This is very cool, Louvre has made it’s entire collection of over 480,000 works available online for free. You can check it out here. It still doesn’t beat going there physically because that is a whole other experience, but it gives folks who can’t visit in person a chance to view the collection in hi-res images.
It is great that more and more museums and collectors are making their archives available online for free.
– Suramya
A lot of times we have to run a command that requires a lot of processing power and is extremely slow on your local computer. I have faced this issue in the past and at times wished there was a way to push these commands to a remote machine with a more powerful CPU to run the command. Now, thanks to the efforts of Alexander Overvoorde (Overv), Jakub Wilk and Xiretza this is now possible. They have created a tool called Outrun which lets you execute a local command using the processing power of another Linux machine without having to install the command on the remote machine.
The software does have a few limitations, but on the whole it is very cool:
Check it out if you need to run commands with more CPU cycles than what is available on the local machine.
Thanks to Hacker News for the initial link.
– Suramya
|
 This Golden Flame by Emily Victoria |
Description: In her search for her brother, Karis does the seemingly impossible—she awakens a hidden automaton. Intelligent, with a conscience of his own, Alix has no idea why he was made. Or why his father—their nation’s greatest traitor—once tried to destroy the automatons. Suddenly, the Scriptorium isn’t just trying to control Karis; it’s hunting her. Together with Alix, Karis must find her brother…and the secret that’s held her country in its power for centuries. Buy From: |
Rating: 
(4/5)
Review:
This debut novel by Emily Victoria was a great light read. The characters in the book were mostly well defined and the world building in the book was superb. There were a few twists in the story that I wasn’t expecting and they made the story more fun. I did feel that the final battle was over very quickly and it felt rushed. The build up was nice & long and then suddenly the battle is won and it is all over. It kind of felt like the author thought that the book was long enough and wanted to end it. However, that being said it didn’t spoil the book for me so that is good. It would be interesting to read regular book (instead of a Young Adult) based in this universe as I feel it has a lot of scope for those kind of stories.
I will be keeping an eye on her for her next book release.
Earlier today, I was just lazing around and started thinking about why I am finding it harder to write blog posts or rather why I have not been blogging more frequently over the past few years. Part of it has been due to the workload and time that I need to spend on personal stuff, but I feel that the main issue is due to my use of Twitter. Let me explain why I think that is the case.
If you see some of my earlier posts they are about a site I found or a news item that I saw and wanted to share my thoughts about. Other posts were more detailed but are not what I am concerned about here. When I would find something interesting I would put it in my drafts folder on the Blog and later add a few lines/paragraphs about it before posting it. However, now when I see something interesting I post about it on Twitter most of the times with a few lines. That gets it out there with my immediate thoughts about the topic so there is little incentive for me to write a more detailed blog post about it. Obviously there are exceptions but a lot of the time I see myself doing this. For example, There was an article about Documenting a possible pre-Christian burial site as it is literally about to disappear under lava. It was very interesting and I posted about it on Twitter. So I didn’t have it in my list of articles to talk about when planing my next Blog post.
There is no solution for this, I feel that I just need to consciously decide if a tweet could be better as a blog post and if so save it as a draft on WordPress instead of tweeting about it.
|
 Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed |
Description: Doctor Adoulla Makhslood, “The last real ghul hunter in the great city of Dhamsawaat,” just wants a quiet cup of tea. Three score and more years old, he has grown weary of hunting monsters and saving lives, and is more than ready to retire from his dangerous and demanding vocation. But when an old flame’s family is murdered, Adoulla is drawn back to the hunter’s path. Raseed bas Raseed, Adoulla’s young assistant, a hidebound holy warrior whose prowess is matched only by his piety, is eager to deliver God’s justice. But even as Raseed’s sword is tested by ghuls and manjackals, his soul is tested when he and Adoulla cross paths with the tribeswoman Zamia. Zamia Badawi, Protector of the Band, has been gifted with the near-mythical power of the Lion-Shape, but shunned by her people for daring to take up a man’s title. She lives only to avenge her father’s death. Until she learns that Adoulla and his allies also hunt her father’s killer. Until she meets Raseed. When they learn that the murders and the Falcon Prince’s brewing revolution are connected, the companions must race against time–and struggle against their own misgivings–to save the life of a vicious despot. In so doing they discover a plot for the Throne of the Crescent Moon that threatens to turn Dhamsawaat, and the world itself, into a blood-soaked ruin. Buy From: |
Rating: 
(4.5/5)
Review:
I found this book via a list online where they had listed books with protagonists who were older and not the usual teens/young people. In the book Dr Adoulla Makhslood, is way past his prime and just wants to rest but since there are no others with his skills and talent he keeps getting pulled into situations that are dangerous and potentially lethal. Aboulla is old and cranky and his joints hurt but he still tries to do the right thing.
What I really liked about this book was the characters, each of them has their own personality and are fully fleshed out, instead of being one dimensional and there just to further the plot. The story was fast moving and is based on the middle-east mythology and of a similar vibe to the stories in Arabian nights. It is good that a lot of authors are basing their stories in places other than Europe/US as there are some amazing stories waiting to be told from the mythologies of other countries.
The book ended at a good place, but left the door open for the next book in the series. I couldn’t find any definite dates on when the next book is being released but you can be sure that I will be keeping an eye out for it.
In all a great read. Highly recommend
Over the past few years I have seen multiple news articles and stories about idiots who were unhappy with their job or were fired and decided to take revenge by deleting data, accounts or destroying company property. The common factor in all the stories was the fact that the person was subsequently arrested and jailed. The most recent story I saw was this one, where a genius decided to delete 1200 Microsoft Office accounts after being fired and ended up in jail for his troubles.
Destroying company property when you leave is a good way to ensure you are never hired again by any company. I mean if I was interviewing a candidate and I found out that the candidate had deleted critical data when they left the company I would probably never hire them. End of the day if you have demonstrated that you are not mature enough to deal with a loss but rather delete data/information then you are not a fit to work in my team. I know a lot of people will come and say that people should be given a second chance and what not but this is a serious issue. There would be a major lack of trust in play here and with that the person’s efficiency would be horrible and multiple other folks would have to keep monitoring what this person was doing on the servers which is an overhead I wouldn’t need.
So, now looking at this from the company’s side. How do you prevent something like this from happening? The basic step is to ensure that the access rights of the person are terminated as soon as they are let go. Secondly, they should not be allowed to access their system after they are fired. In one of my previous companies, the physical security team would escort a person off-premises without allowing them to log on to their computer or anything. By the time the person was off premises their accounts were already de-activated. They should also be removed from any company related mailing lists, chat rooms, telephone trees etc immediately. Any commonly known account passwords should be changed immediately and if the person had admin access a check should be made for any unauthorized accounts with admin access and for any backdoor’s being installed.
In the case of a threat where the person hasn’t been fired yet you need to have systems in place to perform regular audits of all admin/root activity. There are a lot of other steps that can be taken and out of scope for this blog post. SANS has a great paper on Protecting Against Insider Attacks and RSA has a list of best practices that you can check out as well.
If you need help securing your network/system please reach out and we can discuss in more detail.
– Suramya
As per BBC, 17 years ago the greatest show ever was resurrected when Christopher Eccleston was announced as the Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who’s return to the TV screens. I am a big fan of the show and I remember being super excited when the first episode ‘Rose’ was leaked on the web and then watching the full season. It was disappointing when they regenerated to the 10th Doctor but then again Matt Smith was brilliant in the role so there’s that. This was the first time I watched Dr Who as the older Doctor Who episodes were not available widely. I had however, read every single Target adaptation multiple times along with most of the other novelizations.
I recently did a re-watch of the entire series starting with the 9th Doctor as I was feeling nostalgic and I got all the way up to the 11th Doctor’s second season before stopping. I loved the 9th & 10th Doctor but didn’t really like the 11th (Matt Smith) & 12th (Peter Capaldi) at all. Matt was too hyper and Peter was too dour and grumpy all the time for my liking. Though they did have some great companions: Clara Oswald, Amy Pond and Rory Williams and some of the stories were nice. I didn’t like River Song much though, her character was a bit annoying at first and then they made it too meta and confusing.
After I got tired of the 11th Doctor, I stopped the re-watch but then saw a clip about Sarah Jane’s Smith’s introduction to the show. That made me realize that I had never watched all the episodes of the first three doctors. So I started watching the show from the 1st doctor onwards. Though, to be honest I didn’t like the 1st Doctor much as he was too arrogant and rude. Couldn’t watch the 2nd Doctor because most of his episodes were lost when BBC decided to discard/overwrite the tapes with the episode’s. (Thankfully a majority of episodes starting with the 3rd Doctor onwards survived.) So for the past few months I have been watching the 3rd Doctor’s episodes and I really like them. I mean the special effects and the costumes are hilariously bad but the stories are fun to watch.
I still like the 4th Doctor the best from the original series and the 10th from the new one. Overall I would rank them as follows: 10th Doctor (David Tennant), 4th Doctor (Tom Baker), 13th Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), 9th Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) and the 3rd Doctor (Jon Pertwee). The others are ok, but not my favorites. I know a lot of folks don’t like the 13th Doctor because it is played by Jodie but the stories in her arc have been some of the most interesting ones since the 10th Doctor and their acting has been superb. For a lot of the 12th Doctor stories I fast forwarded through them but the stories from the 13th Doctor were so interesting I hardly had to forward through any of them.
Waiting for the next season of the show to be released but till then I have a lot of old Who episodes to finish watching.
Well, this is all for now. Will post more later.
– Suramya
|
 The Frozen Crown by Greta Kelly |
Description: A princess with a powerful and dangerous secret must find a way to save her country from ruthless invaders in this exciting debut fantasy, the first novel in a thrilling duology packed with heroism, treachery, magic, and war. Askia became heir to the Frozen Crown of Seravesh because of her devotion to her people. But her realm is facing a threat she cannot defeat by sheer will alone. The mad emperor of the Roven Empire has unleashed a horde of invading soldiers to enslave her lands. For months, her warriors have waged a valiant, stealth battle, yet they cannot stop the enemy’s advancement. Running out of time, she sets sail for sun-drenched Vishir, the neighboring land to the south, to seek help from its ruler, Emperor Armaan. A young woman raised in army camps, Askia is ill-equipped to navigate Vishir’s labyrinthine political games. Her every move sinks her deeper into court intrigues which bewilder and repel her, leaving her vulnerable not only to enemies gathering at Vishir’s gates, but to those behind the palace walls. And in this glittering court, where secrets are worth more than gold, Askia fears that one false step will expose her true nature. For Askia is a witch gifted with magical abilities—knowledge that could destroy not only her life but her people. As her adversaries draw closer, Askia is forced to make an impossible choice—and no matter what she decides, it may not be enough to prevent Seravesh’s fall. Buy From: |
Rating: (4.5/5)
Review:
This is the first book by the author, and I loved it. The book starts of with the Princess Askia approaching the Vishir empire for help against the invaders who have taken over her kingdom. At first you only get brief glimpses of why she is asking for help but over the course of the story more details are revealed. It is very easy to get this wrong and I have read books in the past where the reader is dropped into the middle of the story but not given much details and they were very confusing. It is difficult to do this in a way that keeps the reader’s attention without giving all the details up front and Kelly grace pulled it off brilliantly.
The characters in the book are detailed, with a lot of grey. There are no easy answers and the character’s motivations actually make sense. They make decisions based on duty, love and quest for power. The best part is that there is no clear demarcation of the good guys and bad guys (except for Radovan who is the invader). Folks who you thought were the bad guys help the main character against Radovan and people who you thought would help hinder her. There is no right answer on how to resolve the issues and the characters take decisions that are not perfect but actually make sense instead of making bad decisions for no reason to advance the plot.
I would have liked the book to go into a bit more detail on the magical structure in this universe and how it works but enough details were given to make sure we are not confused/lost.
I have a feeling that the motivations of Radovan will be explored in more detail in the next book as it was just hinted at in this one. I for one can’t wait for the next book to be released.
The Justice League Snyder’s cut came out earlier this week, I was initially on the fence about watching the movie as I had really disliked the original Justice League, but then the reviews came out and I saw that most people really liked the movie, so I decided to give the movie a shot. When I started watching I wasn’t aware that the new movie was over 4 hours long which is ridiculously long for a movie, even Hindi movies are shorter and usually max out at 3 hours long.
However, in this case the 4 hours was worth it and I loved the movie. It felt more like an extended mini-series than a movie, especially with the chapters in the movie. The new movie made a lot more sense watching it and the scenes flowed into each other rather than stand alone shots that were stuck together for some reason. Each of the characters was given a proper storyline in this version and that made a whole lot of difference in how the movie played out. I still don’t like the Flash in the movies as opposed to the TV series but he was less annoying this time around than the previous version.
There are a lot of changes, cut scenes, new scenes in this version and you can check out The 45 biggest differences between ‘Zack Snyder’s Justice League’ and the 2017 theatrical version, if you are interested (There are spoilers here. Obviously. )
The one downside of the 4 hour movie was that I couldn’t see the full movie in one sitting. I mean I could have, but I needed to study for my exams so that forced me to take breaks. That also contributed in making the movie seem like an mini-series rather than a feature film.
The epilogue of the movie was a bit confusing, but I feel that might have been setting up the stage for future movies. Let’s see… After this release I can honestly say that I am looking forward to the next iteration in this universe which wasn’t the case so far. I mean Aquaman and the Wonder Woman movies were good, but then we had Wonder Woman 1984 which was pretty bad. So I wasn’t that excited about the next movie in the series, but that has changed a bit after this movie.
– Suramya
Scientists from Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel,have achieved a major milestone in the research on pregnancy and how it works. For the first time, they were able to take fertilized eggs from the oviducts of female mice just after fertilization (Day 0 of development) and had grown them in the artificial uterus for 11 days. The gestation period of mice is 20 days so in human terms it would be about 5 months of pregnancy.
The mouse embryos looked perfectly normal. All their organs were developing as expected, along with their limbs and circulatory and nervous systems. Their tiny hearts were beating at a normal 170 beats per minute.
The major problem the scientists are now facing is how to get enough nutrients to the embryo so that they can survive post the 11 day mark. As by then the embryo has a placenta and a yolk sack, but the nutrient solution that fed them through diffusion is no longer sufficient without a blood supply.
This is a really cool break through, and once the problem of getting nutrients post 11 days is solved we can expect similar experiments with mammal and then human embryo’s. The medical advantages of this technique are vast, it will allow doctors to monitor the fetus for abnormalities and correct them if required. Another advantage would be to allow couples to have a child without having to bear the child naturally which would enable folks with busy lives or those who work in dangerous environments (think armed forces) to have kids without going through a surrogate mother. Transgender couples or same-sex couples will also benefit from this technology as they would be able to have a child which wasn’t physically possible for them before.
Finally, coming to the Sci-Fi angle.. we have long talked about spaceships and it is a common trope that frozen embryo’s are sent into space to populate a distant planet with a limited no of adults to pilot the ship. Having a human gestate all the embryo’s would not be feasible but a mechanical womb would solve this problem and give us a way to travel to the stars. A few days ago I was reading about this push to have a vault established on the moon with frozen sperm and eggs to be used in case of a global catastrophe to repopulate the planet. Till now it would not work without human wombs but if we can get the mechanical womb to work with a reasonable success rate then having a seed vault on the moon suddenly becomes feasible.
Obviously, there is a lot more work required before we are at a stage where humans are born from a mechanical womb but this is an important step in that journey.
Check out the paper published in Nature for more technical details on the achievement.
Thanks to Slashdot.org: Scientists Grow Mouse Embryos In a Mechanical Womb for the initial story.
– Suramya
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