Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Today, the world lost the most visionary human being of the century. Steve Jobs has been battling pancreatic cancer for around 8 years and finally succumbed to it today merely hours after the iPhone 4S announcement.

Steve Jobs has been the man behind me and most of our career. The smart phone revolution spurred by iPhone and the dawning of the new era of iOS app development had made a career for me and most of us.

However, I’m deeply saddened by the attitude of some developers in the community who are doing marketing campaigns around Steve’s demise. Some developers/companies are donating their next weeks’ earnings to “charity” or cancer research in the memory of Steve Jobs. This is no different from what Bing tried to do during the Japanese Tsunami.

So what should you do instead?

If you really want to donate money, donate it directly. Here is a link to National Pacreatic Cancer Foundation. http://pancreaticcancerfoundation.com. If you want to donate the money you made by selling iOS/Mac software, donate the money you made last week. Remember, you are running a business today (and making a living) because of him. Don’t misuse the community’s grieving for your business

Friends and co-developers you too can play an important role by not sharing/retweeting such messages and boycotting their products. I did not mention the name of those companies/developers because, I don’t want them to be “known”.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs. You are still living on our iPhones and iPads and MacBooks. Thank you for everything.

–

Mugunth

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PS: This post has nothing to do with Apple, iPhone, programming, Windows, Microsoft. Sometimes, I do pen down my personal thoughts on my blog. Read it if you are an atheist. Read it if you aren’t either
This should have been my first blog post. I wrote this on a piece of paper around 7 or 8 years ago, during my college days, when Internet connection was intermittent, I didn’t have a blog let alone a web host.

== God ==

Our Galaxy - The Milky Way

Being in the 21st century, the age of science and technology, computer research, many of us really doesn’t think about God. This Universe, is a very vast area, which “hosts” the Milky Way. Our Solar system is a very small part of that galaxy and the planet we live, Earth (or Mother Earth) is another minuscule part of Solar System. In such a great Universe, only our Earth has the right proportions of Oxygen in Air, has water and the right temperature which makes it the only planet to support life. Isn’t this a miracle? Who could have done this?

For human beings to survive, water and air are indispensable. It’s available for free on this planet. Who gave this to us? Can we all “thank” him for that?

Every engineer knows that a computer’s chip is made from silica, which most commonly found in sand. Can you believe that, that sand is doing miracles on your computer right now when you are reading this? Who designed it? A chorus, “Some Engineer” did it. Nearly every literate person can answer that question.

God is also an Engineer, much like us. The “chip” he designed is called “CELL“. It carries the DNA, which is a “blue print” depicting your Intelligence, your height, your weight, complexion, skin color and the entire “YOU”. It also has the mitochondria that generates the necessary power for the survival of the cell along with a whole lot others. But when we are asked, who made this chip, we blabber this, that and end up saying “evolution”. Evolution, the very word, states that there was something in the beginning and everything evolved from it. Who created that something? (OK, a mild digression, I’m a strong believer of Evolution, which is why I think Veganism is really bad and against evolution.
Analogous to that, we didn’t invent the Core 2 Duo chip out of blue. It “evolved” from it’s predecessor. Tracing back to it’s roots, the very first “CHIP” was created by a Texas Engineer, Jack Kilby. He then invented the calculator and the thermal printer as well.
Similarly, were we able to trace how the first living “CELL” was formed? Do we know what happened before BigBang? Why don’t we just thank Him for what He provided us? Why can’t we worship the nature, He provided us there by thanking him? If everyone believed that God is there and God made the Universe, and God is looking at all of us, there wouldn’t be any unlawful practices, murders, rape or robbery. Don’t think that “Seeing is Believing”. Yes of course, seeing is believing, but it cannot be applied universally. How is your computer working now? What flows through the power cord? Can you see it? Well then don’t believe in Electricity. You can only “feel His presence”

== Religion ==

Religions

Now comes the most controversial topic. If I have to believe in God, which religion is the best? Ask me, I’ll never ever say follow religion XXX. Now, who created religion? About 300, 000 years ago, when the Neo Cortex of the brain started growing at a considerably rapid pace (see, I believe in Evolution), we, humans gained “self consciousness”. This self consciousness, lead to the creation of a sophisticated language with which we were able to communicate more information with our peers. Though, animals had the sense of “fear” and morals (some animals like Dolphin, not all), their poorly developed language centers prevented them to form a strict set of rules that constituted a religion. This is again evident from the fact, that animals don’t bother about the carcass of their peers, where as Neanderthals buried their peers after performing some rituals. The “self-awareness”, which humans gained after the growth of “neo cortex”, created the sense of “Afterlife” sometime during the past which seeded the origins of the first religion. However, religion is nothing but a strict set of rules set by the first person(whoever it might be or whatever it might say) who wrote it. Remember the monkey, ladder and the cold water story? Precisely, this is how religion got disseminated. Most of us, who believe in one or the other religion, disseminate their religious thoughts, much like the monkeys in the story, without even “thinking” about it. Read any “holy book”, they always say, the other religion is bad. We live in a secular world and still think these texts are true and we claim we are an intelligent species.

I can hear you murmuring now… So what should you do? Should you believe or not believe? Is there God? Well,

1) God exists. But he didn’t write those holy books which you read. He didn’t build those temples/churches or mosques you visit. You don’t have to go there to worship him. He created this entire Universe for you to live and you think, God lives only in those temples/churches or mosques.

2) God never created religion or never wrote any holy books. It’s we humans who disseminated it. If God really created religion, animals, as well would have built its own temples, much like the way they built their caves or nests.

3) After creating the Universe, the Solar System, the Earth and the laws of Earth, God will never interfere with it/meddle with it.  He created Physics. When you leave (drop) a ball from your hand, it doesn’t stay there. It falls down to Earth, and believe me it’s a miracle. But for most of us, who adhere to “strict religious” principles, miracle is when the same ball moves up rather than being attracted by gravity. God created physics and the Earth and its gravity. He is not going to bend the very laws of physics he created just to make you believe his presence. He has given you the sense of “self-consciousness” with which you should understand what’s right and what’s wrong. He’s not going to perform magics or tricks defying the very laws He created. The physics He created itself is a miracle. Here is an article on what Einstein thought about God and Religion.  Some excerpts from that article.

There is a third stage of religious experience which belongs to all of them, even though it is rarely found in a pure form: I shall call it cosmic religious feeling. It is very difficult to elucidate this feeling to anyone who is entirely without it, especially as there is no anthropomorphic conception of God corresponding to it.

The religious geniuses of all ages have been distinguished by this kind of religious feeling, which knows no dogma and no God conceived in man’s image; so that there can be no church whose central teachings are based on it. Hence it is precisely among the heretics of every age that we find men who were filled with this highest kind of religious feeling and were in many cases regarded by their contemporaries as atheists, sometimes also as saints. Looked at in this light, men like Democritus, Francis of Assisi, and Spinoza are closely akin to one another.

How can cosmic religious feeling be communicated from one person to another, if it can give rise to no definite notion of a God and no theology? In my view, it is the most important function of art and science to awaken this feeling and keep it alive in those who are receptive to it.

The “religion” which he explains is close to what modern day “Deism” is all about. A quote from Wikipedia on Deism states that,

Deism is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general) can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without a need for either faith or organized religion. Deists generally reject the notion of divine interventions in human affairs – such as by miracles and revelations, but not necessarily

The cosmic religious feeling which Einstein had is what we, as Engineers or technologists should follow. It’s closest kin, Deism, says, God never meddles with your day-to-day activities. So tomorrow, when you go to your place of worship, Thank Him for what he has given, rather than asking for some kind of favor.
“Oh God make me filthy rich” will never make you rich. Bill Gates, didn’t pray that way, for he is an atheist, if I’m not wrong.
God created you and the Universe along with every other animal or plant out there. Thank him for that next time when you worship, rather than asking him for some favour which He is not going to give. God gave you the sense of “reasoning”. Question your religion or anyone who preaches any religion. If your religion bans something, ask why? Why shouldn’t I eat Beef (I’m a Hindu, legally, not morally). If God really wanted humans not to eat Beef, he wouldn’t have created cows at the first place. If God really wanted you to circumcise, He would have ensured that your fore-skin falls off once it’s duty of protecting your genitals is over. No, I’m not a creationist. What I believe is, God created “something” initially from which everything else evolved.
What differentiates between the God created chip, “CELL” and human created chip, “Microprocessor” is the ability to reproduce. That ability of the first “CELL” gave way to evolution and Darwinism.
Believing in God doesn’t mean you ought to follow a religion. Einstein never followed one, yet he is not an atheist. You can believe in God without following a religion. If you are following a religion, start questioning it. Ask yourself why?. The moment you really believe in God is the moment when you become truly, self-aware. That God, needn’t be anthropomorphic (nor He is). It’s just a feeling. A cosmic religious feeling which Einstein felt. Start feeling it. When everyone “feels” this, there wouldn’t be war in this World.

Hope you enjoyed the post.
Feel free to pen down your comments. Hope I didn’t hurt anyone’s sentimental feelings. If you felt so, do let me know.

Thanks,
Mugunth

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Veganism, as Wikipedia says, is a philosophy and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans diet is a subset of vegetarian diet. In fact, vegan and vegetarian are *NOT* synonymous.

In this blog post, I intend to post my views on what is good and what is bad about different aspect of veganism.
Basically, veganism can be defined as abstaining from

using leather based products
eating animal flesh
eating animal eggs
drinking animal milk

From my point of view, I would say that, killing animal for its skin is CRUEL and GRUESOME. I always prefer rexin based belts, seats and other upholsteries made of cloth over leather belts or plush leather upholstery. I have always used a similar equivalent product that could easily replace leather for my needs.

But does that always hold? Can this practice be extended for our eating habits?
I did a lot of analysis and found some interesting stuff.
Firstly, eating a pure vegan diet does not give us enough calcium, iodine, and vitamins like B12 and D. Practising vegan means, to fulfill these dietary needs, one should take pills that supplement these deficiencies. How many vegans do this? Literally very few. there are cases where people, specially babies, have died because of vegan practices like http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/21/opinion/21planck.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

Secondly, evolution says that humans should eat meat.
Monkeys lived on plant foods. Chimpanzees, which are slightly close to humans in evolution started eating meat (http://science.jrank.org/pages/1418/Chimpanzees-Eating-habits.html) based food. They have canine teeth and can tear flesh. So are humans. And yes, we are not pure carnivorous like tiger as our anatomy says that. By eating vegetarian food, are we trying to fool nature and go back in evolution? Similarly, to digest chlorophyll based green leaves, cows and other herbivourous animals have something called an appendix. The appendix which is a vestigal organ in humans, is used to digest plant based food in herbivorous animals (http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/bio99/bio99430.htm). In humans, appendix serve to store good bacteria that aid in digestion and that’s it.(http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/the-appendix-does-have-a-use–rebooting-the-gut-396277.html)

Do we really get energy by eating spinach or green vegetables? No… We are only able to assimilate the minerals and vitamins contained in those leaves.
The ecological pyramid states that humans are not primary consumers of plant based food. Are we trying to change nature and its laws by becoming vegans?

But, yes, I’m against using animal products for anything else apart from eating. For example cosmetic usage of animal products and so on. I’m also against using animals for pulling logs of wood from forests (especially elephants), making money by training animals in circus, animal testing, which includes killing animals for experimentation which itself is estimated to be around 50 to 100 million vertebrates per year. I’m also against domesticating animals. A gold fish, which is very common in a majority of houses (specially in cities), is usually found in deep dark waters. The gold fish is an animal that hates light. In the name of domestication, we catch it, feed it with some “junk food”, and grow it in brightly lit fish tanks or aquariums. This could be crudely equivalent to shutting a human in a dungeon without any source of light and asking him to eat to his heartful. Same applies to caging birds. If you really care for animal rights and animal welfare, please do not domesticate them. please do not cage them. You don’t lose anything by doing this. Instead arguing that following vegan diet because you care for animal rights and welfare will only make you weaker and unhealthy. Moreover, you will be going against nature by abstaining from eating meat.

So from now on, avoid using leather based or ivory based or any animal based products. Avoid domesticating pet animals. But do not avoid eating unless it’s religiously banned. People who speak about animal rights and animal welfare, should think twice.

-
Mugunth

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Ah… Back from Japan at last… I went for a short trip to Japan for attending an interview with Toshiba. This blog is dedicated to my Japan trip. I’ll speak about two main sections. Japanese Culture, people and hospitability and then about Japanese Technology and Infrastructure. After all, these are the two main important aspects that Japan is famous for.

The place I visited was the famous Honshu island that hosts the World’s largest metro, Tokyo. I stayed in Shin-Yokohama (New Yokohama), and travelled around the city. I went to Ome, Yokohama, Tokyo, Shinjuku and Akihabara. Unfortunately, the weather was pretty bad and I was advised that for going to Mount Fuji, this is not the right time. I had a glimpse of Mount Fuji while traveling to Shin-Yokohama though.

Japanese tradition and culture is well known. As opposed to the myth that in Japan people speak only Japanese, I could see a lot of people who could converse well in English as well… Even when I started conversation in Japanese, they replied to me back in “pretty good” English and that amazed me. Japan in no longer a isolated country. So are the announcements in trains. Nearly every announcement will be in Japanese and English. Yes, of course, you room cleaner cannot speak English and you have to live with that. Apart from that, Japan is not completely into English too…(like Singapore) You can’t find English novels and people do not read them nor do English papers, and yes, you can find a lot of English teaching courses. So, to summarize, if you have any plans of going to Japan but fearing that language would be a barrier, please do not hesitate. Go ahead, and book your tickets!!! Of course, learning some Japanese sentences could be useful.

Now, onward to the culture. Japanese are very traditional. They bow for nearly everything, like saying a Thankyou or a sorry. They will try to help you out in nearly every situation that’s possible. For example, I was stuck at a railway station as I could not buy a railway ticket. The interface language was in Japanese and so is the map. If anyone have learnt Japanese, they would know that unlike western languages, Japanese is pretty difficult to read and write that to speak. For native tamil speakers, speaking japanese will be a breeze. I picked up within 3 months as Japanese has close relations to Tamil. (no not my own hypothesis, read this http://arutkural.tripod.com/tolcampus/jap-tamil.htm research done by a Japanese professor). So as the board was in Japanese, I approached a person to help me out. I only asked “shin-yokohama e ikitai desu ga…” (I want to go to shin yokohama…) and he readily helped me out. He asked me every detail as how many people are going etc., etc., You can’t expect this hospitability elsewhere. Same happened in Shinkansen ticket counter. We were called seperately when we were in the queue and the person (who looked like a police) bought us the tickets from the ticket vending machine.

We ate inside our residence, a canteen sort of. Food was pretty expensive compared to Singapore standards. The canteen is actually subsidized for the employees and for us, it was free (hi hi, so finally there is something called “free-lunch”) as our meals and stay was paid by the company. A meal costed around 600 Yen (8 SGD) where as in Singapore I can get a equivalent meal for about 3-4 SGD and in India it should be around 100 Rs. If it were not subsidized, multiply this cost by two. One interesting thing to note here is that, one of my friend, a pure veggy, just told the canteen incharge that he cannot eat NV and a special customized vegetarian noodle was prepared for him!!! Japanese are helpful to that extent and if you speak Japanese, rest assured that you are a king in Japan!

Let me now move on to other aspects of Japan, especially technology. I don’t know why I did not like Japan’s transportation system. Was it that I expected more?

www.flickr.com/photos/mugunthkumar/2296292436/

A comparison of Farrer Park station in Singapore (LEFT) and Tokyo (RIGHT)

The station is clean though not as clean as Singapore. The population is overwhelming. People, people, people everywhere and Shinjuku, the most busiest station is used by over 5 million people (slightly higher than the population of Singapore!)
Travelling from Shin-yokohama to Ome, took about 3 hours by train, a pain-in-the-butt situation, where everyone hangs on to the train, no place to sit, etc., etc., Trains are clean and warm (yeah, japan is freezing cold (-2 to -2 degrees), but still the stations are quite unclean compared to Singapore and the reason could be over-population. Same applies to Narita Airport. I would rate Narita a B in cleaniness if Singapore is A+. I have not yet visited Hong Kong as I’ve heard that Hong Kong is well ahead of Singapore in the quality of service. (Even if I go to Hong Kong, I would still rate Singapore A+ and Hong Kong A, as I live in Singapore… Huh..? just kidding… leave it)

One of the technological marvel in Japan was the Shinkansen. I traveled from Shin-yokohama to the next stop Shinagawa in Shinkansen and it took about 5 minutes to reach. I could not feel the speed of the Shinkansen from inside as it was all closed everywhere. While returning back, I came in the normal train and reached my place in about 30 minutes. Now that should give you an idea of how fast the Shinkansen is!!! It travels at about 300 KMPH, and you will not feel it! But travelling by Shinkansen will cost you an arm and a leg as that one station travel costed my 1250 Yen (SGD 16) or (450 INR). The whole of the Honshu island is connected with Shinkansen and Air transport within Japan is slightly under used compared to United States, which could partly be because of the size of the country.

I toured the city and reached Yokohama Landmark Tower. Wow, marvelous, was my first word when I reached the top of the tower. A few shots from the top of the tower.

The city is lively!!! Full of lights everywhere and so large when I compare it with Singapore. Shinjuku the business district was also rocking!

I went to Akihabara and purchased a cover for my iPod. Unfortunately, upon opening I found that the cover was for iPod classic 80 GB whereas mine was iPod video 80GB… If it were any other country, they would not have returned my money back. But it’s Japan! No questions asked. They told they don’t have a cover for my iPod and hence wi

ll give me money instead!!! In this world which is full of cheaters around, this was very different for me. I have had very nasty experience in Bangalore when I got a blank DVD only to find that it was scratched like hell. The shopkeeper replied, “it’s not covered under warranty”. After all a 20 Rs issue. A few photos from Akihabara…

Though, the city is pretty clean, I was almost choked when I returned back owning to Haze.

No idea where these dust came from, but, it makes you suffocate given the close-to-zero temperature.

Electricity in some parts of Japan like Shin-yokohama is still transmitted through open (non-insulated) cables which is something that was quite disgusting given the country’s technological advancements. As the electric voltage is very low, 100V 50/60 Hz (50 or 60 depending on which part of Japan you go) the conductors are really thick. Power lines are found virtually everywhere as in the picture below.

This was something which I did not see in Singapore. Not all the parts of Japan have underground electric wiring.
All in all, the city was amazing. It’s a kinda new experience. Though i did not enjoy much, which is probably because of my overly high expectation, Japan is still amazing. I think people have over-exaggerated Japan’s cleanliness. My next trip to Japan will be to cover the northern island, namely Hokkaido and probably climbing the Mount fuji in the main island.

My gallery of Japan photographs can be viewed at flickr here…
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mugunthkumar/sets/72157603972972870/

Mugunth

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