Life is a Lab! To Learn, read. To understand, think. To know, write. To master, teach.
The other day I stumbled upon Microsoft’s Surface computing website. I have to say that I was impressed of what I saw. One can say that the future is promising!
More links:
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4217348.html
http://www.microsoft.com/surface/
http://www.popularmechanics.com/
http://multi-touchscreen.com/
http://multi-touchscreen.com/perceptive-pixel-jeff-han.html
Hey,
I have always read that most diseases are of psychosomatic origins. That is the disease starts in the mind and manifests in the body.
In Reiki and other energy healing systems they teach that for example:
– those who have difficulity breathing are those who have a problem in giving and taking from others (See that the lungs give and take)
– those who have stiff neck are those who are not flexible mentally and stubborn
– those who have constipation are those who are unable to let go of things
– those who have pain in their legs are those who are unable to take certain steps in their lives
and the list can go on and on…
Some of the stuff I experienced in my early life was the inability to let go, pain in the legs, …and those manifested in the body. No doctor could really cure me by giving me pain killers, only when I realized the nature of this thought-body relation that my problems went away.
For example, the next time you feel jealous, angry or thinking negative notice how you tense up and how you feel in your stomach. To help you feel better, try to have an empty stomach and drink some lemonade. After that try to think negative or try to repress yourself. See how you burn in your stomach!
Be easy on your body by observing your ongoing moment to moment thoughts.
–Elias
Recently I had the chance to explore the two network cameras from Panasonic: BL-C1 and BL-C10.
Both cameras have built-in web servers and can be plugged to the network and operate standalone. They can also be configured to get static IP address or make use of a DHCP server.
Once the camera is set up, the user can explore its features by accessing its IP address via web protocol, example: http://192.168.1.253:80/ .
From there on you can see the camera image stream (pseudo-stream), control brightness/image quality, add users so they can access the camera, control timers, sensors, etc…
BL-C1 is a simple model where it provides nothing more than image capturing facility and motion detection which works by comparing an image with a previous image and see if the difference is within the user defined threshold.
The BL-C10 is a bit more complex model allowing you to control the camera’s eye direction. You can move the view to all the four directions. There is no motion detection, though one can implement this feature from the software, there is human detection sensor (“by picking up the infrared light naturally emitted from people and animals”).
The cameras come with a software CD containing set of user manuals and a windows application to control the cameras. For developers, they can download C SDK written and provided by Panasonic. You may compile the code using Visual Studio or (did not try it) any other C compiler. The C code is highly portable and should also work on other operating systems such as Unix. In case you want to program the camera using a different programming language, then you may download the CGI programmer’s document and start forming your own HTTP requests in order to talk with the camera’s webserver.
Now using CGI, to control the camera’s direction, one for example can call this web address: http://camera_ip_address:80/nphControlCamera?Direction=HomePosition
Hello
I’ve been looking around and was surprised that there will be a new C++ standard and additions dubbed “C++0x”.
According to Bjarne Stroustrup, “the new standard will be almost 100% compatible with the current standard”.
Some of the features I like about this new addition are:
– atomic keyword (for uninterruptible code)
– thread local storage
– asynchronous calls through the “future” keyword
– implicit function calls (as if using properties in other languages)
– parallel execution
The good news for some, probably bad news for eager ones is that the C++ Standards Committee aims to introduce the new standard in 2009.
Greetings,
Probably the best thing you can do in your life is taking good care of yourself.
I can almost hear you protesting: “But I am already taking good care of myself….”
We are constantly talking this into ourselves while in reality we are barely taking care of ourselves. Continue reading “What is better than taking good care of yourself?”
Hey,
Yesterday a friend of mine payed me a visit to experiment with EEG and how it reads brainwaves.
I wanted to do the experiment with my friend when he’s in an altered state of consciousness, so I proceeded and hypnotized him and put him into a relax and trance like state.
The next thing was to hook the device and start interpreting the readings.
After some tests like that, I hooked the device to the PC and launched BioExplorer and loaded the FlashPacman design. This design takes one channel input and a bandpass filter to detect alpha activity. If the activity is present a YES will occur while a NO will occur in its absence.
Now the Pacman character will move and eat the dots as long as the desired brainwave is reached and maintained. It was very fun to control alpha waves while eyes open!
It was a nice experiment where I learned and saw how the brainwaves play a role in the functioning of the brain.
Only a month ago I relaxed my “no to smoking” attitude; From a complete no, fear of addiction, fear of health loss, and other pre-programmed unconscious fears, I decided to give it a shot.
By writing this experience, I am also thinking and asking myself: “I am reinforcing this new practice?”
If I speak about this experience in a good way, will my subconscious mind and my body start craving for more nicotine?
Where I work, lots of employees take breaks and go for a cigarette, so one day I said “what the heck, let me experience what they experience and see how would I look at this matter after I have had my own taste of it”
I’ve smoked so far around a pack during the past month and today I smoked two cigarettes, so how does it feel?
I can say it is something different, for me it gave me a feeling of rush, enthusiasm, a sort of mental push and increased confidence.
It also made me feel hyper and at the same time relaxed, impulsive and at the same time reserved, guilty and a little bit daring.
I wonder and ask myself: “Will I get hooked to it?”, “Will there be a next time when I will crave for a cigarette when I see others smoking?”
The thing is that now I am not buying my own pack, thus decreasing the possibility of reaching a cigarette when a small craving occurs.
I am still uneducated regarding the science and the how/why of nicotine, but nonetheless my research has started.
One thing for sure has changed in me and that is before smoking I used to look at smokers and say to myself and sometimes say out loud: “Hey smoking is not good”, or “…those poor addicts…” and what now has changed is simply that my mind has learned to mind its own business (pun intended).
It is easy to look and judge others but it is not easy to put ourselves in the shoes of others and feel as they feel and realize the craving they have.
Whether I smoke yet another pack or not, I think I will be writing more about nicotine and cigarette experience.
Elias
Other posts you may like:
Last week I received a used 2 channel EEG biofeedback (Pocket A1) device from Pocket Neurobics / Minder Labs company.
So what is EEG biofeedback (BFB) and why do we need such things?
For me, having learned about meditation techniques, hypnosis, relaxation techniques and all other related stuff, I realized that there is one thing in common: “The ability to rest the mind and to have its waves go down to what we call Alpha frequency”.
Alpha (8-12hz) frequency is not a goal by itself, however it appears whenever we are in a certain mind state, call it trance if you may.
While awake, we spend our time in what we call Beta brain waves frequency, basically above 12hz. Beta is usually associated with physical and mental alertness, and if frequencies are much higher than 12hz we may become anxious, angry and agitated.
So why an EEG device anyway?
I am the type of persons that likes to see the results of their actions, so when my meditation teacher told me to sit and meditate for 15 minutes twice a day and to detach myself from all outcomes and expectations, I become more curious and more attached to the outcomes and to what is a possible experience after meditation. A simple question that kept occuring was: “Was I really meditating? Did I just waste 15 minutes in vain?”
I was never consistent in my meditation, I get excited one day and practice it and then keep it aside for a week or even a month…and it went on and off like that for like 3 years.
I figured that since meditative state is characterized by Alpha brainwaves frequencies, so why not get my brain hooked to a measurement device and then sit for meditation and see whether I have performed well or not!?
That’s exactly the role of what we call biofeedback training: the ability to tell where we are and to train ourselves to reach that state with practice and will.
So for those who are curious, goal oriented, impatient, then an EEG BFB device is a good thing to play and experiment with.
I tell you such devices are not very practical yet (need to place electrodes, conductive gels, …) operating wise and cost wise. To get a decent personal EEG device you need to put at least 500$.
If I got you curious, then look up on the net for keywords like “EEG, Biofeedback, alpha training, ….”
Good luck,
Elias
Have you:
Well, ofcourse you’ve faced at least one of these demands. Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail are not an option since they are not that anonymous as they seem and they take time to be created!
So what’s the solution you ask?
The solution lies in the what so called “Temporary Email Address” service providers.
One site that comes to mind is the mailinator website which gives you a random email address everytime you visit the website. Not only that, to check your messages you simply type the email address in question!
Other similar websites:
A while ago I wrote a small utility that converts DOT syntax into an image using
the WinGraphViz.DLL COM component.
However it is not very usual to have the user register this component before
running the tool, thus I started looking around for a way to use COM component
as if they were normal DLL.
The research yielded that there are many techniques to accomplish that:
To learn more about the Registration-Free COM please check the references at
the end of this article. Continue reading “Emulating CoCreateInstance()”
These are nice sexual art links, if you know more post your comments!
Body Art site: http://www.h6.dion.ne.jp/%7Ejanbopai/sitemap_E.htm
Sex in Art: http://www.sexinart.net/
Again, everyday the son used to take the coin and stand on his balcony and look down at the poor people then with a gesture of his hands he would sway the coin far away and laughing at people fighting to catch it!
Time passed by and the prince reached an age where his wisdom should have been developed, however the king was not satisfied by his son’s actions, so he declared: “Son, I want you out of my palace, out without anything, you may not return here nor shall I recognize you as my son, you are welcome back anytime you can earn a golden coin and bring it to me!”
So the prince set off with no money or cloth, he was like those people who he used to throw the coin at.
The prince witnessed the hard life and how it is not simple earn money. He worked hard day and night, suffered, changed jobs, worked what is not elegant for a prince, and after 6 month of hard work, the prince finally earned what amounts to a golden coin.
It was then when the prince returned to the palace shouting: “Let me in, I am the prince and have a golden coin, let me see the king”. The king was so delighted to see his son, who finally realized the value of hard-work, then the king said to his son proudly: “I may now retire and you can safely take charge of my kingdom”
Origin: Unknown
Heard from: KC
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Long ago, two women presented themselves in front of a wise king, each woman claim that the little boy in front of them is hers. The first woman cries to the king saying “This boy is my boy” while the other woman also cries “Don’t believer her, this boy is my boy”.
The king, being wise and wanting to settle this argument declared: “We will have the boy split in two. You take this part, he said to the first mother and you take that part, he said to the second mom!”.
Since the king had serious expressions on his face, the real mother of this child cried out loud: “No, no, this is not my child, let her have him!”
This way, the real mother showed her true love for the child and sparred his life, by showing sacrifice and real love.
Origin: Unknown
Heard from: KC
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The first time, when I was like 17 years old, I found a program called Eliza (or virtual girlfriend), don’t recall well, a chatting bot. I was a newbie programmer back then, thus this program really impressed me because it was able to understand more than basic questions and it could retain memory and recite what it newly learned.
Today while writing a small introductory article about Expert Systems, I stumbled upon A.L.I.C.E website (http://www.alicebot.org/) which hosts a set of projects aimed at emulating the human brain and how humans communicate and process natural language. To get a feel of this, try to chat with one of the bots:
http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?botid=f5d922d97e345aa1
Also checkout the image gallery: http://www.alicebot.org/documentation/gallery/ which shows the graph of the bot’s memory and knowledge-base.
I think one day, machines will evolve more and be able to process natural language as easily as human does, it is a matter of time.
I came across this website, which imitates IE’s friendly error message page when the server address is not resolved.
http://www.thispagecannotbedisplayed.com/
After you open this page, you might be fooled at the first glance, but then look carefully and read the messages!:)
I came across this site:
http://www4mail.org/
It is designed to allow you request web pages using your email client, you simply write an email to www4mail and in the body you type up to 5 URLs that you want to receive as attached pages!
Enjoy!