Monthly Archives: March 2012

Documentary

Validity of documentaries

This site will now include reviews and critical analysis of documentary films combining my passionate hobbies of developing servers with watching documentaries. Since I was a about 16 years of age, my dad has been encouraging us to be critical thinkers. It benefits in two ways; when I have to write a science report I can analyze the data better and also it help me view the information on modern day media from the traditional hard copy newspapers and radio broadcasts to modern day Internet and television from a critical independent view point. Some documentaries I watched had questionable facts and information. It got me thinking the validity of facts in documentary films.

When people read, hear or see the word “documentary”, often they assumed the information contained in this specific genre to be factual. Out of millions of documentaries produced over the last 50 years in several different countries, I found most of the documentaries are not about facts but rather about specific opinions or propaganda. Even most popular scientific documentaries are based on bias view of the sponsors, production company, director and/or society. Continue reading Validity of documentaries →

Computer Science

Website migration and future of the site

Last week was super busy because I got the flu on top of exams and papers as usual. Each year around February to March I get the seasonal flu. I also had to write the Geochemistry midterm II, which is crucial for my success in the geology program. In the midst of my anxiety over the exams and the upcoming draft paper on the analysis paper for the Science 311, I decided to migrate all my data, exception to the Science site, from general PHP database with no CMS (Content Management System) to completely WordPress(WP) based system. I didn’t have to do much other than copying and pasting the data from old files since WP module has been installed and running on my server for the last few months. The old pages are still slowly being phased out. I will keep the old pages until Google decided to take them down from their indexed pages. With this migration, as the site admin my work load has been cut down significantly. The process of adding new information, pages, data, media, modifying existing data, layout, etc is much easier and faster with WP CMS. Since I am still working my degree, I may not update the site often, but I will do my best to come up with new information for the readers. Continue reading Website migration and future of the site →

Opinion, Philosophy

Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion?

Several people asked me whether or not Buddhism, a popular belief system in Asia, can be consider as a religion. Several high profile academics from both the East and the West argued one way for the other. Some even called in a cult not because they hate Buddhism, but because it is a heated debate how you place Buddhism in this well organized educational structures. I used to have several documents on my website on Buddhism. After I enrolled in university, I decided to distance myself a bit from Buddhism because while I agree with the psychology and psychotherapy side of Buddhism, I do not agree with the social practice of Buddhism in Asia. I do not consider myself as a Buddhist, but if I have to pick a so called “religion”, it would be Buddhism. Continue reading Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion? →

Opinion

Systematic discrimination in disguise

After I wrote this article on January 6, 2012, I decided to not publish this article in fear of personal attack on me from the general public. Attacks against my opinion itself is a strong indication of how so called Canadian democracy loving peaceful society works. However, after seeing so many issues in Canada, I decided someone has to speak up knowing there will be a backslash against the nature of this article. The root reason for this article is that most of my friends believe there should not be any negative consequences for Canadian and US military services killing civilians while if it is committed by Indian or Sri Lankan army there should be punishment against those countries. This double standards came out of the subconscious racism seed within the European communities and their non-European supporters. Please take note that this article will test the democratic values and freedom of speech in Canada. Therefore if you are unconformable with reality, feel free to leave the site or voice your opinions by posting a comment. Continue reading Systematic discrimination in disguise →

Opinion

Which smartphone should I get?

Before the the first ever iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, the only two clear choice was available in the market when it comes to PDAs. They were Palm Pilot(1992) and the second choice was RIM’s Blackberry(1999). Although there were Japanese companies such as NEC tried their best to invent smarter super phones, it was the RIM’s Blackberry that was able to penetrate the market specially through their cooperate users. The fist device that RIM manufactured was a two way pager known as RIM 850, which was targeted towards business and health care professionals. But in 2003 RIM revolutionized the smart phone market with their successful BlackBerry devices. Again, RIM largely focused on the cooperate market. With the partnership of Microsoft, RIM introduced the state of the art secure private Blackberry Enterprise Server, a software driven system that can be install on Windows server to push IT policies allowing companies to control the flow of information to their employees smartphone. In 2007, Apple Inc released the iPhone by modifying their iPod (2001) digital music player in to a smartphone. With the addition of third party software to the iOS operating system, Apple Inc unleashed a new wave of mobile phone market. Today in 2010 with the new players like Android OS by Google, it is getting more harder to choose which is the best phone for your needs. Continue reading Which smartphone should I get? →