Hello From Orlando!

A couple of kool astronauts we met at NASA. Do you recognize them?
On friday we went to Kennedy NASA Center. You should see what Alvaro bought. We will have to take a picture of them :-)


The second day was spent at the Epcot center at Disney World. It was really nice and we got a tonne of really cool pics. I will post them later. For now here is a pic of me being eaten by the shark of Nemo - fortunately I was rescued by this handsome Moroccan guy you see below. *sigh* we rode off on his camel into the sunset.
I'll post more pics later. I will return to normal life tomorrow evening. 

Close-up pics of Animals in the Womb

The first remarkable close-up pictures of animals in the womb
"An unborn elephant, tiny but perfect in every way. A dolphin swimming in the womb, just as it will have to swim in the ocean the moment it is born. An unborn dog panting. Each one amazing and now, thanks to these remarkable pictures, they can be seen for the first time."
These are really amazing photos!
read more | digg story

Sculptures by the Sea

The lovely Christine visited the Sculptures by the Sea in Sydney on the weekend and she sent me some of the photos. The sculptures are placed along the coastline between Tamarama and Bondi Beaches in Sydney. The Photos are REALLY cool!! I especially like photo 13. Actually I like all of them but 13 is a bit sassy! :-P
I must say Chris is becoming a pretty good photographer! Some of the framings of the photos etc. Lovely!

Updates on OJ & Borat

Just some news that I was reading:
- Borat has been "recommended not to be screened=censored" in Russia. This is a very interesting article about how the reason cited is xenophobia and yet the significant xenophobia that already exists in Russia.
"In recent weeks the Russian government, from the president down, has issued populist calls playing specifically to xenophobic sentiments. Officials commonly demanded the protection of "the indigenous population of Russia" from "non-locals". There is little doubt that this language ostensibly endorses hostility toward people with darker skin and non-Slavic features, regardless of whether they are Russian nationals from the Caucasus or migrant workers from the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, China, Afghanistan, or elsewhere. The head of the Russian Migration Service said point blank that "settlements such as China towns" are "unacceptable" in Russia. Such language encourages precisely those ugly, xenophobic sentiments that the ban of "Borat" is intended to contain."

- seems the OJ interview/book have been canceled - Rupert Murdoch issued an apology b/c he hadn't thought such things would cause offense. Crikey!

- finally some gossip. You might know Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes got hitched last weekend. According to this article, the wedding was nothing more than a Scientology stunt. The best man was the head of scientology in US, he went with Cruise/Holmes on their honeymoon and at each table a scientology adviser sat to explain the ceremony. It is such a joke. I don't, really REALLY don't understand how scientology can even be considered a faith... without laughing... *sigh*

After the Revolution

alright this is a slight misnomer, revolution refering to the previous name of the wii. This is not anythign to do with the Wii either, rather PS3. Here is a NY times article comparing the PS3 and Xbox. Basically they say:
"Overall, Sony seems to have put a lot of effort into cramming as much silicon horsepower under the hood as possible but to have forgotten that all the transistors in the world can’t make someone smile. And so it is a bit of a shock to realize that on the video game front Microsoft and Sony are moving in exactly the opposite directions one might expect given their roots. Microsoft, the prototypical PC company, has made the Xbox 360 into a powerful but intuitive, welcoming, people-friendly system. Sony’s PlayStation 3, on the other hand, often feels like a brawny but somewhat recalcitrant specialized computer. (Sony is even telling users to wait for future software patches to fix some of the PS3’s deficiencies.) The thing is, if people want to use a computer, they’ll use a computer."

Alvaro pay attention!! although surprising is that they do not mention the Wii at all. Speaking of which here is the latest hilarious comic from xkcd:

Quantum things I learned today!

ok one last post for today. I went to a very interesting talk by the new prof in our department Edo Waks. Here are some of the things I learned:
(btw I haven't checked if what i am saying here is right or not! Hopefully it's correct!!)

- a potential problem with quantum crypto is that instead of one photon being used to carry each information bit, multiple photons can be excited. Specifically, since the number of photons that are excited is a probabilistic process that follows a Poisson RV, it is highly likely that more than one photon gets excited. This leaves the problem that (can potentially break the original BB84 quantum key distribution protocol) that an eavesdropper can extract only one of the photons to get the info and leave the other photon to carry the same info to the receiver.
- So it is important to create single photon emitters. This is the work that Waks et al did based on quantum dots.
- The other problem that he looked at was that an optical communication channel with ideal emitters still has a decay factor which makes it need repeaters per 100km or so. In quantum world this problem also exists however repeaters cannot be used because of the no-cloning theory in Quantum physics. What they do is that instead they use entanglement and they induce the entanglements to have shared state by remote - essentially you have two particles, and you entangle them via some coherent source (so they do not have to be physically close). Then by manipulating one particle, the other particle is induces into similar state - this is the idea of why they can have entanglement teleportation as well as repeater technology.

one other really interesting thing was this idea of remote entanglement is where the EPR paradox came from.
From Wiki: "Although originally devised as a thought experiment that would demonstrate the incompleteness of quantum mechanics, actual experimental results refute the principle of locality, invalidating the EPR trio's original purpose. The "spooky action at a distance" that so disturbed the authors of EPR consistently occurs in numerous and widely replicated experiments. Einstein never really accepted quantum mechanics as a "real" and complete theory, struggling to the end of his life for an interpretation that could comply with his Relativity without implying "God playing dice", as he condensed his dissatisfaction with QM's intrinsic randomness and (still to be resolved) counter-intuitivity."

[BTW, here is an interesting introduction to Quantum Computing which was sent to me today]

Console cost comparison

Sony is taking a considerable loss on each PlayStation 3 sold. Costs for the 20GB model exceed the suggested retail price of $499 by a total of $306.85, Analysis estimates for the 60GB version, costs exceed the $599 price by $241.35. In contrast, the HDD-equipped Xbox 360 has a manufacturing and materials total of $323.30 while you're paying $399.

[G: interesting! I wonder what Nintendo's cost/price is. I think they are making a profit too right? Also interesting that w/o blue-ray, cost of PS3 would have dropped so much. Is this just a gimmick by Sony to win the HDDVD vs blue-ray war?]

read more | digg story

[G: oh btw, here is another interesting story on how another advantage of the Wii is that the cost of game development is half as much as for xbox and ps3. ** Can someone tell me how or why?]

UPDATE.
he he, I am stuck once again in the console world!
First of all, it is interesting that you don't hear about people waiting in line to buy the Wii - Is it a good approach for Nintendo to make sure it ships out enough consoles to meet the demand and so not get lines of people waiting and so not get the media coverage? Ofcourse, in the long run, the people who wanted and didn't get a PS3 will turn to what they can get: Wii.

here's a \. story about why game industry professionals prefer to buy a Wii rather than a PS3. (Alvaro, you should read this!!! :-P )

I liked this guy's comments: "On the same note, the 360 and PS3 are both pretty much a graphics upgrade. Which means two things, first that (if you have a HDTV, which I don't) it'll look prettier. Second, there is allot more effort, and time, and money, going into making a game for them. If people thought there was too much of a problem with sequels instead of innovation last generation, it'll be worse today: for the 360 and PS3
With the Wii, though, Nintendo is pretty much forcing developers to innovate at least a little, in order to properly use the controller. If I want a graphics update, I'll get a new card for my PC. I go to a council for a distinctly different experience then a PC, usually based on the controller, since that is the real difference. And now, the Wii makes the controller even *more* different then the PC, which to me is an even greater reason to play. That and it doesn't cost *that* much money."

LAPD and YouTube

On tuesday night the LAPD tasered a student in a library of UCLA 5 times, because he didnt have an ID to stay in the library. The student was an iranian-american and there is a lot of attention focused on this both from the student factions, and also the iranians. What better story than in these conditions, an american police brutalize an iranian student. Will Ahmadinejad comment on this?

But the bigger problem is police brutality and especially so in LA. I read the following article which pointed to 2 other incidences involving LAPD this week. Videos were taken and spread on youtube. The power of internet.

Btw here is the Digg story about it.

Self-Censorship

From Brinda's comment: "the media in the US is accused of self-censorship etc... what do you think about that?"

Well it is definitely true. In fact that is the reason why American people should not be blamed for the choices of their government because essentially their news is censored. Then the question becomes, who does the censorship? The government, the media itself?
It's a combination of both no? If the government has the attitude of either for us or against us, what does that do for free speech? Is it possible to even have free speech in such a climate?

Check out the following article that describes how the 'lack' of censorship in the Lebonan/Israel war a couple of months ago led to the final defeat of Israel. Similar thing happened in the Vietnam war right? Although I think the Iraq war is much more complicated because in addition to the US, you have the Iraqi factions that are waging war against each other. The civil war has muddied the waters, so it is difficult to blame US entirely.

So the bottom line for me is, the media does get censored but its censorship is the result of a combination of factors including that of its self.

-----
Btw if you get discovery channel, there is supposed to be a documentary by Ted Koppel on this sunday at 9pm e.t. on Iran. Should be good to watch.
I saw Koppel on the daily show last night and i really like his balanced views. Check him out here.

No Shame

Seems our favourite reality TV channel, Fox is going to air an interview with OJ Simpson called "O.J. Simpson: If I Did It, Here's How it Happened", where Simpson will describe how he would have killed his wife and his friend.....that is, assuming he did actually kill them, which of course he has been found not guilty of. He is promoting his book "If I did it...".

It is almost like he is admitting to the murders now when because of double jeopardy, he is guaranteed he can't be charged again. What is the point of this interview? I dont understand why OJ is giving this "unrestricted" interview and why Fox will air it. Does the world have no shame?

In the article it says:

In a video clip on the network's Web site, an off-screen interviewer says to Simpson, ''You wrote 'I have never seen so much blood in my life.'''

''I don't think any two people could be murdered without everybody being covered in blood,'' Simpson responds.

It is disgusting. More yet, it is disturbing.

Question: Racist PSP ads?

I was just reading a complaint post on digg about how EB Games had created this display of girl games which appears to be based on the assumption that women are only interested in barbies and cooking. Anyway they then started on how PSP ads were racists. Does anyone know what they are talking about?
anyway this was funny: Games for girls:

- Mega dishwashing
- Grand theft vacuum
- Cook simulator XXX

Procastination

Crikey I am a magnificent procastinator.
Tomorrow i must teach one of my advisor's classes (he is away next week) and the topic is security policies - so very very interesting. No no really... Have I convinced you? If so, do me a favor and convince me. My two least favourite topics I have to teach this week, monday and wednesday. Such luck.
So I procastinate any way i can. I even checked orkut. Yup.
It's too bad I am hampered by this dial up connection - I imagine you tube otherwise could have kept me entertained for hours.

Have others received a plethora of spam lately too? more than usual? The past month or so, possibly more so the past couple of days, I have been spammed-a-lot*. The number of bits wasted .. :-( If I was a resource-constrained device, that's a lot of wasted energy receiving.

What else. Not much. I have to return to the issue of globalization again. I still don't know if it is good or bad. Alvaro was saying something today about it being generally good but implemented bad? What were you saying again ALvaro?

By popular request, word verification has now been lifted. Leila khanoom that means you :-) Noone should say I don't listen in to my audience. I do i do.

ok back to policies. :^|

* I wasn't sure if anyone caught my Sir Mixalot reference, so i am being obvious. Did you get it?

Brinda's take on Borat

Below is a kind of review of Borat by Brinda :-) I am beginning to believe I might have had the wrong ideas about Borat...
Brinda's comment about tolerance of US is very interesting though.

Hey

I went and watched the movie - and came out thinking a fwe things

- The movie is not about Kazakhistan - its more about the US of A. The Kazakh journalist persona - is a ruse - and I think that if a viewer thinks that it is representative of Kazakhistan - then its really unfortunate ...

- He did poke fun at anti-semitism , homophobia and just at a lot of people

- Also despite all or some flaws in America - you realize how immensely tolerant it actually is ... especially the unscripted parts of the movie - I was trying to place it in another country - and you realize that it pretty much couldnt have happened anywehere else!

I even found the crowd at the movie theatre very interesting - cos it was a varied demographic - an dpeople were laughing at it all - even when it pokes fun at parts of who they are!

I was just wondering though if he could have gotten away with his pranks if he was not a white guy ...

My 2 cents..

Brinda

Btw I ended up reading a couple of interesting review of Borat here at metacritic. It has a score of 89. Gosh darn it, I hate to be wrong.. especially when i have been so vocal about it :-P

The Year of the Woman

I heard something interesting on the radio this morning, related to the election. Of course let me first say how relieved I am by the result - My pessimism over world politics and the elected governments would have known no bounds if the democrats had not gained control of the house and the senate. Which reminds me, I will have to find out the difference betweent he house and the senate in US.

anyhoo. The result of the election also made this year, the Year of the Woman, because of the number of women that got voted in. We have the speaker of the house who it seems has had 4 or 5 children (good god!) and a number of other states where it is the first time that women have won for the first time in history. And why has that come about? This part is interesting. They said:

- Women are an antidote to corruption
- Women get things done

Do you find that interesting as well? Did Bush make such a mess of everything that the idea of the woman president is getting closer by the minute? It seems that Hilary Clinton who already had NY state cinched, still spent $30 million on her campaign, causing people to think she was in fact laying her foundation for her presidency campaign.

Somehow I don't think Americans will yet welcome women presidents.

\\----------------------//

Meanwhile you might be wondering why I haven't written in the past couple of weeks. Last week both Alvaro and my mum came to DC area for a conference. It was so much fun going to conference with both, Song was there as well. Anyway, would you say we are a recipe for family discount for the conference? :-) They both left last weekend, maman on friday and Alvaro on sunday, I mean monday! somebody missed their flight :-P but since back I have been busy with research and also an academic roundtable that is being held for ECE. Brinda, we miss you. I am helping Song get things done and actually we think it is going to be crowded. We got Baras and O'Shea and a bunch of other people interested and involved and ... well lets see what will happen. I am moderating the discussion with the help of Song. I don't know how i got involved. Song emailed me and said they wanted an ECEGSA outsider as the moderator and there i am. I ended up helping her alot more of course since i think our vision for the roundtable was more similar that her other helpers. The roundtable is today at 2-4pm. Wish me luck!! :-)