Communications

Having worked hard at it for decades, I have finally reached the dubious success of being unable to communicate in 3 separate languages. So it was with pleasure that this lazy writer's idea came to me. Why don't I match myself with the mighty Google? I turned my browser to translate.google.com and copied into it the following poem:


Ozymandias (1818)

by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said “two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lips, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal these words appear:  
[variant: And on the pedestal this legend clear:]
My name is OZYMANDIAS, King of Kings,
Look on my Works ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay    
[variant: No thing remains beside. Round the decay]
Of that Colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.” –

=====

To be honest, I started with the Spanish version, and ran into two problems. First, the poem was way past my pay grade. Second, it looked pretty darn good, in spite of a couple of hickups.

So I moved to Hebrew, and here, indeed, I finally found out that even the mighty Google is fallible.

=====


Ozymandias (1818)

(על ידי פרסי ביש שלי (1792-1822

פגשתי נוסע מארץ עתיקה,

מי אמר "שתי רגליים עצומות ובלי גזע של אבן

לעמוד במדבר ... לידם, על החול,

שקוע בשקרים מנופצים פרצוף, קימוטו, מחצית

ופה מקומט, ולועג לפקודה קרה,

תגיד שפסלה גם התשוקות הללו לקרוא

שעדיין שורדים, מוטבע על הדברים חסרי החיים האלה,

היד שלעגה להם, והלב שהאכיל;

ועל כן בסיס המילים אלה מופיעות:

[גרסה: ועל המעמד זה אגדה ברורה:]

מלך מלכי המלכים  OZYMANDIAS השם שלי הוא

תסתכל על העבודות שלי האדון רב עצמה, והייאוש!

שום דבר ליד שרידים. מסביב לריקבון

[גרסה: לא נשאר דבר לצד. מסביב לריקבון]

שמהתאונה הענקית, חסר גבולות וחשופים

"החולות הבודדות ורמה למתוח רחוקות

=====


Ozymandias (1818)

por Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Conocí a un viajero de una tierra antigua,
¿Quién dijo que "dos enormes piernas de piedra sin tronco de
Ponte en el desierto ... cerca de ellos, en la arena,
La mitad de una mentira hundido visage destrozadas, cuyo ceño,
Y los labios arrugados, y se burlan de comando fría,
Dile que su escultor bien esas pasiones leer
Lo que aún sobreviven, estampadas en estas cosas sin vida,
La mano que se burlaba de ellos, y el corazón que alimentaba;
Y en el pedestal aparecen estas palabras:
[variante: ¿Y en el pedestal de esta leyenda clara:]
Mi nombre es Ozymandias, rey de reyes,
Contemplad mis obras poderosas vosotros y desesperación!
Nada al lado de los restos. Alrededor de la decadencia
[variante: Ninguna cosa queda al lado. Alrededor de la decadencia]
De ese colosal naufragio, ilimitada y desnuda
Las arenas solitarias y nivel estirar lejos ". -

=====


I then returned to the Spanish, word by word, and there too, found the mix-ups between verbs and nouns, lies on the ground and lies one tells a spouse. I wonder if I should try and translate it back and see what happens

Let's see what one iteration a translation does...

Hebrew back to English

Ozymandias (1818)

By Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

I met a traveler from the land of ancient

Who said "two legs closed and no race of stone

To the desert ... Next to them, on the sand,

Immersed in lies shattered face, frown, half

And here crumpled, and mocks the order wrong,

Say also rejected these passions read

Still survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that ridiculed them, and the heart was feeding;

And therefore the basis of these words appear:

[Version: This class Legend and clear:]

My name is OZYMANDIAS, King of Kings,

Look on my works a powerful master, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Around the decay

[Version: nothing left side. Around decay]

Accidents enormous, boundless and bare

Individual and level sands stretch far away. "-

and Spanish back to English

Ozymandias (1818)

by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

I met a traveler from an antique land,

Who said "two huge trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert ... near them, on the sand,

Half a shattered visage lies sunk, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

What still survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:

[variant: And on the pedestal for this legend clear:]

My name is Ozymandias, king of kings,

Look on my works ye mighty and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Around the decay

[variant: Nothing beside remains. Around decay]

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away. "-

I have a feeling that the mighty Google caught on to my trick on this last one, or at least identified the song...

Needs, alms and wants

Buddhist monks have a daily ritual in which they spread out, knock on doors with an empty bowl, and get their daily nourishment  of rice through the kindness of strangers. One may think this is begging, but actually, the daily rite is not meant to teach them humility, or keep them thin and well exercised. It is an opportunity for the people answering the doorbell to practice the virtue of giving. The monk is doing them a religious favor.

You learn a lot about people when you need something from them. You find out who is reliable, who is kind, who is giving, and for that matter, who is a friend. Most of what anyone can do for you can be accomplished with only a minor investment. But while self reliance is nice, asking for favors is one heck of a way to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Many years ago, on a morning show in Jersey, a male and female hosts were reviewing the film The Shadow, whose marketing campaign theme was 'What evil lurks in the hearts of men?". And the female presenter commented 'you want to know what evil lurks in a man's heart? Date him!' Or, if you want to spare yourself the time and agony, just ask for a favor.

Good luck!

A picture is worth a thousand words?

The cliche states that "a picture is worth a thousand words." Let't consider and reconsider.

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but the English language contains over 250,000 of them, and so, without context, pictures won't tell you much.

A picture is a snapshot in time. It is superficial by its nature, covering only two dimensions. It lacks depth, and it certainly lacks a temporal perspective. You have no idea what took place before, what may happen next, or what goes on outside the frame.

If you want a stunning visual, something that is easy to comprehend and absorb, a picture might do. But for perspective, clarity, and an in-depth understanding, the older technology - writing a narrative - can't be replaced.

Cardinal Sin

Today, I am committing what I resolved not to do - share personal experiences via a blog. I just can't help it. And on the bright side, it is not as bad as the stabbed toe pictures one of my so-called-friends posted on Facebook, warts and all (not literally, though the black and yellow and red colors were worse).

So here are today's revelations.

1. I saw this young woman on the street, with a large cockatoo on her shoulder. She was eating an energy bar, or a rice crispy/granola bar (or both - it had raisins, nuts and something that looked like crisp rice), and the bird was eating it off her hand, one bite/nibble each. When she was done, she took out a plastic bag with coffee or chocolate flavored milk, and again shared with the bird (though I suspect the bird was pulling at the plastic, rather than sipping the milk). People were stopping and snapping pictures with their phones. I learned the bird was called Bobo (or something that sounds like Bobo).

I asked the girl what was the bird's diet. She looked offended - 'It is not on a diet' she said. I paraphrased - what does it eat? Oh, everything.

Chuck Lorre, I hope you are reading this.

2. Hamas and Israel are exchanging missiles again. I can see the point on the Israeli side - elections are coming, and it would not look proper to let Hamas rain rockets on the citizenry. May not be nice, but at least logical. I am not sure it makes sense to launch interceptor rockets to blow up metal pipes, but who am I to stand in the way of anyone's military industrial complex.

What I can't figure out is Hamas, and the people who supposedly elected them. What is their 5 year plan? Let's build an airport, some government buildings, and improve the roads and hospitals first, then let's launch home made, or Iranian made, rockets and invite the Israelis to blow our infrastructure to smithereens?

I can see some internal-political sense in what Hamas is doing. They are paid by Iran to harass Israel, and the UN will rebuild their blown-up infrastructure. What I can't figure out as much is why the fearless masses do not rise and wipe them out. While their salaried and well-fed paramilitaries are building and lobbing missiles, the residents' houses and services are destroyed.

3. I have been reading Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged ever since the election season started in earnest. It is a long, hard slog - the woman can't write, and the characters make horribly long and convoluted speeches that take ages to get through. Luckily, with the Kindle I can read her one paragraphs (of about 22,000) at a time. I will review her book when I am done, but I felt I have to share this piece of John Galt's speech, whose repudiation took a whole day at the Republican convention.

"When you work in a modern factory, you are paid, not only for your labor, but for all the productive genius which has made that factory possible: for the work of the industrialist who built it, for the work of the investor who saved the money to risk on the untried and the new, for the work of the engineer who designed the machines of which you are pushing the levers, for the work of the inventor who created the product which you spend your time on making, for the work of the scientist who discovered the laws that went into the making of that product, for the work of the philosopher who taught men how to think..."

Rand is clearly saying that 'you did not build it'. Who knew, Obama channeling Ayn Rand, while her alleged disciples railing against her. I KNEW these Republicans did not read her book before adopting it as their philosophy!

OK, that's it. Enjoy.

8 Hours in Madrid

The New York Times travel section has their famous 36 hours in ..., where they give readers a possible itinerary of culture, eating, drinking, partying, etc. in a given city. Since I can't compete with the NY Times, I went with 8 hours, the time someone might have in Madrid between flights.

12 Noon. Find the left luggage (consigna) at your terminal. If you are coming from an international destination, it is most likely terminal 4, but there are similar places in terminal 1 and maybe 2. Deposit all your stuff in the large cabinets (5 Euros for 24 hours). Take your computer with you, though.

12:30 PM. Find your way to the rail and bus terminal. Take either the Metro bus or train (renfe) to Madrid, Atocha Station.

13:45 PM. Step outside, go the the McDonald's across the station, order a cafe bombón (espresso shot served over sweetened condensed milk) and a macaron, or whatever other drink and pastry that tempts you, and while you are sipping use the free wireless service to call your significant others, check the news or mail.

1:30 PM Proceed to cross the street parallel the train station and go to El Brillante (next to Starbucks). Sit at the bar, order their famous Bocadillo de Calamares, and enjoy it with a Spanish beer available on tap.

2:00 PM Return in the direction of McDonald's, and continue towards El Prado museum. You actually have to cross the boulevard towards the green (grass and trees) side. Do it sooner rather than later. Enjoy the magnificent collection. As the ushers what to watch first (1st floor a collection of large scale paintings), as there is enough famous art to last you a week of walking. At 6 PM entrance is free, and you'll notice the crowd pouring in. This may be a time to sit down and enjoy some people watching.

7:00 Visit the Prado cafe for dinner or bocas.

8:00 Catch the train/Metro bus back. Your next destination awaits.

Note: if the classics are not your flavor, visit the Real Madrid football museum, in their stadium. Just don't ask me for direction...

Todd Akin and the Will of God

Todd Akin's comment that pregnancies following rape (and for that matter incest, though Todd did not bring that one up) are the will of god (read more here) reminds me of a story by Nobel Prize winner, S. Agnon I am quoting from memory, a pretty old memory at that, so forgive any inaccuracies.

A cart reached a fork in the road. The driver and passenger were not sure which one to take (after all, it was in Poland in the winter, and there were no signs). The driver thought a moment and said: if I head left, this would be the will of god, and he will guide us safely to our destination. On the other hand, if I bear right, this too would be the will of god, who will guide us safely to our destination.

From then on, the decision was left to the horses.

In other words, no matter what happens, if you believe in god, it is his will.

So if the rapist went on to kill the poor woman, so she will not get pregnant, this would also be the will of god. And presumably, Todd would be OK with that, as he would be if the woman took a knife, went Lorena Bobbitt on the guy, and he bled to death.

Would Mr. Akin be fine with someone taking up an automatic rifle and going on a killing spree? After all, those deaths, too, are the will of god.

I think Mr. Akin should drop the will of god from the equation. And while at it, he should re-read Atlas Shrugged and in particular John Galt's speech. He probably won't learn anything, but it would be a worthy punishment.

While we are dispensing advice to creepy politicians, Willard Mitt Romney, who named his son Taggart, should also read Atlas Shrugged, and wonder how Ayn Rand's ideas fit his religion activities.

Epilogue/Correction

I may have conflated Akin and Mourdock. With all the tea party, coffee party, and other crank candidates, it is hard to keep up. After a while, the differences between Akin and Mourdock, Mourdock and Murdoch, Murdoch and Mordor, Mordor and Murder all become one big blur, into a dull gray cloud of miasma.

So freaking easy - amazing! Using a serial on a USB laptop

For once, a technical blog... Not exactly a writing exercise, just an experience I had to share.

Background

I like to hang out with a GPS device when I travel. It is a nice way to capture the coordinates of places I wish to visit again, or to share through my web site.

I own two low-end hand held GPS devices made by Garmin - the eTrex, which uses a serial connector, and the eTrex HC, which is a more modern model, with a USB connector, a color screen and some other (very small and faint) bells and whistles. eTrex, with its monochrome screen is still sold, but the more advanced HC has been supplanted.

Both handhelds use high sensitivity chip, which makes them well suited for use in the rain, in forests, or around high rise buildings. The main difference (other than the connector) is that the serial eTrex, with its limited waypoint naming (six uppercase names, no comments) is actually more user friendly. Its limited capacity forces the user to download the data, erase memory and start anew. In contrast, the HC tempts you to keep the data inside, since you are much more invested in it (you can use upper and lower case names, you can add long comments, you can display multiple tracks in different colors and so on). The end result of the convenience is that clutter (old points, tracks and routes) tend to stick around, and soon enough it is tough to process the data, offload it to the computer, etc. So in a way, this is a curse in disguise - like the DVR loaded with shows so old you can't remember what they are.

But I digress.

The Point

So, as you can imagine, I prefer to use the serial GPS for my data collection. This is fine and good while I am home, but on the road, finding a laptop with a serial connection is not that easy. So I have been taking the USB GPS for longer trips. I use a software program called GPSMan to download and process the data, and Linux as my OS.

But recently I decided to try something new. I took the serial eTrex, with its serial cable, and added the Keyspan Serial to USB connector (I also took the USB GPS just in case). I figured that it would be a nice challenge to try and use the serial GPS with a USB laptop, something to do when it is too rainy to go out (which is quite common in Central America and the tropics).

I collected my data, and looked for the cables. I connected the Keyspan to my USB port, and as a simple user (not even root) typed the following at the prompt:


modprobe keyspan (this loads the module needed to run the Keyspan)

lsmod |grep span (this command lists the modules, just to make sure it was loades), with the following response:

keyspan                37020  0
usbserial              37173  1 keyspan

I connected the GPS to the serial cable and then to the Keyspan, typed the command in a terminal:

gpsman& (this runs GPSMan in the background and lets me continue using the terminal)

I turned the GPS on, and used GPSMan to connect to it. I did not load any garmin USB drivers, or anything - it was set to connect to a USB device (/dev/ttyUSB0) and use the Garmin protocol (NOT the Garmin USB protocol). 

Without lifting a finger, the device was recognized, and in 30 seconds (probably a lot less), the data was no my computer, ready for processing. 

The only difference from using a desktop with a serial port was that I was not able to turn the GPS off from the computer, something that GPSMan allow me to do when I am directly connected. But that's a small price to pay for using a serial device with a USB-only laptop...

Recap

Want to use a Serial GPS with a USB laptop running (Ubuntu) Linux? Here are the steps:

1. Get the Keyspan serial to USB converter.

2. Connect Keyspan to computer and type modprobe keyspan.

3. Connect GPS to serial port on Keyspan.

4. Type gpamsn &

5. Use GPSMan to d/l or upload data (I only tried download at this point, but it should work both ways)