Mumbai bleeds.. :(

* This post is not about the news..

Every time something happens in India like recent blasts in multiple cities or serious blasts in Hyd I used to think (it was more of a feeling) that our system learns and improves. As I said I was optimistic.

It happened again... I could not really concentrate on my regular work. I stuck my face to this monitor for two days.. just continually getting updates. It is hurting too much..

A mail from..

my boss says... krishna, enough of blogging. now come back and start doing some real work. :(

Broken heart..

Oh my dear.. 

Its been a long time since we were apart.. and still I felt you were with me..  and finally I felt the inevitable.. and your memories started to fade..

There were nights that I never wanted to sleep.. being with you. Now it is so rare to have you in my thoughts..

there were no updates from you.. a simple hi and hello now and then...   I know, won't bring you any closer.. 

I forgot the form of you.. I just know that there was you.

I don't regret or relish.. 

-- to mathematics ;)

ps: I haven't been updating my geek basics for a long time. Yesterday's lonely journey of 6 hrs.. gave me enough fuel to think funny on the same idea. :D

Drift..

The following may connect well the 'ps' of my previous post. In my final days.. of iisc. A group of people gathered in Prof. Ayyappa's lab. I started talking my concerns about my job..

Somehow I was really concerned about the things I would do as my job..

There was an inspiring statement from that conversation..

"The thing that earns you bread and butter need not be the one you are passionate about. So do your job for 8hrs.. and have your time to do your like"

This looks fairly simple.. but listening it from other source has more strength (you know that some one else believes in it) as opposed to pushing yourself on your own.. which may look like a compromise (though depends on mood)

There were times I was really confused to lead myself.. I used to listen.. listen and listen.. to my friends. The intention was.. I may find one word or sentence.. just simply drifts my way of thinking.

The difference between this moment and previous moment.. most of the times, is just a thought..

Markov Chain..

There is a disadvantage and an andvantage in learning.. the technology first rather than science. (I've included maths into scince)..

The advantage is obvious as you concentrate on the situation rather than method so that you look more practical. The disadvantage is also equally appealing.. though you understand the significance of the physical problem at your hand.. you will feel very less about the underlying abstract and generalised concept. In other words, you don't feel the full power on anlysis method that gave you the result. 

When I frist read about the Monte-carlo simulations.. I used to think, where the hell these things really work. My mistake was simple.. I thought about the physical situation.. but not about the method that powered Monte-Carlo..

What the hell I'm talking about?

Markov-Chain!! 

For those of you who doesn't know.. about this.. let me tell you simply... We have different different states in phase space. You can define a probability to get a specific state from another specific state. Where this probability only depends on the two states of interest and it doesn't depend on history. 

How can we use this.. if you know the probability associated with different states, then you can generate these states starting from any single given state. This is used in monte-carlo.. 

where we know the probability as function energy of the given state.

There is another thing called Hidden Markov Model.. which is used in continuous voice recongition applications. The idea is simple. You don't know which state you are in.. but you see the output (or result ) of the state. There results can be possible with any state with some given probability. In continuous voice recognition applications.... the output is the word and the state is the vocal state. You train your system to get the asssociated probabilities.. and find out the words from previous words. It is much more involved than this..  I should be correct with the theme..  

variations of HMM are used for a lot of pattern recoginition techniques.. for little more detials wikipedia is helpful. 

There one more thing called.. LZMA compression.. if you guys know about zip compression utility.. this LZMA is also.. a data compression algoritm based on some sort of Markov-Chains.. 

I'm not really sure about the internals of this.. but should be interesting!!

Anyways... lot more to learn and understand.. 

ps: Though I don't regret my being with this company, my progress in the tech. side makes me sad.. :(

Update (input from a friend) : skipping the italicised portion of this post should make more sence :) 

Black and White..

"We live in a world of incredible complexity. I hope we don't get our minds stuck so deep in our heuristics and simplified modeling that we forget how complex the dynamic, nonlinear and analog reality we exist in is."

I read this somewhere on Linus's blog.

I've been thinking about this for some time.. My problem is only one thing.. how can we fit this incredibly complex system into a simplified model to give right/wrong or yes/no? 

Interestingly, there are people who really say.. this is correct and this is wrong for each and everything. Along with the complexity of the systems we deal with, there is an additional layer of  complex system called human perception. I'm damn sure that the probability of the of getting similar perception for two people, observing a similar issue is far far less. 

Now how can your definition of 'wrong' will match with mine?

It may by correct to say that the above said will have much more clear direction of "where to go?" but accepting the fact that there is an infinitely dense gray area between black and white will, for sure, make yourself more accessible for further knowledge.

ps: Somewhere on the same blog some other commenter says.. if everything is that simple binary decision then somebody would have coded it up to make things much more easy ;)

home..

For almost 10 days.. no information flow through my regular channels. Though I have access to the net, it is giving me enough troubles to make me frustrated :). So no updates here.. 

Whats happening these days..? Nothing much. I visited my sis's house and stayed there for a day and went to cousin's house.. spent some good time. If you guys ever been to 'konaseema' (in river Godavari delta) you will enjoy the hospitality of the people there. I went to gas-station there to fill air in bike.. and I got to give him change and as always.. I was out of coins.. That guy of my age says.. 'parvaledu unchandi' (It is OK sir leave it). It is not about the words but the body language altogether makes you feel comfortable with that place & people.. My 'chinnamma' (mom's sister) put food in my lunch plate.. and just started looking at me.. simply.. 

Some little interesting things started happening with my personal life.. nothing unexpected though. Anyways expecting things to flow naturally.. 

Moving on.. I'm satistying my taste-hunger.. with my fav. food.

ps: I expected some (my usual) cynical analysis here.. but could not get the right words and meaning.. :D. By the way.. whats up with the world..??

Finally at home

After spending some good time in Pune.. I, finally, reached my home town. I'm in my, once upon a time, bed room. 

Eating & sleeping.... thats all!!!

PS: my forgetfulness made my journey eventful though...