mind=body=soul

touch

2011-01-03T21:23:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's been more than 1.5 years, since I touched my blog. Just like 'touch'ing a source code which I hadn't made changes to in a long time, would like to do the same here =)

Ubuntu bug

2009-05-20T05:07:00.001-07:00

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1

2009-04-11T19:27:00.000-07:00

is the tax system fair? its pretty common sense that the tax is proportional to one's income, but is it fair the person is not getting the benefits proportional to the tax?
the govt probably spends the same amount per person in providing benefits like roads,running schools and other govt entities, but why is the (tax) charges so varying?

ofcourse we cant have a tax system where each person is taxed based on the benefits (s)he is consuming, bcos that wud leave 0 benefits to most ppl and extremely high tax to the families and rich ppl. and also we cant have a flat tax system, where each person pays the same amount irrespective of amount, bcos the taxes paid by rich being averaged out would mean ridiculous tax for the poor.

hmm, looks like there could be no tax system which could be fair afterall, unless ofcourse if it wants the govt and citizens to be doomed.

How companies (normally) screw their customers

2009-03-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

1. Insurance companies:
Method adopted: Give customers a false sense of security and if they come back on a claim, overwhelm with time/effort needed on their side by asking for more evidence or try to make simple policies sound complicated and hope they give up.

Personal exp.:
I have been going back and forth with my health insurance and hospital care on a claim(for a cough, which they conveniently said "you can use whatever syrup you would normally take and oh btw, please pay us 950$ for the 2 minutes of consultation with me" ) for over 5 months and my car insurance company for 1.5 months to get a simple answer("Will this be covered by the other insurance company or do I have to get it done myself". Is that so difficult to answer?)

2. Most online subscriptions:
Method adopted: Make the subscription recurring automatically and make that info almost unknown by auto-selecting etc. Make the unsubscribe, not through a website but intervene a human. Eg: Call a toll-free number or email support etc inorder to cancel something.

Personal exp.:
I was naive enough to enroll in a credit protection agency which while signing up for a new credit card, they automatically decided thats right for me. They charge only 3$ or so p.m, and I have to call and wait on the toll free for 30min in order to cancel it. Finally I did it after almost a year. The small amount works good for them, as customer wouldn't mind to cancel it immediately. When I asked few ppl about vonage - "Don't even get me started on thier cancellation policy" was all of thier reply.

3. Claiming rebates/discounts etc:
Method adopted: Similar to #2, basic idea is to capitalize on customers' laziness. Good sales tactic to make seem the price lower.

Personal experience:
Not only did I not mail lots of rebates,but I did submit a rebate for my camera with everything perfect, haven't got any rebate. Of course, if I spend some insane amount of time in follow up, I can get it, but is it worth it? To most people not, either the amount is not that big or mostly they are just lazy.

To all companies:
Please don't say "We value your customers more than anything, they are our first priority" or crap like that which don't mean anything to us anyway, when the way you treat them seems like your motto should be "We screw our customers and we really enjoy doing it".
In addition to providing a quality product so we cant stop bitching about you(apple),make it easiest to return (amazon/costco) or easiest to unsubscribe membership(netflix) or better yet tell me whats good for me like suggesting competitors(zappos), then you have me for life(well, atleast few more sales directly or indirectly). This may seem like losing out on your business but ironically does the opposite(I dont know why; maybe its consumer's psychology or loyalty or their love to occasionally hear a tiny amount of transparent truth from a gigantic corporation ). Not only that - we tell our friends and blog about you. Thanks for listening to my rambling which you are clueless about anyway.

one ceo i admire

2009-03-26T23:40:00.000-07:00

Jeff Bezos. (ofcourse second to Craig Newmark).

EDIT:
This should have not really been a blog post.
Anyway like any reader would ask "Why?" - reasons are simple, not just the way they run the companies, but thier attitude towards thier employees mostly and also customers and personal views in general. Ofcourse I know these only from reading blogs and listening to thier interview over a period of long time.
I would write a big blog on this, when I feel like it sometime later :)
It has got nothing to do with my love of Amazon or Craigslist as products although I wouldn't discount a small bias :)

Brand advertising

2009-03-01T16:25:00.001-08:00

i was trying to recollect the brand name of the consumer(household/food) products i use on a regular basis and many of them daily. in 30s, hardly i cud remember beyond berkely farms and after a min - tide and tropicana.
all the other brands i remembered were already that i knew before i was in US.
for eg, still i dont know the brand names of things which i use almost daily like salt,egg,bread,oil,ketchup,noodles etc

though i have to personally visit the grocery store and pick the items one by one myself, i dont even recollect the name of any of the brands. i just recognize them by cover of the box or can or watever. in fact, i wud be easily tricked by an immitating low quality brand.

in india, though i was mere carrier of grocery items, in the sense i never had to pick any items, my mom wud just gimme a list and i wudnt even be in the store to pick up, until everything was put in the bag and the bill was ready. inspite of that i remembered and still remember most of the brands for many consumer items which i havent used or even heard abt once in the last 6yrs.

the reason being that i wasnt slapped with that much ads due to my zero TV watching and unconsciously ignoring ads on webpages. so much the TV advertising is effective on brand recognition.
inspite of television ads being so untargeted and stuff moving online, i still think for brand recognition nothing works better than TV ads(atleast for me). maybe due to the fact of watching video ads are obviously better for memory esp if some of them funny/catchy etc and if not by accident, who clicks on ads on webpages anyway?.

2009-02-17T15:25:00.001-08:00

Its a common sense that happiness out of doing
something is affected by the expectation of doing it, prior to actually doing it.
But how much is the expectation contributing to the actual happiness than the actual 'thing' itself?
I think expectation plays an even bigger role(not just a small role) than the act itself.

For eg, a person maybe thinking that he'll be happy if he gets a new car or a house. But after he gets that, the happiness he gets out of it was probably dictated *more* by the expectations and perceived notions prior to getting the car than the actual happiness derived out of its possession. Hence the happiness will last only shorter and probably cause disappointments caused due to expectations.

So, key to happiness is to play with your expectations. (this was probably obvious but we might have underestimated the role of expectations in happiness). Going by this I think, people who do a lot of planning ahead or organized could be less happy in general.

We could try to play with expectations slowly. For eg, when choosing a movie, don't try to chose a movie based on reviews,plot or asking friends. Most of the times, when you hear lot of good things about the movie you are surely not going to like it as much if you had chosen the movie by random. If you see movies at random, you will also end up with a lot of bad ones which may make you appreciate the good movies even better, which brings up another theory that, in order to be happy u also have to be (or expect) sad many times.

whats in a name?

2009-01-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

There are few disadvantages of having a name that starts with 'A'. The most
obvious is being called very early while taking attendance in a class(name roll being always ordered alphabetically almost always), which means you have to get early to a class after a break and so on.

Another disadv in the past couple of years, people calling me at odd times like 10am, only to realise that I was automatically called because they didnt lock thier phones while keeping in the pocket or somewhere. This happened to me twice today. Although I couldn't understand how, 2 buttons get pressed(one for contacts menu and then perhaps if my name was first in thier contact list).

That said, there are also a few advantages with an 'A' name. You can get done with your lab exams soon.

job listing

2009-01-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

This is how a job ad should look like. It shows a lot of attitude and culture of the people hiring. Long one, but worth a look.

When Iam ready switch and if these guys were willing to pay more, I would love to work with them.

Contents pasted below,

~~~
To Apply for this Job
~~~
Please simply copy, paste, and respond to this advertisement by creating a GetAFreelancer Private Message with the following information, "I would require $1500- $2200 for working 200 hours per month without any benefits whatsoever. Because I choose to participate in the '10 Hour Probationary Period' please provide me with the first 2 hour test."

~~~
Rate and Hours
~~~
We will pay each developer $1500- $2200 for working 200 hours per month. That is 7.50 US dollars to 11 US dollars per hour.

Please do not bid for this project if you require a higher rate.

~~~
Overview
~~~
We are currently looking for 1 or 2 or 3 very clever, full-time software application developers (not mere coders) to work with us 200 hours per month for at least a year but hopefully longer.

~~~
Work whichever hours of the day you prefer
~~~
We will permit you to work any hours of the day you prefer. In other words, we do not care which hours of the day you work.

~~~
What a long advertisement!
~~~
We've received lots of questions and had lots of problems. Therefore, we have continually updated this advertisement. We believe strongly that, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

~~~
Why do we keep reposting this job on GetAFreelancer?
~~~
Why not?

We like to consider many candidates. The world is full of software developers. Furthermore, we offer an attractive job: working from home doing cutting edge software development.

However, most applicants who apply for this job don't meet our standards. Therefore we reject them. In this regard we are not unique; we are normal.

If you are young and inexperienced you may find this paragraph strange, unfair, or difficult to believe, but in the software business the vast majority of candidates who apply for jobs as software developers are rejected. Really.

If we reject you and if you are wise you will use rejection to build character and humility; if you are foolish you will become enraged and bitter because your pride has been wounded. The world is full of enraged and bitter men who walk around with wounded pride because they have been rejected. You are free to join their ranks if you like. As the saying goes, "Misery loves company."

~~~
10 Hour Probationary Period
~~~
We have found that most candidates who apply for jobs on GetAFreelancer are either not really serious (perhaps they are upset with their boss and “Internet dreaming” about a better job somewhere "out there") or or not sufficiently talented (such as, the vast majority of PHP coders). To quickly and easily weed out these candidates we require that you successfully complete our 10 Hour Probationary Period.

We will assign you one 2 hour project which you must complete and submit to us within 24 hours (not including Saturdays and Sundays) . Therefore, if we assign a project to you on Friday, you will not need to complete and submit to us until Monday.

If we are satisfied with how you have performed then we will assign you a second two hour project which you must complete and submit to us within 24 hours (not including Saturdays and Sundays).

If we are again satisfied with how you have performed we will repeat this process three more times until you have completed five such two hour assignments.

If we are satisfied with how you have performed then we will pay you for 10 hours in the amount of 5% of your monthly rate for 200 hours and then you will advance to the 30 Day Probationary Period.

However, if we are *not* satisfied with how you have performed then we will *not* pay you any monies whatsoever for the 10 hours you have worked and we will terminate our relationship with you.

In other words, we require that you work 10 hours for us yet risk receiving no compensation whatsoever. Therefore, if you are not willing to risk working 10 hours for free, you should not apply for this job.

~~~
Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL)
~~~
You must develop software for us using Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL) http://www.sbcl.org/. Our development server runs Apache and mod_lisp.

~~~
But I don't have any Lisp experience?!?
~~~
Of course, we assume you have practically no experience developing with Lisp. We know that very, very few developers use Lisp. Therefore, we recommend you review "Practical Common Lisp" http://www.gigamonkeys.com/book/ and "Common Lisp HyperSpec" http://www.lispworks.com/documentation/HyperSpec/Front/Contents.htm

~~~
Lisp? Why Lisp?
~~~
Why did we choose Lisp? Isn't Lisp almost, well, almost a dead language? Sort of. We realize that Lisp is hardly used in software development except by a very small group of elite software developers. We chose Lisp for one simple reason: we believe it is the best tool available for building most of the software we need. In other words, we think Lisp is a great language. If you study Lisp we suspect you'll think it's a great language too.

~~~
Are you sure you want to use Lisp? Really?
~~~
Yes. We did not inadvertently or naively choose Lisp. Not at all. We very carefully weighed the pros and cons of various languages and chose to use Lisp.

~~~
If you prefer to use Java or .NET
~~~
If you prefer to use Java or .NET then you definitely should not apply for this job. We do not like those languages at all. We feel strongly that those languages are like diseases. However, we do not mind if you currently develop in one of those languages and, like a refugee from a war zone, are seeking to escape.

~~~
If you prefer to use Perl, Python, and Ruby on Rails
~~~
Even though we like and respect Perl, Python, and Ruby on Rails, if you prefer to use one of these languages then you should not apply for this job either. We know Perl is for the old-timers, Python is what they use at Google, and that "all the cool kids" these days use Ruby on Rails.

We are not trying to be "old school" http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=old+school by using Perl or to be like Google by using Python or to be cool (dude) by using Ruby and Rails. No. We are attempting to develop great software.

~~~
Clever and Eager Autodidacts Wanted
~~~
You must be willing to teach yourself Steel Bank Common Lisp. We will *not* pay for you to learn Steel Bank Common Lisp. You must currently have a *reliable* high speed Internet connection (DSL, Cable, T-1, etc).

~~~
Note to "Lispers"
~~~
If you consider yourself a "Lisper" please read this section carefully.

Lispers seem to be a breed of uber-nerds (super nerds) who are extremely clever in some ways but utterly foolish in others. Lisp is an excellent language for developing software but generally we find Lispers to be arrogant, annoying, and not worth dealing with.

Therefore, if you are a Lisper, unless you are an unusual Lisper, please don't apply for this job. Instead, please go back to commiserate with your fellow Lispers about how hardly any Lisp jobs exist. Ok?

We are looking for clever autodidacts who want to learn Lisp. We are not looking for self-appointed high priests of Lisp (Lispers), who think that we should be thankful that such a brave and enlightened genius like yourself has deigned to apply for this job.

~~~
Software Developers Wanted, not Heads-Down Coders
~~~
http://patrickwilsonwelsh.com/?p=4
"I guarantee you that if your programmers are heads-down cubicle-bound code-crankers 90% of the time, then much of that time is wasted."

If you are a heads-down coder who wants clear and concise specifications that will enable you to put your head down and crank out code, please do not apply for this job.

We are looking to work with software developers not mere coders. We believe that software developers are supposed to receive "stories" (general problems and ideas) from clients and/or customers not "specifications." We believe that software developers are supposed to help gather business requirements and then design mockups (screenshots and screencasts) before they ever begin coding.

Then we believe that software developers are supposed to create the specifications. Yes. We actually believe that software developers are supposed to create the specifications. If you are now thinking to yourself something like,

"What?!? No way! I'm a programmer not a designer man! I write code! I require specifications to code to!"

then please do not apply for this job.

We believe that the idea that Systems Analysts and User Interface Designers will create excellent specifications for Head-Down Coders is ridiculous.

You must be very comfortable spending much time both analyzing business requirements and designing mockups before you ever begin to code.

~~~
Employee Benefits? None. Zero.
~~~
We will provide you with no benefits whatsoever. No medical benefits. No paid holidays. Nothing. But we will pay all fees you will be assessed to receive your money, such as fees charged by GetAFreelancer and ATM machine fees.

~~~
Taxes?
~~~
We will not withhold any taxes from your compensation whatsoever nor will we report your earnings to you local tax authorities. That will be your responsibility alone.

~~~
After the 10 Hour Probationary Period
~~~
We will post projects exclusively for you on GetAFreelancer to work on. Typically these projects will be 4 hours long. You will typically have 2 days to complete these projects. These projects will rarely have a specific deliverable. Instead they will typically be something like, "Work for 4 hours on XYZ and then report your findings."

You *must* sign, scan, and convey to us via the Internet, our NDA (non-disclosure agreement). Of course we would provide you copy of our NDA for you to review if we are interested in working with you.

You *must* scan and convey to us via the Internet copy of your national identification, passport, or similar document. To protect your privacy, you may redact (obfuscate) the document number such as the national identification number or passport number.

"Huh? Why do you need that information? Are you trying to steal my identity!" No.

Of course many folks seem to immediately worry about this sort of thing. Take a look at your passport or national identification card. If you cover over the document number, what's left? A photo of you your name, your address, your gender, and your birthday.

We want this information because if you work with us then you will be gradually create more and more valuable intellectual property for us. Therefore, we want to be able to verify you identity so that we can sue you in a court of law in the event you steal our intellectual property. Doesn't that make sense?

If you are unwilling to provide us with this information or any information we require, please do *not* apply to work with us.

~~~
The 30 calendar day probationary period following the 10 hour probationary period
~~~
During the 30 calendar day probationary period following the 10 hour probationary period, we will allow you to work as few as an average of 2 hours per day (excluding Saturdays and Sundays when we don't expect you to work) but may allow you to work up an average of 8 hours per day (excluding Saturdays and Sundays when we don't expect you to work). In other words, after the 10 hour probationary period we may allow you to begin working full-time with us.

However, we will not require you to begin working full-time during this 30 day period. Why? Because we realize you may currently, for example, have a full-time job which you probably don't like, but at least your current salary "pays your bills."

~~~
After the 30 calendar day probationary period you must be available to work 200 hours per month
~~~
However, after this 30 calendar day probationary period, we will require you to work 200 hours each month with us. Therefore, if you currently have a full-time job or other commitments which would interfere with you working 200 hours each month with us, then after you complete the 30 day probationary period you will almost certainly need to cease working at your current job and/or abandon your other commitments.

In other words, after the 30 calendar day probationary period we are not interested in working with you on a part-time basis. We are only willing to work with you on a part-time basis until you complete the 30 calendar day probationary period so that both you and we may become confident that we should work together on a full-time basis. Please do not apply for this job unless you are willing to work 200 hours each month with us after you complete the 30 calendar day probationary period.

In other words, we realize that many software developers reviewing the opportunities on GetAFreelancer are looking for part-time work. After all, this website is called GetAFreelancer not GetAnEmployee. However, if you are looking for a "side job" or some part-time work to supplement your current income and are therefore hoping to work, say, 50 to 100 hours per month, then please do not apply for this job. We are only interested in working with candidates who will be willing to work 200 hours each month with us after they complete the initial 30 calendar day period.

~~~
What about Vacations?
~~~
We do not provide any benefits whatsoever. None. Zero. Nothing. Of course we know you'll take vacations. Immediately below we describe how you would not be paid for vacations you take.

~~~
Hours per Month
~~~
We would allow you to work more 200 hours per month. For example, if you were to work 250 hours in one month, then you'd be paid for 250 hours. Of course, if, say, you were to take a vacation and therefore only worked 50 hours in a particular month, then you'd only be paid for 50 hours for that month. To determine your hourly rate we will simply divide your monthly rate by 200.

However, except when you are sick or go on vacation, you must be willing to work 200 hours per month. And no, you may not take 4 or 5 "vacations" per month in order to work, say, 75 hours per month so that you can keep your current full-time job, stay in school, fulfill your military service, etc. You must be willing to normally work 200 hours per month.

If you work more than 200 hours per month we'll pay you more, but if you work less more than 200 hours per month we'll pay you less. We are not a paternalistic organization. We won't "take care of you." We are interested in a simple and straightforward contractual relationship in which we pay you for each hour you work and in which you commit to work an average of 200 hours/month (except for those months when you take unpaid vacations or unpaid sick days).

If you want a job with any sort of typical benefits such as paid vacations, medical care, retirement pensions, etcetera this is not the job for you. We are going to pay you strictly by the hour. If this approach seems too brutal or callous or unforgiving we suggest you get a "regular" job with a "regular" company.
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happy sankranthi

2009-01-14T03:58:00.000-08:00

i miss my parents and my sugarcane.

happy new year

2009-01-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

from my facebook profile

2008-12-22T00:32:00.001-08:00

talk about targeted advertising?

movies

2008-12-21T21:27:00.000-08:00

saw these movies again.
life is beautiful,motorcycle diaries and schindler's list. wat a retreat.
why dont ppl make great movies like this in tamil?

on an unrelated note, has there been a recent tamil movie based on real historical events/people? periyar was the last one i remember.

rendez vous

2008-12-21T03:53:00.000-08:00

i have seen 2(and counting) mass layoffs so far. and have talked to co-workers minutes before and after them hearing the news. i was always surprised how they could be so composed on such a news. ofcourse i wont expect them to cry or shoutout in the air, but atleast they should be seriously pissed. (or maybe they are so mature to hide all thier emotions out of thier face.) but what do they do? they twitter and write witty goodbye emails.
fortunately i had not been a victim(so far), but i dont think i'll be ever in the mood to do these things atleast for a few days.

check these 2 videos taken by aol/ebay employess on layoff day. its good to see people celebrating bad times. celebrating good times is fun. but bad times? now, that needs real attitude.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhQZqWil9mM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ful-g_DWCE

although it should be fair to mention these are employees in france where they end up with usually a year of salary. no wonder they are happy, but still i thought its interesting that they spend thier time in co-ordinating to make a video. hmm...

2008-12-16T02:14:00.000-08:00

The graph should be such that the slope of the the 2 curves(shud not be lines) is high
at the start(after a while) and slowly tapers to unison.
I was just too lazy to find a software which was capable of drawing curves. Also ignore the scale.

2008-11-21T01:17:00.000-08:00

2008-11-17T21:34:00.000-08:00

Today happened to listen this song in cafeteria. Used to be an old fav, but forgot what it was, then my colleague pulled this app
in iphone which listens to a music playing and pulls out the song information(incl youtube videos and itunes). I should say this is the most amazing app I have seen(other than the barcode reader).
I confirmed my own theory that i had that lyrics and music is good if seperated. Because the one I heard was an instrumental version and it was much better than the one with lyrics(I dont understand it anyway). I wish all the songs had instrumental versions seperately and all the good lyrics songs put the music with unnoticeable or low in background, so that attention can be given only to one.

Songs again...

2008-11-15T13:24:00.001-08:00

I was thinking which aspect of the song, attracts one the most?
1. Lyrics
2. Music
3. Singer
4. Video(probably if the first you saw it was on a video)

To me, I feel I first get attracted to 2. but what keeps me really liking it forever, is the lyrics. I have esp noticed with tamil songs, the only songs I carry in my favorite list for years, are only due to lyrics. Good song writers definitely have a way to evoke some kind of good feeling I guess.

Only few songs seem to have both good lyrics and music. I feel thats bcos good music most often dominates good lyrics, so it might fall into the 'good music' category(esp in the beginning),. Unfortunately that means, some good lyrics songs will never be discovered if the music was horrible.
So does it mean a good musician might suppress the good lyrics guy due to grabbing your attention more to the music than the lyrics? Singer's voice doesnt seem to suppress either, but never seem to stand out. Its always subtle. For eg: we all agree that X is a good singer, but will have a hard time, identifying the best of his/her songs. Different people might give different list(I've rarely heard someone say they like the song bcos of the singer, its either music or lyrics) But I dont think that would be the case with song writers, there are clear winners among thier own work.
I think singers achieve thier purpose when the listeners don't pay attention to the voice, but to the flow of the song/lyrics. I guess that makes them less appreciated unfortunately (on a per song basis).

Regd video, I've definitely liked some songs just because of the video, but the fact that I cant recollect them in 1min, says probably it doesnt matter as much as opposed to what I thought otherwise earlier when I started the post.

Just like a song, the 4 points(=people characteristics) can be also equated to people I guess. I leave that as an exercise to the reader:)

songs

2008-11-15T13:08:00.000-08:00

Some songs, you never get enough of it, how much ever times you listen to them. 100? 200? not enough.
My recent discovery:
Rthym and Blue- Crazy (click on the album cover to start playing)

sea?

2008-11-08T23:05:00.000-08:00

apart from the search for life on other planets, is research being done on the possibility of living under the ocean. being close to land, it seems like ocean is a good place to live or push all the industrial activities to.

resource allocation problem

2008-10-28T02:37:00.000-07:00

i have always found that govt (US or india) are not communicating among each other to optimize the resources. in chennai its very common scene for each dept to dig a whole on a road instead of co-ordinating on the schedule to just dig it once.
in the US, i have to send the same docs to dmv,uscis and everybody else who needs verification. why cant there be a trusted source which would push the info to other orgs.

rockets

2008-10-22T02:52:00.000-07:00

why cant rockets be launched successfully every time? just like cars cant be mass produced? i guess its a country thing. sure, a country doesnt want to give away its procedure. but looks like thats not the issue, even with same proceudre every launch seems like a new discovery otherwise apollo itself would have repeated its own success.
hmm, there is some rocket science about building rockets.

One of the historical moments

2008-09-29T00:26:00.000-07:00

Read, the status updates here. I guess it would be one of the most exciting moments of thier life for the people in the transmission room.

As somebody commented there,
"Well DONE, SpaceX!! And you know, there's no reason private companies and organisations like NASA and ESA can't exist side by side. SpaceX is focusing on heavy lift launchers and commercial launchers, right? Well, they can do construction and commercialism, so NASA can focus on things like scientific research and exploration! Private and public can work together to get humans in to space."

Little annoyances taken care of.

2008-09-06T18:40:00.000-07:00

All of us know that os x has well thought out and nice-looking interfaces. But macs doesnt seem to stop just with software, some of the little things which have been paid attention to in designing the hardware:

1. I used to have this annoyance when the headphone wire gets pulled off accidentally the laptop suddenly starts blaring(I listen to music, loud). This can be embarassing in office. In mac, there are 2 volume sets, one when the head phone is on and off. If the head phone is not present and volume is muted, you can listen to as loud with the headphone on, when it gets pulled, it gets back to mute.
Ofcourse you dont have to do anything, depending on whether heaphone is present or not, it remembers the volume changes you make and defaults to later.
I dont know if this is really a hardware feature or software feature, watever it is, its awesome.
2. The battery adoptor plug which fits into the laptop has a magnet, so you dont have keep moving your plug to try to fit to the exact spot.
3. Theres a battery indicator at the bottom, so you can know how much charge is left without switching the laptop ON.
4. The edges of the monitor are curvy to cause less irritation to eys after staring for long. Somebody told me this, although I never see this as a problem in other laptops.

life

2008-07-25T01:56:00.000-07:00

get educated in a field where there is money
get a boring job
get married
have kids
get stupid

how I spend my time

2008-04-30T12:58:00.000-07:00

for nostalgia

2008-04-29T14:45:00.000-07:00

http://groups.google.com/group/mi.jobs/msg/d81b6c1fa8f361fc

Whats unique to other postings is "Expect talented, motivated, intense, and interesting co-workers."

Taj Mahal the ugliest monument in the world

2008-04-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

"all of the hands of all of the men who worked on the Taj Mahal cut off so that they would never be able to construct something so beautiful again. Another story tells us that he had the workers’ eyes cut out so that they would never see something as beautiful as the Taj Mahal for as long as they lived. "

Is this what we call a world wonder? what an outrageous disgrace to humanity. great going guys.

Fee hikes is good

2008-03-29T19:07:00.000-07:00

"The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, on Saturday announced a quantum jump in its fees structure raising it from the present Rs. 2.5 lakh per annum to Rs. 5.5 lakh per annum for the first year and Rs. 6 lakh for the second year of the two-year post-graduate programme in management." link

For years I've been advocating(to my friends :) ) that fee hikes are the way to smoothe the effect of brain drain(to some extent). PPl from premium institues are going to flee the country anyway, why not as well milk as much as money from them while they are there? Of course this doenst mean brain drain is still good. I dont know abt solutions to brain drain. I think there are none, unless India creates an equally rewarding and fulfilling ecosystem(career and society). Thats said, I think India is really democratic in the sense it doesnt try to stop somebody from fleeing. For eg, they can easily impose a stupid rule like -every IITian should be in India atleast for 2 years after graduation. These sort of rules are present in quite a few developed countries forcing them to serve the army or work in thier country(Singapore for eg)

ps: Of course increase in fee in doesn't(shudn't) prevent any student from going there, bcos (s)he cant afford. (Read the news). They will always be covered by fees from the majority of others who can afford.

finally somebody gets it

2008-03-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

finally southpark guys get it. they have put all episodes online(with ads). today its impossible for anybody(content producer) to prevent uploading to video sharing sites or p2p downloads. when they are detected and pulled down, new ones crop at different places by different users.
instead of allowing some ppl to earn out of illegal content, the producers should embrace this and try to cash out as much as they can.
a day will come when all music/movies will be distributed legally for free and supported by premium membership or ads.

see the episodes here

hi im an engineer

2008-03-24T16:18:00.000-07:00

good article

2008-03-21T14:01:00.001-07:00

http://www.siliconvalley.com/ci_8592114

2008-02-29T01:53:00.001-08:00

Iam into...

2008-02-27T02:08:00.000-08:00

I discovered that when people say,

Iam into photography .. it means they have bought an used SLR on ebay
Iam into travel .. it means they take pictures and post it in orkut
Iam into working out .. it means they have been to the gym "recently" once.
Iam into hacking .. it means they can write a hello world program in C. a great hacker can also write that in C++
Iam into art .. it means they can successfully deceive their friends that they are appreciating the hangings they see in restaurants
Iam into nature .. similar to above
Iam into blogging .. it means ppl can write crap like this.
Iam into blogging .. it means ppl can read crap like this.

Who is a good employer?

2008-02-20T20:16:00.001-08:00

In my opinion, these are some reasons to rate an employer(not from my or any prospective employee of the company's pov but the company's pov itself):
1.Measuring the amount(both code and money) contributed to open-source/open-project like linux,apache,mysql,wikipedia etc.
2.If you can convince some big open source guys to work for you. Not just some big guys. Why, because open source guys have attitude.
3.The founders stick around till the death of the company or themselves not just leave after cashing out after IPO.
4.The most important of all, how many employees that leave the company come back again, because they cannot find a better place or feel at home elsewhere.

Internet biz

2008-02-07T01:27:00.000-08:00

"A good idea that users find useful spreads quickly. Businesses can be created around the idea. Users benefit from constant innovation. It's what makes the Internet such an exciting place."
Google has nailed the simple definition of internet business.
Source: here

2008-01-31T01:59:00.001-08:00

loved 0:20-0:30, rest is gory entertaining. yeah im a sadist.

2008-01-24T03:26:00.000-08:00

Many of you know I've said in the past that 10 years was about the right amount of time for any CEO to stay at the helm of a company. Now that I've reached that milestone myself, I still believe this. It's time for eBay, and this community, to have a new leadership team, a new perspective and a new vision.

As we announced today, I will step down as eBay's President and CEO on March 31, 2008, and our current head of eBay Marketplaces, John Donahoe, will succeed me in my role. Rajiv Dutta, our current president of PayPal and former CFO for several years, will replace John as the president of eBay Marketplaces. You'll be hearing more from them and their teams in the coming weeks and months.

Looking back, I was given a remarkable opportunity when Pierre Omidyar, eBay's founder, asked me to join eBay in January 1998. Ten years later, I couldn't be more in awe of what we accomplished together. When I joined eBay, it was a small site, in some ways still very much an experiment. Most people didn't know, or didn't believe, that perfect strangers would trade with one another, and that they could almost always be counted on to do the right thing.

Over the course of a decade, you have helped revolutionize the way people use the Internet, buy and sell things, create and grow businesses, and connect with each other. In 2007 alone, our community of hundreds of millions of people around the world traded more than $60 billion in goods. Millions found the courage to tap their entrepreneurial spirit and start businesses. Millions more have pursued passions and made connections that will last a lifetime. And countless others found that perfect thing - an old high school yearbook, a favorite toy from their youth - that they couldn't get anywhere else.

I am truly astounded by what has been built here. And all the credit goes to you, our community. You took the chances to start businesses. You created markets for products where there were none before. You defined what it means to be a good citizen in this Internet-enabled world. And yes, we hit a few bumps along with way, but that's to be expected when you're building something that has never existed before. But even, and especially, during those times, I was always inspired by the passion you showed.

It's with great pride and a strong sense of accomplishment that I leave this post and hand it over to the capable leaders we have in John and Rajiv. I've known both of them for many years and have believed for a long time that they are the ideal people to steer eBay into the future.

eBay is in my blood and always will be, so I'm not stepping back completely; I will remain on eBay's Board of Directors. And of course, I'll keep buying and selling on the site.

I'm so very honored to have worked with you in building this incredible community. Thank you for letting me be a part of it for the last decade.

Meg

2008-01-14T23:08:00.001-08:00

Tata Car

2008-01-10T01:44:00.000-08:00

So, it looks like its really only the hyped 1 lakh Rs. wow. Its very refreshing to hear once in a while India comes up with a PRODUCT that can take the world aback. Kudos to Tata team for that.

On the good side, more ppl can afford to buy cars and std. of living is going to improve making the affordable levels between rich/poor lesser. I love US for this reason of affordability - a normal job like waitress in coffee shop can afford to live in an apt,have a car,take vacations to other countries.

Im sure the demand for the other cars are going to drop drastically from today after the news. Other manufacturers wondering how they were able to cut costs and whether they can adopt the same for thier country.

Assuming the quality of the car is good(which cannot be known until a while after its release), I would welcome it. By quality I mean usual things like mileage,maintainance(prob over years),enough safety for city (you cannot compare safety to expensive cars) but it has to be atleast decent.

Ofcourse theres going to be a small population who maynot prefer it,bcos if suddenly all u see is Tata cars on the road, thats going to affect their ego - its no more "cooler" to buy one. If I was I wouldnt care, all I care in a car is a music system :)

On bad side, its going to increase the traffic,dust/smoke,global warming everything exposing the lack of infrastructure more. Now even smaller towns(not just cities) will start get crowded and make any commute a hell.
Anyway such advancement cannot be stooped just bcos of the fundamental problem(poor infrastructure). It will just make it no other choice for govt. but to improve it, which is good.

Supertramp : The logical song

2008-01-08T00:04:00.000-08:00

Get this widget

Track details

eSnips Social DNA

Lyrics here

best movie of lifetime

2008-01-04T02:23:00.001-08:00

I just realised office space is the best movie and that I needed to watch for the 4th time.

happy new year 2008!

2008-01-01T18:17:00.001-08:00

From techcrunch .Original source:NC Winters of Freelance Switch

2007-11-29T19:36:00.000-08:00

I saw this email from a prof on the univ jobs mailing list,

Hi!

I would like to work with a student who can scour chat rooms and other on-line resources to learn about
the iPhone unlock process. Specifically, I'm interested in learning the following:
[some stuff here]
If this sounds like something you'd be interested in too, come by and chat with me! If we can find
out enough information, this might lead to us publishing a paper together.

The signature for the email had a quote
"people don't do what they believe in they just do what's most convenient,then they repent" --- Bob Dylan

Then and Now

2007-10-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

Then:
Not a day passes by, without being scolded by mom,because you didnt remove your shoes while entering the house or you are watching too much TV when you dont have a clue about what exam is on the next day.
Now:
Its very hard to get scolded by mom. She is too forgiving now.

Then:
You think you have wasted too much time today,not doing anything what you planned.
Now:
You think you have wasted too much time today,not doing anything what you planned.

Then:
You wear "color dress"(even colored uniforms are uncolored) to school and distribute choclate to each of your classmates on your birthday. You then goto a temple with your parents.
Now:
You get birthday greetings in emails,Orkut scraps or voicemails, because all your friends are seperated physically by more than the distance you had ever travelled in your entire childhood life.You then goto a pub with your girl friend who is another loser.

Then:
You say to yourself -"Unlike today I will get up early tomorrow".
Now:
You say to yourself -"Unlike today I will get up early tomorrow".

Then:
You are busy saving your pocket money because your friends asked for a treat for the new bicyle that you got.
Now:
You are busy saving your salary for paying your house loan and your kid's education.

Then:
You think "Street Cat"s are cool.
Now:
You think BMWs are cool.

Then:
You eat choclates,cakes and ice-creams fallen on the floor.
Now:
You don't eat anything before knowing how much calories it is.

Then:
You are eagerly looking forward to that summer vacation at your grandma's house where you play 24/7 with your cousins and other friends.
Now:
You are eagerly looking forward to that "get away" with your
wife to a God forsaken island.

Then:
You want become like your dad.
Now:
You don't know what you want to become.

Then:
You "collect" all your friends in bicycles and sit at the "kutti-suvaru" to discuss all your views about why life sucks.
Now:
You blog and your friends get RSS feeds.

Why do carpools exist?

2007-10-18T23:06:00.000-07:00

It was originally proposed so that people become environmental friendly by considering driving together and reducing no.of vehicles on road.

Ofcourse there should be a perk to lure people, which is carpools lanes are faster and in order for it to be fast, less people should carpool which beats the objective.

Since less people carpool there are tons of people crawling on the other lanes and thereby waiting more on the road and causing more damage to the environment. After 7pm, the time when usually carpool restriction is taken off, traffic starts moving faster. Its quite amazing that "opening up" a single lane, can smoother traffic beautifully.

Not to mention that carpool usually also consists of lot of people going only with kids(picking them after school usu). Even if carpools werent there, kids wont drive by themselves. Carpools should atleast be "valid" only if the vehicle has 2+ adults or better 2+ license holders(which is difficult to check for, but can be ticketed heavily for ppl to avoid cheating). This will cause even less people to carpool, so it will become very obvious for it be totally removed.

So what exactly is the purpose of carpool lanes other than to cause as much inconvenience as possible to the drivers?

This day that year

2007-09-09T15:33:00.000-07:00

Today, 8 years have passed since I joined my college on 9.9.99(not surprisingly I still remember laughing about the reporting time-9am.)
Sure most of my friends and me, have changed a lot in personalities (for good, I believe). Heck, even the college has grown to an University awarding doctorates and MBBS. Although Im sure growing to a deemed univ has reduced the "quality" of students very much. Anyway, Im happy I met some interesting people in college who have impacted my life in many ways. Still in touch with most of them through IM,phone,orkut and what not. Some of us came to same grad school co-incidentally. Apart from endless philosophical talks we had back in Tucson, now Im responsible for dragging them and they are responsible for dragging me in all directions. (most recent is last week).

How can a college memory post be without a picture? Heres the only digital photo I got, taken during college.
(College tour: Ooty 4th sem.)

5 most overrated things

2007-08-31T00:44:00.000-07:00

5.Free food
4.Taking timeoff to "travel the world"
3.Tax
2.Rising gas prices
1.Ipod
0.Falling in love

Ok, that was actually 6.

Three great websites/companies

2007-08-30T03:29:00.000-07:00

I've never been disappointed *even once*, when trying to use the services from
1)amazon.com
2)netflix[1]
3)wikipedia

[1]A slight annoyance is that, for watching the movies online, it works only on IE.

These are the best sites IMO.

Not so dumb phones.

2007-08-28T16:05:00.000-07:00

I wish phones had the simple capabilities of filtering like in email clients.
I normally dont answer or keep phone switched off, when Im at sleep or sometimes at work or both(!?!?!?). And the other day I got a somewhat time-critical-issue call from work, which I missed (luckily was on IM). My phone doesnt have any filtering.

Phones should (or be allowed to be )programmed such that
-It accept only calls starting with a prefix(or some regex) during certain times
-blacklist/whitelist(important or unimportant)
-re-order voice messages based on "importance" rather than FIFO. This is particularly needed in email. I dont want email from my friends/family or atleast those from my contacts to be immersed in bunch of escaped spam.
-volume of ringtone based on definable caller's importance.
-changable ringtones based on category(tag contacts as work/friends/family etc)
-Direct certain calls(such as from spouse) to voicemail directly without a ring.
-Have automated recorded messages u wish to leave to certain callers. Say u want to leave ur email info on voice message only to work related callers.

Ofcourse the absence of above is not any inconvinience to me, but Im sure it will give competitive edge to the manufacturers as there are these crazy ppl who might need these capabilites. Anybody who has a blackberry might love to have this I wud guess.

All the above can be handled by the instrument itself, not the carrier and the pre-processing shudnt introduce any noticable delay obviously. So, why we dont have any? (given that we already have sufficient hardware to playback movies and play games.). All that is needed is hardware to do simple lookups which is there anyways.

Microsoft bound to refund unused licenses

2007-07-21T19:05:00.000-07:00

This is news to me. Earlier I was bashing the manufacturers for not providing a choice of OS and charging for Windows by default.
Somehow I came across this article on slashdot. By law people who dont use Windows on new PCs, can get refund for the license for not using it. The manufacturer gaurantees it. But this is if you *never* used Windows on the new PC. So maybe install Linux at first itself. Even if you want to use Windows, if you already have a license, you can get the refund and use ur own copy.

Is free food free?

2007-05-31T16:20:00.000-07:00

Theres a saying "Free food is found only in mouse traps".

Google offers free food for all its employees. I think this is one of the most overrated perk. I was telling my
friend the other day, why this doesnt matter, but he didnt seem to believe me.
Even jail offers free food. Whats the big deal?

Remember the company is not non-profit. What does the company get by it?

1. Offering slightly reduced salary(Guessing)
2. Reduced rise/bonus compared to other biggies(Again guessing)
3. Most importantly by giving free breakfast,lunch and dinner, you can make the employee work for more than 8 hrs easily, thereby paying a meal worth wage for few extra hours. Ofcourse
its the employee's option to stay,but an average human tends not to refuse anything "free"

I really don't know about 1 and 2. Its advantageous for the company too, as we maynot know that if salaries/bonus is reduced, but perks are discussed openly. Moreover perks give the perception its better than wats its actually worth.
For example instead of giving a 1000$ bonus, giving a 900$ bonus and a free ticket to a theme park sounds more cooler.(even if the ticket was worth less than 100$). Im not implying the company is evil trying to manipulate, its afterall trying to make its employees happy.

Many new engineers tend to get attracted by these hyped perks and brand sexiness while making a decision. I believe ppl who work for such companies,do so because they really want to. Experienced engineers, will clearly weed out all this unwanted things when changing careers. Much more than free food is needed to convince to work for them. Infact I have heard many ppl say its disadvantageous (esp for family ppl as anyway they have to spend). Intially I thought it was rediciulous, but it makes sense. I have seen many exp. ppl move to startups. They can get great work and they take a good bet that, if the company gets acquired they can reap whole lot of cash. Cash is the only perk which should be looked for. Everything else is just a physcohological trap.

It would be interesting to see whether any attrition happens in Google after 2008, when all the options for the employees who were there when it became IPO has fully vested. I guess many talented ppl will leave to start or work for startups. Remember google has many talented ppl. Talented ppl cannot
be "settling" in big organisations being told to work in feature X of product Y. This true ofcourse for any big organisation which has smart ppl.

Pursuit of Happyness

2007-05-10T23:17:00.000-07:00

Not a great movie per say, but a good feel good movie. Many ppl say feel-good movie, but I
rarely feel good after watching any movie. This one I felt good after the movie.
The movie quotes Thomas Jefferson,something similar to "Life is a pursuit of happiness", stressing on 'pursuit' in the sense that its difficult to be happy, but our whole life is to pursue it.
Sorry for the abrupt end of post.

Pointers

2007-04-04T01:59:00.000-07:00

Joke of the day

2007-03-11T16:23:00.000-07:00

I read this joke somewhere,
"What is that a beggar always ask to another beggar and a s/w engr ask to another s/w engr all the time?"
"Which platform are you working?"
Now leave another joke here if you can.

Video

2007-03-07T00:40:00.000-08:00

Time for oldies. My evergreen favorite
Time to jump out of chair. Found the video sometime back while searching for the song.
Simple humor is the best

PS: In retrospect the title of the post is funny. Its like most of the times, the subject of email from my dad will be "Mail from dad"

Next developments

2007-03-07T00:25:00.000-08:00

In the last 20 years ,we have been lucky to see some scientific developments like invention of personal computer, mobile phone and ofcourse internet. However, offlate, there has not been much development in the science or technology front. Ofcoure everyday gazillion gadgets come out, but none of them are breakthroughs like the invention of a personal computer or car. Fields other than technology, whatelse have happened in the last decade? Hmmmm ... ??? I think only intrusion of technology in other fields is the revolution in other fields?
Definitely the growth rate is decreasing(does it mean we are reaching saturation)
What else could be the coming breakthroughs?
My guess:
-personal robots for doing chores like laundry,dish washing.
-better, robots with emotions.have an irritating spouse? no problem.
-flying cars or personal aircrafts
-no traffic lights or even auto car drive.
-free telephone calls worldwide.
-internet at speed of local machine
-video conferencing to the core and useful for daily lives. as useful,simple and common as email.
-literally no queues or waiting anywhere with improvisation in automated systems and traffic.

Even if atleast 2 of those didnt happen in the next 50years, I think we have reached saturation or could be that we would have died of global warming. Thank you for raping the planet.

Wish List for 2007

2007-02-07T19:11:00.000-08:00

None this year. Not that I make lists every year.
Nearly most of the things in last year's list will be carried forward this year. Even worse(real worse), thinking about what I did useful(on a personal or career level which is more important than places) in 2006, makes me feel bad!
The problem, is poor self assesment. Its like the survey where 80% of the people rated themselves in top 20% drivers. Its funny but shows a serious physcological problem most people also have(like me). Being average kind of sounds bad. But 50% of people have to be below average(ok,medain).
I always think I can do more than what I really do.This always led to disappointments throughout right from school days to me. Its like after the exams, promise myself that I will make better use of study holidays in the next sem.
After every single thing like an exam or interview, I always feel I could have easily done better and I strongly believed that. There wasn't even one till todate, which I was happy about after its completion. Perhaps, the actual truth (which I started to believe) is that Im no good as I think Iam. It took so many years for me to realise that Im a fool. But it was a good revealation though.

2006-12-17T19:01:00.001-08:00

Movies 'R' Us

2006-12-15T19:33:00.000-08:00

While my visit to home nears, I was thinking of collecting all my most favorite movies. Thought will post them here too.

Children of heaven[0]
Schindler's list
Pi
Its a wonderful life[1]
Anbesivam[2]
Hotel Rwanda[3]
Gandhi[4]
(all drama? if I dont know how to classify a movie, I will say it is drama)

[0]What a beautiful movie! Shows the amazing world of kids. Color of Paradise by the same director is also a good movie.
[1]Highly recommended gift(if at all you want to gift a dvd to somebody)
[2]I mainly love this movie for its dialogues. Many dialogues are thought-provoking and with a subtle sense of humor.
[3]This movie apparently has the best dialogue I had ever heard. The last dialogue of the movie goes like this:
X:They said there was no room
Y:Theres always room
It captures the essence of the entire movie(and much more in reality) in one dialogue(Somewhere mid-way in this video) This movie also shows how the UN and rest-of-the-world was indifferent to the largest genocide in human history. Very sad.
[4]After watching this movie I was inspired to read this book. One of the best
books I had ever read. After reading this book, Im considering seriously if I should
become a vegan.

food or shelter?

2006-12-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

This is about ants.
This time, there have been few ant colonies at home. I dropped a pinch of sugar and that attracted them. No surprise(although it took longer than I expected). When I stopped using the laptop and after sometime when its lying there, I noticed some ants there. I didnt understand why wud they come if sugar is also present. Later I guessed that it came for the warmth of the laptop(these days its cold), because after a while it went back to the sugar. I have no idea how it could sense the heat. smell I can understand. Or was it just a coincidence? Maybe I should try another time.
I also found that ants are nice beings than most ppl think. They are friendly. They come with me wherever I go. Few even work with me.

Interesting problem...

2006-11-26T20:55:00.000-08:00

Note-1: I dont know the solution for this, though I have some of my own nothing-great solutions for this.
Note-2:I made complete changes to an original problem which I heard to make it simple and elegant.

There are some N fixed-length-bit-sequences(call it word) . You have to split these words into different groups(say max is G groups. N>>G) such that the maximum "difference" between two words is minimized. "difference" is the number of bit positions which differs in the 2 words. How would do u this in an ideal world where speed or memory is not an issue(this is more like a puzzle than an algo problem)? In a realistic world where time/space is an issue(this is algo-type. graphs can come handy or atleast i think)?
Another interesting question(which came to me as I write this) is what if words are being added/deleted. How to group so as to minimize the re-organization of buckets but allowing for an approximate solution initially(say u can have G+g groups). I think this is hard.
Since I cooked-up this one, if something is not clear make ur own "reasonable assumptions".
I would love to hear ur solutions.

Picture/Video time

2006-11-18T00:03:00.000-08:00

Since I was bored, I watched this video for the nth time (Steve Jobs grad commencement speech @Stanford).

Both these pictures taken from here

What occurs to you when you look at these "really moving" pics? I mean not what "moment" it was or what caused that "moment", but what does it tell you?

Height of randomness?

2006-11-12T01:28:00.000-08:00

Today I got an email from a guy (who claimed was my neighbour in Chennai). His name doesn't ring any bell to me. He sent his resume asking to refer him. He also left me a voicemail, in which he said "I had sent my resume, please forward anna". I think it indeed came from India.
Sure, I can understand his need, but I was surprised he did actually try to *call* me. Im also surprised whether he had assumed people will interview for positions in US from India? His resume shows that he is a fresh college grad. He never said where/how found my contact info? Web search? univ page? orkut? blog?

Sure, whenever I remember or hear about any friend(esp if not close), I immediately lookup on the web or orkut to see if he has any homepage and see what he has been upto or any interesting info happenning with him? (Btw, any guess on the success rate?:) ). But making an international call is little over the limit, especially since I still couldnt recollect his identity :)
But I think he really wanted me to fwd his resume(otherwise just an email could have worked). So, I did.
[UPDATE : No fun,pun etc intended ]
Moral of the day: The world is sure smaller than u think.

Search engines and our brain.

2006-11-11T00:25:00.001-08:00

Spoiler Warning :
This article may not make any sense. Actually I think this should be a default header!

I think in some ways web search engines(SE) and human brains are similar. For one thing, both have/store vast information and try to process/get it based on user queries(for SE) or needs of different parts/senses of the body(for brain). Now who cares anyway?
I think the way search engines evolve and improve themselves may teach us something about how to improve ourselves in some aspects.
There are reasons why some search engines are great and some suck,. (just like some ppl are smart and some are stupid) Im not going to point out the differences but they use different techniques to crawl, index and serve the documents. These 3 are the main things. I will go little in detail on them(with the fear of boring u).
1.Crawling is just discovering all the informatin on web, like when we learn things around us, when we were kids. SEs want to give you the latest info on any searched topic. So it simply crawls the pages again and again and in the process discovers new pages and due to this, new "perspective" about old pages. Simple. But, do we do that? I highly doubt it! We do keep learning new stuff thru different phases of our life(school, college, profession etc) but when we learn some stuff, we never try to learn it again. Most of the things in life get solved by going back to the very fundamentals. So crawl often. That is wherever possible try to unlearn stuff and learn it again. Use your own judgement , to determine which things should be crawled again. i dont think its the text books or anything of that sort, but its the habits we have, perspection of ppl related to us etc are some of the things which need to unlerant and learnt often.

2.Index. In a SE it means identifying what a page is "about", so that when somebody asks for "it", you can "quickly" serve it. I think our brain inheritently handles this. Now, imagine a sunset view along the beach.... Did you imagine? Ok-I know, you didn't, but wat Im trying to say is , you have so much "stuff" in your brain, but when I say something you were able to immediately recollect the picture in ur mind somehow. I dont know ways to improve it. Some memory mgmt techinques or whatever.

3.Serve. My comparision on this is so big and since the post is already big, I will publish it in another post. I can see you getting relieved.

Disclaimer:
I am no authority on the subject of brains or SE, so my comparision might totally be unrelated. Atleast I work on SE, but brain is totally out of my thinking :)
Oh, btw this post also assumes you have a brain, otherwise Im sorry to have wasted ur time . Ok,though not funny it was joke. If you had taken it seriously, you should stop browsing and go to a doctor first !!!

Right now!

2006-11-08T00:17:00.000-08:00

One of the best videos(my fav song). All captions are good.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jHbdUnd7Nzw
Another nice song(decent video) : http://youtube.com/watch?v=3DweTRNF5EM&mode=related&search=

Windows vs. Linux

2006-11-05T23:47:00.000-08:00

I hate to talk about it again. But neverthless my friend brought it up again. It is one of those topics which will come up over and over again and end without any conclusion - just like the "veg vs. non-veg" topic. The question is why isn't Linux as popular as Windows inspite of being free. A popular mis-belief is it isn't user-friendly. I dont think this is true anymore. Comm'on haven't you tried Ubuntu.? It is actually more "friendlier" than Windows. Not only Ubuntu, most of the Linux distros have realised thier drawback of being less friendly and have abstracted most of the things and now have the "just click and install" etc features.
Ofcourse one of the accepted fact is people may find Linux less easy to use than Windows because it lacks support(but think of it - when was the last time you ever called a support for a computer problem even if you are a grandma? people try to figure out things themselves or ask friends). Or people are just resistant to change? Another fact is that some tweaking has to be done after Linux installation. For example many websites dont even still work on Linux. You need to install special plugins for players etc. This is a 2-way problem. These websites don't support Linux because it is not common. And since many websites need special plugins to be installed, Linux is not common.
But as I see it, this is the big reason.
Computer manufacturers pushing Windows: A good laptop would cost around 1000$ which includes the hidden cost of 200$ for Windows XP Pro. So why can't the manufacturers sell me the laptop for 800$ without Windows? Sure-most ppl wont go for that manufacturer if they just stop giving windows. Can't they provide an option while buying (default : have windows)? For the manufacturer, it is inc. in thier sales, because giving this option could save about 200$ for the 2%(linux market share=2%) population and another effect that could emerge out of this is because it is less priced so ppl would slowly switch to Linux. Now this is not the case bcos since they have Windows anyway, whats the need to go for Linux? But why are manufacturers not doing this given the fact that it would clearly increase thier sales? One likely reason is they could be bounded by some legal agreement with MS. Or doing this may piss off MS and they start charging the manufacturers more for license. If giving the option increases thier revenue by 5%, but also increases the licensing fee for Windows(Manufacturers obviously get very much subsidised fee than individual quote) - the profit margin maynot workout? Who knows. Im sure the manufacturers like Dell, HP etc would have considered this and dropped for some reason - most probably thier revenue maynot increase eventhough the sales may increase.
So what is the solution for this? I mean how to make a manufacturer and consumer happy? As a consumer if Im not interested in Windows anyway, don't charge me that 200$! I think the move has to come only from manufacturer side. But it is not clear how the manufacturer will make this. A new manufacturer could emerge, but again it will take it a while for it to get established and get recognized/trusted.

Happy bday mommy

2006-11-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

Today was my mum's birthday. When in India I used to try to do something to make her
happy, as I would have troubled her for the rest of the year :) This year I couldn't do anything. Asusual my mum told me "You neednot do anything, if you are good in life and work, that will make me happy". Till date if there is one person on earth which I share all my things, its my mum. Happy bday to all the moms in this world :-)
Today also happened to be Arvind's b'day. He is also reaching the darker side(25) of life this year.
Btw just noticed Vijay's blog description . It reminded me(once again) of one of my all time favorites!

Hello World (again)!

2006-11-03T02:41:00.000-08:00

Just joining the Blogger community as Y! 360(where I had my previous blog ) doesn't allow to add friends from other communities. This blog(like most other blogs) will have some combination of my personal, professional and random(intellectual?) thoughts and rants. But its not any online dairy. So the frequency,nature and quality of the posts depends on my time and mood :-)
Stay hungry!