Why ladies need us men? ;)

The idea of Evolution as a more logical answer to how we came to be, was very interesting to me. It was so interesting that it acted as a catalyst for my conversion to Atheism. But there were more than a couple of questions that the antagonists of evolution asked for which I wasn't able to find the answer to. One of the most interesting one as well as the one that stumped me for a long time was this:

"Why the male, female schism in a species?"

After watching the fantastic educational video called "Evolution" by PBS (of particular interest is "why Sex?"), which was followed by a small research via google, I was just too excited to not to write this blog post. It seems that Darwin's theory of evolution answers the question of 'dimorphism' in a species. To understand the question, and hence the answer, we need to know more about reproduction. Reproduction is merely a side-effect of the process of mating. Reproduction can be brought about in different manners. We are, of course, familiar with the sexual process. But the process that we are interested in is the bizzare and fascinating subject of 'Asexual reproduction' [link].

Asexual reproduction involves the genesis of a progeny from the cell of just one parent. Although this method of reproduction is more common among plants, it it not quite popular among animals. Less so among mammals. Its nature's way of cloning. Most plants can be propagated asexually by grafting or replanting a cutting of its stem or root. Asexual animals that I am familiar are mexican pond guppies and mexican whiptail lizards. These are bizzare creatures which propagate by Parthenogenesis, which is a method of cloning where the female produces an egg which matures without fertilization. This species lizards all look alike because, well, they are all clones.
So why then didn't humans and other animals follow this particular path to their ancestry's immortality? No males running behind the females and trying to impress them with lame antics. Girls reading this may already be wondering, why-oh-why didn't it turn out like that? There are some more reasons why females might want to wish-away males. Sexual process of reproduction can be more trouble than you might recognize:

• Engaging in mating rituals is tiring for the female. They have to choose a male who has worthy enough characteristics that would allow him (and hence the offspring) to survive and, of course, there is the actual act of mating.

• On the other hand, female Parthenogenesis (virgin birth) is very much possible. There even need not be those crazy and violent males running around, endangering your child's life.

Not only the females, come to think of it, but the males too have it hard :

• A male in search of female should grow ridiculously large appendages or bright plummages or learn to build beautiful nests or sing loudly. All these activities and/or growth increases the males' risk of getting spotted by predators.

• Competition among males competing for a small number of females can lead to embarassing defeats, debilitating wounds or, sometimes, fatal wounds.

Even as a species, they stand to gain more by following Parthenogenesis. A single parthenogenetic female can colonize a new area, whereas atleast one male and one female of the same species are required otherwise.


So, what is the big prize that awaits those species who like to endure all the pains of being a heterogenous one?

New possiblities. Adaptation to changes in environment, resistance to new strains of parasites, escape from newly introduced predators and the ability to exploit new varieties of food resources are the prize. The 'dimorphic' model of species assures the continuation of lineage with the help of "genetic recombination" or the shuffling of the genes, each with random mutations giving the "gene-holder" an aegis against a threat. This recombination might hold the previous gene "mistakes" and add another reshuffling "mistake". A mutation, which is survival's coveted secret behind its grand experiment of Evolution.


These are just a few of the observations that my computer science mind could comprehend. I might even have got some of these things wrong. But hopefully not.
Here's a fantastic link to a book extract that I 'tried' to read through: Male, Female: The Evolution of Human Sex Differences

Overclocker Anonymous

"Hi, I am Anand kumar. I am an overclocker."

With the recent purchase of a Winchester core AMD64 3200+, I was impatient to learn the patient art of OverClocking your PC to the limit. After desperate brute force attacks on the various clock-related options via an utility, I was able to push the clock speed past the default clock to 2220MHz. This I acheieved by just increasing the core clock from 200 to 220MHz (with x10 multiplier). Other combinations didn't work, which, as I later found out, was because of the in-windows overclocking utility (Asus AI Booster) that kept crashing windows with clocks anything above 220MHz.

But later, after I got over the initial laziness to go through a few overclocking guides in a few forums, I finally acheived a much more respectable OC. Here'a a screen shot I made juat after a 2Million digits in SuperPI. For some reason, the SuperPI font is illegible, but the messagebox says that it went alright.

Before I plough on, here's the basics of OC'ing for the uninitialized:

- First, you need to get a motherboard and processor that allows you to OC. For example, in processors, an AMD Venice core OCs better than a winchester core, and in motherboards, an Asus A8NE OCs better than other motherboards while a DFI Lan Party motherboard is the holy grail of overclockers.

- Next, as I found out, get ram modules that has tight (low) timings and, possibly, with heat spreaders. For example, my cheapo Hynix ram running at 3-8-4-4 @ 200MHz can't stand a lot in the way of fsb clock whereas a Corsair/OCZ running at 2-5-2-2 has a lot of leeway.
- Having a clean and stable power supply unit also helps. Having a smps that has little in terms of fluctuations will help keep a stable processor at marginal voltages.

- A good, well ventillated cabinet can help keep the cool in ur processor. This is because, as u increase the clock speed of the components, they will require extra power for the signal to have the same impact when it was at a lower frequency. But cramming more power means more stray power that gets converted into unwanted heat. Most processors will operate without inexplicable auto-restarts and bewildering BSODs below 65degrees. The cooler you can keep it, the better.

After you have taken care of the preparatory phase, just increase the htt/core clock in steps of 5MHz and keep going till u hit a spot where the computer just plain refuses to POST. Now, if your board is overclocker friendly, it will let u access the bios settings no matter what, from which place you can revert back by 10MHz. Otherwise, you will have to open up your cabinet and reset the CMOS manually.
Now increase the VCore (cpu voltage) to the next number and try the htt increase. Anyways, 5MHz below unstable is the rule. Now, do the same with your ram by increasing your fsb by 5MHz. Increase VDimm (Ram voltage) if it doesn't post. But for Pete's sake (more like, for your computer's sake) keep an eye on temperatures. Be extra careful with ram voltages as any increase in ram temperatures cannot be noted. This is where the heat spreaders on ram modules can help, somewhat.

You can apply the above technique to your graphics accelerator as well. But 3D cards are especially notorious because they contain two cores: 2D core and 3D core. So when u OC in the 2D mode, the temps may be cool, but when you start that game, your GPU may BSOD or restart the core. The temp problem is very elusive too. That is, if u wanted to check the temp of the GPU while running a game, by the time you ALT+Tabbed to the desktop to check the temp proggy's display, the temperature would've gone down by 10 to 20 deg C! They cool down extremely quickly. Most highend 3D cards operate above 90 deg Cand may reach 105 on a hot day. So be careful when u OC them. Testing each 5MHz with a benching utility like 3D Mark and checking for artifacts like snowing, missing textures and any out of the ordinary display, will help keep the cool in your card.
My NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT (Leadtek) was only able to do 550MHz core and 1100MHz memory. It could do more, but I kept this because the core and memory freqencies are in sync this way.

Now, you can either sit on your laurels here, or u can proceed from here. If you do want to proceed from here, you could try fine-tuning the cpu and memory clocks to acheive a perfect balance. You might also consider fitting your components with water blocks to reduce noise and temperatures. The rule for a fast computer is higher cpu clocks and not memory clocks.

I must've restarted more number of times that day than all the other days combined. But I don't seem to get any faster than 2500MHz. I had increased all the timings and freq to the max, but still the comp won't boot even at 2550MHz.
When I plan to increase the memory capacity of my system, I will be sure to buy a higher end brand with better timings, now that I've tasted OCing. I've heard Asus A8NEs having problem with 4 sticks of memory, so I will have to sell the existing sticks anyway and buy 2 sticks of 1GB each.

PS: For those interested in monetary details: (As of 01 June 2005)
My AMD 3200+ => Rs.9,800
Asus A8NE => Rs.7,600
Hynix 512MB => Rs.1,900
GForce 6600GT => Rs.10,000


(2ndSept05, 9:39PM)

Of Meh, Meep and Bleh.

I am a great fan of bash.org and lately I am coming across a few foreign looking exclamations that seemed to be some kind of ultra-cliche among the IRCers and in the blogosphere. So I set out to find out about them but had difficulty googling them out because all occurences of these words were of their authors using them coversationally casually. So here's a small list with their possible meaning and an usage example in no particular order. Referred to the wiki and this and this site.


Meh:
A reply expressing unenthusiasm. I heard it said first by Lisa in The Simpsons. Then everywhere I looked, there was this word! Here's a discussion on this word's origin.
Usage:
- "Hey kids, do you want to go to the old age home?".
- "Meh."

Gah:
Exclaimation expressing dismay or unfortunateness. Sounds like it's come from the word 'bah'.
Usage:
- "Gah! Curse this lag!"

Blargh:
Exclaimation expressing uber anger, like that of a battle cry. Probably formed by melding Blah and Aaargh. I think it it describes a 'sputtering rage'.
Usage:
- "You are a st00pid n00b!".
- "Blargh! I am going to h4x0r you to death!".

Meep:
An exclaimation of fright, exaltation, anger or just about anything you feel at the time of usage :) But mostly when the utterer is surprised nastily. Sounds to that it was derived from the meek cry of a lamb.
Usage:
- "Muhahaha, all cower at my uber sniping skillz!".
- "Meep!".

Bleh:
An exclaimation used to express utter contempt along with a blatant boredom at doing something.
Usage:
- "Bleh! This work sux0rs!

Bah:
An exclamation of surprise and, especially, disgust. I've also seen it used as an expression of dismissal or rejection of an idea.
Usage:
- "They all so strongly believe that I will fail. Bah! I'll show them!".

D'oh!:
An exclamation said after realizing that you have said or done something stupid. It was invented by the makers of Homer simpson who cut short the syllable in 'duh' to make him say it quicker. Such was the popularity of the show that almost all the dictionaries have included this as a word to mean "annoyed grunt".
Usage:
- "Hey biatch, you've dropped your purse here!".
- "D'oh!".

Boob:
An dumb person. Someone with no brains and does nothing, just like the mammary sense of the word.
Usage:
- "Boob! You almost fubared my plan!"

Angst:
A feeling of self-pity, anxiety and mis-understoodness by others. Mostly referred to teens wallowing in their depression and complaining rather than taking any action.
Usage:
- "Gah, LiveJournal is overflowing with angst filled teenz."

FUBAR:
Also written as FooBar, it stands for Fu*ked/Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition/Repair. Originally a US military term where it was used to describe a mission's status quickly, it's "foo + bar" version has been used in computer field extensively for representing a two functions. This is perhaps the only non-sensical word that has become a metasyntactic variable and eventually to have it's own RFC!
Usage:
- "Heard about that accident? His car and body are fubar!"

Boo-Yah:
An exclamation of whooping when victorious in an argument or an event. I think it is a mutated version of "Oh yeah". Many spelling variations exists for this word: Boo-yea, Boo-ya, Boo-yeah and the like.
Usage:
- "Did u see me score that one? Boo-yah!"

Ping:
A quantum of happiness (?). People who are very 'Ping' are 'Pingful' and can exude ping others intentionally or unintentionally. It's the opposite of Blargh.
Usage:
- "Ping! I am so happy that I can die right now!".

W00t:
An exclamation expressing a whooping. This is supposed to be used by Dungeons and Dragons online RPG game addicts when they receive loot, while chatting, instead of "wow loot!".
Usage:
- "W00t! I won!".

pwned:
An exclamation used to describe someone you just beat in some competition of words or action, but especially in online multiplayer game. It is basically 'Owned' with a deliberate typo. It's origin is definetly of gaming backgrounds, but whether it is from warcraft or quake is unknown.
Usage:
- "pwned!!! Haha, what a n00b!"