Dev's Lab

Birdie num num

2012-01-18T09:32:00.001-08:00

¬∀ r ∈ Robots: r = Bad

2010-06-28T05:39:00.000-07:00

Its interesting how, any discussion about AI or robots never misses terminator or "us vs robots" scenarios, but, generally misses the many "not so bad" robots in fiction. I guess, to some extent the more popular the movie, bigger the influence. These fears may not be baseless though. After all, I have heard that most of the robotics/AI research is usually funded by the military.

When one asks questions like, is steel good or bad? It depends on how it is used by us. But, this analogy may not quite work with robots when (and if) they reach the point of matching our intelligence. Then it may not be us, who decide how they should be used. Personally, I think the majority cannot be destructive as, it is not self sustaining. Anything that "survives" the various tests, that, nature throws at it, eventually has to have a majority in numbers of the constructive or the productive kind.

My favorite robots in fiction (and one real).

In fiction:
R2D2

Johnny 5

Image From ShinyShiny.tv

Bender aka Bender Bending Rodriguez

Real:
Spirit (Mars Rover): This fellow has been working all alone on mars since January 4, 2004. He surpassed all expectations of him and worked 21 times more, than what was planned for him. Day after day collecting analyzing samples and diligently sending its finding back to us, till he finally got stuck in Martian sand. Last we heard from him was on 1st May 2010. No bleep from him since.

How Viable is Technological Singularity?

2010-06-12T10:11:00.000-07:00

Guest post by Anna Miller.

Now I don’t claim to be smarter than Ray Kurzweil, and I do realize that I’m throwing down some sort of a gauntlet by debating the viability of technological singularity on a blog that promotes synthetic life and progress in this field. But I still raise the question – how viable is technological singularity, the concept that technology will progress rapidly over the next few years, and that because human beings are incapable of pushing their brains and intelligence beyond a certain limit, machines will start to build machines that are more capable than them, and this recursive cycle will lead to a new race of super-intelligent machines.

Believe it or not, the first time I heard of this concept from a friend, I immediately thought, “Terminator”. Didn’t they make a sci-fi movie with this idea more than a decade or so ago? And do they not see the doom that technological singularity spells for the human race? If machines became more intelligent than the human race, how would we survive? And what kind of a world would Earth become if it was populated with machines that had no human emotions whatsoever?

No matter how advanced technology becomes, and no matter how intelligent machines become, it is going to be impossible to recreate the human brain. This is one organ that is beyond comprehension, let alone duplication or improvement. It boggles the mind to think of all that the human brain can do, and if Ray Kurzweil or anyone else think that they can make a machine do much more than the human brain can, well, they’re dead wrong.

Sure, a machine can be programmed to work for eternity without breaking down from fatigue; it can be taught to make decisions based on an accumulation of facts; and it can even be created to resemble a real flesh-and-blood human being. But then, can a machine make decisions that are based on emotion and not reason? Can it think intuitively and using a humane approach as needed during most crises? Or can it replicate human touch to generate comfort, pleasure and warmth?

Thanks, but no thanks; even if technological singularity was viable even 100 years from now, I would still prefer that the world we leave behind for our children not comprise monstrosities that we call technological advancement!
_________
By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Anna Miller, who writes on the topic of online degree. She welcomes your comments at her email id: anna.miller009@gmail.com

"Synthetic" Life

2010-05-20T23:51:00.000-07:00

Most of us have heard in school, of life starting in a primordial soup from the inanimate - Abiogenesis. Then there was the experiment where they tried to recreate the conditions of how this happened billions of years ago - the Miller Urey experiment. It did not succeed in creating living cells but, it did succeed in showing that many essential items to produce life can be synthesized from non living things. It was only a matter of time when an actual living cell was created from the non living in a laboratory. Well, this is it. Not, exactly the same as recreating the conditions of the primordial soup - that would also need lots of time maybe billions of years to evolve. This - a shortcut by creating an artificial DNA and transplanting it into a new cell.

They call it synthetic life. But, I think this blurs the line between natural and synthetic.

An interesting aside - When studying Computation Theory, there was one thing that intrigued me then. When discussing about machines producing machines. There was an argument something like this -A machine that produces another machine is supposed to be more complex than the machine it creates. Because, a machine cannot be more complex than itself it cannot reproduce. But, then we went about discussing how a machine can get a description of itself and use that description in any way it pleases - to replicate or to adapt etc. The gist - the assumption ,that, a machine cannot reproduce is wrong. To think about it - imagine if we had a world of robots, what would the robots term as artificial or natural. For that they would have to have some absolute machine from which all other machines were derived. The most complex machine. But then, that is what had to be a wrong assumption.

Another digression - consider relative velocity - There is no absolute velocity. This is relative and is measured in reference to something else. I mean, if one measures one velocity against the other, to find the absolute, one has to measure that velocity against another. Eventually, hoping to find something that is at stillness or in motion in the absolute sense. Then one looks at light hoping to find the absolute - and the most amazing weirdness follows. Its speed in vacuum being constant in the absolute sense. But, no matter on which planet or moving body you measure it or from which "inertial" frame of reference you view the light on the moving body, this speed remains the same. And, no matter what its source an incandescent lamp or a star this speed remains the same. Now how do you measure the absolute velocity, when you cannot measure it against the speed of light.

Some thoughts to ruminate over.

Gizmodo

WSJ
BBC

Conan O'Brian @ Google

2010-05-11T04:13:00.000-07:00

Yes, I am still alive, to the disappointment of some (Undead from the perspective of some of the more active readers). I have some unfinished posts in the works, so no fret [yelp... ].

Among the many interesting talks at Google, I think this stands out.

Via: Neatorama

The Scheme of things

2010-01-04T21:25:00.000-08:00

With the pipeline (SICP 6.001) at MIT, producing the most seasoned schemers, replaced with a one churning out seasoned pythons^@ (6.00) - the population of schemers is bound to dwindle with time. Reasoned Schemers look on, on how their kind gets fewer and fewer. consing, caring, cdring and letting with lambda the ultimate produced a structured mind only to watch scheming go into obsoleteness? Even a reasoning mind is unable to fathom the reasons behind this move. But, MIT must have had good reasons for their transitions. I guess this is how a beautiful language fades into oblivion^†.

I am being bit over dramatic and this is old news. Scheme is a very interesting language, but "The Times They Are A-Changing"^‡. I guess for the little schemers it will be boredom of Java for a living^§. Now run* and get fresh^ρ. You may want to first run¹, run² ... so on, till you can run*. All that running made you hungry? - well have some tofu. What you had a (cons tofu (cons cheese (cons pizza (quote()))))? What are the health benefits of that? Don't ask^φ.

_____________________
^@ Why are analogies imperfect? MITian's are great people. The analogy is broken.
^† The Little Schemer, The Seasoned Schemer, The Reasoned Schemer, Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs
_____________________
^‡ Thank you. Bob Dylan
^§ 2010-03-02 Talking of a language as a means to understanding programming concepts. Existing libraries and interface to current technologies - a discussion for some other day.
^ρ Get some exercise after all that pizza & cheese
^φ Don't tell. Thank you, Mr Bond.

Petman prototype

2009-10-27T00:03:00.000-07:00

Judgment day not too far ... Just kidding. I am pro robots. At least, till the day when they try to smack the living day lights out of humans. This is amazingly close to a "human walk". Interesting and cool.

Via Gizmodo

Got me self a Donut

2009-10-02T11:02:00.000-07:00

Got my self the android 1.6 update. New features like the Quick Search (across history, contacts, bookmarks, web etc), Gestures, test to speech and more.
Update 1.6 highlights

As before get it here:
HTC Developer Centre

Interestingly note that the radio image is the same for 1.5 and 1.6. So one can skip this part if one is already updated to 1.5.
download the SDK
download the radio image
download the system image
sudo ./adb devices
connect device using USB. But, DONOT mount from phone
sudo ./adb push ../../ota-radio-2_22_19_26I.zip /sdcard/update.zip
sudo ./adb shell sync
start phone in recovery mode:
press HOME button while restarting
Alt+l
Alt+s
HOME + BACK
done!

NOTE: had to erase the user partition this time as many apps did not work after the update.
enter fastboot mode (hold the BACK key while starting)
sudo ./fastboot erase cache
sudo ./fastboot update signed-dream_devphone_userdebug-img-14721.zip -w

to get to the settings menu (to enable wifi) without having a data connection in the FASTBOOT mode try this:
sudo ./adb shell
$ am start -a android.intent.action.MAIN -n com.android.settings/.Settings
Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cmp=com.android.settings/.Settings }

From:
Unlocking G1 or ADP1 without sim card

McLaren MP4-12C in 2011

2009-09-12T06:59:00.000-07:00

No, this is not a mixed breed Mercedes McLaren that we are talking about. Its pure McLaren this time.

Official site: http://www.mclaren.co.uk/
The MP4-12C: http://www.mclarenautomotive.com/uk/default.aspx

Lots of drool worthy pictures and info at:
Via: Autocar.co.uk & Car Magazine via Jalopnik

My Android Dev Phone 1

2009-03-21T01:47:00.000-07:00

Ah! finally a unlocked phone with an open OS that seems to be going somewhere. First, impressions are impressive. No branding of any kind on the phone. No mention of the word Google or HTC on the outside of the phone, except for the Android robot on a polygonized terrain. Opening the cover reveals HTC mentioned on the battery. For a first cut OS release, Android rocks.

Functions are intuitive and has very good integration with Google applications. One can't initially start the phone without creating/having a Google account. Plethora of applications are available on the android market place. And, I think a lot more will be coming soon. Apart from the default applications I downloaded the following free applications from the market place and gave them a try. Decent...
http://www.android.com/market/free.html

Compare Everywhere: Barcode scanner which returns comparative pricing of the items scanned.
GPS Status: Shows the satellites the GPS has connected to. Also, shows other information from the Compass and sensors on the phone. Pretty decent to have.
GpS Tracker: Can track GPS coordinates real time. Also, has a functionality to get activated by SMS sent to the phone.
Homer Soundboard: DOH!
Barcode Scanner: Another barcode scanner.
Last.Fm: Yups they already have an official application for Android.

Opera: I will make this clear. The default browser Chrome on Android sucks on Edge connection.
Phonalyzer: Various statistics one always wants to know from one's call history/log.
SkyMap: This tool is awesome. It uses the phones GPS, compass etc. to show you the starmap with the names of the stars and constellations in front of you.
~~Screenshot: This is what I will use to post some screen shots soon.~~ Does not work
SMS Backup: One needs this. Backs up the SMS'es to gmail.

Updating to Android 1.1
Recently, update 1.1 was released. Below is my summary of how to update Android. Don't follow these without first going through the complete official instructions here. Then again consider yourself warned.
http://www.htc.com/www/support/android/adp.html

download fastboot
download the SDK
download the radio image
download the system image
sudo ./adb devices
connect device using USB. But, DONOT mount from phone
sudo ./adb push ../../ota-radio-1_22_14_11.zip /sdcard/update.zip
sudo ./adb shell sync
start phone in recovery mode:
press HOME button while restarting
Alt+l
Alt+s
HOME + BACK
done!

enter fastboot mode (hold the BACK key while starting)
sudo ./fastboot erase cache
sudo ./fastboot update signed-dream_devphone-img-130444.zip
NOTE: I wanted to keep the data in the user partition so ignored the option -w

Latest Star Trek Trailer

2009-03-07T00:00:00.000-08:00

Via Crunchgear

FitBit

2008-12-21T00:52:00.000-08:00

From underutilization of "A day in the life" to reaching a point of realization that there are only 24 hrs in a day - is something! But, when that point is reached things need to be optimized, and tasks triaged to fit the day.

The plan simple - Health, Wealth & Wisdom in that order. Tracking is helpful. Tracking my wealth (income, debt, payments, expenses) in a simple spreadsheet for just a couple of months, helped me reverse the falling curve.

I guess tracking some aspects of one's health, could have its benefits too. Anticipating this device ( ~~hopefully, it won't turn out to be vaporware~~ ). Also, hopefully they have a Linux app. in addition to Windows and Mac, for syncing with the website.

Now, how about tracking wisdom?

FitBit

Last.fm

2008-12-10T07:50:00.000-08:00

Having my music organized and mobilized, one more problem to automate. How does one keep track of the music one likes? Move them to a folder/folders, rate them, keep large number of unmanageable play lists over no underlying structure, track the play count. Organizing music on the go is not possible with the iPod Nano. Rating music requires one to be proactive and takes effort. So, I will go with the simplest - tracking the playcount. Now the music you like will have the tendency to float up with a higher playcount. The iPod tracks the playcount just fine. Also, moving among operating systems, installing uninstalling stuff begs for a web solution - a centralized repository to maintain my listening history.

The solution to this one was simpler than I imagined. Last.fm allows for something called "audioscrobbling". You can listen to music using your favorite software and install a pluggin that will upload your "listenings" automatically to last.fm.

Now the problem is to upload the playcount from my iPod to Last.fm. Well, download the last.fm plugin for Rhythmbox and you are set. It seamlessy uploaded the playcounts from my iPod to Last.fm. Just keep listening to your music and occasionally sync your iPod with RhythmBox and Voila your playcounts are updated on Last.fm.

Also, Last.fm has plugins for almost any decent music player under the sun and it can make listening suggestions based on your listening history.

Musicbrainz Picard

2008-12-10T05:42:00.000-08:00

My music collection is was a strange ~~mess~~ confluence of ripped cds (using early non-standard rippers), downloaded music from the time of Audiogalaxy, Napster and kazaa. Okay, I pirated "some" music (there I said it) Har. In my defense - I have spent good money on purchasing audio cassettes and CD's and whole albums for just maybe one song. Anyway, that is besides the point. The thing is, I ended up with about 9 Gigs of unsorted disorganized music files. To make things worse I organized and renamed them to suite my tastes long back and ripped all my CDs using some shady ripper. A manual re-organization not only seems infeasible but, an intractable problem. Almost, came to point where decided to delete the whole damn thing in disgust and restart a clean collection.

Problems:
1) Files with wrong names. Some music files just have names track001.mp3, track002.mp3 etc
2) Worse there are actually files in my collection that have the wrong ID3 or empty tags for most fields.
3) Smaller annoying problems, non standard naming of files some with underscores, some with spaces and some just a mess.
4) Folder structure crazy. Some like "I like", "Me Favs 12jul".

SOLUTION: for each file listen to it first. Look up the album on the net and then rename the tags and the files and put them in a proper folder. If I can remember the name of the song that is. Leave aside the question - how does one create a proper folder structure. And all this manually.

Pulling my hair with both hands and shouting Aaaaaah.....

But, just then the sun rose, the birds chirped, the flowers blossomed. Picard to the rescue (strange coincidence, considering how many time the character namesake of the tool has saved the day for the enterprise). It uses acoustic fingerprinting (equivalent of listening) during scanning of every song, then looks up that AudioFingerprint in the Musicbrainz database to figure out the album. Then optionally (using plugin) it can lookup the cover art, do a cross lookup to other music repositories like amazon or just do a google search. Also, it will fix the ID3 tags, rename the file and organize the folders by artists/albums. Optionally you can ask it to move all the files it was able to fix to another directory in well organized structure. Leaving the files that it couldn't look up the fingerprint for in the original place. And boy it is good. Of the 2400 odd files, now, I am only left with about some 400 files. It is so good that it figured out the right album for a files whose ID3 tags and file name I deliberately garbled. Took some time about 1 to 2 hours to sift through all my music.

Now, with what remains you can do a standard lookup based on the current ID3 tags (the screenshot shows what I have left). It will do its best to locate a match and present its findings with a color code ranging from green to red (great match to bad match). You can then visually sift through these. For those files with multiple matches it will present you with a web page allowing you to choose among the various choices.

Then to top it all off - "there's no Price for Awesomeness, or Attractiveness".

MusicBrainz Picard

Klipsch image x10

2008-12-09T05:40:00.000-08:00

In my attempt to be able to listen to my music collection anytime anywhere, got myself an iPod Nano (1st generation) long time back. But, just after a couple of days this got relegated to a dark corner of a cabinet. Did occasionally take it out, but then again and again kept sending it straight back in to that dark dingy corner. The problem were the uncomfortable headphones. My ears actually pain with these things. Toleration time was about max 30 minutes. Tried some other brand ear-buds too. But, gave up thinking my ears may not be the standard size or something !!. Got myself a Sennheiser px250. These I could tolerate for about an hour or 2. But, then the whole idea of having your music pocket-able gets thrown out of the window. These headphones are definitely not pocket-able. So, back went the iPod.

Organizing my music recently. Decided to give this one more shot. I had pretty much given up the idea of ear buds. So, balked at the thought of "in ear" buds. Having something so close to your tympanic membrane, gives me the shivers. Let alone the thought of some cheap headphone manufacturer, even giving a damn about your "ear health".

So, how do the really rich music guys who have all the money in the world, listen to their music? The answer surprisingly is NOT unaffordable really really expensive well calibrated music systems and special rooms, but custom in ear ear-buds!! Yes! Ah now the custom ear fit makes these comfortable. But, what makes the sound quality so great. Another surprise, their headphones don't use the standard micro speaker technology. These headphones are based on Balanced Armature technology. Usually dual or triple balanced armatures to be able to faithfully reproduce the full range of frequencies. This technology is currently only available in the US and the UK. Okay some quick translation is in order now. The micro speakers are more like ordinary speakers but small (micro) in size. Armature technology, on the other hand, directly produces sound frequencies more akin to a tuning fork (Am I right?). And, these are expensive really expensive.

After reading much about these, narrowed down my search to Klipsch x10 and SleekAudio sa6 and finally ended up with the Klipsch. Both have single balanced wide/ultra-wide band micro armatures. Some how the thought of dual/triple armatures did not appeal to me, maybe, because of how much more complicated (and more expensive)it is to design a good crossover. Well, if you are still in the dark ages of 5$ cheap Chinese headphones. I am sure you won't be disappointed moving to one of these. I have used these for over 3 months now and they are worth every penny. But, I suggest looking up various choices yourself before settling on one, as these can make quite a dent in your wallet. Actually, suggest trying before buying. Also, suggest pairing these with comply foams.

Klipsch Image x10 Retails for 350$ (got mine off ebay for 220$)

Also, check out these:
www.earphonesolutions.com/
www.sleek-audio.com/
www.ultimateears.com/

The Hadron Collider goes online this Wednesday

2008-09-08T04:22:00.000-07:00

Woo Hoo or Big Bang. Any hoo big day for physics.

5 Quirky Gadgets You’re Bound to Love

2008-06-24T07:17:00.000-07:00

The following is an interesting guest post by Sarah Scrafford. Thanks Sarah.

Gadgets are taking the world by storm – they’re getting smaller, more sophisticated, and indispensable to daily life. While some are useful, others come with sheer entertainment value. They’re not must-haves for the serious gadget freaks, but for those who enjoy a good laugh now and then, here’s my list of five quirky yet charming gadgets in descending order of importance to me:

E-Cigarette: An electronic nicotine patch? A cigarette-shaped placebo that hoodwinks you into ditching the nasty and unhealthy habit? Whatever it is, the E-Cigarette Anti Cigarette Nicotine Replacement Therapy cartridge promises to cure you of your smoking habit by simulating the smell and feel of smoking a cigarette, sans the harmful effects of tar and other cancer-causing chemicals. What it does have though is nicotine – each cartridge has supposedly less and less of the noxious substance to help you wean yourself gradually from the pleasures of smoking.
Wi-Fi Detector T-Shirt: Be prepared for the stares all around with this contraption. An instant Wi-Fi detector, this piece of clothing senses the strength of the Wireless Fidelity signal in the area around you and glows accordingly. The shirt is washable once you remove the animated decal and the hidden battery pack that powers the detector.
LED Faucet Lights: Like the idea of water that glows, both blue and red according to the temperature? If so, then this gadget is your cup of tea. Fix it to your faucet and light up your bathrooms, literally. While the blue LED gives your water a bluish shade, the blue/red LED makes the water turn red once the temperature touches 89 degrees.
Phone Excuses Key Ring: The perfect gadget to get you off the phone and away from the pest on the other end of the line – this nifty key ring has a whole range of sound effects that you can use to good effect to offer the most genuine excuses when you want to hang up the phone without being overtly rude.
Clocky: Though the moniker makes me feel all warm and snug inside, Clocky is one mean SOB when it comes to dragging you out of bed each morning. If you thought the snooze button was your best friend, Clocky the Runaway Alarm Clock is here to cause friction between the two of you – by running away from you as soon as the alarm rings. This means that you’re forced to get out of bed if only to shut up that dratted clock when the alarm rings after a snooze period. Clocky allows you between 0 to 9 minutes before it starts its morning jog, and a setting of 0 means you don’t get any snooze time at all.

By-line:

Sarah Scrafford is an industry critic, as well as a regular contributor on the subject of Capella University Reviews. She invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.

Some words of wisdom

2008-05-28T05:20:00.000-07:00

"For a good man there are no mistakes in life, only learning experiences" - Dr SA

"What do you dream yourself to be? That is where you should be concentrating your energies at" - Dr IBS

"The earlier you start doing what you like, the sooner you start living life" - Dr KA

"100 rupees is a 100 rupees not 99 not 101. One should say what happened, exactly as it happened" - Dr KA

Why do we forget? One perspective

2008-05-16T11:05:00.000-07:00

Another dose of musings of a wandering mind.

Why do we forget?
This, I think has more to do with gathering correct data about one's surroundings and skill honing. By nature related events or objects have the tendency of occurring close to each other have (spatial nearness) or are repetitive (temporal nearness). By remembering only events that occur repetitively or close to one another, one has a greater probability of having consistent and generally correct information about one's surroundings in one's mind. Giving this a more detailed look one realizes that repeated activity say like improving one's skills at a sport (practice makes perfect) are not possible without forgetting the wrong move and reinforcing the right moves with time. We with our set of neurons in essence keep an impression of repeated events/associations from the environment we are immersed in. Why is it important to remember events which occur close to each other in space or time? One reason: Things or events occurring close to each other, generally have a causal relationship. An organism having the ability to recognize such relationships has a tremendous survival advantage. By recognizing certain events that may trigger unfavourable events, one can avoid those, well in advance.

But, there are ways in which to give certain associations a higher weightage than this default mechanism. Emotions are a way to give certain experiences a higher weightage than the default weightage. for example, we don't learn that fire burns by repeatedly burning ourselves. One such accidental burn may leave a lasting impression (and a scar) to remind us to beware of such an event in the future. More over already made associations may help recognize the cause of such events. The sensation of pain gives the associated event a higher weightage for memorization. And, how did we initially start to feel pain - by mistake. There may have been freak organisms that felt no pain and walked fearlessly into fire. They most definitely got filtered by the sieve of natural selection. One mistake (mutation) by chance may have advantaged an organism of that species with the severe feeling of pain from burning. Such strong sensation evokes a strong emotional response making a lasting impression. Many such fears/feelings may have been incorporated in our DNA quite some time back, with the subsequent branches all sharing these. Fear, love, camaraderie are all emotions which may have altering effect on the weightage of the memories, and may bypass the normal repetitiveness and forgetfulness mechanism. Also, what remains after the years are those that advantage an organism in some way to survive.

This same mechanism built into us by nature - that is recognition of patterns and reinforcing of repetitive occurrences helps us recognize mathematical formulas, languages. There may have been fine tuning in the later stages of evolution. This pattern recognition and association of similar concepts is what makes some ideas appear so fundamental to us and many ideas not so tangible to grasp from our understanding of nature. Object oriented programming and many other programming concepts being cast as abstractions of real world objects comes from our understanding and comfort with analogues from nature.

This natural scheme of selective adaptation and a neural network capable of recognizing "important" patterns in the environment in which it is immersed in, is not only simple but very flexible. We don't expect fire to be cold. We grew in this environment. The hardwired feelings are only suitable to this environment. Feelings and emotions are a way to prioritize many of the experiences and translating them into increased weightages for the neurons they effect. Just immersing a blank neural network with forgetfulness function in a rich environment would retain associated events and objects because of their temporal or spatial nearness or higher frequency of occurrence. This observation of events and objects and their associations depend on the senses that pick these up and flood the network. An organism say with only auditory senses will be limited in its perception of its environment. But, if it survives, it may have gathered strange ways to prioritize what is important for survival. The interplay and associations between signals sent by various senses of an organism and the feelings they evoke - could be very interesting and could make for a colourful experience.

When thinking about intelligence. The first question that comes to mind is intelligent about what? Intelligent about one's environment? Intelligent in mathematics? Decoupling the environment of a machine or an organism and then talking about intelligence does not quite make sense. Or does it? After a certain amount of complexity is attained, an organism may in a sense "live in its own mind" - detached from nature, having the ability to see ideas and associations between them with no real analogues in nature. This may reach a point where now the being may want these ideal structures held in mind to be translated to reality or checked against reality. One is free to have anything in one's mind. But, an organism detached from the environment cannot survive long. If the organism is "unlucky" sooner or later the organisms ideas are tested against reality. That's where Science comes in where ideas get validated and tested against reality, from time to time. Some theories remain and some fail the test. A race has a better chance of survival if the knowledge it acquires is correct and consistent with what is real.

Blue Ant z9

2008-03-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

Wonder how I lived without one of these for so long. Guess, wanted to abstain from moving around town looking like one of those self styled and self proclaimed "secret agents". But, the sound quality, convenience and ultra light weight makes me join their league - I apologize. This is my first Bluetooth headset so can't make an objective comparison.

I have pretty much stopped picking up the mobile directly after this. I don't wear this on my ear all the time, just clip it on my shirt. When I receive a call, this speedily and miraculously gets worn on the ear. One doesn't insert this into one's ear canal, it justs rests outside -- very comfortable and easy to remove and put on quickly. Has dual microphones and voice isolation (in software) which is pretty good and provides clear sound to both the listener and the one whom you are talking to.

Most of all, very good for times when one has to take that important call while driving.

For using this in Ubuntu:
Put z9 in pairing mode (or reset mode)

$hcitool scan
Scanning ...
00:1C:D8:01:9A:21 BlueAnt Z9 v3.4

$sudo modprobe snd_bt_sco

$btsco -v 00:1C:D8:01:9A:21
btsco v0.42
Device is 1:0
Voice setting: 0x0060
RFCOMM channel 2 connected
Using interface hci0

For Skype:
Options > Sound Devices >
Sound In :BT Headset (hw:Headset,0)
Sound Out :BT Headset (hw:Headset, 0)
Ringing:BT Headset (hw:Headset, 0)

VLC Player:
Preferences > Audio > ALSA > Refresh: BT Headset: BT SCO PCM (hw:1.0)

retails for 99$. Got mine for 59$ on ebay
Blue Ant z9

Playing with Freedom Keychain GPS 2000 on Gutsy Gibbon - Part 3

2008-02-23T00:30:00.000-08:00

Next on the list are some GPS mapping softwares for linux. A popular one is GPSdrive. Installation was easy, Ubuntu has a debian package in its repositories. Sadly, does not have decent maps for India (see below) . Will, pass for now.

Now we try Navit. By default it too does not have maps for India. But, the documentation says that it works with the following -

- OpenStreetMaps : display, routing, but street name search isn't complete
(see http://wiki.navit-project.org/index.php/OpenStreetMaps )
- Grosser Reiseplaner and compliant maps : full support
(see http://wiki.navit-project.org/index.php/European_maps )
- Garmin maps : display, routing is being worked on
(see http://wiki.navit-project.org/index.php/Garmin_maps )

Install Navit
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@navit.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/navit login
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@navit.cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/navit co -P navit
cd navit
./autogen.sh
./configure
make
make check
sudo make install

download planet.bin into /usr/local/share/navit/maps/ from: http://maps.navit-project.org/ct.org/ (1.3 GB file)
sudo gedit /usr/local/share/navit/navit.xml
map type="garmin" enabled="yes" data="$NAVIT_SHAREDIR/maps/planet.bin"

Optionally, If you don't want to download the maps for the whole planet you can try getting only the map tiles you are interested in:
wget -O map.osm http://www.openstreetmap.org/api/0.5/map?bbox=73.2688,17.3825,73.56, 88,17.6825
the format is:
you can get the co-ordinates from:
http://informationfreeway.org/

Finally, If you would rather prefer Garmin maps (but, mind it these are pretty hopeless for India):

svn co http://libgarmin.svn.sourceforge.net/svnroot/libgarmin/libgarmin/dev libgarmin
cd libgarmin
./autosh.sh
make
sudo make install
re configure and re make Navit.

download garmin map tiles from:http://garminmapsearch.com/
sudo gedit /usr/local/share/navit/navit.xml
map type="garmin" enabled="yes" data="/usr/local/share/navit/maps/73551480.img" debug="4"

Playing with Freedom Keychain GPS 2000 on Gutsy Gibbon - Part 2

2008-02-22T23:39:00.000-08:00

Well, the first though that struck me, was ah ha! why not Google Earth. Got me self a subscription to Google Earth plus only to be disappointed - it cannot talk to gpsd. Canceled my subscription. But, don't loose heart. Download the gegpsd.py and gps.kml from here.

rfcomm connect 4
gpsd -n /dev/rfcomm4

gedit gegpsd.py
gps = serial.Serial('/dev/rfcomm4', 4800, timeout=1)
python gegpsd.py
./googleearth
In google earth open > gps.kml

What this does is this - it reads the NMEA formated string and generates the KML (Keyhole Markup Language) formated file called. /tmp/nmea.kml, which is then read by google earth at 1 second intervals.

As a side note, remember to make sure you don't have xgps running simultaneously with this script. I guess since both of them read from the same device at the same time, it causes the python script to fail as it tries to parse the partial NMEA strings at times (parts of the string may have been read from the buffer by xgps).

Okie dokey so far so good.

I have been talking about this NMEA string. If you like you can use the python script to make your own script to peek at the NMEA string that is sent by your device. Here is what it looks like

$GPGGA,081445.000,1829.8610,N,07354.3305,E,1,6,1.38,621.6,M,-64.8,M,,*75
$GPRMC,081445.000,A,1829.8610,N,07354.3305,E,0.21,78.40,230208,,,A*5C
$GPGGA,081446.000,1829.8606,N,07354.3310,E,1,6,1.38,621.6,M,-64.8,M,,*75
$GPRMC,081446.000,A,1829.8606,N,07354.3310,E,0.21,78.40,230208,,,A*5C
$GPGGA,081447.000,1829.8603,N,07354.3313,E,1,6,1.38,621.6,M,-64.8,M,,*72

excerpt from Wiki
"NMEA 0183 (or NMEA for short) is a combined electrical and data specification for communication between marine electronic devices such as echo sounder, sonars, Anemometer (winds speed and direction), gyrocompass, autopilot, GPS receivers and many other types of instruments. It has been defined by, and is controlled by, the US-based National Marine Electronics Association."

cool isn't it?

REF -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NMEA_0183
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/csc/people/computingstaff/jaroslaw_zachwieja/gegpsd/.

Playing with Freedom Keychain GPS 2000 on Gutsy Gibbon - Part 1

2008-02-21T22:16:00.000-08:00

Just received this interesting little GPS receiver from Freedom Input. It is capable of receiving from 51 channels simultaneously. Freedom input sells 2 keychain GPS's. The original Freedom Keychain GPS and the keychain GPS 2000. The first one uses the SIRF III chipset and the latter uses the latest MTK chipset. Sirf III, as, maybe the name suggests is on its third revision, whereas, this is MTK's debut into the GPS world (and I reckon quite a good one). The 2000 version is more compact than the original and has 4 separate indicator lights for the various activities. Some would still prefer the Sirf III chipset, as it has a proven track record. After much brooding I decided to go in for the latter i.e. GPS 2000. Mind it neither comes bundled with any software, but, are supposed to be compatible with popular mapping softwares available.

Now the hard part getting all this to work in Ubuntu. After a hard days night, here is what I got.
In gist this is what I did (apply common sense where stuck)

hcitool scan
sdptool browse
sudo gedit /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf

rfcomm4 {
bind yes;
device <>;
channel 1;
comment “Serial Port”;
}

rfcomm connect 4
sudo apt-get install gpsd gpsd-clients
gpsd -n /dev/rfcomm4
xgps

Basically, we are creating a serial port /dev/rfcomm4 binding to the bluetooth device and then making the gpsd daemon talk to the port. The gpsd daemon then listens and services any requests for the standard GPS NMEA data. And voila..

The picture above shows the satellites that GPS device has latched onto. If it latches onto more than 3 satellites it is able to provide a 3D fix, which means, it can in addition to your position tell you your altitude. I think EPH tells you the horizontal accuracy and EPV tells you the vertical accuracy. Okay, now to get this to work with some freely available mapping software keep checking.

If still stuck check out these links
http://www.justuber.com/blog/2007/10/16/bluetooth-gps-on-ubuntu-gutsy/
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1497680

Trying out the Android SDK

2007-11-15T03:42:00.000-08:00

After upgrading to Gutsy Gibbon and reclaiming and saying goodbye to Vista partition. Time for some fun. Giving Android a trial run. SDK download and setup instructions here

that was smooth and easy, no hiccups.

Light My Fire's Swedish Firesteel Mini

2007-09-21T10:26:00.000-07:00

Light My Fire (LMF) released a new Mini version of their excellent Swedish Firesteel. I think Ryan Jordan may have had some hand in the design of these. Excerpt from Backpacking Light

"At the heart of this kit is the new Firesteel Mini firestarter. Ryan commissioned the design and manufacture of this product for the ultralight community - at less than half the weight of a Firesteel Scout, the Firesteel Mini should prove its worth to the ultralight community when every gram is debatable. The firestarting tool, the sparker, and the cord have all been lightened up in the Firesteel Mini." -- Backpacking Light

I already reviewed the Swedish Firesteel (Army Model) some time back. A life time supply of sparks. By the way, of all the flints "and fire rods" that I have tried, this (Light My Fire Firesteel) is by far the best and has come to be my favourite. Its just the "quality". Good large and hot sparks. Even the provided striker is excellent. I think it may actually last me a life time (if I don't lose it that is).

Problem: it is too big for my modified Penrith tin. Their scout model just doesn't cut it. This is just perfect when you want the comfort of a quality product in a really small size.

"By Endurance We Conquer"

2007-09-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

This was Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton's family motto. This bird has earned it. It made the longest recorded nonstop flight ever measured - 7,145 miles (11,500 kilometers). Simply wow. For comparison - Even F16s and a Boing 737 cannot manage half of that without refueling.

National Geographic via Newlaunches

Openmoko and gPhone rumour

2007-08-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

I have been watching the Openmoko (FIC Neo1973) developments like a predator stalking its prey. But, pouncing on the "Phase I" release of the phone - I must admit requires much too much courage for me. I am waiting and saving for their Phase 2 release due in October. I was initially eying the Greenphone, but, after this, I gotta have an Openmoko.

But, guess what Google may be eying the Openmoko too for its rumored gPhone. Too much heat ...

Buy Openmoko here
Openmoko developments here
For Greenphone go here
A List of Linux based Mobile Phones

gPhone Rumors (Hopefully there will be more):
More gPhone rumours
Google Using OpenMoko For gPhone?

My next phone has to be Open and has to run Linux.

Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) - Initial Impressions

2007-06-17T09:42:00.001-07:00

Plenty to explore and talk about but, I think these were the first few things that caught my attention.

1. Disk usage analyzer: A Linux user's conditioned reflex when asked to look up disk usage - du and df. Well stumbled upon 2 new interesting ways to view disk usage (Applications -> Accessories -> Disk Usage Analyzer).

for the graphical usage map (right click on a folder name on the left pane).

2. How interesting can a battery applet get? It's just supposed to show you how much juice is left in your batteries. Well... click on the battery icon. You are greeted with a fair amount of info about your batteries. Then, right click and view the power history. It shows how much power your laptop has been sucking up in watts plotted against time since the system started.

The graph above told me some interesting things about my machine:

consumption between an idle CPU and 100% CPU utilization is about 20W!. The >35W on the graph is my CPU on ~100% (Used BOINC to run seti@home jobs to fill up the idle times).
And the display takes about 5W between off and full brightness.

3. And then there is Beryl........

Dual booting Ubuntu (Feisty Fawn) and Windows Vista

2007-06-16T04:07:00.000-07:00

Smooth and easy way (obviously apply common sense where ever necessary):

Make your Vista recovery disks and take backup of all important files before proceeding.
Install Vista first. Don't waste your time trying to partition your system using the utilities provided in Vista - Disk Manager and the Defrag utility. They just don't cut it. I was not able to shrink the Vista partition to my desired 30 Gigs. Wasted quite some time trying to delete/move system files so that a defrag could move them to the beginning of the partition. Instead try GParted (the next step)
Boot from the Ubuntu CD. Use GParted (System > Administration > GNOME Partition Editor). Yes, it recognizes NTFS and it did an excellent job resizing my Vista partition. After resizing restart the system and boot into Vista. Make sure to let Checkdisk run during boot. Verify your Vista installation is okay.
Boot from the Ubuntu CD again and this time you click on install. When asked for partitioning choose to manually partition your drive. Ubuntu rightly recognizes the service and the Vista partitions and makes suitable entries in the /boot/grub/menu.lst. (I just edited the label for the /dev/sda1 - the service partition). These are the entries in the menu.lst on my system

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda2
title Windows Vista/Longhorn (loader)
root (hd0,1)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1

# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS
# on /dev/sda1
title Lenovo Recovery Partition (loader)
root (hd0,0)
savedefault
makeactive
chainloader +1
Install Ubuntu following the instructions.
Reboot - You will automagically see the options to boot into the various partitions during startup. Only caveat the thinkvantage button no longer works during startup. And yes if you choose the Recovery partition to boot it does start the recovery program

Lenovo (IBM) Thinkpad R60: New world, New thinking

2007-05-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

Time to say farewell to my old Dell Inspiron 8000 . I have managed to stick with it for more than a very long time (> 5 years). When I bought it, it had an enviable configuration at an unbeatable price.

I have to admit though, that, I wasn't particularly very pleased with Dell inspiron 8000's build quality from the beginning. Creaky "plasticy" feel, wobbly hinges and then the weight. But, I guess that being one of the first model in the series these should have been Ironed out in the later releases of the series. So, I won't pass a judgment. Moreover, Dell's customer support was excellent during this period.

Now, time to welcome the new. This time in addition to the configuration, I decided to consider the build quality and the weight. I did consider dell again especially their latitude models and HP's business models. Eventually, I began eying the the T60. The T60 is supposed to be slightly thinner, lighter and more robust than the R60 and has over the years made quite a name for itself. But, after consolidating my cards into a loan ended up with only enough to spare for a ThinkPad R60 instead (with a modest configuration*).

* T5500(1.66GHz), 1GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm HD, 15in 1024x768 LCD, Intel 950, CDRW/DVDRW, Intel 802.11abg wireless, Bluetooth, Modem, 1Gb Ethernet, UltraNav, Secure chip, Fingerprint reader, 6c Li-Ion, WinVista Business

So, lo behold my new Laptop.

I liked the trademarked phrase from Lenovo on the laptop's wallpaper - New world, New Thinking. To a good extent I think it is. A major jump from a PIII based model to a Core 2 Duo.

Cordless Soldering Irons: Hakko FX 901 & Weller's BP645

2007-05-01T12:06:00.000-07:00

I bought this cordless Soldering Iron called ColdHeat some time back. As, long as I was not bothered with messy soldering, this was okay. Recently, I had to do some real soldering. Now this is where it got real ugly. ColdHeat is a pain. One cannot form a good drop of solder over the joints. One has to have the solder between the tip gap for it to melt. Does not work with thin solder. Heat is produced when the gap between the tip is short circuited by the the solder. If you have expensive milli-volt components - The thought of the high current frying these components may send chills down your spine. And to top it all off I managed to break the special alloy tip into 2 (the plastic separating the pieces just melted!!). Its not me, these tips are supposed to be brittle! Now a replacement tip costs half the price of the iron itself. Moreover concentrating on holding the solder between the tip separation and also concentrating on soldering just did it for me.

Realization - there is no replacement for the "True Heat" soldering irons. You can literally let a perfect drop of solder spread around your connections with a little practice (heaven). Now the hard part -- cordless and "True heat".

I narrowed down my search to Hakko FX 901 and Weller's BP645. Both are still no replacements for true "corded" soldering irons but are good enough for ordinary PCB work. I recommend you use rechargeable NiMH batteries. Weller's is smaller and uses 3 AA batteries where as Hakko uses 4xAA. Hakko is prettier. You can find good "objective" reviews here and here.

All-Spec: Hakko FX 901
All-Spec: Wellers BP860MP (It appears Weller's BP645 has been replaced with the newer BP860MP ...Took forever to arrive )

NSD PowerBall

2007-05-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

If you as a kid sat on the chair with the spinning wheel to get a feel of a gyroscope and still had questions, welcome to the club. This toy gives you the feel of how nature resists the change in angular momentum. I'll say its ingenious how this concept is used to make this into an exercise equipment for your wrists and forearms. Even though I use the term toy, this "toy" can give your forearms some serious workout in less than a minute. The ball states that it is capable of spinning at 250Hz which is equivalent to 250x60 = 15,000 rotations/minute amazing! There are mentions on sites, where people have taken this to 16,000 rpms (these people must have "power balls"). The scorecard of top 100 speeds are maintained here. Also, there is a steel version available, capable of 350Hz. I can personally vouch for this to strengthen your wrists and fore arms. The site claims that Powerball can help in fighting carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis, tennis elbow and other wrist (& arm) ailments - and I have no reason to disbelieve their claims. More over the science of gyroscopes (something tethered to space and resisting change) still fascinates me. Just think about it for a minute...

http://www.powerballs.com/

MIT's Open Courseware - Physics Lectures by Prof. Walter Lewin

2007-03-11T20:57:00.000-07:00

"Professor Lewin puts his life on the line in Lecture 11 by demonstrating his faith in the Conservation of Mechanical Energy."

One evening after an attempt to explain relativity and the weird behavior of light to my cousin. I myself had a queasy feeling in my tummy of how little I knew. I decided to revisit some basic physics first. "Googling" for electromagnetism I stumbled upon MIT's open course ware. These videos are worth their price in gold (literally considering the tuition for one semester at MIT is about 25,000$ without scholarship). There are plenty of videos of actual courses taught at MIT. Believe it or not there are videos of the course "Introduction to Algorithms" by none other than Leiserson himself. One cannot ask for more. Just sip a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy. And while you are at it don't forget to support this initiative by giving (link on the upper right corner). I think this is a great thing that MIT has done.

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/CourseHome/index.htm

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/CourseHome/index.htm

http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-03Fall-2004/CourseHome/index.htm

Especially, the courses by Walter Lewin are gems. You can also find courses on quantum physics and relativity, but, I don't know how comprehensive they are. Give them a try, they will definitely be worth your while.

MIT Open Courseware

Dell to offer Linux on laptops ...this time it may actually!

2007-03-07T18:59:00.000-08:00

This has been considered a number of times, then removed from consideration, and then re-considered again by many like Dell, hp and IBM (Lenovo). It is being considered again. So what's new?...... This time the customers have asked for it and, in by no means a small measure. Dell was flooded with requests at DellIdeaStorm for Linux as a pre-installed OS option in their OS offerings. This time this may actually happen ...

10th March 2007: HP to beat Dell with Linux-loaded PCs?
14th March 2007: OpenOffice Openly Courting Dell

Reuters [Via] Engadget

Quantum Computer to be launched next week

2007-02-09T00:52:00.000-08:00

I hope this does not turn out to be another steorm -- The perpetual machine thing remember. Anyway, the brief excitement will do for me today

D-Wave Systems is building a 'quantum' computer to solve intractable real-world problems. The secret: cooling the chip to -269 C with liquid helium.
Technology Review

...a quantum computer next week that can carry out 64,000 calculations at the same time in parallel "universes".
The Inquirer

SlashDot

Red Had advertisement - Truth Happens

2007-02-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

This video started a train of thought. I think I read the following in a magazine called "The Week" some years back. But, am not sure so I may be off on some details. Since, it is quite old try to read it in the "old times" context, not in the current political scenario.

Once a General of some country visited America. The American General showed him around their facilities and even showed him around their research base somewhere in Nevada. The other General asks the American General - "Don't you consider this a security threat. That is me seeing all this". The American General replies "Our openness is our strength".

Open source is no different. "We have nothing to hide" its open. This is how it is. A friend of mine once pointed out - then why do they hide behind the GPL (LGPL, APL etc for that matter... makes you wonder about his intent). Well, there is foolishness and there is strength. Giving away research (and weapons) as charity will eventually lead to those being used against yourself. Without GPL someone can just borrow some open source code make some small changes and claim it to be his own work (and "close source" it). The person who creates it tosses and turns in bed because, now, he is excluded from the growth of his own creation.

The foundation of open source is to bring together honest interest and participation in creating something great. More over, one may not be free enough to show off one's skills on a payroll. There are business models around open source, but the motivation may just be a reward unmatched by any other - Fun (2).

Watch this video. The comments on YouTube are interesting too. Especially the analogy of the cake recipe does a good job.

Is GPL enforceable? Yes, it is. There have been some interesting precedents. I learn't of this during a presentation by Herald Welte in Linux Bangalore. There are couple of interesting cases you can read about at GNU Monks and GPL Violations.

Sexy Lamborghini Gallardo Promo Video

2007-02-04T07:08:00.000-08:00

Lord I have sinned , but, I give a damn.

DIY 2: Chemistry: Potassium Permanganate + Glycerine = Exothermic reaction cool (I mean Hot)

2007-02-02T20:39:00.000-08:00

Typical military survival kits usually have a vial of potassium permanganate. It can be used to purify water in dilute solutions, as a disinfectant when used in concentrated solutions and a marker for signaling in snow. But, it can serve one more purpose that of a firestarter. When a fine granules of potassium permanganate are rubbed with sugar or glycerine the result is an exothermic reaction. Using it in an actual survival situation, I reckon are slim. If you have access to potassium permanganate in a survival situation. It is most likely that it is, because, it was part of a survival kit. In that case you definitely have other more convenient means of starting a fire. But, sometimes just knowing a possibility exists can be a lifesaver.

14 KMnO4 + 4 C3H5(OH)3 --> 7 K2CO3 + 7 Mn2O3 + 5 CO2 + 16 H2O + Heat

Okay so what does one need to do this:
Potassium Permanganate
glycerine
glass bowl (just for effect ;-))

that's all.

Oracle 10g

2007-01-27T06:54:00.000-08:00

Organizing my folders I came across this diagram I made sometime back to give some newbies an overview and a quick start in oracle administration. Been sometime since I have done some real admin or database work. So, don't know if this is valid, updated or even useful anymore. But, what the heck I am putting it up here. If nothing much I may look at it over and over again and decide to update it. Or may be get some constructive criticism.

Patrick Stewart on Top Gear

2007-01-25T22:25:00.000-08:00

Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS enterprise on Top Gear.

Via TechEBlog

Pepe Le Pew

2007-01-20T05:09:00.000-08:00

Not blogged in a while. Am just bogged down with plenty of work right now. In the meanwhile feast yourself on these Pepe Le Pew videos I came across on YouTube. One of my favorite Looney Tunes character.

and here's another one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPmqaoBG23Y

Knowledge repository of an Advanced civilization

2006-11-27T13:05:00.001-08:00

CAUTION: Random wandering thoughts below.

Science fiction movies, that talk about advanced alien civilizations, sometimes have a mention of them having their whole "advanced technological information" and "Knowledge" in some supercomputer's "holographic/crystal memory unit". Well if we appeared like an alien advanced civilization to some other intelligent species I think our worlds most comprehensive knowledge repository would be the Internet. A decentralized repository of human knowledge. I think it would have been very difficult to think this way before Google came along and "the way" it made this knowledge accessible. The most comprehensive index of the web. I heard mentioned that, this requires enormous amounts of power and the facility itself is huge. Squeezing out performance and memory under the constraints of power and size based on the limitations of current technology is a huge challenge for Google. Typical constraints:

Power density: Currently Fossil fuel based + some solar power planned (about 30%)
Memory density: Chip Fabrication technologies/HDD densities.
Current computational "capacities"
Connections: Network Bandwidths

If one could some day have some "crystal lattices" storing all of Google's cached pages one could possibly carry the whole human knowledge in ones pocket. Imagine that. Assuming of course, one caches complete pages with multimedia content and all during crawling and the time when almost anything worth knowing is published online.

Structure: It is interesting to see how typically "information and knowledge" structures start showing a certain amount of similarity when viewed from a suitable level of abstraction - Our own network of neurons compared to the network structure of the web. Why such an ad hoc network of connection instead of say the very well structured "structure" of typical main memory chips. Could the answer be - Unplanned unstructured nature of information and knowledge leading to hurried physical structures to contain these?

So the physical structure does take the form of the "untouchable" knowledge it stores. Wrong very wrong. The physical network structures (connections) rarely mimic the knowledge structures (connections).For Example

- The physical network connections of the web compared to the hyper links that connect the the pages (or knowledge) together.
- Different areas of the brain can take up different functions when need arises.

Physical structures are motivated by different constraints than knowledge structures.
That sounds obvious, so what is my point here?

There is a very loose form follows function here too. It may happen that knowledge of a particular nature, finds itself relocated to suitable physical areas and those physical areas reinforced, to better suit knowledge of that particular nature. So, typically different parts of the brain are loosely concerned with different aspects of our functioning. Long term memory area I bet will be having a lots of resonating neural circuits. In nature this knowledge "migration" to suitable areas happened through the process of natural selection.

The point I am trying to get at is that organization of knowledge and the structures that hold that knowledge has to come about eventually both in nature and civilizations.

Pics from:
http://www.greenspine.ca/en/dissociated_culture.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

Concept car I would love and one concept I would hate to see go into production

2006-10-04T21:39:00.000-07:00

Recently I saw pictures of Lamborghini Miura Concept 2008 floating around. Miura was one good looking car. Well it may make a come back if this concept arouses enough interest. Audi's buying over of Lamborghini kind of makes it hard to think of the original Wild Lamborghini as it used to be... but still.

Porsche on the other hand is planning a four seater sedan - the Porsche Panamera. Come on Porsche don't take this direction. Imagine Ferrari producing a sedan it would kill Ferrari. By the way, I deliberately said Ferrari here because they did build one hatchback Ferrari sedan (Ferrari 456 GTA Venice Estate) for the Sultan of Brunei. But, that was an exception more than the rule for one occasion. My point here is, that, like McLaren concentrated on only one car at a time, what kept these super cars super was their focussed attention to a few speedy wild models. I don't think one will be able to look at Porsche with the same respect after they have a line of sedans. Now here's how I view some of the Super Cars

Ferrari - A toned down version of God (In the words of Jeremy Clarkson)
Lamborghini - A toned down version of the Devil
Porsche - Ultimate limit of practical reality and engineering.
McLaren - God

Bugatti Veyron - A serious Joke

Now imagine a Lambo sedan. You should be struck with lightning for even letting the thought cross your mind. (hmmm ... what is that smell. I smell bacon)

Finally, believe it or not McLaren may be planning a comeback. Sweet real sweet.

didigo's USB Flash Drive with Bi-Stable Cholesteric LCD

2006-10-04T04:07:00.000-07:00

Talking about USB flash memory sticks, I already mentioned HAL 9000 usb memory unit.

Scanning blog sites I came across this neat looking memory stick. Definitely warrants a mention. This sports a Bi-Stable - Cholesteric LC display (translated: A liquid crystal display capable of holding on to the image without power and without refresh for a long time - no batteries required). I'll say this appears to be the neatest memory stick I have seen so far (if you are not too finicky like me about the size i.e.). Do check this out.
via Engadget
mfgr site: didigo

Shower Shock Caffeinated soap

2006-09-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

Accidental under-exposure but I will keep the picture. Gives it a bit of an evil gleam. Its evil I tell ya its eevul.

Ahem... about the soap. Nice minty smell. So does it work at invigorating you in the mornings? Well ... I don't know. I can tell you one thing that it doesn't shock you.
I am a kind of a guy who can compete with a sloth in "slothiness". So "wake you up" products rarely work with me. I did not go back to bed after taking a bath with shower shock (yes there have been instances of that too). Okay for a proper evaluation I will need to discount for the placebo effect, have a controlled experiment, have some statistical evidence, some time and lots of bathing. Will keep you posted with the test results. Has definitely replaced whatever soap I was using so far. Another thing 12 washes!?! Who can finish a soap bar of this size in 12 washes?
ThinkGeek.com
- 5 Bars - 20 $

HAL 9000 usb memory unit

2006-09-19T09:12:00.000-07:00

Boy everyone carries a usb memory stick now a days. Of all the people in the world my grandmother carries one - with her recipes, our family pictures... wow. She couldn't believe I never owned one ever ... being a computer engineer. I.. I never needed one so far.

Okay they do come in handy I accept. They are almost an EDC with most people today.. some wear theirs as a fashion accessory, some get a nice feeling that they always have their important files and pictures (maybe even porn) with them where ever go. Okay Okay I agree.

Now the question is which one should I get? Saw this at ThinkGeek they have a 2GB version so far so good .. its called HAL! with a non functional symbol of HAL's eye .. decision made. Here it is.

Couple of things:
1) It is smaller than it looks.
2) cute.
3) Detail: the small hole to put the line to attach a lanyard has a corresponding accomodating notch in the transparent plastic protector. impressive.
4) the HAL's eye is just print, but its got a blue LED near the edge.
5) Available only at ThinkGeek and the package does not say who is the manufacturer. Thought it was just a dressed up version of PQI Intelligent Stick. Doesn't appear so. Update (25th Sept 2006): The manufacturer appears to be either Super Talent Flash, Inc or OCZ Technology. The packaging suggested the former but its most definitely the later. Also, look at an interesting recently released product from OCZ Technology - the Roadster.

Available at:
ThinkGeek.com
1GB - 49.99$, 2GB $69.99

Arc-AAA Premium Flashlight

2006-09-19T07:30:00.000-07:00

Just recieved mine. How could I resist? ... after reading these:
http://flashlightreviews.com/reviews/arc_aaa-p.htm
http://www.hardwaremaniac.com/reviews/arc/arcaaa01.htm
http://ledmuseum.candlepower.us/third/arcp.htm
http://www.dansdata.com/ledlights4.htm
http://www.dansdata.com/ledlights15.htm
http://home.att.net/~ledmuseum/arclight.htm
http://outdoors-magazine.com/s_article.php?id_article=255
Customer reviews at Amazon
Military Morons

So how does it fare at Dev's Lab. Wait till it gets really really dark. You won't need the reviews to tell you to make this your Everyday Carry Flashlight.

Sadly, my child hood camp flashlight (which I still keep for the sake of nostalgia) no longer works for a comparison. But keep checking will definitely post comparisons as and when I can lay my hands on (beg, borrow or steal) flashlights for comparison.

Gallery of other Arc FlashLights (Before the company closed down)

Keep the great lights coming Peter Gransee.

Available at:
Arc Flashlight - $39.95

"Crocodile Hunter" No more. Steve Irwin dead.

2006-09-04T02:49:00.000-07:00

Steve Irwin was killed today by the barb of a stingray off the coast of Queensland Australia. We owe a lot to him for hours and hours of entertainment and knowledge about crocodiles and wildlife. Sad news. He was 44. IMDB

We will miss him a lot.

LaCrosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger

2006-07-31T11:09:00.000-07:00

One word - wow!!. This IS the Best charger ever. Its most distinguishing feature - "It shows you numbers". Instead of saying something like - the light is green or the battery shows three bars so it must be fully charged, I hear my self saying the battery has 2250mAh of charge. Numbers man numbers. It appeals to the engineer's heart. Now one can compare good with the bad. Moreover now there is a way of classifying "goodness". Moreover this charger can charge, refresh, test and discharge with various settings. It can automatically charge discharge a battery multiple times to remove the memory effect to get an optimal charge capacity. Mind my words I say exactly what I mean and mean exactly what I say. By charge capacity I mean "mAh" or "Ah" that is how long the battery will last (now that is battery lingo). One can set each of the four compartments to different settings i.e one can be charging one battery while disharging another while testing another one. The LCD can display Voltage, Capacity, time to charge/discharge, the charging/discharging current for the individual batteries.
Also comes with 4 AA, 4 AAA (NiMH - Nickel Metal Hydride) batteries, a bag and a set of adapters to convert AA to C and D types.

"This charger knows batteries" and has definitely taught me a couple of things about batteries.

I considered a few chargers before settling on this one. But none boasted the flexibility or the feature set that this one has. There are some chargers out there that claim to be able to recharge alkaline batteries (tempting)- Renu-it, Re-Zap. But, I don't have that many alkaline batteries. More over why attempt to charge something that was not meant to be recharged, unless ofcourse you already own loads of them. That could make for a compelling reason. But not the case here.

Available from:
Amazon - $52.19

The Mug of vi

2006-07-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

Long time back during undergrad a decision was made ... which remained with me for 9 years. Being the new nerd on the block then, I chose joe (Joe's own editor) as my favourite Linux editor then. Not that there is anything wrong with it. ... Untill one "man"s something and by default enters the vi realm (the first time I didn't even know how to get out of that realm shift, :, q). Or one goes to the lab to realize that they did a standard install and Joe was not part of it. With copious amounts of laziness which is instilled deep during engineering studies and good excuses like never having a good handy reference, when I needed one, Joe kind of Schhtuck. Now atleast there is a "Handy" reference to have me favourite joe in and wander bravely into the "man" land. So how do I search for a word in vi again ... whopsie ze joe is too hot and now all over me pants, .... gotta run ...You gotta have this Mug.

Available from
ThinkGeek.com
- $12.99

Auto Adjust™ Smart Converter™ 2000 Watt Converter/Adapter Set

2006-07-23T00:26:00.000-07:00

They say that its usually the most faithfull one that goes unnoticed and taken for granted. Well this describes this transformer very well. Shuffling between the US and India I have some items that work with the US voltage and some for the Indian voltage (US: 110-120V 50/60Hz AC, India:220-240V 50/60Hz AC). During my last visit I purchased this Step down transformer to convert from 240 to 120 V AC. The best complement that one can accord a voltage transformer is, that it goes unnoticed in 3 months of continous operation. Other transformers usually produce too much heat (which limits their continous use) or breakdown, some even humm a little. This being a dual wattage transformer, another advantage this has over the others, I was considering to buy then is, that it automatically switches to the desired wattage. Which definitely has its advantage - one can't accidently switch it to the wrong level. Also this has a tripover fuse that can be reset by the push of a button instead of requiring a fuse replacement. A bit heavy and expensive.But, I think this is as good as it gets (in this area).

Franzus - $59.99
REI - $49.95
Amazon (Only the converter) - $43.95

Amazon's Grocery Store Beta

2006-07-17T00:09:00.000-07:00

What can I say, the worlds biggest store gets bigger. I saw one item out there (via TheGreenHead) which sounded pretty wierd for something to be sold online (below right).Its called a "Badonkadonk Land Cruiser". But, again what can I say, one can buy used soviet Jets (maybe even new ones) online nowadays if one have the moolah i.e.

You can actually buy this at Amazon for $19,999.95 (yes its not 20,000 is 5 cents less than that)

NitePalm FieldLamp

2006-07-16T19:05:00.000-07:00

A torch is fine if you want strong directed light and there are plenty of good options to choose from. But, if you want to light up a small area you have to have a lamp. Most of the options for lamps just conjure up an image of large bulky, inflamable, gas (or Kerosine) lamps. No, the lamp that I am suggesting cannot beat these, but comes close to being a fair substitute without the bulk and flamable nature. Also, much smaller. Produces strong light which is good enough for reading. Moreover it is water proof and has 5 levels for intensity control. Does a decent job for a lamp. Look up its review at imagometrics and Flashlight Reviews. Shown below is the intesity control knob, using which one can select 5 different intensity levels. The pictures above show the lamp at the lowest (top right), middle (bottom left), and highest (bottom middle)intensity levels.

Available From:
Global Military Supplies - £39.99
I want one of those - £39.99

Mfgr's Site:
NitePalm

Einstein Lip Balm

2006-07-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

Nopes, I have not tried this out. Was looking up the book reviews for "Road to Reality" by Roger Penrose and a couple of other physics books a few days back and amazon magically associated this item to be something I would be (very) interested in. When you think you have seen it all. You see a lip balm named after Einstein. Wait there is even a hydrating cream lip theory wonder what that is. Maybe the mass in your lips poofs into energy and vanishes. No this is not a vanishing cream (never quite undershhtood why they call it that). Believe me guys I see some serious attempts to associate this with something "Einsteinien". Ah the mysteries of life with a hydrating lip balm theory. If not to the cart definitely to the wishlist... well... just in case this turns out to be something significant in Physics. I mean why just a lip cream why not a whole line with creams for all sorts of parts .. I mean face.

Available from:
ebeautifulyou - $6.00 and wait there is more, free shipping over orders of $65 ..yipee i.e. 65/6 = 10 and 5/6 th of these (we are in the context of physics gotta be exact)

At amazon
Amazon Theory 1
Amazon Theory 2

A tribute to Col. Yonatan Netanyahu

2006-07-03T22:21:00.000-07:00

Today in 1976 Israeli commandoes rescued 100 hostages from uganda in what is considered an hallmark operation called Operation Entebbe (originally called Operation Thunderbolt). My father used to tell me about Col. Yoni Netanyahu who lead this operation and was the only Isrealy commando to die that night(late night 3rd to early morning 4th). He is a hero in Israel. Also, he is my hero.

Read More about Operation Entebbe
Read More about Col. Yonatan "Yoni" Netanyahu
There was also a movie that was made on this operation "Entebbe: Operation Thunderbolt"

Neverlate 7-day Alarm Clock

2006-06-23T09:13:00.000-07:00

Consider this scenario when you just can't keep your eyes open and you have an important presentation in about 60 minutes, just enough to get about 45 minutes of shut eye. You pick up your compact sexy alarm clock and you go 3 clicks to the alarm menu, one click and a hold, wait 2 seconds, 2 clicks to minutes ..... and wondering if you set things correctly... was it AM or PM and then weelll zzzz.

I have owned 3 alarm clocks before this one (I lost one and one I intentionally left and tried to forget with my old apartment).

So, with "Neverlate" lets see -- I want to sleep for say .. 37 minutes. Well press the "nap" button and rotate a knob to set it to 37 and sleep thats it.

Or to set an alarm for say Tuesday, rotate the dial to "Tu" and another dial to set the time, back to run and you are done. The faster you move (clockwise or anti-clockwise) the dial the bigger the jumps and smaller jumps if you move it slowly.

The use of seperate buttons for most commonly used functions instead of one compact "do all" may seem redundant but is something that is intentional. A dial instead of a button to set the alarm for different days and another dial to set minutes and hours just cuts through the "bullshit" of clicking through each option inorder, bypassing it and then going the whole cycle again and coming back. Almost all functions for this clock are unconventionally (compared to most alarm clocks) simple and "common sensical".

Apart from the sound quality which is reasonably good, the radio does leave some things to be desired - a line in, a line out and maybe a digital tuner.Otherwise A fine clock radio that you may actually use. Even though, I got mine for free from ThinkGeek in exchange for the geek points I had accumulated, I think its worth the 29 bucks. It makes the available features "available" in a hurry.

Aug 23 2006: Check out this review at the Rainy Day Magazine

Available from
ThinkGeek.com
- $34.99

Mfgr's Site
American Innovative

DIY 1: A Simple DC Motor

2006-06-18T04:32:00.001-07:00

What you need:
I used the following.
1 Battery AAA some Magnet wire
2 Wires Some tape
3 Magnets from my Curiously strong magnet set.

How to do it:Well this is the first installment of the DIY series. This one was borrowed from: Make and Gonzo Gizmos (Scitoys). There are a couple of good sites to look up for projects to do yourself. A few that I know of:
Make SciToys (Maker of Gonzo Gizmos)
Hacked Gadgets
Hack a Day

Penrith Survival Tin

2006-06-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

A survival kit usually contains the absolute bare essentials that one (usually a soldier) would need if he/she reaches a point where to keep alive he/she only has nature in its rawest natural form to provide for the "bare necessities of life". Most of the good kits are put together by experts (usually the department of defense of the respective country) for the forces (Army, Navy or the Air Force). Since these kits are usually meant for soldiers and have to be mass produced while keeping the cost low, one finds a delicate balance between cost, essentials and quality. Stuff put in these boxes has to have a low cost but at the same has to be dependable at the time of need.

Well that was the laymans version of the background for a survival kit. But, today one finds survival kits for camping, travel even weekend survival kits for fun. I stumbled upon a survival kit when I decided to go on a long solo hike and started pondering over the "must haves" in case of an emergency. I decided to come up with my own list of essentials based on the best of all the the good kits out there.. well in theory that was the plan. Well I didn't go for the solo hike but ended up with the Penrith Survival Tin. I compared the contents of 5 kits - Combat Survival kit, Military survival kit, The Ultimate Survival kit (UK), the Ultimate Survival kit (USAF) and the Penrith Survival tin. The first four are from BCB International.

I also looked up Doug Ritter's Pocket Survival Pak from "Equipped To Survive" which has recieved a lot of acclaim as being the Ultimate Survival kit. Maybe it is, maybe not I am not sure. But, it failed to impress me as a whole (maybe without good reason). It does have some items which are worth having especially the Spark lite firestarter and the signal mirror is of really good quality. Overall the reason I chose the Penrith survival tin was that it had most of the items of the other survival tins, with smallest size, decent quality and an unbeatable price. And ofcource there is always the possibility of replacing or adding stuff as an improvement. One should keep in mind though, that it is very tightly packed and has very little space for additions (See above). One crucial thing that it lacks is a whistle, which is present in almost all kits that I have seen so far. Second, I will most definitely be replacing the cotton tinder with "tinder card" or just cut and add a few pieces to it. Replace the water tablets with Katadyn Micropur M1 tablets. Add an analgesic/painkiller, some antibiotic and some triple antibiotic cream. One thing that was present in this tin in the earlier versions but seems to have been replaced with a fishing line is a braided nylon line which is a "semi" pity (actually both would have been good).

One other thing that according to me is a "bare essential" for any camping trip not usually a part of the survival kit is an insect repellent. Don't leave home without one or pray to "whomever you pray to" -- not to get caught into a survival situation with mosquitos. To suggest a good insect repellent which comes in a small package, originally designed for the military, with a name you can trust is -- 3M's Ultrathon - its good. People may differ with me as this being a bare essential for survival, but if you get your blood sucked every now and then without respite, believe me you would rather want to kill yourself than survive.

Do lookup Don Rearic's review of the Penrith Tin which is more comprehensive. Nice to know some one out there holds a similar view.

Also one needs to mention that this kit was modeled over the survival book by John "Lofty" Wiseman which by itself is a great buy. Finally to restate this statement that you may read whenever you read reviews of survival kits -- "This may just save your life".

Available from
T.A.D. Gear Inc. - $29.95

Mfg's Site
Penrith Survival Equipment - £19.00

Google Earth for Linux

2006-06-14T01:22:00.000-07:00

I always held a view that Linux and Google were always hand in hand. So, imagine my disappointment when a Google Earth is released for Windows "by Google" before releasing a version for Linux. My concerns were alleviated when I learnt that Google Earth was formerly called Earth Viewer a product of Keyhole Inc. Keyhole was acquired by Google some years back. Phew and that explained why there was a google product which was released on Windows platform before being released on Linux. After learning this, the only question that was left unanswered (till now) was - When? When was Google Labs coming out with a Google Earth for Linux. Well ... its here. Google officially announced day before yesterday a version 4 of Google earth and this version is supposed to run on Linux and Mac OS X.

From
Gadgetizer

FireFox Mascot - Alexandra Ansgar

2006-06-12T03:28:00.000-07:00

Wolf Howl ... .

Update: June 16, 2006
This was a hoax.Common sense got pushed aside on this one. Bad bad gadgetizer :-). - Dev
Firefox Mascot Hoax - Alexandra Ansgar

From
Gadgetizer

Utili-Key 6-in-1 Tool

2006-06-10T10:59:00.000-07:00

Frankly speaking, I bought this tool because it looked cute, and was skeptical if it would actually come in use. I was wrong, this small little thing has come to rescue on many occasions. Especially the #1 Phillips Screwdriver and the (straight & serrated)knife. Actually, I think I found a 7th use for it - I used it as a wire cutter just yesterday to cut a magnet wire. As, it locks onto one's keychain, it is something you can always rely on being present whenever you need it where ever you are. The space requirement is equal to just another key on your keychain. With a little improvisation one can use it beyond its 6 functions at times. The original 6 functions are:

#1 Phillips Screwdriver
#1 Flat Screwdriver
One very small supposed to be screwdriver
Straight blade Knife
Serrated blade Knife
Bottle Opener

Avaliable from
IWOOT - £9.95
ThinkGeek.com
- $9.99

Mfg's Site:
Swiss+tech

☢ NitePalm GlowRing

2006-06-10T08:43:00.000-07:00

Personally I don't know why I find these so attractive -- their usefulness or their sheer geek value. These GlowRing Safety Markers contain actual radioactive ☢ material Tritium. Tritium has a half life of 12 years. As markers they serve their purpose extremely well. They will glow continously without batteries or an external power source for more than 10 years. Shown above are images at different lighting conditions. I have attached mine to my Nitepalm Field Lamp so that I can find it whenever there is a power outage. I have no complaints. Moreover the thought that these contain radioactive material makes them more valuable -- In the Geek sense I mean. Currently their sale in the US is illegal, so I got mine from the UK where they are bestsellers. Imogometrics gives it a 5 out of 5 Highly Recommended - A Unique Product !. I have a greenish yellow one, but one can choose from 3 colours - Yellow, Red and blue.
Avaliable from
FireBox - £9.95
IWOOT - £9.95
Global Military Supplies - £7.99

Mfg's Site:
nitepalm

Swedish FireSteel

2006-06-10T06:18:00.000-07:00

A magnesium alloy which is a must for any survival pack. These are typically called magnesium Firestarters. The particular firestarter that I am talking about is the one made by Light My Fire. They have 2 models - an army model and a cadet model. Any decent survival kit be it Military Survival Kit, Combat Survival Kit, Penrith Survival tin, etc has some variation of a magnesium based Firestarter (the first 2 kits are from BCB International). These look similar to the one shown below (from the Penrith Survival Tin).

I will use the term Firesteel exclusively for the one sold by Light My Fire. FireSteel is an alloy of Seven metals and produces sparks of 3000°C. The army model is supposed to last for more than 12,000 strikes which is enough to last a lifetime. Cotton burns like magic with firesteel (try cotton first time). My first attempts to start a flame using Paper shreds and even Mayadust resulted in my being disapointed in FireSteel as a fire starter. Also, I almost shaved of half of my Firesteel (shown in the pic top right) in my attempts. There was something wrong with the pack of mayadust that I got. I guess it was too old and the pine resin dried off. One day I wanted to try out a knife and shaved of some fine shreds of the MayaSticks and just thought to give FireSteel another try and voila I had a glorious fire. I tried this out a couple of times more just to be sure this was a reliable way to start a fire, if I was actually caught in a survival situation... yes, it worked everytime. I still can't light the MayaDust that I bought. Shown below is the faulty MayaDust I own. To clarify I recieved my MayaDust and MayaSticks from lightmyfire.se and not lightmyfireusa.com. Next to it are MayaSticks, these are good.

The MayaSticks burn for a long time and produce a really hot flame. And if you have the patience and the guts you can use a knife to produce small fresh shavings from it to start a fire using FireSteel (impressive isn't it?). Well for some smart Alec's out there who may ask why not just use a match or a lighter to start a flame... bloody damn right why not. Well the reasons why one has a magnesium alloy based FireStarter in almost all survival packs that I have seen so far are 1) Matches can get wet and are very limited in number 2) Lighter has limited fuel 3) Both matches and a lighter can easily stop working in extreme situations. FireSteel on the other hand is a lifetime supply of sparks and can produce sparks even when wet and well one has to really think of a way "to actually" make a rod of metal alloy malfunction. lastly but not the least it has a high geek value. See video of me lighting cotton tinder with FireSteel below.

Update 26th June 2006: See Another video of me starting a fire using Mayastick shavings.
Google Video
You-tube Video

Available from
ThinkGeek.com
- $15.99
IWOOT - £12.95
Mfg's Site
Light My Fire USA

TurboFlame Lighter GX7

2006-06-06T10:32:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of butane lighters out there. Wanted to have one of these Jet flame lighters. Well this one was pretty inexpensive and caught my attention.I bought mine directly form the TurboLighters site.

~~TURBOlighters.com~~ http://www.turboflame.co.uk/
Price: £5.95

Selaginella Lepidophylla (Dinosaur Plant)

2006-06-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

Also called the resurrection plant.This plant is capable of surviving 50 yrs without water. When there is no water it just dries up into a ball. Give it water and this small brown ball opens up into a green plant within 1 to 2 hrs.
Available From
DuneCraft
ThinkGeek