Free Software and a Better World- Part I

Imagine you're living in a newly built town. There are no proper houses yet, and there's only one factory where there are all the tools and trained workers required to build houses. Its just that the folks who run the factory, don't give those tools out to people. So, if you want to get yourself a house, you go to them, pay as much as they demand and get them to build you a house the way they want to. What does it sound like, monarchy? That was what the software industry was like until Richard Stallman decided one day to find like-minded people who had the most primitive of tools but nevertheless wanted to build their own houses. So what they did was they started to build simple houses, those they could with their tools, shared their tools with others so that they could build their houses and soon developed more complex tools to build bigger, better houses. That way, everybody could build the houses the way they wanted to and because they pretty much shared the tools, it cost them a lot less than they paid the guys at the factory. So, what about those workers who worked in the factory? Wouldn't they run out of a job and living in case everybody had access to tools and could build their own houses. Well, its just that though all of us can have access to bricks and concrete, we can't build nothing. Because we've never been trained to do that. And this is where all those trained workers get into picture. They provide their expertise according to your whims and desires. The bottom line, share the products, sell the services.

For the first time all my life, now, I have a clear idea as to what the GNU and Free Software movement are all about and as to why they're so essential to the society we live in. Read this speech by Stallman in NYU, which inspired me into writing this.

I'm writing a detailed follow-up article soon.

Zero, Infinity and everything in between

Srinivasa Ramanujan said, "Zero represents Absolute Reality. Infinity is the myriad manifestations of that Reality." What is it about numbers that is so enchanting. Is it the fact that most of us do not exactly understand what they mean. Or is it that we are scared to know more about them because they offer you no choice. Every number is fixed and no matter how anything else changes, they will remain the same. That is scary. The fact that something is beyond your control.

I've always been intrigued my maths. Rather mathematicians. Maths has never been my subject. Right from school, I was more of a English/History guy. Math and Physics were scary. But maybe that is why I was so enchanted by all those Chess Players and Mathematicians who probably had social skills of a 3 year old but could see the world in terms of numbers. Like they say, when you can't get something, that seems much better than it actually is. I'm awestruck by the life's of Ramanujan, Reimann, John Nash who were social outcasts but the kind of solutions they came up with are truly, beyond our comprehension. The true mark of a genius is that he works by his intuition. That is probably why many great mathematicians didn't feel the need to prove their theorems. For them, the process was very evident. Staring right in the face. Another sign of a great solution lies in its elegance, its beauty. The proofs are not clumsy. They just flow.

Ok. Now as to why I'm suddenly talking about all this. This has been my latest obsession. I read Robert Kanigel's biography of Ramanujan, 'The man who knew Infinity' about a year ago and then later on read a lot about mathematicians and the kind of work they did. Infact I started doing GH Hardy's A course in Pure Mathematics. A very powerful and interesting book. After that I read Hardy's A Mathematician's Apology which is a collection of essays and it is a good read too. Of late, I took up reading A Beautiful Mind and my interest in Maths got reignited. So, I started reading a lot and then tried working on a few math books. I experimented with games like Go, Reversi and got into Game Theory. Having come across Reimann in that book, I started reading more about Prime numbers, The Reimann hypothesis and other stuff. Has been a great ride so far.

And since I am preparing for my GRE anyway, this stuff has been inspiring me a great deal. I find the metamorphosis in me surprising. From someone who hated Math and Computers, they have turned into my deepest passions. A lot changed after I stayed with Manju Mama about 5 years ago. I've never met a man who loved Maths more. Predictable for an alumni of IISc but still. There was a hint of romanticism in his voice when we spent long nights talking about The Theory of Relativity, The Newton-Leibniz feud, Ramanujan's work on Hyperbolic functions and Michelson-Morley experiment. Ofcourse, back then, a lot of it went over my head but I've always been an enthusiastic learner and he was patient enough to elaborate everything.

I don't know what I intended on writing but I feel good now. Off I go then, in pursuit of that Absolute Reality. But meanwhile, I have an exam coming up tomorrow. And that is a li'l more important truth.

Top 10 Google products

Being an ardent fan of Google, I keep on surfing all over the internet for their new products. They manage to come to the market with a new, powerful tool almost every fortnight. Anyway, I just found this article today and it seemed pretty interesting.

And folks, the Flight Simulator in Google Earth is simply amazing. You should check it out.

http://lifehacker.com/software/lifehacker-top-10/top-10-google-products-you-forgot-all-about-313530.php

The way of the Ninja

Ninja. The name itself sounds so cool, doesn't it? I came across n+ ages ago and I downloaded it because it was a tiny game. I started playing it and boy, was I hooked to it. n+ is this simple, clean looking flash game with hundreds of levels and one simple motive- you are a ninja and you have to come over all the obstacles and finish the level within time. Sounds easy? It isn't.

The best part of n+ is that it is aesthetically beautiful. Its easy on your eye, the ninja's movements are elegant and the gameplay, well, enchanting to say the least. Trust me, having played so many high-level, complex and huge games, I'm telling you that n+ has the best gameplay of them all. Its just got the right mixture of the implausible and the doable. Just when you think you have got it right, you die. And you don't stop because you die. You keep on playing it until you actually finish it. Some of the levels are really tough and wicked but that's what the fun is all about.

Anyways, I just recently found out that you can actually build your own levels and put them up onto their website. Ubercool ain't it? So, I wake up today morning, read the entire builder's manual and then start building levels. In the past hour, I've managed to build two simple levels and I'm pleased with myself.


My tribute to the Spirit of the Ninja.

My first ever n+ level.

Folks! Trust me. This is one heckuva game to play.

Download it and soon you'll be hooked to it. The spirit of the game is such that no matter how many times you actually die, you'll still yearn for more of it.

This truly is the way of the ninja.

C ing

Today, I declare to the world, that C is the most intriguing, interesting and fun language to meddle with. Not that I'm much of an authority nor even a decent programmer myself. I'm just another wannabe programmer on the street, who thinks programming's really cool because other programmers say so and who all his life spends time deciding which programming language to learn.

Infact the only three languages that I have used all my life are: C, C++ and Java. But, halt reader! Do not leave the page looking at my credentials. I may suck at programming and much more on my CV but I've read quite a lot about other people's opinions on the language and I personally feel that the satisfaction C gives you is immense. Its the programmer's language.

Now, let me tell you why I started writing this piece in the first place. I've been reading a lot about early high-level languages after watching the amazing documentary, The Triumph of the Nerds. I'm not really much of a programmer myself but I have deep respect for programmers and after having read quite a lot about them and also having tried being a part of them, I feel that these guys are as good artists as DaVinci, Rembrandt or Beethoven ever were. They truly create magic out of thin air and know how to control the thousand-headed beast called the computer. I call the computer a thousand-headed beast because the computer was designed and built in such a way to outdo human intervention and think for itself. Now, controlling such a beast is no mean task because if you find a way of doing something with it, it throws at you a thousand sort of different problems and all in the constitution of its rights.

In one of the articles about various programming languages, I stumbled upon a piece by a programmer, 'Why C is not my favourite language'. Its a really good piece and infact points out almost all the problems with C. But at the end of it I still had a nagging feeling to admit it. All the points mentioned in the article are true to the core and C really is irritating because it does not support strings, it throws segmentation faults, its got a limited syntax and for the most part, blames the programmer for errors. As someone rightly said, "Programming in C is like using a chainsaw with all the safety guards removed". But then, that is what the thrill is all about.

C came at a time when people were groping for a proper software to work on, to create more, better software. Its a different issue now that the software enthusiast has much, much more freedom than a hardware enthusiast but during the advent of PCs, the hardware was the most critical part of a computer, not the software. So, all the hobbyists, geeks and masterminds were busy building machines and no one was really bothered about what a computer could be used for. And at that time came C- a language so powerful, so profound and so simple that now the software guys had their feast. And remember that UNIX, arguably the best software ever written, was written in C.

Now, what is so beautiful about C that it still has a huge bunch of ardent followers? With all its flaws, C is really exasperating at times but a true programmer's heart will yearn for more of C. The reason is simple- freedom. You can create whatever you want to out of literally nothing. I know its pretty low-level and not so sleek as, say Java or Python but the aura about C is that everything here is transparent. You can do whatever you want to do with the computer- you, the programmer, are the master here.

Apart from the really complex problem of pointers, C is a fairly easy program to learn and pretty soon you can write your own programs. If you are a programmer, you would understand the feeling when a piece of code written by you executes flawlessly. Its probably the best feeling in the world when you see your baby do what you want it to and all of that with no complexities.

C is not for the whiner, the loser nor for the so-called-programmer who gives up. True programmers never give up. C is for the fighter, the go-getter, the saint. C is for those who put truth and originality above all else. Programming in C is more a path of meditation. We, the C programmers here, are artists.

how one website changed the way people live- getting googled

Google came into existence in '98, when many didn't know about the phenomenon called the Internet. Ten years down the line, the two Stanford-dropouts turned entrepreneurs are among the richest people in the world. And all because of the magic created by a spell called Google. When they started off, the both of them might not have dreamed about the floodgates which Google cut through.

It all started one day when by mere coincidence(or fate), Larry Page met Sergey Brin. Initially they were just acquaintances but soon their common passion for computers brought them together and their love affair with math stimulated them to work together. The both of them were different people, Larry was quiet, reserved and thoughtful. Sergey was loud, open and charismatic. Probably the only thing that bound them together was their love for puzzles and computers.

Google was initially a Ph.D project by Larry, an algorithm on search engines and was called BackRub, referring to the back linking of keywords. Larry actually was trying to download the entire WWW onto his computer when Sergey started to show interest in the project. What began as a simple fascination of trying to get information faster soon grew so popular that everyone on the Stanford campus was using their search engine. And because everyone in Silicon valley at that time was trying to make millions by creating websites, Larry and Sergey wanted to get into business too. They patented their site Google(Googol is the word for 1 followed by a 100 zeroes) and soon converted their dorm rooms into server stations.

The initial usage of the website was pretty low but soon due to word of mouth popularity, Google was one of the most clicked websites. But then the two friends weren't prepared for this and soon Sergey, with his characteristic charisma, was able to attract many a venture capitalists. And soon from a simple algorithm, Google became the most used, popular website in the world and when it went public, all Wall Street first day records were shattered.

Now, this article isn't about how Google came along.(If you want to learn more about that, The Google Story by David Vise is an excellent recommendation). Its about how people were Googled(a dictionary term now used to refer searching on the website Google). During the time Google came along, there were many more young entrepreneurs who were hopeful of making their mark in the Silicon Valley but Google was different. From the very beginning, the work culture at Google has been very relaxed and laidback. Infact, one of the company taglines is, 'You don't have to wear a suit to be serious'. No one worked in Google. People had fun in Google. People loved what they did in Google. Infact, the company still has the '20 percent rule'. Any employee of Google can spend 20% of his week working on whatever he wants to.

Its users connected humanly to Google. The simple, plain white background with coloured display of the name sparked a child-ish charm to it and everyone found it simple and honest. Add to it, the occasional doodles for landmark dates is still waited upon intently. Google soon became the top company to work for. Suddenly, every engineer wanted to work for Google not just for the perks but for the independence given to them. What started as a search engine soon entered all sorts of markets including maps, mail and social networking. Google's still growing fast.

What is so special about Google is that it stands out as a pure and honest part of people's lives. Most of its users are emotionally connected to Google because it gives them some respite in these troubled times. Google signifies the importance of fairplay, love and people over money and the obnoxious pace of life. And many of Google's projects include digitizing all of the world's libraries, DNA analysis and making sure everyone in the world has an access to the Internet. Google is the anchor people turn to to assure themselves that the world is still worth a place to live in. And the company slogan stands true to that spirit-

Don't be evil.