Me over we

Me Over We = ?

Whats Me over We ? A big zero or a lonely one ?

Life : Partially Observable Markov Decision Process

Life : Partially Observable Markov Decision Process

• a set of states : S = {S1, S2, S3, ....., Sn}


• a set of actions : A = {a1, a2, a3, ....., an}


• a set of observations : O = {O1, O2, O3,....On}


• a set of transition probabilities : T(Si, a, Sj) = P(Sj Si, a)


• a set of observation probabilities : O(Zi, a, Sj) = P(Zi Sj, a)


• a set of rewards : R : S * A -> R


• a discount factor : gamma


• an initial belief : P0(s)

A Partially Observable Markov Decision Process (POMDP) is one way of solving decision problems in AI. In a decision problem, the right choice of an action is to be done when your observations about the world are not perfect, and the effect of your action is not completely certain. You dont know where you are in the game of life and you even dont know in which direction is the goal. The actions you perform are probabilistic and you get reward/ penalty for your actions. The only way of knowing about the effect of the actions is to do them.

The real problem of solving POMDP in AI is NP-hard, which simply means they are unsolvable in reasonable amout of time with the current algorithms. And so is life...!!

The Present..!!

Today is the "present"..!!

wonderful thought...read it in an email i got..

Let It Go..!!

Past two years in USC have been the best years in my life so far. These years changed me a lot; I made lot of new friends, and some very close friends in these years. We had lot of fun in our house at 2618, Ellendale place as well as 851,23rd Street. Lot of fun, lot of music and a lot of learning too. Today while seating alone at home, I remember those days when we used to cook in our tiny kitchen, used to fight over whose dishes and spoons are left in the sink still to be washed, and whose stuff is lying in chaos in our small hall. I wonder what the house would have thought if it would have had a mind. I wonder why is it so difficult to just forget about things in our past and move on.

Letting go has always been a very hard thing for me to do in my life so far. Those years in school and college, that first crush and first love, were all so difficult to let go. I guess people come into our lives, have some influence on our lives, change us in some ways and then move out of our lives suddenly one day. Just like roads crossing each other at a junction..!! Some of them walk with us for a while, and then on some junction they just vanish somewhere. Though I know that most of my friends have already moved on to different paths, I am very glad that our paths crossed.

Sometimes, people meet each other and then they keep on meeting each other in the most unbelievable ways. Two of my friends are a striking example of this. After HSC exams, we all decided to follow different branches in Engineering, in different colleges, but then destiny brought us together in the same Engineering College. Then some terrible thing happened and the whole picture looked really gloomy, and none of us knew whether we can meet each other together again in our lives, but again the luck smiled on us and we all met…and at a place no one had really imagined ever. Life is really full of surprises.

All the small things in our lives probably happen for a reason and as Steve Jobs has quoted, looking back at our lives, we can see the “dots getting connected” and forming a beautiful picture. So let it go, and don’t keep on looking on the past junctions, there are many more interesting junctions to come soon in the future. Just keep walking…!!

Let It Go
©1999 by Catherine Faber

There's a wheel that some call karma that keeps turning in this life,
Saying "hatred breeds hatred; strife always ends in strife"
But how can the world get better, whence will come that brighter dawn
When the pain that you've been handed, you pass on?

You've got to let it go, let it go
You've got reason to be angry, but try not to let it grow;
When you brood on hate and bitterness till that is all you feel
You will never have the strength to stop the wheel.

When old resentments rise in you from heartbreaks where they hid
And you turn upon the innocent for wrongs another did
When oil upon the water only makes the water burn,
The wheel is trying for another turn.

The anger that defended you may yet your hopes betray
The war is over, cast aside your shield and walk away.
If you free yourself of bitterness, it is yourself you free--
Forgiveness leaves you richer -- you will see.

Tryst with the destiny

Last month, I went to Las Vegas with some of my friends. Las Vegas is the big, shiny, night city of money, glamour and sins in the state of Nevada. They say “what you do in Las Vegas, remains there”. Also called as the city of the sins, Las Vegas is located right in the middle of the desert in the state of Nevada. This city sleeps in the day time and at night starts its hunt for the new victims of desire. The roads get full with people, the buildings start shining brightly with lights, as if to allure people with their colors. The casinos start their earnings from where they left the yester night, the performers get ready for a long night ahead and the gamblers get ready with their new tactics to gather some fortune from this city of sins.

May 13, 2006 was just another night. We reached Las Vegas in the evening, after getting refreshed we started our walk on the famous strip. This is the main road in Vegas, and almost all of the well known casinos are located here. We saw the Bellagio fountain show, and then decided to go to the Eiffel tower in Paris-Paris casino. One of my very close friends from India was with us and another friend flew from Texas to Vegas just to be with us for some hours. It was truly a great time for all three of us, meeting in US after a long, long time. After some time of strolling on the strip, everyone got hungry. So we decided to take a break and have some food. But the city of Vegas is so alluring that you tend to think about dinner-time as a waste of time, and hence we all decided that me and Rohit will go and get some food for everyone while others continue with some other casinos. Deciding this, Rohit and me started our walk to the nearest McDonalds, not knowing what is awaiting for us there.

It was a typical scene inside the McDonalds, just like any other McDonalds. Everyone was enjoying the food, and recharging themselves for the long night ahead. We were just about to give our order, when we heard 3-4 big gun-shot sounds. And the whole picture changed all of a sudden. Before we understood what was going on, we found ourselves full of panic and on our knees right in front of the door. Lots of people were running inside, most of them trying to find a shelter to stay safe. Unfortunately, we did not have any place to run or hide, we were stranded there, right in front of the counter, just hoping and praying God for our lives. I will always remember how drastically the scene changed, in a flash of a second; the liveliness inside McDonalds was substituted with the fear. I guess it must be the same feeling a group of deer’s might be experiencing while drinking water on a calm lake and suddenly the lion attacks them.

Numbed by the sound of the gun shots and the fear in the air, I and Rohit tried to stay calm and telling ourselves that everything will be fine soon. But the situation was so tense, that I don’t exactly remember what was I thinking at that time. The only thought that came to my mind first was that now someone will walk into McD’s and say “Folks, don’t try to act too smart, you are all hostages, and you will not be released until the government frees one of our friends currently locked up in Alcatraz”..haha..!! I think this was the influence of too much of movie watching. But believe me, this was exactly what I felt at that moment. And coincidently even Rohit felt the same thing, so we decided to move out of that place as fast as possible, it was a totally speechless agreement and we started running out of the restaurant almost at the same time. Thinking about it now, I feel that it was actually a mistake because we were running in the direction from where we actually heard the gun-shots. But sometimes one has to follow the instincts, and that’s exactly what we did at that time. Both of us ran so very fast, probably that was the fastest I have ever run in my life so far.

After getting out of McDonalds, we went into a Denny’s and ordered food there. While sitting there, still thinking about how close we were to getting shot, we both were speechless. Thanking God for saving us and getting over the fear, we stopped in Denny’s for some time. Situations like this make us understand how fragile the human life is, and how vulnerable we all are. One bullet fired from some one’s gun, whether intentionally or accidentally is enough..!! Unlike the video games, we get only one chance in life and we better utilize it in the right way.

That evening in Las Vegas taught me a lot of things.

My Boston Trip

I am writing this blog while flying back from Boston to Los Angeles in a United Airlines 757-200 airplane 33,000 feet up in the air. And the first thing that struck to my mind was “Hey, I am in a plane, writing a document on my laptop!” Two years back, when I came to Los Angeles, it was all different. Then I did not even imagine that one day I will be doing what I am doing now. Certainly, life is full of surprises; you never know what you will get!

Trip to Boston was good except for the interview. Boston is one of the cities that I fell in love with at the first sight. A city which is rightly known as the ‘New England’, everything is so good and English styled here, including the streets, the cars, the houses, the hotels and mainly the people. It is totally different than the sunny, shiny Los Angeles. The British have certainly left their mark on this beautiful city. This reminds me of Singapore which is similar in style.

Last two years have been very important in my life so far. I met really good friends here in USC, strengthened my friendship with the old friends and most importantly realized the value of family in ones life. I got a chance to know so many new things, both academic and non-academic. The importance of friends and families in our lives is just monumental. Every time I call back in India, I get totally refreshed, ready again for the next day. Every time I talk with my friends and open my mind, I feel completely relieved. I have been loved by so many people and sometimes I don’t even know why. They have all taught me several lessons in life, shared so many of my joys and sorrows, that they are the next most important people in my life, some of my friends have now actually become my family. I must be really thankful to the god to keep me surrounded my so many great people around; who love me, take good care of me, inspire me and most importantly forgive me when I do some mistakes. And probably the best way of returning (actually I am not sure whether ‘returning’ is the correct word here) is by loving all these people back from the bottom of one’s heart, to really care about them, helping others whenever possible. Because being able to help someone also takes luck, it means that you are chosen as the guardian angel for that someone.

It seems like the plane’s altitude is having an effect on my mind and my thoughts. I will stop this blog here. Goodmorning, Goodafternoon, Goodevening and Goodnight until next time! (Well, that’s not me as you would have guessed, its from the movie ‘The Truman Show’)

-Nikhil

Writing your first blog is not as simple as I thought. Finding the name for the blog took me so much of time, but I guess it will get better in the days to come. "What do I want to write on this blog ?" is another good question. May be about technology, or about some good thought that I came across in the day, or about my feelings about some things, or sometimes even just a simple "Hi". Another good question could be "Why am I writing this blog?" May be to share my experiences/emotions on some of the topics, may be to share some good piece of information which I came across. But I must confess here that mainly it is because of some of the blogs from my friends that have inspired me to start writing.
Hope I will be able to write something worth reading in days to come.
-Nikhil