ramadocblog

“The proof was there for everyone to see!

He was as guilty as one can be!

Red handed was the way he was caught!

That is the power of a screenshot!”

The other day I was supposed to upload a photo on my kid’s ID card portal and I had to send that snap! Unfortunately the snap was high resolution and size and the web was not accepting it! Then all I did was open the photo in my gallery and take a screenshot! That reduced both the resolution and size!

Screenshot to the rescue once again! I have lost count of the number of times the screenshot has saved me! Bills, photos or text which I need in an instant, I take a screenshot and access it immediately!

One of the best inventions of the mobile era is definitely the Screenshot! This is a tool which is indispensable now and one of the most commonly used command in the phone! 

If you like a particular image or web page just shoot it! Of course it is used for screen grabbing pieces of text and other communications which may be used for evidence or blackmail! I use the screenshot when I get a bill or make a payment or a transfer of money. The best thing about screen shot is the ease and availability and the situation now is that you cannot imagine using the phone without taking a screenshot!

Many apps do warn you when someone takes a screenshot while many apps freeze the screen so that you cannot take the screenshot! 

This is so similar to the Print screen of the desktop computers!

This option was so useful and the fact that most computers had a shortcut key to this function will tell you of its fame and use!

Initially of course Print screen or screen shots were used to take a screen grab as a proof for gamers of their high scores! So when these functions were not available many used to use an external camera! So the first screen shot was actually shot by an external camera! Of course many cameras were not able to ‘read’ the screen so you needed special ones or good ones to do the job!

The first keyboard historically that had a dedicated Print Screen key was for the keyboard for the original IBM PC which was in the 1980s! The camera were with an oscilloscope camera – a special polaroid camera with a hood that fitted over the screen on a storage scope!

In the mobile world in a deviation of sorts; Apple introduced the first screen shot in their iPhones first in the year 2007 and it took the Androids four years to get this important function in their phones in 2011! Now of course the standard volume key and power button keys screenshot is the norm! 

In addition to this you can use you can use three finger screenshot in most Android phones including one plus! The path to activate this is Settings – additional settings – screenshot – three finger swipe.

In iPhone you can simply tap the back of the phone two times for screen shot and three taps for camera! Works mainly with iPhone 14 and later and this path is Settings-Accessibility – touch and back tap. 

Samsung phones and tabs have a nifty swipe screenshot which is really cool! 

You can say hi Bixby and tell to take screenshot or simply swipe with your palm right to left on the screen👍 and you can activate this by Settings -advanced- motion and gestures- palm swipe!

Now talking about screenshots; one of the guys who ‘shot’ to fame in the ‘screen’ for all the right reasons in birthday celebrity Remo D’Souza!

Now delete those screenshots which you took of those ‘chats’ and sleep and let others sleep peacefully!

Shubh ratri!

“The wise owl should have just looked away!

But the zeal to teach is a big sway!

If only he could have thought without a doubt

Do not try to teach those who cannot be taught!”

The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labors by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the intelligentsia consists of scholars, academics, teachers, journalists, and literary writers!

Later on sociologists derived the term mass intelligentsia to describe the populations of educated adults, with discretionary income, who pursue intellectual interests by way of book clubs and cultural associations, etc. 

A group of Intelligentsia who are like the top and who create new revolutionary ideas are called avant-garde! Since the 20th century, the art term avant-garde comprises of that comprises novelists and writers, artists and architects et al. whose creative perspectives, ideas, and experimental artworks challenge the cultural values of contemporary bourgeois society. 

The French military term avant-garde (advanced guard) identified a reconnaissance unit who scouted the terrain ahead of the main force of the army. In 19th-century French politics, the term avant-garde (vanguard) identified Left-wing political reformists who agitated for radical political change in French society. 

In the mid-19th century, as a cultural term, avant-garde identified a genre of art that advocated art-as-politics, art as an aesthetic and political means for realizing social change in a society. 

So intelligent radical and almost military group of people who like to bring change in a society are Avant- Garde!  Ultimately, despite criticism, avant-garde works are often considered necessary to break new ground and move the needle in the long run in terms of artistic expression and creative freedom! These are the group of people who come up with new revolutions and new limits! One intelligent and brilliant scientist is birthday celebrity Sivan Kailasavadivu who is recognized for his groundbreaking efforts in developing cryogenic engines that are crucial for launching massive payloads into space. He is also known as the Rocket man! 

Now do the intelligent thing and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“The gun was shocked at that order to shoot

It had seen no threat to boot

All it saw was the killer with the animalistic zeal

Then it felt happy that it did not have a heart to feel”

He was born in Murree, in the Punjab province of British India, which is now in Pakistan on 9 October 1864.

He spent his childhood in Murree and Shimla and received his early education at the Lawrence College Ghora Gali, Murree and Bishop Cotton School in Shimla!

He also briefly studied medicine, at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.

He was also fluent in a number of Indian languages as well as Persian.

With all these qualifications you would assume that the person would love India and Indians or at least have some compassion to the country in which he was born.

Even if that was not there since he was in army, every human being however bad or strict or following orders; would never harm any person who is unarmed.

Now some army folks can still think of unarmed people as a risk, but even then no human would ever harm women and helpless children who were at his mercy when he actually had no risk to his or any one else’s life.

The thought process which would have gone in his mind when he ordered his battalion to shoot a peaceful gathering of unarmed men, women and innocent children actually makes him more worse than many dictators of his time. 

The only reason the number  of people killed even though is more is in the range of 400 to 1000s is that the ammunitions were over. The more concerning factor was that he did not even allow the injured to be treated or rescued by declaring martial law. 

One of the most despicable acts in the history of India was done today several years back by one born in India. And to think that this rank was actually a temporary post given to him and if he had not shot a single person, no one would have said a thing! 

In the list of most cruel people ever to have lived, his name must always be there at the top;  R. E. H. Dyer…Jallianwala Bagh massacre still hurts…

Sorry for the melancholy; maybe you can lift yourself and feel a little better if you see some movies starring the birthday celebrity Dinesh Hingoo! And follow my mantra for all these; FORGIVE but never FORGET!

Say a prayer for those brave women who tried to protect their kids with their body and life.

Shubh Ratri…

“It was an odd gathering of people who wander

They had the look of a highlander!

Screams And laughter filled the air!

’twas not a movie but just the town fair!”

When we were young (er!) going to these exhibitions were a big thing! The best things were the cotton candies and the spicy fried fritters! Not to mention those split decision purchases made like the boat which worked only when the guy shows or the multi blade kitchen knife which used to cut like magic in the show but the moment we tried it at home; it could not even cut a tomato! Another often bought and never used contraption were the famous vegetable mincers or slicers! Out kitchen would have dozens of shapes and sizes and color but none of them have seen a vegetable in its life! My mother always used to say that cutting is made easy with them but to wash the mincer later was a big and irritating task! 

One of the things which kids used to love during those days were the rides! Since I was not too much into those rides though, I have never appreciated them! But now when you think about it, they were the center of attraction! The different colors and blinking lights used to look so magical! In fact the fair was a big affair if the chief ride was big and imposing! The bigger the ride, the better the deals! 

In fact if you can see the big ride in the center from very far then the deal is done!

Did you know that there are at least two structures now which are actually world famous but are the direct result of such fairs and exhibition!

One such fair was held long back called the Exposition Universelle of 1889, better known in English as the 1889 Paris Exposition, and was a world’s fair held in Paris, France, from 5 May to 31 October 1889!

It was the fifth of ten major expositions held in the city between 1855 and 1937.

It attracted more than thirty-two million visitors.

Of course that is a great number but what was remarkable is that there was a structure built for the fair which stood 

This tower was 330 metres (1,083 ft) tall!

During its construction, the Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest human-made structure in the world and it was the first structure in the world to surpass both the 200-metre and 300-metre mark in height!

You may know this tower as the Eiffel Tower!

When such an imposing structure was made in Paris, how can Chicago be far! So in one fair an engineer George Washington Gale was given the task of making a big ride to rival the Eiffel tower and this one must move!

So George designed a big ride which was around 80 meters was an large imposing structure and an instant hit! Plus the added bonus is that it could be dismantled and built in other fairs of the world! It later became the center ride of most fairs all over the world! 

The full name of the engineer was  George Washington Gale Ferris, Jr!

And yes! The name of the ride of the wheel is The Ferris Wheel!

Ferris thus got the task of coming up with something “daring and unique.” This kind of amusement park wheel had been designed before, but not at this scale. Ferris’s wheel was 250 feet in diameter and it carried 36 cars, each with a capacity of 60 people! History is strange indeed! Strange (r) also is the amazing series Stranger things starring birthday celebrity David Kenneth Harbour! 

Now think about the upside down in stranger things and lie down!

Shubh ratri!

“No one understood him ’cause what he said was esoteric!
Then again his words were also eclectic!
His ideas were too grand for anyone to deny!
Of course only he knew, it was all a lie!”


A casual conversation between some pretty intelligent minds leads to a great theory and then a tsunami of theories and stories and hypothesis to either support or explain or refute the original theory! Confused!? That is the Paradox! Fermi’s Paradox!

During one such high ‘spirited’ talk he actually blurted out, “But where is everybody?”

He was of course talking about the extraterrestrials who are supposedly out there but have still not contact us!

This latest show called the 3 body problem (a good watch but it starts really slow!); is a
direct result of trying to explain the Fermi Paradox!

Now properly speaking, the Fermi paradox is the discrepancy between the lack of conclusive evidence of advanced extraterrestrial life and the apparently high likelihood of its existence. Basically in simple terms it means that if there are intelligent beings out there who may have developed before Humans and who have the tech and the means of travel and communications, then why have they not made contact with us!?

Now the assumption that there may be intelligent life out there (sometimes I even doubt about intelligent life out here!) can be made since as Carl Sagan says in his book The Pale blue dot, that there are billions of galaxies and billions of stars and billions of even universe so the chance happening of life is not that improbable!

So the valid question of why they have not contacted you has been explained by many including one called the zoo hypothesis!
The hypothesis states that alien life intentionally avoids communication with Earth to allow for natural evolution and sociocultural development, and avoiding interplanetary contamination, similar to people observing animals at a zoo! Basically it can mean that the alien life does not want to have any conflict with us! Or maybe they just do not want to talk to us in which case they may actually be more intelligent than us!

Another hypothesis is called the “laboratory” hypothesis, in which humanity is being subjected to experiments, with Earth serving as a giant laboratory! Well, if someone is experimenting on us then they are in for some disappointment soon! Because as the 3 body aliens find out rather shockingly about us! Human beings lie! Not the sleeping kind but the opposite of truth one! And that is something which no actually intelligent life can ever understand! Of course an intelligent wife can! Talking of wife and intelligence brings to mind birthday celebrity Jyotirao Govindrao Phule and his efforts for women’s rights!

Now give your intelligence a rest by doing the lie of the sleeping kind!
Shubh ratri!

“This is not something which you can tether!
It can go everywhere all weather!
Now don’t make the plans came to nought!
It’s not something you can see, it’s just your thought!”

Do you know what’s common between The Mafia and the werewolf!?

Apart from the fact that they are both scary especially in the night!

The other commonality is that they are the names of a a Russian social deduction game created by Dimitry Davidoff in 1986!

The game models a conflict between two groups: an informed minority (the mafiosi or the werewolves) and an uninformed majority (the villagers). At the start of the game, each player is secretly assigned a role affiliated with one of these teams.

The game has two alternating phases: first, a night-phase, during which those with night-killing-powers may covertly kill other players, and second, a day-phase, in which all surviving players debate and vote to eliminate a suspect.
The game continues until a faction achieves its win-condition; for the village, this usually means eliminating the evil minority, while for the minority, this usually means reaching numerical parity with the village and eliminating any rival evil groups!

With a small minority of people with information fighting a majority of people who have no information and only can do guess work, the usual outcome is that the Mafia or the werewolf win most of the time!

In fact the game is based on a mathematical model! So most analyses of optimal play have assumed both (a) that there are only townsfolk and Mafiosi and (b) that the townsfolk never have a probability of identifying the Mafia that is better than chance!


The game also has been told to have shared roles and Hidden Agendas!
Similarly, within an organization, leaders and employees play distinct roles. Just as werewolves hide their true identity, leaders often have hidden agendas or strategic decisions that impact the team!

Those few people with information can make the uninformed majority bend or move according to their convenience and will! The conclusion is that uninformed majority always lose a battle of information against an informed minority!

And you thought life is a game! Here’s a game which is literally; life! Game was also how it felt when birthday celebrity Satish Kaushik used to deliver his dialogues so effortlessly!

Now stop thinking about games and play the game of life! The latest mission of that now is to sleep!
shubh ratri!

“It went so fast that it was gone the moment his lips were ajar!

He never realized that it could get so far!

The damage it could do was spread north and south!

After all they were the hurtful words coming from his mouth!”

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a brain scientist and author of “Whole Brain Living” and “My Stroke of Insight” but he is most well known because of his now famous 90 second rule!

The rule is that, ““When a person has a reaction to something in their environment, there’s a 90-second chemical process that happens; any remaining emotional response is just the person choosing to stay in that emotional loop.”

Basically this means that when you react to something in your environment that is if you are having a stimulus like anger or fear; there’s a 90-second process where your brain fires a signal and a stress hormone is released in your body to stimulate a fight, flight, or freeze response! That is the trigger point in simple terms. 

Like the 3 body problem, this is like a beginning of a chain reaction or starting of a domino! If you can hold your emotion and let the firing for 90 seconds, the stimulus is lost and you will have a reset point! 

Any remaining emotional response is caused by staying in that emotional loop by ruminating on a thought or event and creating ongoing emotional and physiological responses in the brain and body!

In the book called 30 days to a more powerful vocabulary by Dan Strutzel; the author tell about this rule and give a suggestion on how to make use of the hack of 90 second rule!

The author states how the moment you enter a new place, like say from work to home and you are stressed with the issues at work and all you want to do it put everything on someone; you simply reach home and for the first 90 seconds do not do anything! Simply stare at the clock and wait for 90 seconds! Basically this means that we must try to observe our response rather than engage with it! The better able we are to do this, the more power we have over what we express in the world when we’re under pressure!

After 90 seconds, the trigger or volcano has been extinguished and apparently you can have a controlled reaction! Alternatively you can simply listen to a soft song like that sung by birthday celebrity Bhupinder Singh for 90 seconds or more and have the same result! 

If you are not feeling sleepy you can also read my blog for 90 seconds and am sure you will sleep well!

Shubh Ratri!

Audiobook

Non fiction 

The following is a summary of those who may not get time to read or listen to the book and a brief for those who do! No spoilers!

The book starts with the issues of selection in many situations. Whether you select the first one or wait and watch for a better option to come. The same thing is also the secretary problem since in a list of potential people who turn up for the job, you may not go with the first one but then which number do you stop!?

Searching for an apartment in a busy city and the rat race to find it! 

In both these situations, the author tells us about 37 percent!

Use only 37 percent of your allocated time to research and get the first one or immediate one after that!

You can use similar algorithms in every aspect!

Before it was used on computers, it was used in Humans! Finite sequence of steps used to solve a problem 

History of the word algorithm and based on some Persian mathematician! The term algorithm derives from the name of Muhammad ibn Mūsā al’Khwārizmī, a ninth-century Persian mathematician. His latinized name, Algoritmi, meant “the decimal number system” and was used in this meaning for centuries!

Quotes Carl Sagan! Science is a way of thinking and not just a body of knowledge!

Like the book do not think by Joseph Nguyen; he also says not to think and trust your instinct! 

The secretary problem demonstrates a scenario involving optimal stopping theory that is studied extensively in the fields of applied probability, statistics, and decision theory. It is also known as the marriage problem, the sultan’s dowry problem, the fussy suitor problem, the googol game, and the best choice problem. Its solution is also known as the 37% rule!

Merrill Meeks Flood (1908 – 1991) was an American mathematician, notable for developing, with Melvin Dresher, the basis of the game theoretical Prisoner’s dilemma model of cooperation and conflict while being at RAND in 1950. Albert W. Tucker gave the game its prison-sentence interpretation, and thus the name by which it is known today!

The book also tells an interesting story of a famous scientist who used the selection method and pros and cons to select his second wife! Successfully!

Exploration and exploitation more or less the same! In both the essence is to investigate or dig further to get your job done!

The authors tell how it is better to try and fail rather than fail to try!

They talk about the card sorting machine which was actually invented for census because the whole process was long and cumbersome. The Holoret machine for census which later became IBM card sorting machine and finally gave rise to proper computers! The history described in very interesting! 

So the card sorting is essentially getting an order to make the things simple and successful. Sorting is making order; doing laundry properly as the author say!

They talk about computer terminologies like Big O notation, Bubble sort, Comparison counting sort, Ping attack and most importantly Cache which is the key word! How these influence the routine has been described.

Look and leap! Take your chance after a period of thought and then do not procrastinate! But is that the deal always! 

The authors introduced a new term which is almost as bad as Procrastinate which is in fact almost the opposite meaning! So this is the act of completing tasks as soon as possible even if it costs extra effort or the quality of the outcome deteriorates! Some people may use this approach in order to avoid the anxiety and stress of last-minute work! In some areas this faster but inefficient completion of work is actually considered an unhealthy behavior pattern and is accompanied by symptoms such as conscientiousness, eagerness to please, and high energy!

The word is Precrastinate! 

Different types of auction are described like the Dutch, English or Vikry (Do not know the proper spelling because I only heard it!) auction! Of course in most auctions you give the deal to the most cheapest or the highest bid! But then that does not assure the best value! So in Vikry auction, the deal is given to the second best! 

They tell about a textbook available in Amazon for some million dollars plus shipping because of some algorithm error! Apparently the algorithm did not know when to stop!

Revelation principle; any game which requires strategically masking the truth can be transformed into a game which requires nothing but simple honesty! 

Prisoner’s dilemma! which is a commonly discussed issue and how it’s always better to defect! Same thing on a larger scale in field for grazing!

A similar dilemma which can never have a proper solution is Sitting or table arrangement in a restaurant or parking in a mall!

The authors tell about an interesting thing about an ANT which is infected by a parasite and climbs a mountain so that it can be picked up by a bird which is the final destination of the parasite! Similarly how Toxoplasmosis makes a rat not be fearful of the cat! Because the final destination of Toxoplasmosis is the cat gut!

All in all a very interesting book on life and how many actions are algorithmically derived! The final parts of the book end with moral and statements of positivity like Be kinder to others and be kinder to yourself or how life is too complicated and the fact that these aren’t the concessions we make for being rational but that’s what being rational means!

“The sweet voice of the nightingale was a euphony

Like the sound of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony!

Nature is beautiful for all to see and hear

Laugh at the joy and for the pain, shed a tear!”

Do you know who is Kane Kramer?

Not the quirky Cosmo Kramer from Seinfeld whom everyone knows! Even Kramer though was an inventor of sorts!

Kane invented a music player which was the size of a credit card with a small LCD screen and navigation and volume buttons and would have held data of at least 8 MB of solid-state bubble memory chip with a capacity of 3½ minutes’ worth of audio! He was the first one to patent the idea too!

Plans were made for a 10-minute stereo memory card and the system was at one time fitted with a hard drive enabling over an hour of recorded digital music. His first investor was Sir Paul McCartney! 

Later, Kramer set up a company to promote the player now called IXI and five working prototypes were produced with 16-bit sampling at 44.1 kilohertz with the pre-production prototype being unveiled at the APRS Audio/Visual trade exhibition!

At that time the company at the time had “orders worth £60 million” (value at current day!) for the device from the recording industry!

However, in 1988 a boardroom dispute within Kramer’s company and the subsequent failure to raise the £60,000 required to renew the patent resulted in the patent lapsing and entering the public domain!

Apple of course picked it up and developed the first music player in the same lines! Yes! The iPOD!

So Kane is the official genius behind the iPOD! And he came up with this idea of technology when he was just 23 years old, in 1979! What were you doing when you were 23 years old! Most probably reading! Younger days though would have been spent watching Kung Fu movies especially starring the birthday celebrity Jackie Chan! 

Now maybe ask Alexa or Siri to play soft instrumental music and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!

“He was singing a song for her it felt like a screeching cat!

She was wondering what he was actually getting at!

But she understood it was only the sound which was askew!

The meaning of his words was more important, that she knew!”

This is a billion dollar industry and most famous all over the world and the most popular past time in the country where it was invented!

The literal translation of the word means ”Empty Orchestra!” 

So the story goes about Daisuke Inoue who was a drummer in a band that made its money in the 1960s by providing backing music for drunk Japanese businessmen!

One of these customers asked Inoue to play for him during a trip. Inoue was unable to leave his job and instead offered the man a tape of the band’s accompaniment!

One rendition of a Japanese ballad later, and this concept was born!

Unfortunately for Inoue, he failed to capitalize on the idea despite developing 11 more machines and renting them out to bars and clubs. His failure to secure a patent allowed other companies to move in and develop their own variants of the machine!

His biggest contribution was understanding the difficulty amateurs had in singing pop songs, recording his own versions of popular songs in keys that made them easier for casual singers!

As such he also included a rudimentary reverb function to help mask singers’ deficiencies. For these reasons, he is often considered to be the inventor of the modern business model for this past time!

Now, its musical content is an instrumental version of a well-known popular song. In recent times, lyrics are typically displayed on a video screen, along with a moving symbol, changing colour, or music video images, to guide the singer!

Nevertheless this spread throughout Kobe, then, over the course of the Seventies, all of Japan as major manufacturers such as JVC began producing their own versions of the singing machine! 

So did you get it!?

Yes! Its Karaoke! 

The official patent holder of the karaoke machine is Roberto del Rosario, who is from the Philippines. He developed the karaoke’s sing-along system in 1975 and is recognized as the sole holder of a patent for a karaoke system in the world!

With the advent of apps like Smule and you tube music; Karaoke is a global phenomenon and it does not matter whether you sing well or not! It is a fun time activity and not the Grammy award! Talking about Grammy reminds me of another world famous Grammy winner and today’s birthday celebrity Pundit Ravi Shankar!

Now maybe sing a soft lullaby on Karaoke and sleep!

Shubh Ratri!