Category: Science & technology

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Science & technology

[145] Of I hate Apples but I might love it in the future

I do remember way back in the late eighties that I was an Apple freak. No, not that apple, I mean the Apple computer. For those of you that know me well, you might be surprised to know that I was a Macintosh lover.

Yeah, those were the days when Windows was nothing but a sperm searching the ovum and Lotus 123 was in the making. Back in those days, there was only Apple and Apple and IBM was competing against each other. (Whatever happened to IBM anyways?)

Back in the late eighties, my cousins and I were groups of the few people that had ever touched a computer and had the luxury of playing Karate-Ka on a Macintosh. A Mac. That Mac was the granddaddy of today’s ultra useless iMac with its own looked-cute-but-pathetic operating system.

Shortly, competitor named Commodore then was born but Apple somehow survived the wave that Commodore 64 made.

Then, came along the motto “Windows won’t win as long as Apple and Lotus 123 still run”. DOS was introduced by Microsoft for IBM computer and it quickly shoved off Apple out from the market. Later, Windows 3.1 hit the public and with that Microsoft managed to sideline the “Steves”. Bill Gates finally declared victory with the introduction of Windows 95.

From that moment on, I didn’t hear anything about Steve Job, Steve Wozniak, the Mac or Apple in the news nor in public conversation until the new millennium was around the corner.

While I was back in Shah Alam doing my useless preparatory classes, I must admit that I didn’t get the chance to get my hand on a so-called modern Mac although I did hear a lot of hype about it. My first modern Mac experience was in September 2001. I didn’t know how to use a Mac at that time but I tried to overcome my ignorance on Mac. Tries after tries, ignorance became knowledge and I found out that despite my disgust of Microsoft’s monopoly, I found IBM computers and especially a computer with Windows operating system is better than a cute Mac with a ghetto OS.

Beside the OS, the Mac keyboard failed to give the cool experience that a Logitech’s keyboard provides. Furthermore, the command for cut and paste are so different for what normal people are used to. And the mouse! How could I forget about the mouse? Imagine a mouse with only one button. Nowadays, the most advance mouse has more than 5 programmable buttons but Apple decided that one button is okay. Yeah, try that mouse while playing UT2K3!

And the ultimate reason is that you can’t upgrade a Mac with the normal hardware or software found in the market. For instance, if you want to play Civilization 3, you have to buy a game entitled Civilization 3 For Mac. Wtf? So, one can say that a Mac is never compatible with anything. Even its iPod doesn’t support any other platform other than Apple’s until recently.

Wait, there is another ultimate reason. Apple is always overpriced. As an example, you are short on money, its better to get a Creative Lab’s Nomad rather than reaching for an iPod. For proof, the following line was taken from apple-history.com:

The 15″ model, with a 60 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, 32 MB of VRAM and a CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive, was $1299. The 17″ model, with an 80 GB hard drive, 256 MB of RAM, 64 MB of VRAM, and a CD-RW/DVD-R “SuperDrive” was $1799.

For USD1799, I could get a ultra powerful workstation with AMD Athlon XP 3000+ or the latest Intel Pentium, 120 GB of HD, 512 or even 1024 of DDR RAM, the fastest CD-RW/DVD-R, equipped with ATi Radeon 9700 Pro while enjoying the great graphics with detailed sound by SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum through Creative Inspire 6.1 6600, a Logitech keyboard and optical mouse and cool a 21” flat CRT.

However, Apple then introduced OS X, which really impressed me. Nevertheless, I still prefer Windows XP (or Linux but Linux is a pain in the ass). Also, Apple’s Firewire came out and beat the crap out of USB 1.1. The excitement didn’t end there. The ghetto iBook was phased out by the PowerBook and iMac was given a new look with an incredible slim design (the iMac still sucks though). And the curves, oo la la. It is like watching a Nissan Z or a Toyota Celica 2002 in front of you.

Earlier this year, Apple made another impact. They introduced the smallest ever laptop – ops PowerBook and the world first 17′ laptop – ops sorry again, I mean PowerBook. If that didn’t impress me, I don’t know what will.

And early last week, I visited an Apple Store up in Novi, Michigan with Wann, Izham and Epol. There, I saw a 23” screen for Mac. The largest, ever monitor I had ever seen. I’d always though 21” was the largest. The only word that I managed to muster was
“shhhhiiitttttteee”

While there, Wann showed me a Mac lovers’ motto, “My anti-Mac sentiment was based on ignorance”. (I bet they are also ignorant on technology too). My anti-Mac sentiment is certainly based on knowledge but with the development by Steve Job and company, I won’t be surprised if in ten or fifteen years or anytime in the future, I will love Apple again the way I had loved the machine that I played Karate-Ka on. In fact, I am already in love with the 12” PowerBook.

So now, I will stop harassing the Mac lovers since I don’t want to eat my own words back.

p/s – have you guys seen Ada Apa Dengan Cinta? Seriously, I think one of those girls look like Mahira (or however you spell it) from Vanderbilt. The next time I meet her, I am seriously going to ask for her autograph.

p/s 2 – I’ve finally been to the Vu =) (well, I was only at the door steps of the thing with some solar guys, searching for a good restaurant in Ypsilanti).

Categories
Science & technology

[134] Of NASA lost contact with Columbia

Emergency!

NASA has just lost contact with Space Shuttle Columbia!!!


I hope it’s not another Challenger accident. Pray for them.

Categories
Kitchen sink Sci-fi Science & technology

[44] Of time travel

It has been a long time since I last felt bliss. For once in my disordered life, I managed to snatch a frame of time that doesn’t run nor crawl. Time just stood still for me at one particular moment, just for me alone.

It was late in the morning; I woke up naked from bed with weary eyes and heard a few birds chipping nearby. It’s a dream, I told myself but yet, I knew my awareness was simply present at that time. I sat on the bed, unmoved and confused.

My eyes were struggling to cope with the intense but much welcome sunlight. Confusion overwhelmed me but the confusion simply brought my heart pleasure. The sound of chipping birds just continued on without even a second of pause. It sang continuously and I could swear to God that my other self was singing and dancing in chorus with the rhythm.

Moments passed and when another moment was about to pass through me, I started to notice the condition of my messy room. But finally, I was freed from slumberland. Awaken, I quickly realized that the birds were resting near my wooden window.

Two sparrows, overlooking the sun-lit side of the proud Michigan Union were singing together happily.

Those two flying creatures saw me but they ignored as if they knew that I will never have the heart hurt such a small but lovely beast. They just sang as if there are no worries in this world. I also had forgotten all of my worries. I need not to worry because time stood still for me. When time stops, there are no worries for any of us. Hell freezes – eternity is all we have for everything.

I stared at them but seeing not them. I saw through them. Instead of seeing two singing sparrows, I saw the bluish sky with the mighty Sun shone brilliantly over the earth. Winter had left me quietly.

Wrapping myself with my favorite soft blanket, I came closer to the birds, standing closely to them. The sparrows just ignored me and sang without lapse. I just stood near the window with my chaotic hair, finding myself enjoying the sparrows’ offering.

It’s spring. The equinox must be nearing. Thank God it’s coming.

1045 hours. Fifteen minutes to my next class. Time suddenly sped and the sparrows flew away leaving me alone. Sigh…

Would you believe me if I said that time travel if possible?

You might be remembering Michael J. Fox in the Back to the Future series upon the word time travel but throughout our life, we are traveling through time. We are traveling into the future while experiencing the past without us realizing it. There is no such thing as the “present time”. There are only the past tense and the future tense. Present tense is irrelevant in our life. Past and future tense are the present tense. In a sense, time travel is possible but present time is impossible.

The notion of present time is so vague if you sit down and think about it. It’s like how do you know whether God does exist or not?

Is it possible to have a time that is at the “present time”? Certainly you would say yes but consider this; everything take time to travel. The photons that our retina senses are the photons that were created billions of years plus roughly eight minutes in the core of our star. So, we are sensing the photons that were created during even the mono-cells life forms were still non-existing when we see go out and burns ourselves under the sun.
There is no such thing as “present time” because light does not travel instantly from one place to another. Light needs a certain amount of time to travel. If light travels with infinite speed, only then can we say that we are experiencing “present time”.

Even this paragraph, is the light that was produced by the c.r.t. a few microseconds ago. Therefore, you are reading the thing of the past when you read it.

Moments later, you will read the following sentence and that will be your future time but right now you are reading this sentence which was the product of electrons bombardment a few microseconds ago, which means that your retina actually was sensing the photons that were produced microseconds ago when you were reading the last sentence. Thus, the first sentence of this paragraph that you read was the past when you were reading it but right now you are reading this sentence. You might think that when you are reading the last sentence, you are reading it but no, you read it, not reading it. (When you were reading the sentence before the last sentence, you saw that sentence before the last sentence, not seeing it. Got it?)

To say that we are living at the present time, is really saying that we are experiencing the past in the near future. We are just moving too slowly to realize this fact.

The notion of present time is not easy to describe. Even scholars of the past were confused until the word instantaneous was fully described by calculus. But yet, none of us could really grasp the meaning of present time in everyday life because to have instantaneousness , time must be set to zero and if that holds true, time does not move. Present time is meaningful if it is an instantaneous time. Instantaneous time is meaningful if only time stops. Present time is meaningful if and only if time stops. Unfortunately, time does not stop except at the event horizon. Therefore, the word “present time” is meaningless.

We are traveling through time. Time travel is possible but “present time” is a phrase that describes something impossible.

Present tense is irrelevant in our life but because we are moving too slowly (only a small tiny bit fraction of the speed of light), we are allowed to use present tense. We are allowed to use present tense because we can’t comprehend the experience of experiencing the near past in the near future. The fragment of time called the time where experiencing the near past in the near future is known as the present time. This means that the present time(p.t.) is a moment(a scenario, experience, etc), I called it Mmt over time(t) where time is zero.

p.t. = (Mmt/t) where t = 0. But if A is a real number and B = 0, A/B is meaningless but yet of course, we can use limits method but still, limits use the idea of nearing the 0, not 0. Thus, the limits method does not describe instantaneousness but rather, an approximation of instantaneousness.
This is illogical. I need to sleep.

Here is something that I found over the net. Heart touching, for me at least. God, let me see the light, someday.

Categories
Personal Science & technology

[28] Of the truth is out there

After such a long time of waiting and procrastination, I’ve finally, seriously started in building a homepage of my own. The design of the site has already been determined by me. Basically, the whole site will be based on the utilization of roughly 3 colors; the noon sky’s blue, white and black. Those three colors are going to be my official color. Some of the prototypes have already been posted on Geocities. So far, no problems that I can’t handle off.

The latest event is the reintroduction of SETI into my life. And yes, for those of you who were born in the eighties and believe in E.T., SETI is the acronym for The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. It’s also famous for its relation with the Aceribo’s Dish in Puerto Rico. Aceribo Dish is the largest single radio telescope in the world. It could be the most well known telescope of all.

Right now, with Athlon 1.7, a processor that has a very respectable computation power for home users, I’m helping the people in UC Berkeley in their search for aliens. It’s pretty interesting. It makes my computer even cooler. When the computer is being idle, it runs a screensaver that acts as a radio transmission analyzer.

SETI was first established by NASA in their quest to answer the question “Are we alone?” The program scanned the whole wide skies for unusual radio transmissions. The idea is to send out radio signals and hope that somebody out there will return our “call”. For years now, the program has been scanning the sky without much success. A few of the researchers themselves believe the odd of finding E.T. will be as large as what 3-CPO’s calculation of getting out of an asteroid field alive.

In the beginning, there were a lot of hypes and excitement. However, the excitement lost its momentum quickly and lastly, the American’s Congress, the institution that finances NASA told NASA to drop SETI out of its program. The reason that was given – SETI program is highly expensive. Although there were a lot of objection against the Congress’ directive, NASA finally bowed to the pressure and scraped SETI.

Nevertheless, a few scientists that were involved in that program continue to run SETI on their own in hope that their energy will not be wasted. One example of these group is the UC Berkeley’s version of SETI.

Is there any intelligence life form out there? If there is, does that mean the foundation of the world’s main religions will crumble under its own weight?

Most religions say that human is the best creation ever. They’re the only intelligence species in this realm. It would be interesting to see people’s reaction if we will ever meet up with another intelligence life form. We can speculate but the truth is out there. (Does that phrase sounds familiar?)