Planet ISKCON

I somehow managed to read an hour of the Nectar of Devotion throughout the day. Wow. Amazing book. It gets better every time I read it. Reading it makes me ecstatic, even if I don't understand what it is talking about. The other conference attendees must have been wondering why I was grinning ear-to-ear while reading some book.

Today's tutorial was on "Principles of AI Problem Solving". Three professors talked the group through various "classic" AI methods for solving problems.

All problems in classic AI can be reduced to the satisfiability problem SAT. Some examples of common problems can be abstracted into moving a robot from a certain initial state to a certain goal state on a grid. Four variations are possible:

- Actions are predicable and we can see exact what happens.
- Actions are predicable, but none of the moves are observable.
- Actions' effects are random/probabilistic, but we can see what happens.
- Actions' effects are probabilistic and we can only get partial information about the events on the grid. This is the hardest problem.

The various techniques for solving these problems involve searching different types of graph models of the problem space. Graphs can be transformed in certain ways to improve the efficiency of the search. A simple transformation is, for example, to reorder the graph to start at the node with the smallest domain/branching factor.

One lecturer mentioned that a technique called "hypergraph decomposition" that can be used to break a graph into weighted, equi-sized pieces. The AI problem is thereby divided up and (hopefully) becomes solvable in logarithmic time instead of the usual exponential time necessary to solve NP-complete problems,

I might be able to use this decomposition technique to break up my ontology by using a reasoning dependency structure. That would help a lot. Very interesting. I'll investigate further.

I somehow managed to read an hour of the Nectar of Devotion throughout the day. Wow. Amazing book. It gets better every time I read it. Reading it makes me ecstatic, even if I don't understand what it is talking about. The other conference attendees must have been wondering why I was grinning ear-to-ear while reading some book.

Today's tutorial was on "Principles of AI Problem Solving". Three professors talked the group through various "classic" AI methods for solving problems.

All problems in classic AI can be reduced to the satisfiability problem SAT. Some examples of common problems can be abstracted into moving a robot from a certain initial state to a certain goal state on a grid. Four variations are possible:

- Actions are predicable and we can see exact what happens.
- Actions are predicable, but none of the moves are observable.
- Actions' effects are random/probabilistic, but we can see what happens.
- Actions' effects are probabilistic and we can only get partial information about the events on the grid. This is the hardest problem.

The various techniques for solving these problems involve searching different types of graph models of the problem space. Graphs can be transformed in certain ways to improve the efficiency of the search. A simple transformation is, for example, to reorder the graph to start at the node with the smallest domain/branching factor.

One lecturer mentioned that a technique called "hypergraph decomposition" that can be used to break a graph into weighted, equi-sized pieces. The AI problem is thereby divided up and (hopefully) becomes solvable in logarithmic time instead of the usual exponential time necessary to solve NP-complete problems,

I might be able to use this decomposition technique to break up my ontology by using a reasoning dependency structure. That would help a lot. Very interesting. I'll investigate further.

The conference started today. The first few days are workshops and tutorials. The actual conference comes later.

So, today I attend a tutorial on "Automated Reasoning in First-Order Logic". Professor Andrei Voronkov from the University of Manchester talked us through some of his Vampire theorem-prover (version 8). He's been working on this system for the past 10 years and it is by far the fastest 1st-order logic reasoning system in the world. It wins just about every category in a yearly theorem-proving competition. The competition is often as much as 100 times slower. Vampire devours other provers.

However, for specialized reasoning in OWL, dedicated tableaux algorithm-based reasoners are quicker than Vampire. For now. I learnt that there are many parameters by which Vampire can be tweaked. A small change in the parameters will often allow the prover to answer a problem that was taking 24 hours before in a couple of seconds. However, finding the optimal settings is very much a black-art. No one understand which combination of parameters will give a good result. Andrei himself is pretty good, but he doesn't have the time to investigate all possible things people want to do with Vampire.

Professor Voronkov is taking a sabbatical at Microsoft Research in Seattle for the next year. Microsoft wants to use Vampire to formally verify device drivers. Bad drivers are a frequent cause of Windows crashing, so Microsoft is very interested in translating the code into logic syntax and letting Vampire find the bugs. Intel has been verifying all their chips in a similar fashion after the embarrassing bug in the original Pentium processor that caused it to give the incorrect answer on a few simple division operations.

Relating to my research, I found out that Vampire, unlike the tableaux-based reasoners, doesn't have a problem when classifying large data structures. One major difference between description logic and FOL is that the later is undecidable. The prover can answer "don't know". A description logic reasoner will however always, in theory, be able answer conclusively. In practice it often answers "stack-overflow" when faced with the ontologies I throw at it.

Anyway, Vampire achieves it's slow memory usage by simply discarding inactive clauses it has generated by its resolution process. The most "young and heavy" clauses are going to be processed last anyway, so why not just throw them out? We're likely to find a solution (= empty clause) (= contradiction) before then. I wonder if I can do a similar thing in description logic. I'll loose some completeness, of course.

The conference started today. The first few days are workshops and tutorials. The actual conference comes later.

So, today I attend a tutorial on "Automated Reasoning in First-Order Logic". Professor Andrei Voronkov from the University of Manchester talked us through some of his Vampire theorem-prover (version 8). He's been working on this system for the past 10 years and it is by far the fastest 1st-order logic reasoning system in the world. It wins just about every category in a yearly theorem-proving competition. The competition is often as much as 100 times slower. Vampire devours other provers.

However, for specialized reasoning in OWL, dedicated tableaux algorithm-based reasoners are quicker than Vampire. For now. I learnt that there are many parameters by which Vampire can be tweaked. A small change in the parameters will often allow the prover to answer a problem that was taking 24 hours before in a couple of seconds. However, finding the optimal settings is very much a black-art. No one understand which combination of parameters will give a good result. Andrei himself is pretty good, but he doesn't have the time to investigate all possible things people want to do with Vampire.

Professor Voronkov is taking a sabbatical at Microsoft Research in Seattle for the next year. Microsoft wants to use Vampire to formally verify device drivers. Bad drivers are a frequent cause of Windows crashing, so Microsoft is very interested in translating the code into logic syntax and letting Vampire find the bugs. Intel has been verifying all their chips in a similar fashion after the embarrassing bug in the original Pentium processor that caused it to give the incorrect answer on a few simple division operations.

Relating to my research, I found out that Vampire, unlike the tableaux-based reasoners, doesn't have a problem when classifying large data structures. One major difference between description logic and FOL is that the later is undecidable. The prover can answer "don't know". A description logic reasoner will however always, in theory, be able answer conclusively. In practice it often answers "stack-overflow" when faced with the ontologies I throw at it.

Anyway, Vampire achieves it's slow memory usage by simply discarding inactive clauses it has generated by its resolution process. The most "young and heavy" clauses are going to be processed last anyway, so why not just throw them out? We're likely to find a solution (= empty clause) (= contradiction) before then. I wonder if I can do a similar thing in description logic. I'll loose some completeness, of course.

IJCAI, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, is probably the most important conference in the area of AI in the world (another important one is AAAI). This year's IJCAI is in Edinburgh, Scotland. The conference will be in Hyderabad, India next year.

My supervisor thought it was a good idea for me to attend this year's conference. Especially since it was so close to Manchester. He saves some money and I (hopefully) learn something.

So I traveled up to Scotland, wanted the streets of Edinburgh trying to find the place where I was supposed to stay (I forgot to take money with me for a taxi and couldn't find a cash machine), eventually found the Pollock Halls and collapsed in my room.

Edinburgh is a very old city with lots of history. Lots of ancient rock walls, rustic buildings and stone bridges. However, this backdrop does little to hide the usual vices of Kali-yuga. Scots seem a bit more brash than the usual Englishman. The homeless are more obvious, the drunks more visible, the prostitutes abound everywhere. So, altogether, a typical western city.

IJCAI, the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, is probably the most important conference in the area of AI in the world (another important one is AAAI). This year's IJCAI is in Edinburgh, Scotland. The conference will be in Hyderabad, India next year.

My supervisor thought it was a good idea for me to attend this year's conference. Especially since it was so close to Manchester. He saves some money and I (hopefully) learn something.

So I traveled up to Scotland, wanted the streets of Edinburgh trying to find the place where I was supposed to stay (I forgot to take money with me for a taxi and couldn't find a cash machine), eventually found the Pollock Halls and collapsed in my room.

Edinburgh is a very old city with lots of history. Lots of ancient rock walls, rustic buildings and stone bridges. However, this backdrop does little to hide the usual vices of Kali-yuga. Scots seem a bit more brash than the usual Englishman. The homeless are more obvious, the drunks more visible, the prostitutes abound everywhere. So, altogether, a typical western city.

In my line of research I?m very much involved with ontology development. I?m not going to beat around the bush: developing ontologies is hard. Really hard. The more logically rigorous they get, the more difficult they become to construct.

So, you might ask, how is the vision of the great and wonderful ?semantic web? ever going to work? After all, ontologies are the framework that is meant to undergrid the Internet of tomorrow.

Take a look at del.icio.us, flickr.com and technorati. They all use an up-and-coming (craze of the moment) idea of tagging. You allow people to add any word to their content and collect all these tags up into a large list. The larger the font, the more frequently used the tag. The obvious problems are synoyms and homonyms. However: who cares?! It kind of works, anyone can understand the idea, so wa-hey: let?s go tag crazy.

Ontologies however are much more powerful and dangerous. They exactly and unambiously define terms and formally capture relationships between terms. You get transitivity, inheritance and other great stuff like that. Moreover, computers can automatically navigate these data structures and use them to answer almost any question you can you throw at them. Feel the power!

What to do? The general populus is never going to be able to author ontologies, but could possibility be induced to use them, given a simple enough interface. So, if the subject area we are describing is sufficiently limited that we can construct an ontology to cover it (no one is going to be able to create an ontology of ?everything??), then we can allow people to tag their content with our ontologies terms. The result: we can have our computers sort, manage, slice and dice their tagged content any which way, take advantage of all the advanced features and the world is a better place. Amen.

 

In my line of research I?m very much involved with ontology development. I?m not going to beat around the bush: developing ontologies is hard. Really hard. The more logically rigorous they get, the more difficult they become to construct.

So, you might ask, how is the vision of the great and wonderful ?semantic web? ever going to work? After all, ontologies are the framework that is meant to undergrid the Internet of tomorrow.

Take a look at del.icio.us, flickr.com and technorati. They all use an up-and-coming (craze of the moment) idea of tagging. You allow people to add any word to their content and collect all these tags up into a large list. The larger the font, the more frequently used the tag. The obvious problems are synoyms and homonyms. However: who cares?! It kind of works, anyone can understand the idea, so wa-hey: let?s go tag crazy.

Ontologies however are much more powerful and dangerous. They exactly and unambiously define terms and formally capture relationships between terms. You get transitivity, inheritance and other great stuff like that. Moreover, computers can automatically navigate these data structures and use them to answer almost any question you can you throw at them. Feel the power!

What to do? The general populus is never going to be able to author ontologies, but could possibility be induced to use them, given a simple enough interface. So, if the subject area we are describing is sufficiently limited that we can construct an ontology to cover it (no one is going to be able to create an ontology of ?everything??), then we can allow people to tag their content with our ontologies terms. The result: we can have our computers sort, manage, slice and dice their tagged content any which way, take advantage of all the advanced features and the world is a better place. Amen.

 

God,
Give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

(The Serenity Prayer is generally thought to have been written by Reinhold Niebuhr. Frequently used by Alcoholics Anonymous.)

"You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty". (BG 2.47)

God,
Give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.

(The Serenity Prayer is generally thought to have been written by Reinhold Niebuhr. Frequently used by Alcoholics Anonymous.)

"You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but you are not entitled to the fruits of action. Never consider yourself the cause of the results of your activities, and never be attached to not doing your duty". (BG 2.47)

I was listening to an excellent talk with Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO of Sun Microsystems. One of the many interesting things Jonathan said was that a blog is a great tool for leaders. Ever leader should have one. He uses his blog to communicate his ideas to his employees. They can also directly interact with him by posting comments and talkbacks. It effectively cuts through the corporate hierarchy and puts allows him, as a leader, to directly lead a large number of people. The result: massively decentralized decision making and management!

The alternative is to going through the usual management structure, down the multi-level corporate hierarchy. A process that is both slow and prone to Chinese whispers.

As to the danger of putting his corporate strategy up on the net for everyone, including competing companies, to read: "The competition's employees also read it and if they like what I'm saying better than what their boss is saying, they'll join Sun".

I was listening to an excellent talk with Jonathan Schwartz, president and COO of Sun Microsystems. One of the many interesting things Jonathan said was that a blog is a great tool for leaders. Ever leader should have one. He uses his blog to communicate his ideas to his employees. They can also directly interact with him by posting comments and talkbacks. It effectively cuts through the corporate hierarchy and puts allows him, as a leader, to directly lead a large number of people. The result: massively decentralized decision making and management!

The alternative is to going through the usual management structure, down the multi-level corporate hierarchy. A process that is both slow and prone to Chinese whispers.

As to the danger of putting his corporate strategy up on the net for everyone, including competing companies, to read: "The competition's employees also read it and if they like what I'm saying better than what their boss is saying, they'll join Sun".

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised -- Democracy, The Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything is a book on the story of Howard Dean's presidential campaign. He was a candidate with no chance whatsoever of winning, who, out of nowhere, almost won the US-primaries. He did this by using the Internet and his campaign blog in many innovative ways. Listen to his former campaign manager, Toe Trippi, talk about the whole thing.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised -- Democracy, The Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything is a book on the story of Howard Dean's presidential campaign. He was a candidate with no chance whatsoever of winning, who, out of nowhere, almost won the US-primaries. He did this by using the Internet and his campaign blog in many innovative ways. Listen to his former campaign manager, Toe Trippi, talk about the whole thing.

Wired magazine has an article about Vlogging, or video blogging, or video world wide web logging (to expand the shorthand complete). Short 3-5 minute videos of Vedic philosophy delivered in a fun way by devotees with interesting personalities have so much potential to become really popular.

The most popular of the vlogs is Rocketboom. We can do at least as good as they, don't you think? Let alone the other (terrible) vlogs out there.

Wired magazine has an article about Vlogging, or video blogging, or video world wide web logging (to expand the shorthand complete). Short 3-5 minute videos of Vedic philosophy delivered in a fun way by devotees with interesting personalities have so much potential to become really popular.

The most popular of the vlogs is Rocketboom. We can do at least as good as they, don't you think? Let alone the other (terrible) vlogs out there.

Snippet of advice: "Make the best Krishna conscious decision at the moment. Who knows what is going to happen in the future?"

CD: It is difficult dealing with people's packed schedule of engaging their senses in so many ways.
DS: Keep trying. The mode of passion is like that. They are like monkeys pointlessly swinging from branch to branch.
DS: Mode of goodness means that one is not attached to the result. It also means that one doesn't do just anything, but engages in mode of goodness activities.

Lunch:

Drink: Apple and Ginger juice
Salad: Carrot and Watercress Salad with Tahini sauce dressing (GVD page 127)
Cumin Basmati Rice with Wild Rice
Pea and Broccoli Samosas (my spicing was just a off by a bit)
Subji 1: Kumara, Corn and Spinach (variation of Sweet Potato Pie filling GVD page 91)
Subji 2: Tomato Soup with Zucchini (GVD page 27, but without flour)
Vanilla Raisin cookies (variation of Chinese Almond Cookies GVD page 141, needs more flour because of the extra liquid in the raisins)

Computer questions I answered:

• As a travel wireless network router the Apple Airport Express is the best, lightest, smallest, most fully featured and easiest option. However, it costs nearly double the price of the competition. Nevertheless, I recommended the quality Apple product.
• The Docupen and other pen-like hand-held scanners remain too flaky for actual use.
• Flash memory stick prices have plummeted, since DRAM prices have fallen drastically.
  The reason: the iPod shuffle has not sold nearly as well as expected. Consequence 1: the Chinese and Taiwanese RAM manufacturers have overproduced. Consequence 2: more supply than demand. Result: price falls (hint: buy memory in the next few months!)
• A digital camera for capturing spontaneous shots has to be small and light enough to carry around anywhere and capable of capturing clear images in low-light. I recommended the Fuji F10, an ultra-compact point-and-shoot with D-SLR-like ISO 1600 image capturing capability.

... and just like that, he was gone again. Off to helping people in far off countries ...

Snippet of advice: "Make the best Krishna conscious decision at the moment. Who knows what is going to happen in the future?"

CD: It is difficult dealing with people's packed schedule of engaging their senses in so many ways.
DS: Keep trying. The mode of passion is like that. They are like monkeys pointlessly swinging from branch to branch.
DS: Mode of goodness means that one is not attached to the result. It also means that one doesn't do just anything, but engages in mode of goodness activities.

Lunch:

Drink: Apple and Ginger juice
Salad: Carrot and Watercress Salad with Tahini sauce dressing (GVD page 127)
Cumin Basmati Rice with Wild Rice
Pea and Broccoli Samosas (my spicing was just a off by a bit)
Subji 1: Kumara, Corn and Spinach (variation of Sweet Potato Pie filling GVD page 91)
Subji 2: Tomato Soup with Zucchini (GVD page 27, but without flour)
Vanilla Raisin cookies (variation of Chinese Almond Cookies GVD page 141, needs more flour because of the extra liquid in the raisins)

Computer questions I answered:

• As a travel wireless network router the Apple Airport Express is the best, lightest, smallest, most fully featured and easiest option. However, it costs nearly double the price of the competition. Nevertheless, I recommended the quality Apple product.
• The Docupen and other pen-like hand-held scanners remain too flaky for actual use.
• Flash memory stick prices have plummeted, since DRAM prices have fallen drastically.
  The reason: the iPod shuffle has not sold nearly as well as expected. Consequence 1: the Chinese and Taiwanese RAM manufacturers have overproduced. Consequence 2: more supply than demand. Result: price falls (hint: buy memory in the next few months!)
• A digital camera for capturing spontaneous shots has to be small and light enough to carry around anywhere and capable of capturing clear images in low-light. I recommended the Fuji F10, an ultra-compact point-and-shoot with D-SLR-like ISO 1600 image capturing capability.

... and just like that, he was gone again. Off to helping people in far off countries ...

Today he met with Hitesh and his mother. He also met with two youth workers who work to better the lives of 14 - 25 year-olds using a holistic 6-angled view. A recording of the conversation is available in the audio downloads section.

Lunch:

Drink: Apple and Ginger juice (not enough ginger)
Salad: Spinach and Tomato
Coriander Basmati Brown Rice with Wild Rice
Corn on the Cob
Subji 1: Kumara and Broccoli
Subji 2: Vegetable au Gratin (GVD page 56)
Carob Cake with Strawberry Jam filling and Vienna Icing (GVD page 151)

His response: You're good at the pies and cakes, Shilpa is good at subtle Indian spicings and flavours.

Today he met with Hitesh and his mother. He also met with two youth workers who work to better the lives of 14 - 25 year-olds using a holistic 6-angled view. A recording of the conversation is available in the audio downloads section.

Lunch:

Drink: Apple and Ginger juice (not enough ginger)
Salad: Spinach and Tomato
Coriander Basmati Brown Rice with Wild Rice
Corn on the Cob
Subji 1: Kumara and Broccoli
Subji 2: Vegetable au Gratin (GVD page 56)
Carob Cake with Strawberry Jam filling and Vienna Icing (GVD page 151)

His response: You're good at the pies and cakes, Shilpa is good at subtle Indian spicings and flavours.

My spiritual master is staying with me for a few days. Hare Krishna!

He arrived from Russia via Finland, tried and hungry. The UK is very, very different from Russia, he said.

Shilpa and I prepared his lunch:

Drink: Apple and Ginger juice (revived him by restoring his appetite)
Salad: Lettuce, Radish and Carrot
Yellow Basmati Rice with Wild Rice
Split-Mung Dal (GVD page 27)
Subji 1: Green Beans with added Carrots (GVD page 55)
Subji 2: Zucchini, Green Peppers and Tomato (GVD page 58)
Easy Apple Pie (GVD page 145)

His response: Hare Krishna! Really good. You two could open a restaurant. Really good ...later: that was good prasadam! I can't get over it!

It is nice to please the spiritual master and, for once, not to be a total space-out.

My spiritual master is staying with me for a few days. Hare Krishna!

He arrived from Russia via Finland, tried and hungry. The UK is very, very different from Russia, he said.

Shilpa and I prepared his lunch:

Drink: Apple and Ginger juice (revived him by restoring his appetite)
Salad: Lettuce, Radish and Carrot
Yellow Basmati Rice with Wild Rice
Split-Mung Dal (GVD page 27)
Subji 1: Green Beans with added Carrots (GVD page 55)
Subji 2: Zucchini, Green Peppers and Tomato (GVD page 58)
Easy Apple Pie (GVD page 145)

His response: Hare Krishna! Really good. You two could open a restaurant. Really good ...later: that was good prasadam! I can't get over it!

It is nice to please the spiritual master and, for once, not to be a total space-out.

Prominent blogger John Gruber has posted a very good article on his "Daring Fireball" blog about what Apple is doing to support podcasting on the Macintosh. Among other things he comments on how quickly Apple has picked up on this very new phenomenon and developed software to handle it. They must see major growth potential (as also predicted by Adam Curry, see here).

All the tools and tech are outlined in detail. Check it out if you want to create Podcasts and own a Mac (or just use iTunes on the PC and want to listen-in).

Prominent blogger John Gruber has posted a very good article on his "Daring Fireball" blog about what Apple is doing to support podcasting on the Macintosh. Among other things he comments on how quickly Apple has picked up on this very new phenomenon and developed software to handle it. They must see major growth potential (as also predicted by Adam Curry, see here).

All the tools and tech are outlined in detail. Check it out if you want to create Podcasts and own a Mac (or just use iTunes on the PC and want to listen-in).

Here is an interesting take on the RSS phenomenon. The author's basic point: RSS is too complicated for most people, so provide them with an email delivery mechanism in addition to RSS.

A "top-10 blog postings of the week" type email newsletter could, for example, reach a much wider audience than a difficult to subscribe to RSS feed.

Here is an interesting take on the RSS phenomenon. The author's basic point: RSS is too complicated for most people, so provide them with an email delivery mechanism in addition to RSS.

A "top-10 blog postings of the week" type email newsletter could, for example, reach a much wider audience than a difficult to subscribe to RSS feed.

Compassion is like a lotus flower. Did you know that a lotus flower has a brilliant self cleaning mechanism? Its leaves' surfaces are not smooth, as one might expect, but very rough. The roughness somehow causes any dirt on a leaf to attach itself to water as it glides off the leaf's surface. The result: a perfectly clean and beautiful flower.

I hate death. I'm sad even when a bee dies (and, believe me, I hate bees), let alone when another human being leaves his or her body. My condolences to those victims of the London terror attack and Word Trade Center terror attack. My condolences to the victims of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wish they could all still be alive. However, as stated in the Bhagavad-Gita, for everyone who is born death is certain (BG 2.27). It's only a question of time.

So, though I may sometimes/often seem quite cruel and heartless, this attitude is not due to a lack of compassion (though possibly due to a lack tact). I'm attempting to agitate the dirt of materialistic conceptions out of my mind (and the minds of others) by "roughing things up" and letting current events do the cleaning. Please help me in this endeavour.

Compassion is like a lotus flower. Did you know that a lotus flower has a brilliant self cleaning mechanism? Its leaves' surfaces are not smooth, as one might expect, but very rough. The roughness somehow causes any dirt on a leaf to attach itself to water as it glides off the leaf's surface. The result: a perfectly clean and beautiful flower.

I hate death. I'm sad even when a bee dies (and, believe me, I hate bees), let alone when another human being leaves his or her body. My condolences to those victims of the London terror attack and Word Trade Center terror attack. My condolences to the victims of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan. I wish they could all still be alive. However, as stated in the Bhagavad-Gita, for everyone who is born death is certain (BG 2.27). It's only a question of time.

So, though I may sometimes/often seem quite cruel and heartless, this attitude is not due to a lack of compassion (though possibly due to a lack tact). I'm attempting to agitate the dirt of materialistic conceptions out of my mind (and the minds of others) by "roughing things up" and letting current events do the cleaning. Please help me in this endeavour.

After reading the official ISKCON statement on the 7th of July London bombing I was a bit disappointed. It's very politically correct and reads just like it could have come from any other religion. Even Krishan Dharma Dasa's opinion piece is safe, watertight and generic. Ho-hum.

Have we lost all taste for preaching? Do we lack the courage for controversy? Can we not use this as a chance to stir things up, get into the news and get people thinking?

So, in that interest, here's my take on the current events:

No one has any knowledge that they are spirit soul. The terrorists, the big western politicians, the average guy on the street, the innocent victim that gets blown to bits, all of them don't have a clue who they are and what they should be doing. We see the people (British fundamentalists) affirming that they aren't scared (of the Muslim fundamentalists). They vow to continue to mindlessly consume and continue to try to squeeze pleasure out of the dry towel of the material world.

Not scared? We should be scared! It's perfectly healthy to be scared of dying at any moment. The entire premise of the Srimad-Bhagavatam (a 5000-year old Vedic philosophical thesis) is that death can strike at any moment and we should therefore always act as if we were just about to die. Closing our eyes in a pit of poisonous snakes won't make the problem go away. We have to open our eyes, intelligently assess the situation and grab onto the rope!

Thinking "I'm British, I'm American, I'm Saudi, I'm Iraqi" just exasperates the problem. Instead we have to realize that we are not our bodies, but spirit souls and must engage in service to the supreme soul. If everyone is united in purpose and dedicated to performing personal loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna (or Allah, or Jehovah, or ...), only then we can have peace. Not by continuing to try to selfishly enjoy the temporary material body.

Srila Prabhupada writes:

"If one advocates the Hindu religion, the Muslim religion, the Christian religion, this religion or that religion, there will be conflicts. History shows that the followers of religious systems without a clear conception of God have fought with one another. There are many instances of this in human history, but systems of religion that do not concentrate upon service to the Supreme are temporary and cannot last for long because they are full of envy." - SB 6.16.41 purport

Update: Mukunda Goswami has since written this statement about terrorism. I like it a lot. It is short, tactful, well-written and subtly injects Krishna consciousness philosphy.

After reading the official ISKCON statement on the 7th of July London bombing I was a bit disappointed. It's very politically correct and reads just like it could have come from any other religion. Even Krishan Dharma Dasa's opinion piece is safe, watertight and generic. Ho-hum.

Have we lost all taste for preaching? Do we lack the courage for controversy? Can we not use this as a chance to stir things up, get into the news and get people thinking?

So, in that interest, here's my take on the current events:

No one has any knowledge that they are spirit soul. The terrorists, the big western politicians, the average guy on the street, the innocent victim that gets blown to bits, all of them don't have a clue who they are and what they should be doing. We see the people (British fundamentalists) affirming that they aren't scared (of the Muslim fundamentalists). They vow to continue to mindlessly consume and continue to try to squeeze pleasure out of the dry towel of the material world.

Not scared? We should be scared! It's perfectly healthy to be scared of dying at any moment. The entire premise of the Srimad-Bhagavatam (a 5000-year old Vedic philosophical thesis) is that death can strike at any moment and we should therefore always act as if we were just about to die. Closing our eyes in a pit of poisonous snakes won't make the problem go away. We have to open our eyes, intelligently assess the situation and grab onto the rope!

Thinking "I'm British, I'm American, I'm Saudi, I'm Iraqi" just exasperates the problem. Instead we have to realize that we are not our bodies, but spirit souls and must engage in service to the supreme soul. If everyone is united in purpose and dedicated to performing personal loving service to the Supreme Personality of Godhead Krishna (or Allah, or Jehovah, or ...), only then we can have peace. Not by continuing to try to selfishly enjoy the temporary material body.

Srila Prabhupada writes:

"If one advocates the Hindu religion, the Muslim religion, the Christian religion, this religion or that religion, there will be conflicts. History shows that the followers of religious systems without a clear conception of God have fought with one another. There are many instances of this in human history, but systems of religion that do not concentrate upon service to the Supreme are temporary and cannot last for long because they are full of envy." - SB 6.16.41 purport

Update: Mukunda Goswami has since written this statement about terrorism. I like it a lot. It is short, tactful, well-written and subtly injects Krishna consciousness philosphy.

Today's entry in Indradyumna Swami's traveling preacher diary is well worth reading. The story brilliantly encourages devotees to write/blog.

Today's entry in Indradyumna Swami's traveling preacher diary is well worth reading. The story brilliantly encourages devotees to write/blog.

I was listening to Adam Curry's podcast "the daily source code" today. Adam Curry is a former MTV host who has a daily podcast about other podcasts (and other useless stuff that is on his mind) and is considered to be one of the pioneers of podcasting.

He has an interesting take on the difference between blogs and podcasts:

Blogs come from an inherent desire of people to publish. Podcasts are the opposite, people create them because they are dissatisfied with what they what is available in the media (Radio/TV). In that way they are similar to the iPod (which is presumably why Apple has built podcast support into iTunes 4.9, the companion software to the iPod). The listening experience is no longer tied to what someone else thinks we will like. Instead everyone can listen to what they want to listen to when they want to listen to it. Freedom! Liberation! True happiness! (snicker)

"I want to tell people about something I'm interested in" vs. "I don't like what on the radio, so I'll create my own"

There was no real market for the former (blogs) when they first manifested, but the later (podcasting) is likely to have a much faster uptake, since people are actively looking for something like it. Mundane sound is just so dull and lifeless. All it needs is to become easy enough for the average-Joe to "tune in" and we'll have a listening revolution on our hands.

For those interested in creating their own podcasts: Adam and his friends are developing some podcast creation software.

I was listening to Adam Curry's podcast "the daily source code" today. Adam Curry is a former MTV host who has a daily podcast about other podcasts (and other useless stuff that is on his mind) and is considered to be one of the pioneers of podcasting.

He has an interesting take on the difference between blogs and podcasts:

Blogs come from an inherent desire of people to publish. Podcasts are the opposite, people create them because they are dissatisfied with what they what is available in the media (Radio/TV). In that way they are similar to the iPod (which is presumably why Apple has built podcast support into iTunes 4.9, the companion software to the iPod). The listening experience is no longer tied to what someone else thinks we will like. Instead everyone can listen to what they want to listen to when they want to listen to it. Freedom! Liberation! True happiness! (snicker)

"I want to tell people about something I'm interested in" vs. "I don't like what on the radio, so I'll create my own"

There was no real market for the former (blogs) when they first manifested, but the later (podcasting) is likely to have a much faster uptake, since people are actively looking for something like it. Mundane sound is just so dull and lifeless. All it needs is to become easy enough for the average-Joe to "tune in" and we'll have a listening revolution on our hands.

For those interested in creating their own podcasts: Adam and his friends are developing some podcast creation software.

Attention spans are decreasing. Mine too.

When reading blogs I tend to skip those huge monster essays that some bloggers write unless I??(TM)m really, really, really interested in the subject matter. 500 words should be the limit. If a blog posting is longer than 500 words it is simply too long for the Internet audience. Better to write a book instead.

However, this is not to say that long articles are impossible. They just have to be broken up into multiple postings over multiple days. I'll read any number of words if my mind is tricked in that way.

So, all you reading this, please, for my sake, keep it short and keep it simple (and I??(TM)ll try to do the same for you).

Attention spans are decreasing. Mine too.

When reading blogs I tend to skip those huge monster essays that some bloggers write unless I??(TM)m really, really, really interested in the subject matter. 500 words should be the limit. If a blog posting is longer than 500 words it is simply too long for the Internet audience. Better to write a book instead.

However, this is not to say that long articles are impossible. They just have to be broken up into multiple postings over multiple days. I'll read any number of words if my mind is tricked in that way.

So, all you reading this, please, for my sake, keep it short and keep it simple (and I??(TM)ll try to do the same for you).

I found this very good article about the semantic web. In short, the semantic web is:

"A giant, distributed, machine-readable database that allows computerized intelligent agents to process knowledge and invoke web services, while also enabling better annotations, browsing and search for humans."

It's the future of the Internet (if it ever works).

I found this very good article about the semantic web. In short, the semantic web is:

"A giant, distributed, machine-readable database that allows computerized intelligent agents to process knowledge and invoke web services, while also enabling better annotations, browsing and search for humans."

It's the future of the Internet (if it ever works).

Assertion: subscriptions are better, but people generally don't like them.

Consider the iTunes music store, unlike Yahoo music or Napster they offer a very simple fixed price of $1 per song. Whatever you buy is yours to keep. All other online music stores offer a subscription based plan where you pay $5 - $10 per month and download as much as you like, or some hybrid scheme.

One might thing that the subscription model is more popular. After all, it's better value, just think: unlimited songs!

Wrong! Even people that buy more than 10 songs per month prefer the simple iTunes buy-once model. People like to feel in control. People also like to any kind of commitment. Finally, people don't want things to be too complicated. Keep it simple!

Subscription services do sell in some scenarios. Take online role-playing games (please!): something like Sony's Everquest charges $40 for the game and then another $15 per month on top of that, yet is hugely popular. Some players spend hundreds of hours online, fighting monsters, completing quests, building up their virtual character, earning fake money (even more fake than the so-called real money) and so on. Everquest is designed to hook people into "just one more quest" and keep them playing and paying for-"ever". It works, too: Sony was astonished at how much money they made off Everquest.

Some smart new online games (most notably Guild Wars) have figured out that they can reach a much larger market (and more money) by not charging a subscription fee. Instead they'll release an "expansion pack" every few months and steal people's money that way.

Yoga teachers are notoriously bad at business. Most yoga classes I see advertised around the University want people to sign up for a 10-session course, or something of the sort. Most people I've talked to don't want to make that commitment and therefore end up not doing any yoga at all. Major untapped potential!

These yoga courses mean well, of course. People won't get any real benefit from just a single yoga session here and there. If someone really wants to improve their bodily and mental condition, it is best if they do two 90-minute sessions per week. But, low and behold, no one wants to do that. People don't care about themselves.

The same hold true with chanting the maha-mantra. Great if someone utters the mantra once. However, Krishna is most pleased when we make a commitment to chant a fixed amount each day. When Krishna is pleased we automatically also get satisfied. It's like watering the root of a tree. Again, the subscription model benefits all parties. And yet again, few people want to make the commitment.

Solution: I plan to offer a 40-minute yoga class once a week for a one-off one pound fee/donation and then follow that with some (free) chanting and philosophy, for those that are so inclined.

Scheme: attract people with something that they think they want, though it won't really benefit them and then make it as easy as possible for them to take to something that actually will give unlimited benefit.

Assertion: subscriptions are better, but people generally don't like them.

Consider the iTunes music store, unlike Yahoo music or Napster they offer a very simple fixed price of $1 per song. Whatever you buy is yours to keep. All other online music stores offer a subscription based plan where you pay $5 - $10 per month and download as much as you like, or some hybrid scheme.

One might thing that the subscription model is more popular. After all, it's better value, just think: unlimited songs!

Wrong! Even people that buy more than 10 songs per month prefer the simple iTunes buy-once model. People like to feel in control. People also like to any kind of commitment. Finally, people don't want things to be too complicated. Keep it simple!

Subscription services do sell in some scenarios. Take online role-playing games (please!): something like Sony's Everquest charges $40 for the game and then another $15 per month on top of that, yet is hugely popular. Some players spend hundreds of hours online, fighting monsters, completing quests, building up their virtual character, earning fake money (even more fake than the so-called real money) and so on. Everquest is designed to hook people into "just one more quest" and keep them playing and paying for-"ever". It works, too: Sony was astonished at how much money they made off Everquest.

Some smart new online games (most notably Guild Wars) have figured out that they can reach a much larger market (and more money) by not charging a subscription fee. Instead they'll release an "expansion pack" every few months and steal people's money that way.

Yoga teachers are notoriously bad at business. Most yoga classes I see advertised around the University want people to sign up for a 10-session course, or something of the sort. Most people I've talked to don't want to make that commitment and therefore end up not doing any yoga at all. Major untapped potential!

These yoga courses mean well, of course. People won't get any real benefit from just a single yoga session here and there. If someone really wants to improve their bodily and mental condition, it is best if they do two 90-minute sessions per week. But, low and behold, no one wants to do that. People don't care about themselves.

The same hold true with chanting the maha-mantra. Great if someone utters the mantra once. However, Krishna is most pleased when we make a commitment to chant a fixed amount each day. When Krishna is pleased we automatically also get satisfied. It's like watering the root of a tree. Again, the subscription model benefits all parties. And yet again, few people want to make the commitment.

Solution: I plan to offer a 40-minute yoga class once a week for a one-off one pound fee/donation and then follow that with some (free) chanting and philosophy, for those that are so inclined.

Scheme: attract people with something that they think they want, though it won't really benefit them and then make it as easy as possible for them to take to something that actually will give unlimited benefit.