My letter to a philanthropist

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Tanveer

Which one do you think is better? To buy a fish to a hungry person? Or to make him know how to catch a fish? I believe in the second one. I believe unconditioned charity makes people lazy, greedy and inactive (thoughtless). On the other hand, people need some opportunity to flourish. The money granted as a micro-credit is not for living a half-fed month. Rather, this is an opportunity to flourish and grow and to put yourself in a position where you’ll not go unfed anymore in your lifetime.

Just imagine the money you’ve spent in your village. What will happen if few people just use it to live their lazy life? It will not only be considered as a very small amount of money but also it will be contributed to STOP the natural activity (and thoughts) that were supposed to come from those people if they would not get the money. However, if this would be used to start a little capital needed to start a small business, chances are there that one day the business would grow and grow and ignite the activity of more and more people and pull more people out of poverty (and give them opportunity to think).

I believe people really don’t need the rice prepared for them. They have every potential to earn the rice — what they need is just to get acquainted that they have the potential. That is the job what Grameen Bank does. That is why I believe in Micro-credit. I am very proud that the person who gave this concept is from the same country that I am from.

Some interesting linear algebra theories

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Tanveer

if $U$ and $W$ are subspaces for a vector space $V$ then $U cap W$ is a subspace (of $V$ ).
Definition: ${U + W}$ denotes the set of all the vectors possible to construct by adding a vector from $U$ with a vector from $W$ where $U$ and $W$ may be either set of vectors or subspace of vectors.
If $U$ and $W$ are subspaces for a vector space $V$ then ${U + W}$ is the smallest subspace which contain both $U$ and $W$ .

পশ্চাত্‍ জানালা ও কিছু অঙ্গুলীয় (digital) ভাবনা

Posted on July 24, 2011 by Tanveer

গতকাল একটা সিনেমা দেখলাম – “Rear Window”। এটা যারা দেখেছেন তাদের জন্যই এই লেখা, যারা দেখেননি তাদের জন্য নয়।

সিনেমাটা দেখার (যদিও মাঝে কিছুক্ষনের জন্য ঘুমিয়ে পড়েছিলাম) পর আমার প্রথম যে শব্দটা মনে পড়েছে তা হল “Obviousness”। একটা সিনেমা দেখে প্রথম দশ মিনিটের মধ্যেই যদি এর ঘটনা বুঝে যাওয়া যায় তাহলে বাকিটা সময় ঘুমান ছাড়া আর কী করার থাকতে পারে? অনেক মুভিতে দেখা যায় যে প্রথমে যে ইম্প্রেশনটা হচ্ছে সেটা হয়তো কোনও কারনে অভাবনীয়ভাবে বদলে যাচ্ছে। এই অভাবনীয় বদল হয়তো একটা আকর্ষণ তৈরি করতে পারে। কিন্তু যে সিনেমার প্রথম থেকে শেষ পর্যন্ত আপনার মন কোনভাবেই প্রথম ধারনাটা থেকে বদলালোনা, সেই মুভিটাকে কিধরনের মুভি বলা যায়? Continue reading →

Dreams

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Tanveer

I have just finished watching a documentary named: “What are dreams?” It is exhilarating to watch how wonderful our brains are. Dreams are another magnificent working aspect of brain. I felt really interested when I went through certain aspects of dreams. For example, during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep brain actually sends signal to completely paralyze muscles. Do you know why? Because that is a wonderful period of time. Brain stem (the core part of brain) actually sends signal to make the brain super active. If the muscles are not paralyze, they’ll be activated and the person will walk or run or do things which may hurt themselves. Isn’t it wonderful? Continue reading →

An Elevator Pitch

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Tanveer

I’ve seen a nice video today defining elevator pitch. The summary and key points of the video is as follows.

What is an elevator pitch?

An elevator pitch is a short discussion or lecture that occurred in a very short amount of time like the discussions happened during climbing by an elevator.

Elements of Elevator Pitch

A good elevator speech is composed of two key components:

Layout the pain statement (What problem you are trying to solve)
You must show the value proposition (How does your venture solve that problem)

Is it Easy?

No! It needs to pass 4 tests.

Succinct (After all you’ll get no more than 2 minuets)
Easy to understand (Both your grandma and your grandkids have to get it)
GREED inducing
Irrefutable (if more questions than answer, go back to the drawing board)

My New Poster

Status

My new poster which is published in front of my desk just now. You may have a look at my poster here.

Nyquist vs Curse of Dimensionality

Posted on March 23, 2011 by Tanveer

Let us assume a specific definition for the dimension of a signal. According to this definition, an n dimensional signal is a function of n independent variables. Therefore, $y = f(t)$ is a one dimensional signal since it has only one independent variable which is time (t). An image, $I(x,y)$ is a two dimensional signal since it has two independent variables. Continue reading →

Md. Iftekhar Tanveer

Chasing the Illusive Muse

Author Archives: Tanveer