Itunes U
The most amazing thing about Apple to me hasn't been its Ipod, Ipad or any other I-product. It's not Steve Jobs. And it's definitely not the almost cult-like devotion Apple fans seem to be imbued with leading to near insufferable proselytising of Apple's perceived superiority over everything else on the planet. No, the best thing about Apple is Itunes, its media management software. Specifically, I'm talking about access to Itunes U (found under the Library section on the left navigation column). Itunes U is an Apple supported initiative bringing together courseware such as lectures, podcasts, vidcasts and seminars from the world's top universities and making it democratically accessible to one and all.
Just imagine, you can take a course on Morality and Justice from Harvard taught by world famous Michael Sandel from the comfort of your home together with supporting lecture notes and material. Or you could go to MIT's site on Itunes U and download full courses on physics, math, science. You could learn anthropology and sociology should you choose to. You could take up a course on international law from Yale Law School. Listen to lectures on Darwin's theories of evolution by world leading thinkers on the Cambridge micro-site. The world's knowledge at your fingertips taught by leading lecturers, thinkers and luminaries. The list of courses are mind-boggling both in content and quantity. So here's a quick and easy list of some of my favourite streams that I've subscribed to and from which I've learnt so much.
- If you have to start with just one course, start with this one : Justice with Michael Sandel. It's a very popular Harvard course on morality, justice and philosophy taught in an entertaining and thoughtful manner.
- Yale Law - Select Lectures : This is a series of lectures across a wide variety of subjects and topic that obviously center around the issues of law and its application in today's society. Listen especially to the lecture by Albie Sachs and a World of Law - Now and Then by Theodore Sorenson
- Game Theory - MIT : A world famous game theory thinker, Ben Polak, teaches an introduction to this fascinating subject that affects all of us in our daily lives. Absolutely riveting stuff!
- Fundamentals of Physics - Yale University : I've always been fascinated by logic and physics and this is a tremendously easy entry point into physics without all that math that bogs down one's personal enjoyment of the subject
- Philosophy for beginners - Marianne Talbot - Oxford University.
To me, the constant expansion of one's intellectual boundaries makes life that much sweeter as it clears the fog before us.
Thank you, Apple and Steve Jobs.
Genesis
I'm back. Took me long enough. I've completed the re-design (well, not really much effort, I just installed a new WordPress theme and gave up on designing my own theme). And I hope that most will like the clinical simplicity of the site which will shift the focus to the words which ultimately decides the readership more so than any other factor.
The first question I had to answer before committing to this blog was thus, "What is the purpose of this blog?". We all know that the net is cluttered with self-indulgent blogs and journals which deem to record in minute detail the insipid details which add no greater value to the sum of human knowledge. We all know that too much of what is said in the blogosphere is predicated on emotions, irrational arguments and a lack of introspective analysis of either the situation or themselves. My first ambit, like Google and the medical community, is to do no harm/evil. So there'll be, hopefully, none of these great evils visited upon the greater community by myself.
The purpose of this blog is something that I cannot answer at this stage truthfully. It is easier to say what it'll not be. It'll not be trite, cliched, meaningless or full of drivel. I hope to pen my particular views to life in singapore, document my commitment to a healthy life - both physical and mental health and to serve as a journal documenting my attempt to start-up a technology business from scratch.
Where we go from here is anybody's guess.
I leave you with these words from Oscar Wilde which I've pinned to a wall in my room to serve as a reminder of that which we all share an equal fraternity with; Time. A second for me is the same second as it is for you. How you choose to spend it is entirely up to you. But that second passes just as quickly as it does for everyone one else on this planet. So make full use of that moment.
"Desire at the end was a malady, a madness or both. I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character...
I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art....I altered the minds of men and the colours of things....I treated art as the supreme reality, and life as a mere mode of fiction....I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth and legend around me...I let myself be lured into long spells of senseless and sensual ease. I amused myself with being a flaneur, a dandy, a man of fashion. I surrounded myself with smaller natures and meaner minds. I became the spendthrift of my own genius, and to waste an eternal youth gave me a curious joy. Tired of being on the heights, I deliberately went to the depths in search of new sensations...
I ceased to be Lord over myself. I was no longer captain of my soul. I allowed you [Douglas] to dominate me, and your father to frighten me. I ended in horrible disgrace. There is only one thing for me now, absolute Humility" - Oscar Wilde.