Literally... The Pirates of 'The Silicon Valley'

"The fun in doing something lies only when the problem is tough and challenging." Something which Bill Gates firmly believes in, and Microsoft, a breathtaking example of this. As is said, some individuals are unique, and so is the very case with him, I dont know if it just with me or with everyone else around, but the mere fact that someone of his stature is in the same hall as me, fills me with awe. May be it's because of the positive vibrations these people carry along.. whatever it is, Mr. Bill Gates has always inspired me, ever since I was a child, and more so now, that I can understand his contributions to the world better.
I remember watching this movie, "The Pirates of The Silicon Valley", an awesome flick for anyone intersted in knowing more about these now-global corporations like Apple and Microsoft.I never even dreamt that these multinational establishments eventually started from insignificant garages, with their owners running around like crazies :P !! Dude... They've done things that one cant even envisage. Only after watching the flick, did I realize their 'evolution'..the journeys of these computer generating machines themselves, but more importantly learnt one nice thing, These inordinate individuals like Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates(all of them were drop outs... surprisingly) never really had world class education like we guys do, but the mere inborn curiosity they had imbibed within themselves, ability of viewing things differently, the plethora of confidence and their love for whatever they did made them what they are right now, people who have "rewritten the history of human thought" and definitely made a "dent in the universe".

Microsoft Research India's 5th Anniversary..

With people from virtually all spheres of life, namely, academics, industry, politics and media, The Kamal Mahal in The Maurya Hotel, New Delhi, hardly had any stepping space left, as the symposium on the 5th anniversary of Microsft Research India kicked off at about 10:30 today morning. Starting with a welcome address by Dr. Kentaro Toyama, Assistant Managing Director, MSR India and a progress report by Dr. P Anandan, Managing Director, MSR India, The aggregation was significantly addressed by the Chairman of Microsoft Corporation himself, Mr. Bill Gates.
His existence served the reason for the huge number. He talked about the need for research in today's world and more so, in a country like India, where there were so many problems that could be efficiently solved using technolgy, to name a few, education to all, proper heath care, agricultural awareness and an incessant list of similar ones. With the kind of human capital residing in this part of the world and the maximum demographic divisions amongst all countries, achieving unimaginable goals is no more an a trepidation. Stressing on the need of more research in the field of Computers, he chuckled that if it werent for his Charity Foundation, he would himself have loved to sit in these labs and research.. Being amongst high IQ people, no tight schedule, loving what you do and above all, enjoying it all makes you feel as if you are back to your college days. He went on to name a few of his projects on which research is being carried out presently in the Microsoft Labs, namely , WikiBabble, an effort based on collecting the huge amount of data stored in varied laguages on the net. Using Artificial Intelligence, making the computer learn how to translate from one language to another... just like a human does that, Digital Green, which will help farmers educate about the various crops cultivation in different conditions, to actually be able to capture all the processes done in a video and use it for educational purposes thereafter.

One of the coolest projects he mentioned was about Photosynth, a software which allows you to connect all the different parts of a picture together to produce the orginal one... Saw one of it's applicaiotns in a demo, where using three of such technologies , one could actually create guided tours of different places, with the used beng free to play around with the views the way he wants.. found this one really COOL!!:) Mr. Gates also focused on their criteria of selecting individuals for internships and research by stressing on the ones who were paasionate about their ideas, and were ready to take the incentive... After all, 25 years back no one had ever visualized the stature Microsoft owns now... the way it has transformed from a creator of personal computers to research lab in more than 3 continents around the world. In the end, he had a message for India, highlighting the sheer need of research that can not only solve, virtually all the problems the country is facing right now, but also take it to a global frontier :).
Thereafter Mr. Kapil Sibbal, The Union Human Resource and Development Minister had a message for the assembly centered around being able to see change as a challenge and not as a threat...to absorb everything possible from the global forum, while still retaining aur values as Indians. Followed by a panel discussion on the topic of need of higher Reasearch in this field, and a Question Answer session, the higher dignitaries took leave and we had a fair sight of the demos and projects being handled at the MSR labs at present including Multilingual Systems, Polynomial time primality testing algorithms, matrix manipulations as in DNA, facial recognition and what not.. All in all, It was nice experience.. an enriching one.. one I'll definitely look forward to in the future as well.

"I'm not slacking off. My code's compiling."

Ahan! This is what Randall Munroe, The father of xkcd webcomics, believes increase your programming ans sword-fighting skills to 18.. :D.

This comic strip for the Computer Geek became an overnight hit with about a million fans all around the Globe substantiating the sheer genius creativity. Mix together a little Linux, a handful of romance, a spark of profanity, and a hint of genius, and you've got Randall Munroe and his webcomic, xkcd.

With about every one around scratching the gray matter off thier heads, wondering as to what do these letters stand for, Munroe reveals that they just emerged out of a combination of different letters he was working, already bored of the names that meant something. He'd always been doing this, in his notebook though, that one day he deicide to post them, on the net and lo! Here we have one of the biggest technical webcomics ever, popular enough to allow him to sustain his living. Munroe finds his inspiration in daily life. "I think it's really important to have a source for new ideas. Try using new programs, see what's going wrong with them these days. Try working on math stuff," he says.

A large number of the strips are mathematics or computer science jokes. These jokes often feature university-level subjects, although many are written in such a way that a clear understanding of the subject is not required to get the punch line. Romance is another subject often visited in the comic, with many strips not intended to be humorous. There are also many strips opening with "My Hobby:" and usually depicting the nondescript narrator character describing some type of humorous or quirky behavior often involving language games. All the varied sectors just display the genius' ability to extract stuff out of what is happening around and portray it with the exact amout of humour. On several occasions, fans have even been motivated by Munroe's comics to carry out, in real life, the subject of a particular drawing or sketch. Whether it be a 'Wikipedian Protester' or sneaking Chess boards onto roller coasters, each of Munroe's creations has a tint of brilliance. Given below is something I loved at the xkcd website,

"Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."

Cheers!!