Saturday, December 15, 2007

Save me from folly, vanity and vice !

I was reading Benjamin Franklin's autobiography. It is amazing to see how the man rose from a life of obscurity (born as a son of a candle maker) to one with great accomplishments and influence of epic proportions in so many diverse fields. An experimentalist, a theoretician, an inventor, a scientist,a pulisher, a philosopher, a politician, a revolutionary. Though I am still into the first half of the book, but it is an amazing read. The way Franklin distances himself from his life and describes it is brilliant. Even more brilliant is the wisdom that is interwoven throughout. Among other things , it shows one how to see oneself in a proverbial mirror to have a unbiased view and how to succesfully work your way towards what you want to be. A story of determination, tragedies, heroism and ulimately victory. No doubt, he would have been great in any age, any time. It reinforces my belief that some truths are eternal and some laws will always operate in the universe beyond relativity.

I also like the little prayers that he wrote down for himself. Especially the one --
"O powerful Goodness! bountiful Father! merciful Guide! increase in me that wisdom which discovers my truest interest. strengthen my resolutions to perform what that wisdom dictates. Accept my kind offices to thy other children as the only return in my power for thy continual favors to me."

The lines taken from Thomson's poems are also beautiful and elevating --
"Father of light and life, thou Good Supreme!
O teach me what is good; teach me Thyself!
Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,
From every low pursuit; and fill my soul
With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure;
Sacred, substantial, never-fading bliss!"

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Thought for the day

Having knowledge is one thing. Using it for miracles is quite another.
-vds

Monday, August 13, 2007

Quantum entanglement & the dicey game

"Two entities can stay in instantaneous and sponatanous contact, even if they are largely separated in space and time.And an event with one affects the physical reality of the other in the same way even if they are light years away". Doesn't that sound like a very mystical statement.But what if you were to be told that there is scientific evidence for it (as my bretheren who are primarily driven by intellect love to call it)? This phenomenon is popularly known as Quantum Entanglement in the science community, who is in love or hate (we 'll come to it later) with quantum mechanics.
I studied quantum mechanics in school and college, but I knew it only in its present form, never got into or got the chance and time to get into much of its history.Recently happened to do that and reflect upon that.

In 1981, when a certain french youngman Mr Aspect decided, he wanted to perform experiments, which may prove Einstein wrong, it was met with questioning and ridiculing looks.A certain professor said in a very dark tone, "You are a very courageous graduate student,I have met".Before proceeding, let 's look back into the history.In very simple (layman) terms quantum theory says, "It is not possible to predict the state of a particle with certainty before the measurement is made." The measurement or observation is supposed to give it some kind of jolt and it collapses into a certain state.As the famous Heisenberg uncertainty principle said there 'll always be some uncertainty in the state measuremnt on which he put a lower limit, with his inequality.
Mr Einstein (one of the haters of the theory) was always uncomfortable with the uncertainty thing in quantum theory.He argued, the fact that quantum theory can't predict the outcome of a measurement didn't mean, there is inherent uncertainty in universe, it only meant that the theory was incomplete & there were extra variables. As he once famously said, "God does not play dice with the world." So , the physicist who believed in God, devised a thought experiment with two others, known as the EPR paradox (Einstein, Podolsky, Rosen) to dissaprove the theory.Consider a photon splits into two parts and they travel in opposite direction.Now a observation is made on the one particle, which defines its state.Now with newton laws, the state of the other can be ascertained without making any measurement, which contradicts the Quantum Theory(QT). There was a loophole though. What if the first particale signalled to the other, that a measurement is made? To which Einstein had another solid argument, that it can't happen for according to special theory of relativity, information can't travel faster than light.Since there was not much evidence in 1935, none of the parties could completely knock out the other.
Mr John Bell, (in 1960's) showed that for particles to obey these assumptions they should satisfy certain requirement known as Bell's inequality.
Mr Aspect, the french physicist, conducted the experiments suggested by EPR paradox and showed that the results violated Bell's inequalities, and the other photon came to know of the observation (event) on the first (it knew more than it was supposed to know), proving that quantum theory was valid, which was badly shaken after the EPR paradox.
So, that meant either one or both of the assumptions made by EPR were wrong.The certainty thing or the info can't travel faster than light one.But it was argued later that the inequality violation didn't necessarliy prove that info can be sent faster than light, & the other assumption was also saved referring to some loopholes in the experiment.
Well, all this has very interesting implications. In a way, it violates the concept of local realism i.e. the state of a system is not only decided by its interactions with its immediate surroundings but also by other particles it is entangled with.What if you had a soulmate, that you are entangled with , on this planet going through various circumstances; interesting??? Or even fancier and not a weak possibility, in some other part of the universe?
Another implication can be the mystical notion that all the particles of the universe are instantaneously interconnected and can exchange information. Telepathy can be a possibility.
A few more aplications are quanatum computing( which can be dramatically faster than the existing one) and teleportation.In fact, some quantum teleportation experiments on quantum particles are already performed.
And the very interesting one, "Does God play dice with the world?" I don't have any answer. Truth is very slippery & elusive. Just when you think, you have got hold it, it 'll slip out.On a very quasi-objectve basis, I feel, sometime he does, sometimes doesn't.
Einstein, till his last days was trying to find one unifying theory, that doesn't violate relativity and doesn't imply 'God playing dice'. His befuddlement is really understandable.So, is there a theory that can explain all the mystical, intellectual, quantum & classical phenomena and off course the dice game?
Does He or doesn't He?
;-)

Saturday, August 11, 2007

Wirelessly yours ...

So,the issue is the current turmoil or change or consolidation going on in the wireless chips industry.As you are aware of the tremendous growth that is going on in the wireless communication area in developing countries, and the potential remains largely untapped.For example,India ,currently, with only 185 million mobile connections in total,and adding somewhere 5 million connections per month and with only 2% access to mobiles in rural areas, provides a mind boggling opportunity.No doubt the penetration will increase with affordabilty of handsets and the tariff rates.
So,Let 's look at what has been happening around.
We are living in interesting times. The semiconductor industry is getting increasingly competitive. The wireless domain is seeing a lot of activity as seen in this quarter.
Nokia and ST microelectronics went into a agreement regarding the licensing and supply of integrated circuit designs and modem technologies for 3G and its evolution.
As facilateted by this multifaceted deal, (a) Nokia will license its 3G technology to STM.(Nokia has plans to license it to other players as well).This 'll enable STMicroelectronics to design and manufacture 3G chipsets based on Nokia's modem, energy management and RF (radio frequency) technology and deliver complete solutions to Nokia and the open market. (b)Nokia will be transfering its IC operations to STM which will concern nearly 200 Nokia employees in Finland and the UK, and is expected to take place during the fourth quarter 2007.Basically, Nokia will completely come out of the chip making business to focus more on its core competencies.
Nokia will continue to develop its modem technology, which includes protocol software and related digital design for WCDMA/GSM and its evolution. This modem technology will then be licensed to chipset manufacturers who will develop and produce chipsets for Nokia & also for the open market.
Nokia has increasingly sought to widen their chip supplier base as part of their business strategy (makes sense) & will have more than one supplier for all key parts of its phones.
It unveiled plans to develop Broadcom as a supplier of EDGE (Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution ) chips. This is a 2.5G standard. While Infineon will supply chips for GSM domain ,as announced early in this year.
Until now, Nokia has mainly relied on its own chips and on Texas Instruments.TI continues to be the only supplier across all wireless standards.With these developments Nokia aims to lower its R&D expenses.And TI will go up against increased competition but TI's wireless revenue from Nokia can still continue to grow as Nokia’s market share is stable to increasing, though the monopoly that TI had on Nokia's business is not there now.As I said, It makes business sense for anybody to have more than one supplier.
This multi vendor strategy in industry has also created a lot of new business opportunities for different players.
For example, TI has been continuously increasing its collaboration with Motorola and Ericsson, building on its already strong position in wireless business.I see the engagement with Ericsson as more strategic and important, as they are into the business of supplying platforms for wireless products covering a broad spectra of cellphone companies.

Samsung also has extended its agreement with Texas Instruments to use the company's OMAP platforms and Bluetooth technologies in its upcoming handsets. Earlier Samsung's BlackJack & SGH-i620 had made use of TI's OMAP processor.

TI grabbed one more opportunity when Motorola announced its plans to remove Qualcomm from its 3G roadmap in favor of Texas Instruments, come mid-2008. According to a report from American Technology Research, Motorola has already begun to move resources away from Qualcomm 3G technologies into 3G efforts from TI.According to sources, Motorola felt that Qualcomm was getting increasingly difficult to business with.Though it was not made clear whether it was because of financial issues or technical ones.
Also in Japan, TI's business with SEMC, Sharp, Fujitsu and NEC has been gaining good momentum.

And what effect all this will have on Qualcomm? It has been the biggest licenser of handset technology. Till now, only Nokia, Sony-Ericsson and Qualcomm had the talent to make the chipsets for the so-called third generation phones, Nokia’s decision to license its wireless technology broadly will arm lots of new players with the talent to get into this biz. Now that this critical technology will be available to license, the technical hurdles to make 3G chipsets have suddenly become much smaller.This will potentially mount the competition against Qualcomm.
Qualcomm is also facing some big legal battles with Broadcomm. And it was on the losing end when the Bush administration declined to veto a ruling by the International Trade Commission that favors Broadcom in a major patent dispute with Qualcomm.
In another interesting develoment, Infineon has bought LSI Corp's wireless products business for $450 million in cash, plus a performance-based payment of up to $50 million (If the group meets certain targets).About 700 LSI employess will be moving to infineon as a part of this deal.(As a rule of thumb a share of around 10% in wireless chips market is considered good to have healthy profits).Needless to say Infineon needs the scale to compete in the very dynamic & increasingly competitive wireless markets and LSI is looking to focus more on its storage nad networking business.All this looks like some kind of consolidation in the industry.It made sense for Nokia ,too, to loosen the vertical integration ,it has long practiced in the industry.As motorola did 2 years before and Apple is successfully doing by sourcing the various parts from different parties.
As a dessert to the main course, let me serve some rumours that are doing rounds in industry circles, mentioning some Taiwanese company(MediaTech) in talks with Analog Devices regarding the wireless business, looking for some kind of acquisition.But,as I said, these are rumours,as of now, so avoid over-relishing & overeating.
With all this, it is anybody's guess how the market would have responded to all these changes? Even president Bush could have guessed. :-P

Monday, August 6, 2007

What would have been , had I not been

Don't know , who the original shayar is , so can't acknowledge, got it from a friend and liked it
Kidmat e pesh hai --

Kisi ke door jaane par, Kisi ki yaad aane par ;
Bahut se log rote hain, Ki rona ek rawayat hai;
Rawayat tod jaata hoon, tumhari yaad aane par;
Mein aksar muskurata hoon, tumhari ........

For those of you , who are poor in Urdu like me, rawayat means tradition.

I recall one more sher from Mirza Ghalib, that questions the very purpose & meaning of one's existence -
Here it goes-

Na tha kuch to khuda tha, na hota kuch to khuda hota;
Duboya mujhko isi hone na hone ne, Na hota mein to kya hota?

Translation - When nothing was there, God was ; when nothing will be there, God will be.
I have got so confused with this business of being and non-being, I ponder , " What would have been , had I not been?"

Friday, August 3, 2007

Free yourself with ....

Good name, good will, good relations ; all are alike.
It takes years or months to build them and some seconds, some moments to destroy them.
But why?
Are we, all humanity, too focussed on negativity.We forget all the good things to remember one bad moment?
We harbour the negativity and let it grow.Don't we?
Here, we reach at the thing that perhaps everybody knows, "Forgive and forget".It 's more rational too.

And what about moments of anger; those moments when we explode, scream? 30 seconds of anger can rob you of many days of that esoteric energy. That vital thing that everyone can sense and feel, that charismatic element. It just goes off in the air.
People may be knowing many ways of anger mangement. One very wonderful and powerful way is - Love.
You can't get (and stay) angry at someone you love, not possible. Be perturbed, may be, but not angry. No explosions. No waste, no shouts. With love in the will, you free yourself.
Amen!!!

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Legacy of a leader

"I 'll not be presumptuous enough to say that my life can be a role model for anybody; but some poor child living in an obscure place in an underprivileged social setting may find a little solace in the way my destiny has been shaped. It could perhaps help such children liberate themselves from the bondage of their illusory backwardness and hoplessness."
Great words from the 11th President of the Republic of India.
Look at the humility, the uplifting effect. Every phrase is so pregnant with meaning.For example ,take "illusory backwardness".No backwardness is real, is what our APJ wants to say.A wonderful life indeed, and it is continuing with even greater vigour. Visionaries never age.Wonder if we can inculcate even a tenth of his dedication , integrity and humility, not only we 'll touch greatness in our individual lives, but also can bring our society near to realizing his dream of a developed India till 2020.I recall what the world wide head of my business unit was once saying.His words and message is relevant in case of nation also ,though he was talking in context of a corporate(TI) . Put his message in context of a nation and it 'll read like - " Every citizen of India should be better than his counterpart in USA, China, UK, Japan and so on." It is only when our individual greatness will rise in all areas , be it science and technology, research, literature, agriculture, other industries, academics, medicine, politics and so on, then only our cumulative greatness as a nation will rise.Then only we can claim to have a great national character and we can truly stand up and say, "We have arrived, all over again........................"

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Flower

The flower is just an excuse; Others 'll only see the flower,
when I give it to You;
But, You, must see the invisible, hear the unsaid;
The flower is not real; It is just a cover up;
See the real.......

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Free will and destiny

Those of you who have worked on Linux/Unix will know it.
Destiny and free will can be compared to the structure of the Unix commands.
When you are handed a set of circumstances (say by destiny), it 's like working in the framework of a command. The super programmer has written the various binaries for them. And there are switches to modify their behaviours.A particular person can do so much with one command (using the various switches, or creating some of their own; so using the switches is like exercising your free will) while some others might be using it for the bare minimum. The framework is same. The tools available to both are same. No doubt , two fellows make totally different things out of the same situation (depending on how they exercise their freedom of choice, the switches, their free will.
Because they have understood the framework, the laws well, the command , the various options and switches well.
So, is it about knowledge and understanding?
May be.
When you understand a law, the logic, you can even work around it, you can use it.
It 's like when you understand gravity and aerodynamics, you can make a plane to defy gravity.
So, are we here for knowledge?
To become God like through knowledge?
Does it happen that you can actually reach a level where you can add new switches, modify the binaries?
Unix is an open source OS after all.
So, does God allow Unix(open source) like behaviour here or tends to follow the proprietary model of Windows(or viceversa)?
Explore, know , and harness.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

How soulful your interactions are

People experience uncountable emotions in varying shades, so complex and varied, in different relations.Naming and describing them is not really a doable task.We, mortals, find it so easy to shift the blame on somebosy else for anyhing wrong with us.Be it a relation between parents and their wards, friends , any romantic relation or any other.It 's so easy to hear things like - "You didn't meet my expectations";"He let me down";"She deceived me";"What is my mistake?""You are not good/mature enough" ;".......................".And people keep clinging to addictive and obssesive relations.
But that 's not the issue we are discussing.
We are trying to talk about solutions.
If your interactions with people in any relation,whatsoever, of any intensity, are not that soulful, that your absence is not conspicuous , then you better work on yourself, rather than blaming others for what you think that they have done to you.
When I say soulful , I refer to a totally different level of interaction.
Something , that is not directed by any need.Even in relations like a customer-supplier relation, whose very basis is a satisfaction of a mutual need can be taken to that level.When you meet with the person as pure consciouness, as someone who is same in essence as you, it 's then, when the joy of being flows, and the act of selling something becomes secondary; for you are connecting to the source of life itself.
Such kind of people do exist.And we always remember any sort of encounter with them, however small it happens to be.These are the ones, who don't play any roles.They don't try to appear more than what they are; they are remarkable and the only ones who make any difference to the world around.Whatever they do, becomes empowered.Their simple presence is soothing.They have a transformational effect on whatever and whoever they come in contact with.
It is a state which when you reach, a touch or a word or simple look will have its effect in healing somebody.Then , you 'll no longer pretend or play any roles, for , you , just being yourself ,are enough.It 's when you realize ,"We all are same".
It is then when real humility will come, and we 'll know that self esteem and humility are same.
..
Let the masks and the roles lose their significance!!!
Let the light shine through!!!

We, the people

I happened to watch the talk show of Karan Johar with Richard Gere. I didnt switch channel for it involved one of the finest and my favourite actors.And these guys started discussing India and China.Since, Gere is a buddhist.They talked about Dalai Lama and then Gere's love for India and stuff.And then he praised India and Indian people on various fronts.
Somewhere, in between , I wondered what is it that makes us Indians?
What is the essence of the so called Indianness?
What is it?
Language? culture? food?religion?superstitions?software?democracy?corruption?pollution?population?disparity?
ancient wisdom?ayurveda?communal riots?accomodativeness?..................?
I couldn't put my finger on one thing.
And then , I thought of the Nokia N95 commercial
and it is esay to guess what I said to myself-
there is this thing I wear (Indianness),
but , it is not one thing;
It is many.