Rhythm and Beat

This is a deviant post.  I am actually writing a blog today.

Today’s TECH Highlights

I installed Ubuntu on my new computer (Wei will be proud!) and am trying out the new google Chrome.  It seems to be working pretty well.

JUNIOR YEAR!

Junior year was interesting and overall, even with some all-nighters, I really, really enjoyed it.  I especially want to point out one class I greatly appreciated: 6.033 Computer Systems.  For one, I had an amazing recitation instructor, Prof. Daniel Jackson, whose enthusiasm and spirit brought the sometimes long and dull papers to life.  By the end of every recitation, I became enthusiastic about yet another component of systems in CS.

Even though many juniors can not call 6.033, computer systems CI-M class for CS majors, I really enjoyed it. I felt I learned a lot about systems and the importance of how crucial it is for people to develop secure, safe, and efficient systems (and not just in computer science!).  For me, it really opened my eyes to see how complexity arises from simple components put together.  Even though I may not delve into pure computer science in my future reserach, I feel that the overarching concepts in this class will be useful in whatever I do.

Even though this class covered topics very far from biology, with every lecture I kept going back to fundemental biological systems and how similar (or different) they are to computer systems.  What amazes me is what took the universe 13 or so billion years to conjure (and perfect?) is being mimicked by humans today in the computational world.  For example, think about how computers store memory versus how our brains store memory.  Our brain is a database, just like in computers.  Scientists still don’t understand all the complexities of how humans fetch and store memory using layers of neurons, yet computer scientists have developed pretty sucessful systems on how computers fetch and store to memory…yet computers still aren’t perfect!  Unintentionally, this class has kept on making me wonder all these philosophical questions–like are we even traveling the right path in CS systems, and are our implementations actually the best?  In CS, people have gotten used to building on top of layers of bugs–and correcting those bugs indirectly through new layers.  This may seem like wrong or like “cheating” to some, but in actuallity, I bet our very own bodies have done the same.  Biological systems have layered schemes, where one layer may sometimes correct for mistakes several layers down.  Evolution is amazing!!

These are some of the more general (not much jargon) yet great papers from the class that I highly recommend people to read (or at least skim):

Herbert A. Simon. The architecture of complexity.

Nancy G. Leveson and Clark S. Turner. An investigation of the Therac-25 accidents.

Ross J. Anderson. Why cryptosystems fail.

Ken Thompson. Reflections on Trusting Trust

Butler W. Lampson. Hints for computer system design

I found it quite lovely when on the first day of poetry class, my instructor really spoke to her students about the intricacies of poetry. How did she speak to a room full of future scientists and engineers?

When she was describing the dual meanings in poetry, she described it as being “particle-wave.” When she was explaining how sometimes poetry can be difficult, she compared it to the “impedance on an electrical circuit”. Resistance in poetry is good.

As intended, her words caught my attention and made me appreciate poetry so much more.

So far, one of my favorites:

The Jabberwocky by Lews Carrol:

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,

And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

This poem has so many made up words—yet one can decipher and understand it all. It’s quite amazing.

Stunned. Stunning. It was stunning. It was a moment of blindness and birth. Walking down the infinite corridor, I was caught in the sun whose rays illuminated the hallway with a surreal orange-white glow. That’s how I would feel if I were to enter the white after life. Stunned. To be stunned. The Surya was swallowing you—showing off its magnificent beauty at its demise. This sunset through this narrow hallway shimmered up my spine, startled, and blinded me. I felt real. For just a minute, all the maya disappeared.

Today, my good friend W.S helped me set up my first blog. I hope to use this site as a canvas to paint my thoughts, dreams, and stories.