Pranav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology
At TEDIndia, Pranav Mistry demos several tools that help the physical world interact with the world of data — including a deep look at his SixthSense device and a new, paradigm-shifting paper “laptop.” In an onstage Q&A, Mistry says he’ll open-source the software behind SixthSense, to open its possibilities to all.
Awesome stuff. The future looks quite promising.
My Biography - The Nerd handbook
This could very well be my auto-biography. Here are a few snippets:
A nerd needs a project because a nerd builds stuff. All the time. Those lulls in the conversation over dinner? That’s the nerd working on his project in his head. It’s unlikely that this project is a nerd’s day job because his opinion regarding his job is, “Been there, done that”.
Understand your nerd’s relation to the computer. It’s clichéd, but a nerd is defined by his computer, and you need to understand why.
Your nerd has control issues. Your nerd lives in a monospaced typeface world. Whereas everyone else is traipsing around picking dazzling fonts to describe their world, your nerd has carefully selected a monospace typeface, which he avidly uses to manipulate the world deftly via a command line interface while the rest fumble around with a mouse.
These control issues mean your nerd is sensitive to drastic changes in his environment. Think travel. Think job changes. These types of system-redefining events force your nerd to recognize that the world is not always or entirely a knowable place, and until he reconstructs this illusion, he’s going to be frustrated and he’s going to act erratically. I develop an incredibly short fuse during system-redefining events and I’m much more likely to lose it over something trivial and stupid.
Your nerd has built himself a cave. The Cave is designed to allow your nerd to do his favorite thing, which is working on the project. If you want to understand your nerd, stare long and hard at his Cave. How does he have it arranged? When does he tend to go there? How long does he stay?
Your nerd loves toys and puzzles. The joy your nerd finds in his project is one of problem solving and discovery. As each part of the project is completed, your nerd receives an adrenaline rush that we’re going to call The High. Every profession has this — the moment when you’ve moved significantly closer to done. In many jobs, it’s easy to discern when progress is being made: “Look, now we have a door”. But in nerds’ bit-based work, progress is measured mentally and invisibly in code, algorithms, efficiency, and small mental victories that don’t exist in a world of atoms.
There are other ways your nerd can create The High and he does it all the time. It’s another juicy cliché to say that nerds love video games, but that’s not what they love. A video game is just one more system where your nerd’s job is to figure out the rules that define it, which will enable him to beat it. Yeah, we love to stare at games with a bazillion polygons, but we get the same high out of playing Bejeweled, getting our Night Elf to Level 70, or endlessly tinkering with a Rubik’s Cube.
Nerds are fucking funny. Your nerd spent a lot of his younger life being an outcast because of his strange affinity with the computer. This created a basic bitterness in his psyche that is the foundation for his humor. Now, combine this basic distrust of everything with your nerd’s other natural talents and you’ll realize that he sees humor is another game.
Your nerd has an amazing appetite for information. Many years ago, I dubbed this behavior NADD, and you should read the article to learn more and to understand what mental muscles your nerd has developed.
How does a nerd watch TV? Probably one of two ways. First, there’s watching TV with you where the two of you sit and watch one show. Then there’s how he watches by himself when he watches three shows at once. It looks insane. You walk into the room and you’re watching your nerd jump between channels every five minutes.
The skills to interact with other people are there. They just lack a well-defined system.
The article’s awesome, it’s a long read but well worth it. http://www.randsinrepose.com/archives/2007/11/11/the_nerd_handbook.html
Aasif Mandvi is proud to report that India discovered water on the moon, while America provided the tech support.
Video: Deep Space Naan | The Daily Show | Comedy Central
Nobody tell the TSA, but last month someone tried to assassinate a Saudi prince by exploding a bomb stuffed in his rectum. He pretended to be a repentant militant, when in fact he was a Trojan horse
– Schneier on Security: Ass BomberFrom Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr, Hunch.com
Much more important than working hard is knowing how to find the right thing to work on. Paying attention to what is going on in the world. Seeing patterns. Seeing things as they are rather than how you want them to be. Being able to read what people want. Putting yourself in the right place where information is flowing freely and interesting new juxtapositions can be seen. But you can save yourself a lot of time by working on the right thing. Working hard, even, if that’s what you like to do.
How to Care for Introverts
How to Care for Introverts (Understanding Our Gifted, November, 1988)
- Respect their need for privacy.
- Never embarrass them in public.
- Let them observe first in new situations.
- Give them time to think. Don’t demand instant answers.
- Don’t interrupt them.
- Give them advanced notice of expected changes in their lives.
- Give them 15 minute warnings to finish whatever they are doing before calling them to dinner or moving to the next activity.
Reprimand them privately.- Teach them new skills privately rather than in public.
- Enable them to find one best friend who has similar interests and abilities; encourage this relationship even if the friend moves.
- Do not push them to make lots of friends.
- Respect their introversion.
- Don’t try to remake them into extroverts.
So true, some people need to learn about this.
When trickery was afoot | Cricinfo.com
You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to,
So that when they turn their backs on you,
You get the chance to put the knife in.
- “Dogs”, Roger Waters (Pink Floyd)
Classic stuff from Bishen SIngh Bedi — The “Chakravyuh”
The difference between PIXAR and Dreamworks
Pixar - Toy Story, Ratatouille, Wall-E, Up, Monsters Inc.
Dreamworks - Ants, Madagascar, Finding Nemo, Shrek, Kung Fu Panda, Shark Tale
I want my life back
Seriously, I don’t even read the newspaper anymore. Feel like I’ve been missing out on what’s going on in the world.
Drug Dealers and Software Developers
We have way too many similarities except one, damn, damn, damn
Drug dealers:
- Refer to their clients as “users”.
- “The first one’s free!”
- Have important South-East Asian connections (to help move the stuff).
- Strange jargon: “Stick”, “Rock”, “Dime bag,” “E”.
- Realize that there’s tons of cash in the 14- to 25-year-old market.
- Job is assisted by industry’s producing newer, more potent mixes.
- Often seen in the company of pimps and hustlers.
- Their product causes unhealthy addictions.
- Do your job well, and you can sleep with sexy movie stars who depend on you.
Software developers:
- Refer to their clients as “users”.
- “Download a free trial version…”
- Have important South-East Asian connections (to help debug the code).
- Strange jargon: “SCSI”, “ISDN”, “Java”, “RTFM”
- Realize that there’s tons of cash in the 14- to 25-year-old market.
- Job is assisted by industry’s producing newer, faster machines.
- Often seen in the company of marketing people and venture capitalists.
- Their product causes unhealthy addictions - DOOM. Quake. SimCity. Duke Nukem 3D.
- Damn! Damn! DAMN!!!
Time for a 'Madden' Makeover
Not so subtle digs at Terrell Owens, LaDanian Tomlinson, Alex Smith, Peyton Manning, Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick and Chad Ochocinco :)
Exposing Bill Belichick's evil plot to take down all of football - ESPN
Bill Belichick dodged a bullet with Spygate. But what if Spygate was all a diversion for a far more nefarious plot? A plot in which the behooded coach is sending his associates across the country to destroy all those who have ever wronged him.
I investigated Belichick’s scheme. And I think what I found will shock you.
A very interesting article. It says Bellichick has an evil plan to exact vengeance on teams that have wronged him in the past.
Targets: New York Jets, Cleveland Browns, Notre Dame U, Denver Broncos and Kansas City. All places where former Belichick’s assistants have gone, so far those assistants haven’t had productive stints
Truth or Fiction its a fun read.
About Me
My Tumblelog - when I feel there isn't enough to blog about.
"A tumblelog is a quick and dirty stream of consciousness, a bit like a remaindered links style linklog but with more than just links. They remind me of an older style of blogging, back when people did sites by hand, before Movable Type made post titles all but mandatory, blog entries turned into short magazine articles, and posts belonged to a conversation distributed throughout the entire blogosphere. Robot Wisdom and Bifurcated Rivets are two older style weblogs that feel very much like these tumblelogs with minimal commentary, little cross-blog chatter, the barest whiff of a finished published work, almost pure editing...really just a way to quickly publish the "stuff" that you run across every day on the web"
This tumblelog is piped into Facebook as well.
![pratham [dot] name](http://10.media.tumblr.com/avatar_f7d76c901179_30.png){kind=avatar}
