A featured documentary film about Indie Games (Independent Games) and their developers. With the emerges of mobile and console games, many developers go into the trend of making indie games.
Game Design
It won't be an exaggeration to think that a 'Good' game has to be like a pretty girl - she must be beautiful and eloquent; she must have sweet and attractive voice; she must be intelligent, kind and interesting. Similarly, a good game must be well designed and developed for 3 fundamental aspects of the game: visual effects, sound effects and finally game logic. A good game should have attractive UI (user interface) and game elements to create the pleasant UX (user experience). In addition, it should have supporting sound effects to reinforce the UX. And finally, a good game should be hard enough to challenge the players and easy enough to let them continue playing. In fact, it is a real challenge to perfectly combine all these aspects of the game so that the players don't feel bored or tired of playing the game.
Like in regular software development, game development must follow the design guide line to meet the standard of the good game. Similar to software specification document, game design document (GDD) serves as a blue-print as to how to develop a good game. Normally, a generic game design document includes as follows:
Although it is a generic game design document, it provides enough information for every aspects of game development. With the emergence of mobile apps markets (especially IPhone and Andriod) , it has become very possible for developers to make Indie Games (Independent Games) which do not require as many resources and efforts as big titled games.
Like in regular software development, game development must follow the design guide line to meet the standard of the good game. Similar to software specification document, game design document (GDD) serves as a blue-print as to how to develop a good game. Normally, a generic game design document includes as follows:
1. Title Page
1.1. Game Name – Perhaps also add a subtitle or high concept sentence.
1.2. Copyright Information
1.3. Version Number, author, date
2. Table of Contents – Make sure this includes all the subsections to make finding material. If practical, hyper linking the document will help here.
3. Design History – This is a change listing quickly describing each major version and changes.
4. Section I - Game Overview
4.1. Game Concept
4.2. Feature Set
4.3. Genre
4.4. Target Audience
4.5. Game Flow Summary – How does the player move through the game. Both through framing interface and the game itself.
4.6. Look and Feel – What is the basic look and feel of the game? What is the visual style?
4.7. Project Scope – A summary of the scope of the game.
4.7.1. Number of locations
4.7.2. Number of levels
4.7.3. Number of NPC’s
4.7.4. Number of weapons
4.7.5. Etc.
5. Section II - Gameplay and Mechanics
5.1. Gameplay
5.1.1. Game Progression
5.1.2. Mission/challenge Structure
5.1.3. Puzzle Structure
5.1.4. Objectives – What are the objectives of the game?
5.1.5. Play Flow – How does the game flow for the game player
5.2. Mechanics – What are the rules to the game, both implicit and explicit. This is the model of the universe that the game works under. Think of it as a simulation of a world, how do all the pieces interact? This actually can be a very large section.
5.2.1. Physics – How does the physical universe work?
5.2.2. Movement
5.2.2.1.General Movement
5.2.2.2.Other Movement
5.2.3. Objects
5.2.3.1.Picking Up Objects
5.2.3.2.Moving Objects
5.2.4. Actions
5.2.4.1.Switches and Buttons
5.2.4.2.Picking Up, Carrying and Dropping
5.2.4.3.Talking
5.2.4.4.Reading
5.2.5. Combat – If there is combat or even conflict, how is this specifically modeled?
5.2.6. Economy – What is the economy of the game? How does it work?
5.3. Screen Flow
5.3.1. Screen Flow Chart – A graphical description of how each screen is related to every other
5.3.2. Screen Descriptions – What is the purpose of each screen?
5.3.2.1.Main Menu Screen
5.3.2.2.Options Screen
5.3.2.3.Etc.
5.4. Game Options – What are the options and how do they affect game play and mechanics?
5.5. Replaying and Saving
5.6. Cheats and Easter Eggs
6. Section III – Story, Setting and Character
6.1. Story and Narrative - Specific details like scripts and cut scenes may not be in this document but be in the Story Bible.
6.1.1. Back story
6.1.2. Plot Elements
6.1.3. Game Progression
6.1.4. License Considerations
6.1.5. Cut Scenes
6.1.5.1.Cut scene #1
6.1.5.1.1. Actors
6.1.5.1.2. Description
6.1.5.1.3. Storyboard
6.1.5.1.4. Script
6.1.5.2.Cut scene #2
6.1.5.3.etc.
6.2. Game World
6.2.1. General look and feel of world
6.2.2. Area #1
6.2.2.1.General Description
6.2.2.2.Physical Characteristics
6.2.2.3.Levels that use area
6.2.2.4.Connections to other areas
6.2.3. Area #2
6.2.3.1.etc.
6.3. Characters
6.3.1. Character #1
6.3.1.1.Back story
6.3.1.2.Personality
6.3.1.3.Look
6.3.1.3.1. Physical characteristics
6.3.1.3.2. Animations
6.3.1.4.Special Abilities
6.3.1.5.Relevance to game story
6.3.1.6.Relationship to other characters
6.3.1.7.Statistics
6.3.2. Character #2
6.3.3. etc.
7. Section IV – Levels
7.1. Level #1
7.1.1. Synopsis
7.1.2. Introductory Material (Cut scene? Mission briefing?)
7.1.3. Objectives
7.1.4. Physical Description
7.1.5. Map
7.1.6. Critical Path
7.1.7. Encounters
7.1.8. Level Walkthrough
7.1.9. Closing Material
7.2. Level #2
7.3. etc.
7.4. Training Level
8. Section V - Interface
8.1. Visual System
8.1.1. HUD - What controls
8.1.2. Menus
8.1.3. Rendering System
8.1.4. Camera
8.1.5. Lighting Models
8.2. Control System – How does the game player control the game? What are the specific commands?
8.3. Audio
8.4. Music
8.5. Sound Effects
8.6. Help System
9. Section VI - Artificial Intelligence
9.1. Opponent AI – The active opponent that plays against the game player and therefore requires strategic decision making (example, Civilization or Chess, how is it to be designed?
9.2. Enemy AI – Villains and Monsters
9.3. Non-combat Characters
9.4. Friendly Characters
9.5. Support AI
9.5.1. Player and Collision Detection
9.5.2. Pathfinding
10. Section VII – Technical – This may be abbreviated with most in the Technical Bible.
10.1. Target Hardware
10.2. Development hardware and software
10.3. Development procedures and standards
10.4. Game Engine
10.5. Network
10.6. Scripting Language
10.7. etc.
11. Section VIII – Game Art - This may be abbreviated with most of the content in an Art Bible.
11.1. Concept Art
11.2. Style Guides
11.3. Characters
11.4. Environments
11.5. Equipment
11.6. Cut scenes
11.7. Miscellaneous
12. Section IX - Secondary Software
12.1. Editor
12.2. Installer
12.3. Update software
13. Section X - Management
13.1. Detailed Schedule
13.2. Budget
13.3. Risk Analysis
13.4. Localization Plan
13.5. Test Plan
14. Appendices
14.1. Asset List
14.1.1. Art
14.1.1.1. Model and Texture List
14.1.1.2. Animation List
14.1.1.3. Effects List
14.1.1.4. Interface Art List
14.1.1.5. Cut scene List
14.1.2. Sound
14.1.2.1. Environmental Sounds
14.1.2.2. Weapon Sounds
14.1.2.3. Interface Sounds
14.1.3. Music
14.1.3.1. Ambient
14.1.3.2. “Action”
14.1.3.3. Victory
14.1.3.4. Defeat
14.1.4. Voice
14.1.4.1. Actor #1 lines
14.1.4.2. Actor #2 lines
14.1.4.3. Etc.
Although it is a generic game design document, it provides enough information for every aspects of game development. With the emergence of mobile apps markets (especially IPhone and Andriod) , it has become very possible for developers to make Indie Games (Independent Games) which do not require as many resources and efforts as big titled games.
Age of Wulin
The first game developed by a Chinese Game Company, Snail Game (http://www.snailgame.net/cn/index.html), to be published outside of China. Really impressive 3D artworks, graphics, story-line and out of the box game play. Unlike many other Mmorpg games, it doesn't have class system; rather it employs skill improvement through quests, combats and professions.
There are some documentaries, regarding the development of the game. It is really interesting and exciting to see how they have designed and developed the game by taking risks and making difficult choices.
It will be released in 2012 as a free-to-play MMORPG by EU game publisher gpotato, http://en.wulin.gpotato.eu/mini/. Yes, I can't wait to play this awesome game... :D
Steve Job's Legacy: Design Your Own Life By Nilofer Merchant
I bumped into this article on pulse. I love it so much that I wrote it as the original. Enjoy!!!
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While there are many things worth celebrating of Steve Job's life, the greatest gift Steve gave us is a way to design our own lives.
Steve Jobs was known for being a design god who sweated experience, and pixels and, well everything. "Design", he once said, "is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But, of course, if you dig deeper, it's how it really works. You have to grok what it is all about."
In our society, thinking for ourselves is not highly valued. Our education model was designed with 19th century more than the 21st century in mind. It reinforces fitting in and suppresses much of the natural creativity we start with. That's how we go from drawing and acting and make-believe to PowerPoint. If we allow creativity at all, it is limited to arts and sports. "Real work" has us looking like a Dilbert character. Between the pressures of our teachers, parents, and ultimately co-workers, we often give up any search for personal meaning as we aim to belong to a tribe. After a while, we may not even believe we have something unique to offer. Rather than figure out what we are each about, far too many of us live within the boxes others define.
But when we define ourselves by what others want, we are trying to kiss a moving butt. To live in a box defined by someone else is to deny our uniqueness. Each of us is standing in a spot no one else occupies. That unique perspective is born of our accumulated experience, perspective, and our vision. When we deny these things, we deny that which only we can bring to the situation, our onlyness. And that is surely not the way the world is made better.
I'm reminded of the ad copy Steve initiated when he returned to Apple:
But he knows that his journey was to apply what only he could - from his meticulous design methodology, to re imaging computing, to building a different type of company. He realized - and showed us - that our real job is not to conform to what others think. Instead, we need to recognize that our life's goal is to find our own unique way in the world, to find the way we move from being kiss-ass to being kick-ass.
That is the fundamental gift of Steve Jobs. His insane greatness was to find his own journey and to live his life this way. He didn't worry about being weird; he only wanted to be himself.
I have been in love with Apple products since my first Apple II, which I practically bought with quarters and nickles earned in small increments. I grew up picking apricots on the property where Apple buildings now stand. I worked at Apple during the dark days, as alumni refer to the years between Steve Jobs' departure and then his much-needed return. He was competitive, sure but mostly against himself. And that, too, is a lesson for us. It has been an honor to use his products, and it was an honor to work at his company. But the greatest honor has been to emulate what he showed us by his life. That each of us must find our own path. The unmarked path.
So I ask you to join me in honoring Steve's greatness not by trying to be Steve, but by trying to be your greatest self.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For me, it is actually an inspirational speech and love it so much. Here is the movie called "Pirate of Silicon Valley" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168122/) about the rivalry between Steve and Bill, who both changed the era of computing so much.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
While there are many things worth celebrating of Steve Job's life, the greatest gift Steve gave us is a way to design our own lives.
Steve Jobs was known for being a design god who sweated experience, and pixels and, well everything. "Design", he once said, "is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But, of course, if you dig deeper, it's how it really works. You have to grok what it is all about."
In our society, thinking for ourselves is not highly valued. Our education model was designed with 19th century more than the 21st century in mind. It reinforces fitting in and suppresses much of the natural creativity we start with. That's how we go from drawing and acting and make-believe to PowerPoint. If we allow creativity at all, it is limited to arts and sports. "Real work" has us looking like a Dilbert character. Between the pressures of our teachers, parents, and ultimately co-workers, we often give up any search for personal meaning as we aim to belong to a tribe. After a while, we may not even believe we have something unique to offer. Rather than figure out what we are each about, far too many of us live within the boxes others define.
But when we define ourselves by what others want, we are trying to kiss a moving butt. To live in a box defined by someone else is to deny our uniqueness. Each of us is standing in a spot no one else occupies. That unique perspective is born of our accumulated experience, perspective, and our vision. When we deny these things, we deny that which only we can bring to the situation, our onlyness. And that is surely not the way the world is made better.
I'm reminded of the ad copy Steve initiated when he returned to Apple:
Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They are not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify, or vilify them. About the only thing you can't do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do. (Apple Inc.)The problem with being a rebel, a misfit, a troublemaker is that masses will not be cheering on you on. Rosa Parks might be a heroine today, but at that time she lost her job. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr both had huge dissension within their own communities. It took Jobs years to come up with a turnaround strategy that showed what Apple could do. People forget the years between 1996-2001 where much of the market called him more insane, than insanely great.
But he knows that his journey was to apply what only he could - from his meticulous design methodology, to re imaging computing, to building a different type of company. He realized - and showed us - that our real job is not to conform to what others think. Instead, we need to recognize that our life's goal is to find our own unique way in the world, to find the way we move from being kiss-ass to being kick-ass.
That is the fundamental gift of Steve Jobs. His insane greatness was to find his own journey and to live his life this way. He didn't worry about being weird; he only wanted to be himself.
I have been in love with Apple products since my first Apple II, which I practically bought with quarters and nickles earned in small increments. I grew up picking apricots on the property where Apple buildings now stand. I worked at Apple during the dark days, as alumni refer to the years between Steve Jobs' departure and then his much-needed return. He was competitive, sure but mostly against himself. And that, too, is a lesson for us. It has been an honor to use his products, and it was an honor to work at his company. But the greatest honor has been to emulate what he showed us by his life. That each of us must find our own path. The unmarked path.
So I ask you to join me in honoring Steve's greatness not by trying to be Steve, but by trying to be your greatest self.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For me, it is actually an inspirational speech and love it so much. Here is the movie called "Pirate of Silicon Valley" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0168122/) about the rivalry between Steve and Bill, who both changed the era of computing so much.
Data Mapping Tables in ERD
Suppose we have a hundreds of tables in the database, and the database is highly normalized and it has hundreds of relationships among the tables. In order for a developer to look for the tables, columns and relationships between tables would be really tedious in such a case. I came up with an idea that it would be nice if there is auto-data mapping program. It is not perfect, but it is still helpful to extent.
Data Mapping Between Tables in ERD
Data Mapping Between Tables in ERD
Design Patterns
It has been a while since I last wrote. Only recently did I start to realize that design patterns are important for a program (software) to be fully utilizable or reusable.
What makes a difference between a good and bad software is the design patterns, I believe. I have been planning on buying a book about Design Patterns from Gang Of Four, but never have a chance to put it into action yet :) (Still, I am saving money.) I do know that this book will help me a lot. I also recommend others to buy this book if you are a .Net developer.
Things will be busy, but I will try to write as soon as I can find some free time. Blogging has become part of my life; yes, sometimes I think I can't do without it :)
What makes a difference between a good and bad software is the design patterns, I believe. I have been planning on buying a book about Design Patterns from Gang Of Four, but never have a chance to put it into action yet :) (Still, I am saving money.) I do know that this book will help me a lot. I also recommend others to buy this book if you are a .Net developer.
Things will be busy, but I will try to write as soon as I can find some free time. Blogging has become part of my life; yes, sometimes I think I can't do without it :)
Paradoxes
According to Wikipedia, "A paradox is a seemingly true statement or group of statements that lead to a contradiction or a situation which seems to defy logic or intuition." Sometimes, a paradox points out the dilemma, where two view-points or statements contradict each other.
One of the famous paradoxes is Russell's Paradox:
"Let R be the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. If R qualifies as a member of itself, it would contradict its own definition as a set containing all sets that are not members of themselves. On the other hand, if such a set is not a member of itself, it would qualify as a member of itself by the same definition."
Similarly,
"If God can do everything, He will be able to create a stone that he cannot lift. Then, He cannot lift that stone. Therefore, God cannot do everything."
In fact, whenever a statement refer to the absolute collective or general situation, such as everything, or anything, there may be a paradox. For example:
"Killing a living being is bad". Without referring to the situation or the circumstance, that statement cannot be a valid argument. However, "The Intention of killing a living being is bad" is a valid argument.
One of the famous paradoxes is Russell's Paradox:
"Let R be the set of all sets that are not members of themselves. If R qualifies as a member of itself, it would contradict its own definition as a set containing all sets that are not members of themselves. On the other hand, if such a set is not a member of itself, it would qualify as a member of itself by the same definition."
Similarly,
"If God can do everything, He will be able to create a stone that he cannot lift. Then, He cannot lift that stone. Therefore, God cannot do everything."
In fact, whenever a statement refer to the absolute collective or general situation, such as everything, or anything, there may be a paradox. For example:
"Killing a living being is bad". Without referring to the situation or the circumstance, that statement cannot be a valid argument. However, "The Intention of killing a living being is bad" is a valid argument.
There is always a way to do things better... NOW!!!
It has been a good question as to whether it is better to be goal-oriented or process-oriented. With the goal-oriented mind-set, we focus our ability to achieve our goals. However, the question is if it is over after we achieve our goal. Actually, it has never been easy to say that it is over even if we achieve our goal. Simply because life itself is a process.
Process-oriented mind-set focuses on how we do things, not on what we achieve. We focus our way of doing things and always find a way to improve it. With process-oriented mind-set, we think there is always a way to do things better. In fact, I sincerely believe that it is fundamental driving force to improve ourselves individually or society as a whole.
Experience is the best teacher. Although simple, it points out that the most important aspect of life. Learn from the mistakes and improve them. Personally, I believe that the philosophy of Buddhism is more process-oriented than goal-oriented. In Buddhism, I believe goal is only to give us a sense of direction. The previous life stories of the Buddha shows us how the Buddha made mistakes and how He tried to improve them life after life until He reached the perfection.
However, since we are more attached to the results than to the process itself, we unconsciously incline to be goal-oriented. We naturally believe that we will be happy after we achieve our goal. And then, our goal of happiness has become a mirage. We keep following it but we never reach it.
Instead of focusing on uncertain future, can we not be happy now? Instead of saying "I will be happier and better after this", can we not say "I am happy now to do this." I believe with just a little change of attitude, we can change our lives. Can we not live our life without expecting too much out of it, just to enjoy the every moment of our life, whether it is good or bad. There is always a better way to do things... NOW!!!
Process-oriented mind-set focuses on how we do things, not on what we achieve. We focus our way of doing things and always find a way to improve it. With process-oriented mind-set, we think there is always a way to do things better. In fact, I sincerely believe that it is fundamental driving force to improve ourselves individually or society as a whole.
Experience is the best teacher. Although simple, it points out that the most important aspect of life. Learn from the mistakes and improve them. Personally, I believe that the philosophy of Buddhism is more process-oriented than goal-oriented. In Buddhism, I believe goal is only to give us a sense of direction. The previous life stories of the Buddha shows us how the Buddha made mistakes and how He tried to improve them life after life until He reached the perfection.
However, since we are more attached to the results than to the process itself, we unconsciously incline to be goal-oriented. We naturally believe that we will be happy after we achieve our goal. And then, our goal of happiness has become a mirage. We keep following it but we never reach it.
Instead of focusing on uncertain future, can we not be happy now? Instead of saying "I will be happier and better after this", can we not say "I am happy now to do this." I believe with just a little change of attitude, we can change our lives. Can we not live our life without expecting too much out of it, just to enjoy the every moment of our life, whether it is good or bad. There is always a better way to do things... NOW!!!
Difference
What is the difference between?
Learning vs. Studying
Work vs. Job
Value vs. Price
Wealthy vs. Rich
Healthy vs. Fit
Success vs. Achievement
Failure vs. Loss
Learning vs. Studying
Work vs. Job
Value vs. Price
Wealthy vs. Rich
Healthy vs. Fit
Success vs. Achievement
Failure vs. Loss
nQueens Problem
How many possible ways of placing N queens on the N x N chessboard without allowing them to attack each other? It is the Queens Problem and it is famous for its exceedingly high computational complexity :( . The following is the test for 16 Queens to place on 16 x 16 chess board. It took almost 12 hours to exhaust all the possible solutions on Centrino2 processors with 1GB RAM.
(One guy tested for 26 x 26 chess board!!!) http://www.durangobill.com/N_Queens.html
(One guy tested for 26 x 26 chess board!!!) http://www.durangobill.com/N_Queens.html
Awesome Job Advertisement :P
I bumped into this Job Advertisement on JobsDB, and I can't stop laughing ha ha ha... This is my first time to come across such an awesome Job Advertisement. The company must have so creative, original and fun-loving programmers.
Happy Belated 20th Birthday of Visual Basic
It was Visual Basic 6 which impressed me a lot when I first learned it due to its features of rapid application development. Although it did not provide fully functional object orientation, with OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) and ActiveX, it did an awesome job.
Later, with the advent of .NET framework, Visual Basic has grown up into the full-fledged OO Language. Yes, it is still growing up and becoming better and better.
Happy Birthday, VB!
source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vbteam/archive/2011/05/20/happy-20th-birthday-visual-basic.aspx
Later, with the advent of .NET framework, Visual Basic has grown up into the full-fledged OO Language. Yes, it is still growing up and becoming better and better.
Happy Birthday, VB!
source: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vbteam/archive/2011/05/20/happy-20th-birthday-visual-basic.aspx
PLSims
PLSims is the project on which I have put a lot of effort and have done a lot of research. Still, I am working on improving and fixing problems I have encountered during the project. In fact, developing an interpreter/compiler will make me understand more about programming and opens my mind to understand from the computer system perspective, because space (memory) and time (execution time) do matter for an interpreter to perform well. Anyway, I think I should write a documentation on PLSims while I have some time, so I wrote.
PLSims
PLSims
Top 10 Attributes of a Great Programmer
I bumped into a programmer's blog and I am fascinated by his post on the attributes of a "Great" programmer. So I posted it as he has written. Please read more on his website. Enjoy!
- Being a great problem solver.
- Being driven and lazy at the same time.
- Ability to understand other people’s code
- Having a passion for programming
- Loving learning for the sake of learning
- Being good at math
- Having good communications skills
- Strong debating skills
- Extreme optimism
- Extreme pessimism
Space and Time
Space and Time. I think these are the terms we use the most in our everyday life, but we understand the least what it actually means. We, generally, think that space indicates the location or place of the events or incidents, and that time represents the changes in events. Our perception of space and time is absolute, independent and linear. In reality, both space and time are relative, interdependent and non-linear. In order to understand this, let us go back in history.
In Aristotelian physics, there is a notion of Euclidean 3-Space E^3 to represent physical space. In fact, this three dimensional physical space provides the absolute universal space within which events and incidents take place. Here we mean by the absolute universal space is that the space is static. For example, point (1,0,1) at one moment will represent the same point at another moment. Therefore, the space is independent of the time. In Aristotelian scheme, the absolute time is also represented by 1 dimensional Space E, which is independent of the space. With this framework, it is appropriate to think of space-time as the product of A = E (time) x E^3 (space). In fact, Aristotelian notion agrees with our common sense, although it does not reflect the reality.
However, Galileo did not accept the notion of absolute space. He argued that although the Earth seems relatively static to us, it is, in fact, in motion. Therefore, one point on the surface of the Earth at one moment is totally different from the same point at another moment. In addition, he argued that we cannot define the absolute point in space since everything is in motion. For example, the location of the Earth in the Solar System is relative to the Sun, the location of which is in fact relative to our Milky Way Galaxy. Although Galileo did not accept the notion of absolute space, he still agreed with the notion of absolute time. Therefore, in Galilean physics, the space is changing according to the absolute time. In order words, the space is the function of time:
G = E^3 (E)
It was Newton who extended the ideas of Galileo. He once stated, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants," whom he meant by Galileo and Kepler. In fact, Newton's notion of space and time is very much similar to that of Galileo. By his first law, Newton introduced the notion of inertial frame of reference. Before elaborating on the Newton's first law, let us think about how we perceive motions of objects in the space in motion. In fact, Newton solved this problem by introducing the notion of uniform motion. Regardless of the space in motion, when an object is in uniform motion, it has an inertial frame of reference (the absolute space) on its own.
For example, let us imagine ourselves inside a big box, which is in uniform motion. We cannot see or know what is going on outside the box. As long as the box is in uniform motion, it will provide us the absolute space on its own.
Newton's second law explains what happen when the object are not in uniform motion. When an object is not uniform motion, its inertial frame of reference (the absolute space) will be distorted in accordance with its acceleration.
In fact, Newton's notion of space and time is the same as Galileo's notion of space and time. The only difference is Newton used the bottom-up notion of space and time. He defined the space locally, instead of defining the global picture of everything in motion. In Newtonian physics, the space is absolute when it is in uniform motion, but it is relative when it is not. However, like Galileo, Newton still accepted the notion of absolute time.
In addition to his famous Universal Law of Gravitation, Newton's another major contribution is the Calculus. In fact, calculus provides the systematic study of the rate of change, which later affects the meaning of time (the absolute time). The only reason why the rate of change is so important is because everything is changing.
In reality, we cannot perceive the time. What we can perceive is the change. We can only discerns how fast or how slow the things change. So, if there were no change at all, we would not perceive the time at all.
Rate of change is essential because it relates the space and time by a very simple equation:
Rate of Change = Change in Space / Change in Time.
Although very simple, rate of change is , in fact, very difficult to understand. (I think whoever took the Calculus course will agree with me :P ).
With absolute time notion, rate of change is very simple to understand. Faster rate means, bigger changes in space and slower rate means smaller changes in space as change in time is always equal. But what if the change in time is not equal?
Actually, we held the notion of absolute time, until we encountered the speed of light. The speed of light in fact gave a lot of headache to the physicists. Before discussing about the speed of light, let us think about two frames of references which are relative in motion.
Let us imagine we are inside a big glass box in uniform motion. Since it is the glass box, we can see what is going on outside the box. There is another glass box which is also in uniform motion with different velocity. Inside that box, a tennis ball is moving up and down and a person is standing and watching the ball. For that person, the trajectory of the tennis ball is straight as the ball is moving vertically up and down. Regardless of the velocity of the glass box, the person will say that the ball is moving in a straight line.
However, for us, who are in different inertial frame of reference with different velocity, we will not see that the tennis ball is moving in a straight line. The trajectory of the tennis ball, in fact, is a curve (more precisely a parabola) to us. It is because there is a relative motion between two frame of references. When we look at the events, which are in different inertial frame of reference, the space is distorted in accordance with the relative velocity between inertial frames. In fact, it is very obvious. When someone drops a stone from the moving car, we will see the stone does not fall in a straight line.
However, the speed of light is different. Observers from different inertial frame of references will measure the same speed of light even though there is a relative motion between different frame of references. The relative velocity does not affect the speed of light.
It was Einstein who first stated that the speed of light and the laws of physics will be the same in different inertial frames of reference. From this postulate, he developed the special theory of relativity. In fact, the special theory relativity reshape our perceptions of space and time.
Also, the speed of light defines the universal maximum constant rate of change. There are different rates of change in the universe, but none can exceed the rate of change of light.
c = rate of change of light = change in space / change in time = universal constant
When we look at the equation, we will see that for different change is space, the change in time has to be different in order to keep ratio constant. From this, we realize that there is no such thing as absolute time.
In Aristotelian physics, there is a notion of Euclidean 3-Space E^3 to represent physical space. In fact, this three dimensional physical space provides the absolute universal space within which events and incidents take place. Here we mean by the absolute universal space is that the space is static. For example, point (1,0,1) at one moment will represent the same point at another moment. Therefore, the space is independent of the time. In Aristotelian scheme, the absolute time is also represented by 1 dimensional Space E, which is independent of the space. With this framework, it is appropriate to think of space-time as the product of A = E (time) x E^3 (space). In fact, Aristotelian notion agrees with our common sense, although it does not reflect the reality.
However, Galileo did not accept the notion of absolute space. He argued that although the Earth seems relatively static to us, it is, in fact, in motion. Therefore, one point on the surface of the Earth at one moment is totally different from the same point at another moment. In addition, he argued that we cannot define the absolute point in space since everything is in motion. For example, the location of the Earth in the Solar System is relative to the Sun, the location of which is in fact relative to our Milky Way Galaxy. Although Galileo did not accept the notion of absolute space, he still agreed with the notion of absolute time. Therefore, in Galilean physics, the space is changing according to the absolute time. In order words, the space is the function of time:
G = E^3 (E)
It was Newton who extended the ideas of Galileo. He once stated, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants," whom he meant by Galileo and Kepler. In fact, Newton's notion of space and time is very much similar to that of Galileo. By his first law, Newton introduced the notion of inertial frame of reference. Before elaborating on the Newton's first law, let us think about how we perceive motions of objects in the space in motion. In fact, Newton solved this problem by introducing the notion of uniform motion. Regardless of the space in motion, when an object is in uniform motion, it has an inertial frame of reference (the absolute space) on its own.
For example, let us imagine ourselves inside a big box, which is in uniform motion. We cannot see or know what is going on outside the box. As long as the box is in uniform motion, it will provide us the absolute space on its own.
Newton's second law explains what happen when the object are not in uniform motion. When an object is not uniform motion, its inertial frame of reference (the absolute space) will be distorted in accordance with its acceleration.
In fact, Newton's notion of space and time is the same as Galileo's notion of space and time. The only difference is Newton used the bottom-up notion of space and time. He defined the space locally, instead of defining the global picture of everything in motion. In Newtonian physics, the space is absolute when it is in uniform motion, but it is relative when it is not. However, like Galileo, Newton still accepted the notion of absolute time.
In addition to his famous Universal Law of Gravitation, Newton's another major contribution is the Calculus. In fact, calculus provides the systematic study of the rate of change, which later affects the meaning of time (the absolute time). The only reason why the rate of change is so important is because everything is changing.
In reality, we cannot perceive the time. What we can perceive is the change. We can only discerns how fast or how slow the things change. So, if there were no change at all, we would not perceive the time at all.
Rate of change is essential because it relates the space and time by a very simple equation:
Rate of Change = Change in Space / Change in Time.
Although very simple, rate of change is , in fact, very difficult to understand. (I think whoever took the Calculus course will agree with me :P ).
With absolute time notion, rate of change is very simple to understand. Faster rate means, bigger changes in space and slower rate means smaller changes in space as change in time is always equal. But what if the change in time is not equal?
Actually, we held the notion of absolute time, until we encountered the speed of light. The speed of light in fact gave a lot of headache to the physicists. Before discussing about the speed of light, let us think about two frames of references which are relative in motion.
Let us imagine we are inside a big glass box in uniform motion. Since it is the glass box, we can see what is going on outside the box. There is another glass box which is also in uniform motion with different velocity. Inside that box, a tennis ball is moving up and down and a person is standing and watching the ball. For that person, the trajectory of the tennis ball is straight as the ball is moving vertically up and down. Regardless of the velocity of the glass box, the person will say that the ball is moving in a straight line.
However, for us, who are in different inertial frame of reference with different velocity, we will not see that the tennis ball is moving in a straight line. The trajectory of the tennis ball, in fact, is a curve (more precisely a parabola) to us. It is because there is a relative motion between two frame of references. When we look at the events, which are in different inertial frame of reference, the space is distorted in accordance with the relative velocity between inertial frames. In fact, it is very obvious. When someone drops a stone from the moving car, we will see the stone does not fall in a straight line.
However, the speed of light is different. Observers from different inertial frame of references will measure the same speed of light even though there is a relative motion between different frame of references. The relative velocity does not affect the speed of light.
It was Einstein who first stated that the speed of light and the laws of physics will be the same in different inertial frames of reference. From this postulate, he developed the special theory of relativity. In fact, the special theory relativity reshape our perceptions of space and time.
Also, the speed of light defines the universal maximum constant rate of change. There are different rates of change in the universe, but none can exceed the rate of change of light.
c = rate of change of light = change in space / change in time = universal constant
When we look at the equation, we will see that for different change is space, the change in time has to be different in order to keep ratio constant. From this, we realize that there is no such thing as absolute time.
Functional Programming
On the other day, I bumped into Microsoft F#, a functional programming environment. It is pretty interesting. After reading some features, I find it quite unusual to think in functional programming.
Anyway, it is worth testing since it can provides parallel IO and CPU programming, and nowadays, every computer have at least 2 CPUs.
There is more information about functional programming. http://academicearth.org/courses/the-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs. For that class, the professor uses Scheme, something like Lisp.
Anyway, it is worth testing since it can provides parallel IO and CPU programming, and nowadays, every computer have at least 2 CPUs.
There is more information about functional programming. http://academicearth.org/courses/the-structure-and-interpretation-of-computer-programs. For that class, the professor uses Scheme, something like Lisp.
Overview of 3D Graphics
Personally, I think I am a visual person. Generally I pay more attention to visual objects than to others. My response to other senses, such as sounds, tastes and touches are slower than my visual sense. Quite naturally, I am interested in Visual Objects and how to process them, which includes imaging, computer graphics, computer games, image processing. The following is the introduction to 3D graphics, which I wrote as a tutorial. Well, in fact, I am just trying to explain myself while I am still learning with 3D Graphics and Game Programming.
Introduction to 3D Graphic
Introduction to 3D Graphic
Physics of the Mind
Although we don't know much about how mind actually works, it has never ceased to fascinate the scientists and philosophers. Recently, it has started to attract computer scientists as well. In fact, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Emotion, Cognitive Science and Neural Networks rooted in the analysis of mind and the so-called consciousness.
Physics of Mind
Physics of Mind
A new kind of science
In 2002, Stephen Wolfram shook the world a little by publishing a controversial book, "A New Kind of Science", which primarily focuses on the empirical and systematic study of cellular automata. With this, he gave a new insightful ideas of seeing the world as a super-giant computational engine, which computes itself. After reading his book, I personally started to believe that maybe we all live in the Matrix , where God never gambles, instead He computes. (I wonder what Einstein will say about the New Kind of Science.)
Although the idea of cellular automata is not new, as John Conway developed a simple cellular automaton in 1970, called Conway's Game of Life, the extended of ideas of computational equivalence is really awesome.
In fact, the notion of the Universe as a giant super computer is further supported by Seth Lloyd in his book, "Programming The Universe". He just modified a little bit. The universe is not just a super computer; it is actually the giant super quantum computer, the Universal Computer where God gambles while He computes.
Well, I think, since physicists are stuck with paradoxical quantum theories, where they cannot move a single inch forward yet, it seems like new ideas have to come from somewhere else to resolve this stigma. Most likely, a new breakthrough will come from Information Theory, and Theory of Computation. Good news for computer scientists. :)
PS: I don't know how it feels to live inside a computer. :P
Although the idea of cellular automata is not new, as John Conway developed a simple cellular automaton in 1970, called Conway's Game of Life, the extended of ideas of computational equivalence is really awesome.
In fact, the notion of the Universe as a giant super computer is further supported by Seth Lloyd in his book, "Programming The Universe". He just modified a little bit. The universe is not just a super computer; it is actually the giant super quantum computer, the Universal Computer where God gambles while He computes.
Well, I think, since physicists are stuck with paradoxical quantum theories, where they cannot move a single inch forward yet, it seems like new ideas have to come from somewhere else to resolve this stigma. Most likely, a new breakthrough will come from Information Theory, and Theory of Computation. Good news for computer scientists. :)
PS: I don't know how it feels to live inside a computer. :P
Conversations with God
Sometimes, it is difficult to know what is right or wrong. I am always asking if I am doing the right thing. Well, as long as I am doing it with loving kindness and compassion, it should be fine.
Enjoy the conversations with God.
Enjoy the conversations with God.
Pay it forward
If you can help 3 people and change their lives, and each of 3 people, in turn, will help other 3 people, and other 3 people and so on, is it possible to change the world? Impossible?
But just pay it forward.
(The real joy comes from giving without expectation, not from taking; it comes from trying without expectation, not from achieving. it comes from living without limits, not from surviving.)
http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/
แိแ္แႊာแိုแแိုแแြแ္
แိแ္แိဳแိแ္ျแာ
แိแ္แိแႅာႏွแ့္
แိแ္แแ္แံ့ေแာแ္
แกျแာေแာแ္แแ္
ေแွာแ္แဲ့แแ ္แါ
แိဳแဲ့แแ ္แီ
แพแแ္แဲ့แแ ္แ်ိဳแ
แွแ္แฅแၲแေแ်ာ္
แိแ္แိแႅာႏွแ့္
แိแ္แแ္แံ့ေแာแ္
แกျแာေแာแ္แแ္
ေแွာแ္แဲ့แแ ္แါ
แိဳแဲ့แแ ္แီ
แพแแ္แဲ့แแ ္แ်ိဳแ
แွแ္แฅแၲแေแ်ာ္
The world is just awesome
I love the mountains
I love the clear blue skies
I love big bridges
I love when great whales fly
I love the whole world
And all its sights and sounds
Boom de yada, boom de yada
Boom de yada, boom de yada
I love the oceans
I love real dirty things
I love to go fast
I love Egyptian kings
I love the whole world
And all its craziness
Boom de yada, boom de yada
Boom de yada, boom de yada
I love tornadoes
I love arachnids
I love hot magma
I love the giant squids
I love the whole world
It’s such a brilliant place…
Boom de yada, boom de yada
Boom de yada, boom de yada
I love the clear blue skies
I love big bridges
I love when great whales fly
I love the whole world
And all its sights and sounds
Boom de yada, boom de yada
Boom de yada, boom de yada
I love the oceans
I love real dirty things
I love to go fast
I love Egyptian kings
I love the whole world
And all its craziness
Boom de yada, boom de yada
Boom de yada, boom de yada
I love tornadoes
I love arachnids
I love hot magma
I love the giant squids
I love the whole world
It’s such a brilliant place…
Boom de yada, boom de yada
Boom de yada, boom de yada
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight – how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating.
“Why ,Jon ,why?” His mother asked. “Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can’t you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Jon, you are bone and feathers!”
“I don’t mind being bone and feathers, Mum. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know”
“See here, Jonathan,” said his father, not unkindly. “Winter isn’t far away. Boats will be few, and the surface fish will be swimming deep. If you must study, then study food, and how to get it. This flying business is all very well, but you can’t eat a glide, you know. Dont’t you forget that the reason you fly is to eat”
“…one day, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, you shall learn that irresponsibility does not pay. Life is the unknown and the unknowable, except that we are put into this world to eat, to stay alive as long we possibly can.”
“Who is more responsible than a gull who finds and follows meaning, a higher purpose for life? For a thousand years we have scrabbled after fish heads, but now we have a reason to live – to learn, to discover, to be free! “
-Richard Bach
To the real Jonathan Seagull, who lives within us all.
Dream - แกိแ္္แแ္
แแ
္ေแแแွာ แกแာแกားแုံးแို แ
ြแ္แแြာแแแ္ แိုแแ္ေแာแ္ แกိแ္แแ္ေแးแแ
္แု ေแာ့แ်แ္แฅီးแွာแါ။ แกဲแီ แกိแ္แแ္แ แกိแ္ေแแ်ိแ္แွာ แแ္แာแแုแ္แိုแแါ။
If, one day, I have to leave everything behind and go, there will be a dream with me. Because I don't dream it while I am asleep.
แံแြแ္ (Than Lwin)
If, one day, I have to leave everything behind and go, there will be a dream with me. Because I don't dream it while I am asleep.
แံแြแ္ (Than Lwin)
The meaning of Life
Ajahn Brahm said that do not look for the meaning of life as we will not be able to find it. Instead, we have to put the meaning into life. Like working out everyday to make our body stronger and healthier, we have to train our mind to become kinder, more compassionate and happier. In fact, the meaning of life does not depend on what we gain or what we achieve, but on how we gain or how we achieve.
Please enjoy the insightful talk:
Please enjoy the insightful talk:
Life
- You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.
- แแ္แာ แႏแถာแိုแ္ แแ ္แု แแแ္။ แกဲแီ แႏแถာ แို แแ္ แแိဳแ္แ်แ္แแ္း แแိဳแ္แแ္၊ แုแ္းแ်แ္แแ္း แုแ္းแแ္၊ แါေแแแ္แ แီแแแกแြแ္ေแာแ แီแႏแถာแိုแ္แာ แแ္แแႏแถာแိုแ္แဲ။
- You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full time informal school call "life". Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lesson. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant or stupid.
- ေแာแ္แြားแဲแ แแแွာ แแ္แแ္းแ ာေแြ แกแ်ားแแီး แแ္းแူးแแိแ္แแแ္။ แแ แိုแေแแแဲแ แแ္แိုး แแ္แွแ္แ်แ္ แแွိแဲแ แกแ်ိแ္ျแแ္แ ေแ်ာแ္းแแီးแွာ แ ာแแ္းแြแ္းแားแฟแီ။ แီေแ်ာแ္းแွာ ေแแแ แฅ္แဲ แแ္แแแแกแြแ္ แแ္แแ္းแ ာေแြ แแ္းแူးแြแ္แ แแိแ္แแแ္။ แီแแ္แแ္းแ ာေแြแို แแ္ แေแာ แ်แ်แ္แแ္း แ်แแ္။ แกေแးแแါแူးแိုแ แแ္แ်แ္แแ္း แแ္แแ္။ แกแိแแธါแ္ แแွိแူးแိုแ แแ္แ်แ္แแ္း แแ္แแ္။
- There are no mistakes, only lessons; growth is a process of trial and error experimentation. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments this ultimately works.
- แกแွားแแွိแါแူး၊ แแ္แแ္းแ ာေแြแ်แ္းแါแဲ။ แုแ္แแ္း၊ แွားแွแ္းแိแแ္း၊ ျแแ္แแ္းแဲแแဲ แฅာแ္แแာ แแီးแဲแแူ ျแแ ္แာแာแဲ။ แေแกာแ္ျแแ္แဲแ แ แ္းแแ္แႈแာ ေแกာแ္ျแแ္แဲแ แ แ္းแแ္แႈแိုแဲ แกแိแฅာแ္ แแီးแြားแႈแို แกေแာแ္แกแူ ျแဳแါแแ္။
- A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be re-sent to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it you can then go on to the next lesson.
- แแ္แแ္းแ ာ แแ ္แုแို แေแ်แแ္แแ္ แกဲแီแแ္แแ္းแ ာแဲ แแ္ေแြแแแแ္။ แแ္แแ္းแ ာ แแแแ်แ္း แီแแ္แแ္းแ ာ แแแ္แ แกေျแแกေแแိုแဲ แံုแ ံแกแ်ိဳးแ်ိဳးแဲแ แแ္ေแြแแแแ္။ แแ္แแ္းแ ာ แแ ္แုแို ေแေแแ်ာแ်ာ แားแแ္แြားแฟแီ แေแာေแါแ္แြားแฟแီ แိုแွ်แ္ေแာแ ေแာแ္ แแ္แแ္းแ ာแแ ္แုแို แแ္แแฟแီ။
- Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
- แแာแแ္แာ แกแံုးแแွိแါแူး။ แแแွာ แแ္แแ္းแ ာ แူแ แာแแွိแဲแ แกแ်ိแ္แกแါ၊ แกแแ္แกแြแ္ แกแိုแ္းแกျแားแိုแာ แแွိแါแူး။ แกแแ္ แွแ္ေแแေแြแ แแ္แแ္းแ ာ แူแ แာေแြ แွိေแေแးแာแဲ။
(แฅီးေแာแိแ)
(U Jotika)
Teach yourself programming in 10 years
Teach yourself programming in 10 years...
To become a professional developer will take at least 10 years. In fact, programming is a creative logical thinking which requires a lot of hand-on experience.
Enjoy reading the article: http://norvig.com/21-days.html
To become a professional developer will take at least 10 years. In fact, programming is a creative logical thinking which requires a lot of hand-on experience.
Enjoy reading the article: http://norvig.com/21-days.html
แိแ္แုံးแိုแ
แแ
္ေแာแ္ေแแ แแ
္ေแာแ္แแ့္
ေแာแ္แกျแแ့္ แแ္ျแံแံ
แแ ္ေแာแ္แုံးျแแ္ေแာ့
แแ ္แုံးแ်แ္ျแแ္ေแแแိုแ
แแ္แแ္ေแ แกားแกแ္ႏိႈးแိုแแแ္
แพแိဳးေแွ်ာแ္แျแแ္။
แါแแ ္ေแ แแแ္แแ္းแာေแพแာแ့္
ေแာ္แါျแီ แแ္แแွแ္းแ်แ္แု
แแ္แแ္းแแแ္แแ္แพแံ
แกแွแ္ေแာ့ ျแแ ္ႏိုแ္แแား။
แ แဲ့แိ แာေแါ့
แแ ္ေแแแွာแုံးแာေแာแ္แါ แိ့แ္
แกားေแွ်ာ့แာ แုแ္แ်แ္แ แ္းแါႏွแ့္
แာแာေแြ แแ္ေแေแกးแแ္ႏွแ့္
แ ိแ္ႏြแ္း แกแာေျแแฅီး
แူแแြแ္แกားแกแ္แแ ္แိုแ္แ
แกို แ်แ ္แြแ္แ แူแား။
-ေแြแာแီ
ေแာแ္แกျแแ့္ แแ္ျแံแံ
แแ ္ေแာแ္แုံးျแแ္ေแာ့
แแ ္แုံးแ်แ္ျแแ္ေแแแိုแ
แแ္แแ္ေแ แกားแกแ္ႏိႈးแိုแแแ္
แพแိဳးေแွ်ာแ္แျแแ္။
แါแแ ္ေแ แแแ္แแ္းแာေแพแာแ့္
ေแာ္แါျแီ แแ္แแွแ္းแ်แ္แု
แแ္แแ္းแแแ္แแ္แพแံ
แกแွแ္ေแာ့ ျแแ ္ႏိုแ္แแား။
แ แဲ့แိ แာေแါ့
แแ ္ေแแแွာแုံးแာေแာแ္แါ แိ့แ္
แกားေแွ်ာ့แာ แုแ္แ်แ္แ แ္းแါႏွแ့္
แာแာေแြ แแ္ေแေแกးแแ္ႏွแ့္
แ ိแ္ႏြแ္း แกแာေျแแฅီး
แူแแြแ္แกားแกแ္แแ ္แိုแ္แ
แกို แ်แ ္แြแ္แ แူแား။
-ေแြแာแီ
Eureka
"The scientist does not study nature because it is useful; he studies it because he delights in it, and he delights in it because it is beautiful. If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing life would not be worth living."
- Henri Poincare
Where does our greatest satisfaction come from? From money, from social status, or from achievements?
As the legend goes, Archimedes was once asked by a king to determine whether the crown was made of pure gold or it was substituted with some silver by a dishonest goldsmith. It took days for Archimedes to figure out the problem. Finally, he found the solution while he was taking a bath. Without noticing the environment, he ran out to the streets naked, crying "Eureka".
Many people would think that they would be happy if they were rich; they would be satisfied if they achieved their goal. But in fact, our greatest satisfaction seems to come from something else. When we think carefully about our past, we will see that we felt very satisfied whenever we were able to find the solution to our problems.
When we put our best effort to figure out something and finally find the solution, we feel very rewarding and satisfied. The happiness at that moment exceeds other physical or mental pleasures.
Different people may have different goals and inspirations; however, they are likely to be the same at the very core. But sometimes, we forget our true form of satisfaction and happiness, and follow the mirage of pleasures. So, from time to time, we need to ask ourselves when we say our last "Eureka".
- Henri Poincare
Where does our greatest satisfaction come from? From money, from social status, or from achievements?
As the legend goes, Archimedes was once asked by a king to determine whether the crown was made of pure gold or it was substituted with some silver by a dishonest goldsmith. It took days for Archimedes to figure out the problem. Finally, he found the solution while he was taking a bath. Without noticing the environment, he ran out to the streets naked, crying "Eureka".
Many people would think that they would be happy if they were rich; they would be satisfied if they achieved their goal. But in fact, our greatest satisfaction seems to come from something else. When we think carefully about our past, we will see that we felt very satisfied whenever we were able to find the solution to our problems.
When we put our best effort to figure out something and finally find the solution, we feel very rewarding and satisfied. The happiness at that moment exceeds other physical or mental pleasures.
Different people may have different goals and inspirations; however, they are likely to be the same at the very core. But sometimes, we forget our true form of satisfaction and happiness, and follow the mirage of pleasures. So, from time to time, we need to ask ourselves when we say our last "Eureka".
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
-William Ernest Henley (1849–1903).
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
-William Ernest Henley (1849–1903).
Information As a Building Block
Until recently, we are pretty much familiar with physicals quantities and their properties, such as mass, energy, forces etc. But we are not very familiar with a term, called information, which is as important as other physical quantities although we use it in our everyday life without knowing or thinking about it very much. But giving attention to this abstract quantity and formulating theories and ideas has led us to a better and new exciting era- the information age.
What is information? Why is it so important to us? Why is it different from other physical quantities? These are the questions which will probably occur to the readers when they first hear about “information”. Information, generally speaking, is an abstract quantity which defines the possibility (not probability) of states. For example, the possible states of flipping a coin are two: either “Head” or “Tail”. So, we can define the basic unit for information is bit – which can represent two possible states. Maybe, the reader can raise a question if it is possible to define a unit which can represent one possible state. But after thinking carefully, we will see that there is no point in defining a unit which can represent only one possible state as it will nullify the ideas of possibility.
In fact, possibility means we only know the possible states, but we do not know in advance what state will actually happen. Also, all possible states are independent of each other as in flipping coin example. The possible states can be either “Head” or “Tail”, but cannot be both.
Once we understand the basic unit for information, we can go for next step – to define infinitely many possible states. The idea is simple:
2^n , where n is the integer: 1, 2, 3, 4 …
We can define as many possible sates as we want to. We just need to raise a power of 2. So, 1 bit of information represents 2 possible states. 2 bit of information represents 4 possible states and so on.
But it is very important to understand the difference between the unit of information and the information itself. It is the same as the difference between the unit of length and the length itself. Information is an abstract quantity to represent possibility and bit is the basic unit of information to measure information. For example, 4 bit of information has more possible states than 1 bit of information.
Once we understand the concept of possibility, we can link it to the probability. Since, as we know already, more bits can represent more possible states, the chance of happening for each state becomes less. In other words, more bits mean less probability. Therefore, we can say that information is inversely varied with probability.
Information∝ 1/Probability
Let's think about the above formula to verify if it makes sense or not. In our every day life, we usually consider strange incidents or events which are rare to happen as news or new information. In other worlds, events with low probability convey a lot of information to us. If we hear a new-born baby has 5 legs, we will probably think that it is news to us.
In fact, information not only represent the possibility of states, but also describes the pattern or periodicity of possibility. Since the possible states of 1 bit of information can be either 1 or 0 (on or off), a series of 1s and 0s can represent repetitive pattern of higher level information. For example, in order to represent North, East, West and South, 2 bit of information is required i.e., 00,01,10,11. Again, North, East, West, South can represent another level of information, such as North-East, South-West. So, int this way, higher level of information can be encoded with lower level of information.
In fact, we can see such kind of information encoding and decoding in our every day life. The most common information encoding and decoding is our language. Our language is composed of the smallest unbreakable unit - letters. Then, words are formed from letters, and then sentences are formed from words, and paragraphs and so forth. By using various patterns, our language can convey almost all possible events or incidents happening around us.
Also, the distribution of the patterns of information also defines the amount of information we need to represent. In fact, various encoding schemes have been used to represent letters. Here, please do not confuse information and information encoding. Information encoding uses the unit of information to represent information - the possible states or events. In the days of telegraph, Morse Code was widely used to convey information. Morse Code employs variable length encoding scheme i.e., it uses variable length bit pattern to encode the information. However, with the introduction to ASCII Code, fixed encoding has become wide-spread.
The key difference fixed encoding and variable encoding is that variable encoding will allow us to compress the information.
What is information? Why is it so important to us? Why is it different from other physical quantities? These are the questions which will probably occur to the readers when they first hear about “information”. Information, generally speaking, is an abstract quantity which defines the possibility (not probability) of states. For example, the possible states of flipping a coin are two: either “Head” or “Tail”. So, we can define the basic unit for information is bit – which can represent two possible states. Maybe, the reader can raise a question if it is possible to define a unit which can represent one possible state. But after thinking carefully, we will see that there is no point in defining a unit which can represent only one possible state as it will nullify the ideas of possibility.
In fact, possibility means we only know the possible states, but we do not know in advance what state will actually happen. Also, all possible states are independent of each other as in flipping coin example. The possible states can be either “Head” or “Tail”, but cannot be both.
Once we understand the basic unit for information, we can go for next step – to define infinitely many possible states. The idea is simple:
2^n , where n is the integer: 1, 2, 3, 4 …
We can define as many possible sates as we want to. We just need to raise a power of 2. So, 1 bit of information represents 2 possible states. 2 bit of information represents 4 possible states and so on.
But it is very important to understand the difference between the unit of information and the information itself. It is the same as the difference between the unit of length and the length itself. Information is an abstract quantity to represent possibility and bit is the basic unit of information to measure information. For example, 4 bit of information has more possible states than 1 bit of information.
Once we understand the concept of possibility, we can link it to the probability. Since, as we know already, more bits can represent more possible states, the chance of happening for each state becomes less. In other words, more bits mean less probability. Therefore, we can say that information is inversely varied with probability.
Information∝ 1/Probability
Let's think about the above formula to verify if it makes sense or not. In our every day life, we usually consider strange incidents or events which are rare to happen as news or new information. In other worlds, events with low probability convey a lot of information to us. If we hear a new-born baby has 5 legs, we will probably think that it is news to us.
In fact, information not only represent the possibility of states, but also describes the pattern or periodicity of possibility. Since the possible states of 1 bit of information can be either 1 or 0 (on or off), a series of 1s and 0s can represent repetitive pattern of higher level information. For example, in order to represent North, East, West and South, 2 bit of information is required i.e., 00,01,10,11. Again, North, East, West, South can represent another level of information, such as North-East, South-West. So, int this way, higher level of information can be encoded with lower level of information.
In fact, we can see such kind of information encoding and decoding in our every day life. The most common information encoding and decoding is our language. Our language is composed of the smallest unbreakable unit - letters. Then, words are formed from letters, and then sentences are formed from words, and paragraphs and so forth. By using various patterns, our language can convey almost all possible events or incidents happening around us.
Also, the distribution of the patterns of information also defines the amount of information we need to represent. In fact, various encoding schemes have been used to represent letters. Here, please do not confuse information and information encoding. Information encoding uses the unit of information to represent information - the possible states or events. In the days of telegraph, Morse Code was widely used to convey information. Morse Code employs variable length encoding scheme i.e., it uses variable length bit pattern to encode the information. However, with the introduction to ASCII Code, fixed encoding has become wide-spread.
The key difference fixed encoding and variable encoding is that variable encoding will allow us to compress the information.
