I'm addicted to this playlist...launch the 'Standalone Player' for the full songs...
Sunday, December 02, 2007
Linkin Park playlist
I'm addicted to this playlist...launch the 'Standalone Player' for the full songs...
Sunday, August 05, 2007
The physics of life
I would have been a Physicist if I had not chosen CS as a career.
And like anybody interested in physics, two of the scientists whose works I admire the most are Richard Feynman, and Albert Einstein. Of late, I started coming across quotations by Einstein on my customized iGoogle page. I never though of him as a philosopher, but his quotations are quite thoughtful.
Here's one, summarizing 2 of the most complex concepts I've ever come across... :)
"Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."
And like anybody interested in physics, two of the scientists whose works I admire the most are Richard Feynman, and Albert Einstein. Of late, I started coming across quotations by Einstein on my customized iGoogle page. I never though of him as a philosopher, but his quotations are quite thoughtful.
Here's one, summarizing 2 of the most complex concepts I've ever come across... :)
"Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl for an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Corporate success
Business Week is a good read, second only to The Economist. It carries articles in 'bite-size' forms, as compared to deep essays in the latter. Coming to what I want to talk about; I was reading this article about how MBA coaches are making a gazzilion bucks out of 'helping' students work on their business school applications; which of-course causes the usual blurring of the fine line of what fits the definition of this 'help' ethically.
Personally, I believe that coaches can help the people who have very limited knowledge about the application process, but to help them write your application essays is something I would consider un-ethical, for obvious reasons. But then again, from the kind of candidates I've seen go into some very desirable B-schools, I'm led to (I might be wrong...) believe that a majority of applicants are accepted because they come with the guarantee of success, either because they've already excelled in their careers (which I believe is what the schools are looking for), or because they already come from successful networked families with a Trust fund already in their name.
What happened to the promise of education wherein you could came in raw, and were polished by your training! We never hear of the B-schools who've selected solely based on 'promising attitudes', mainly because there has been no study done to analyze the performance of business grads with corrections for their potential for success because of their family backgrounds.
If you start high in the ladder, and don't F up too much, you're probably going up! - I guess this is the motto everybody follows.
Anyhow, the world of business as I see it is pretty cruel for an average person. Corporate environments are full of silos based on strong alumnae, and where you go in your career depends on the brand you carry with you. If so much is against you, is'nt it justified for an average person to resort to 'help' to get that brand name, to correct things in their disadvantage? Probably not...these schools were never going to accept an 'average' person anyway!
As a scientist, this makes no sense to me, because Science, as I've know it has been a field where how much you rise is solely based on your talent and creativity.
Personally, I believe that coaches can help the people who have very limited knowledge about the application process, but to help them write your application essays is something I would consider un-ethical, for obvious reasons. But then again, from the kind of candidates I've seen go into some very desirable B-schools, I'm led to (I might be wrong...) believe that a majority of applicants are accepted because they come with the guarantee of success, either because they've already excelled in their careers (which I believe is what the schools are looking for), or because they already come from successful networked families with a Trust fund already in their name.
What happened to the promise of education wherein you could came in raw, and were polished by your training! We never hear of the B-schools who've selected solely based on 'promising attitudes', mainly because there has been no study done to analyze the performance of business grads with corrections for their potential for success because of their family backgrounds.
If you start high in the ladder, and don't F up too much, you're probably going up! - I guess this is the motto everybody follows.
Anyhow, the world of business as I see it is pretty cruel for an average person. Corporate environments are full of silos based on strong alumnae, and where you go in your career depends on the brand you carry with you. If so much is against you, is'nt it justified for an average person to resort to 'help' to get that brand name, to correct things in their disadvantage? Probably not...these schools were never going to accept an 'average' person anyway!
As a scientist, this makes no sense to me, because Science, as I've know it has been a field where how much you rise is solely based on your talent and creativity.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Disturbed...
We all read what happened in VTech this week, and we all felt the pain, because not too long ago, most of us were struggling students in similar colleges. But the fact that such delusional individuals exist does not surprise me one bit.
I personally came across a lot of them in college...and this is a story of one of them. This individual was from Taiwan, real nice guy, but really disturbed. He was my neighbour when I was renting a studio in upstate NY. There was a lot not working for him, he was not doing well in college, his personal life was going no where, and his parents were going thru a messy divorce. So he went into his own world, he used to get military equipment catalogs, and show me the knives he was always interested in getting. This was a seemingly harmless individual that would not hurt a soul, but his other side was this man who would resort to buying military grade knives, jump-suits to probably fill up the gap of security in his life.
He used to confide in me a lot, and still calls me up (it's been 4 years since I last saw him). He lives a 'seemingly' quiet life in VA (yes...ironical), and it makes me wonder how far he has progressed in his second life.
This is a cruel culture, a culture of fitting in. I had the fortune of experiencing High School in the Midwest for a year when I was a kid. Kids were really mean. There were groups of people based on their color, their neighbourhoods, and god knows what else. It's not difficult for any person going through adolescence to get disillusioned in this culture, to develop hatred and finally be driven to violence. But does anything justify taking lives? No.
My heart goes out to the parents of the bright souls that lost their lives at VT, but I feel the society needs to do some introspection as to why children are driven to such a mental state in the first place.
I personally came across a lot of them in college...and this is a story of one of them. This individual was from Taiwan, real nice guy, but really disturbed. He was my neighbour when I was renting a studio in upstate NY. There was a lot not working for him, he was not doing well in college, his personal life was going no where, and his parents were going thru a messy divorce. So he went into his own world, he used to get military equipment catalogs, and show me the knives he was always interested in getting. This was a seemingly harmless individual that would not hurt a soul, but his other side was this man who would resort to buying military grade knives, jump-suits to probably fill up the gap of security in his life.
He used to confide in me a lot, and still calls me up (it's been 4 years since I last saw him). He lives a 'seemingly' quiet life in VA (yes...ironical), and it makes me wonder how far he has progressed in his second life.
This is a cruel culture, a culture of fitting in. I had the fortune of experiencing High School in the Midwest for a year when I was a kid. Kids were really mean. There were groups of people based on their color, their neighbourhoods, and god knows what else. It's not difficult for any person going through adolescence to get disillusioned in this culture, to develop hatred and finally be driven to violence. But does anything justify taking lives? No.
My heart goes out to the parents of the bright souls that lost their lives at VT, but I feel the society needs to do some introspection as to why children are driven to such a mental state in the first place.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Minutes to Midnight
I've been touched deeply by only 2 bands so far, one of them being Linkin Park. I remember choosing 'I tried so hard' as the theme song for our System Programming course in college. I guess the reason you usually attach yourself to some music (warning...philosophy) is because life is usually not in much rhythm, and music is (more than life usually). Relating to it is attractive, because we would like to inject the same harmony in our lives, and music sometimes is the inspiration for that. I fell in love with this band was because I can always personally relate to their lyrics reminding me of the struggles we all went through while growing up. Listen to them, you'll know what I'm talking about.
I truly believe there's yet to be a band that has created their own niche genre in Rock music. Their innovative lyrics along with the very unique Alternative + Punk rock blend is a killer combination. Add to it their videos, and you have probably the best alternative music out there. So I have been scrounging around trying to find more about their upcoming album "Minutes to Midnight" which I have been eagerly waiting for (comes out on May 15'th). The best I could hear was a short clip at some random place. What I did find was their own channel on YouTube, which hosts some of their videos. So if you're like me and are crazy about their music, this is where you should be going.
Here are three pretty amazing songs:
I truly believe there's yet to be a band that has created their own niche genre in Rock music. Their innovative lyrics along with the very unique Alternative + Punk rock blend is a killer combination. Add to it their videos, and you have probably the best alternative music out there. So I have been scrounging around trying to find more about their upcoming album "Minutes to Midnight" which I have been eagerly waiting for (comes out on May 15'th). The best I could hear was a short clip at some random place. What I did find was their own channel on YouTube, which hosts some of their videos. So if you're like me and are crazy about their music, this is where you should be going.
Here are three pretty amazing songs:
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