Iranian Computer Scientist

More books

2008-08-14T17:11:00.002-05:00

Book I'm reading

Notes from Underground

Book to read

Funny in Farsi

Book I've just finished

Lullaby

Book recommendations

2008-08-07T16:29:00.002-05:00

A friend of mine asked me about some book recommendations, here are mine in no particular order:

Proud to be a human

2008-07-31T16:49:00.002-05:00

I was reading a robot story by Asimov in which a sophisticated intelligent robot is trying to become more and more like humans. Why do we think that we have the best physical bodies? Why would a robot not have wheels instead of legs? Why would they speak in human language instead of binary numbers?

My roommate is right. The only way intelligent machines might be interested in us would be as pets or as lab rats. (see "The Matrix")

Morals of "The Dark Knight"

2008-07-28T15:47:00.002-05:00

It is alright to spy on people as long as you are looking for a bad guy.
It is NOT OK to share information about illegal activities with the public
You should give the people something to have faith in.
A priviliged few have the right to decide what is best for everyone
Cops are the good guys even if they sell your fiance to the bad guys
Bad guys do what they do without any reason
Guns are useless and fail a lot and metal detectors are nonexistant

Translation of a Persian poem

2008-07-26T22:40:00.004-05:00

My Garden

Its sky is embraced tightly
by wet thick coat of clouds.
The leafless garden
is lonely night and day
in a sad innocent silence.
It has rain for an instrument and wind for voice.
Its garment is nakedness,
or if it needs any other garment
it has been woven from golden threads by the wind.
"Let them grow or not grow, anyone anywhere it wants or does not want"
There is not a gardener or a passer by.
The garden of the hopeless
is not waiting for a spring.
If there is no warm glow in its eyes,
and if no leaf of smile grows on its lips,
who says the leafless garden is not beautiful?
It is telling the story of the hight up in the sky fruits which are now buried in the lowly coffin of the soil.

The leafless garden
Its smile is tear and blood.
Forever trotting on its long haired yellow horse in it is,
the king of seasons, Autumn.

Politics

2007-03-24T16:42:00.000-05:00

Although I am neither a politician nor a philosopher, I do have a political stance. I can classify myself as a libertarian socialist. I like Noam Chomsky's political views. I found a few nice videos of his talks and interviews on Google Video.

Fucking Åmål

2007-02-25T01:30:00.000-05:00

This is the best movie I have seen in the last few months. Highly recommended.

Theory vs. Practice

2007-02-22T00:23:00.000-05:00

In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.
--Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut

How far are you willing to go to pass the buck?

2007-02-08T18:08:00.000-05:00

Can you see the similarity between Binding of Isaac and Milgram experiment?

Movie on campus

2007-02-02T19:24:00.000-05:00

I saw The Fountain in the movie theatre on campus today. It was not as good as I expected

Nevertheless it reminded me of the saying Every fear is fear of death. But after a little thought I found a counterexample: suicide.

Are you afraid of death?

Natural Language

2007-01-28T20:06:00.000-05:00

Natural language is a fascinating thing. Some ancient philosophers defined humans as talking animals. It is a means of communication that enables humans to use each others experiences and do things that no individual can do.

Yet it is interesting that there are so many different languages in the world (Maybe in the future there will be only one). Natural language is misleading in many occasions as it is not possible to perfectly share feelings with words.

Also the language is dependent on our perception of the world and on our physical body. For example I have no idea how a color blind interprets this sentence Her face turned red.

We do not dream in any language. We just feel the situations in our dreams. I wonder if natural language with all it's deficiencies can be blamed for the problems of mankind....

To work or not to work?

2007-01-27T22:36:00.000-05:00

When I have nothing to do I always look forward for work. When I have actually some work to do I always postpone it until the last moment. Is this natural?

The birth of every new child

2007-01-23T02:29:00.000-05:00

...tells us that humans are not yet desperate of themselves.

The question is...

2007-01-20T01:52:00.000-05:00

The ends justify the means. (I am not sure but let's assume that it is true). The question is what justifies the ends?

Draw me a sheep!

2007-01-15T16:43:00.000-05:00

The Little Prince is my favourite book.

There is a Persian translation and audio adaption of this book by Ahmad Shamlou (Persian: احمد شاملو).

Most Underreported Story of 2006

2007-01-06T01:50:00.000-05:00

See this YouTube video.

A comment reads: It's not that the good guys win, it's that the winners are the good guys.

Strong AI

2007-01-01T09:27:00.000-05:00

I personally believe that we will be able to create Turing test passing strong AI in the next 50 years (That is in my expected life span). Pretty much anything one can dream of in todays sci-fic.

But I have an ethical problem. I will never create something that can suffer. See: Why I will never have a child.

News for nerds, Stuff that matters

2006-12-26T22:34:00.000-05:00

I discovered slashdot a few month ago. It was exactly what I was looking for.

There are polls in this site like: What kind of music do you code to?. I personally listen to Rock and Metal music while coding C++.

A comment under Blogging in Iran Takes Courage reads: we're all so much freer and safer, and Iraq is a beautiful paradise! Hey, why don't you book your next vacation for Baghdad, we could use a few less blathering idiots voting in the states.

And two comments under Drinking Alcohol May Extend Your Life read: I still find it interesting that at 18 you're allowed join the military and die but you're not allowed to drink alcohol. and To alcohol, the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems!

There is still hope

2006-12-26T01:26:00.000-05:00

Right now I have decided not to give up. So I will try my best to:

Remain healthy and young
Contribute to the society
Do my best to make myself and everybody around me happy
Believe that finding true love,though hard, is not impossible.

Yeah

Major Depression 2

2006-12-25T00:16:00.000-05:00

The earth is a mass grave in which 6 billion people are buried alive

Four biggest Microsoft innovations

2006-12-21T18:19:00.000-05:00

Major Depression

2006-12-21T03:30:00.000-05:00

Yes, I am falling... How much longer till I hit the ground?

--Anathema

Knowlege or money?

2006-12-20T00:35:00.000-05:00

Which one do you prefer? well that was a popular essay topic in elementary school in Iran. Strangely I never had to write an essay about it. In fact I'm not really sure. Anyway, how much all the things you have learned from Wikipedia is worth? Please consider donating.

Why I will never have a child

2006-12-18T17:53:00.000-05:00

I am just afraid that after s/he grows up, s/he tells me that s/he would rather not have been born into this world.

Life is a sexually transmitted disease, with 100% mortality

--fortune

And they lived happily ever after

2006-12-17T14:01:00.000-05:00

I want to be happy. But what is happiness?

Well, from Chobits happiness is defined as being with someone you love.

But who do I love? I suppose someone who loves me back. If you can understand the me, then I can understand the you. Wait a minute! What is love anyway? I guess you love someone if you are happy when you are with him/her.

Damn it, another infinite recursion...

Infinite recursion

2006-12-12T01:34:00.000-05:00

#include <string>

// I think I can't trust my thoughts anymore.

std::string thoughts()
{
    return "Do not trust these " + thoughts();
}

Paintings by an Iranian artist

2006-12-06T00:04:00.000-05:00

These paintings have an Iranian essence. I found them on Iman Maleki's website.

This painting titled A girl by the window reminds me of my sister.

This one titled End of examinations reminds me of childhood.

And this one called Memory of that house reminds me of my grandmother's house.

Religion

2006-12-03T18:17:00.000-05:00

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart.
-- H.L. Mencken, "Minority Report"

Iraq war

2006-12-03T01:07:00.000-05:00

Squad leader and Staff Sgt. Lonnie Roberts stands at attention as troops from the 3rd Brigade Combat Team pay last respects to their fallen comrade, Pvt. Gregory Huxley, during a memorial for the 19-year-old in Baghdad. (Photo by David Leeson) © 2003 The Dallas Morning News

Baghdad - Mohammed Saleem, 18 months, lies in a coffin at a Sadr City morgue. Relatives said the boy and four other family members were killed in their car when U.S. forces opened fire overnight. (Photo by Karim Kadim, June 6, 2004) © 2004 Associated Press

time-of-day clock stopped

2006-11-25T01:13:00.000-05:00

My laptop filed to boot, printing that error message. Turns out that Ununtu 6.10 (Edgy Eft) messes with the clock and this causes BIOS to fail to boot on several models of Dell laptops. Now I have just bought a Latitude D620 through my university. and I had to open it to remove the coin cell battery in order to reset BIOS clock. This procedure has voided the 4 year (obligatory) warranty. It was a Next Business Day Parts and Labor On-Site Response for which I have paid around 300$ I guess. I did not plan to use it anyway. I advise you not to install Ubuntu on your Dell laptop until this bug is fixed. In case this has already happened to you and can't or don't want to use Dell warranty service you can use the Dell service manual to reset BIOS. But remember that you do not have to actually disconnect the keyboard, or remove the battery. Just lift the keyboard, turn it to a side and disconnect the battery connector from the board, and wait at least a few minutes...

Let's not make a big deal out of it

2006-11-22T00:21:00.000-05:00

Hello world!