Controlled Randomness
A random collection of things I come across.
Monday, September 07, 2009
Thursday, April 09, 2009
We're Linux
From a competition run by the Linux Foundation (Link)
The winner:
1st runner-up:
2nd runner-up:
Posted by Prashanth. at 4:06 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Chinese food == Linux ??
Funny and informative talk by Jennifer Lee of NYTimes on how "chinese" food in America is not really authentic Chinese food. Fortune cookies, one of the distinctive symbols of Chinese restaurants in USA, is of Japanese origin!! A similar 'localization' of Chinese food has happened in India with the "Manchurian" dishes. And, as described the talk,
this localization phenomenon is wide-spread around the world.
Jennifer compares the growth, variety and spread of Chinese food to that of Linux. And, McDonalds is the Microsoft of food!!
Jennifer is also the first person I have come across with a number in her name "Jennifer 8 Lee". I wonder if its the Chinese equivalent of King George VIII.
Posted by Prashanth. at 2:50 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Forecasts
If you follow financial news, you will often come across the terms "profits exceeded the forecast" or "profits were below analysts' forecast", especially while discussing quarterly/annual results. The stock price fluctuates accordingly. I keep thinking to myself "why can't the analysts get it right?". Most news articles, however, are written to implicitly imply that it was the company's fault to not match the forecast. In my opinion, it should probably the other way round: we should criticize the so-called experts/analysts for their incorrect forecasts.
Some related thoughts on this:
* The analyst (or his firm) could possibly profit in the stock market by deliberately supplying misleading forecasts. My guess is that there are some regulations (from agencies such as the SEC) to prevent this.
* Is there a stock-price type indicator for the analysts performance: higher price for more accurate forecasts.
Posted by Prashanth. at 3:32 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, January 06, 2009
Poetry in perl
Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun;
Now I may wither into the truth
written in Perl as
while ($leaves > 1) {
$root = 1;
}
foreach($lyingdays{'myyouth'}) {
sway($leaves, $flowers);
}
while ($i > $truth) {
$i--;
}
sub sway {
my ($leaves, $flowers) = @_;
die unless $^O =~ /sun/i;
}See more examples at Perl Poetry Contest
Posted by Prashanth. at 12:02 PM 0 comments
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Wingsuit base jumping!
Watch this amazing video! Scary and thrilling at the same time. Apparently its from the movie "Seven Sunny Days http://mspfilms.com/store/844
wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.
Posted by Prashanth. at 7:12 PM 0 comments