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Post Remembrance of a old winter, five years past. Read an old post here about beauty in winter
Series: :The Awakening of Silence
The letter below is from Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From The Beaten Track, a book of letters of Richard Feynman.

Scenario:
A former student, wrote to extend his congratulations to Prof Feynman for receiving Nobel Prize.Feynman responded, asking him( Mr. Mano) as to what he was now doing.

Mr. Mano responded: "studying the Coherence theory with some applications to the propagation of electromagnetic waves through turbulent
atmosphere... a humble and down-to-earth type of problem."

Feynman's Letter

Dear Koichi,

I was very happy to hear from you, and that you have such a position in the Research Laboratories. Unfortunately your letter made me unhappy for you seem to be truly sad. It seems that the influence of your teacher has been to give you a false idea of what are worthwhile problems. The worthwhile problems are the ones you can really solve or help solve, the ones you can really contribute something to. A problem is grand in science if it lies before us unsolved and we see some way for us to make some headway into it. I would advise you to take even simpler, or as you say, humbler, problems until you find some you can really solve easily, no matter how trivial. You will get the pleasure of success, and of helping your fellow man, even if it is only to answer a question in the mind of a colleague less able than you. You must not take away from yourself these pleasures because you have some erroneous idea of what is worthwhile.

You met me at the peak of my career when I seemed to you to be concerned with problems close to the gods. But at the same time I had another Ph.D. Student (Albert Hibbs) was on how it is that the winds build up waves blowing over water in the sea. I accepted him as a student because he came to me with the problem he wanted to solve. With you I made a mistake, I gave you the problem instead of letting you find your own; and left you with a wrong idea of what is interesting or pleasant or important to work on (namely those problems you see you may do something about). I am sorry, excuse me. I hope by this letter to correct it a little.

I have worked on innumerable problems that you would call humble, but which I enjoyed and felt very good about because I sometimes could partially succeed. For example, experiments on the coefficient of friction on highly polished surfaces, to try to learn something about how friction worked (failure). Or, how elastic properties of crystals depends on the forces between the atoms in them, or how to make electroplated metal stick to plastic objects (like radio knobs). Or, how neutrons diffuse out of Uranium. Or, the reflection of electromagnetic waves from films coating glass. The development of shock waves in explosions. The design of a neutron counter. Why some elements capture electrons from the L-orbits, but not the K-orbits. General theory of how to fold paper to make a certain type of child's toy (called flexagons). The energy levels in the light nuclei. The theory of turbulence (I have spent several years on it without success). Plus all the "grander" problems of quantum theory.

No problem is too small or too trivial if we can really do something about it.

You say you are a nameless man. You are not to your wife and to your child. You will not long remain so to your immediate colleagues if you can answer their simple questions when they come into your office. You are not nameless to me. Do not remain nameless to yourself - it is too sad a way to be. now your place in the world and evaluate yourself fairly, not in terms of your naive ideals of your own youth, nor in terms of what you erroneously imagine your teacher's ideals are.

Best of luck and happiness.
Sincerely,
Richard P. Feynman.



  1. wasting time on Orkut instead
  2. catching up on blogs
  3. playing Mobile games in class
  4. Micro-Blogging on twitter.com by SMS using your Mobile
  5. writing your own games in class
  6. playing someones game in class
  7. writing code for yourself
  8. re-writing your written code so that others can understand it
  9. writing code for yourself in your own abstract programming language
  10. sitting back and thinking about the problems of starting your own Company
  11. talking about computers on paper
  12. doing much more math than expected. (at least it isn’t medical studies)
  13. frequently start using phrases like "If and Only If","DO", some DO's end with a "While","make","sudo","su" in everyday English usage
  14. ending up with a nonsense project that drives you nuts

SachiN Modeel
:w
:q
I have been working with Flex for the past few days and surely i have to confess i think its the coolest way to develop awesome Rich-Internet-Applications !

and this is one example i have come across recently ... its a 3D arena Theater where u can make this guy to move around by clicking on to specific screens in the play area in the arena.The are different screens for a Calender,a movie player, a photo sideshow, a visual data representation etc

http://dev.getoutsmart.com/os3d/demos/videoroom/


even this is pretty basic , but still very attractive
http://demo.quietlyscheming.com/book/Anatomy.html

you have to check it out. its just amazing ... if you have worked with flex before i am sure you would really appreciate the example.
to know more about flex visit www.flex.org
--
Sachin Modeel

Adobe Flex BootCamp - MSRIT Bangalore

will be held on November 7th and 8th 2008

1st prize -30,000/- Indian Rupees... and many more prizes and goodies to be won!!!

Agenda

Day1:

09:00 to 09:30 – Inauguration

09:30 to 10:15 – Web2.0, RIAs and the Future

10:15 to 11:00 – Introduction to Flex

11:00 to 11:30 – Break

11:30 to 13:00 – Learning Flex

13:00 to 14:00 - Lunch and also a written test to select teams that will participate in the contest

14:00 to 14:45 – Interface Design of a Flex Application

14:45 to 15:30 – Getting that killer look for your applications

15:30 to 16:00 -  What can this do for me? How do I learn more

16:00 to 16:30 – Selection of 200 people for the contest

17:00 to 19:00  – Prep lab for the 100 teams (100X2 students).

 

Day 2:

09:00 to 09:30 – Adobe to specify problems for the contest

09:30 to 10:30 – Teams to choose a problem, and write a one-pager on the features they will implement

12:30 to 14:00 -  Lunch

14:00 to 15:30 – Application submission

15:30 to 17:00 – Judges will start evaluating the work of the teams.

17:30 to 18:30 – Closing ceremony and prize distribution.

 THIS IS A TENTATIVE SCHEDULE.. it may be subjected to change in the timings of the specific events althought the days and date is fixed!

For more information on flex and to get an edge in the competition, visit the links below:

Flex - http://www.adobe.com/products/flex/

Free Flex Builder for academia -https://freeriatools.adobe.com/

Flex in a Week (training videos) -http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/videotraining/

Flex Developer Network -http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flex/

Flex Showcase - http://flex.org/showcase/


to register contact http://www.eventbrite.com/event/182415610

or call up MSRIT ISE dept

or comment here



Hi...  its funny,

Recently i was just searching for  Open-source Freak groups other than VRLinug (We Are a LINux Users group - the best!) in Bangalore, and i came across BLUG which stands for Bangalore Linux users Group

The BLUG meets on the 4th Friday of every month at 6:00pm at a place that is usually announced on their mailing lists , Anyone can attend a BLUG meet by paying a cover charge of Rs. 100
and i went W-H-A-T??!!!!--  Isn't this this an Free-and-open-Source club? and you guys are charging??? lol
anyways they give cheap-skates like me plenty of answers for such  (stupid) questions.

SachiN: " No seriously! why do i have to pay??? 100 rupees???"
BLUG:"we hold our meetings in places where the quality and quantity of the food is very good, and where the cover charge also includes the cost of the hall." 

SachiN:"Will you take credit cards/cheques/etc.?" [ yea rite!,anyways... i am asking this question just to keep the conversation going and i couldn't think of a better query]
BLUG:"No. If you attend the meet, you are expected to pay the cover-charge. It isn't just for the food, as explained above - we also have to pay for other facilities at the meet (screen, microphones, etc.). We always pay more than is collected - so every little bit helps keeping things manageable.And in any case, we are charged for number of heads in the hall. If you are in the hall, we have to pay for you, whether you have paid or not. "

SachiN:"Ummm.. isnt this a Free-and-open source community???"
BLUG:" i don't think u understand what Free and Open source means!, it means that The source codes are provided freely over the Internet and the code is Open that mean u can make changes to it  with out paying anybody anything! prominent example are Free operating systems like Ubuntu  ,   free replacements for MS-Office like Open-Office by SunMicro etc.."

SachiN:"So... this is not a FREE .... 'free-and-open-source' community"
BLUG: " Why am i still talking to you??"

SachiN:"okay sorry ...sooo..er.......about this cover-charge for attending your 'meetings' ,are there any exceptions???"
BLUG: " YES
  • Children whose ages add up to less than 10 years, come in free. If you have two children, one 6 years old and one 4 years old (total 10), you have to pay for one head. If you bring one child aged 9, she comes in free.

  • If you have two heads, you will be charged for each head.

  • If you are two-faced, you pay only for the one you are wearing at the meet.

  • If you suffer from MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder), you pay only for the dominant personality.

  • If you are schizophrenic you pay, but your voices come in free."

LOL... no seriously they are darn creative! check it out

For info about BLUG can be found at http://linux-bangalore.org/blug/resources/covercharge.php
But i personally suggest VRLinug : http://www.vrlinug.org this is the largest and oldest student F/OSS communities in India or Bangalore i guess i am not sure

For more information about the  FREE and Open source Software movement please refer the following link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open_source_software



P.S:  FWD this to as many people as u want, lets spread the power of Free and Open source Software.
--
Sachin Modeel
Max New York Life Insurance's Ad

Recently this ad is being aired everywhere. I just loved the concept , its really very insightful . It pretty much describes all of our lives

here's the video:
I have always wanted a decent time-planner software that can handle my To-do lists and appointments and give me alarms based on it. and i could never find anyone that was easy and really helpful. recently i came across this site where it gives you a host of softwares for alarms, calenders,clocks, and most importantly schedulers/planners and they are very good ,and all of them are freewares that occupy very little RAM space!!! (hurray ).
If you spend a lot of time in front of a computer then you must and should  use a time-and-weekly-scheduler/planner software it can do wonders to your productivity.
 

http://www.freewarehome.com/index.html?http%3A//www.freewarehome.com/Business_and_Productivity/Date_and_Time_Management/Date_and_Time_Management.html


Enjoy enhancing your productivity!
--
Sachin Modeel

I have learnt a lot of things in my dreams. But this one little story always comes again and again in my dreams.


I am holidaying in Kuala Lumpur. I was always fascinated by the twin towers of Kuala Lumpur.I am busy window shopping inside the twin towers and I notice the current Miss World walking into a near by shoe store. i rush into that shoe store , walk up to her and say “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever met in my life!”. She shows no sign of happiness, I find this ironic that a beautiful woman finds such a nice complement rather unwelcoming. She comes closer to me and whispers … “I wonder if you would have felt the same way if you were blind


It took me a few days after I had the dream to understand what she was trying to say. What have you understood by what she said?


Every now and then I have the same dream, but every time now she whispers something different into my ears


…..She comes closer to me and whispers “It is a shame that you have chosen to just me by you eyes rather than by your heart”


….She comes closer to me and whispers”You have hardly spent a minute with me in person and already you have proclaimed that I am beautiful. The waiter down at the Café spent more time with me than you, and you have already assumed that he has no reason to think otherwise?”


She keeps coming to me with a new message every time.


She truly is the most beautiful woman I have EVER met!



The famous Peter Sellers' film,"Being There".

In it a gardener serving in a millionaires estate,having no knowledge of the world outside that estate,inherits all the wealth.
Suddenly finding himself a rich man,he starts getting importance and a point comes,where he gets nominated as a candidate for presidency.He even goes on to become the President.

He is clueless about how he came into power or what to do with it.
The last line in the film, which is also on Peter Seller's tomb,is:

LIFE IS A STATE OF MIND


I couldn't help but laugh when I saw the entire scientific world, enter into a trauma, over such a crazy issue: "Should Pluto belong to our Solar System as a planet or not?"!!!
The scientists are behaving as though they have been vetoed with the universal authority to chalk out intergalactic boundaries!

Frankly Pluto or no Pluto……do we really care?????
How rational is it for us to debate upon such a naïve issue, which is in no way going to affect any of our lives!Astronomy has been a very fascinating subject ever since it evolved! … It was and still is also the most controversial!

Astronomers first discovered the nine planets and the sun included they called it the solar system.The funny thing about astronomers was that they liked to be autonomous in their way of looking at things beyond earth, and I have strange feeling they also have a childish nature! … One says "Pluto is too small to be a planet in our solar system"… another one says "there is no such rigid rule defining planets!"

Well fact of the matter is that we are so obsessed with the fact that there are 9 planets in our system, we have been learning and teaching it for ages, and all of a sudden most of us are reluctant to believe otherwise.

In short,
What are we loosing by accepting Pluto as a planet? And,
What are we gaining by rejecting it?

Photo Courtesy:Disney,google image search

There are many terrorist outfits working in the name of Islam. They are misleading Muslims and exploiting Islam for their own material benefits. Islam is a religion of peace and totally against terrorism and all kind of disturbances. Let me quote a few lines from the Holy Qur'ān (koran) to prove this fact. A very good friend of mine showed me these:-

 

1."Anyone who kills in any innocent person acts as if he had killed all mankind. Anyone who spares any life acts as if he had granted life to all mankind."(5:32)

2."Do not cause any disturbance and havoc on earth."(2:60)

3."Act kindly, and do not aim to make riots on earth."(28:77)

4."Do not kill any person whom god has forbidden, except through law."(6:151)

5."In the hereafter, Paradise will be granted to those who want neither haughtiness nor disturbance on earth."(28:83)




Dear Readers,

Hi!
    SepticPen is back online.
For a brief period when i was off-line,i had a chance to reinvent the way i presented this blog and a lot of moral issues were taken care of.

    SepticPen has got a brand new look as you can see.Lots of Blue, as it is my fav color.Clouds ,Birds ,a ray of hope,all signifying the rebirth of this Blog.

    A lot of original writings have piled up on my desk, i shall type and publish then as soon i find the time.Meanwhile, SepticPen has also made its entry into wordpress.com ; Its Cousin ThinkersOrg has been hosted by Blog.com,wordpress.com,and of course blogspot.com

    My style of writing shall remain the same: Inspirational, Thought-provoking, Intellectually simulating, emotionally captivating, and of course humorous.

Thank You,
SepticPen's Sachin Modeel

P.S: Looking Forward to your valuable comments and suggestions




--
Sachin Modeel