I love electronics. I love it because it is a thrill to actually build something and see it work. The act of creation is overwhelming, especially when younger.

Electronics was my greatest obsession since the time I got introduced to the field by a book given to me by a beloved uncle. I had the habit of being fascinated by electrical/mechanical gear while I was even younger but this book series (Funway into Electronics by Dick Smith) lay the foundations to the real awakening to the subject. I was 11 years old then and I was totally engrossed in it. I spent day and night meddling with ready-made products, scrounging for components in broken stuff and doing further reading, albeit with little real understanding But, the knowledge I gained was enough to understand how this and that worked. It was enough to let me repair and build on my own.

However, it was the thrill of building, of constructing various circuits that really had me on a high. It was by far one of the most enjoyable things I remember from my childhood. I built everything from silly LED light shows to neat "spy" gadgets. Directional listening devices that can pickup what the two gossipers at the end of the road are whispering to each other are a personal favourite. I built radio/tv transmitters and receivers. I had fun tuning into the world with self-built receivers and self-built antennae. Mind you, this was the time before encrypted communications began cropping up in Male'. I could listen into the police, cordless phones and even had the pleasure of listening in on the communications that took place when the First Lady got into some trouble in the sea (oops. classified?). I had fun building interfaces to the computer. Attempting to decode the then common 'pager' signals was an exciting undertaking. I had fun building high voltage gear. Voltage multipliers to get nice long sparks in attempts to build a decent Jacob's Ladder or a Plasma ball. Coil guns were amusing things too. I got jolted by electric shocks enough times but it was worth it - maybe except for the time I had a 400 or so volts DC, fully charged capacitor discharge thru my hands. I was careless and didn't realize the capacitor was charged. It had enough juice running through me to get me zonked out with birdies still flying around my head when I woke up... (Check out this image at How It Works to see how 'spectacular' it is when such a capacitor discharges)

Anyway, today, I fixed the TV that came with my apartment. I had so many (free!) channels piped down but with the 24inch TV refusing to utter a whisper of a sound, it was getting real dreary in here - just me, the laptop and food. It has been a looong time since I broke into one of these things and it felt good. The encounter inspired this blog rambling and I've just dug out all my electronics gear gathering cobwebs in the dark... Time to wield a soldering iron and do some serious damage!

Toodles.

Here is something I conjured up in the minutes of freedom after "work" last night. It is what I would call a widget - a WebSMS widget. The idea for the application came after a blog reader by the handle Vayfarer emailed me asking for advice on implementing a "Gadget" for Google personalised home. Anyway, two and a half hours later, I had this baby all wrapped up just as I wanted it.

This "widget" can be added to your blog or website. You will be able to host this widget on your own server when I release the source code, until then you are welcome to use the service based at the Technova server. The widget supports skinning the widget with your own CSS files and so can be made to fit the look of your blog and/or website. I will be releasing the source code for the project soon - right after I flush any major bugs that crops up the coming few days.



I've also made available a "gadget" package for adding the WebSMS widget to the Google "personalised home".



Here is live demo:


Interested in getting one for your blog/website or adding it to your Google homepage? Click here to go to the widget's homepage at Technova.

Have fun.

PS: Other SMS related stuff that I've released previously include, a SMS Sender program which you can run on your Windows/Mac/Linux computer and a WebSMS tool for phpBB forums.

I got reminded of Self Organising Maps(SOMs) at last week's Neurocomputation lecture. I learnt SOMs last year while on a craze to teach myself about neural nets. They are fascinating little buggers I tell ya!

The knowledge of SOMs had come in pretty handy earlier this year when I designed and programmed a blog analyzer/classifier intended to be contributed to the mvblogs.org project. The "classifier" part utilized SOMs to do the magic. However, sadly, I never got around to finishing an "analyzer" (which does the text and language processing) that I was happy with and soon enough my interest waned out and the effort died. I will probably tackle it sometime soon, now that my interest has been rekindled Anyway, onto SOMs...

What are SOMs?
Self Organising Maps, also known as Kohonen networks in honour of its inventor, are a very interesting type of (artificial) Neural Network. It features an input neuron layer that is directly mapped to all the output layer neurons - where the output neurons are represented as being arranged as a grid.

A SOM when presented with training data, is able to train itself in such a way that "similar" data is placed closed together on the grid. By "similar" I refer to the manner in which any number of the attributes of the input data can be represented on the output by mapping the variation of the attributes. Any type of data that can be broken down or converted to a vector of numbers so that it can be mathematically manipulated can be fed to the input of a SOM. Possible input data may include text blocks, books, images, surveys etc. This makes SOMs extremely powerful and useful as a tool for making a simple 2D/3D representation of highly complex, multi-dimensional data.

The algorithm for a SOM is quite simple and very elegant. If you are keen to learn more, try the paper "The Self Organising Map" by the creator Teuvo Kohonen himself. Alternatively, this simpler guide may be more accessible and a shorter read :p

SOM eye candy
One of the coolest demonstrations of an application of a SOM is color classification. In such a setup, a SOM is fed a set of colors - as vectors with components in RGB, CMYK or whatever representation we choose - and set to the task of "organizing" them. At the end of the run, the SOM has the colors all arranged neatly by (mostly) placing similar colors close to each other.

Here is a simple sample case where I fed a SOM a collection of 80 random colors.


I then set the SOM to churn and after 500 ticks the output has the output grid has the colors neatly arranged!


Interesting stuff eh?

Time travel is one of those sci-fi fantasies that had fascinated me since I was a very young kid. I reckon most people are fascinated by the idea as well but reject it as being impossible or utterly crazy. However, I for one, have always kept a hold on to the idea that time travel may indeed be possible sooner than never...

I found the link on Digg today to a documentary by the BBC titled "The World's First Time Machine". It follows research by Prof. Ronald Mallet on his quest to build the world's first working time machine - to attempt and succeed at the feat. He thinks that building and testing this machine would pave the way for solutions and answers to the puzzles and complexities involving time travel, including exploring the practical truths of the Grandfather Paradox.

- View the video at Google Video
- Download the video in AVI format

Prof. Mallet's paper "Weak gravitational field of the electromagnetic radiation in a ring laser" is a good read on the principles by which his time machine operates and the theory that goes with it.

I have no idea as to the validity of his claims but I would eagerly watch this quest for time travel. Let us hope there comes a message from the future when the machine is turned on, an event which is suggested in the documentary as being possible!

Enjoy.

Well, my holidays are officially over today. It is back to the university and the year is more crammed than last year with 9 modules to go. There is the usual amount of classes to fill up most of the week and enough lab work to tire out the day. I am really curious about the "Neurocomputation" module. It is not something that is part of the usual computer/electronics line up and it is a subject area that probably will take me beyond my comfort zone. I am very hungry for neural networks and neural everything though. By the way, I am a firm believer that with the use of artificial neural networks, we may one day, be able to gain the level of "consciousness" that we deem its sentience as comparable to humans.

Anyway, I hope everything goes all "bubbles, flowers and candy" this year. Wish me luck! 2006-2007 academic year, here I come

An increasing number of homes in the Maldives are getting equipped with at least one computer. Sadly, however, their use seems to stay limited to being simply a platform for games and accessing the internet for chat. Following in the footsteps of the "grown-ups", kids too stick to this notion of a computer being a big box with a screen for the said purposes. Reality, however, is that there is a plethora of uses for a computer that is more useful, educational and fun - things that will help stimulate the brain, especially a kid's brain.

Programming is one such use for a computer. It lets one build software and games. It lets one create. The desire to create is one of the most fulfilling and one of the most innate cravings we have. It is why we all revel in the act of painting, sculpting, drawing and even carpentry and masonry. Programming is also an essential part of modern education. It is required in many of the courses in graphics design, business administration, architecture and even economics. Knowledge of programming will help even if all one wants to become is an office secretary! So parents, brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts etc etc ? Listen up! Here is something you can introduce to your favourite kiddo. Once they get hooked to programming, they won?t be running around the house with complaints of boredom?

Here are two ways I recommend you take to getting a kid into programming. Both options cost you zilch...

Phrogram
Phrogram, the latest version of the Kids Programming Language, is a programming language/environment specially crafted for kids. It was designed to teach kids how to program in a fun and enjoyable manner. It lets one create anything from word editors to games. The software comes with several tutorials on getting started and using its various features. It is said to have been designed in such a manner so as to make the transition to ?grown up? languages like VB, C# and Java a simple matter. The basic version of the software is free. I reckon this might be a neat addition to the computer classes run in the primary schools.
- Click here to go to Phrogram homepage

Visual C# 2005 - Express Edition
This offering from Microsoft is a great introductory path to the power of Microsoft?s newest programming language: C#. The Express edition includes much of the features found in the Professional versions of the software. There are loads and loads of free C# tutorials and guides on the net that can be used in tandem with the Express edition to make learning easy and fast. With this package, the jump to professional programming is just a matter of gaining confidence and understanding. This option is more suitable to older children and youth. The software is available to download for free from the Microsoft website.
- Click here to go the Visual C# Express Edition homepage.

Have fun!

It was raining much of today and in between a momentary dry spell, there showed up a brilliant rainbow - two of them infact - spanning all the way across the sky! It was a sight that is much more elusive than shooting stars in the night sky...