Revelation

Perceptions – Aren’t that obvious

Aditi — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:40:40 +0000

The great question of perception is: “Why do things look the way they do?”

At first the question seems almost silly. We are tempted to answer, “Because things are they way they are.” It would seem that tall things look tall because they are tall. And distant things look distant because they are distant. On the other hand, why does the Moon look larger just above the horizon than it does when it’s overhead? It hasn’t gotten any bigger, or any closer. If a series of disconnected dots are arranged in the pattern of, say, the letter F, it looks like the letter, not a bunch of disconnected dots—which, it actually is. visual images on your retina are upside down.

There are two phenomena – Sensation : the raw data of experience and Perception : the organization and the meaning we give to primitive information. It can be said with some degree of confidence that we use sensory information to create a psychological world. Kurt Koffka (1886–1941), one of the founders of Gestalt psychology, said that there is a distinction between the geographical world and the psychological world. The geographical world is the actual world “out there,” the world as defined and described by physics. The psychological world is the world “in here,” the world as experienced by the subject. Although common sense usually says it’s the so-called “real world” or physical world that determines our behavior, it can be argued that common sense isn’t sufficiently analytical. We generally behave in terms of what we perceive to be true, not necessarily in terms of what is actually true. If ice is thin in the physical world, and it is solid in your psychological world, you are likely to skate on it. And, of course, you may make a serious mistake as a result.

Check out Save Our Tigers | Join the Roar

Aditi — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 08:25:33 +0000

Title: Save Our Tigers | Join the Roar
Link: http://gotaf.socialtwist.com/redirect?l=98103701098072951821

An Insight Into Your Dream Companies

Aditi — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 12:15:38 +0000

I can bet each one of us has some dream company in mind to work with. So let me share their working style with you in layman’s language with the help of a cow and milk. Please make note before looking forward to work here.

SONYism –> You have a cow. You spend $50 mn to develop the world’s thinnest milk.

APPLEism –> You have a cow. You sell iMilk.

SAPism –> You don’t have a cow You sell milking solutions for cows implemented by milking consultants.

ORACLEism –> You have a cow. You don’t know which side to milk, so you sell tools tohelp milk cows.

SUNism –> You have a bull. It doesn’t give milk. You hate Microsoft.

MICROSOFTism –> You have a cow. Force the world to buy milk from you. Spend a million dollars to feed poorer cows.

IBMism –> You have old stubborn cows. You sell them as pet dogs to innocent small businessmen.

DELLism –> Intel has a Goat. Samsung has a Camel. Buy milk from both & sell it as Cow’s milk.

WIPROism –> GE has a cow. You take 49% of the milk.

PATNIism –> You have 10 cows. You make them work so that they give milk of 100 cows.

INFOSYSism –> You have a 1000 poor cows. You put them on a nice campus, & send themone at a time to the US for milking.

CITIBANKism –> Welcome to Citibank. If u have a cow, press 1, a bull,press 2.stay on line if you’d like our customer care to milk it for you.

HPism –> You don’t know if what you have is a cow. You sell complete milking solutions through authorised resellers only.

GEism –> You have a donkey. People think you have a 100-year old cow. If someone finds out, that’s his imagination at work.

RELIANCEism –> You don’t yet have a cow. You sell empty cans to people for Rs. 501,because Dhirubhai wanted everyone to have milk.

TATAism –> You have a very old cow. You re-brand it as TATA Indicow.

This post is solely attributed to Mr. Anaggh A. Desai. Follow him on Twitter (http://twitter.com/anaggh) if you don’t want to miss any fun.

2012: Movie Review

Aditi — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:50:43 +0000

The wait is over! The movie for which I’m sure all of us were eagerly waiting, has released. The movie is all about The 2012 phenomenon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2012_phenomenon)and the speculative end of the world along with the human race. So the storyline is very much known to everyone. No points for guessing that.

Then what is it for which we should shed our pockets and watch this two and a half hour movie? The answer is the technical excellence that encompasses this piece. Since the start of the movie, it kept me glued to my seat, i didn’t even lose my sight on of the effects.( Except for the time when I was tweeting. ) I won’t say its a masterpiece but then this is a movie with such technical brilliance, such captivating screenshots and special effects that probably we never witnessed before. Atleast I haven’t! Trust me 2012 even fares better than The Independence day and The Day after Tomorrow in terms of special effects and screen presence.

The disappointment was the screenplay. Frankly speaking it was nothing different than a bollywood flick where our Dharmendra type HERO is left of any damage or injury and nothing happens to him. In some sequences, it went too overboard to save the hero everytime. It was over. Then about the ending. All the evil guys dying and the good ones saved- I mean the ending wasn’t apt. Logically if the world is about to end, there is no escape from that. I mean I couldn’t figure out why those ships weren’t destroyed even after crashing right into Mt. Everest! I mean what material were they!

Now about the actors. John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor have done a fabulous job in the lead. Apart from them I don’t think anybody had any powerful part to play. Yes to mention those kids were very smart and cute as well. Remember the sequence when John Cusack takes them to the restricted area for the first time. The direction is the strong point of the movie as well. Hats off to Roland Emmerich for taking this ship to the harbour and he did that pretty well. Didn’t he?

So the movie deserves a rating of 4 out of 5 from me. A must watch if you are looking forward to some brilliant artwork and special effects!

Chaos Theory: An Argument for God

Aditi — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:49:47 +0000

A member of today’s modern society could be forgiven if, upon hearing the words “religion” and “science” spoken in the same sentence, they tighten their lips and immediately shuffle their feet nervously. This would, of course, be done to avoid the obvious offense they might cause if they were to continue the conversation because after all, it is common knowledge that these two topics of interest are constantly engaged in warfare with one another. Or so the story appears to go. In fact, there are many ways to approach the religion versus science debate. You can either believe religion fills in what science leaves out, or that science is actually run by God. One may trump the other in your opinion, or perhaps they’re equal. Perhaps they both work together, science answering the “How” questions, and religion answering the “Why”. But theories have arisen that actually find God in science, especially quantum science.Kenneth Miller offers a theory that poses reconciliation between science and religion that utilizes the most modern scientific advances in quantum studies to show that, not only is it possible that God could actively influence the world today via atomic particle’s chaotic motion, but also that human free will can exist in the midst of what is perchance a divine plan.

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle states that, due to mathematical limits on accuracy, we can never know a particle’s exact momentum and position because as one’s measurement becomes more accurate, the other becomes less so. This creates an inherent element of chaos (in the sense that it appears this way to us) built into the workings of the universe that cannot be fully comprehended. But there is an argument that this chaos might just be the perfect opportunity for God to influence the world via controlling the motions of the particles.Unlike other constructs humanity has created throughout history in order to make sense of the world that science eventually debunks (i.e., a chariot pulling the sun across the sky as in Greek myth), Miller’s theory does not have the potential to fall into the God-of-the-gaps trap or face debunking by the scientific community-no matter how much they may want to. This is due to the fact that the inherent uncertainty in the motion of particles can never be predicted; it’s not just due to lack of technology.Without being able to predict the particle’s motion, there is no way to disprove Miller’s theory that God is influencing these particles. Thus Miller is able to create a theory that cannot be disproven. And with new scientific discoveries being made every day, there’s a good chance that as time progresses, more harmony will prevail and theories arise, than it is for an endless feud to continue on.

HIBERNATE : Relational Persistance for Idiomatic Java

Aditi — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:13:29 +0000

Hibernate is a powerful, high performance object/relational persistence and query service. It works in sync with the SPRING framework.

(More at IBM ) Hibernate lets you develop persistent classes following object-oriented idiom – including association, inheritance, polymorphism, composition, and collections. Hibernate allows you to express queries in its own portable SQL extension (HQL), as well as in native SQL, or with an object-oriented Criteria and Example API.

Hibernate’s primary feature is mapping from Java classes to database tables (and from Java data types to SQL data types). This is accomplished mainly with the help of XML and Java automation. Hibernate also provides data query and retrieval facilities. Hibernate generates the SQL calls and relieves the developer from manual result set handling and object conversion, keeping the application portable to all supported SQL databases, with database portability delivered at very little performance overhead. Though Hibernate is not the best solutions for data centric applications that only uses the stored-procedures to implement the business logic in database; it is most useful with object-oriented domain modes and business logic in the Java-based middle-tier. Hibernate allows transparent persistence that enables the applications to switch any database. Hibernate can be used in Java Swing applications, Java Servlet-based applications, or J2EE applications using EJB session beans.

For .Net the framework modifies itself as NHibernate. It is an Object – relational mapping (ORM) solution that provides a framework for mapping an object-oriented domain model to a traditional relational database. Its purpose is to relieve the developer from a significant portion of relational data persistence-related programming tasks.

For more details and release histories for HIBERNATE, visit Hibernate : Official Site

We as Co-creators (with God)

Aditi — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:46:35 +0000

Observing, from a detached position, the world of matter that we enter as human beings i.e. the universe or universal ‘plane’, one sees how we, as souls, create our lives and experiences. Through the law of cause and effect we constantly create our future, individually and collectively, immediate and long term, by our thoughts, actions and attitudes. This future includes our bodies, social environment, ecological environment, mental state, medical state and manner of death. Perhaps, in creating the Virtual Reality we presently create via computers we are subconsciously expressing this co-creativity through the conscious mind and technology. Virtual Reality seems almost real and technology will, no doubt, improve on this in time. We seem to experience what we create in this Virtual Reality. This is, of course, an illusion but an experience nevertheless. I am sure most if us would agree to this.

During a life, we, as a soul, experience the events that occur in the same detached manner as after the

body dies despite the person feeling and experiencing these with the full impact of the senses. In this, the more detached the state of being of the soul/person (the entity) the less the experiences attach as ‘baggage’ to the subconscious to become an encumbrance later. This is because the life/lives we take on in this plane, and this plane itself, are not really what they seem; they are an illusion, or dreamlike, and not true reality. The only true reality is our state of being when we were created – our god state.

When we are dreaming, what occurs is very, very real as we all know and yet, on awakening, we

dismiss the event as just a dream. However, the euphoria or horror of the dream is ‘real’ enough to remain with us for a variable period. When we are awake everything is very real too. Which is the true reality? When we leave our body our life here becomes the ‘dream’ and where we then are becomes the reality. When we reach full enlightenment, Christhood or full realisation, call it what we will, that is the only reality, and there is no dream of any sort. From our physical mindset, therefore, we create both the dream ‘reality’ and the virtual ‘reality’ with the latter more approximating the reality of former when technology is refined. In the manner in which the dream and the technologically created ‘reality’ are similar but not the same so is the similarity between “life in the physical” and our existence when not in the physical.

In constantly creating our future we create, as part of that future, the state of the health of our bodies.

This happens through our attachment to our experiences in life, and the greater the attachment the greater the effect on the body. In other words, the more the ‘baggage’ the more the adverse effect on the health of the body and the mind, and it must be remembered that this ‘baggage’ may come from more than one life. ‘Baggage’ is attached to the mind that is not an integral part of the Self but only something acquired along the way, and the mind, from the Thought Field, through the Life Field creates the dis-ease in the latter, which in turn creates disease, and illness in the physical body. Conversely, altering the state of the mind by getting rid of ‘baggage’ and not taking on more, by being non-attached, dis-ease and its consequences cease to be. Of course, total detachment, total subduing of the mind, results in full enlightenment and, when we achieve this the necessity to enter this plane no longer exists.

Faced with any situation in life we are presented with options, from these options, depending on our

attitudes and thoughts, we make a choice; if this choice creates stress this stress creates one or more of the following: a reduction in the efficiency of the immune system, headaches, muscular tension resulting in pain, digestive problems and so on. The possibilities are endless. Similarly, hate, sustained anger, an imbalance between work, relaxation and play etc. adversely affect mind and body. To further illustrate the point of creating our own future we can take the simple situation where we, say, slap someone and get slapped in return; or where deforestation is followed by floods and landslides. This is

‘instant karma’ and, perhaps more easily understood than effects that take longer to manifest. The active principle is the same.

During a life, we, as a soul, experience the events that occur in the same detached manner as after the body dies despite the person feeling and experiencing these with the full impact of the senses. In this, the more detached the state of being of the soul/person (the entity) the less the experiences attach as ‘baggage’ to the subconscious to become an encumbrance later. This is because the life/lives we take on in this plane, and this plane itself, are not really what they seem; they are an illusion, or dreamlike, and not true reality. The only true reality is our state of being when we were created – our god state.

When we are dreaming, what occurs is very, very real as we all know and yet, on awakening, we dismiss the event as just a dream. However, the euphoria or horror of the dream is ‘real’ enough to remain with us for a variable period. When we are awake everything is very real too. Which is the true reality? When we leave our body our life here becomes the ‘dream’ and where we then are becomes the reality. When we reach full enlightenment, Christhood or full realisation, call it what we will, that is the only reality, and there is no dream of any sort. From our physical mindset, therefore, we create both the dream ‘reality’ and the virtual ‘reality’ with the latter more approximating the reality of former when technology is refined. In the manner in which the dream and the technologically created ‘reality’ are similar but not the same so is the similarity between “life in the physical” and our existence when not in the physical.

In constantly creating our future we create, as part of that future, the state of the health of our bodies. This happens through our attachment to our experiences in life, and the greater the attachment the greater the effect on the body. In other words, the more the ‘baggage’ the more the adverse effect on the health of the body and the mind, and it must be remembered that this ‘baggage’ may come from more than one life. ‘Baggage’ is attached to the mind that is not an integral part of the Self but only something acquired along the way, and the mind, from the Thought Field, through the Life Field creates the dis-ease in the latter, which in turn creates disease, and illness in the physical body. Conversely, altering the state of the mind by getting rid of ‘baggage’ and not taking on more, by being non-attached, dis-ease and its consequences cease to be. Of course, total detachment, total subduing of the mind, results in full enlightenment and, when we achieve this the necessity to enter this plane no longer exists.

Faced with any situation in life we are presented with options, from these options, depending on our attitudes and thoughts, we make a choice; if this choice creates stress this stress creates one or more of the following: a reduction in the efficiency of the immune system, headaches, muscular tension resulting in pain, digestive problems and so on. The possibilities are endless. Similarly, hate, sustained anger, an imbalance between work, relaxation and play etc. adversely affect mind and body. To further illustrate the point of creating our own future we can take the simple situation where we, say, slap someone and get slapped in return; or where deforestation is followed by floods and landslides. This is ’instant karma’ and, perhaps more easily understood than effects that take longer to manifest. The active principle is the same.

Intellectual Property Theft : Chopping off Creativity

Aditi — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:44:48 +0000

Innovation and creation have to be financed; like everyone else, the people innovating and creating have to make a living. Large amounts of time and money can be spent on researching and developing new technologies and products without any guarantee that these will be rewarded, as there is always a risk that a product will not be successful. Intellectual property rights are a mechanism that allows innovators, creators and producers to finance their work through the market place. Other models of financing exist, such as government funding or private patronage, but intellectual property rights (IPRs) remain the basis most frequently used by individuals and organizations to fund and disseminate their work. Intellectual property rights allow creative freedom and encourage innovators and creators to be responsive to consumer needs.

But what happens when these rights are not able to save your creativity! The end result is that there is nothing that we can stop Intellectual property theft unless we stop ourselves from using pirated stuff! But then there’s another angle to it as well. We all have heard that “There is no such thing as free lunch in this world.” So whenever we get a chance to use FOKAT KA MAAL nothing can stop us! Even I do the same and I’m sure all of us do the same!

As an example, Five years and five months after it started probing the sensational theft of Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel medallion and other memorabilia from Rabindra Bhavan museum at Visva Bharati University in Santiniketan, the CBI called off its investigation. In a letter to Registrar of the University Manimukut Mitra on August 20, the CBI SP (Special Crime Branch), Kolkata, said that it was closing the probe just because of a dearth of clues. Although this decesion of CBI was criticized a lot and it should be. After all Tagore was one of the greatest poets we had!

Now lets take a look at the IT sphere. IT practitioners stand to lose from pirating of software in a number of ways. The first disadvantage is simply that this practice significantly contributes to the lack of appreciation for the true cost of computer software. For individuals wishing to become independent software developers, this lack of appreciation ensures that the perceived value of computer software that they develop will generally be a fraction of the true value rendering software development a less than satisfactory economic and business pursuit. In the case of IT staff employed by public and private sector organisations, the value of the assets entrusted to their care is again not truly appreciated, and it seems not to be realised by those very IT practitioners that this lack of appreciation for the true cost of information systems impacts in a very real way on their careers. Consider a typical medium sized organisation with a network of 30-40 machines running a standard set of applications, accounting, payroll, etc.

How businesses are affected?

Businesses are less likely to transfer advanced technology, or invest in production or R&D facilities in countries where they are likely to have their products copied or technology stolen. This is particularly true of industries where intellectual property plays a key role, such as the IT, biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, which many countries aspire to develop.In short, the economy stagnates.An analysis of international trade data suggests that up to $ 200 billion of internationally traded products could have been counterfeit or pirated in 2005. This amount is larger than the national GDPs of about 150 economies! The figure does not include non-tangible pirated digital products being distributed via the internet. If these items were added, says The Economic Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy study published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2007, “the total magnitude of counterfeiting and piracy worldwide could well be several hundred billion dollars more.” Now thats worth giving a thought to.

Please tell how the post is. Do share if you like it and additions are always welcome.

Innovation and creation have to be financed; like everyone else, the people innovating and creating

have to make a living. Large amounts of time and money can be spent on researching and developing

new technologies and products without any guarantee that these will be rewarded, as there is always a

risk that a product will not be successful. Intellectual property rights are a mechanism that allows

innovators, creators and producers to finance their work through the market place. Other models of

financing exist, such as government funding or private patronage, but intellectual property rights

(IPRs) remain the basis most frequently used by individuals and organizations to fund and disseminate

their work. Intellectual property rights allow creative freedom and encourage innovators and creators

to be responsive to consumer needs.

But what happens when these rights are not able to save your creativity! The end result is that there is

nothing that we can stop Intellectual property theft unless we stop ourselves from using pirated stuff!

But then there’s another angle to it as well. We all have heard that “There is no such thing as free

lunch in this world.” So whenever we get a chance to use FOKAT KA MAAL nothing can stop us!

Even I do the same and I’m sure all of us do the same!

As an example, Five years and five months after it started probing the sensational theft of

Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel medallion and other memorabilia from Rabindra Bhavan museum at Visva

Bharati University in Santiniketan, the CBI called off its investigation. In a letter to Registrar of the

University Manimukut Mitra on August 20, the CBI SP (Special Crime Branch), Kolkata, said that it was

closing the probe just because of a dearth of clues. Although this decesion of CBI was criticized a lot

and it should be. After all Tagore was one of the greatest poets we had!

Now lets take a look at the IT sphere. IT practitioners stand to lose from pirating of software in a

number of ways. The first disadvantage is simply that this practice significantly contributes to the lack

of appreciation for the true cost of computer software. For individuals wishing to become independent

software developers, this lack of appreciation ensures that the perceived value of computer software

that they develop will generally be a fraction of the true value rendering software development a less

than satisfactory economic and business pursuit. In the case of IT staff employed by public and private

sector organisations, the value of the assets entrusted to their care is again not truly appreciated, and

it seems not to be realised by those very IT practitioners that this lack of appreciation for the true cost

of information systems impacts in a very real way on their careers. Consider a typical medium sized

organisation with a network of 30-40 machines running a standard set of applications, accounting,

payroll, etc.

How businesses are affected?

Businesses are less likely to transfer advanced technology, or invest in production or R&D facilities in

countries where they are likely to have their products copied or technology stolen. This is particularly

true of industries where intellectual property plays a key role, such as the IT, biotechnology and

pharmaceutical sectors, which many countries aspire to develop.In short, the economy stagnates.An

analysis of international trade data suggests that up to $ 200 billion of internationally traded products

could have been counterfeit or pirated in 2005. This amount is larger than the national GDPs of about

150 economies! The figure does not include non-tangible pirated digital products being distributed via

the internet. If these items were added, says The Economic Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy study

published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2007, “the total

magnitude of counterfeiting and piracy worldwide could well be several hundred billion dollars more.”

Now thats worth giving a thought to.

Please tell how the post is. Do share if you like it and additions are always welcome. :Innovation and creation have to be financed; like everyone else, the people innovating and creating