The November 2024 joint House Oversight subcommittees hearing revealed unprecedented information about government UAP programs, suggesting a reality far more complex than previously acknowledged. Analysis of both direct testimony and subtle implications points to a massive hidden infrastructure studying non-human technology and intelligence, with implications that could fundamentally transform human civilization.
Continue readingBlack holes can described by just two external parameters: mass and rotation. [1] They are also generally considered “cool” with their “temperatures” close to absolute zero. But they are also the most entropic objects in the universe. How can such simple cold objects harbor so much entropy? This has always boggled me. Below is my speculation on why this must be true.
Continue readingI now run rtorrent as my torrent client of choice on my tonido plug. I can’t recommend it highly enough, especially in conjunction with rutorrent webUI.
One of the problems I had was that rtorrent is so efficient in using the bandwidth that it makes browsing very sluggish. Whenever I wanted to use the internet for something else, I used to ssh into the box and terminate the rtorrent process or at least throttle it from the webUI. However, my father also uses the internet connection and I needed a much simpler way to control how much of the bandwidth rtorrent uses.
One way could me using rutorrent and cutting it down to just barebones. However this solution seemed inelegant. rtorrent has an excellent XML-RPC implementation to control most of its actions. In fact, rutorrent uses this to control rtorrent. So, I thought why not use Rails to write a small webapp for iPhone to use XML RPC and do basic throttling and status reporting? Rails was probably too much for this application. Especially given that I didn’t need a database. Perhaps something like sinatra should’ve sufficed. However, it turned out to be exceedingly simple to write it in rails and I did so anyway.
First boot the TonidoPlug from an external hard drive, follow the directions here: http://tonidouser.com/doku.php?id=advanceduses:usbboot.
I had trouble doing it, it turns out my USB hub was faulty and wasn’t letting the TonidoPlug detect the hard disk at boot time. I changed it and this works like a charm.
Now you are freed from the crippling limit of the 512MB internal flash, assuming you’ve booted off a nice big hard drive.
ssh into the plug. The default password is nosoup4u for the user root. It’s recommended you change it as soon as you log in.
I received my TonidoPlug after a 6 week wait post placing order. Tonidoplug is a low cost : 100$ + 30$ shipping to India + 560INR in duties, low power: of the order of 5W computer that runs Ubuntu. The first thing I set up on the plug was a static dhcp server. I wanted each device to have a fixed IP address that was centrally managed. The Tonido software that comes built-in with the plug computer sadly lacks a DHCP server module.
I have a 2.5 hour commute to work every day. Hence I listen to a lot of podcasts in various genres including news, science, technology, business, fiction (fantasy, sci-fi, horror) and comedy. I’ve seen various forms of advertising on these podcasts. I’d like to elucidate a few points to podcasting advertisers out there, based on my analysis of the ads I have heard:
Telecommunications products and services are getting more complex every day. Therefore, it is not surprising that the problems faced by telecom customers is increasing as well. If you have ever called up a telco call center when faced with a complex technical problem, you will very well appreciate the horror of the situation.
In most companies, the IT department also handles telcom assets. I also see that most big companies tend to outsource their IT needs. These companies also usually have water-tight SLAs1 with their service providers. Hence outsourcing merely their telecommunications requirements may not make sense for such companies.
For smaller and medium sized companies, however, outsourcing IT may not be feasible or even necessary. In such situations, does it make sense to outsource the telecom management? Telecom asset management can be a chore for most companies (unless they are service providers). This is not just due to plethora of devices a mid size company would need to service their telecom needs, but also due to the pain of having to keep the devices updated (having to deal software versions of various devices etc.). Given these factors an intermediary like an outsourced telecom management firm akin to outsourced IT firm may be of some value.
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The idea for this essay came to me when a friend of mine related a funny incident to me. He was trying to teach an elderly person how to use the internet to see news videos. My friend directed the elderly gentleman to the BBC website. Then he asked him to click on a link to a video (which, by the way, said “click here”). The video window appeared. Then the “loading” graphics, which looks like something like this, appeared on screen. The elderly gentleman assumed that, since he had to click on the icon that said “click here”, he is supposed to move the mouse pointer along with the revolving graphics for the video to load. So he did that, and coincidently, whenever he tried doing so and stopped, the buffer would fill up and the video would play!
I guess adding “only” for emphasis is part of Indian English. I think we have this emphasis adding words in all Indian languages. Hence it probably is part of the way we think.
Are you coming to the class?
Yeah! I am going there only!Where do you get this biscuit?
In the same shop only!
Is there any other way to express the same emphasis in English? Or is it like this only?
Came across this wonderful passage recently when I was reading about Gandhiji.
Gandhi was sworn to punctuality, and his life was governed by the watch to an unusual degree; though it should at once be added that despite keeping to a meticulous schedule for much of his life, Gandhi’s conception of time was never such that it did not allow him to make time for anyone, howsoever high or lowly, who should choose to enter into his life or make demands upon him. That pernicious word ‘busy’,1 with which we all excuse ourselves from the common obligations of humanity, and the onerous company of unwanted relatives, acquaintances, and others who seek to intrude uponour time, was surely no part of Gandhi’s lexicon.23
I guess there is a logical reason for this, notwithstanding the humanitarian one. It is that if you live by your plan, you close your mind to new experiences and in a way to life.
