tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53577942024-03-08T16:44:55.017-08:00Asim JalisPress Ctrl-F to Search This PageAsimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.comBlogger163125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-2961735373337270212008-04-09T08:05:00.000-07:002008-05-20T16:21:22.536-07:00Google App Engine and PythonCheck out Google App Engine.
http://code.google.com/appengine/
There is a waiting list for developer accounts so I would
recommend signing up ASAP.
Google App Engine enables you to build web applications on the
same scalable systems that power Google applications. No
assembly required. Google App Engine provides a
fully-integrated application environment. It's easy to scale.
Google Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-63731560681752329852008-04-04T07:51:00.000-07:002008-04-04T09:18:29.252-07:00Matrix UniverseSo the question is: Are we living in a matrix universe or is the
real stuff really real and not a simulation. The
simulation/matrix idea suffers from the problem of infinite
regress - if this universe (u_0) is a simulation inside another
universe (u_1) and u_1 is a simulation inside u_2, where does
this end? If it ends at n then don't we have the same dilemma at
u_n?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wikiAsimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-62620311090321860142008-04-04T07:48:00.000-07:002008-04-04T07:49:19.430-07:00Product IdeasHARD ALGORITHMS
Work on hard algorithms problems. For example:
(a) Speech: Hidden Markov Models.
(b) Optimization: Monte-Carlo simulations, simulated annealing, etc.
(c) Clustering.
(d) Conjoint Analysis.
(e) Operations Research: Simplex, and other algorithms.
BUG TRACKING 2.0
Create a traditional web services company with a 2.0 abstraction
twist.
(a) First create a REST-ful XML Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1156010221261495512006-08-19T10:42:00.000-07:002007-09-26T09:42:49.756-07:00The Truth About CinderellaHere is an example of how to use analysis to arrive at somewhat
unconventional conclusions. See which of the premises and
arguments look suspicious.
* * *
No single story has done as much to stereotype step-mothers as
Cinderella. But why has this happened? Cinderella is a fictional
story. Let's not stereotype all step-mothers based on this made
up story. For all we know this is pure Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1106425385542232952005-01-22T12:23:00.000-08:002006-07-07T06:41:18.156-07:00Google CountingI wrote a small program that tells you how popular a word or
phrase is on Google. It's a good way to compare different things
for Google popularity. (See the end of this post for the code.)
For example, to see how many times the words cat and dog appear
on the web, I typed: gcount.sh cat dog. Here are the results
that I got:
cat 128,000,000
dog 83,000,000
Clearly, cat-lovers dominate Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105779673732390102005-01-15T01:01:00.001-08:002005-01-15T01:01:13.733-08:00Wiki Versus Unix PhilosophyThere is something about wikis that disturbs me and I couldn't
quite put my finger on it before. Here is a stab at it. The
trouble is that they don't play well with non-wiki sites. It's
hard to integrate a blog into a wiki. Suppose I want to set up a
shareware site. It's hard to do this on a wiki. I mean the wiki
does not really make things easier for me. It makes them harder.
It's usually easierAsimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105779661186436892005-01-15T01:01:00.000-08:002005-01-15T01:01:01.186-08:00Plan Projects Backwards From GoalsHere is a technique I have found useful for planning small
projects:
Write down the goal. Then write down the steps working backwards
from the goal.
For example, if my goal is to resolve a bug, I start with a list
that looks like this:
[ ] resolve bug
Then with some thinking I come up with things I need to get
there, and write them down higher up in the list. So I get
something like:
[ ] Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105779145446614652005-01-15T00:52:00.000-08:002005-01-15T00:52:25.446-08:00Internet, Innovation, Google, Software1. The internet was hard to design (it did not happen earlier)
because the software architects charged wtih designing networked
communication systems assumed complete information was necessary.
2. The href style link is an innovation because it makes no
assumptions about the link. It does not assume that the link
exists, or that the browser knows or needs to know whether the
link exists.
3. TheAsimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105770876288256982005-01-14T22:34:00.001-08:002005-02-13T17:13:01.656-08:00Analysis of US Presidential Election DataThis analysis is based on voter data from CNN. Here is the URL:
Link to http://www.cnn.com.
My impression during the door-to-door interviewing was that
people who supported Bush considered terrorism as the most
important issue.
Looking at the issues section, the thing to note is the
percentage who found an issue important times the percentage of
this segment that voted for Bush. This gives Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105770870985636512005-01-14T22:34:00.000-08:002005-01-14T22:34:30.986-08:00Lots Of Ideas But Not Enough TimeHere are some more thoughts on how to get things done, when it is
easier to come up with ideas than to implement them:
1. To accomplish projects you must finish them quickly. So write
them in scripting languages like Perl, Bash, Python, or PHP. Do
not write them in C/C++ or Java. Remember that the project is
going to lose its charm quickly. A Perl hack is more likely to
get done than a C/C++ Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105764060937432352005-01-14T20:41:00.000-08:002005-01-14T20:41:00.936-08:00Why Ruby Is NeatThe neat thing about ruby is its blocks and yields. So for
example a function f, which takes three arguments and a block can
be called as: f(a, b, c) { |x,y| more stuff }. This is what f
looks like:
def f(a,b,c)
# do stuff with a,b,c
z = yield x, y
# do more stuff
end
Now yield can be inside a loop. Each time yield is called, it
calls the block, and sets its two parameters to x and y. The
Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105764048114861992005-01-14T20:40:00.000-08:002005-01-14T20:40:48.113-08:00Conflict Between Google Ads And BloggingIt occurred to me that there is a conflict between what I have
been doing on my sites, and what I need to do to optimize Google
ads.
The purpose of a personal site (such as mine) is to publish
ideas.
From the perspective of ads, there is really no market for
original ideas or thoughts. Original ideas don't lead people to
make purchase decisions.
The purpose of a well-oiled ad site should be Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105762507067634812005-01-14T20:15:00.000-08:002005-01-14T20:15:07.066-08:00Damian Conway on the Software ProblemBuilder AU has an interview of Damian Conway (which is also
posted on Slashdot). Here are some interesting comments that
Damian made about the nature of software development:
It seems that every few years a new development technique is
hailed as the start of the Programming Renaissance, the Golden
Age of Scientific Software Development. And none ever is. [...]
Of course, the problem Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105741764266265242005-01-14T14:29:00.000-08:002005-01-14T14:29:24.266-08:00The Kid PrincipleGROWN-UPS AND CHILDREN
The grown-up and the child principles form a duality along a
continuum. For example, IBM is a parent. Apple is a kid. In the
middle Apple tried to become a parent and almost went out of
business.
Google is clearly a kid. Their acquisition of KeyHole.com only
makes sense if you look at them this way. The whole company feels
like a kid's room. There are giant inflatable Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105741678369500332005-01-14T14:27:00.000-08:002005-01-14T14:27:58.370-08:00Google, Command-Line and GUI Applications1. Google has recently released http://desktop.google.com, which
lets you google your hard drive. It is quite good. Also the size
is small. The download is about 400k. The memory footprint is
about 1 Meg. In other words, you could fit this on a single
floppy.
2. The user interface is IE. The application spawns a tiny web
server and then connects to it with IE. In other words the
application hasAsimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105732672766775822005-01-14T11:57:00.000-08:002005-01-14T11:57:52.766-08:00John Baez on Having an AngleHere is a post that John Baez posted on usenet, that I think is
worth reading:
________________________________________
From: John Baez (baez@galaxy.ucr.edu)
Subject: Re: Help, I'm arXiv drowning!
Newsgroups: sci.physics.research
Date: 2003-03-05 13:47:02 PST
Serenus Zeitblom wrote:
> These days I seem to spend more time reading and trying to
> understand arxiv postings than doing actual Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105726659057886822005-01-14T10:17:00.000-08:002005-01-14T10:17:39.056-08:00Quiz and Exam TechniquesThere are two key things to keep in mind in exams: (a) to not
stress out, (b) to allocate the time optimally. Of these
allocating the time is the most important point.
Here's usually how I did the time allocation:
1. Divide the total time available by number of problems and then
round down to 5 or 10 or 15, to get a rough idea of how many
minutes per problem I had.
2. Skim through the exam Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105726123073792852005-01-14T10:08:00.000-08:002005-01-14T10:08:43.073-08:00Impulsiveness versus PatienceHere is a link to a news story about research on impulsiveness in
blue jays and the importance of short-term rewards for them:
Link to story.
Here are some excerpts from the story:
> In experiments with blue jays, David Stephens, a professor of
> ecology, evolution and behavior in the [University of
> Minnesota's] College of Biological Sciences, found that birds
> presented with a choice of Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105722814202491942005-01-14T09:13:00.001-08:002005-01-14T09:13:34.203-08:00Reflections on Extreme Programming There is a subtle problem with XP. These problems are hard to get
at. Often I know something is wrong, but I can't quite explain
it.
There is a phenomenon, which I have noticed and Ward Cunningham
also mentioned in a conversation, and this is that after a while
XP teams tend to get bored with programming.
There are different explanations for this. Regardless of what
explanation we come up withAsimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105722809693475222005-01-14T09:13:00.000-08:002005-01-14T09:13:29.693-08:00Reflections on Godel's TheoremI am struck by the fact that Godel's proof is really simple and
elegant. It has the same flavor as Russell's paradox (consider
the set that contains all the sets that don't contain themselves
-- does this set contain itself?).
The trick of expressing mathematical statements as numbers seems
obvious now given that we do this in computers all the time, but
was probably a little less accessible inAsimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105722770088939662005-01-14T09:12:00.003-08:002005-01-14T09:12:50.086-08:00Interest As A StrengthOne of the things that gets in my way of getting things done is
that if the task is not interesting, I find it hard to get
motivated to do it. I know people who don't view things this way.
Normally, this ability to discriminate between boring and
interesting things is a weakness. The guy who can put his head
down and crank out whatever code the customer wants wins every
time.
But if applied Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105722767976832602005-01-14T09:12:00.002-08:002005-01-14T09:12:47.976-08:00The Economics of IdeasI am much better at thinking up stuff than at doing stuff. I use
a lot of little tricks to stay focused and to get things done.
Thoughts and ideas are effortless. Execution is hard.
In our conversations about entrepreneurship and money, we have
focused on ventures that are based on tangible products. In fact
most of the economy is based on tangible products so this focus
is natural.
Since Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105722766053360972005-01-14T09:12:00.001-08:002005-01-14T09:12:46.053-08:00Analyzing Versus ExecutingI have always resisted an instinct to focus on concepts at the
expense of experience. Even though I prefer to think about what
to do, it seems more fruitful to act, to engage with the world,
to get real feedback.
But accumulating real experiences is so time-consuming and hard
and tedious.
And so why resist the attraction to concepts. Why not just engage
with concepts and abandon the pretense Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105722757381326382005-01-14T09:12:00.000-08:002005-01-14T09:12:37.380-08:00Making Money from ThinkingNicholas Carr appears to be an example of someone who comes up
with ideas, but not with implementations:
http://www.nicholasgcarr.com/info.shtml
Max McKeown is another such person.
This weekend I spent some time googling Arundhati Roy, who
appears to be another example. Here's what I found out. She
studied architecture in school, then fell in love, moved to the
beach and sold cakes for a few Asimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5357794.post-1105711264008044302005-01-14T06:01:00.000-08:002005-01-14T06:01:04.006-08:00Math and Object-Oriented ProgrammingOne of the neat things about math is that reuse is extremely
simple and pervasive. Since mathematical proofs are written for
people you can easily allude to someone else's proof and expect
the reader to get it. You can say, "based on the result by this
other person in this other paper, we know that X is true", and
then you can continue from there.
In computer science it is not as easy. You can'tAsimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14141500729962703817noreply@blogger.com0