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PI is a movie about science. A computer scientist is obsessed with finding out secrets of nature by searching for a number which will discover all laws of nature. If you are a physicist or have read “A brief history of time”, you might have come across the term “Grand unified theory”. Max cohen ( Sean Gullette) is on the search for a number which will unlock the secrets of our universe. Below is a review of the movie

PI isn’t about the mathematical constant 3.1415.., representing, among many other things, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diametre. The movie is about the deranged and beautiful quest of one person in search of the truth, the answer to the universe. The plot is a common one in science fiction: a phenotypic “aberration” in the brain causes the protagonist to develop special abilities that makes him sought after and feared. In this particular cases, Max acquires a deep grasp of number theory. With his assumptions, that mathematics is the universal language, that number theory can represent everything in nature, and that there is a pattern in everything that occurs in this universe, he sets about trying to find it in the stock market.

After him are people who are interested in his stock market analyses for monetary purposes, and more strangely, a group of Rabbis who are convinced the same pattern of numbers is the key to their salvation. However, Max is the only one who can understand the semantics of the 216 digit number that is key to the universal lock, a plot device that I thought was truly brilliant. In the end, Max succeeds on his quest, but what he understands is never revealed to us. I was fascinated with the idea of a Grand unified theory where if you understand the laws of nature, you can predict the course of events in the past as well as the future. We might disover laws of nature and soon be able to understand how our planet will behave in future including the course of events which might happen on it.

PI has an obscure plot but it might keep your attention if you have a scientific background. The movie is filmed in black and white and we are always kept wondering what is on Max’s mind who is the lead character of the movie.

I strongly recommend this movie if you are a mathematician or a computer scientist or if you can relate to science and techonlogy. I would rate this movie 8 out of 10.

Sometime ago I heard that high schools were introducing computer programming languages and I wondered if it is the right thing.. I used to think that it might be a better idea to teach basic science and math to high school and students and introduce computing machines later when they finish school. Computers are mechanical devices and they might forbid us to be creative as to create art or music. Although they are useful in understanding laws of nature or for communication with the world, they cannot teach us to be creative yet. It would be a while before we would see artificial thinking machines which can guide us. The current state of AI research is at its beginning.

Teachers should prepare children to think creatively so that pupils wont just apply pure logic to solve real world problems but rather tacke each problem independetly. It might be futile to feed children with object oriented programming languages like java or c++ before they have strong mathematical skills. Maths and computing is strongly related. The more skilled a person is mathematics or logic, the better programmer he/she may become.

Technology is not the key to each and every issue in human life. It might help us lead a better life and is necessary for one to be comfortable but it shouldn’t be introduced until we are ready yet. Some issues are not new: the early and excessive concern about computer literacy too often at the cost of basic literacy. Other issues are familiar but more clearly documented than usual-the inability of school systems to maintain equipment or train teachers once the hardware is in place.

There are some benefits: more efficient record keeping, and better ways to reach children with learning disabilities. But the central message is that computer infatuation has not only drained billions of dollars from more urgent educational needs, but that its misuse actually damages students, turning out a generation of kids with inferior learning and thinking children skills.

What do you think about the whole issue? Drop a line if you can !!

I was reading wired and came across an article which says that.. a lot of americans use the internet just for fun. It made me think of internet in general and how i started using it. It was in the 90’s and i had used it only to search information, scientific articles or read episodes previews of startrek. Now, a great deal of trivia has penetrated internet. Chatting, porn, blogging and online gaming sites which steal away our time.

Internet is a waste of time, if used casually and you might never know how much time you would spend on it. Internet addiction is a serious thing.. If you’re addicted to the internet, you would spend hours on the internet increasingly to while away your time or just to hang out. It might be worthy to decide on how much time you would spend on a computer when you are hooked on to the web.

One of the earliest uses was to send and receive emails. Now, Instant messaging has hooked most people to their computers, where they type messages instead of using traditional means of communication such as a telephone or letters which were popular for over a century.

I think that internet is a tool and is of great help if used wisely and can be a waste of time if we use it aimlessly. It had helped me a lot in reseaching things which would have been impossible otherwise.

There is a considerable debate on whether goverments should regulate the web or not if you think of china as an example china has banned websites which depict content unsuitable for children. It had also banned many websites and asked search engines to not show any banned results on its website if you seach in china. Google has dropped some entries from its search results and complied with the chinese goverment. Other countries are considering banning websites which might be unsuitable for certain age groups.

What do you think of Internet in general? Do you think there should be control of information people should see or it should be allowed to all irrespective of their age,location and status?

The Orbitor’s ears and eyes are powerful enough to capture distant sounds (and voices) from 300 feet away. Viewfinder with 10x prism optical system lets you zoom in and see what you’re hearing close up. Sounds and images impossible for the human ears and eyes to pick up will now seem as if you’re only a couple of feet away. Imagine sitting in the upper deck of a baseball stadium and hearing and seeing players talking in the dugout. Are those men on the street corner dealing drugs? Now you can eavesdrop from a safe distance with the Orbitor Electronic Listening Device.

Outdoorsmen and bird watchers can tap into Mother Nature’s secrets like never before and be thrilled at the sound quality of this ingenious listening device. This top-of-the-line secret surveillance device is perfect for when you really need to know what’s going on! Once you own the Orbitor, you’ll discover thousands of uses for it. Find out what your kids and their friends are plotting in the garage. Listen to whales sounding on the open sea. Take it to a concert when you’re too far away from the action. Opera lovers and theatergoers can sit in the back row and hear as well as those in the $300 front seats.

In fact, the Orbitor Electronic Listening Device can go to all entertainment venues. To enhance your use of the Orbitor Electronic Listening Device, we’ve even added a playback system that records up to 120 seconds on a digital chip — so you not only hear from afar, you have an electronic record of it. Includes a pair of comfortable padded full-size headphones. Requires one 9-volt battery (not included). Is someone talking about you? Now you’ll know.

Students at a German university have facilitated the downfall of human civilisation by developing a robot to replace the pub landlord, Ananova chillingly reports.

So far though, the Hermann the barman can only pour pressurised German wheat beer - child’s play relative to the fine art of pulling a pint of foaming nut-brown ale.

Professor Thomas Weber at the Technical University of Darmstadt set students the challenge of bringing in a working prototype for £53, in the hope that it will go into mass production.

The misanthrope tried to mitigate his treason against humanity: “We don’t want to compete with landlords, merely make their lives and those of their waiters easier.”

This is funny .. looks like we are losing against the machines

I read an article on theregisters which says that most ISPs such as verizon, AT & T etc are thinking of charging search engines like google, msn etc who use bandwidth of end users to make money for their business. It is indeed true .. that there are some companies who generate revenue from bandwidth of third party networks who don’t get any revenue but connect different networks together to provide bandwidth to the end user.

We will have to see if internet providers such as verizon, at & t, british telecom etc really start charging search engines for using their computer networks.

Google hasn’t given any official declaration on this issue.

Major media companies might dictae terms to the end users and create markets which suit their business interests. If the carrier networks and media companies, search engines unite, then it might not be good to the end user, who gets targeted advertising and is controlled by various moghuls as to which kind of rights he or she might get while using their services.

This is an important consideration for customers in the years to come.

What do you think about the whole issue?

“For the first time researchers have created a working prototype of a radical new chip design based on magnetism instead of electrical transistors. As transistor-based microchips hit the limits of Moore’s Law, a group of electrical engineers at the University of Notre Dame has fabricated a chip that uses nanoscale magnetic “islands” to juggle the ones and zeroes of binary code. Wolfgang Perod and his colleagues turned to the process of magnetic patterning to produce a new chip that uses arrays of separate magnetic domains. Each island maintains its own magnetic field. Because the chip has no wires, its device density and processing power may eventually be much higher than transistor-based devices. And it won’t be nearly as power-hungry, which will translate to less heat emission and a cooler future for portable hardware like laptops.”