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I wonder at what situation when Gandhi said this. Could it be someone need protection. This is about the freedom of you mind. Pain is what your mind does to you. It's the choice of your mind. What is real? What your mind believe is real is real. Think about placebo effect, think about social status. Social status, it is such a illusive thing, a thing made up by people's mind. http://www.health.harvard.edu/press_releases/oscar_winners When a bad situation happens, one often feel helpless. Sometimes, become angry towards some one, some may have self pity. It's common that one will a flood of all of these feelings. But is a situation good or bad? Without our mind, situation means nothing. The same thing could be good to someone, and yet bad to others. Even to the same person, a situation can mean different things at different time. Think about you got that dream job, and you were still doing the same thing after 20 years. Trust me, not even a king or a president...

Singularity? You must have heard. Otherwise you wouldn't be here. Cats videos are more fun to watch. Something that are more intelligent than human will show up one day. Artificial intelligent might be it. It may not that impressive today, but I have no doubt about this. It will be surpassing human. Of cause in an ideal condition that we are not going to nuke ourselves back to stone age, or create a supper bug that kills most of us that we have to start all over again. What is intelligent? Here is an interesting definition:     F = T ∇ Sτ - a Force that Maximises the Future Freedom of Action       You can hear Alex Wissner-Gross TED talk - A new equation for intelligencel . A quote from the speech: "...we've had the whole concept of cybernetic revolt in reverse. It's not that machines first become intelligent and then megalomania-cal and try to take over the world. It's quite the opposite, that the urge to take control of all possible futures is a m...

Playboy interview Stanley Kubrick published 1968 Sept Playboy:  Thanks to those special effects, 2001 is undoubtedly the most graphic depiction of space flight in the history of films — and yet you have admitted that you yourself refuse to fly, even in a commercial jet liner. Why? Kubrick : I suppose it comes down to a rather awesome awareness of mortality. Our ability, unlike the other animals, to conceptualize our own end creates tremendous psychic strains within us; whether we like to admit it or not, in each man’s chest a tiny ferret of fear at this ultimate knowledge gnaws away at his ego and his sense of purpose. We’re fortunate, in a way, that our body, and the fulfillment of its needs and functions, plays such an imperative role in our lives; this physical shell creates a buffer between us and the mind-paralyzing realization that only a few years of existence separate birth from death. If man really sat back and thought about his impending termination, and his terrifying...

It is one of those books that will change how you see the world. This post is about a few thoughts I had during and after reading it. You can easily find out more about this book. Many people has wrote about it. They mentioned what Robert Wolff talked in this book. I will not waste everybody's time here. It's a beautiful book. It was a peaceful read. No struggle, not emotional stretches, just a peaceful walk on a forest trail. Robert Wolff, the author had the book started in a soothing and friendly tune. It became more interesting towards the later few chapters. The book had painted a sweet, hart warming picture of Malaysian aboriginal, Sng'oi people. That is what a community would look and feel, when all were awakened. Although I couldn't stop thinking, it maybe even better, if they had modern med care. Among all the things I learned, the most important one is  awakening, obtaining one's true freedom is simple. It does not have to take life-after-life's ...

My 14 years old child once complained, "everyone says 'be the person you want to be.' It becomes meaningless!" Education is challenging, isn't it? This is probably the most powerful tip for one's development. But it lost its meaning by being over exposed.  Everyone is playing a role. That he or she decided to be. Who knows where the self image developed from. Good thing that there are books, and Internet, when it is time for someone to get an idea, those books, articles are there waiting.  It will click one day. Here is the most surprising TED talk I found in 2012. It explains the idea perfectly. Be the one you want to be. "fake it, till you become it". http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are.html

It's so much work to build houses. Can't we genetically code a seed? You throw it in the ground, water it, and prune it. It grows into a house next year. "Let's plant our next house." "We need a seed that can grow on a rocky soil." "Our house is a bit crowded, we need a few new rooms" "Okay, I will let that few branches grow, it's going to be Lily's bed room. " "I want my own bathroom" "Sure, in a couple of months, your own suite will be read. You will have to walk a few more steps, honey." "Son, don't think it's time for you to grow your own house?" Biology is the answer. Let's play God. Huhhhh~ An't we the most efficient machine? adaptive to our environment; a machine can reproduce itself; self maintained; Self upgrade through giving birth to a slightly different version of us;

I watched Peter Singer's talk: The why and how of effective altruism today. It somehow reminded me Steve Jobs. I have heard that Steve serious studied zen for a few years in his 20s. It is impressive. Steve must have resolved in those couple of years. Peter Singer mentioned this website: 80,000 hours . They have some great advice if you are wondering question:  where you can have the biggest possible positive impact

My daughter has played piano for 10 years, she is working on her grade 9 pieces this year. They were hard, hard as rock. She would eat, drink, and go to washroom many times before she start her daily practice. Once started, it wouldn't took long for her to find excuses for a break. I pushed, reminded and offered to help. But I think, all I did was nagging: "you are not working hard enough." She screamed, cried, and smudged her snot all over the couch. She rolled up like a potato bug, just like what she would when she was that new born baby fifteen years ago. It was my fault. It was just like how many years I have been working myself, I needed to learn to see that effort, the struggle in everything. I didn't see how hard she was trying. I didn't see that. Today's lesson was for me. Everyone is doing their best. 

This GIF is Reindeer . Treat Studios  created it two years ago. After seeing this on G+, a few thoughts started to growl. They are not about the artistic taste. They are about what we can do or be as an individual. You are more than what you think you are. You can easily tell whose lawn was maintained by professionals. Why is that? Professionals do the work with a much higher standard. Can you do that? I am sure you can, if you have the patience, and interest to read this post. But why people did not do a professional job on their lawn? Can it be that they didn't want to? Self motivated people are rear to find. But almost everyone can do it if a clear standard is given. They need a Santa to transform them. The Santa here is someone who zaps you into a Super Saiyan.  He is setting the standard, the target, and direction. Having a purpose, and meaning is making the difference. When the right group of people get together, some will come up with the direction....

I am interested in to being productive. Seeing results satisfies me. Many of my friends are amazingly productive, done admirable things. These are a few things I have learned these years. No matter who you are, I believe your  Habits are who you are. If being productive is what you want, simply build up the habits of productive people. Here are some habits of mine. Wake up on the right side of the bed A simple morning routine is a habit you should all have. Some call it a morning ritual. I didn't understand why my mornings were often stuffed with chaos, and struggles. For many year, my morning were not much different from my collage days, except with more chances for it to go on a wrong track. My life is simplified after I finally had my routine. I meditate a while for if I can get up early. I have the same, breakfast for most of the days now. Oatmeal, a handful of mixed nuts, and dry berries. Compares to days without breakfast, my brain works on a higher frequency wit...

I saw this post on on g+, by V C Willow . I don't want it to be lost, post here so that I can come back and ground myself. A group of professionals posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds , 'What does love mean?' The answers they got were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined 'When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her toenails anymore.. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis too. That's love.' Rebecca- age 8 'When someone loves you, the way they say your name is different. You just know that your name is safe in their mouth.' Billy - age 4 'Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.' Karl - age 5 'Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.' Chrissy - age 6 'Love is wh...

Here is a link that I will try to make a stereo vision input with. http://code.google.com/p/sentience/wiki/HowToMakeAStereoCamera

I saw this post and many other post about the exodesk. It's an affordable version of Microsoft Surface. I believe it can be replaced with CV + AR. It's going to happen. 8-] http://mashable.com/2011/11/21/exodesk/

I never thought that you can find the lecture and the text online: This is the lecture given by W. Gilbert Strang at MIT. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK3O402wf1c Textbook: Introduction to Linear Algebra http://math.mit.edu/linearalgebra/

Thanks to Fred Chen's help. Fred is currently a PHD students in University of Alberta. 1. The idea I am passionate about is augmented reality. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality 2. The advanced man-machine interface lab, CS department of UofA. http://spaces.facsci.ualberta.ca/ammi/projects/ . 3. Some of the advanced CV labs (Following UC Berkeley, CMU, and Microsoft research) http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research/Projects/CS/vision/ http://www.ri.cmu.edu/research_project_view.html?menu_id=261 http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/vision/ 4. Computer vision(CV) has developed into a huge area with many directions.  This book has a comprehensive covering of the whole domain, "Computer Vision: Algorithms and Applications". An electronic version is available here ( http://szeliski.org/Book/ ) for free.

It wasn't a surprise to me that we had about 40 people showed up for the 350 moving the planet rally. Most people were either young or old.  We started at the 150-whyte ave intersection. I learned that the construction site has been polluted by a gas station. It has been there for 14 years. Hard to believe. A big piece of land on Whyte ave not used for anything for 14 years. What a waste. Green Party candidate David Parker had some very practical tips for what you can do if you care about the environment. Meteorologist Julian Brimelow gave a techy speech. Very educational.  MP Linda Duncan came and had a nice speech. It was inspiring.  Raging Grannies: It's a good start. 

The issue : I found that paper is essential in current business work. Having a hard-copy of a document, a copy of design, it's the most effective way for discussion, for making notes, and recording a decision. To work effectively, it's important to have a hard copy. The Goal : I wish that we can work smoothly without the hard copy of docs, note books. Possible solution : I wonder AR and computer 3D vision may bring this to reality. Virtual "hard copy" of the docs. You can spread it out over your desk, flip through it, write on it and what ever else that you can think of that you may do with a real paper. Maybe not paper air plane. Why not? Virtual note book that you can write on. The pen can be your finger or a pen, or something that your computer treat as a pen. Water down version : (Need to check the current tech level and might be a first step toward a better version) Is there some window manager that can work with AR or VR eye-wears? It's might be a...

To implement the UI that we see in that Iron man holograph UI, using the current technology without the cost of an arm or a leg, here is the possible solution. Please see my previous post. Using the augment reality glasses to project the model into our eyes Give 3D vision to our computer Questions I have are: Do we have the product? Probably. I hope it works with Linux, has a simple/easy API to work with. It is not the critical part for this moment. If a Linux friendly 3D display is not ready yet, a stub can be used for development. (Action item, find what's out there) Do we have 3D vision implemented for computers? Probably not, maybe not as well as mouse and keyboard. Maybe implement a simple version, for example, build the 3D tracking ability to a pen. (Action item, find a product, the hardware. If it doesn't exist, maybe put together of two webcams.) What libraries, softwares and existing knowledge we can leverage. (Action item, learn)

I sought, and I found what I was looking for. Having watched too many sci-fi movies, to name a few, the interface in minority report, the Zion control in Matrix. Every time when I have to work with paper, either at work or at home, I wish augmented reality and virtual reality is available for mundane usage instead of gaming or military. The UI in iron man movies is the most exciting and most attractive UI to me. I want to bring this into reality. I wish that one day, the user interface that we need to work with is as simple as paper documents, photos; models projected as 3D objects.  Using 3D tracking and augmented reality, the environment can be our computer screen. The input device can be our hands, or a real pen. You grab a piece of "paper", put it on the table, pick up a "pen" or using your finger, dip in to a color that you like to write or draw in, start writing. This is not a dream in a far future anymore. There is VideoMan  http://videomanlib.source...

Here is a post I found on the shroomery forum, I like it, afraid it's going to disappear before I have time to contemplate on it, so I quoted it from this URL: http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/6501917 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You are a robot. This is the first thing you must accept on the road to liberation. Whether or not you are a tabula rasa , a blank slate, when you are born, or there is some spark of uniqueness which allows your mind to react differently to the world than someone else would in your exact situation, the undeniable fact remains: you are a robot. You are biologically programmed through the act of human reproduction, you are emotionally and linguistically programmed by your parents and all those with whom you interact, and you are programmed to live within certain systems (rational, calendric, numeric, religious, scholastic, etc.) by your parent-cul...