Author Archives: Candidasa dasa, UK

Slaughter: lessons learnt
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When you come up with a new idea, for heavens sake, don??(TM)t present in a public forum: envious, self-obsessed people will cut you down to make themselves look good. Instead, talk to as many people as possible one-to-one. Get their feedback and slowly perfect the idea, so that, when it comes time to present it, everyone in the room already knows all about it and agrees with your plan (and there was no reason anymore to actually give the presentation).

Researchers will try to help each other up to a point, but everyone very much looks out for their own prestige and publication count. This is very different from working in a company: there maximum teamwork is encouraged. ??oeWorks well in a team?? is never in the job description for a researcher, but very much a critical skill for any corporate employee. Firms are in the research game so that the company as-a-whole can make more money. Universities are also in the research game to make more (government grant) money, but it??(TM)s more every man/woman/student for himself/herself.

There is more freedom in academic, but also more competition. Whereas employees in the corporate world are slaves, but at least don??(TM)t need to worry about someone stealing their good ideas.

However, whatever the field of work, the politics and social manipulation is often much more important than actual skill. I might as well try to learn (or renouce it all and live the worry free, easy life of a saint).

Slaughtered by logicians
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I gave a lunchtime presentation yesterday. It was the same event that my colleague got hammered at last week. Only this time practically the entire research group attended: about 35 people.

My presentation was about the potential future direction of my research. I had planned to talk about how I could incremental classify otherwise unmanageably large ontologies. However, I was barely past the first powerpoint slide when one professor started pointing out flaws in the formal language, logic and approach I was suggesting. I attempting to carry on, but as I went on, the audience of experts (Manchester is the world leader in automated reasoning/classification) pointed out more and more flaws and areas I had not yet though through sufficiently.

Very soon it didn??(TM)t matter what I said. No one was listening anymore. I had some genuinely good ideas, but by they were buried under the initial barrage.

I was surprised at the bloodlust with which I was set upon. My (wrong) assumption was that I could present my idea to a friendly group of fellow researchers to get useful feedback and advice. Instead, every tiny inconstancy and imprecise use of terminology was berated.

Advice from my supervisor (he couldn??(TM)t make it to my talk because he was out of the country at the time, but got emails expressing concerned from practically every researcher who was there): ??oeYou??(TM)re too far along in your career to get away with presenting half-baked ideas (though he said it was very good when I rehearsed the presentation with him the week before). Some of these people are so certain that they are right that they are very difficult to convince otherwise, even when they’re wrong, which actually happens quite often??. I have to be super-rock-solid in knowing my stuff. Even with these so-called ??oefriends??.

My supervisor was supportive and impressed that I was not completely emotionally shattered by the experience. Note: I was certainly shattered, but chanting the Hare Krishna mantra the next morning drew all the emotion out of me and fixed my consciousness. My body is another (ongoing) story: more on that tomorrow.

I still think that my idea for incremental classification would work, but now it is probably best done in a different way by someone other than me. Also, now everyone in the department thinks I??(TM)m an idiot and don??(TM)t know what I??(TM)m talking about (and lots of people feel really sorry for me for being ripped apart so severely). So, I??(TM)m going to change the direction of my research away from the hard-core description logic to a more practical/maintenance focus.

Someone today asked me if the experience has put me off. It certainly has put me off logic. If becoming a logician turns people into a blood thirsty vampires, that??(TM)s not a career path of choice for me. I also prefer doing things which are of practically use. Formal logic can get rather theoretical.

So, in the end: my armour is cracked, my body is wounded, but I??(TM)m still alive. Time to regroup and fight a new battle on another day.

Devamrita Swami: Levels of understanding of God
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download
Place: Heidelberg Temple, Germany
Time: 76 min.

Summary:
There is a huge gap between belief in God and understanding Krishna. Any civilized human being can believe in God. So what? Understanding Krishna however gives freedom from repeated birth, doing the same few basic activities over and over again and eventual death. Many people however want God to stay out of our affairs. Krishna hides himself from such people.

Devamrita Swami gives the example of his father??(TM)s desire to enjoy the satisfaction of seeing his children happy at Christmas. Some slight selfishness is always there in us, but Krishna acts without motives. He acts simply to please his devotees.

While Krishna gets no reactions for His actions, we most certainly do. Devamrita Swami??(TM)s father, after returning from a world-trip, told his fianc?©e: ??oeI??(TM)ve seen that there are other ways of relating to God than through Jesus?? and received a heavy reaction. If we act according to Krishna??(TM)s direction we??(TM)ll be free from reactions, but as long as we have material motives then there will be reactions.

Questions:

  • Is it part of Krishna consciousness to become free from karma?
  • Doesn??(TM)t Krishna have some desire for us to become Krishna conscious and he therefore isn??(TM)t desireless?
  • Do we relate with Krishna, or does he relate with us?
  • New devotees might be serving Krishna for his own benefit. Will selfless service automatically develop?
  • Is it similar with serving the devotees? Will the heart gradually soften simply by mechanical service?

New features on deltaflow
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There are a couple of new features on my blog that I though I??(TM)d tell you about. Have you notice the colorful buttons under the ??oemeta?? heading on the right side of the page? Here??(TM)s what they do:

Do you want to be automatically kept up to date with the latest interesting sounds from the spiritual world? Well, today is your lucky day. Just click the green button.

You can automatically subscribe to my MP3 Podcasts using Apple??(TM)s iTunes application by pressing the green ??oeSubscribe?? button. By doing this your computer??(TM)s iTunes media player software (and iPod, if you have one) will automatically download the latest talks and lecture I publish. I??(TM)ll be releasing a bunch of new MP3s very soon, so keep your ears primed.

Using iTunes is easier, if you know what you??(TM)re doing you can use any RSS Podcast aggregator (like iPodder) to subscribe. ??oeRSS Podcast?? button allows you to get the standard Really Simple Syndication (RSS) news/mp3 feed from my website.

Finally, the ??oeBF Mapstats?? button allows you to see many people from around the world who visit this website. Click on and see the physical location of the last five people who visited in a Google Map. Neat stuff (it??(TM)s a service offered by a website called BlogFlux, hence the BF title).

Re-install, re-start, re-fresh
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I reinstalled Windows XP on my computer over the weekend. My lowly Dell Inspiron 4150 laptop was showing its age. The operating system was clogged up lots and lots of old applications and orphaned data. It was time for a spring clean.

I deleted everything (after doing a backup) and started from scratch. It took three days to install all the many, many programs, utilities and applications I use. I must have downloaded gigabytes of updates and software. Windows itself is the worst culprit. The amount of patches and updates Microsoft has released in 3 years is mind-boggling.

As Gopala-Guru has remarked recently: something as complex as Windows needs constant tweaking and fixing by highly intelligent software engineers. Something even more complex, like the human body, supposedly came about completely by chance and involved no intelligent design whatsoever. Uh-hu ??¦

Yes, sometimes it is necessary to tear down the decrepit, old, moldy, rotten and highly unstable foundations and start over. A fresh new beginning to break free from past paradigms can work wonders. Free from debt and in a new attractive, city-center location …

It certainly worked well for my computer. It runs so much faster now. Almost like new. The austerity of the re-install will help me get a few more months of life out of this machine.

Mac mini + OS X review
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I got my parents a new Mac mini computer (cost: US$500). I was using it when I visited them last week. Here are my impressions / review:

Shortcomings:

  • No preview of image files in the Finder. Windows can easily do this. What was Apple thinking?
  • Inconsistent Home/End key effects. End usually goes to the end of the document (expect in Word or some other Windows centric text editors).
  • I have to relearn to use the Windows/Cloverleaf/Apple key. Nearly all keyboard shortcuts use it. Of course, I can remap the key to CTRL and all is well.
  • Safari is a decent enough web-browser, but it crashes too much. Firefox rulez!
  • When the Dock crashes, spin-locks, or hangs the Apple equivalent of Ctrl-Alt-Del, which is Command-Alt-ESC, cannot be used to Force Quit and restart it. It is a special hidden process. I have to start the Activity Monitor to restart the Dock. However, when Dock crashes it is impossible to start the Activity Monitor (because I have to use the Dock to start the application). Bad design!
  • The 1.42 Ghz G4 processor is seriously underpowered. Compared with a modern Pentium-M based notebook this machine is a real dog, especially when I??(TM)m heavily multi-tasking. No wonder Apple is switching to Intel processors.
  • The dual-core P-M (code name Yonah) processor (due to come out in early 2006) will hopefully fix all this.

The good:

  • Expos?© is great. Instead of Alt-Tab I found myself flicking to a screen corner and clicking on a preview-window. It is a much more sure way of switching between applications. No more guess work when I switch applications.
  • The Dock: It may be inconsistent and bastardized to do too many different things, but, somehow or other, it just works. It does what it should and does so very well. I like it.
  • Setup via System Preferences is very nice, understandable and clean. Much better than the Windows control panel and much, much, much (!) better than the various home-grown Linux config tools.
  • Application installation and uninstallation is (mostly) very intuitive. Just drag and drop.
  • Software update is quick and painless. Unlike Windows-Update, it doesn??(TM)t bewilder you with too many unnecessary options.
  • Core applications are small, light and start quickly. No overblown monsters like Microsoft Outlook.
  • The H.264 video codec is amazing. Downloaded HD-video content looks terrific. However, decoding the video bring the processor to its knees. Major meltdown (cooling fan kick-in).
  • Security is really good. One can clearly see that Apple have thought about protecting users from viruses and spyware without insulting our intelligence, or hurting ease of use.
  • Blend transitions are used everywhere. No harsh flicker. The whole interface looks very elegant and refined. Animations are smooth, fast and useful.
  • The maximize button is smart. It makes a window use only as much screen space as it needs. This makes using widescreen displays useful. Applications can be placed side-by-side with a minimum of effort.
  • Bluetooth support is excellent. Plug and play. Bluetooth on Windows is a nightmare. I??(TM)ve never gotten any Bluetooth gear to work with a Windows-box.
  • Scroll-wheel focus actually works. Windows don??(TM)t suddenly loose focus for no reason. However, web-browser windows do frequently and annoyingly steal the focus. Just like in Windows.
  • The Mac mini computer itself is tiny and beautiful. 30 times smaller than the old tower case it replaced. Faster too.