Anger, Boredom, Loneliness and Burning Eyes...

I'm gonna use this post as a scratch notepad today. So if you're looking for something really awesome and interesting to read... Well, then this is probably not the place.. :)

I'm in that state where I'm tired and wish to sleep, but more than that I feel like speaking to a close friend. I can hear people enjoying and shouting around.. all over the hostel, but I'm lonely. I have work to do but my brain is just not motivated enough. You're thinking I've gone nuts. Come on... have you never experienced this? I'm sure you have....

It seems like someone has taken shelter in my eyes and has lit a chimney inside.. They're burning like hell. But I can't sleep.
If only people could understand my state of mind and not be so crazy about sleeping all the time, I'd have someone to talk to. But then again, we expect too much sometimes, and we are mad enough to think that we're entitled to that freedom.
It's strange how some people can speak for hours on the phone but the same can't happen face to face, apparently they wouldn't be able to sleep. I guess my speech is a lullaby to them... Well at least my wife will some day be glad that I put my kids to bed real fast.

Right now, I miss my 2 dogs a lot.. Winny and Punnu (The names might sound timid, but they're ferocious German Shephards). Dogs.... They'll just lie by your side and listen to anything you want to say, even if they're dead tired and SLEEPY. All they need is a litle bit of love. Miss you fella's.

I could go on writing like this forever, but I'm bored of doing this also. Many avid bloggers will say that this post is a piece of trash and that blogs aren't supposed to be written like some Diary. But I don't really give a damn. So if you're planning to comment anything like that... think twice!
Yes, I'm in a foul mood.

Wolfram|Alpha - Making all the World's Systematic Knowledge Computable

Google today has become synonymous with "Search". Don't many of us use the phrase - "Google it"? Market shares of Google Search in most countries has been seen to be 80% and more , with few exceptions such as China - 26% (market leader-baidu), South Korea - 3% (market leader-Naver). Thus, one thing's clear - most of us don't go beyond Google when it comes to searching for data over the internet. Is it because Google is the best, or is it because human beings are used to comfort zones and don't always like change? Haven't we seen it in many other cases (Mobile Tele. - Nokia; OS - Windows)? Anyway, I'm not here to study human psychology or evaluate Google's competence, though that might be an interesting area of research in strategy or marketing :). I'm scribbling today to speak about a new search engine I came across recently - Wolfram Alpha.

Named after it's creator Mr. Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram|Alpha (That name may not go too well with Indians! WolfRam??) was launched in May 2009. Wolfram Alpha, unlike google calls itself an "Answer Engine". What's that supposed to mean?? Well essentially, a user would key in a computational query like "San Francisco to Tokyo" and Wolfram's responses would give you data such as distance, flight time, path, city details, etc. It computes and infers these answers using a core knowledge base of curated, structured data. In a way, Wolfram resembles Cyc, an artificial intelligence project that began in 1984 and aimed at assembling common sense knowledge to perform human-like reasoning. Wolfram|Alpha is built on Wolfram's flagship product, Mathematica, a computational software program used in scientific, engineering, mathematical and other areas of technical computing.

Boring? Too technical? Well I'll tell you something interesting about Wolfram... It responds like a human being! So you can ask Wolfram a natural, fact-based question like "How old is Manmohan Singh?" and you'll be given the answer accurate to the day. To have fun, you can try out some of these questions with Wolfram:
1. Who are you?
2. Who is your father?
3. Who am I?
4. Where am I?

Though it's only been 2 months since it's birth and Wolfram has loads to learn, this infant is a fast learner. The data it presently possesses is by no means small. Try keying in "India" or "Microsoft Apple" and see the response! Wolfram also provides you an option to convert and store your query's answer as a pdf. If you still think Wolfram isn't the cool new kid on the block, then check out his very own blog and see what else he can do!

About the Creator - Stephen Wolfram:
Born in London in 1959, Stephen Wolfram is a distinguished scientist, inventor, author and business leader. Wolfram's early scientific work was mainly in the areas of high-energy physics, quantum field theory and cosmology. A PhD holder at the age of 20, Wolfram has devoted his life to Research & Education. It was in late 1986 that he began his research on Mathematica , which has been hailed as a major advance in Computing. Currently, Wolfram is the President & CEO of his company Wolfram Research.

When computers were initially launched, it was imagined that they would eventually have the capability to answer questions the way Wolfram|Alpha does today. Hopefully, this "Answer Engine" is a giant leap towards the quest of making all knowledge computational!


Other related links:
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wolfram_Alpha
2. http://blog.wolfram.com/2009/03/05/wolframalpha-is-coming/
3. http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-06/ts_levy

And the Seasons Go On........

People get addicted to alcohol...to cigarettes...and drugs.... I'm addicted to something totally different - "English TV Series". I'm sure those of you who've seen the likes of Prison Break, Friends, How I Met Your Mother,"24" or Heroes would understand why.

They remind me of the tag line of Lays Chips - "No one can eat Just One". Of course here there's a different sense involved - the eyes and mind to be more specific. I remember nights spent watching some of these serials when I've gone from midnight to dawn and at times even till the sun is right above the head. That's the advantage (or disadvantage, if you wana call it that) of watching the downloaded series on laptop and not on TV. No advertisements (though I really love watching ads most of the times) and no one-week breaks after each episode. I feel like a 4 year old with a truck-load of chocolate ice cream.

Once you start watching these series, you fall in love with some of the characters like Barney Stinson and Chandler Bing. And then there are others by whom you're awed... like Michael Scofield. They've become such huge personalities that I'm pretty sure, 90% people who know these actors, don't know their real name. You can say they've been Christened once again.... :) They're all over the net... Blogs (like this one), Wiki, Websites, etc.

But you know, nothing stays great forever, not even "Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi" (please note the sarcasm). God knows how people watch that bull ****. I pity our Indian public sometimes; have they nothing better to do?? Hey, I don't loathe all Indian series. I have a few of my Hindi favorites also.. "Rishtey" from Zee TV, "Office Office" from SAB TV and a few others.
OK, where was I??? Yeah, I was saying.. "Nothing Stays Great Forever" - and I'm starting to see some of my favorite TV series become draaaaaaaaaaaags........... It's like, these people want to squeeze every last bit from their show's TRP. Commercialism at it's best!!

Prison Break went from "Fox River" to "The Chase" to "Sona" to "Scylla" across 4 seasons and it still hasn't ended. I'd probably kill myself if I had to run for so long!! The show has started getting on my nerves. I feel as if after every few episodes these guys cook up a new story and air a few more shows. After sometime, they themselves probably won't have a clue where the show is heading. They've taken some inspiration I guess from Ekta Kapoor. Honestly speaking, I was mesmerized by Seasons 1 and to an extent 2, but after that it's been just downhill. To the relief of many souls like me, sources say that the show will probably close after another six episodes, starting in mid-April this year.

I guess Prison Break was such a big hit that even "Heroes", a series on NBC, has recently picked up its style. I'm not kidding... the most recent episodes of season 3 (3x14,3x15,3x16) have become a crash course of Season 1 and 2 of Prison Break with some variations of course. If you watch it, you'll know what I mean. I wish Tim Kring would just put those super humans out of their misery. The show's concept was great but then the producers began to get greedy and they ruined everything.

Of course there are always shows such as "Friends" which I could watch a dozen more times and I wouldn't mind that many seasons more either. The same goes for "How I Met Your Mother" and Barney Stinson too (However, to be honest, I do get irritated and anxious sometimes over the suspense being built around who the mother's gonna be...)

I guess you now realise how addicted I am to all of these, that I get worked up over their murder by their own creators. What should I say.... I'm just one of a million out there.