvedi — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 17:17:14 +0000

During my free time i try and sped as much free time of mine thinking about studies. So like last time i played around a little with photoshop and came up with these two new display pictures.

Maths Fever by ~Maverick340 on deviant ART

Phi You by ~Maverick340 on deviant ART

My New Display Pic

Aman Yajurvedi — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 07:10:41 +0000

Well the boards fever is on and even my free times are occupied with studies thoughts .. So the day before my chemistry exam i was playing around with photoshop and made these two display pics for Orkut and Google Talk

Made this for Orkut

This ones for Google Talk

Incase you people are not chemistry savy, this is a very famous organic compuond called 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene – more commonly known as TNT !!

A brainwave . . .

Aman Yajurvedi — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 07:57:12 +0000

Well its time I have not posted anything new. I can account a few reasons – the major one being my exams which start tomorrow i.e the 23rd of Novemeber . But my brain has been actively been thinking of various ideas which are not the slightest realated to studies

So here is the brainwave ; I am thinking of starting a wiki realted to an virtual classrom sort of thing. It could be a place where I (or anybody else ) could write about a Chemistry topic or a Maths sum that somebody didnt understand. If somebody didnt understand English Poem you could read the meaning here instead of hunting all over the web for it. Its the perfect idea for a wiki because , hey I am not a genius and so you anyone smarter can edit and complete the article which is incomplete. That ways even I can learn and so can 10 other guys. I know the idea seems big ,but everyone always told me – Dream Big Son, Dream Big . I have not yet finalsed the details . So give me your views and if you like the idea I can go ahead with it !

I understand some of dont know what a wiki is , and dont have time to visit new links , so in one line – A wiki is a type of website that everyone can edit without registering or knowledge of HTML and xHTML etc ..

Ps: If still understand what a wiki is , you can visit this page :What do I do with a wiki ?

[Tags]Star your wiki [/Tags]

MTNL ki maa ki …

Aman Yajurvedi — Sun, 16 Jul 2006 14:35:02 +0000

“I was so damn excited about the broadband coming that i did not realize where i was from “

I had aldready had a two month experience with MTNL triband(delhi) and was pretty satisfied with it . But i wanted to be completely sure that i was making the right discission this time. So i posted some querries on some forums. The result was pretty unanamous : MTNL !

So i fianlly went ahead with it and got myself the triB INV_combo plan. This entitled me to 400 MB free download during a period of one month with a 256 Kbps speed. Descent ! I happened to subscribe for it on the 27 th of June . As there were only 4 days left for the month, i was given only 54 MB of download. As i was surfing , i suddenly came upon this user review where he said that MTNL dosent count uploading in the “used MB” . Great , I thought *though my heart said that its too good to be true !

So i upload some 100 MB worth videos on rapidshare and check up my status page shrtly after that. In the coloumn of “used MB” it showed 129 MB ! CRAP ! i rang up MTNL and double checked and confirmed that uploading is not counted in the “downloaded data”

Ok, so far so good ! no harm done ! But the next day the net was down for the whole day. After about 2 days of surfing I realize that the meter is ticking too fast ( close to 25 MB per hour ! ) and so i install a firewall . Next day , net is down again . I was sort of breaking the ADSL modem . The rate has reduced a bit with the firewall but it is still fast. So fine , I cut down on my internet usage *wtf? i was better off with dial up ! The net usage was nothing like last time ! On the 14 th of july come my first bill . I open it up and scroll my eyes down to the “amount to be paid ” section . 193 Rs . I ring up MTNL helpline and blast the f**k out off the guy who picked up the phone. I knew its not his fault but still .. i was boiling ! After about 3 hrs of grilling different MTNL officials on the phone i realise that i ‘ll have to go down there personally. In the meanwhile to be sure myself I log on to the website that keeps track of my account usage and ask for the detailed log. there are two columns that shows uploaded and dwonloded . It displayed 159 MB in the uploaded area and 189 MB in the downloaded area. Ridiculous ! So i check the details for each day and specefically for the day i uploaded the videos.

S.No.

User_Id

Bytes Uploaded

Bytes Down loaded

Telephone No

Logged In Time

Logged out Time

Duration (HH:MM:SS)

26144385

54384832

8567665

BRAS09000000103

6/29/06 8:15:25 AM

6/29/06 12:07:11 PM

3:51:46

Well fair enough .. but wait till you see these deatails ..

26144385

19254658

30844373

BRAS09000000103

6/28/06 10:24:03 PM

6/29/06 8:06:29 AM

9:42:26

Check out the duration! Man .. it impossible i left the PC on the whole night .. and even if i did how could 30 MB get downloaded just like that ! ?

Anywyas I am going down to the MTNL office on monday and am going to clarify the mess. Untill then i am back to dail up And as i speak I see the Link light of my router blinking , indicating that net is down as usual !

If you want to read my complete log jus leave a comment , I ll mail it to you

orkut is better than hi5

Aman Yajurvedi — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 18:48:52 +0000

Social networking. This word has become a craze in the past 5 years. Numerous numbers of small groups and websites have sprung up wherein you can either meet up old long lost friends or jus simply make new friends. Two popular names come to my mind in this context . The first is hi5.com; an open social networking website and so called “easy to useâ€. The other one is the hugely popular orkut owned by the internet giants Google.

Now what makes one better than the other. In this world of fierce competition and choices an individual has the option , rather right to go for the best ! So lets begin my comparing the two in five broad categories.

a.)Interface
The first impression of a website and the one quality that appeals to you is the interface of the website. Orkut has the typical Google interface of being clean, simple, yet elegant. On the other hand, hi5 has one of the worst interfaces of the numerous social websites on the internet. It is filled with Advertisements and instead of clicking of you friends profile you may go to a site that is promoting another website! orkut cleanly arranges your option on the left and pages on the header with your profile in the middle. The spacing and fonts perfectly gels with the soothing blue background. Its is not flashy unlike its counterpart and yet the the tiny little icons add brightness to the site. Also the interface of hi5 changed too often so half the time you are engaged in the quest to hunt for options and links.

b.)Features
Now being pretty is not everything. You got to have the meat! Well behind orkut’s simplistic interface are features that puts hi5 to shame. In its core is a well arranged profile with catchy fields and relevant information that one would like to read. hi5 has a poorly arranged profile with tacky fonts. Of course you can change the background and personalize your profile in hi5 , only to make it look ghoulish! orkut also has a few unique features that expands its flexibility and makes it user friendly. Here are a few :

The Search: orkut has one of the best search(maybe inspired by owner Google ) .You have the option of searching of people with specific interests,location,age,sexual orientation, gender ,keyword and what not more !
The Communities : the communities which are displayed at the bottom right of every profile lets you know a little more about the individuals interests.
The Scrapbook : aah! the famous scrapbook! this is the most convenient messaging system ever to be created. Scrap whatever you feel like – maybe a comment about the persons profile or inviting him or her to be your friend. Of course Personal Messaging is also there , thus maintaining privacy. A person’s “scraps” can be used to judge how popular he/she is.

In response to hi5′s “fives” orkut has other way of rating your friends which is more practical. The three basic karma qualities are “trusty”, how trustworthy the person is, “hot” , how good looking and attractive the person is , and “cool” , how fun loving and nice the individual is .
Apart form these you can either add a person to your “crush list ” , “hot list” or be his fan.
And if another person also ads you to his/her “crush list” each of of get an individual e-mail notifying you of the person. How cool is that huh ? You can also add a person to your bookmarks for future reference. You can also report a disturbing profile by clicking the “report as bogus” button thereby warning orkut about it. Wait thatâ€™s not all ! You can also send the person “teasers”. Choose from a list of cool lines under various categories such as romantic, humorous or sincere or if you are creative make your own and send it to the person.

c.)Speed and reliability
Apart from features and interface you need a stable and reliable server so that you can use the features ; and i think the name Google will tell you a lot. With a lightening fast and stable server surfing orkut is a breeze. On hi5, you can barely logon, forget navigating!

orkut : 5 sec
Hi5 : 21 sec ( and still counting ….:lol:)

Here are the loading speeds on Opera:

orkut: 4 sec
Hi5 : 12 sec (few ads still not loaded .. )

d.)Browser Compatibility :
orkut has a known issue with the scrapbook. The submit, preview and formatting buttons come within the writing space when used with Opera.
hi5 too has its share of compatibility issues with Opera and thus they are pretty much equal in this field. Although orkut is still in its beta stages and development is still on. So hopefully it may improve!

e.)Final Words
Well every site does have its negative parts and so does orkut. The album doesnâ€™t have the option to add comments ( it is one of the known issues orkut is working on) as compared to hi5.
The server sometimes does return error messages but they are catchy enough to forgive! . But remember orkut is still in its beta stages and there is a lot of improvement due. hi5 is in its final version is like a stagnant pool of sewage!

My name is Aman Yajurvedi and I am a proud user of orkut ! cheers !

[tags]social networking, reviews, hi5, orkut, google affiliated[/tags]