Sunday, October 22, 2006
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Latest Biography - Nicola Tesla
I am on Biograpy spree these days and that too of the Scientific Heroes. In the past 12 months, I have read John Nash's biography - "A Beautiful Mind", Stephen Hawking's - "A Life in Science" and now the latest one on Nicola Tesla - "The man who invented the 20th Century".
This was the first time I picked a biography of someone I did not know anything about. I only recalled hearing the word 'Tesla' in my school days Physics as a measuring unit for Magnetic field. Interestingly, this is the first biography I have read of a genius that discusses how NOT to do business. In fact, author uses this book to teach his MBA students on 'How not to run your business affairs'.
Imagine someone coming up with an idea of supersonic travel to any location in the world at an affordable cost and asking Boeing or AirBus to fund his research. Why will Boeing fund a research which may put its own business model at a complete risk? Thats precisely what Tesla did and combined with his own commercial mistakes, he lost all the opportunities to take the credit of "Supersonic Journey at an affordable cost".
People who have read the battle of currents being fought in the last 2 decades of 19th century will realize that AC Power is parallel to "Supersonic Journey at an affordable cost" in today's world. Though, they treat this as a battle between Edison and Westinghouse as the name Tesla does not figure at all in all the business books now. However, it was Tesla who first conceived the idea of providing AC power supply to each and every Household and asked Edison to fund his reasearch. Edison was a kind of Bill Gates of that time running his business Empire on DC power which was very very inefficient. A DC Power-house could only supply the electric power in the 1 mile vicinity unlike AC power-house which had the potential of supplying to thousands of miles. And this idea can only be conceived by the genius of Tesla.
Edison obviously did not fund his research and interestingly utilized all sources of media to mouth bad publicity for AC power. People who call Edison as the father of Electricity should note this. Westinghouse came to the rescue of Tesla but he obviously had his own vested commercial interest. Sensing Tesla's lack of business Acumen, he bought all the Tesla's Patents at a throaway price with an assurance that he will fund all his research. To Tesla the scientific genius, thats all what mattered then! He then came up with so many ideas (radio, Torpedo, Wireless electric Supply etc) but never published them formally.
When he died in 1934, he had so many ideas written in his notes that US Govt termed these documents as "TOP SECRET". It is believed that most of his ideas were 50 to 100 years in advance. Marconi is credited with the invention of Radio, something which Tesla had designed and showed to his friends 20 years before Marconi. We have still not seen practically the wireless supply of AC power, something which Tesla demonstrated in a small town of Colorado to the Town officials in the ealry 20th century.
In the end, you sympathize with the guy albeit aware that he is the only one to blame for his failure to some extent. I was in awe after reading his through ideas as it is more than evident that Tesla was the Raw Natural Genius in a true sense of the words.
This was the first time I picked a biography of someone I did not know anything about. I only recalled hearing the word 'Tesla' in my school days Physics as a measuring unit for Magnetic field. Interestingly, this is the first biography I have read of a genius that discusses how NOT to do business. In fact, author uses this book to teach his MBA students on 'How not to run your business affairs'.
Imagine someone coming up with an idea of supersonic travel to any location in the world at an affordable cost and asking Boeing or AirBus to fund his research. Why will Boeing fund a research which may put its own business model at a complete risk? Thats precisely what Tesla did and combined with his own commercial mistakes, he lost all the opportunities to take the credit of "Supersonic Journey at an affordable cost".
People who have read the battle of currents being fought in the last 2 decades of 19th century will realize that AC Power is parallel to "Supersonic Journey at an affordable cost" in today's world. Though, they treat this as a battle between Edison and Westinghouse as the name Tesla does not figure at all in all the business books now. However, it was Tesla who first conceived the idea of providing AC power supply to each and every Household and asked Edison to fund his reasearch. Edison was a kind of Bill Gates of that time running his business Empire on DC power which was very very inefficient. A DC Power-house could only supply the electric power in the 1 mile vicinity unlike AC power-house which had the potential of supplying to thousands of miles. And this idea can only be conceived by the genius of Tesla.
Edison obviously did not fund his research and interestingly utilized all sources of media to mouth bad publicity for AC power. People who call Edison as the father of Electricity should note this. Westinghouse came to the rescue of Tesla but he obviously had his own vested commercial interest. Sensing Tesla's lack of business Acumen, he bought all the Tesla's Patents at a throaway price with an assurance that he will fund all his research. To Tesla the scientific genius, thats all what mattered then! He then came up with so many ideas (radio, Torpedo, Wireless electric Supply etc) but never published them formally.
When he died in 1934, he had so many ideas written in his notes that US Govt termed these documents as "TOP SECRET". It is believed that most of his ideas were 50 to 100 years in advance. Marconi is credited with the invention of Radio, something which Tesla had designed and showed to his friends 20 years before Marconi. We have still not seen practically the wireless supply of AC power, something which Tesla demonstrated in a small town of Colorado to the Town officials in the ealry 20th century.
In the end, you sympathize with the guy albeit aware that he is the only one to blame for his failure to some extent. I was in awe after reading his through ideas as it is more than evident that Tesla was the Raw Natural Genius in a true sense of the words.
Monday, October 09, 2006
Back to the future
Last weekend I resorted to my good old passtime: dreaming (Read Contemplating) about the future. It has been quite a while that I dreamt of my future as the "Poor Piscean" in myself was getting used to the ground realities of life.
Having a child in one's life is really an amazing experience. You start thinking about your early years and inadvertently try to draw a parallel/ contrasts between your early years and those of your child's. It is a good experience juxtaposing your past with your child's present and the future. Every parent wants to do the "best" for their child. The only problem is that very few of them are sure what is "best".
Like any other ordinary parent, I am also struggling to define the "best" these days. There are actually so many variables that shape a child's personality in the future years. I have now realized that rather than analyzing those variables (which are not in your control anyways), it is better to just focus on imbibing the "right set" of values in your child. And as you would have guessed it by now, everyone has their own definition of the "right set".
The challenge of parenting is that you experiment as your child is growing up. But by the time, the "result" of those experiments appear, it is too late and too distant to conclude the potential factors behind those results.
So the conclusion - Do what you feel is the best for your child. There is nothing absolute right or wrong anyways in this world.
Having a child in one's life is really an amazing experience. You start thinking about your early years and inadvertently try to draw a parallel/ contrasts between your early years and those of your child's. It is a good experience juxtaposing your past with your child's present and the future. Every parent wants to do the "best" for their child. The only problem is that very few of them are sure what is "best".
Like any other ordinary parent, I am also struggling to define the "best" these days. There are actually so many variables that shape a child's personality in the future years. I have now realized that rather than analyzing those variables (which are not in your control anyways), it is better to just focus on imbibing the "right set" of values in your child. And as you would have guessed it by now, everyone has their own definition of the "right set".
The challenge of parenting is that you experiment as your child is growing up. But by the time, the "result" of those experiments appear, it is too late and too distant to conclude the potential factors behind those results.
So the conclusion - Do what you feel is the best for your child. There is nothing absolute right or wrong anyways in this world.
Saturday, September 30, 2006
Time's 50 Coolest Website
Time has published a list of 50 coolest websites. Some of them are pretty interesting. At a Micro-level, I liked Pandora, where the site has the intelligence to judge my taste and offers me the music (songs) similar to the one that I choose in the beginning.
Some of the sites are US-centric though, and some of them (YouTube, MySpace, Meebo, Google Spreadsheets) dont need any introduction. On the whole, you will come across few which you may find worth-a-dekko.
Some of the sites are US-centric though, and some of them (YouTube, MySpace, Meebo, Google Spreadsheets) dont need any introduction. On the whole, you will come across few which you may find worth-a-dekko.
Interesting Birthday Calculator
Came across this interesting site to check the details about your birthday that you may not even have considered. Eg: The position of the moon at the time of your birth, the day of your birth, the demographics of US at that day etc.
It also offers you the personality traits for those born on a given day.
http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp
It also offers you the personality traits for those born on a given day.
http://www.paulsadowski.com/birthday.asp
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Recent Book Read
Recently finished "Stephen Hawking - A life in Science". The book left me mesmerized because of several reasons. For those of you, who do not know who Stephen Hawking is - He is the most popular scientist/ cosmologist of the second half of the 20th century and is known as Einstein of our times. Even more interesting fact about him is that he suffers from a disease called ALS, where the patient becomes completely paralysed but his brain is not affected at all. So he is always in the wheelchair and communicates to the world through a computer fitted onto his wheelchair.
You will find this book worth-a-read if:
- You have known about him but want to know about his personality and how does he treat the world and the destiny given the fact that he has been disabled for life at such an early stage of his life.
- You have always wondered how can someone turn the obstacles into the opportunities.
- You always wanted to know what does cosmologist do in this world. You had heard about Gravity, Quantam Mechanics, Relativity etc but always struggled to synthesize the information.
- You want to go deeper into the origin of the universe and everything unknown around this.
What surprised me the most was couple of traits of Stephen's personality. He always wants to be treated like any other normal guy and he loves some of the statements about him that any other disabled person would have hated.
In one of the seminar attended by a large gathering, One of Stephen's close friend introduced Stephen by saying that "Stephen's disease is twice as old as his youngest son. That clearly shows some of Stephen is certainly not paralysed." Stephen loved this introduction!
The book certainly forced me to think more philosophically about the origin and the purpose of life. Are we really living in the real world?
You will find this book worth-a-read if:
- You have known about him but want to know about his personality and how does he treat the world and the destiny given the fact that he has been disabled for life at such an early stage of his life.
- You have always wondered how can someone turn the obstacles into the opportunities.
- You always wanted to know what does cosmologist do in this world. You had heard about Gravity, Quantam Mechanics, Relativity etc but always struggled to synthesize the information.
- You want to go deeper into the origin of the universe and everything unknown around this.
What surprised me the most was couple of traits of Stephen's personality. He always wants to be treated like any other normal guy and he loves some of the statements about him that any other disabled person would have hated.
In one of the seminar attended by a large gathering, One of Stephen's close friend introduced Stephen by saying that "Stephen's disease is twice as old as his youngest son. That clearly shows some of Stephen is certainly not paralysed." Stephen loved this introduction!
The book certainly forced me to think more philosophically about the origin and the purpose of life. Are we really living in the real world?
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Lake District
Lake District visit over the long weekend was wonderful. It did offer a chance to the photographer in me to experiment with the beautiful landscapes everywhere.Take a look at some of my experiments...!
Saturday, August 12, 2006
The Good and the Evil
There was a "weaker" country (Germany) of 1916 indulging in irresponsible activities and the World War -1 happened!
There was a "resurgent" Germany 0f 1935 indulging in bullying activities exploiting its weaker neighbours and World War-2 happened!
The two world wars were obviously disastrous for the world economy and population. However once the world was forced into these world wars, things were relatively straighforward as compared to the current situation. One, for the rational society, it was easier to take a stand who was right (the "Good") and who was wrong (the "Evil"). Our mythology has always taught us that the war is between the good and the evil. Two, In the earlier situation, nations were indulged in displaying their military might. The approach of the war was clear - it was a fight on the battleground. Three, there was a sizeable chunk of world population whose lives were not directly affected with these world wars. WW-2 primarily was focussed in Europe, Japan and US while WW-1 was concentrated in Europe primarily. Four, There were more than 1 equal powers in the world (notably Britain, France and lately US). So this equation always kept the world in balance and ensured that the diverse needs of the society are well represented in the global policy making.
And that makes me skeptical for the current trend of terrorism in the world which is much more alarming and complex. For one, We are now facing an issue for which there is no right or wrong stand. If there is a set of people who feel terrorism is bad, there is another set of passionate people who believe it is unavoidable. Unfortunately we are now in a situation which is governed more by belief than by fact. Secondly, those who feel terrorism as unavoidable seem to have resigned to the fact that they can not take on the enemy in a military battle. They indulge in heinous crime of taking lives of so many inncoent civilians who may not be even aware of the motto behind their activities. And as we have witnessed in the past 5 years, the life of each and everyone of us is under threat now. Terrorist can resort to committing crime at any place, any time and in any form.
However, one factor, which in my opinion is the root cause of terrorism, is the balance of powers of the world. In the post cold-war era, USA has become the supreme power of the world. Some of its policies have certainly raised anguish in the certain regions of the world. As there is no comparable power today to counter those policies, there is a classic case of helplessness resorting to the unfair means. Those who are frustrated with its policies, express their anguish in the form of terrorism. To be fair to USA, it can not please the whole world. Whatever be it, the war is certainly ON - You have to judge who is "good" and who is "evil" here.
There was a "resurgent" Germany 0f 1935 indulging in bullying activities exploiting its weaker neighbours and World War-2 happened!
The two world wars were obviously disastrous for the world economy and population. However once the world was forced into these world wars, things were relatively straighforward as compared to the current situation. One, for the rational society, it was easier to take a stand who was right (the "Good") and who was wrong (the "Evil"). Our mythology has always taught us that the war is between the good and the evil. Two, In the earlier situation, nations were indulged in displaying their military might. The approach of the war was clear - it was a fight on the battleground. Three, there was a sizeable chunk of world population whose lives were not directly affected with these world wars. WW-2 primarily was focussed in Europe, Japan and US while WW-1 was concentrated in Europe primarily. Four, There were more than 1 equal powers in the world (notably Britain, France and lately US). So this equation always kept the world in balance and ensured that the diverse needs of the society are well represented in the global policy making.
And that makes me skeptical for the current trend of terrorism in the world which is much more alarming and complex. For one, We are now facing an issue for which there is no right or wrong stand. If there is a set of people who feel terrorism is bad, there is another set of passionate people who believe it is unavoidable. Unfortunately we are now in a situation which is governed more by belief than by fact. Secondly, those who feel terrorism as unavoidable seem to have resigned to the fact that they can not take on the enemy in a military battle. They indulge in heinous crime of taking lives of so many inncoent civilians who may not be even aware of the motto behind their activities. And as we have witnessed in the past 5 years, the life of each and everyone of us is under threat now. Terrorist can resort to committing crime at any place, any time and in any form.
However, one factor, which in my opinion is the root cause of terrorism, is the balance of powers of the world. In the post cold-war era, USA has become the supreme power of the world. Some of its policies have certainly raised anguish in the certain regions of the world. As there is no comparable power today to counter those policies, there is a classic case of helplessness resorting to the unfair means. Those who are frustrated with its policies, express their anguish in the form of terrorism. To be fair to USA, it can not please the whole world. Whatever be it, the war is certainly ON - You have to judge who is "good" and who is "evil" here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)