Of programmable matter and abolition of Patent system

Firstly I came across this article in Wired. It made me go...errr....ok. Both astonishment and awe mixed in disproportionate amounts.

It basically says that

Even by the standards of the Pentagon fringe science arm, this project sounds far-out: “programmable matter” that can be ordered to “self-assemble or alter their shape, perform a function and then disassemble themselves.”

One day, that could lead to “morphing aircraft and ground vehicles, uniforms that can alter themselves to be comfortable in any climate, and ’soft’ robots that flow like mercury through small openings to enter caves and bunker complexes.” A soldier could even reach into a can of unformed goop, and order up a custom-made tool or a “universal spare part.”

The real party though, is taking place in the comments section. And the one that took the cake is this by one georgert:

Pbbbt! This was demonstrated in the movie Demon Seed years ago

Check it out for yourself



The second article, also from Wired, which caught my attention is the Swedish Pirate Party winning a seat in EU Parliament. Pirate Party wants to restructure copyright laws, abolish the patent system and guarantee online-privacy rights. But the question that many are asking (including Wired) is that will one seat make a difference considering the EU parliament consists of over 700 seats. Very much like the coveted "Senate" seat that many young BITSian stalwarts fight for.

It is also very clear that the reason the Pirate Party won that seat is because of the Pirate Bay trial (there being a massive spike in the number of members in the organization during the trial). However the people who comprise the Pirate Bay, what are their views on politics? This article is most intriguing. It tells us of another facet of Carl Lundstrom (the man who funded The Pirate Bay). Do read it.

Innovation in bribery

Basab writes a very hilarious albeit intriguing post on bribery in Indian elections

Today, bribing voters has become so common that all serious candidates must spend a good chunk of their election funds on it. Since other issues matter little (fomenting communal hatred being an important exception), candidates must compete with each other on the quantum of bribes per voter. This is good for the economy as it redistributes wealth from industrial houses and foreign corporations to the aam aadmi. Also, almost all the money distributed as voter bribes is spent immediately which gives a boost to local businesses like country liquor distilleries. In total, the voter bribes industry now accounts for an estimated 2 percent of GDP and about 50 basis points of annual GDP growth.

Oh but it gets better, check this out:

At the G-20 summit later this week, as world leaders discuss what each country is doing to restart the global economy, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will argue that voter bribes in the runup to the general election should be treated as India’s ’stimulus package’.

He further elaborates on the innovations that have been taking place in this domain. Do give it a read.

At the same time I wonder if one could take a leaf out of his book and apply it to the relatively non-existent BITSian politics. Sam chats? Mosquito nets? Beer?

Election time@ BITS: Directory

With more and more posts about the BITSian elections being posted, I thought about making a directory of all such blogs. This list in no way exhaustive, do leave additional links in the comments section.
(Majority of the credit goes to the Vineets [Pandey and Keshari] for compiling the initial list on google reader, from where the following list was mercilessly flicked) :)

Abhilash, Electrical, 03-07,

Keerthi Kiran, Instrumentation, 04-08,
Sriram.V , Electrical,04-08

Abhishek Nayak, Biological Science,05-09
Chinmay Kulkarni, Computer Science,05-09


Ashutosh, 06-10
Abhiram, Computer Science, 06-10,
Anurag Dutta, Computer Science, 06-10
Atin Bhattacharya, Physics & Computer Science, 06-11
Rishabh Kaul, Economics & Civil, 06-11
Rachit Chandra, Computer Science(Presidential Candidate),06-10
Shoaib, Computer Science, 06-10
Shruti Shah, Chemistry & Civil,06-11
Shushant, Mechanical, 06-10
Vineet Keshari, Computer Science, 06-10


Pranav, Instrumentation, 07-11

Suddenly Sarah

For most of us on this side of the globe, Sarah Palin is just another person. She's the governor of a state cut off from mainland America,and now is one step away from becoming the next Vice President of USA.

She was picked by McCain 3 days ago and I somehow feel that he did it to capitalise on the junta that felt that Obama "fucked" Hilary up. She's pro life, pro guns, anti-queer and has 5 kids. It's so easy for someone to judge you for objectifying her. Because she looks like this

Recently she announced that her 17 year old unmarried daughter Bristol, was pregnant. And also that Bristol intended on marrying the father of the child. I wonder if the father actually had a choice. True, that free will exists; however few teenagers would have the balls (ok, bad pun) to express it in front of a politically charged mommy who is big time pro guns. And then starts the rumours. As Reuters points here

McCain officials said the news of the daughter's pregnancy was being released to rebut what one aide called "mud-slinging and lies" that have circulated on liberal blog sites.

According to these rumors, Sarah Palin had faked a pregnancy and pretended to have given birth in April to her fifth child, a son named Trig who has Down syndrome. The rumor was that Trig was actually Bristol Palin's child and that Sarah Palin was the grandmother.

And through Gaurav's blog I found out that there exists this.

On another note, don't be surprised if you see a sudden overwhelming increase in posts relating to BITS Pilani politics. Coup d'etat is something one would never associate with the campus, however in a classic case of events, a coup pretty much sums up what one of the (un)presidential candidate pulled off yesterday. Respect to him for showing how easily the system can be mocked.

Closing thought: You know how how sometimes they say that be very sure about what to ask for, coz you might just get it?

Ads campaign for Obama in the hood!

Image by stevegarfield via Flickr
Bro's before Hoe's Y'all

Gone only...

Remember the chatter about the OBC/SC/ST quota last year. The row which made Arjun Singh into an instant villan and increased the number of hits belonging to his name by a crore-fold. Well, there have been some updates to the whole issue. And they're pretty SHOCKING. The supreme court today gave a nod to the 27% of seats to be given away as charity to the OBC's.
According to Rediff News:

A five-judge Constitution bench cleared the Central Educational Institutions (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 providing for the quota, by a unanimous verdict...The verdict came on a bunch of petitions by anti-quota activists challenging the Act. They vehemently opposed government's move saying caste cannot be the starting point for identifying backward classes. The inclusion of creamy layer in the reservation policy was also questioned by the anti-quota petitioners.

Well seriously speaking for all the brouhaha about how the nation's population majorly falls into the above mentioned categories, its tough to accept the fact that most of the people giving the JEE belong to the backward classes. Its also tough to accept the fact that when you go to write the JEE, one of the most competitive exams our country has to offer ( though it has become relatively easier), you're basically fighting for just half the seats, which to begin with aren't a substantial amount.

This decision is going to be implemented from the 2008-2009 academic year across the IIT's, IIM's and other government colleges.

The IIM's are going to be the ones losing the most. Seriously the top management institute in Asia cannot have half the seats( which are around a thousand to begin with) going away by reservations. But from what I know, the reservation factor in IIM's comes only once the candidate has cleared CAT, which makes it a somewhat better process as compared to the "easy" way that seems to be case in the JEE.

I guess now the best thing to do would be to switch on the TV. Every channel will be showing the protests and there will be panel discussions and probably some hunger strikes I suppose as well. This will be followed by satires, editorials and what not. The government is really going to get it this time.

Also, I can almost count the number of seconds before I see every person on my gtalk list change his status message to "Proud to be a BITSian". As proud as I am about my institution, I feel this is a concern for all Indians.