I'm Back

I read this somewhere in this vast cyberspace, and I couldn't help but laugh on reading it. So here I am, sharing it with everyone else. Beware, geeky stuff ahead!

Engineering vs. Computer Science : A Perspective

Once upon a time, in a kingdom not far from here, a king summoned two of his advisors for a test. he showed them both a shiny metal box with two slots in the top, a control knob and a lever. "What do you think this is?"

One advisor, an engineer, answered first. "It is a toaster," he said. The king asked, "How would you design an embedded computer for it?" The engineer replied, "Using a four-bit microcontroller, I would write a simple program that reads the darkness knob and quantizes its position to one of 16 shades of darkness, from snow white to coal black. The program would use that darkness level as the index to a 16 element table of initial timer values. Then it would turn on the heating elements and start the timer, with the initial value selected from the table. At the end of the time delay, it would turn off the heat and pop up the toast. Come back in a week and I'll show you a working prototype."

The second advisor, a computer scientist, immediately recognized the danger of such short-sighted thinking. He said, "Toasters don't just turn bread into toast, they are also used to warm frozen waffles. What you see before you is really a breakfast food cooker. As the subjects of your kingdom become more sophisticated, they will demand more capabilities. They will need a breakfast food cooker that can also cook sausage, fry bacon and make scrambled eggs. A toaster that only makes toast will soon be obsolete. If we don't look to the future, we will have to completely redesign the toaster in just a few years."

"With this in mind, we can formulate a more intelligent solution to the problem. First, create a class of breakfast foods. Specialize this class into subclasses: grains, pork, poultry. the specialization process should be repeated with grains divided into toast, muffins, pancakes and waffles; pork divided into sausages links and bacon; and poultry divided into scrambled eggs, hard-boiled eggs, poached eggs, fried eggs and various omelet classes."

"The ham and cheese omelet class is worth special attention because it must inherit characteristics from the pork, dairy and poultry classes. Thus, we see that the problem cannot be properly solved without multiple inheritance. At run time, the program must create the proper object, and send a message to the object that says, 'Cook yourself.' The semantics of this message depend, of course, on the kind of object, so they have a different meaning to a piece of toast than to scrambled eggs."

"Reviewing the process so far, we see that the analysis phase has revealed that the primary requirement is to cook any kind of breakfast food. In the design phase, we have discovered some derived requirements. Specifically, we need an object-oriented language with multiple inheritance. Of course, users don't want the eggs to get cold while the bacon is frying, so concurrent processing is required also."

We must not forget the user interface. The lever that lowers the food lacks versatility, and the darkness knob is confusing. Users won't buy the product unless it has a user friendly, graphical interface. When the breakfast cooker is plugged in, users should see a cowboy boot on the screen. Users click on it, and the message, 'Booting UNIX v.8.3' appears on the screen (UNIX 8.3 should be out by the time the product gets to market.) Users can pull down a menu and click on the foods they want to cook."

"Having made the wise decision of specifying the software first in the design phase, all that remains is to pick an adequate hardware platform for the implementation phase. An Intel Pentium Pro with 32 Mb of memory and a 2Gb hard disk and a 17" super VGA monitor should be sufficient. If you select a multitasking, object oriented language that supports multiple inheritance and has a built-in GUI, writing the program will be a snap. (Imagine the difficulty we would have had if we had foolishly allowed a hardware-first design strategy to lock us into a four-bit microcontroller!)"

The king wisely had the computer scientist beheaded, and they lived happily ever after.

Thoughts on Gaming

Recently, while researching MMORPG's, it struck me that they were valuable tools for economists and other researchers in conducting studies. They could study the economy, growth, relevance of prices of certain common rares to inflation, the way of currency generation and currency sinking[1], how a balance is maintained and how the economy moves during a sudden imbalance.

Psychologists could take a survey of the players to understand the mentality of the gamers, or even go so far as to recommend them as a therapy for depression, withdrawal etc. A parallel can always be drawn between real life and virtual life. Also, due to the anonymity of the online world, it is easier to obtain contributions from normally reserved people.

Game developers are the most benefited from MMORPG research. While developers of other game genres get feedback or criticism from their fan base only after their games go up for sale, MMORPG developers receive steady, real-time feedback with which they can rectify mistakes and pull back dissatisfied gamers, as well as lead the game the way their players like it. This minimizes their losses and maximizes their revenue.

I stumbled upon an article in Ars Technica which says that indeed such research using MMORPG data is on the anvil. Thanks to a partnership with Sony, a team of academic researchers have obtained the largest set of data on social interactions they've ever gotten their hands on: the complete server logs of Everquest 2, which track every action performed in the game. The data contained is a massive 60 TB!

The article can be found here: http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/02/aaas-60tb-of-behavioral-data-the-everquest-2-server-logs.ars

However, I feel that real-time assessment is easier and much more lucrative, mainly because delving into past trends is a hard job, and also because the future of that game will be vastly different from the past[2]- though this point is not valid for researching into the game economy. You might say that it is not valid for assessing player mentality either, but take into consideration the fact that the player's interest or love for the game grows with time (usually). Thus, their attitude towards and in the game vastly changes, just as time spent on the game fluctuates due to RL.

A unique phenomenon that is observed in MMORPG’s using a cash shop or item mall system is that while the players grumble about having to pay a subscription to play the game, they are willing to spend quite a sum to obtain these cash shop items. The revenue from these items far exceeds the subscription revenue. The general trend is now an f2p (free-to-play) game earning from the item mall.

Gamers are attracted to different types of MMORPG’s, and gamers in the same MMORPG have different ways of playing, different reasons to play- indeed, the reasons are as diverse as the players themselves! It is fascinating to see how a virtual world so closely parallels our real life. If you are someone with a passion for analyzing such scenarios, I suggest you look up the Daedalus Project on MMORPG research, cyber culture and MMORPG psychology.

Here’s the link: http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/

MMORPG players carry over their experience, relationships and knowledge obtained through the game to real life, enhancing it and in some cases changing it for the better. I should know; it was so for me. So here’s to all you guys and gals who experience this wonderful virtual world. Happy playing:)

[1]- Every MMORPG has a way of currency generation, which is mostly from selling loot to NPCs (Non-Player Characters). Currency sinking is the way in which the game takes away currency from the players. This is very essential to prevent steep inflation and improper systems could lead to total imbalance. Generally, currency sinking is through buying consumable or restorative items from NPCs, for leveling up skills, for upgrading armor and weapons etc.

[2]- This holds true for a game researcher especially. However, it is useful to study past trends and correlate with the present to get an idea of where the game is heading. A game can’t keep expanding and adding new updates- there is a point beyond which this will lose appeal. Also, the soundness of the game mechanics can be gleaned only from studying the game history.

Entertainment (R)evolution

Entertainment is a way of amusement, a means by which to forget the worries of life and immerse oneself in a fantasy world- be it through a play, a book, or a movie, or, more recently- through a game.

The entertainment industry is keeping pace with technological innovations. They are cashing in on the broadband penetration, animation and multimedia advancement, easy availability of high resolution video capturing devices, etc. There has been a sea-change in such a short period that I think we can call them (the current entertainment media) New Age Media.

The new age media has displaced the conventional ones- namely, the print media. Today, people are more interested in movies and games than in books. One of the oldest and most revered forms of entertainment is slowly fading away into insignificance, much to the chagrin of the literary folks. Parents too are aware that time spent by their kids reading is slowly being replaced by movies and games. Many look askance at this trend. However, before coming down heavily on the new age media, let us first examine the evolution of entertainment.

For the sake of argument, assume that the earliest form of entertainment was verbal- talks given by wise people, visual- dance and art, and abstract- music. Along came a means of recording spoken conversation. This was great! The wise men could now supplement their discourses with text, saving themselves time and energy and also improving their reach. Some looked askance and condemned this because they were afraid this invention would make them obsolete. Nevertheless, this invention revolutionized entertainment, and still exists in the form of books.

The next major revolution in the field of entertainment was the invention of still photography, followed by motion picture technology. Images could now be captured and replayed. Opera lovers condemned this form of recorded entertainment. They believed that theirs was the only ‘cultured’ way of entertainment. The pictures were for the ignorant and foolish masses. However, motion pictures had a lot of scope, and film-making boomed. Today, we even have film schools- an educational institute dedicated to the study of an entertainment media!

Even today, movies are criticized for showing violence and nudity, but they have mass appeal and some (documentaries) are even educational. Man has adapted the available media to suit his needs.

The next big thing was AI. Computers, programming, high level languages and creativity contributed to the next big concept- Artificial Intelligence. AI brought with it a new form of entertainment- gaming. It has dazzled people of all ages, spawns across many genres, and has created an entire industry based on it. Heck, it continues to thrive even during the global recession.

Many people were (still are) against games because they are so addictive. But now, they are waking up to the fact that it is here to stay. This just goes to show that the gaming industry is evolving just like the film industry did. The whole concept of entertainment is changing. Unlike movies or books, games are not passive. They are aggressive sports, which trigger a lot of different parts of the brain. This means that gaming is definitely not a form of relaxation (not to be confused with recreation).

The point to be noted here is that what’s acceptable today was disputed earlier. We have grown used to certain things over time. Likewise, I’m sure gaming will soon become an acceptable activity. If there is one thing history can teach us, it is that we live in a dynamic society where change is the only constant. It is better to flow with the tide than to resist it. So, let us all usher in the New Age Entertainment Media with a smile:)

Girls need to realize...

I've copy pasted a lot lately; maybe it's because I feel some things are definitely worth sharing and publicizing. I read this in a forum I was browsing through.

WRITTEN BY A GUY

We don’t care if you’re friends with other guys, but when you’re sitting next to us, and some random guy walks into the room and you jump up and tackle him, without even introducing us, yeah, it pisses us off. It doesn’t help if you sit there and talk to him for ten minutes without even acknowledging the fact that we’re still there.

We don’t care if a guy calls OR TEXTS you, but at 2 in the morning we do get a little concerned. Nothing is that important at 2 a.m. that it can’t wait till the morning.

Also, when we tell you you’re pretty/ beautiful/ gorgeous/cute/ stunning, we freaking mean it. Don’t tell us we’re wrong. We’ll stop trying to convince you. The sexiest thing about a girl is confidence.

Don’t be mad when we hold the door open. Take advantage of the mood am in.
Let us pay for you!
Don’t “feel bad”
We enjoy doing it.
It’s expected.
Smile and say “Thank You.”

Kiss us when no one’s watching.
If you kiss us when you know somebody’s looking, we’ll be more impressed.
You don’t have to get dressed up for us.
If we’re going out with you in the first place, you don’t have to feel the need to wear the shortest skirt you have or put on every kind of makeup you own.
We like you for who you are and not what you are.
Honestly, I think a girl looks more beautiful when she’s just in her pj’s. or my shirt and boxers, not all dolled up.

Don’t take everything we say seriously.
Sarcasm is a beautiful thing. See the beauty in it.
Don’t get angry easily.
Stop using magazines/media as your bible.

“Don’t talk about how hot Chris Brown, Brad Pitt, or Jesse McCartney is in front of us”. It’s boring, and we don’t care. You have friends for that.
Whatever happened to the word “handsome”/”beautiful”?
I’d be utterly stunned by a girl who greeted me with “Hey handsome!” instead of “Hey baby/ stud/ cutie/ sexy” or whatever else you can think of. On the other hand I’m not saying I wouldn’t like it either.

Girls, I cannot stress this enough: if you aren’t being treated right by a guy, don’t wait for him to change. Ditch this sad freak- he’s an utter disgrace to the male population- and find someone who will treat you with respect.

Someone who will honor your morals.
Someone who will make you smile when you’re at your lowest.
Someone who will care for you even when you make mistakes.
Someone who will love you, no matter how bad you make them feel.
Someone who will stop what they’re doing just to look you in the eyes….and say “i love you” ..And actually mean it.

Give the nice guys a chance.
Guys repost this if you agree.
Girls repost this if you think it’s cute.
Every Guy who isn’t a jerk will agree with this, so we hope that all the girls that read this will repost this.

*Holding Hands
Girls : If you want to hold his hand, gently bump into it a couple of times.
Guys : Grab it if it happens more than once.

*Cuddling
Girls : When you want to cuddle with him, tell him you’re cold.
Guys : Automatically move closer to her.

*Movies
Girls : During a movie, if he puts his arm around you, tilt your head on his shoulder.
Guys : Lift her chin up and kiss her.

*Loving each other
Guys : When she tells you she loves you, look deep into her eyes, give her a peck on the lips, and tell her you love her too… And mean it.

*Laying below the stars
Girls : When you’re both laying under the stars, put your head on his chest and close your eyes as you listen to his steady heart beat.
Guys : Whisper in her ear and link your hands with hers.

Knowledge, Experience and Creativity

Every action performed by a person can be classified under knowledge, experience and creativity; some, under more than one heading. Knowledge is defined as the result of learning, perception and reasoning. Experience results from the accumulation and application of acquired knowledge. Creativity is the ability to use the acquired knowledge and experience to create new experiences. The result of these experiences may create new knowledge.

On a scale of 100, try ranking their relative importance.

My ranking would be:
Knowledge-> 30
Experience-> 30
Creativity-> 40

I emphasize on creativity a lot, mainly because while knowledge can be easily acquired and experiences are a part of life, unless you decide to be creative, you can lead your entire life without being so.

That said, creativity is the resultant of knowledge and experience. Suppose you know two facts which appear to be inter-related. You get curious and want to try combining them, to see what you get. That's a creative process. To be able to spot the places where you can be creative, you need experience with the said facts.

A simple example. Physicists identified the wave and particle nature of light. One brilliant physicist tried to relate both, in the form of a mathematical equation. This physicist was Louis de Broglie, and his creative work is the de broglie equation. This brought about a better understanding of the dual nature of matter and radiation.

To be creative, one does not need academic brilliance or years of experience. Creativity only requires a threshold level of knowledge and experience. Despite this, creativity is the most difficult of the 3 to obtain. Reason for that being a majority of the schooling focusses only on learning (acquiring knowledge) and lab work (first hand experience). Hence the witticism "I was brilliant. Education ruined me." That's creativity at work again.

How to become creative?

Creativity is inherent in all. It has merely been dulled by the constant influx of knowledge and experience. If you let your mind wander, creativity speaks to you. You'll start questioning things which you once thought of as logical, asking yourself new questions, and answering them too. That's creativity at work. It will not happen when you are busy with some task. Since most people keep themselves occupied all the time, they never give their creativity any time to surface, burying it completely in the long run.

For a start, give some time for your mind to wander. However, if you are under the grip of a strong emotion during this time, you'll harp on whatever is affecting you only.

Next, try out the ideas obtained. Create an experience and make note of the resulting knowledge. Guide your mind into thinking about these results. Creativity will strike again!

10 Signs You're In Love

10. You've forgotten your ex
More often than not, a breakup is followed by a significant amount of time spent thinking about your ex and wondering whether or not you made the right decision in going your separate ways. Depending on how long the two of you were together, these doubts can resurface again and again.

Ever since you met this new one, however, the thought of getting back together with your ex is the furthest thing from your mind. Come to think of it, you barely recall what you found so great about her in the first place.


9. You can't stop thinking about her/him
Instead, you are consumed by thoughts of her/him. S/he just pops into your head for no apparent reason, and you wonder if s/he thinks of you half as much as you think of her/him. You wonder what s/he's up to and even consider calling her/him (but refrain from doing so for fear of looking overeager).

But it gets worse. You're out with your friends and you see something in a shop window and think about how much s/he would like that particular item, or you notice a poster for a show that s/he would love, but normally wouldn't even have looked twice at it.

If s/he's the last thing on your mind before you go to sleep and the first thing on your mind when you wake up — and you've even dreamed of her/him on a couple of occasions — then you don't really even need to read on to know if you're in love (but should anyway, just to be sure).


8. You care about her
There is a reason why you don't really want to know too much about the chick/guy you had a one-night stand with: You don't love her/him. When you're in love with a wo/man, you want to know all about her/him: who s/he is, what s/he thinks, what makes her/him laugh. You truly care about her/him and her/his feelings.

If you truly love a wo/man, you feel bad if s/he had a bad day or is upset about something. You don't try to cheer her/him up because you have to, but because you can't help it.


7. You find her quirks charming
The fact that s/he carries her/his passport with her/him everywhere s/he goes — just in case — and that, when s/he's eating, s/he can't help but construct every forkful so that it's the perfect blend of ingredients fills you with an inexplicable feeling of happiness. S/he does and says things that make her/him different, and you like it. You can't quite put your finger on why, but it doesn't even matter. You like her/him just the way s/he is.


6. You have great chemistry
You can't be in love with someone that you have no chemistry with. If you seem to always be on the same wavelength, and think in similar ways, that's a great sign. If you also generate enough heat to set off a five-alarm fire bell, then s/he is probably someone that you could fall in love with, if you aren't there already.


5. You don't notice other women as much
Did you see that gorgeous blonde that just walked by?

What do you mean, "no"?!? Although you can't help noticing a beautiful wo/man when one walks by, when you're in love, some of them tend to slip under the radar, while others just pale in comparison to her/him. Furthermore, you don't seem to be flirting half as much as you used to.

You are slowly realizing that s/he's often the only wo/man in the room that matters, and for some reason that suits you just fine.


4. You love spending time with her/him
This one is pretty obvious but important nonetheless. You look forward to seeing her/him and don't care much about what the two of you will be doing. Lately, just going for a walk with her/him sounds like the best way you could possibly spend an evening.

Furthermore, when you're not together, you miss her/him and wish you were spending time together.


3. You don't mind compromising sometimes
There was a time when it was your way or the highway, but with her/him it's different. Not that s/he asks you to, but you don't mind missing a night out with the guys/girls to be with her/him. And you find yourself trying to incorporate her/him into your plans or altering them to accommodate her/him.

You also find yourself not putting up a fight when s/he wants to go to Shakespeare in the Park. Although your friends find this very amusing, you know that deep down, they wish that they had found a love like yours.


2. Other priorities take a back seat
You used to train religiously, but lately, if s/he's free for dinner, you don't mind missing a workout. Not only that, but your workaholic tendency of bringing home your work on weekends to get ahead seems a bit excessive to you as of late.

Your ever-important "to do" list seems quite stagnant these days, as being with her/him always manages to render your other plans and obligations obsolete. What was it that you absolutely had to do by four o'clock again?


1. You start thinking about the future and s/he's in it
It used to be that the future with a wo/man meant your date on Saturday night, but with this wo/man, the future seems infinite. Not only do you plan to see her/him this weekend, but you want to see her/him a year from now as well.

When planning your next vacation, you know you want to spend it with her/him, and not a random beach bunny you happen to meet while you're there. And when you get an invitation to a wedding that takes place three months from now, you ask her/him to be your date without thinking that it's too far away to tell if you'll still be together.

She's the one
If you are currently dating a wo/man that makes you act in any of the ways mentioned above, then you, my friend, are seriously falling for her/him. It's time to put away the little black book for a while and enjoy the ride.

Amazing story

At the 1994 annual awards dinner given for Forensic Science, AAFS President Dr Don Harper Mills astounded his audience with the legal complications of a bizarre death.

Here is the story.

On March 23, 1994 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a shotgun wound to the head. Mr. Opus had jumped from the top of a ten-story building intending to commit suicide. He left a note to the effect indicating his despondency.

As he fell past the ninth floor his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast passing through a window, which killed him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the deceased was aware that a safety net had been installed just below the eighth floor level to protect some building workers and that Ronald Opus would not have been able to complete his suicide the way he had planned.

"Ordinarily," Dr Mills continued, "A person, who sets out to commit suicide and ultimately succeeds, even though the mechanism might not be what he intended, is still defined as committing suicide."

That Mr. Opus was shot on the way to certain death, but probably would not have been successful because of the safety net, caused the medical examiner to feel that he had a homicide on his hands.

In the room on the ninth floor, where the shotgun blast emanated, was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. They were arguing vigorously and he was threatening her with a shotgun. The man was so upset that when he pulled the trigger he completely missed his wife and the pellets went through the window striking Mr. Opus. When one intends to kill subject "A" but kills subject "B" in the attempt, one is guilty of the murder of subject "B."

When confronted with the murder charge the old man and his wife were both adamant and both said that they thought the shotgun was unloaded. The old man said it was a long-standing habit to threaten his wife with the unloaded shotgun. He had no intention to murder her.

Therefore the killing of Mr. Opus appeared to be an accident; that is, if the gun had been accidentally loaded. The continuing investigation turned up a witness who saw the old couple's son loading the shotgun about six weeks prior to the fatal accident.

It transpired that the old lady had cut off her son's financial support and the son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that his father would shoot his mother.

Since the loader of the gun was aware of this, he was guilty of the murder even though he didn't actually pull the trigger. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus.

Now comes the exquisite twist. Further investigation revealed that the son was, in fact, Ronald Opus. He had become increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to engineer his mother's murder. This led him to jump off the ten storey building on March 23rd, only to be killed by a shotgun blast passing through the ninth storey window. The son had actually murdered himself, so the medical examiner closed the case as a suicide.

(A true story from Associated Press, Reported by Kurt Westervelt)