83698087
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
The movie The Man Who Knew Infinity is running in theaters near university towns. Mostly small art house theaters. Made about 1.6 million dollars in four weeks, coming in at 16th this week.
This is a bio pic about Srinivasa Ramanujan. I have read the book man years ago and it is very popular among the Indians, Indian techies and south Indians. His life is a heart breaking story of a poor self thought mathematician. Ramanujan found a book of some 800 mathematical identities, used for cramming for the British Civil Service examinations. From that book that stated the identities without any proof, he taught himself mathematics, rediscovered many theorems that were life time achievements for the discoverers. Completely unschooled in formal mathematics, he did not know how to prove any of his discoveries.
Educated Indians and British civil servants and professors in Madras (now Chennai) India recognized his talent, despite him failing in all subjects save math in college. They helped him get a job as a clerk and he wrote to at least four British math professors. Finally Hardy was intrigued, many of the things this unknown clerk claims to have invented were already well known theorems, just stated differently. Hardy suspected a hoax first, then eventually was persuaded that Ramanujan's talent was real.
The movie starts at his point and ends when Ramanujan leaves England. Decent movie, given the heavy subject matter, it can't be done any differently.
I would strongly recommend the techies to read the book, but catch the movie too. Paying 8$ bucks at the box office, will encourage more movies about scientists to be made.
[ I am proud to have a very tenuous minor connection to Ramanujan. Both Ramanujan and I "belong" to the same temple, i.e. share the family deity. ]
79644257
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
Deployed 11 satellites! 13500 Kg to LEO capacity. Makes history.
Nothing much more to add.
78748887
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
Ola is a uber clone quite popular in India. Last week there were very heavy rains in Southern India and one of its major cities got severely affected by the heavy rains. The Ola taxi drivers banded together with local fishermen and rescued people stranded by the floods. It seems to be a spontaneous local innovation. Ola management was neither aware of it nor got the idea nor approved it.
This is probably a great idea, worthy of being developed further. If the emergency, police, fire and ambulance services integrate their crews and vehicles to plug in to the taxi calling app infrastructure, it would help them find the people in need of services quicker. Or Android and iOS could include an emergency assistance request app and provide the emergency crews with the client software to inter-operate with the callers. Probably some sort of neutral open standard protocol could be developed by our universities, using slave labor of graduate students of comp sci/engg departments.
Imagine how well it would have worked in a situation like Katrina in New Orleans if the people stranded in the attic would be able hail emergency helicopters...
(I was in Chennai last week, and the rains were not really all that much above average. It was just 20 cm in one day. But almost all the lakes and ponds in around the city have encroached upon by unscrupulous real estate agents, in cahoots with local politicians. Almost all the affected localities were former lakes and ponds. So much of the land was paved over, there was some runoff issue and some flooded underpasses. But water was just waist deep in all those areas. Surprisingly the power grid held, and the cell towers were functional most of the time. It should not have been a disaster at all, just blessed rain bringing valuable fresh water. But ...)
77280821
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
We know the gun rights advocates have always been saying "Only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun". Detroit news reports a (woman, if that makes a difference) customer of Home Depot, opened fire at an SUV driven by a suspected shop lifter.
Even the most ardent "stand your ground" supporters do not defend firing a weapon when there is no imminent danger of loss of life or property. They would argue it is enough if the shooter has reason to believe his/her life is in danger or there is imminent loss of property. They hold the view it is the state of mind at the moment of firing that counts. Post facto analysis of the situation is Monday-morning-quarterbacking, it does not count, they believe. The shooting would be justified if the shooter believed his/her life was in danger at the moment of shooting, in their view. It is not clear if they would defend firing at someone who is suspected of robbing a big box retailer, not your typical mom-and-pop convenience store, is justifiable.
Marissa Alexander fired a warning shot while cowering in a bathroom to ward off her attacker was prosecuted very vigorously for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Michael Dunn in Jacksonville who fired at teenagers for playing loud music was convicted. The jury held that continuing to fire at the fleeing vehicle was unjustified and added a 60 year sentence on top the life sentence for third degree murder.
Will this be a case where both gun control and gun rights activists agree that this is a reckless and unwarranted use of a gun and the shooter should be prosecuted for reckless use of a handgun?Link to Original Source
74848859
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
Dr Abdul Kalam, former President of India, passed away due to sudden heart failure while delivering a speech in a college on 27th July 2015.
He was one of the geeks who made it to the top. Was instrumental in establishing India's space research agency in the early 60s. He was a FORTRAN guy. He interviewed me in the campus interview and asked me the difference between the COMMON statement and the EQUIVALENCE statement. I am sure I answered it wrong, but he hired me anyway.
He headed five missile programs for India and then became the Chief Coordinator of the nuclear weapons program. He served as the scientific adviser to the Defense Minister and then to the Prime Minister. Normal trajectory for a career scientist bureaucrat up to this point.
Then he was tapped to be the Presidential candidate for the Hindu Nationalistic Party BJP. Kalam was an apolitical vegetarian Muslim and could not be countered by the usual political strategies by the other parties. He won the election handsomely and went on to win the hearts of the people of India. Unlike any previous President, he inspired the people with visionary speeches.
He lived a very simple life. India was stunned to see him walk out of the Presidential mansion with just a couple of suitcases at the end of his term. (Very rarely Indian politicians leave offices with so few possessions. There were quite a few scandals of politicians stripping their official residences of air conditioners and such when they leave office.)
After leaving office he collected a large number of honorary degrees and awards, wrote books, worked on low cost tablets and heart stents. Sadly he died of a heart attack.Link to Original Source
70192909
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
The site was slow to respond and for a long time there is no posting at all between 11 AM and 7PM. There is no announcement, no explanation nothing. What was happening?
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
Intuit quietly removed support for schedule D and C from Turbo Tax 2014, forcing people to upgrade to Premier version. It created a huge backlash from the customers. Slashdot covered it on Jan 12. There were a lot of media coverage too. Some VP was posting in the amazon reviews trying to spin the news. Suggesting things like it is still possible to file Schedule D in the "forms" mode. [ Forms mode just saves a trip to the post office or to irs.gov to download the forms. That is all, it is print it out, fill it up and mail it in option. ]
Eventually Intuit has reversed course and is posting in Amazon.com reviews, that it is going to refund the money to people who were forced to upgrade, and add the feature back to Deluxe version and promises never to do it again.
TurboTax Desktop Customers:
We recently communicated to you about the changes we made to TurboTax desktop software products. The message back to me was clear — you want your TurboTax desktop product to do what it always has done — handle the same tax situations as it did in years past. We've heard you and here's what we going to do.
1. Beginning February 7, returning Deluxe desktop customers who need to upgrade can do so within the product for free, making it simple and seamless.
2. For returning customers who have already upgraded to Premier or Home & Business, we are continuing to offer $25 cash back through April 20. Just go to www.TurboTax.com/25back where we've streamlined the process.
3. Next year, we're changing back to the TurboTax desktop software you know and love by restoring the forms that you've counted on for years (and for some of you, decades).
We will be communicating this to customers in the coming days.
I realize this hasn't been easy on you, and I'm sorry for that. I also recognize that it took us too long to make this right. We are committed to earning your trust again.
Bob Meighan, VP, TurboTax
69202069
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
Charlie Hebdo ups the ante.
From the pictures released to the media I am not able to see where the figure depicted is marked as the Prophet Mohammad. But, if it is true, as claimed by almost all the media outlets, that it was indeed a depiction of the Prophet Mohammad, it is really a big deal. This escalates the confrontation, and forces Muslims, at least those who live in the Western democracies to accept that "non muslims can draw pictures of Mohammad, and they do not have the right to retaliate against it".
Charlie Hebdo is more anti-clerical than anti-islam. Even the earlier depiction of Mohammad that provoked the assault actually shows Mohammad being beheaded by the terrorists for being an infidel. Very provocative, but still it is anti-clerical than anti-islam.
I am not sure the media description make that distinction.
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
Neil DeGrasse Tyson tweeted on christmas day what appeared to begin as a tribute to Infant Jesus, but ended up celebrating Isaac Newton who shares his birthday with Jesus, (with sufficient allowances for the estimate of Jesus' and the confusion between Gregorian and Julian calenders for Newton).
Apparently this was retweeted some 77000 times, far above his average of 3.5K retweets.
He doubled down on it by tweeting about people being offended by objective truths. Then wrote a fuller explanation.
56551259
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
According to NYTimes, an Iraqi suicide bomb instructor blew up his class of 22 wannabe suicide bombers. Looks like the instructor, who was a prolific recruiter was among the dead. Not really sure the families of the victims will sue to get a refund of their tuition fees.
56380215
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
1. In the slashdot beta I don't see the knob that lets you see more stories or less. Did I miss something, and it is under some obscure icon? Or is it gone?
2. When I post a comment, I often go my profile, find my latest comments, expand the threads there to see if there are any follow ups. In beta I am not able to get to my comment. It gives me the whole story. Will there be a link to a specific comment and the local view of that thread alone?
42596207
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
Apparently Facebook and Instagram are asking their account holders to verify their identity using government issued photo ids that include their full name and date of birth.
Your account has been secured and requires account validation. Please login to Instagram.com from your desktop computer to validate your identify. is the message they are getting, according to CNET. CNET is speculating that it is an attempt by these companies to crack down on underage users because they are worried about the liability.
And here in slashdot we are obsessing with privacy and google getting to collect so much of info etc etc. Out there there are people who seem to be willing to upload their IDs to these sites, and think it is a fair price to pay for these services. Is there a site that will give a fake photoshopped government issued ID to upload to such services?
29127427
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
The Tamil language newspaper news item reads, "Two engineering students [name, college] have developed a moped that runs on electricity charged by solar panels. It takes 8 hours to be fully charged. It has a range of 35 Km (19 miles). The moped is built entirely using parts salvaged from scrap yards. Commuters can charge it while working and return home. With more than 8 hours of power cut in the grid, ability to charge using solar panels is indispensable. It costs 60,000 Indian Rupees (1250$) and we hope to reduce the price down to 25,000 Rs (500$) in mass production".
If it takes 1250$ using scrap yard salvaged parts, I am not sure how it is going to be 500$ in mass production. But still it is a good attempt and a nice project for engineering college students.
20660952
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
Well, w3schools visitor profile is not the generic run of the mill net surfer. It is a little skewed towards web developer community. That also makes it a leading indicator of shifts in the web user profiles. In April 2011, IE has slipped to third place after Firefox and Chrome.
14902118
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140Mandak262Jamuna writes:
Conservative activists have been caught banding together to digg or bury news stories of the progressives.
Blogger oleoleolson writes in alternet:
A group of influential conservative members of the behemoth social media site Digg.com have just been caught red-handed in a widespread campaign of censorship, having multiple accounts, upvote padding, and deliberately trying to ban progressives. An undercover investigation has exposed this effort, which has been in action for more than one year.
The article details the modus operandi of the net-mob.
http://blogs.alternet.org/oleoleolson/2010/08/05/massive-censorship-of-digg-uncovered/
