Searching me!

It is said that if you can not find it by Google, it does not exist.
I have been online since 2001, I think.
So, I have my net existence for at least six years.
Google lists the pages with its own laws and if some one is very famous with the same name, people tend to click on that link more often, it means you will be overshadowed.
Nabin K Bhattarai is a famous singer and I always see his name if I search with "Nabin " as the key.
Some of the posts on other blogs by me are also found occasionally by the search engines.
Basically I can find my blog, the remnants of my Germany trip, my geocities page, my 360 (old) , my Albany page. , my pdf file of the Resume and Nepal Physical Society website and the Nepal Physical Society Google group with my name.

I can find myself on google and yahoo by searching my name...
with or without the quotations.
I, therefore, exist!

Do you find yourself on google search?

It is always nice to find someone on the web who you know and if it is yourself, it is really amusing, isn't it?

Read more...

Waiting is really hard!

I am just like a hunter in a big jungle.
I have been waiting if any friend would come online. Today, I  want to talk with friends. I have been awake for a while. I am thinking "Heck!, the friends are online only when I have to rush to class and/or when I am middle of doing something"
Meanwhile I am reviewing all the emails of past few days sent to me, some them were not replied because there was nothing to write! The question was " What to write in Email?" I just wrote "I am fine here, how are you? and also added some general conversation according to the subject line."
I have been waiting to any friend that would come online I want to hunt them. I want to ask how is Nepal and want to ask how are the other friends doing, are they preparing for the GRE? how are they enjoying the weekends? Why there are too many unfortunate killings going on in Nepal ... I can see one or two online on my messenger, but they are idle. They are either sleeping on the key board or they have left the computer without signing out. I have "buzzed" them they will respond later, when they come back or get awake " ... sorry I was ..."
I  am waiting and becoming more and more impatient, meanwhile five spams have been counted on my Email.

I have finished reading the news and weekly magazines (I read it pretty fast).
The waiting time is relative, looks like an hour for a minute and is really terrible.
 
I can not wait anymore, I am going back to work.
Friend, I trust that you came online today.
Just think that we both were present online, but the time was not synchronized.
Some day I will schedule it!
See You soon!

Read more...

Last Week day of the month!

I am just coming to realize it that how exciting it can be when it is the last day of the month!
This morning, I was in the bank. The staffs were more than glad to wish a happy week-end and the happy last week day!
I was arranging the mail with Bikash and observed that the staff in the post office (Larry)  seemed more excited about it. He was wishing the same to everyone.
This is the evening here, and I can see the Department is empty!
There were no students at the Graduate Student Organization office to do photocopies and prints. Everyone is so so happy!
Or is it me that I am just observing these things in peculiar way?
I have opted not to go to the Apple picking and have decided to volunteer in the Breast Cancer Run in Albany.
The other week has not started yet but I can see the consequences: the homeworks and One RGSO meeting.
Actually, I came to understand why there are two days long week-ends in USA: by observations.
For me, at least, holidays never count.
They are spent doing homeworks and catching up what the whole week has been up to!
I will enjoy it.
Cheers!

Read more...

Face of the Fraud!

I have written about the Bayesian Spam filtering and how does it work in previous post.
This Email was marked as spam (correctly) and is a fraud email sent to me to "update" the information.
I have been receiving such emails. The best solution is not to respond to such emails and not to click anywhere in the email.
******************************************************************

Account Notification   Spam

								Reply   Reply to all Forward  Print  Add Bank to Contacts list  Delete this message Report not phishing  Show original  Message text garbled?
		from		Bank of America <accounts-stuff@bankofamerica.com>		hide details	2:08 pm (37 minutes ago)
	date			Sep 27, 2007 2:08 PM
	subject			Account Notification

Warning:  This message may not be from whom it claims to be. Beware of following any links in it or of providing the sender with any personal information.   Learn more

Dear Bank of America member, We understand how important information security and privacy are for you. We regret to inform you that we have some problems with our database, some parts from our database were deleted and unfortunately your information about your account was lost. Please update the  section regarding your account information for added protection. To update your account  section please follow this steps: Sign in your account. Complete correct the questions and answers fields. To update Click Here Additional details are outlined in the Electronic Access Agreement .

Read more...

Money Money Everywhere!

The list of billionares is out!
The top 25 peoples are:

Rank	Name	Citizenship	Age	Net Worth ($bil)	Residence
1	William Gates III	United States	51	56.0	United States
2	Warren Buffett	United States	76	52.0	United States
3	Carlos Slim Helu	Mexico	67	49.0	Mexico
4	Ingvar Kamprad & family	Sweden	80	33.0	Switzerland
5	Lakshmi Mittal	India	56	32.0	United Kingdom
6	Sheldon Adelson	United States	73	26.5	United States
7	Bernard Arnault	France	58	26.0	France
8	Amancio Ortega	Spain	71	24.0	Spain
9	Li Ka-shing	Hong Kong	78	23.0	Hong Kong
10	David Thomson & family	Canada	49	22.0	Canada
11	Lawrence Ellison	United States	62	21.5	United States
12	Liliane Bettencourt	France	84	20.7	France
13	Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud	Saudi Arabia	50	20.3	Saudi Arabia
14	Mukesh Ambani	India	49	20.1	India
15	Karl Albrecht	Germany	87	20.0	Germany
16	Roman Abramovich	Russia	40	18.7	United Kingdom
17	Stefan Persson	Sweden	59	18.4	Sweden
18	Anil Ambani	India	47	18.2	India
19	Paul Allen	United States	54	18.0	United States
20	Theo Albrecht	Germany	84	17.5	Germany
21	Azim Premji	India	61	17.1	India
22	Lee Shau Kee	Hong Kong	79	17.0	Hong Kong
23	Jim Walton	United States	59	16.8	United States
24	Christy Walton & family	United States	52	16.7	United States
24	S Robson Walton	United States	63	16.7	United States

Source: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2007/10/07billionaires_The-Worlds-Billionaires_Rank.html

Read more...

20/20 is the future of the Cricket.

As I strongly believe in the time evolution of taste, I think it was a wise decision to organize the 20/20 cricket. The most important factor is the time.
As there are always bad and good associated with everything, the bad part is that Bowlers are doomed! and the batmans are no longer defensive. Both of them will "just swing it"!
Test cricket was the one who gave enough time to learn and to do some experiments without fears of getting out of water before one dies. One day cricket had tried to power up the boring middle wickets but I think 20/20 is the best. Just get it. I am pretty sure that we are not going for some day in which we just flip the coin and announce the winner because no body had time to play! If it is a head, A team wins and if it is a tail B team wins. No no, If we take the new game as a new taste and if it tastes better, it is the future. So far, I liked it!
I liked the review:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7011937.stm

Read more...

Prashant Tamang is the Indian Idol 2007!

• There are many people who are struggling aboard.
• Prashant Tamang wins the title of Indian Idol 2007.
• Nepali celebrate!

How are these facts correlated? How come Prashant got that much response?  
For Indian people, he was simply an Indian. Simple, fair and honest constable. Serving their nation.
For people in home, he was some one who was at "war" and the people back in home could simply support him by voting. They supported to full extent.
For people aboard, he was one of them but with some chance to identify the Nepali Dhaka topi . An icon. Support is only what they can do, they did it.
They sent money back to home to vote.
There are many Nepali aboard, searching for some kinda identity and they may have thought that he is the best icon who can depict the struggle.
That is not only reason which justifies it. We the Nepali people still have some emotional feelings for Darzelling and sikkim. Many people have served in India for their living sometimes exchanged their duties and responsibilities with life. And many people take such struggle as the war of dignity. I think that's why he got that much support. 
Nationality never matters!
In Sajhadotcom forum I could see too many threads which simply supported him and ultimately some of them poured hate words to India. I don't know why some people take as granted that "Loving Nepal is well demonstated by hating India". Well, it is not the case. If you hate your neighbours you live in Jungle!. There may have been some bitings and since relative biting from south is more than that from north, people may have generalized it to that level of hate. The solution is not hate.
What impressed me was the level of friendship the two contestants have shown in the fair competition. Amit and Prashant had been together since the beginning till its very end.

Congrats to Sony Intertainment for being able to get 7 karod people to vote!

Read more...

2007 ICC World Twenty20

We have no time to waste!
The evolution of Cricket has been amazing since its modern evolution.
From Test Cricket to One day International to twenty20!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty20_World_Championship
http://worldtwenty20.yahoo.com/abouttwenty20/playing-conditions.html
http://worldtwenty20.yahoo.com/abouttwenty20/icc_world_twenty20_playing_conditions_final.pdf


May the best team win!

Read more...

The Best Blogs

Thank You for visiting my blog (ajabgajab.blogspot.com )!
I have been trying to write regularly, a little bit. Preferably after the dinner, before going to bed. I have posted a message in my yahoo360 "blog" on how I got inspired and hence not doing copy and paste anymore. However, copy and paste had been some kinda effective way to start for me too. ( 360.yahoo.com/nabinkm).
Sometime I do think that I have been posting to this blog regularlly, and hence really producing a lot of garbage.
Some people prefer to write with certain frequency which is once or twice a week. I am trying to write daily, and hence post it daily but sometimes I miss. I miss not only because I go blank
but also because after 12AM it is counted as the next day. I had been thinking that when I would write regularly, I could get some concrete structure in writing style. No improvements so far. Because, I do start typing some thing and instead of completing it, end up (and hence posting) with the another.

Some of the incomplete entries for future are about the Germany experiences , the big fish, "howto"s, logics and life in albany.
Some of my friends are pretty tired of hearing about my blog. Some have appreciated the "useful" links about the "how to"s about the application processes and my experiences.
Anyways, I believe that there are many stuffs to be posted.
And by the way, I was wondering what could be the best blog, I found these:
http://2006.weblogawards.org/2006/12/best_blog.php
http://2006.weblogawards.org/2005/
http://2006.weblogawards.org/2004/
http://bestblog.wordpress.com/
Enjoy!

Blog: ajabgajab.blogspot.com

Read more...

Political Dynamics

When we get more than two bodies; we, the Physicists, think that it is hard problem to treat.
What would we think of political situations of Nepal?
It is a real many body interaction. With every kind of interaction whose laws we don't know. There are Dirac's delta functions, nonlinear  effects and too many discontinuities in the situations.
The feelings of people are very abstract and they can not be easily depicted as we could in the case of Physics. The laws of Physics are very clear : at least there are no place for sentiments and queers of dogmas. In the real time picture of Nepal, the everyday life has been hampered by the politics. I am not in the position to blame everything to "bad" politics. If the politics is just driven by some kind of sentiments, its hard to predict its trajectories. The results become unpredictable with the large error bars. The worse case scenario is the fact that the killing and all sorts of criminal activities have gotten a new evolutionary identity: Politics!
I think Nepal is going to be a good case study example for students of politics around the world. And, I believe that in many years to come, its political situation will give many nail biting experiences to historians too.

God Bless Nepal !!!

Read more...

Albany temperature

Month	Avg. High	Avg. Low	Avg. Precip.	Rec. High	Rec. Low
January	-0.6° C	-10.6° C	6.88 cm	18.0° (01/15/1995)	-33.0° C (01/19/1971)
February	1.1° C	-8.9° C	5.77 cm	20.0° (02/22/1997)	-30.0° C (02/15/1943)
March	13.9° C	2.2° C	8.26 cm	30.0° (03/30/1986)	-29.0° C (03/06/1948)
April	21.1° C	8.3° C	9.32 cm	34.0° (04/20/1941)	-12.0° C (04/01/1965)
May	25.6° C	12.8° C	9.50 cm	34.0° (05/25/1981)	-3.0° C (05/08/1968)
June	27.8° C	15.6° C	8.89 cm	37.0° (06/26/1952)	-3.0° C (06/03/1938)
July	26.7° C	14.4° C	9.35 cm	38.0° (07/18/1953)	4.0° C (07/02/1978)
August	21.7° C	10.0° C	8.41 cm	37.0° (08/05/1955)	1.0° C (08/29/1982)
September	15.6° C	3.9° C	8.20 cm	38.0° (09/03/1953)	-4.0° C (09/28/1947)
October	8.9° C	-0.6° C	8.41 cm	33.0° (10/05/1941)	-9.0° C (10/24/1969)
November	2.2° C	-6.7° C	7.01 cm	28.0° (11/02/1950)	-24.0° C (11/26/1938)
December	7.2° C	-3.9° C	8.05 cm	22.0° (12/29/1984)	-30.0° C (12/25/1969)

Source: http://weather.yahoo.com/climo/USNY0011_c.html

Read more...

Non-Spams are also irritating.

I was going through mails and I found that a Google group (which I am subscribed to, and can not afford to unsubscribe) has been bugging me by sending me too many emails. Supplied with too many, means its value decreases. (My brother had told me about it when he returned from the Economics class.) Bombed with too many emails, I finally decided to delete the mails.
By the way, I found that I used to do the same kind of emailing when I first came to USA. I wanted to share my feelings by sending many emails, but later I found that some of those had been deleted without having read once. Because, some of the guys asked me to "resend" the "information" which seemed to be interesting to them after few months. Clear indication of the fact that my mail had been ignored.
May be, that's one of the reason why I am writing in this blog. You are not spamming someone's mail box. And it is readable by everyone whoever visits it.  
Once again, welcome to my blog!

By the way, I am posting too many over here too!
OH NO, I can't get rid of myself!

Read more...

My Dollars!

It had been so long since I stopped converting the dollar to Nepali Currency.
I wanted to view it as it is without doing the mathematics.
And I used to view it "as it is", for example the cost of Milk in Price Chopper has been updated to be 4.04$ per gallon from 3.69$per gallon. (I was wondering about it and found a nice article: http://www.comefarmwithus.com/MilkMoney.htm)
The exchange rate for dollar has been going down. It is particularly disgusting for me because I had exchanged the Dollars at the rate of 1 for 74 while coming to USA. And the worse case: it is now 1 for 65!
I am already in loss!
A rough idea of what the exchange rate has been is shown in the graph

http://www.x-rates.com/d/NPR/USD/graph120.png
where as for Euro:
http://www.x-rates.com/d/NPR/EUR/graph120.png
One more from BBC:


The graphs are little offset, the actual rate can be seen in:
http://www.nrb.org.np/exchangenew.php

Read more...

Older Database of NPS members!!!

I was really excited to learn that Dr. Jagat Shakya had collected informations about the Physicists aboard (JJN sir had told me about it when I was a student of B.Sc. in Tri-chandra) . It can still be found online. I have collected some pages of it and put it as a zip file into the group. It can be downloaded from:
http://nps_nepal.googlegroups.com/web/NPS2.zip?gda=m0GjEjkAAAAabj23DdhYGwJZEJlw0X58V2dZpC6bUiEmIZcefkePLGG1qiJ7UbTIup-M2XPURDTqH7tPg62WFPSteU7casxa

Originally located at:
http://www.jagat.com.np/NPS.html
It needs to be updated, and I think Google group will be the best place to update the database.

Read more...

Yahoo Photo is Closing, Use Picasa for new photo uploads :)

I had heard that the yahoo photo is closing by Sept. 20th 2007.
After that they will delete it.
It will be a good idea to move them to elsewhere, like flickr or ...
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/05/03/breaking-yahoo-to-announce-closure-of-yahoo-photos-tomorrow/

http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/06/14/yahoo-photos-begins-closing-down/

http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/photos/photos2/closing/closing-01.html

PS:
I had made a page with this info for my other (less experienced) friends recommending picasa.
http://www.albany.edu/~nm834896/picasa.htm

Read more...

Memory helps us to remember :)

Basanta is a good writer and I enjoyed reading his comments on my blog. I think it was more than a comment. It was worth a separate heading on my blog. As a guest. Thanks!

While I was in Central Department of Physics as a master's students I had to remember very long formulas and tricks on tensor analysis and the components of 4by4 matrices. I had to remember those to save time and efforts it would take if I were to derrive it on the spot. Around that time we used to have debates like what is learning? Is it a process of remembering the stuffs so that you become too much familiar with it that you think you have learnt it? But anyway, it is associated with memory. I was really bad at remembering such things so I had designed some tricks on how to remember the mathematical components. I think every one has his/her own style of remembering things. For example to remember the telephone number of friends, I used the trick of some artistic shapes on the key pad of the phone. And it worked well. Though I was not the "walking telephone diary" like some of my friends.

Recently I had heard about a man who could remember many (I don't remember how many) digits of pi. He told that he remembered it as some beautiful picture.

Some links:

http://members.chello.nl/r.kuijt/en_pi_onthouden.htm

http://malaysia.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070911083118AAjIju1

http://hwebbjr.typepad.com/openloops/2006/06/how_to_remember.html

http://www.channel4.com/entertainment/tv/microsites/M/mindcontrol/remember/memory.html

There are a lot to remember!

I do clear my cache everytime I exit firefox. So ,at least, my computer has nothing to remember.

:)

Read more...

Events! we do remember ...

What was I doing when I heard the 9/11 news?

I can remember it!
I was sitting on a chair in the tea-shop of my bhinaju. And I do remember the couple who delivered me the news. I can also remember his body language and everything he said about the live telecast from CNN.

This case is similar with another incident
I can also remember the place, and time and everything around me when I heard about the killings of the Late king Birendra and the massacre that occurred in Nepal.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/south_asia/2001/nepal_in_crisis/

Do I remember everything for every moment?
No!
Then I will have the storage problem, I can not install a new hard drive on my brain.

One of my friend had told me that the events of such time are stored deeply in the brain and it depends on how much we can recover it. I used to discuss with my friends about remembering the childhood activities when I was M.Sc. second year student at nepal. We used to discuss whether the brain was recycling the memory. Because we had few friends who were claiming the same thing was going on with them too.
By the way, how is the memory stored in the brain?

Is it that the brain becomes extremely awake/active on such events?
What if we could activate our brain to that level forever?
At least without going crazy!

Read more...

Nepal in wikipedia

I don't know how it popped out!
I was excited to see the wikipedia in Nepal Bhasa:
http://new.wikipedia.org/wiki/ मू_पौ
The main contributor:
http://new.wikipedia.org/wiki/छ्येलेमि:Eukesh

And was equally excited by the contents
http://ne.wikipedia.org/wiki/ नेपाल
http://ne.wikipedia.org/wiki/मुख्य_पृष्ठ
http://ne.wikipedia.org/wiki/हालैका_घटनाहरु
http://ne.wikipedia.org/wiki/आयोजना:सामाजिक_पोर्टल

It takes a great effort to launch such a huge project. Thanks to all involved for their time and effort !
No doubt, there must be a universal language, but it should not be taken wrong if some people try to save their culture and language. The problem however is how many language can you support?
I know Nepali (national language) Newari (Nepal Bhasa; mother tongue) , English, Hindi, Urdu, Bhojpuri, Maithili and was a very good student of Sanskrit when it was compulsory in school at our time. I had no time to learn Tamang and Gurung language, otherwise I could have listed it too!
So, I was exposed to at least ten languages.
Imagine, if there would be everlasting peace, how we could earn tourists into our country with such a huge social structure and variety ..................................
Language problem/solution in big picture:
Internet has been under criticism as much of the stuff in it is/was in English.
In near future, some people believe that there will be more Chinese stuffs on the net because of its huge people rushing to the web in China. That's why sometimes few Chinese sites are listed in the top ten list in delicious.
Many clever people have started to learn Chinese too!
Anyways, we should be glad that we are aware of our own existence.

Read more...

It's the time of web evolution!

Its the time of Wiki and online dictionary.
It is the time of Open source programs, Firefox, You tube, and online editors, not to mention the Orkut community, Face book, social bookmarks, Usenet groups, blogs, online photo editors and publishers, web emails, and online editors for office programs. Moreover Map, GPS turn by turn direction will be emerging; even one day the traffic system will be automated. Just sit and relax and watch the vehicles driving it self to your destination.
Everything with new innovation quickly becomes a part of daily life.
I learned (from unknown source, may be youtube ?) that only three percent of the world's population has access to high speed internet. I am glad that I am one of them. I was addicted to internet while I was in Nepal.
Prof. DRM once said that in late 50s it was a great asset to have knowledge of English in Nepal because that provided a new opportunity and a plus point, now it is same about the computer. I think Nepal has moved far beyond that point, really far.
I would read these and become more confused:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2
http://www.copywritingexperts.co.uk/web-20
There are already too much stuffs to be done!
The sensors to smell are yet to be installed.
(WOW whatta new idea!)
and it is possible with the technological advancement of nanosciences and bio-mimics. And the people have already started talking about web 3.0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3.0
Reed Hastings, founder and CEO of Netflix, stated a simpler formula for defining the phases of the Web:
" Web 1.0 was dial-up, 50K average bandwidth, Web 2.0 is an average 1 megabit of bandwidth and Web 3.0 will be 10 megabits of bandwidth all the time, which will be the full video Web, and that will feel like Web 3.0."
This is Amazing!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
I should not miss this:
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
Bottom line:
For the betterment of humanity!

Read more...

Britney Spears coming back (?)

Britney Spears coming back to MTV Awards
LAS VEGAS (AP) — With skin, snakes and smooches in her past MTV repertoire, there's no telling what's in store Sunday when Britney Spears opens this year's Video Music Awards.
The 25-year-old tabloid magnet will perform "Gimme More," the first single from her upcoming album, MTV announced Thursday.
Spears is a VMAs veteran: She covered the Rolling Stones' "Satisfaction" in 2000, stripping down to a nude-colored bikini top and matching pants; a year later, she performed "I'm A Slave 4 U" with a 7-foot albino python around her neck. In 2003, she and Madonna had the watercooler moment of the year with an open-mouth kiss — in the opening act.
Sunday's show in Las Vegas will mark Spears' latest — and biggest — step toward a career comeback after a period of public misbehavior, short-lived marriages, ultra-short hair-don'ts and other misadventures.
Her long-awaited new album is due for release Nov. 13 on Jive Records.
Source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070907/ap_en_mu/people_britney_spears_4

This news is about how everyone will be watching her comeback.
Another news says:
Spears, who for five years was the top-earning singer in the world until she was overtaken by Madonna, has made headlines for bizarre and erratic behavior ever since her split with Federline.

I don't know my fan status (I used to be one) for her. But I would like to wish her all the best! Apart from her behaviors she has been tortured by her conditions. At least, if she tries, she must be given a chance. A chance to survive.
www.britneyspears.com
worldofbritney.hollywood.com
And not to miss this one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Britney_Spears

Read more...

Guest Entry

First I want to thank Nabin for asking me to post in his blog as a guest. I have to admit, when Nabin first asked me to post I had no idea what to write about, but a few days ago I passed the comprehensives and I had my subject. The comprehensive tests here at Albany are a series of tests (6 in total) that test graduate students understanding of Quantum Mechanics, Classical Mechanics, Statistical Mechanics, and other assorted physical subjects. The tests are difficult and require a lot of preparation. Since they are given only twice a year, if you fail to pass the tests, you have to wait half a year to take them again. In all a PhD. Student is expected to pass 5 out of 6 tests. While studying for these tests, I spent as much time memorizing mathematical formulas and integration tricks as I did the physics behind the problems.

I understand the point of the comprehensives, so I don’t begrudge the tests, I just don’t like that they seem to be more about memorizing solutions of integrals than they are about the Physics involved. Don’t get me wrong, that’s not always the case, some questions are more physical than others, but some were just “insert into formula” and solve. Some feel that physicists should be able to solve these integrals on sight, but I say why? Why should I memorize the solutions to all of these integrals when in the real world I can look them up in seconds on the internet?

In the 1970’s, the hand held calculator became mainstream and changed the way everyone did math. Before the calculator, math required slide rules and log tables. With the calculator you could solve a problem that used to take minutes in seconds. Still, in the 70s and the early 80s students were still taught to use slide rules and log tables because of some misguided belief that if the student used the older technology to solve the problem, this made them a better student. Eventually slide rules were phased out as a new generation of teachers that had grown up with the calculator became teachers and let the relics of the past go.

So it should be now. I can find you the solution to most integrals in seconds by searching google for “integral tables”. I can find the derivative of secant or tangent, or the expansion of sine or the exponential function with ease. Why should I fail a test of my physics acuity because I can’t remember the second term of a binomial expansion during the stress of an exam. I know some might take this as just another graduate student blowing off steam, but I think there is something more fundamental going on here. The internet has put all kinds of information at our fingertips. Memorizing useful formulas is quaint now, completely unnecessary for real world problems. I’m not saying we shouldn’t work through problems, on the contrary, I think that’s where physical intuition is born, but I think memorizing formulas is unnecessary and emphasizes the wrong things.

Well, that’s a problem for the next guy (or girl) now. I’ve passed my comprehensives and I’m free to use all the resources at my disposal to get things done. A much more efficient proposition.

**************************************************
Roger Pink is {my friend :) } a Ph.D. student at the Department of Physics, University at Albany, State University of New York.
He is associated with the cr4 and has been regular blogger there since early 2005: http://cr4.globalspec.com/blog/browse/6/Roger-s-Equations
Here is what he writes about himself on http://stockpickr.com/user/Roger-Pink/
"I live and work in Albany, N.Y. I work for a vertical search engine / company directory / forum for the engineering community called GlobalSpec. I'm also working towards my Ph.D. in Physics form the University at Albany."

Read more...

Scientific Publications

Each and every discovery has added a boom in the development of science and technology. The discoveries give acceleration to whatever going around in the world. Some New ideas change the way humans live.
Internet has been one of the modern tools used by human beings.
I agree with the fact that the contents in the internet reflect  the present-day society. The good and the evil.
But there are many who use internet as a medium to explore (help to explore) and have been working for good or bad.
The question is what next after internet?
I found the following article inspiring and motivating. Specially for the fact that we are still clinging to some convention of peer reviewed articles.
 "Publication and the Internet: Where Next?", published as the Back Page essay in the American Physical Society News, April, 2005.
(http://www.slac.stanford.edu/~mpeskin/APS-pubs.pdf)
"Creation works ceaselessly through man. But man does not create, he discovers. Those who seek out the laws of Nature as support for new work collaborate with the Creator."
-- Antoni Gaudi

Read more...

News and Nepal

Finally, the summer is over.
The classes begin from tomorrow.
I will be back to routine!
News I have been going through:
1.I was shocked by the news of Blasts in Kathmandu killing innocent people and children and injuring many. I have no words to express the sorrow. I feel pity to myself.
I have been updating myself about the news through the blog-news site: mysansar.com. The informal news style gives me more and in depth news.
http://www.mysansar.com/?p=1875
http://www.mysansar.com/?p=1862
2. I was also reading the "Nepal" weekly through the ekantipur.com .
The cultural evolution can be seen everywhere on it. The news about the couples kissing everywhere, ladies working on the fields on equal efficiency and what not! and the news of wadi ladies "petikot parba! ( http://www.nepalihimal.com/2064/bhadra-16-31/muhurt.html)"
The news are mainly concentrated over the politics. However, other serious issues of nation has also started to show its presence. And (let me not criticize but) the leadership efficiency????
The leadership is overwhelmed(stunned) by the emerging problems from every corners.
Dear Nepal, get well soon!

Read more...

Excuse me! Your Phone ...

Suppose you are in the middle of having meal.The meal is so good after pretty long time, prepared in your kitchen.
Your phone rings. If you look in to the caller ID, it may be one  of your good friend, a respected people or may be some unknown number.
The phone ringing is not the problem. The problem is what the consequence may be. If the person is sensitive enough to feel that s/he may infer that you are ignoring her/him. Its going to be a huge problem. Just pick it up. Meal can be re-heated or even re-cooked!
;)
If the phone is from a talkative person who talks too much round and round in circle. Meal is important. Enjoy your meal. But the question is how many times can you miss the phone? Eventually s/he may become sensitive and the relation will be cold. Pick it up before the missed call  exceeds the critical limit. You can just tell her/him that you were in the middle of something and will call her/him back. and never call back!
If the phone is from a respected person: a professor or a senior or very very close friend then you gotta pick it up.
If it is from unknown number, it depends on your mood. Specially in this time of the year many friends from Nepal are coming to US. So, its going to be an interesting conversation.
I had seen in Nepal that many people are just amazing, they make their mobile phone to ring on the spot.For example in the seminar, conference and/or even in library.
I was able to witness a great man to receive his mobile in the middle of his talk in a formal program!
However,
sometimes you get to miss it, because you were busy talking to another person, to apologize  afterwards.
But what if you were in the kitchen and you are used to charging the cell phone in your room?
For me,
I have been missing so much calls in this duration. The worse is that they keep calling to record the number of miss calls to quarter dozen and some friends just don't leave the number on voice message. They just leave a buzz.
I think missing a call has developed as a culture. I am enjoying it. and by the way, its not a big issue!

Read more...