tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117287732024-03-22T06:20:23.735+01:00CalqueA graffiti point for my slacking moments.K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-19460056575675045762012-10-24T13:08:00.000+02:002012-10-24T13:10:14.934+02:00Stenocoder<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I think I may have coined a new word. Here's its entry:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="hw" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold;">stenocoder</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;"> </span><span class="pron0x" style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">[stəˈnɒ</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">ˈ</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">kəʊdə</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">] </span><i>noun.</i></span> <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One employed to transcribe dictated software source code.</span></blockquote>
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K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-72451331824808578692012-08-27T10:08:00.000+02:002012-08-27T10:12:26.563+02:00Wisdom of Pearl<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Excerpts from an<a href="http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2012/6/149806-qa-a-sure-thing/fulltext" target="_blank"> interview</a> that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judea_Pearl" target="_blank">Judea Pearl</a> gave for the June 2012 issue of CACM:<br />
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On causation and its importance:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Simulating intervention, by the way, was an idea that was thought of by economists in 1943. Trygve Haavelmo had this idea that economics models are a guide to policy-making, and that you can predict what will happen when the government intervenes and raises taxes or imposes duties by modifying the equations in the model. And that was taken on by other economists, but it didn't catch, because they had very lousy models of the economy, so they couldn't demonstrate success. And because they couldn't demonstrate success, the whole field of economics regressed and became a hotbed for statistical predictions. Economists have betrayed causality. I never expressed it this way before, but in all honesty this is what it boils down to. In computer science, we remain faithful to logic and try to improve our models, while economists compromised on logic to cover up for bad models.</blockquote>
On interfaith dialogue:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
... religious myths are just metaphors, or poetry, for genuine ideas we find difficult to express otherwise. So, yes, you could say I use computer science in my religious dialogues, because I view religion as a communication language. True, it seems futile for people to argue if a person goes to heaven from the East Gate or the West Gate. But, as a computer scientist, you forgive the futility of such debates, because you appreciate the computational role of the gate metaphor.</blockquote>
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K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-76048677973125773772012-08-16T07:53:00.001+02:002012-08-27T10:11:37.959+02:00Stories That Work<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://edge.org/memberbio/nathan_myhrvold" target="_blank">Nathan Myhrvold</a> eloquently points to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method" target="_blank">The Scientific Method</a> as his <i>favorite deep, elegant or beautiful explanation </i>in his response to <a href="http://www.edge.org/responses/what-is-your-favorite-deep-elegant-or-beautiful-explanation" target="_blank">Edge's 2012 Annual Question</a>. In the conclusion to his response, however, one finds him unusually off guard. It has an "analogous to evolution" argument that plays straight into the hands of creationists since the explanation behind evolution is itself obtained by the favored method. Excerpt here:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It's hard to overestimate the importance of the scientific method. Human culture contains much more than science—but science is the part that actually works—the rest is just stories. The rationally based inquiry the scientific method enables is what has given us science and technology and vastly different lifestyles than those of our hunter-gatherers ancestors. In some sense it is analogous to evolution. The sum of millions of small mutations separate us from single celled like blue-green algae. Each had to survive the test of selection and work better than the previous state in the sense of biological fitness. Human knowledge is the accumulation of millions of stories-that-work, each of which had to survive the test of the scientific method, matching observation and experiment more than the predecessors. Both evolution and science have taken us a long way, but looking forward it is clear that science will take us much farther.</blockquote>
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K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-11661997145995643062012-02-10T05:35:00.016+01:002012-02-10T21:27:35.585+01:00An unfair indictmentThe first chapter of the textbook, <a href="http://beta.saasbook.info/">Engineering Long-Lasting Software: An Agile Approach Using SaaS and Cloud Computing (Alpha Edition)</a>, for the <a href="http://www.saas-class.org/">Software Engineering for Software as a Service</a> free-class offered by Armando Fox and David Patterson in Spring 2012, has this to say about formal methods:<br /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KRRBZvBSaaU/TzSpSNivFMI/AAAAAAAADTs/6mSTb67VqcA/s1600/SaaSonFormalMethods.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 69px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-KRRBZvBSaaU/TzSpSNivFMI/AAAAAAAADTs/6mSTb67VqcA/s1600/SaaSonFormalMethods.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5707370604627351442" border="0" /></a>This, if anything, is a sorely mistaken portrayal of formal methods and analyses. There may be any number of reasons not to discuss formal methods in the course, but they not being applicable for evolving software isn't one. I hope that the authors' better-informed colleagues at UC Berkeley will correct them soon enough.K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-92074519299151808472011-01-17T18:32:00.007+01:002011-01-17T19:43:37.153+01:00Treading on dreams<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Robinson_%28British_author%29">Sir Ken Robinson</a>, in <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/sir_ken_robinson_bring_on_the_revolution.html">this TED talk</a>, quotes <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Butler_Yeats">W.B. Yeats</a>:<br /><p></p><blockquote>“Had I the heavens' embroidered cloths,<br />Enwrought with gold and silver light,<br />The blue and the dim and the dark cloths<br />Of night and light and the half-light,<br />I would spread the cloths under your feet:<br />But I, being poor, have only my dreams;<br />I have spread my dreams under your feet;<br />Tread softly because you tread on my dreams.”</blockquote><p></p><p>and follows it thus, with his message:<br /></p><blockquote>“And every day, everywhere, our children spread their dreams beneath our feet. And we should tread softly.” </blockquote>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-47659412974450945032010-12-02T13:52:00.004+01:002011-01-17T19:09:07.702+01:00A missed storyHere's an excerpt from <a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/category/author/manu-joseph">Manu Joseph</a>'s <a href="http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/voices/the-buck-stops-here-too">recent article</a>:<span ><br /><blockquote>... we have a situation where a corporate PR person, representing two companies with interests in telecom, is mediating between the Congress and its ally when a battle is on for the telecom portfolio. This is the kind of story any journalist would love to report. How could [Barkha] Dutt miss that? Dutt’s situation reminds me of a magic realism novel that a friend had written, in which a lowly journalist is in search of a great story. Every day, when he comes home defeated, he speaks to his talking lizard. I find this novel absurd because any journalist would know that a talking lizard is the greatest story ever in the history of journalism.</blockquote></span>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-86305072715614813992010-09-28T15:27:00.010+02:002010-09-30T20:57:50.173+02:00Golden Rule of AuthoringHere's an exerpt from <a href="http://www.cs.rice.edu/~vardi/">Moshe Vardi</a>'s <a href="http://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2010/7/95070-hypercriticality/fulltext">editorial</a> in the July 2010 issue of CACM:<br /><blockquote>... we are the authors and we are the reviewers. It is not "them reviewers;" it is "us reviewers." Hillel the Elder, a Jewish scholar, 30 B.C.-10 A.D., said "What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow." This is known as the Silver Rule in moral philosophy. The Golden Rule, which strengthens the Silver Rule, asserts "do unto others as you would have them do to you." Allow me to rephrase this as the Golden Rule of Reviewing: "Write a review as if you are writing it to yourself." This does not mean that we should not write critical reviews! But the reviews we write must be fair, weighing both strengths and weaknesses; they must be constructive, suggesting how the weaknesses can be addressed; and, above all, they must be respectful. After all, these are the reviews that we would like to receive!</blockquote>I'm inspired by this. So inspired that I decided to hazard a conjecture for the <span style="font-style: italic;">Golden Rule of Authoring</span>: "Write a paper as if you are writing your last paper and you would like it to be your best paper, ever." A conjecture that by no means should be a surprising one.K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-48691261269449147562010-08-14T13:31:00.005+02:002010-08-24T16:33:03.839+02:00Idea's share<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 21px;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:100%;" ><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 21px;"></span></div></span><span style="font-family: trebuchet ms;">An excerpt from <a href="http://blog.regehr.org/">John Regehr</a>'s <a href="http://blog.regehr.org/archives/234">blog</a>:<br /><blockquote>I'm arguing that the <span style="font-style: italic;">“generating ideas” part of research is over-rated</span>. The important thing is to have just enough good ideas — one of my colleagues likes to say <span style="font-style: italic;">you only need a good idea about every two years</span> — and then to build a competent research program based on those ideas. </blockquote>Emphasis added by me.</span>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-44970881584429311482010-08-14T06:55:00.005+02:002010-08-24T16:23:06.754+02:00Let Them Alone<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><blockquote><span style="font-size:100%;">If God has been good enough to give you a poet<br />Then listen to him. But for God's sake let him alone until he is dead;<br />no prizes, no ceremony,<br />They kill the man. A poet is one who listens<br />To nature and his own heart; and if the noise of the world grows up<br />around him, and if he is tough enough,<br />He can shake off his enemies, but not his friends.<br />That is what withered Wordsworth and muffled Tennyson, and would have<br />killed Keats; that is what makes<br />Hemingway play the fool and Faulkner forget his art.</span></blockquote>-- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robinson_Jeffers">Robinson Jeffers</a> (1887-1962)<br /><br />Came across the above thanks to <a href="http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/%7Eoded/on-awards1.html">this</a> essay by <a href="http://www.wisdom.weizmann.ac.il/%7Eoded/">Oded Goldreich</a>.</span>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-10053434445669421662010-05-15T12:45:00.008+02:002010-05-21T15:39:58.753+02:00Two personalities<div>Stamps on a letter received from home:</div><div><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiK69kIDZw6Af4DSOTPmHHQEex9UK912emaxn4VZ5agjz16Wj3QPBjRup4KFSgowDTqYa-NdFFD7KjDxdQGWOak-MnqcRlDywO6zTHKUP4Cg4dpM7hYlAXscaOFJSnUw46MhIn5w/s1600/TwoPersonalities.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 231px; height: 221px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiK69kIDZw6Af4DSOTPmHHQEex9UK912emaxn4VZ5agjz16Wj3QPBjRup4KFSgowDTqYa-NdFFD7KjDxdQGWOak-MnqcRlDywO6zTHKUP4Cg4dpM7hYlAXscaOFJSnUw46MhIn5w/s400/TwoPersonalities.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471449050128338450" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Teresa">Mother Teresa</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indira_Gandhi">Indira Gandhi</a>, two of India's highest civilian awardees, in their personalities, had much in contrast and, arguably, much in common too. It's just as well that they find themselves next to each other, stamped together, on a random post. </div>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-66525915583781902352010-04-28T10:26:00.009+02:002010-05-14T07:04:44.042+02:00Suum cuiqueAn excerpt from a German visa application related <a href="http://www.vfs-germany.co.in/south/images/Info-chklist/Information%20Sheet%20on%20Visa%20for%20Family%20Reunion%20for%20Children.pdf">document</a>:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkzgI-GswznzPA3WxOXUzI3PECbda0fqkf6Lx9ZqRKkniNA_JLG6FqgKCjWU5h4LkinBFOO-Uop_TikXMgdbM28mto2g-TkEmEF7sLL60L0QDhLOwEx04J9gre0mVICa5Ox7yRVQ/s1600/VisaDoc.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 59px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465103559637046370" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkzgI-GswznzPA3WxOXUzI3PECbda0fqkf6Lx9ZqRKkniNA_JLG6FqgKCjWU5h4LkinBFOO-Uop_TikXMgdbM28mto2g-TkEmEF7sLL60L0QDhLOwEx04J9gre0mVICa5Ox7yRVQ/s400/VisaDoc.JPG" /></a><div>To each his own, isn't it?</div>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-46917961025281550642010-02-11T10:49:00.003+01:002010-02-11T10:55:51.222+01:00Invictus<p><i></i></p><p></p><blockquote><p>Out of the night that covers me,<br />Black as the pit from pole to pole,<br />I thank whatever gods may be<br />For my unconquerable soul.</p> <p>In the fell clutch of circumstance<br />I have not winced nor cried aloud.<br />Under the bludgeonings of chance<br />My head is bloody, but unbowed.</p> <p>Beyond this place of wrath and tears<br />Looms but the Horror of the shade,<br />And yet the menace of the years<br />Finds and shall find me unafraid.</p> It matters not how strait the gate,<br />How charged with punishments the scroll,<br />I am the master of my fate:<br />I am the captain of my soul.<i></i></blockquote><span class="z19Dle" id="col-z13tevqbeyzycrcig04chxrpxoqwyvsxsgk"><span class="zo">--- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Ernest_Henley">William Ernest Henley</a>, 1875</span></span>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-51061924282493824222010-02-02T17:27:00.010+01:002010-02-03T02:42:09.311+01:00An over-arching vision<a href="http://www.math.harvard.edu/%7Emazur/">Barry Mazur</a> in his <a href="http://www.math.harvard.edu/%7Emazur/remembrances/serge_lang.pdf">remembrance</a> of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serge_Lang">Serge Lang</a> mentions:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuAz7RGswFIkZsbyzjvuLKzjvE10ngdVWbctaF_HUQ9ZhweN3_vUu-zJDC_NVAT4G16p4ZZ-UWw1_CoNCUu9U2dLROA4P6nbGuOo0Y7mQIGlJ6s2hcENn3oSJpsZ1bVuYPE6EtOg/s1600-h/LangVision.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 69px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuAz7RGswFIkZsbyzjvuLKzjvE10ngdVWbctaF_HUQ9ZhweN3_vUu-zJDC_NVAT4G16p4ZZ-UWw1_CoNCUu9U2dLROA4P6nbGuOo0Y7mQIGlJ6s2hcENn3oSJpsZ1bVuYPE6EtOg/s400/LangVision.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5433697491040505202" border="0" /></a>With my highlighting, I wonder how Mazur would've rendered Lang's vision had he been less charitable and chosen to put it <span style="font-style: italic;">just technically</span>, in all its glory.K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-48987285047042927922010-01-14T13:30:00.002+01:002010-02-11T10:49:24.036+01:00Time and chance<blockquote>I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill, but time and chance happeneth to them all.</blockquote><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">-- <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecclesiastes">Ecclesiastes</a><br /></span>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-3220531257184537252010-01-07T10:56:00.010+01:002010-01-07T18:17:41.110+01:00An act of integrity and grace<a href="http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Russell.html">Bertrand Russell</a> on <a href="http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Frege.html">Gottlob Frege</a>'s response to his letter:<br /><blockquote>As I think about acts of integrity and grace, I realise there is nothing in my knowledge to compare with Frege's dedication to truth. His entire life's work was on the verge of completion, much of his work had been ignored to the benefit of men infinitely less capable, his second volume was about to be published, and upon finding that his fundamental assumption was in error, he responded with intellectual pleasure clearly submerging any feelings of personal disappointment. It was almost superhuman and a telling indication of that of which men are capable if their dedication is to creative work and knowledge instead of cruder eff orts to dominate and be known.</blockquote>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-42694469453230408332009-12-21T16:57:00.013+01:002010-01-07T10:38:21.660+01:00ZaltzmanesqueWith his hilarious take on all things cricket, Andy <span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0">Zaltzman</span> has ensured a permanent place in the all time hall of fame for cricket satire and <span style="font-style: italic;">statistrivia</span>. Here are some samples at random from his <a href="http://blogs.cricinfo.com/andyzaltzman/">blog</a>:<p>On <a href="http://blogs.cricinfo.com/andyzaltzman/archives/2008/11/come_on_umpires_walk_faster_pl.php">umpires checking daylight and ball shape</a> ---<br /></p><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>No slower human movement has ever been officially recorded than that of two umpires sludging towards each other to confer over the light, like a pair of amorous teenage tortoises unsure of whether to make the first move, or two unhappy commuters trying to miss the same train. </p> <p>This is sometimes equalled by the funereal dawdle to co-examine the roundness of an allegedly-misshapen ball, as if this responsibility is a holy, god-given ritual as old as time itself, and the ball is a precious relic whose molecules must not be woken.</p></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">On how <span>I too</span> can remember <span style="font-style: italic;">my</span> <a href="http://blogs.cricinfo.com/andyzaltzman/archives/2008/12/lies_damned_lies_and_21st_cent.php">marriage anniversary</a> ---</p><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>Following a brief and tetchy consultation with Mrs Confectionery Stall, I can now confirm that my anniversary is 18th September. I will never forget it again – the figures in the date 18-9 make up the number of Test wickets taken by SF Barnes, Erapalli Prasanna or (for at least another week) Zaheer Khan, or, as an emergency fall-back memory-jogging stat, the highest Test score of Jacques Kallis, Vijay Manjrekar, Bruce Mitchell and four others, or, <i>in extremis</i>, the number of runs conceded by underrated Pakistani tweaker Tauseef Ahmed whilst taking three Indian wickets in the first innings of the first Test at Chennai in 1987. </p> <p>If I ever move to America, my revised anniversary of 9-18 would be simply recalled by remembering the number of Test runs scored by 1960s England offspinner David Allen, or the number of balls faced by David Gower in the 1983-84 Pakistan v England series. </p> <p>Alternatively, if I merely wish to avoid confusion and remember the 9 and 18 sections of the anniversary date independently to ensure the great day is not forgotten regardless of geographical location, I need only remind myself of the number of Test centuries scored by Maurice Leyland and the number of five-wicket hauls taken by Lance Gibbs, and then deduce which number refers to the day and which to the month by analysing which one is greater than 12. My marriage is now safe. Thank you Statsguru. I owe you my future happiness.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>On <a href="http://blogs.cricinfo.com/andyzaltzman/archives/2008/11/back_to_the_drawing_board_duck.php">Duckwork-Lewis method</a> ---</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The Duckworth-Lewis method is rightly regarded as one of humankind’s greatest scientific breakthroughs, fit to set alongside Archimedes hopping into his bath and splashing water all over his new carpet, Fleming not bothering to wash up his petri-dishes, and whoever first discovered the sliceability of bread. </p> <p>Before Professors D and L intervened, the received wisdom of the ages had been that the intervention of rain or bad light would forever skew the natural axis of limited-over cricketing justice. Previous attempts to solve this ageless conundrum had ranged from incomplete to idiotic. However, after years of secretive testing of their formula on teams of cricket-playing laboratory mice dressed in garish little pyjamas, Duckworth and Lewis unleashed their ingenious system on the cricket world and instantly catapulted themselves onto the Nobel Prize waiting list. Many still do not understand the method, but it is one of those things that the public needs to trust rather than comprehend. Like air travel, the workings of the digestive system...and Tony Blair.</p></blockquote><p>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-22445420503336203232009-12-09T01:32:00.008+01:002010-01-07T10:13:56.623+01:00Gifts versus weaknessesAn excerpt from Saul Bellow's book Humboldt's Gift (a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_%C3%A0_clef"><i>roman à clé</i></a>):<span style="font-style: italic;"><br /></span><blockquote><span>Some people embrace their gifts with gratitude. Others have no use for them and can think only of overcoming their weaknesses. Only their defects interest and challenge them. Thus those who hate people may seek them out. Misanthropes often practice psychiatry. The shy become performers. Natural thieves look for positions of trust. The frightened make bold moves.</span></blockquote>Bellow seldom leaves any sermon without giving it a touch of humour, even if a self-deprecating one. So, here's how he finishes the above lines:<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"></span><blockquote><span>Or take myself, a lover of beauty who insisted on living in Chicago.</span></blockquote>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-25157231841466316452009-12-04T12:55:00.006+01:002010-01-07T10:39:30.438+01:00Hardness of security and safety<a href="http://spaf.cerias.purdue.edu/">Eugene H. Spafford</a> is quoted to have said:<blockquote><span>The only truly secure system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards - and even then I have my doubts.</span></blockquote>I guess the quote could just as well have been about safety:<br /><span><blockquote>The only truly <span style="font-style: italic;">safe</span> system is one that is powered off, cast in a block of concrete and sealed in a lead-lined room with armed guards - and even then I have my doubts.</blockquote></span>K. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11728773.post-1111932206588450602005-03-27T16:01:00.000+02:002005-03-27T16:09:55.046+02:00TestK. C. Shashidharhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17733973902863604003noreply@blogger.com0