February 2nd, 2010
Yesterday, we faced a small problem on a webpage, when visited in Mozilla Firefox. This was a strange bug, I really didn’t expect such a bug from Firefox. Well, it is as follows:
<!-- something 1 --
something 2
<!-- some other stuff -->
This is not interpreted as a a complete commented code! The “something 2″ part is displayed! Seems like firefox interpreter closes comments when reaches –. From a programmer’s point of view, such a problem in interpreter, is a sign of a very novice parser. It really is strange…
Recently, Mozilla team are not performing like before, Firefox has become so slow and buggy. It is sad, as Firefox used to be a leading browser, it was what all web developers wished people to use instead of that dumb internet explorer. But the recent tests show that IE8 runs faster than FF! What are they doing in Mozilla these days? Just wondering…
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January 29th, 2010
Yes, J. D. Salinger has died yesterday. It’s sad, a week ago, I didn’t even know that he was alive. I remember when I was 19-20, and how I loved his writings. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters… such a great book, Catcher in the Rye, Frannie and Zooey… Wow… Such a pure person… So calmly wild…
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January 29th, 2010
iPad is released, and I don’t get what is new in this device. Seems like apple has lost it. a few years ago, apple started a revolutionary era, it really had something to say in a lot of aspects of computer industry. The most important one was of course user interface, but I believe if a programmer looks closely at small details of Mac OS X, he/she will see some really smart and beautiful fundamental things. The algorithms are chosen from really fast ones, and though the stability has been the cornerstone, there are a lot of places that I see they have traded it for speed. I like it.
Leopard was a shock, iPhone was amazing… but what does Snow Leopard offer? or iPad? I know, there are improvements, new usages, but, maybe its just me, but I expect much more from apple.
You know, I would admire them if they stop being revolutionary, and just try to stabilize and improve their existing products, but are they even doing so? I have a feeling that they are paving the path that Microsoft went through. Do you remember 15 years ago, when Bill Gates was an idol? Microsoft was praised like it was the only reason for human beings to be! Will we see people throwing cakes at Steve Jobs, as they did to Gates?
Why is computer world so lost? It doesn’t know where it is going to. Seems like there ain’t any horizons, goals and ideals for it to reach. (sigh…)
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January 29th, 2010
I found this today! It is mind-blowing! For you who are curious to know where the white dots are, they can’t be seen here! Download it in full resolution from the original website and then you will see them. And if you are wondering what are the black lines, they are the keywords of the papers, organized by usage.
“A MAP OF SCIENCE created by Sandian Kevin Boyack with collaborators Richard Klavans and Brad Paley, resembles a filamentous microorganism you might see under a microscope.
The map represents 800,000 scientific papers (shown as white dots) and shows relationships between them and different scientific disciplines. The “filaments” are common words unique to each “scientific paradigm” — the 776 red circular nodes or clusters of papers. Each node contains papers that are commonly cited together. Larger nodes have more papers. Nodes are connected with lines of various lengths and thicknesses, denoting the strength of the citation linkages between the nodes.”
(source: Sandia National Labs)
It is an old dated picture, so I assume a lot of people have seen it. But what does it mean?
The first realization is that the highest amount of research is done on medicine, and sadly enough the second and third are also the ones that support medicine directly; I mean biology and chemistry. I am a chemist, so I should probably be happy, but I’m not! I believe it can be a red alert that the scientific researches are being done according to what medicine needs. Of course, medicine is important, but can it be the leader? I really don’t think so. The unjustified role of medicine in our scientific realm, is shown in this map, how? Well, you know, medicine is NOT science in first place! It uses science, but it is not any part of it! So why do we even see it in the map of science?
The sadder truth is that, there is no end to the medical research. More research is done day after day on medical questions, and I can’t imagine a time that we say: “Ok! now we have solved most of the medical problems, so let’s understand what the world is!”
Is it the fate of human race to be focused on its sicknesses? Isn’t it a shame? Shouldn’t we do more for understanding the world? I just remembered that the LHC is still being repaired. How much longer shall we wait? “Well my friend, we are trying to understand how to enlarge celebrity breasts, we don’t have enough budget for the CERN at the moment. Wait a little bit longer!”
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January 17th, 2010
This is a picture taken in 1949, during one of J.D. Bernal visits from USSR. On the right you see Trofim Lysenko, the director of soviet biology under Stalin. The man played a flawless role in degrading soviet union science, specifically biology. To have a brief idea of what he did, just know that he rejected Mendelian genetics and created a political scientific movement called Lysenkoism, which lead to the terror and silence of a vast number of russian scientists. J.D. Bernal, a genius and extremely knowledgeable scientist, is there for a communist gathering. Under the steel dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, no one is allowed to argument, and to Bernal, Lysenko is the ultimate enemy, someone who is ruining his utopia. Bernal tries to look at Lysenko, but he is unable to do so, as his grudge is beyond obvious!
Though I never understood why Bernal became a communist, it is obvious that he never was a blind one. (By the way, who am I to judge Bernal?)
Just click on the photo and watch the grudge on sage’s face, and then the arrogance and stupidity on Lysenko’s. Worths much more than a thousand words, I think.
(The man in the middle is J.G. Crowther, a science journalist)
(Photo taken from Andrew Brown’s “J.D.Bernal, The Sage of Science”)
Tags: Bernal, Grudge, Lysenko, Sage
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January 17th, 2010
It was a while, that all my efforts had been focused on earning money, not to become a billionaire, just to stay alive! Kidding, a little more than staying alive. Last night, I was thinking about how life distracted me from my goals. How easily I was driven away from my goals. That was when I understood how simple our parents were driven away form their goals, and how hard it is to stay on. That was when I found out, that there should be a constant effort, to bypass daily interruptions and stay focused.
So I will do my best to stay focused, and not let myself become an earning machine. I wasn’t a good money tracer anyway!!!
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January 16th, 2010
Life paves paths that you never imagine. I had a friend, who was so close to me. It is really hard to find someone who really thinks like you, who has the same obsessions and ideals.
Several years ago, I tried to help him, but I had over-estimated my abilities, and couldn’t believe someone who was actually being paid to help was in fact ruining everything. The things turned out quite bad, we had arguments, and we didn’t talk for a while. His girlfriend, who is now his wife, tried a lot to mend our friendship. She is a kind person, who is over-responsible for things she may have had played a part in. We celebrated a reunion, and things became good again.
Then he married. and a few weeks later, without any previous sign, he suddenly stopped answering my calls, emails and etc. It is now several months since then, and he still refuses to answer me.
Well, people choose who to befriend with, and who not to. But what can we do with the unbearable feeling we feel at the bottom of our hearts? Feeling of a loss. Missing a dear dear friend, even though you may still blame yourself for your mistakes, is really hard. And the thing that makes it even harder in this case, is that for a while, I thought that I was forgiven, and did whatever I could do to show him that I was sorry. And he seemed to accept it, but suddenly out of nowhere…
Though I know no-one is reading this weblog, I thought that maybe writing this down may make me feel better, actually it turned out the other way!
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November 7th, 2009
I have been listening to the Cranberries’ Treasure Box collection recently. I used to like cranberries, I used to think they are a good band, their music is beautiful. But these days, I am seeing a much deeper face of their music. You know, it is deeper than what I used to think, and it is full of small amazing details. Their melodic lines, has its own simple but thoughtful movements, intervals are chosen very wisely. And to be honest, Dolores O’Riordan used to be a nice girl to me, but she seems like a brilliant singer these days. She has a lot more than her “yehehehe…”s to offer as vocal technique! And she seems much more of a musician to me these days. Don’t know why I haven’t seen these things before!
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September 7th, 2009
As a computer programmer, and as a man who has spent a great part of his life studying science, I have learned and got used to think in a systematic way. I know that riddles can’t be the base of any foundation. But women, want the riddles to be the base of all the foundations. We, men, specially the men of science, want to solve problems, and get rid of the riddles. Here, any man should face and answer a very fundamental question and choose. The answer is clear, inevitable, and quite annoying…
Maybe, this is the only riddle that men, specially men of science, prefer not to answer ever.
Tags: Riddle, Women
Posted in Psychology | 2 Comments »
September 5th, 2009
It is nearly 10 hours now that I have been listening to Bach’s “Aus der tiefe…”. For several years, since I heard the first piece of “Aus der tiefe…” for the first time, I have experienced these days of needing to listen to it over and over. It flows in my body and caresses all the neurons in its way. I don’t know how Bach could compose such pieces.
In my opinion, Mozart, or Beethoven, or any other great musician in the history, have never reached Bach’s level of “Musicality”. Mozart is a wizard of course, Beethoven can really move you, no doubt, but it is only Bach’s music that connects so strong that sometimes you feel like you and the flowing music are in fact a single body.
Reading Schopenhauer’s ideas about music, I believe one cannot resist criticising his ideas, even he himslef “admits that his metaphysical conception of music as the embodiment of the “Will” cannot be logically demonstrated” (Lawrence Ferrara, Schopenhauer on music as the embodiment of Will). And of course this is just one of the problems! But when I listen to Bach’s music, it reminds me of Schopenhauer’s ideas, and I think it could be the one place that we can at least sympathise with his philosophy.
Tags: Bach, Schopenhauer
Posted in Music, Philosophy | 1 Comment »
