Person Of Interest, Forever & Allegiance … season finales

 

So I was watching the season finales of three US TV series I have been following diligently the past couple of months. All three of them have ended on cliffhangers…sort of. And I hope they return to tell us their stories. But here are some thoughts.

Person Of Interest

This Jonathan Nolan created cyber-and-real world thriller has definitely gone way beyond what the show creators intended. What began as a two-man vigilante team out to protect the innocent took a u-turn somewhere and is now a war of the machines. A battle of the Artificially Intellgent. Two advanced AIs are now  fighting to control the world, or just the US of A, for the time being. The team of two has also grown, with a lots of friends in high places. The season 4 finale ended in a John Woo type super heroism. The machine has effectively given up, and is now copied from a grid or cloud configuration to a suitcase of RAMs. So it is a cloud system getting migrated to a traditional on-premise software system, to escape the other Samaritan. Nearly all of the recurring characters of the season had a role in the finale, except Sameen. I was hoping that she would show up at the last moment to save the day. Nope. Not this time. The story itself was too fast, about three parallel storylines being told at high pace. The 'control' part storyline was the least interesting, we are not worried about another attack, we simply wanted to know what happened to the machine. The last minutes of 'dialogue' between the machine and Harrold was …awkward. It felt as if the machine was sobbing to its parent like a little helpless child, not one of its finest moments. And is samaritan bad after all ? That is a question they have left ambitious. I think the only way for this show to end is to have both the machines wiped out, because human beings are much beyond algorithms. I think in a future episode we will see Harrold concurring Samaritan and wiping it out, followed by destroying his baby, the machine.

Forever

This was a brand new show this year, with an interesting premise and believable characters. Dr Henry Morgan, the immortal medical examiner of NY, does NOT die after all, even after being shot by the same centuries old gun, twice ! So Adam's belief that it could his immortality was wrong after all, something I was expecting. Again, the story was too fast, the build up to Adam's encounter with Henry , the misplaced flashbacks, Lucas's dialogue and faith in the awkward Henry…nope…all unexpected. Lucas did not have any questions about the dagger to Henry, when he has always asked questions for the audience. The scenes were Jo followed Henry in the subway was interesting. We had seen the subway in the first episode of the season, and this is the only time we are here again.

I am hoping this series gets renewed for a second season, so far there is no news. Apparently, viewership has not been great. But if it does return, this show can go on for a really looooong time. I also hope in the new season, that we see a few flashbacks from Adam's perspective. He has been around for 2000 years, and has seen and experienced that much more than Henry. We could go all the way upto the roman times from Adam's side.

Allegiance

This series probably ended for the best. But it had an interesting story. A little too cold-war influenced. A family of Russian sleeper cell agents living in New York have to decide whether to serve their mother Russia, or to act for the best interests of America. None of the actors in the series could act, except maybe the ruthless killer they introduced in the end : Christopher. The mom and dad team of the O'Connors are more effective than the entire FBI and FSR combined ! And the plotline of the planned attack restoring Russia to an energy super power was completely ridiculous. But it was interesting to see how the plot unfolded putting the O'Connor family in a powerful position at the end, now that Victor is the new resident. There was a time when spy work was all about secrecy, and stealth, and breaking code and finding patterns, and leaving the action to the forces. But now even the spies have to be in gun fights and standoffs. This show could do a lot better if they could replace all of the leading actor roles.

How does the calculator percent key work?

 

The Windows calculator percent sign works the same way as those cheap pocket calculators (which are often called four-function calculators even though they have around six function nowadays). What you first have to understand is that the percent key on those pocket calculators was not designed for mathematicians and engineers. It was designed for your everyday person doing some simple calculations. Therefore, the behavior of the key to you, an engineer, seems bizarrely counter-intuitive and even buggy. But to an everyday person, it makes perfect sense. Or at least that's the theory.

Let's look at it from the point of view of that everyday person. Suppose you want to compute how much a $72 sweater will cost after including 5% tax.¹ Pull out your handy pocket calculator² (or fire up Calc if you don't have a pocket calculator) and type

72 + 5% =

The result is 75.6, or $75.60, which is the correct answer, because 5% of 72 is 3.6. Add that to 72 and you get 75.6.

Similarly, suppose that sweater was on sale at 20% off. What is the sale price?

72 − 20% =

The result is 57.6 or $57.60. This is the correct answer, because 20% of 72 is 14.4. Subtract that from 72 and you get 57.6.

You can chain these percentage operations, too. For example, how much will you have to pay for that 20%-off sweater after adding 5% tax?

72 − 20% + 5% =

The result is 60.48. A mathematician or engineer would have calculated the same result via the equivalent computation:

72 × 0.80 × 1.05 =

Okay, now that we see how the calculator product designer intended the percent key to be used, let's look at what the calculator engineer it has to do in order to match the specification. When the user enters A + B % =, the result should be A × (1 + B/100) or A + (A × B/100) after you distribute the multiplication over the addition. Similarly, when the user enters A − B % =, the result should be A × (1 − B/100) or A − (A × B/100).

Aha, the calculator engineer says, we can achieve this result by defining the percent key as follows:

When the user enters a value, an operator, a second value, and then the percent key, the first two values are multiplied and the product divided by 100, and that result replaces the second value in the ongoing computation.

Let's walk through that algorithm with our first example.

You type
Remarks

72
First value is 72

+
Operation is addition

5
Second value is 5

%
72 × 5 ÷ 100 = 3.6

3.6 becomes the new second value

=
72 + 3.6 = 75.6, the final result

If you watch the display as you go through this exercise, you will even see the number 3.6 appear in the display once you press the % key. The percentage is calculated and replaces the original value in the ongoing computation.

This algorithm also works for the chained percentages.

You type
Remarks

72
First value is 72

−
Operation is subtraction

20
Second value is 20

%
72 × 20 ÷ 100 = 14.4

14.4 becomes the new second value

+
72 − 14.4 = 57.6, intermediate result

57.6 is the new first value

Operation is addition

5
Second value is 5

%
57.6 × 5 ÷ 100 = 2.88

2.88 becomes the new second value

=
57.6 + 2.88 = 60.48, the final result

This even works for multiplication and division, but there is much less call for multiplying or dividing a number by a percentage of itself.

500 × 5 % =

The result of this is 12,500 because you are multiplying 500 by 5% of 500 (which is 25). The result of 500 × 25 is 12,500. You aren't computing five percentof 500. You're multiplying 500 by 5% of 500. (It appears that the authors of this Knowledge Base article didn't consult with the calculator engineer before writing up their analysis. The percent key is behaving as designed. The problem is that the percent key is not designed for engineers.)

What if you want to compute 5% of 500? Just pick a dummy operation and view the result when you press the percent key.

500 + 5 %

When you hit the percent key, the answer appears: 25. You could've used the minus key, multiplication key, or division key instead of the addition key. It doesn't matter since all you care about is the percentage, not the combined operation. Once you hit the % key, you get your answer, and then you can hit Clear to start a new calculation.

Bring back the Flip Phones !

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More One - Ways in Bangalore

 

I was out for a ride Sunday night, and almost got a ticket, because I didn't know they had converted the two lane either way traffic to a two lane one way in Madiwala.

To decongest traffic on Hosur Road, the city police have put some restrictions on the traffic flow at Silk Board and Madiwala junctions from Sunday.

While motorists will be allowed to go from Silk Board Junction to Sarjapura Road Junction and Madiwala check-post, movement of vehicles going to Hosur Road from Madiwala check-post will be restricted.

Vehicles coming from Sarjapura Road junction can go up to Krupanidhi College junction, take a right turn and join Madiwala Santhe Beedi to reach Madiwala Police Station junction-Total Mall junction, Silk Board junction to proceed to Hosur Road.

Motorists going towards Maruthi Nagar can take a right turn at the Koramangala water tank junction, take a right at the Kendriya Sadan and proceed further.

Traffic going towards Madiwala and Silk Board from Koramangala BDA Complex by taking a left turn at Koramangala Water Tank junction, reach Krupanidhi College junction and reach Hosur Road via Madiwala Santhe Beedhi.

 

Pencil Sharpening is a Serious Business

 

Its amazing what you run into on the internet. Today I found out that somebody has opened up a very active business on the internet with the sole intention of sharpening…you guessed it, pencils ! I still don't recall how I landed there, but one thing led to another, and I was on David Rees's website: http://www.artisanalpencilsharpening.com/

Here is a guy who sharpens pencils for a living. And he dead serious about it. You can mail him your pencils, and he will mail you back the sharpened pencils as well as the shavings !

Check out this video.

 

Here's another one.