Sunday, May 29, 2005

I can almost guarantee that you will be amazed at the goings on at Google Print. When it lets you get results like this, really, what can one say? I am just amazed at what they are doing. As a pseudo computer scientist, I am just in awe of what their underlying implementations must be - it is truly amazing that they have managed to design fault-tolerant systems with perversely fast search algorithms. I can only shake my head in disbelief.

It does seem like this blog is turning into one of those blogs, eh? Funnily enough, my original concept for this blog was precisely things of this nature - it seems that only when I started to take it more seriously did the direction change. On a surface level, certainly the world of technology can seem cold and unforgiving, and really not all that appealing. It certainly does not spark up images like a piece of literature, but I maintain that underneath it all, there is some clarity and elegance which can affect one in a different way. What, say, is the appeal of an elegant algorithm? It is easy to look at it and dismiss it as being a set of procedures to be carried out, but that misses the point I think - the beauty is to be found in the idea, not in its manifestation. I suppose I've been intoxicated with this notion of late, which explains the sudden outburst of posts on software, design, and the good life. I can't promise I will change, but I've been through such phases before, and chances are good that next week I'll be back to posting..oh, wait, I haven't posted anything good since last year! Ah well, maybe I'll post more links to Google print? Or better yet, how about 1D Tetris?

4 comments:

xiaodai said...

1-D tetris is the most stupid ideas ever. Have you been to the one where it asks you to click the left button and see how long you can hold it before letting go?
They are both gold!
I agree. That google thing is very impressive technically. It seems to me now that you have raced way ahead of me in terms of programming skill and knowledge. What a genius you are!

AKM said...

Glad you like the 1D tetris link, that's the one useful thing on my blog this past year ;)

I am actually scared for Google that someday they will run out of space, and then they will be forced to close GMail and Blogger!! It just boggles the mind how they offer so much and do it so well. Three cheers for Google!

I haven't magically improved in programming skill actually, it's just that I've talked about it a lot on this blog of late. It creates the illusion that I'm good at it simply because I'm passionate about it! :) Are you still interested in programming? I think you should have continued with IT a bit further, you would've made a programmer. You seem to have a very analytic mind, whereas I seem to be quite erratic in the way I approach problems.

Jenny said...

I found 1D tetris amazingly difficult! no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't create any of my usual pretty holes :( I admit that after a few days I gave up and decided I'm just not a one dimensional sort of person o.o

have you seen the kill everybody project? it's where a bunch of people click a button on their screen to 'decrease the number of people living in the world' repeatedly o.O it doubles as a chatroom *faints*

AKM said...

I'll admit that 1D tetris has a steep learning curve, but you just have to stick with it. Explore it, understand the components of strategy, and the answers will reveal themselves.

Ya, I've seen TKEP. It was mildly amusing for the first few seconds, but then it became a little morbid :/ I hope it doesn't relate to 1D tetris!?