tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-156164632024-03-13T11:08:30.617-04:00Hatti matim tim, Ami mathe pari DimI almost wish I hadn't gone down that rabbit-hole — and yet — and yet — it's rather curious, you know, this sort of life!Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.comBlogger200125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-75846448609852305942014-07-08T23:29:00.003-04:002014-07-08T23:36:05.369-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<script type="text/javascript" src="https://static.dermandar.com/js/embed.js.php?v=88.78.59"></script></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-45840651295920463582013-02-28T01:21:00.000-05:002013-02-28T19:16:56.883-05:00Mr. Jalil's petition<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.olpokotha.com/golpo/humayun-ahmed/%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B2-%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B9%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%B0-%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%B6%E0%A6%A8">Original Bengali version</a> by Humayun Ahmed<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1971_Bangladesh_atrocities">More about 1971 war atrocities</a><br />
<br />
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
He said, with a smile, "I am the father of two martyrs. In 1971, both of my sons were killed."<br />
I looked at him in surprise.<br />
The guy was ordinary looking. Almost 60 years old.<br />
He seemed strong enough compared to his age.<br />
He was sitting straight, with a sharp gaze in his eyes.<br />
He didn't have any glasses, which means his sight was good.<br />
I asked, "How can I help you?"<br />
<br />
He kept sitting, like before.<br />
"I found a dead body," he said in a simple tone, "..buried it in Malibagh.<br />
My youngest daughter lives in Malibagh."<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
"O, really?"<br />
<br />
"Yes, in Malibagh Chawdhury county."<br />
<br />
"So, why did you come to me?"<br />
<br />
"Just to chat. You are new in the area. Wanted to know you better. After all, you are my neighbor."<br />
<br />
He kept sitting with a smiling face.<br />
I was skeptical whether or not he was really smiling. May be he just had a smiling face.<br />
The guy said calmly, "I live next street."<br />
<br />
"O, really?"<br />
<br />
"Yes, 13/2, there's a coconut tree in front of the house, did you notice?"<br />
<br />
I didn't. But I nodded affirmatively. The guy's character started to become clear.<br />
May be he was retired. Had nothing else to do. May be spending time was his biggest problem.<br />
Which was why he had to find a neighbor to talk to on weekends.<br />
<br />
"My name is Abdul Jalil."<br />
<br />
I was about to tell my name, he didn't let me! He said loudly, "I know you, I know you very well."<br />
<br />
"Would you like tea?"<br />
<br />
"No, I don't drink tea. I don't smoke or drink tea. My only habit is eating betel leaves."<br />
<br />
"I don't have betel leaf. Nobody eats betel leaf here."<br />
<br />
"I always carry some with me." He brought out a betel leaf container. Very decorative container. Like tiffin carriers, it had 3/4 separate bowls. I suppressed a long sigh. He was planning to spend a long time here. May be the whole morning. People love to tell stories of their own misery.<br />
<br />
He bent a little toward me and asked, "Professor, would you like to try a betel leaf?"<br />
<br />
"No, thanks."<br />
<br />
"Betel leaf is good for health. It cools the liver. People who eat betel leaves never have liver problems."<br />
<br />
"O, really?"<br />
<br />
"Yes, betel leaf juice and honey are the best for back pain."<br />
<br />
I looked at the watch. 10:30 am. My university was closed today. I wished it were open. Then I could have said, "Please don't mind, I have a class at eleven. Come another day." I couldn't say that on weekends.<br />
<br />
The guy brought out many spices from his container. He smelled each of them separately, prepared a betel leaf with a lot of care. I was almost certain that a person who spends this much time preparing betel leaves, was not going to leave before noon.<br />
<br />
But surprisingly, he stood up after putting the betel leaf in him mouth. "I should go, wasted a lot of time today," he said with a smile. Suppressing my surprise I said, "Sit for some time, what's the hurry!"<br />
<br />
"No," said he calmly.<br />
<br />
I walked with him till the stairs. When I was coming back, I saw my landlord looking at me.<br />
He asked, "You caught the professor too? Did he sign?"<br />
<br />
"Sign what?"<br />
<br />
"You didn't sign his petition?"<br />
<br />
"Petition for what?"<br />
<br />
"I don't have to warn you. You'll realize. He will be a pain in the ass. Don't indulge him."<br />
<br />
I came home with a vague uneasiness. Coming to a new area is always annoying You have to meet new neighbors, which is not a happy thing most of the time. But Mr. Jalil seemed harmless. I met him a couple of times after that, very easy-going person. Once I met him in front of the Green pharmacy. He came to talk with a smiling face-"Hi professor! How are you doing?"<br />
<br />
"Yeah, I'm going well. How are you? You didn't come after that day."<br />
<br />
"I got so busy, about the petition."<br />
<br />
I didn't talk much after that. I gave an excuse of a class and left quickly. The second time I met him in the New Market, in front of a news stand. He was squatting down on the street and sifting through newspapers very quickly one after another. The news-stand owner was eyeing him angrily.<br />
<br />
"Mr. Jalil, what are you reading so attentively?"<br />
<br />
Mr. Jalil looked at me. It felt like he couldn't recognize me. He had glasses.<br />
<br />
"Oh you have glasses now!"<br />
<br />
"Yes, otherwise I get headache after evening. I'm myopic. How are you doing, professor?"<br />
<br />
"I'm doing well."<br />
<br />
"I will go to your house one day. To show you the petition. I gathered fourteen thousand signatures."<br />
<br />
"Petition for what?"<br />
<br />
"You'll understand. You are a wise man, it'd be easy for you to understand."<br />
<br />
I thought may be it was a petition to the government for donation. But couldn't understand the fourteen thousand signatures part. I didn't show any interest. World is full with mad men. If collecting signatures is someones addiction, I shouldn't be worry about that.<br />
<br />
But I had to worry. Mr. Jalil came to my apartment one evening with his files of fourteen thousand signatures. He said smilingly, "Read carefully, professor." I read. The petition was about-- one million jews were killed during the 2nd world war **. But all the culprits got sentences for that crime and it is still going on. But how can the pakistanis get away even after killing three million people of this country? Why isn't anybody talking about that today. Mr. Jalil, in his long petition, requested to the government for justice.<br />
<br />
I looked at him. He said calmly, "Two of my sons were killed. I'm not doing it for that. My sons died in war. I don't want justice for their death. I want justice for the people who were taken from their house and killed. Do you understand me?"<br />
<br />
"Yes."<br />
<br />
"I knew you would understand. You are a wise man. Many don't understand. You know, many people give the excuse of humanity. They say, forgive them. Is forgiveness that cheap? tell me, is it this cheap?"<br />
<br />
I couldn't say anything. Mr. Jalil opened his betel leaf container and started preparing one. "What did you think, I'd let it go? No, I won't. Both of my sons fought. I'll fight too. I'll fight till death. I'll make everybody in Bangladesh sign the petition. Three million people died, and nobody said a thing? Are we human or not?"<br />
<br />
I started to look at the signature files. Very organized work. There were both present and permanent addresses beside every signatures, with names of their relatives died in the war.<br />
<br />
"Many people think, I am insane. I went to a newspaper office, the editor didn't even meet me. A young guy said--why are you making big fuss about old stuff, brother? Let it go-- I am as old as his grandfather and he calls me 'brother'."<br />
<br />
"How did you respond?"<br />
<br />
"I said, don't you want justice? The guy didn't say anything. He didn't even have the courage to say something directly. But guys like these fought in the war with so much courage. Didn't they?"<br />
<br />
"Yes, they did."<br />
<br />
"Think about your landlord. They killed one of his brother-in-laws. But this guy didn't sign. Three million people died. Nothing happened. My heart aches even thinking about it."<br />
<br />
I was feeling uneasy. The guy put another betel leaf in his mouth and said, "I met with people from the government. They don't even want to hear what I am saying. One told me, apply for an abandoned house. Two of your sons died. You have the right to get a house."<br />
<br />
"What did you say?"<br />
<br />
"What can I say? Did I petition for a house? What am I going to do with a house? Are two of my sons' lives this cheap? That they can pay with a house? How dare they, can you imagine! I want a trial. A trial nothing else. A trial with proper civil rules. Do you get it?"<br />
<br />
"Yes, I get it."<br />
<br />
"You are a wise man. It's not hard for you to understand. Others don't understand. I have to go three times for one signature. I don't mind it. I'm not the person who backs off."<br />
<br />
He left with my signature. After that, I haven't met him for a long time.<br />
I was always curious though. Whenever I met him on streets I asked, "How's the progress?"<br />
<br />
"I am still trying, professor. Pray for me."<br />
<br />
"Are people signing?"<br />
<br />
"Not everybody, they are afraid."<br />
<br />
"Afraid of what?"<br />
<br />
"Is there any reason for fear? People who are naturally afraid, they fear everything. I am on it. I will bring them to the court. What do you think, professor?"<br />
<br />
"Yes, of course."<br />
<br />
"I divided the project into districts. Now I will go to every district. It will be hard, but there's nothing to do about it. What do you say?"<br />
<br />
"Good!"<br />
<br />
"And only signatures are not enough. We need evidence for the trial. They killed people for no reason, we have to prove that. They will bring expert lawyers. Won't they?<br />
<br />
"Of course!"<br />
<br />
"Do you know any good lawyer?"<br />
<br />
"I will search for one."<br />
<br />
"Of course you will. You are not blind. You understand the crime. Most people can't. It's a country of ignorant people."<br />
<br />
I hadn't met Mr. Jalil for a long time after that. May be he really started traveling from one district to another, with heavy files in his arms. May be the number of signatures are increasing. Twelve thousands to fifteen thousands. Fifteen to twenty. May be he will really collect 4/5 million signatures.<br />
Five million people's demand is a strong demand.<br />
<br />
In the beginning of the rainy season I heard Mr. Jalil was sick. Asthma, with rheumatic fever. The landlord said, "He is insane, doesn't take care of his health. He might not last for long."<br />
<br />
"What!"<br />
<br />
"Yeah, the doctor from the Green pharmacy said. I also went to see him."<br />
<br />
"Is he too sick?"<br />
<br />
"He might not last till the end of the rainy season.."<br />
<br />
"What!"<br />
<br />
"Yeah, he is very sick."<br />
<br />
He did last that rainy season though, started roaming around with files in his arms. I met him one noon. I couldn't recognize him, he changed so much. He came forward, "Hey professor..."<br />
<br />
"Hey how are you? What happened to you!"<br />
<br />
"I'm not gonna live for long."<br />
<br />
"How can you die so quickly! You started such a big project."<br />
<br />
"I'm alive only for that."<br />
<br />
"How many signatures did you collect?"<br />
<br />
"Fifteen thousand... can't get more than 3-4 hundreds a month. I am old now, but I'm not the kind who backs off."<br />
<br />
"No, why would you back off?"<br />
<br />
"I'll put them in trial. Jews did it, why can't we? What do you say?"<br />
<br />
"Yes, of course."<br />
<br />
"They killed three million people, not one or two. They thought people in Bangladesh are cheap, didn't they? I'll teach them a lesson."<br />
<br />
I lived in that street in Azimpur for almost two years. In this two years, I became quite close with Mr. Jalil. I used to visit him often. He owned a house. The 2nd floor was rented. His family runs with that rent. His wife died. His eldest daughter-in-law lives with him. She had two beautiful daughters, twins probably. Very lively. I liked visiting them. The daughter-in-law used to take good care.<br />
<br />
Both of the children understood the petition very clearly. One of girls told me in serious tone, "After grandpa finishes the book, people who killed my dad will be on trial." A girl of her age shouldn't undertand all that. Mr. Jalil must explained these to them throughly.<br />
<br />
I used to visit them even after leaving that street. Then the communication reduced slowing. Then I went out of the country for a long time.<br />
<br />
I went to visit them before leaving the country. I heard that he went to Faridpur to collect more signatures. Nobody knew when he would come back. His daughter-in-law grieved a lot. She had reason to grief. If the only male in the family leaves the house, life becomes harder.<br />
<br />
When people live out of their country, they feel a different attachment for their own country. May be that's why I used to remember him. I felt, he was right, they shouldn't get away after killing three million people. What Mr. Jalil was doing, was right. It's not medieval time. We can't accept this injustice.<br />
<br />
Other Bengalis used to gather in my apartment over the weekends. Some were undergraduate students, Morehead state university's math professor Mr. Afsar. Everybody agreed, we should help in Mr. Jalil's project. We will sue them in international court on behalf of the people of Bangladesh if necessary. Articles will be posted in the foreign newspapers for international support. One evening we started "Abdul Jalil Protest Committee" in Fargo city, USA. I was the organizer. Mr. Afsar Uddin was the chairman. It felt good thinking about the country while living in a foreign country. It always feels like we should do SOMETHING.<br />
<br />
I returned to the country after six years.<br />
<br />
Dhaka city changed a lot. But Mr. Jalil's house hadn't changed at all. That same old broken house with torn plasters. That same coconut tree. A very pretty 14/15 year old girl opened the door as soon as I knocked. She kept staring at me in surprise.<br />
<br />
"Are you Mr. Jalil's granddaughter?"<br />
<br />
"Yes."<br />
<br />
"Is he home?"<br />
<br />
"No, grandpa died two years ago."<br />
<br />
"Oh. I was your grandpa's friend."<br />
<br />
"Please come inside."<br />
<br />
I went inside. I wanted to talk to her mother. She wasn't home. The girl couldn't tell when she'd return.<br />
When I was leaving, I asked, "Your grandfather was collecting signatures, are those still there?"<br />
<br />
"Yes, why?"<br />
<br />
"We should finish the work he started, what do you think?"<br />
<br />
She was very surprised. I said with a smile, "I'll come again, okay?"<br />
<br />
"Okay..."<br />
<br />
She walked with me till the gate, then said in a soft voice, "Grandpa told me, someday someone will come to take the files."<br />
<br />
I didn't go after that.<br />
<br />
My enthusiasm died. There are so many other problems in the country. Bombs blast here and there almost everyday. No one can say a thing. I don't feel like bringing up old problems.<br />
<br />
I'm not Mr. Jalil. I have to think about my future. I have to talk with a lot of people to buy an abandoned house in Mirpur. Where's time to roam around in streets with files of signatures in arms?<br />
<br />
May be, Mr. Jalil's granddaughter is still waiting for me. She may have dusted the old petition files, ready for me to take.<br />
Girls at that age trust everybody.<br />
<br />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------<br />
** Over 6 million people were killed in the Holocaust, the author mistakenly wrote 1 million. </div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-65167246274277425012013-02-16T13:59:00.002-05:002013-02-16T16:36:06.741-05:00Theory induced blindness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
An old Daniel Kahneman article on <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-10-25/bias-blindness-and-how-we-truly-think-part-2-daniel-kahneman.html">theory induced blindness </a><br />
<br />
"<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 24px;">Once you have accepted a theory, it is extraordinarily difficult to notice its flaws.</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 24px;"> "</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span>
And we are never going to notice flaws if every time the theory fails to explain something, we keep saying "there's something mysterious about it that is beyond my intelligence" instead of questioning it.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-32666000635371404512012-06-08T15:58:00.000-04:002012-06-08T15:58:06.977-04:00Security and Human Behavior workshop<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="http://www.lightbluetouchpaper.org/2012/06/04/security-and-human-behaviour-2012/">live blogging of the workshop</a> by Ross Anderson.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-44653844725550842482012-06-07T23:00:00.000-04:002013-02-28T19:20:47.326-05:00Choice<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
My religious friends, who are very concerned about what a woman should wear as if that is the biggest problem that the world needs to solve, share posts where men are saying how making women stay at home would restore peace in the world.<br />
<br />
These guys, they talk as if a woman belongs to another species. Things do not affect a woman the same way they affect them. Women do not feel warm wearing hijab in 100 degrees. Women are not supposed to love to do something else other than raising a family or being dependent on a man. And women are not intelligent enough to decide what to do with their life or what to wear. Taking care of family or raising a kid or thinking about balancing work and home are female problem, not human problem.<br />
<br />
They say women are given "choices." "Good" women "choose" to cover herself and "choose" to stay home and "choose" not to be ambitious. Choice is a really interesting word.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-48163861387888891562012-05-28T16:24:00.002-04:002012-05-28T16:24:38.340-04:00Want to change writing style? Do not use Google translator<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Every time we give our authorship recognition talk, someone will say, "just run your text through a machine translator, it'd change your style!"<br />
Same comments were made at IEEE S&P after the authorship recognition talk ("<a href="http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bethenco/oakland12.pdf">On feasibility of internet scale authorship recognition</a>").<br />
<br />
One of my lab mates experimented with translation effect on authorship recognition and found that translation cannot be used for writing style change.<br />
The reason is that a good translator would keep the style intact and a bad translator would change the style so much that it would distort the original meaning completely.<br />
A good writing style anonymizer should change the style while keeping the meaning of the text intact.<br />
<br />
The paper on translation effect is still under submission.<br />
Mike mentioned this a little in his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-xjibpQjO8&feature=related">talk</a> at ccc, 2009.<br />
<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-91207355988306880032012-05-28T13:05:00.002-04:002012-05-28T16:03:41.654-04:00Authorship recognition of multi-authored document<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
There are very few works on this topic.<br />
Most recent work is by Moshe Koppel and his team "<a href="http://www.dershowitz.net/files/unsupervised-decomposition-of-a-document-into-authorial-components.pdf">Unsupervised Decomposition of a Document into Authorial Components</a>." In this paper they analyzed Bible as a multi-authored document and decomposed chapters into two sets, chapters written by Jeremiah and chapters written by Ezekiel. They used synonym usage to distinguish two authors.<br />
<br />
The authors said this approach could be used iteratively for more than 2 authors, but you need to know the number of authors.<br />
<br />
There are couple of limitations of this work. They experimented with the Hebrew version of Bible, there were only two authors and they decomposed the text chapter-wise.<br />
<br />
<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-15300585369985152692012-04-30T19:43:00.001-04:002012-04-30T19:45:10.566-04:00The Secret life of Pronouns<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Ever noticed how you try to mimic the person you are interested in?<br />
I know I do it, but I didn't know that it's true for everybody.<br />
<br />
Pennebaker and his team did a study on speed dating conversation and found that our language changes when we are around people we like; in the speed dating case, "when the language style of two people matched, when they used pronouns, prepositions, articles and so forth in similar ways at similar rates, they were much more likely to end up on a date."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.wnyc.org/npr_articles/2012/apr/30/to-predict-dating-success-the-secrets-in-the-pronouns/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wnyc_home+%28WNYC+New+York+Public+Radio%29&utm_content=Google+Reader">Full story</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-73075848337029428012012-04-24T14:41:00.000-04:002012-04-24T14:42:16.575-04:00How to fool the ETS essay rater?Construct your prose with superfluous dunandunate words or phrases, although incoherent and ambiguous, which might cause xenolexica in human grader but impress the e-rater nonetheless.
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/23/education/robo-readers-used-to-grade-test-essays.html?_r=4&pagewanted=all">This is how Les Perelman fooled the e-rater.</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-58381315233395787862012-04-06T13:22:00.010-04:002012-04-06T18:29:54.289-04:00My "cool" craigslist scammer<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Sarah Lawrence (sarah.law03@yahoo.com) wrote:<br />
<blockquote>Hi,<br />
<br />
Thank you very much for the response but before we move forward,i will like you to know the full information about me. I was born and raised in Wyoming,i am quiet and easy going person to live with. I'm 26 years of age... I am extremely clean,quiet and respectful, I am sensitive, intelligent and am easy to get on with. ..I am a faithful and committed person, who is very considerate of other people's feelings. I don't drug and i dont smoke or drink.. I enjoy going out with my friends to movies, plays, parks, hikes, anything to do with the ocean and horses but i'm cool living with people.<br />
<br />
Right now, am working for a Non Government Organization on a program on children with orphans and heart related probs.My next program/seminars will be in your town and I will need a room to stay for these seminars, so I want to secure a room before my arrival.<br />
<br />
I must confess that i'm comfortable with the area of the house/apt and i am ready to pay for the room.<span style="color: red;"> </span>I will like to make the payment for the first month ahead of my arrival, and then i will make subsequent payment thereafter as i plan to stay for 6-12months.I have told my boss about this and he promised to make sure that he will meet up with the payment so that I can depart from here as scheduled.He also said I will have the advantage to make payment for deposit .<span style="color: red;">I should arrive to your place on or before the 24th of April(Willing to pay for the whole month of April)</span>,so pls keep the room for me till my arrival.He also said my mode of payment will be the Most acceptable,safer and reliable means of payment which is United state certified money order/Cashier Check so get back to me with your name and address so that i can send you the payment as early as possible.<br />
<br />
Kindest Regards,<br />
Sarah Lawrence.</blockquote>===========================================================<br />
I wrote:<br />
<blockquote><span style="color: blue;">Hi Sarah,</span><br />
<span style="color: blue;">Sorry I cannot rent apartment from April. The earliest you can move in is --.</span></blockquote>===========================================================<br />
<br />
Sarah Lawrence (sarah.law03@yahoo.com) wrote:<br />
<blockquote>Hi,<br />
<br />
Thanks for the response...<span style="color: red;">I am cool with everything and i will like to pay you the first month rent before my arrival</span>...You can therefore get back to me with your name and address so that my Boss can send you the payment as soon as possible Ok..<br />
<br />
Thanks again<br />
Sarah Lawrence.</blockquote><br />
===========================================================<br />
<br />
So cool!<br />
So I wrote:<br />
<blockquote><span style="color: blue;">You know, scamming (or whatever you are trying to do here) needs some more intelligence than this.</span></blockquote><br />
===========================================================<br />
Or may be not!<br />
I wonder how many people fall for this and what exactly do they do after they get the address.<br />
I guess, they were going to ask for my account number for direct deposit :P.<br />
I should have gone few more steps to see what happens!<br />
May be next time :D.<br />
<br />
Other incidents of the same scam are <a href="http://www.scamwarners.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=20552&start=15">here</a> and <a href="http://ffdt.info/index.php?topic=1323.0">here</a>.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-79958592468111545552012-03-14T14:32:00.004-04:002012-04-06T14:00:49.867-04:00"The idea of capturing the intelligence of the readership -- that's a joke."<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Nick Denton, the founder of Gawker media, made that remark on <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/11/tech/web/online-comments-sxsw/index.html?hpt=hp_t2">cnn</a>.<br />
Of course it is, just as raw gold in gold mine is dust!<br />
<br />
I am currently analyzing comments from jezebel.com, the most commented site among the Gawker media sites, to see if we can predict comment quality using machine learning. It is actually surprisingly simple to translate most of the commenting guidelines into features that a machine learning algorithm would use to assess comment quality. Though some features are harder to determine than the others, for example, finding relevance of a comment with the original post or funny comments. <br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CoR3nxgIfLM/T38sZEmIz2I/AAAAAAAAQHk/RYCZdPNL_SA/s1600/timevscomments.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CoR3nxgIfLM/T38sZEmIz2I/AAAAAAAAQHk/RYCZdPNL_SA/s400/timevscomments.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>I made this graph with 2000 comments from jezebel that shows the timing effect on crowd rating. The x-axis shows time difference of the comment with the original post and y-axis shows number of comments made within that time interval. That is, 100 comments within 20-30 means that 100 comments were made within 20-30 minutes after the post was published.<br />
<br />
On jezebel best quality comments are "promoted" by the trusted users. This graph shows that most highly rated comments were made within 2 hours of the posts. So if you are late to make your awesome comment, there will be hardly any crowd to judge it.<br />
<br />
I found two things that online communities value the most in comment assessment are timing and reputation. If you are late at making your comment, no matter how high quality the comment is there won't be any crowd to read your comment to rate it. If you have a good reputation of making good comments or if you have lots of friends in the community, your comment that says "wow!!!" would be "liked" by 100 people. The comment rating process seems democratic but it's very biased. <br />
<br />
Automated comment filtering research has been done on many communities, yet I don't think any of the online communities uses it. Does anybody know of any community that uses some kind of machine based moderation?</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-46975730875587708762012-02-29T21:02:00.005-05:002012-03-01T10:56:21.286-05:00Rethinking my Facebook friend acceptance policyMy Facebook-friend-acceptance policy is <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheetal_moni/5025549854/in/set-72157622064670402">this</a>.<br />
Actually more restricted than that. If I don't share my personal detail with you in real life, I don't want to share it with you on Facebook. <br />
<br />
The Facebook data team recently published <a href="https://www.facebook.com/notes/facebook-data-team/rethinking-information-diversity-in-networks/10150503499618859">this study</a> which basically tells that if you want to receive interesting diverse news from your social network you should add people you hardly talk to. People with whom we have strong ties are similar minded, so they share things that we'd have shared. If you social network only contains similar minded people it'd become an "echo chamber." The more diverse your network is the more diverse and novel information you'd get from it.<br />
<br />
I find the study very interesting. People with weak ties are good for getting interesting information, but if I have too many of them then I'd have to add extra privacy settings on my photo albums and status updates or be extra cautious about things I share. I'm not sure if people use facebook for getting news, it's an added benefit. News or no news, with my friends literally staying all over the world, I'd use Facebook anyway.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-54062616309837791272012-02-03T16:15:00.002-05:002012-03-02T16:00:09.662-05:00latex on mac<a href="http://guides.macrumors.com/Installing_LaTeX_on_a_Mac#First_.28easier.29_option">http://guides.macrumors.com/Installing_LaTeX_on_a_Mac#First_.28easier.29_option</a><br />
And I love <a href="http://www.xm1math.net/texmaker/download.html">texmaker</a>, so awesome!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-15949805801497172482011-12-08T11:12:00.001-05:002012-06-08T01:22:52.211-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I want to know if you can see Beauty<br />
even when it is not pretty<br />
every day.<br />
And if you can source your own life<br />
from its presence.<br />
<br />
<br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-55385964418604167702011-08-07T23:04:00.001-04:002011-08-07T23:04:49.638-04:00I watch the stars from my window sill<br />
The whole world is moving, and I'm standing still<br />
<br />
<iframe width="560" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/OBk3ynRbtsw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-74392493250935219342011-07-24T02:10:00.003-04:002012-02-29T23:24:01.658-05:00How far I am from home!<style type="text/css">.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }.flickr-yourcomment { }.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }</style><div class="flickr-frame"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheetal_moni/3663066631/" title="photo sharing"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3320/3663066631_c234a3cd43.jpg" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a><br />
<span class="flickr-caption"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheetal_moni/3663066631/">How far I am from home</a>, originally uploaded by <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheetal_moni/">sheetal_shundori</a>.</span></div><p class="flickr-yourcomment">Feeling homesick</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-63842701872315179142011-06-30T18:59:00.003-04:002012-06-07T22:58:44.414-04:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Surprisingly, all my worst days are actually my best days in disguise.</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-81185545555233297742011-05-05T23:07:00.001-04:002011-05-05T23:07:57.079-04:00"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"<br />
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.<br />
"I don’t much care where--" said Alice.<br />
"Then it doesn’t matter which way you go," said the Cat.<br />
"--so long as I get SOMEWHERE," Alice added as an explanation.<br />
"Oh, you’re sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-50484566809480171012011-05-04T17:18:00.000-04:002011-05-04T17:18:08.917-04:00I couldn't open file name `*.aux'If you have more than one bib file, add them like this:<br />
\bibliography{bibliography_1,bibliography_2,bibliography_3}<br />
<br />
Open up the .tex file and compile it using Latex (Shift+Apple+L) then compile it using Bibtex (Shift+Apple+B)<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-62332772327206225302011-05-02T21:29:00.002-04:002011-05-02T21:48:13.742-04:00Gender GuesserGender Guesser Script: <a href="http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.php">http://www.hackerfactor.com/GenderGuesser.php<br />
</a>This script can guess gender from writing sample.<br />
It's not 100% accurate but it predicted me as a female!!<br />
It's so weird that how much information we reveal about ourselves without even thinking about it.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-75860613016604156862011-04-28T18:27:00.007-04:002011-04-29T02:44:12.192-04:00Project ImplicitProject Implicit (<a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/</a>) is about our conscious and unconscious preferences and biases. For example, most people connote blondes with "dumbness", and tall and handsome with "intelligence"; we don't do it consciously, or we don't want other people to know about our true biases. But even when we try to hide our preferences, we end up revealing them through our attitudes or actions. <br />
<br />
The Implicit project tries to measure these unconscious biases. In the test you have to categorize words into different groups, generally two. For example, the gender-science test will ask you to categorize different words into two groups: male/science and female/arts. Then it will ask to categorize words into other two groups: female/science and male/arts. If you are biased about man and science, then you'll take more time to classify science words as female/science than to classify them as male/science. The test will measure your response time and figure out your true preference.<br />
<br />
I read about this project in "<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Blink-Power-Thinking-Without/dp/0316172324">Blink</a>." Then I took several tests and got very weird results. Like, I don't have any preference for female and science over male and science. But my test suggested that I do. I took another test about preferring self over others, whose result was contradictory as well. I feeling a little confused about myself now.<br />
<br />
But it was fun!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-12296307000736093982011-03-23T19:54:00.000-04:002011-03-23T19:54:34.170-04:00Those that I fight I do not hate,<br />
Those that I guard I do not love.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/An_Irish_Airman_Foresees_his_Death">Full poem</a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-7294091771936436842011-03-12T03:37:00.002-05:002013-02-28T19:24:51.884-05:00Crypto codes: GGH public key cryptosystem<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Download code from <a href="http://code.google.com/a/eclipselabs.org/p/cryptocodes/source/browse/trunk/Crypto/src/GGH.java">here</a><br />
I only did the decryption part, using Babai's algorithm (for homework :D)</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-52693448500004177562011-03-11T04:43:00.001-05:002013-02-28T19:24:51.882-05:00Crypto codes: Elliptic ElGamal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Download code from <a href="http://code.google.com/a/eclipselabs.org/p/cryptocodes/source/browse/trunk/Crypto/src/EllipticElGamal.java">here</a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15616463.post-65532492244278990472011-03-11T03:47:00.002-05:002012-06-08T15:33:08.751-04:00Crypto codes:Miller Rabin Primality test<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Download code from <a href="http://code.google.com/a/eclipselabs.org/p/cryptocodes/source/browse/trunk/Crypto/src/MillerRabinTest.java">here</a><br />
<br />
Output: (exercise 3.14 in the Introduction of Mathematical Cryptography)<br />
<pre>1105 is composite with witness 2
294409 is composite with witness 2
118901509 is prime
118901521 is composite with witness 2
118901527 is prime
118915387 is composite with witness 2
</pre>
</div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><p align="center"><a href="http://hits4pay.com/members/index.cgi?sheetal57"><img border="0" src="http://www.hits4pay.com/banners/468X60h4p2.jpg" width="468" height="60"/></a></p></div>Sheetalhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08598896392763703015noreply@blogger.com0