..I could celebrate this Diwali as each past year. But then, times never be the same and I might have to pay.

A blog post explaining the bridge between the product development team and the researchers at Microsoft which, if believed, seems to be the reason as to why the Microsoft Clippy (MS Office Assistant) did not work as expected and failed to perform to its potential. I am amazed to see the amount of processing happening on every event being performed by an user and the vision with which the research work was carried out from 1993. I guess, it was around the same time that work on allied areas was happening at National Centre for Software Technology, India.

For more information on the Lumiere Project you may wish to visit this webpage.

Working at a place which promotes research and development for the welfare of the society at large, I feel blessed with having working with a wide set of people - each having varying backgrounds, varying circumstances with which they've been brought up, the differences in languages being spoken, the differences in faiths, beliefs and opinions that each one has, their individuality which they stand for and the experiences which each one over here, share with the rest. This place is truly a wonderful place where one can learn a lot by collecting various frames for the larger picture of life.

Things are all beautiful when I look around, but when I compare these days with my college days, the thing that I miss the most are the smiles of almost each one and whomever I would have met in all three years of my college life. Each day would start with a handshake with almost every one sharing a sense of courtesy and respect towards others. Perhaps, it was much larger than that, and it was the bonding which each one mutually shared. It wasn't just my institute, the entire campus had a pleasing, friendly, cordial and affectionate environment for us to groom well; and as per the dictionaries, that's what Amity stands for. Even at the place with which I am currently associated, I can quickly count a handful of people who still make the environment as friendly as it was during those college days; but they are just a few, very few. I am sure there definitely would have been times when I would not have responded to a many smiles and a few handshakes, which would have left the giver without any hope. I don't know what to say about those times, but then I sincerely regret those moments.

Over a few discussions with pals of mine who've been working for sometime now, I've learnt that these circumstances are similar to what many others have been experiencing. Things are not different, but a few lucky ones are at good places where the environment stands the same. Also, at times, it serves as a drive for them to work with their best-est of efforts. From the bottom of my heart, I sincerely feel good for them. From a perspective, I see people around too burdened (professionally and personally) with the responsibilities they owe. And, the burden just keeps expanding as it moves down the pyramid, whereas one of my friend had recently explained me that it should not be the burden that should come down, rather it should be the inspiration and motivation which should come from the top and move down following the same channel. Also, with a specific context in mind, he added the concern that it shouldn't be the other way round either, where the ones at the top of the pyramid keep looking for inspirations from those at the bottom. He explains that over a period of time, it is detrimental to all those associated with it. A thoughtful note for sure, I thank him with the hope that I don't forget his concern, if and, when I reach at the top of the pyramid.

When in college days, a few of our passed out seniors would talk about the adjusting problems which they would face during the inertia period, and at times, tag those circumstances as the professionalism amidst the corporate world; I would not agree with them, as I had always believed professionalism as a step ahead from the kind of immaturity we would have had prior to it. I still agree that when phases in life move from one level to the other, it is always the scope for improvement which would make lives ahead much better than it would have been otherwise. From a perspective, I see myself as between those phases of life where significant transformations are happening on a continual basis to build up myself as an emotionally stronger individual than what I am today.

1. Have patience. You will always get what you are worthy of.
2. Your priorities might change, but respect your decisions.
3. Always connect with the society. Social acceptance is as important as self acceptance.
4. You will always feel nice when your name gets featured. A denial isn't worthy.
5. Love everyone around you. Why deprive any one of your love for reasons which will fade away when the frame of reference changes.
6. If you think you are doing the most difficult job, then go teach a small child (if you aren't already doing), and you'll evaluate yourself better.

Sir: I have not lost trust on you, want you to know that.

Based on the theory of pattern classification, I am listing certain important factors which will be of importance whilst working on the problems involving pattern classification. These are listed based on the notes I had created while reading the subject during the last month.

- Representation of the function describing the classification model should be in a mathematical form (but should not be constrained to it alone) to ensure preciseness, and avoid errors in representation of the model.

- If the set of objects that are to be classified overlap, then the segmentation operation involving the isolation of objects is to be performed for the classification function to work, as desired. This consideration can be overruled if the approach to classify the objects is of taking the groups of objects as input parameters.

- Single criterion for selection and classification of objects into categories might not work for all problems. Depending on the problem domain, multiple criteria should be considered.

- Trade-off's between the cost of obtaining the attributes of the object in consideration, and the quality of the classification is to be maintained. Higher costs of obtaining the attributes can be considered if the function of classification models closer towards novel patterns.

- Based on few rounds of observations, we might tend to create decision rules [based on decision theory], and identify the decision boundaries for classification. We need to ensure that the decision boundary doesn't get biased towards the training data set alone.

- Much of the work will be involved in selecting the appropriate set of features (useful for discriminating the patterns) and deal with redundant features. For redundant features, we need to verify whether the notion of redundance increases or decreases the performance of the classification function.

- Considering that the features (that are essential for discrimination) are costly to measure or provide little improvement, if we force our decision based on limited sets of features, then the degree of error will certainly be incorporated in the decision.

- The central aim of designing a classifier is to suggest actions when presented with novel patterns for unseen objects.

- Considering all training samples being separated perfectly, the complex, non-linear decision boundary would seem to have turned to specific training samples alone, rather than the underlying characteristics of the true model of the object in consideration.

Pattern refers to a set of objects or phenomena or concepts where elements appear to be similar to one another in certain ways/aspects. Cognition refers to getting acquainted with, to come to know the act, or the process of knowing an entity. Recognition refers to the feeling that the entity in consideration has been met before; the process of knowing again. 

Pattern Recognition is referred as the study of ideas and algorithms that provide machines with the capability to put abstract objects into categories. It is concerned with the classification or description of objects in noisy or complex environments.

Six Step Methodology adapted for Pattern Recognition
1. We observe the objects.
2. We study the relationships between various objects.
3. We study the relationships between the objects and ourselves and arrive at situations.
4. We study the changes in situations and come to know about the events.
5. We study the events and thus understand the law behind the events.
6. Using the law, we can try to predict events of the future.
Example scenarios: Astrology/Palmistry, DC Machines etc.

Types of Patterns
1. Spatial Patterns: those located in space. Examples include characters in character recognition, images of ground covers in remote sensing, images of medical diagnosis etc.
2. Temporal Patterns: those distributed in time. Examples include radar signals in radar detection, speech signals in automated speech recognition, sonar signals etc.
3. Abstract Patterns: neither located in space, nor distributed in time. Examples include classification of people based on psychological tests or the language they speak, medical diagnosis based on patient history etc.

Approaches towards Pattern Recognition Problems
1. Syntactic or Grammatical or Structural Approach.
2. Statistical or Decision Theoretic or Discriminant Method.

Application Areas of Pattern Recognition
Pattern Recognition can and are being applied to various problems including automated speech recognition, fingerprint identification, optical character recognition, DNA sequence identification, medical diagnosis, life form analysis, plant defense signaling, radar detection, aerial photo interpretation, weather prediction and perhaps even sensing of life on remote planets etc.

Mr. Amarnath Chatterjee, one of my fellow batch mate from FPGDST 2006-07 has received a milestone award for the year 2008 from the organization in which he has been working. As a student at FPGDST, he was one of the few who would take challenging projects such as MPLS for computer networks, under the guidance of srini-vas , where dip_nem has indeed been a significant member. During the final project, he did the project titled as 'Universal Personal Computing', under the guidance of bassanti  wherein his attempts were towards solving the problems usually faced by students at computer labs.

( Quoting him with further details.. )  ( ..and here are the precious moments! )

Life is beautiful with it's exciting flavors of toppings. Every step we take, the direction we choose, the milestone we head towards - all add up to the memories we shall cherish for a long time. Each one of these are those frames which are worth a place in the walls of our life. The more of such moments we capture, the more will our walls tend to expand. Adding a wall one after the other, or at times, breaking the one which we shall not like to be stood besides us, or perhaps waiting for those high richter scale moments where things will collapse, leaving no trails for the future, are all part of the mysteries of the great walls of our lives.

I stand today, at a juncture, just like any other kid, where I want to erect walls after walls, add tonnes of those frames with wonderful cherishing moments, to ensure that I live my life the way I would love to. At times, the importance is very much given to the bricks, the concrete mixtures which add as catalysts  to ensure that the walls stand strong enough, and at times, the significance is all given to the most favorable marks as to where exactly would the hammer hit the nail to make some space for the moments to ensure that they remain for times to come.

I understand that there shall always be a time where the walls won't matter, or where the moments hanging on the walls wouldn't too, but then, perhaps, its just those expressions of our mind and heart which strike us for a fraction of a second, and we feel like we're on top of the world.