Being a movie freak and to an extent History and Discovery channel shows, wanted to have a program that will pop in a notification when my favourite programs/movies are scheduled. I dont want to use teh reminder service provided by the Tata Sky set top box . I want it to be on the PC itself.
If it doesnt fit my schedule, I will have an option to record the program to my disk with ad skipping. I dont need to be aware whats the advertising industry is doing !. Any ways all this is available off the shelf if I get my hands on a pvr a personal video recorder. A mythtv installation will suit me just fine. The problem is In India I am struggling to lay my hands on a Hauppauge PVR-150, it has hardware recording and is supposed to work the best with MythTV. The TV tuner cards that are available in Hyderabad are teh pinacle ones, or I need to go along with Microsofts Media center edition. which is not an option.
Another problem is the unavailablity of xmltv for India, so forget teh mythtv setup, all I want now is a substitute for xml tv and it looks like I need to code fr this. ANd this isnt going to be easy, all the channels have a very elaborate schedule webpages, which cant be readily integrated into a consuming program. So lots of parsing needs to be done aswell.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Dealing with complexity
Our world is infinitely complex, some of the complexity you can never escape, relations, society.Life by defination embeds you in its midist. Some of the complexity you can choose to ignore. That can sometimes be a smart way to deal with the complexity. You wouldnt care to know how the iron ore was mined , what techniques were used to forge it, what was the pricing mechanism of iron as a commodity when your car went to production. You dont have to make sense of everything.
But its fascinating from an academic perspective, to understand how we try to deal with all this complexity. And its not like we have stopped , our world is becoming ever more complex day by day, we are adding new layers into each activity.
Food was quite simple, only what my mom used to cook, then came the invasion, different cuisines , and suddenly by one stroke, I became a part of the food chain that originates across the globe.
As Aurobindo said, shed that ego, embrace everything, dont see yourself as a separate entity, you are by definition an extension of the one. When sometimes I think along these lines, the boundaries of ego disappears, I see the color in the diversity, complexity seems like an expression of a vibrant life expressing itself in all its glory. This is something to be experienced, not to shy away from. There is no bitterness then for things that seem incompatible, cause like you they are also an extension of the One. You can strangely experience peace amidst all this chaos.
I am striving to return this singular algo in my 'attitude code', but all my present logic is meta data driven which is an infinitely complex meta data structure, with possibly thousands of rows.Only once in a while the attitude code happens to pick the row pertaining to the above attitude :(
But its fascinating from an academic perspective, to understand how we try to deal with all this complexity. And its not like we have stopped , our world is becoming ever more complex day by day, we are adding new layers into each activity.
Food was quite simple, only what my mom used to cook, then came the invasion, different cuisines , and suddenly by one stroke, I became a part of the food chain that originates across the globe.
As Aurobindo said, shed that ego, embrace everything, dont see yourself as a separate entity, you are by definition an extension of the one. When sometimes I think along these lines, the boundaries of ego disappears, I see the color in the diversity, complexity seems like an expression of a vibrant life expressing itself in all its glory. This is something to be experienced, not to shy away from. There is no bitterness then for things that seem incompatible, cause like you they are also an extension of the One. You can strangely experience peace amidst all this chaos.
I am striving to return this singular algo in my 'attitude code', but all my present logic is meta data driven which is an infinitely complex meta data structure, with possibly thousands of rows.Only once in a while the attitude code happens to pick the row pertaining to the above attitude :(
Funny!
A funny read, reminded me of that old story on pricing derivatives.
People just need something to believe in, something which makes sense to their senses, on the basis of which they can rationalize, manage their environments. Or the illusion that it may provide, that they are the masters of their destiny, they are in control. Thats all, people are not very demanding, they can happily live with it. That something doesn't need to be the truth, it just needs to be comfortable.
People just need something to believe in, something which makes sense to their senses, on the basis of which they can rationalize, manage their environments. Or the illusion that it may provide, that they are the masters of their destiny, they are in control. Thats all, people are not very demanding, they can happily live with it. That something doesn't need to be the truth, it just needs to be comfortable.
Association and Conditioning
Association: WE create associations all the time,what we see and what we perceive is a result of the associations we have already made. Since our associations vary , so do our perceptions. Our chain of thoughts.
Primed: This is similar to the conditioning theory, I agree to this totally.
"if you see that you're being primed, you can resist it. If you don't see that you're being primed, there is no way you can resist it" This is absolutely true, any self respecting individual will never be comfortable with the fact that he allowed himself to be primed.This in a way explains my initial septisim for traditional cures and knowledge, give me the reason, dont just tell me to follow .
And again "The prime could very well work better than the exhortation because exhortation is going to induce resistance, whereas the prime ‚the mild embarrassment causes you to make what feels like a commitment, and the commitment, if it's sufficiently precise, is going to have an effect on behavior."
A very interesting read
Primed: This is similar to the conditioning theory, I agree to this totally.
"if you see that you're being primed, you can resist it. If you don't see that you're being primed, there is no way you can resist it" This is absolutely true, any self respecting individual will never be comfortable with the fact that he allowed himself to be primed.This in a way explains my initial septisim for traditional cures and knowledge, give me the reason, dont just tell me to follow .
And again "The prime could very well work better than the exhortation because exhortation is going to induce resistance, whereas the prime ‚the mild embarrassment causes you to make what feels like a commitment, and the commitment, if it's sufficiently precise, is going to have an effect on behavior."
A very interesting read
Sunday, October 26, 2008
RSS + Ipod reader
I usually 'consume' a lot of websites, and my interests are quit wide, travel -> slashdot -> businessweek -> indian space and defence news --> movies --> to some selected blogs, well just abt anythig. And when I am travelling the backlog piles up. So I was thinking of something like this.
A software that takes in RSS feeds, stored online, so it can be accessable from anywhere, download the text content and then converts that to audio files , which is automatically pushed into ipod and then 'consumed'. I feel it would be a good usuable solution, and it doesnt require any new technologies to be developed, all the necessary s/w are there, we just need to assemble them. The text could also be pushed into ipod, so that it can be referenced through Ipod Notes.
FreeTTS
The other problem that needs to be cracked is this whole ItunesDB , apple folks have really made a closed Ipoddb spec, last time I was checking, java libraries were not up to the mark to manipulate itunes db.
I need to be able to manipulate itunesdb cause, I just want the ipod to be plugged in, and the converted audio tobe automagically pushed ito the ipod.
A software that takes in RSS feeds, stored online, so it can be accessable from anywhere, download the text content and then converts that to audio files , which is automatically pushed into ipod and then 'consumed'. I feel it would be a good usuable solution, and it doesnt require any new technologies to be developed, all the necessary s/w are there, we just need to assemble them. The text could also be pushed into ipod, so that it can be referenced through Ipod Notes.
FreeTTS
The other problem that needs to be cracked is this whole ItunesDB , apple folks have really made a closed Ipoddb spec, last time I was checking, java libraries were not up to the mark to manipulate itunes db.
I need to be able to manipulate itunesdb cause, I just want the ipod to be plugged in, and the converted audio tobe automagically pushed ito the ipod.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Energy Costs
Thermal efficiency would be a major factor going into the design of the house. Switching on the AC would be the last option. I have to explore ideas on naturally cooling the house, higher ceiling, positioning of the vents etc.
We have 2 main seasons, Summer where the main concern is heat and rainy where humidity is the culprit. So the house should be able to deal with these two conditions. Winter is not particularly cold so no problems there.
Shady trees around the house, for sure. So the two that are in front will be there.
But we dont have much space left in the current plot, to plant more trees :(. 2400 sq ft is not a big plot anyway, but then I dont want a house where we will get lost, I would like everyone to be within reach in that space, yet have their individual space if required.
Higher ceiling is a good idea, gives a more open, more liveable space and hot air settles at the top, but my concern then shifts to energy bills. WHen using an Ac becomes imperative, it would mean more air to be cooled, I want the maintenance aspect of the house to be as minimal as possible through design and passive structures.
I can have some kind of shade on the terrace, so the top floor remains somewhat sheltered from the sun and cool. But only from the top not enclosure type on all four sides. The structure to put on the shade needs to be such that it doesnt hamper the openness of the terrace. It ought to be easily manageable, to cover or remove it when ever required. I should be able to do star gazing !.
Still I need to explore a bit more on traditional and natural methods of cooling.
The other aspect of energy efficiency is lighting. CFLs are more energy efficient is something which is there at the back of my mind, When I explore more on my lighting ideas, I will keep that in mind.
We have 2 main seasons, Summer where the main concern is heat and rainy where humidity is the culprit. So the house should be able to deal with these two conditions. Winter is not particularly cold so no problems there.
Shady trees around the house, for sure. So the two that are in front will be there.
But we dont have much space left in the current plot, to plant more trees :(. 2400 sq ft is not a big plot anyway, but then I dont want a house where we will get lost, I would like everyone to be within reach in that space, yet have their individual space if required.
Higher ceiling is a good idea, gives a more open, more liveable space and hot air settles at the top, but my concern then shifts to energy bills. WHen using an Ac becomes imperative, it would mean more air to be cooled, I want the maintenance aspect of the house to be as minimal as possible through design and passive structures.
I can have some kind of shade on the terrace, so the top floor remains somewhat sheltered from the sun and cool. But only from the top not enclosure type on all four sides. The structure to put on the shade needs to be such that it doesnt hamper the openness of the terrace. It ought to be easily manageable, to cover or remove it when ever required. I should be able to do star gazing !.
Still I need to explore a bit more on traditional and natural methods of cooling.
The other aspect of energy efficiency is lighting. CFLs are more energy efficient is something which is there at the back of my mind, When I explore more on my lighting ideas, I will keep that in mind.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
A new Protocol
My pc is almost always on and connected to the internet, while I am in office I would like to access my pc. I would like to make certain file systems public so that I can share them with other user on the internet. Its like a p2p sharing, but its not anonymous, the way it is now.
If I want to access some pc, I fire up a client like a chat client for example, see if it is online and then click on the online identity to access data. Whats the benifit, a network which is more tightly integrated.
I know its possible technically, we just need to work a bit on the address resoultion part, with many people behind their ISP networks without public IPs. This is already happening with p2p clients communicating independently, I am lookign forward to a non-anonymous p2p link.
There are softwares that allow you to share files across pcs , through chat clients, but they make use of a central server.I upload there and then you download there, thats kind of inefficient, whats the point. I need something to be more direct. If we can crack this, it will free up a lot of bandwidth. There is no need for my message to travel all the way around the world to a central server while the person I am chatting is just next to me.
If we can extend the IP address resolution, or come up with a new address protocol that doesnt break any existing TCP/IP. The network will be more independent, more robust less clogged, more responsive.
If I want to access some pc, I fire up a client like a chat client for example, see if it is online and then click on the online identity to access data. Whats the benifit, a network which is more tightly integrated.
I know its possible technically, we just need to work a bit on the address resoultion part, with many people behind their ISP networks without public IPs. This is already happening with p2p clients communicating independently, I am lookign forward to a non-anonymous p2p link.
There are softwares that allow you to share files across pcs , through chat clients, but they make use of a central server.I upload there and then you download there, thats kind of inefficient, whats the point. I need something to be more direct. If we can crack this, it will free up a lot of bandwidth. There is no need for my message to travel all the way around the world to a central server while the person I am chatting is just next to me.
If we can extend the IP address resolution, or come up with a new address protocol that doesnt break any existing TCP/IP. The network will be more independent, more robust less clogged, more responsive.
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