grep -Pas a part of the incantation.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Regex Sub-language Selection
To use grep to find things with spaces (or to have a generally more powerful Regex syntax akin to that of Perl or Python), use:
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Ho-hum
Feels funny to be writing here once more, not because I'm no longer comfortable with writing, but that between the last update and this one, many things have changed. Oh, and the fact that my left index finger has some nail issues which causes me to lose quite a fair bit of typing ability, but as usual I digress.
So anyway, I have been rather jaded/down for the last couple of months, partially due to the stresses of work, and partially due to the various stresses in life. And as each day passes, I'm slowly starting to realise that I am actually fairly decoupled from the material world, in the sense that I can live with really very little things that are available from the material condition. This slow understanding of my own condition comes as a part of my general evaluation of the direction with which my life is currently taking, from the three paths of work, personal and play. It is just that with all the work and stresses that I have been put into, I have little time to sit down and partake in a little introspection---the moments in time where I can really sit back and consider all things past and present and plan about the future, wondering about the greater significance of it all.
Needless to say, having a week's leave is something that is rather welcome at this point in time, as someone once said ``if you don't plan to take your leave, you never will take the leave because work is never-ending''. This is particularly pertinent given what has occurred just a few days back---my budding relationship with Mint has gone on a ``two steps forward one step back'' stint. I don't really want to talk about things here (that's what a diary is for), but I suppose it does put a lot of things into perspective to a large degree. Many questions were raised, and many more to be answered, and at the end of it all, only time and fate can tell what the future truly brings.
Enough of the depressing stuff though. Thinking about the past, present and future does have some interesting consequences, and it is for things like that I am glad I actually took that one week leave. Hell, I think I should have taken the leave a long time ago, and have I done that, I would probably be in a better shape than now. As I mull about the future from the present, I realise that slowly, the very fabric of reality itself is morphing, not always for the better, but certainly changing enough that it keeps things somewhat exciting.
Aikido. This is one of the couple of things that I am using to keep myself sane, and for the most part, I am really glad to have taken it up when I had the chance. Apart from the generally good workout it provides, there's also a strong understanding of what my body and mind are capable of as I try out the various manoeuvres that are available within the martial art. I've been living a mostly sedentary life for quite a long while, and thus having the opportunity to finally have the chance to work out my body is something that I truly cherish a lot.
So much for the random update for now.
So anyway, I have been rather jaded/down for the last couple of months, partially due to the stresses of work, and partially due to the various stresses in life. And as each day passes, I'm slowly starting to realise that I am actually fairly decoupled from the material world, in the sense that I can live with really very little things that are available from the material condition. This slow understanding of my own condition comes as a part of my general evaluation of the direction with which my life is currently taking, from the three paths of work, personal and play. It is just that with all the work and stresses that I have been put into, I have little time to sit down and partake in a little introspection---the moments in time where I can really sit back and consider all things past and present and plan about the future, wondering about the greater significance of it all.
Needless to say, having a week's leave is something that is rather welcome at this point in time, as someone once said ``if you don't plan to take your leave, you never will take the leave because work is never-ending''. This is particularly pertinent given what has occurred just a few days back---my budding relationship with Mint has gone on a ``two steps forward one step back'' stint. I don't really want to talk about things here (that's what a diary is for), but I suppose it does put a lot of things into perspective to a large degree. Many questions were raised, and many more to be answered, and at the end of it all, only time and fate can tell what the future truly brings.
Enough of the depressing stuff though. Thinking about the past, present and future does have some interesting consequences, and it is for things like that I am glad I actually took that one week leave. Hell, I think I should have taken the leave a long time ago, and have I done that, I would probably be in a better shape than now. As I mull about the future from the present, I realise that slowly, the very fabric of reality itself is morphing, not always for the better, but certainly changing enough that it keeps things somewhat exciting.
Aikido. This is one of the couple of things that I am using to keep myself sane, and for the most part, I am really glad to have taken it up when I had the chance. Apart from the generally good workout it provides, there's also a strong understanding of what my body and mind are capable of as I try out the various manoeuvres that are available within the martial art. I've been living a mostly sedentary life for quite a long while, and thus having the opportunity to finally have the chance to work out my body is something that I truly cherish a lot.
So much for the random update for now.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Anachronism
The intimacy granted by a superiorly designed writing instrument is as pleasurable as the sweet love that two lovers make with each other. The ampleness of the barrel coupled with the softest of caresses needed for the nib to touch the paper to let the smoothest of ink to flow unimpeded is almost as sinful as the uninhibited emotions that the lovers share with each other in the purest of ways.
But sweet seductive imagery aside, after having my fountain pen for nearly a year since my graduation (a gift from my mum, who had asked me what I might want for graduation), I must say that I have really grown to appreciate how a fountain pen works. As noted in the epithet earlier, it is a real spiritual experience just to wield the pen between the thumb and forefinger, and to feel the gliding sensation of the nib on the surface. Of course, one of the outcomes from using a high quality fountain pen is that one would not really print letters but write them with a more cursive style---the very fluid style that just begs to be used with such a nice instrument. It is a pity that the modern day person is largely ignorant of the fountain pen. Disposable ball-point pens, gel-inked pens and the what not dominate the current writing landscape, and while I am not against their use, I still maintain that the fountain pen is such a wonderful writing instrument that one would forgo all these other writing tools just to have the comfort level that is afforded only by the fountain pen itself. I know I have.
But what is the aim of writing all this? It is not merely an exercise of typing English text out on a keyboard---there is of course a theme that I am alluding to here. This theme that I am subtly talking about refers to that of my anachronistic tendencies.
While in many ways I am a techie, computer science degree and all, at heart I am still one who cherishes the past that has occurred. Unlike those who follow that path, I do not like things about the past because I believe that the past is inexplicably timeless with an elegance that transcends all of reality---I'm still a rational realist after all. However, I do find that some of the artefacts that come from the past have a certain aesthetic about them that is sort of lost in the march of technology; it amazes me to end to learn that people of the past have reached dizzying heights of technology progress in spite of having techniques and materials that are much simpler than now. In many ways, my fascination with the anachronistic can be seen as a tribute to the ingenuity that our predecessors have to demonstrate to come up with workable ideas at a time that was devoid of all the progress that we have now.
Take the slide rule for example. The ability to compute traditionally annoying functions without having to keep too many things on one's head, all reduced to a short 10-inch form factor. Sure, the 10-inch netbook that is popular these days can probably do more, but slide rules are easily recreated technology (try to build your own netbook from scratch), and they run practically forever (the 8-hour battery life means absolutely nothing), and can compute things up to three significant figures of accuracy. The elegance of such anachronistic devices never cease to amaze me, and it is one of my life's goals to actually seek out and learn how do all these ``lost'' devices work and how they are made; perhaps some time in thei future, their need might arise again.
But sweet seductive imagery aside, after having my fountain pen for nearly a year since my graduation (a gift from my mum, who had asked me what I might want for graduation), I must say that I have really grown to appreciate how a fountain pen works. As noted in the epithet earlier, it is a real spiritual experience just to wield the pen between the thumb and forefinger, and to feel the gliding sensation of the nib on the surface. Of course, one of the outcomes from using a high quality fountain pen is that one would not really print letters but write them with a more cursive style---the very fluid style that just begs to be used with such a nice instrument. It is a pity that the modern day person is largely ignorant of the fountain pen. Disposable ball-point pens, gel-inked pens and the what not dominate the current writing landscape, and while I am not against their use, I still maintain that the fountain pen is such a wonderful writing instrument that one would forgo all these other writing tools just to have the comfort level that is afforded only by the fountain pen itself. I know I have.
But what is the aim of writing all this? It is not merely an exercise of typing English text out on a keyboard---there is of course a theme that I am alluding to here. This theme that I am subtly talking about refers to that of my anachronistic tendencies.
While in many ways I am a techie, computer science degree and all, at heart I am still one who cherishes the past that has occurred. Unlike those who follow that path, I do not like things about the past because I believe that the past is inexplicably timeless with an elegance that transcends all of reality---I'm still a rational realist after all. However, I do find that some of the artefacts that come from the past have a certain aesthetic about them that is sort of lost in the march of technology; it amazes me to end to learn that people of the past have reached dizzying heights of technology progress in spite of having techniques and materials that are much simpler than now. In many ways, my fascination with the anachronistic can be seen as a tribute to the ingenuity that our predecessors have to demonstrate to come up with workable ideas at a time that was devoid of all the progress that we have now.
Take the slide rule for example. The ability to compute traditionally annoying functions without having to keep too many things on one's head, all reduced to a short 10-inch form factor. Sure, the 10-inch netbook that is popular these days can probably do more, but slide rules are easily recreated technology (try to build your own netbook from scratch), and they run practically forever (the 8-hour battery life means absolutely nothing), and can compute things up to three significant figures of accuracy. The elegance of such anachronistic devices never cease to amaze me, and it is one of my life's goals to actually seek out and learn how do all these ``lost'' devices work and how they are made; perhaps some time in thei future, their need might arise again.
Sunday, June 06, 2010
Duality (Part 2)
(First part begins here.)
So the last time I talked here I was referring to how the two seemingly contradictory maxims of what absence can do to a person with regards to the remembrance and camaraderie are both completely wrong due to the grayness in which the ``hard rules'' of the world apply to. That was, of course, made at a moment that was rather late at night (4am in the morning) and with the general realisation at that point in time that the people that I once knew from the past are just going to stay there where I last left them---in the past. It is not so much as a piece demanding strong scrutiny, but more of a piece that highlights the duality of reality that we sometimes fail to appreciate.
In many of life's happenings, we find that there are many instances where we ask ourselves if something that had happened to us was indeed ``bad'' and worry greatly about what might happen to us after that, i.e. the consequences of it all. Of course it is true that we will always have to deal with the consequences of our actions (it is only the privileged few that can get away from everything), but what occurs after that is something that is worth thinking about separately and away from the rather myopic perspective of mere cause and effect. The fallacy of it all is to assume that the single outcome of a single effect will be the only factor that will affect our affect and effect---what I mean is that we are always assuming that the one outcome that occurred will be the deciding factor that will change our moods and to change the series of consequences that we might have to deal with. The truth is often more complicated than it seems; while it sounds more rational to identify the root cause of a particular outcome, upon further thought, the conclusion that is drawn is often a little more different---the discovered ``root'' cause is mostly the straw that broke the camel's back. There is often an accumulation of factors that started off small and fairly insignificant, before snowballing into a monstrosity that one has to eventually fend off (and declare to be the root cause of it all). The astute person will often try to correct for all these small issues in the hope of averting certain disaster, or at least, certain predictable disaster.
Predictability. We assume in many cases that things are predictable, to a certain degree. Drop a ball from a height off the ground, and you expect the ball to fall downards to the ground. The very essence that defines science is based on the notion of falsifiability and predictability, or at least, the notion that we can tell with some level of confidence what an outcome might be given the starting conditions (or part thereof). Predictability is at times reassuring, but its dual is also true, namely that predictability can also be a very boring affair. Perhaps being a little unpredictable can lead to something that is more meaningful, for if you already knew the output of a computer program, would you still want to run the program? Put in another way, if you can fully predict your life, would you still want to live your life out then?
Why all these jumping about, one might ask. And I reply, why not? I'm attempting to demonstrate the duality of reality that permeates, and to suggest that perhaps by paying attention to its existence that we can finally learn the true meaning of happiness, which ought to be seen as the life path of the most moderate belief that one can summon. Only then will the dicta of common sense appeal most strongly to that of the rational mind.
So the last time I talked here I was referring to how the two seemingly contradictory maxims of what absence can do to a person with regards to the remembrance and camaraderie are both completely wrong due to the grayness in which the ``hard rules'' of the world apply to. That was, of course, made at a moment that was rather late at night (4am in the morning) and with the general realisation at that point in time that the people that I once knew from the past are just going to stay there where I last left them---in the past. It is not so much as a piece demanding strong scrutiny, but more of a piece that highlights the duality of reality that we sometimes fail to appreciate.
In many of life's happenings, we find that there are many instances where we ask ourselves if something that had happened to us was indeed ``bad'' and worry greatly about what might happen to us after that, i.e. the consequences of it all. Of course it is true that we will always have to deal with the consequences of our actions (it is only the privileged few that can get away from everything), but what occurs after that is something that is worth thinking about separately and away from the rather myopic perspective of mere cause and effect. The fallacy of it all is to assume that the single outcome of a single effect will be the only factor that will affect our affect and effect---what I mean is that we are always assuming that the one outcome that occurred will be the deciding factor that will change our moods and to change the series of consequences that we might have to deal with. The truth is often more complicated than it seems; while it sounds more rational to identify the root cause of a particular outcome, upon further thought, the conclusion that is drawn is often a little more different---the discovered ``root'' cause is mostly the straw that broke the camel's back. There is often an accumulation of factors that started off small and fairly insignificant, before snowballing into a monstrosity that one has to eventually fend off (and declare to be the root cause of it all). The astute person will often try to correct for all these small issues in the hope of averting certain disaster, or at least, certain predictable disaster.
Predictability. We assume in many cases that things are predictable, to a certain degree. Drop a ball from a height off the ground, and you expect the ball to fall downards to the ground. The very essence that defines science is based on the notion of falsifiability and predictability, or at least, the notion that we can tell with some level of confidence what an outcome might be given the starting conditions (or part thereof). Predictability is at times reassuring, but its dual is also true, namely that predictability can also be a very boring affair. Perhaps being a little unpredictable can lead to something that is more meaningful, for if you already knew the output of a computer program, would you still want to run the program? Put in another way, if you can fully predict your life, would you still want to live your life out then?
Why all these jumping about, one might ask. And I reply, why not? I'm attempting to demonstrate the duality of reality that permeates, and to suggest that perhaps by paying attention to its existence that we can finally learn the true meaning of happiness, which ought to be seen as the life path of the most moderate belief that one can summon. Only then will the dicta of common sense appeal most strongly to that of the rational mind.
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