Links from 2001

Tamil film music audio

If you're looking for Tamil songs, the search engine at TFM Page's audio section comes in very handy.

One minute summary of movies

A one-minute summary of movies. For some movies, if you've read it, you've seen it.

Charging people who link

The Albuquerque Journal charges $50 if you want to link to their articles! A new revenue model? Legally its possible. I don't think too many sites can get away with it, though. I mean, only the Wall Street Journal gets away with charging for content. Anyway, looks like flat rate pricing will eventually win.

Economic and Political Weekly

The Economic & Political Weekly is online.

Trend towards paid services

Now Yahoo! will charge a fee for auctions. No more free PCs. No more free ISPs. No more ad revenues. No more free auctions. The trend is clear. Pay! Unfortunately, they'll also monitor what's being sold -- an indication that country-specific legal barriers are creeping into the Internet.

Coimbatore the next IT destination

Coimbatore: The next IT destination?

Amazon has a union

Didn't know dot-coms had unions. Amazon does. A reaction to the layoffs in dot-coms?

Fed lowers interest rates

The Fed lowers interest rates! Certainly hadn't expected it till the end of the month. Obviously, since this is the first time they changed rates in-between policy meetings. The market was caught short too. Anyway, the NASDAQ has shot up. IT stocks in India are following.

eGovernance channel

CIOL's e-governance channel

Parliament questions

We can read the questions for which various ministries are answerable in the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. What fun!

VIAO slimtop

VAIO Slimtop is a computer by Sony which has a flat screen monitor you can write on. $3,000.

Lateral thinking puzzles

It's been long since I solved lateral thinking puzzles. Hartman's site has over a hundred (with answers).

Industry borders blurring

Microsoft makes video games -- Sony's domain. Sony moved into PCs -- Compaq's domain. Compaq moves into electronics -- Sony's domain. Intel moves into consumer electronics -- Sony's domain. With growing technology, industry borders become blurred.

Discounts in Bangalore

123india has a list of discounts in Bangalore. For example, US Pizza has a party pack Rs 111.

Domain names in Indian languages

Vishwabharat and Lead Networks let you register domain names in Indian Languages.

CES 2001

Consumer Electronics Show 2001 is going on.

Bhagavad Gita online

Bhagavad Gita online. Has audio, translations in several languages, etc. Very well organised. The final quote was very fitting for Mr. Krishnan's IIMPressions, incidentally.

Mobile calls to become cheaper

Cellular calls will become cheaper. I might buy a phone.

More dotcom casualties

More deaths. Chemdex, the B2B chemical market. Send.com, the gift store. Musicmaker, the CD-burner. Foodline, the restuarant agent.

Logical fallacies

Stephen's Guide to the Logical Fallacies -- a comprehensive list of common fallacies.

Apple to release OS X

Apple releases a UNIX-based operating system -- OS X.

w3schools

Learn web-development at w3schools.

Write on computers

I thought the next generation devices would use voice input. But maybe written is more likely. You can write on IBM's Thinkpad and on Sony's VAIO desktop.

The year that was

Yahoo! Internet Life surveys the year that was.

Surreal

A bit of the surreal: Digital inkblots and Encyclopaedia Mythica

Kumbh Mela 2001

Kumbh Mela 2001, Allahabad.

History of the Mac

A history of the Macintosh computer.

Global trends

Global Trends: 2015 (CIA) says technological development will be in IT, biotech, materials & nanotechnology. And that India's main problem will be to improve agriculture.

CEOs overpaid

Some people think CEOs get paid too much.

Bought 5 books

A good day. Bought 5 books, and cut an audio CD with 15 songs.

The Bear and the Dragon | Fist of God | Abduction | Prometheus Deception | Druid of Shannara

Microsoft interview question

"Write a one-line C expression to determine if a number is a power of 2". Microsoft is famous for asking such questions to their programmers. Or you might want to find out what the assembly code

CWD XOR AX, DX SUB AX, DX

does. Satish's site has the answer, but not the question. More questions: 1 2

FICCI

FICCI's site and their Business Information Services Network are invaluable resources about Indian policies.

WLL

The TRAI recommends that telephone companies could provide limited mobile services (WLL), and vice versa.

Websites that have been defaced

Statistics on websites that have been defaced.

The IT Question

What is IT?

Oil prices could rise further

Oil prices could rise further. That's bad.

Free online science fiction

Free online science fiction at the Baen Library.

France considering taxing computers

After telling Yahoo to remove Nazi memorabilia from its auction site, France is now considering taxing computers and other recording devices to compensate artists for piracy. I mean, Paris and art is all fine, but this is crazy! And Germany's apparantly already done this.

Software horror stories

Software can kill. Literally. Read software horror stories.

Looks do matter

Apparantly looks do matter. May as well learn a bit about men's fashion.

Legality of illegal MP3s

Sweden has ruled that it's OK to have links to illegal MP3s, so long as the server is in a country where illegal MP3s are legal. That's in stark contrast with France vs Yahoo. In fact, the norm is that linking even to the front page of commercial sites needs permission sometimes. A court in Utah ruled that providing links to copyrighted material could constitute copyright infringement. Better check out cyberlaws and ensure compliance with copyright rules on the Internet.

Violation is often in the eye of the beholder. "Anyone who makes derogatory references to others (or their sites, products or services), however it is done, invites trouble."

PGP2000 section websites

Fantastic websites, Section A and Section C.

US sanctions

Eight case studies on sanctions: Cuba, South Africa, Libya, Pakistan, Iran, Burma, China and India.

New look

I've replaced my old photo (left) with this new one (right). Yes, I know. I'm growing younger by the day.

Morphing Aishwarya Rai to Nelson Mandela

My friend Manu is doing research in graphics at Ohio State. You really must see his morphs: Ash to Mandela, for example. After playing around with the grid, I realised Mandala's pretty handsome too. Requires Java.

Maths recreation

Thinks.com has some good maths puzzles and recreation links. Cut-the-knot is good. Math cartoons are better.

MP3 CD players

MP3 CD players. The next big thing? It's basically got a hard disk where you can put in any MP3s, and listen to it like a walkman. Why bother with cassettes?

Multinational monitor

Multinational Monitor features the 10 worst corporations of 2000.

My new suit

Fashion lessons paid off. After reading about business wardrobes for men, and how gentlemen dress, I shopped for a suit, hoping to look my professional best. Ended up with a grey single-breasted polywool suit from Louise Phillipe.

Info1001

Info1001 is a good site for info on shopping, investments, and even industry analysis.

Every Night Josephine out of print

Every Night Josephine is out of print. If not for copyrights, one could just copy an old print.

Banking and finance portal

A neat banking & finance portal by Northern Light. Covers mergers, reforms, technology, regulations, country-specific info, etc.

Asian option calculators

Asian option calculators from Enron and DerivativesModels.com.

World employment report

I've ordered a copy of the World Employment Report. Apparently, it says that India won't sustain its software boom, and I want to know why.

Strange ways of firing employees

Salon's article explains how silly people can get when firing employees.

Socratic method

Rick Garlikov tried using the Socratic method to teach binary numbers to a third grade class. Looks like it worked well. I'm all for the Socratic method of teaching.

Plastic.com

Plastic -- an interesting news source. I like Plastic work.

Microsoft deathwatch

Microsoft Deathwatch. No, Bill isn't dead, but his servers were for a while.

The Economist looks like a newspaper

The Economist website looks more like a newspaper now.

Performance based pay for Governments

Even states have performance based pay. The less their fiscal deficit, the more their plan allocation. Good.

LOC country study

INDIA - A Country Study from the Library of Congress. A comprehensive overview of India.

Interstitials replace banner ads

People ignore banners. So we have interstitials instead.

Websense and Anonymizer

Websense proposes. Anonymizer disposes. Websense monitors employee Internet usage. Anonymizer scrambles it.

What consultants must do

Consultants' role this year will be to convert old economy companies into new economy ones. Old economy strategy consultants will gain.

Recession

Recession? GM shuts 14 plants. Boeing: 1 plant. AMC: 548 theatres. WorldCom lays of 10-15%. HP: 2%. Delphi & Visteon: 10,300. Lucent: 10,000. Sara Lee: 7,000. JC Penney: 5,000. AOL: 2,000.

Brain map

Brain map.

Animated spoof of Mohabbatein

An extraordinary animated spoof of Mohabbatein.

NASDAQ in Bangalore

Nasdaq will open in Bangalore.

Internet TV

zeroTV: good TV-like entertainment for free. World Bank's B-SPAN has World Bank seminars online. Yeah, the computer is becoming the TV.

Self organising websites

Self-organising websites. If I had the time, I'd make mine one, like Slashdot or Plastic. Any takers at IIM-B?

More recession

Recession. Daimler Chrysler slashes 26,000 jobs. Disney cuts 400. Amazon may have cut 20%. It isn't nice (1 2). But dot-coms might still do well, since software, labour and real-estate costs will start falling?

Life at a startup

The MouseDriver Insider: life at a startup.

Investor Guide

Investor Guide: pretty good on news.

Investors are smart

Investors are smart. Disney kills Go.com. Stock rises. Sega kills Dreamcast. Stock rises. Lesson: kill it if it won't work.

Israeli tech stocks

Wouldn't mind investing in Israeli tech stocks. But we'll have to wait for FEMA to replace FERA.

Freedrive closes

Freedrive closes public storage space. Along with Napster, that's a nail in the coffin of free software. But what about the argument that code is speech, and hence "free speech"?

Nathuram Godse statement

Excerpts from Nathuram Godse's statement.

More layoffs

More layoffs: AT&T, News Corp, Gateway and Motorola. But the find of the day is TheStandard's layoff tracker.

Keep 30 stocks

"Studies have shown that..." idiosyncratic risk in stocks is higher. So, have 30 stocks in your portfolio.

Indian finantical institution sites

Good: CRISIL | HDFC | ICRA | IDBI | RBI | SEBI | SHCIL | SICOM | UTI
Bad: CARE | ECGC | HUDCO | IFCI | SIDBI

Amazon handing out stock options to laid off employees

Amazon is handing out stock options to laid off employees. That's a good one!

Weblog analyser

I'm using Analog for analysing the IIMB webserver stats. Anyone with enthu, find a better log analyzer and mail me its name.

Tools for testing websites

Tools for testing web sites.

Section domain names available

Domain names seca-iimb.com, seca-iimb.net and seca-iimb.org are not taken. Likewise for secb and secc. Free purchases are possible at NameZero and NameDemo.

Layoff calculations

I did some quick layoff calculations. It appears that

• Layoffs have been increasing over time
• The dominant reason for layoffs is cost-cutting
• E-Commerce companies have laid off the most
• If the NASDAQ or S&P 500 fall, layoffs increase
• If the Dow Jones falls, layoffs fall !

ex-Exec tracker

With all these people getting fired, TheStandard has come out with an ex-Exec tracker. Brilliant!

Dotcoms go bust but ecommerce thrives

Dot-coms go bust, but e-commerce initiatives in companies still thrive.

You can talk to websites

Now you can talk to websites like TellMe or BeVocal.

New look for news.com

A new look for News.com. It's supposed to make ads more clickable. Personally, I don't think so.

BountyQuest

BountyQuest is a place where companies post rewards for documents -- and anyone who comes up with such documents gets a prize. Many requests are for patent debunks.

Internet Explorer 6 sneak preview

A sneak preview of MS IE6. What is worrying is that Microsoft may not release IE6 as a standalone application. They're planning to bundle it with their next OS: Whister.

Forbes best of the Web

Forbes: Best of the Web

Tomments

Tomments. Tom Murcko, CEO of InvestorGuide.com, writes about once a month, when he feels something important isn't being said by anyone else, like whether Bill Gates is a good investor.

Kerala chat

Kerala chat. Joseph, find yourself a nice girl!

KPMG Consulting going public

KPMG Consulting is going public.

Interface design on the Web

Web usability. About interface design on the Web.

Credit cards stolen from big shots

The greatest hacks ever. And now, credit cards stolen from Bill Gates, George Soros and Yoshiro Mori.

California power crisis is not due to computers

The California power crisis is not due to computers. So distributed projects like Seti@home and RC5 are not to blame.

US postal department interesting letters

US Postal Department archives interesting letters. It includes famous love letters and 'Dear Santa's.

Online classics video-on-demand

Online classics: video-on-demand for operas, plays, and dance. Video is definitely in these days, with NASA, CNN and a whole lot of others.

Kumbh mela from sapce

Kumbha Mela from space. If they can do this for free, I suppose Frederick Forsyth's and Tom Clancy's description of satellites catching individual's faces can't be far from the truth. They've got a pretty good gallery.

Films selected for preservation

Of the films selected by the National Film Registry for preservation in 2000, I haven't seen a single one! Not even read the script of any, for that matter.

Dream research

Dream Research and Dream Bank. Lots about the analysis of dreams.

Annals of improbable research

The Annals of Improbable Research have sent all kinds of things by post. Almost two-thirds were delivered. I doubt if it would happen in India.

X-Drive layoffs

Fucked company reports that X-Drive.com is likely to lay off people. Given their accuracy, I'd recommend anyone having files on X-Drive make backups in the near future.

Voice messaging

In Delhi & Mumbai, you can send voice messages, and soon (hopefully) use the telephone to access e-mail. Through Indivoice. They have a long way to go, though, to get on par with Yahoo! by Phone.

Typographical errors on San Fransisco sidewalks

Typographical errors on San Fransisco sidewalks.

NASSCOM 2001

NASSCOM 2001 is on.

Ray tracing contest

Fantastic images at the Internet Ray Tracing Contest and at POVRay.

Paid auctions working

Yahoo's auction listings fell 82% when they started charging for auctions. But the sales apparantly is steady, and quality of listings is going up. Amazon may follow suit. Looks like the pay-model is the one that will survive on the Net.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Eric has updated The Cathedral & the Bazaar

News today

Today, we will know if Napster will survive or die. We will also know what our genes are made of. Speaking of genes, biotech reports are the hottest selling at MultexInvestor.

Casimir effect

Take two plates. Bring them very close in a vacuum. They will attract. The Casimir Effect (free subscription required).

Napster must pay up

Napster must pay.

Google buys Deja

Google bought Deja. I don't know which is better news -- that they have money to buy companies, or that I can now search the Usenet.

Celera releases human genome

Celera has released the human genome.

Toyfair

Some interesting electronic toys have come up at ToyFair.

Human genome browser

Genome browser.

IIMB placements

A (almost) live update on IIM-B's placements.

Home page competition results

The home page competition results are out. Congrats to Section C, and to Section A, who were close behind.

I have joined BCG

BCG has been kind enough to employ me.

Top 50 eBooks

Top 50 e-books in 2000. Actually, lots of eBooks have come out recently. eBookNet is a portal for eBooks. The ebook webring and eBooks Plus webring are other places to look for eBooks.

Search engine with site preview

Room102 is a search engine that previews websites.

Kid wants his father

Clayton's parents are divorced, and his mother has custody. But he wants to see his father, so he went on a hunger strike. His site raises the important question: how much can kids decide which divorced parent to be with?

Labour statistics

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has published a list of the fastest growing occupations from 1998-2008. The Indian Labour Bureau publishes some useful statistics too.

India economic survey

India Economic Survey. The general review is worth a read.

eBook sources

The Library of Congress has a collection of eBook sources.

Amazon honor system

You can make a tip on the Web using Amazon's honour system.

The Nervous Dog

The Nervous Dog competes with Onion to be the funniest satire on the Web.

Super vision

It's possible to have better than 20/20 vision: SuperVision. Apparantly, even 20/2.5 is possible.

India budget

Everyone's talking about the budget. 123india | ET | EquityMaster | Sharekhan | Indya | India.com | MoneyControl | MyIris | NDTV | Rediff | TNT | SIFY | Webdunia

Toonopedia

Toonopedia -- encyclopaedia of cartoons

Taxing the Internet

With the Internet economy booming despite the collapse of dot-coms, the OECD countries are getting ready to tax the Internet.

No access log

I can't seem to locate the access log (which used to be on unix2 at /usr/local/apache/logs/access_log). So, sorry -- can't give any more statistics on the hits.

IBM accused of aiding Nazis

IBM has been accused of aiding Nazis during WWII.

Harry Potter movie

Warner Brothers are making a Harry Potter movie.

Human Spell Check

Human Spell Check tosses out some glaring spelling mistakes at famous websites -- which presumably would have run a spell-checking software on their site. Mind you, I personally do not.

China and the Internet

China and the Internet.

Create PDF files online

Adobe lets you create PDF files on the Web without using any software.

Live webcast of IIMB convocation

I'm graduating today, and there's a live webcast of the IIM-B convocation starting 6:15PM IST.

Me in the press

Some press clippings about the IIM-B convocation (and me).

Who paid for the US elections

Details on who paid how much for the US Presidential elections, and what they expect in return, on Mother Jones 400. Incidentally, candidates who raised more money than their opponents captured all but 29 of the 469 seats.

Online payment risks

Better be a bit careful about online payments. A Russian hacker stole from 40 companies. Amazon's subsidiary was hit. And IBM's Net.Commerce is buggy.

Cracking DVDs

Two MIT students have written a 7-line program that unscrambles protected DVDs. It's downloadable. The legal issue is whether source code deserves protection on par with freedom of expression.

BIFR has a website

BIFR has a website. Their 'Hearing Schedule' section is a useful way of keeping up with what companies are in trouble. I'm surprised to see Dunlop India (West Bengal) on the list. Currently, the site does not have the actual decisions. Maybe soon.

Internet Explorer 6 preview

The preview release of Internet Explorer 6 is out.

Agentland

Agentland is a portal for online agents -- somewhat like Apps.com

Hacking is unavoidable

After seeing how costly it is to detect hacking, and the fact that anything you say can be logged against you, one wonders if being online is worth it. If you've got a permanent Internet connection, keep it switched off.

Windows Media Player 8

Windows Media Player 8 lets you convert audio & video files into its new format. It compresses better than MP3, apparantly.

Underground - book on hacking

Drefus' book on hacking, Underground, is available online.

PC prices are crashing

PC prices are crashing. Open source hardware could possibly accelerate that.

Pictures of the year

Pictures of the Year

Impact of the US slowdown

With the US economy slowing down, the need for technology workers has dropped 44%. Those with H1-B visas, and body shoppers, are facing the brunt.

Crack sites

Some sites with good cracks, thanks to Alok: astalavista.box.sk, wtcracks.com, kickme.to/FOSI, bannerkillers.cjb.net, and start.at/these.urls.first

Computer translations

This is why you should not use computers for translation. While you are at it, check out www.engrish.com.

Acco in Mumbai

I'm looking for accomodation in Mumbai through realestatemumbai.com. Anyone with PG acco or a flat to rent around Nariman Point? (Note added on 31 May 2001: Don't bother -- I found a place.)

You can sue spammers

Ellen won a spam case against Kozmo. If you get unsolicited e-mail from a company, you can sue them. Unless they have an opt-out mechanism.

US budget online

The US Budget is online.

Portal for 404 messages

There's a portal for "404 Not Found" error messages.

Freeing archives

Scientists have decided not to publish in journals that do not make their archives available for free. Cheers!

Acrobat reader 5

Acrobat Reader 5 is out. Nothing great, unless you have a Palmtop, or use Asian characters.

IT commoditisation

The Economist suggests that just as focus of the computer industry shifted from hardware to software, it is now shifting from software to online services. Which means that the computer (hardware and software) will commoditize and only web services will make money.

Sources other than search engines

I just realised that website search engines aren't the only place you can search for information. There're search engines for FAQs, webrings, mailing lists, newsgroups, encyclopaedias.

Things you can use e-mail for

There's a lot you can do using e-mail, including upload FTP files, create home pages, send snail-mail, translate languages, play games (blank e-mail), send a fax (no subject, "help" in body), track webpage changes, etc. The full details are available at the Accessing the Internet by Email FAQ

Ebay to delist Nazi items

eBay will delist items associated with Nazis, Ku Klux Klan, etc. Yahoo is cleaning its porn content. AOL is, however, using neural networks to automatically filter content.

Vespucci reached there first

Why is America named after Amerigo Vespucci, and not Columbus? Perhaps because Vespucci reached there first. Or perhaps he marketed America better. Ironic.

George Gilder

George Gilder proposes that while Moore's law drove the IT revolution through processing power, today it's bandwidth that's driving it -- through Gilder's Law. This ties back to what an Economist survey says about focus shifting from software to online services.

Subject specific scout reports

The subject-specific Scout reports, which were a prime source of my information, are about to be discontinued from the end of the month. (No funds.)

Boston Consulting Group at Mumbai

I have joined the Boston Consulting Group at Mumbai.

Why bless you

Why do people say "Bless you" when you sneeze? The practise may date back to the plague in London, though there are several theories.

Subjex

Subjex, like Ask Jeeves, handles searches in plain English.

Cybelle in Agentland

Cybelle lives in AgentLand. She's 100% virtual (having admitted it, she asked if I was disappointed), and guides people through their site. It's a new and interesting way of having a search engine on a site.

Cool Site of the Day

Cool Site of the Day: another way to learn about interesting sites. Google recommends Netscape's new and cool, USA Today hot sites, The Internet Tourbus, and the Glassdog.

The Dumb

thedumb.com is about dumb laws, facts, and warnings.

Shrek

While on the subject of movies, the animation film Shrek is supposed to be pretty good.

AI game

Spielberg's next movie, A.I., has sparked a weird game. I read the article on it at ZDNet and searched for Jeanine Salla, listed as the movie's sentient machine therapist, which lead me to her site, (at the so called "Bangalore World University"!!) and from there to others... it really is a wierd game. Those with enthu, do try it and let me know your progress.

Mumbai dabbawallahs

Mumbai dabbawallahs have been given a 6-sigma rating. I might start ordering dabbas online for dinner.

Good bad and ugly viruses

Viruses are bad. But some are good, and others, ugly (hoaxes, that is).

Consolidation of web properties

50% of all Net surfing is done on the sites of Yahoo, AOL, Microsoft and Napster. There's consolidation of web properties for you!

Patent Facilitating Centre

The Indian Patent Facilitating Centre helps Indians develop and register patents.

B2E

After B2C and B2B, is it now going to be B2E?

Zero piracy zone

By the end of the year, Bangalore will become a zero piracy zone. First, the Karnataka Government will try and eliminate all piracy within. Then it'll appoint compliance officers who'll walk into offices and check randomly. And this will reduce piracy. Right. What of corruption?

Orbitz

Orbitz, the travel site backed by Delta, Northwest and American, is online. It cuts through travel agents and lets passengers book flight tickets directly with the airlines. (I tried booking a flight from Mumbai to Bangkok, but for some reason, it kept giving me an error.)

Employment is falling

While in the US services sector employment is falling, high tech employment, which is about 8% of the services sector, continues to grow. Meaning technology is still growing, despite the recession. Strange!

Opera 5

I shifted from Netscape Navigator to Internet Explorer because I could cut and paste tables from IE to Excel. But now that I've downloaded Opera 5.11, used its zoom function, it's gesture keys, and so on, I'm moving over to Opera. Long live Opera! (Which, given Netscape's fate, is perhaps no more than a fond hope.)

Nomic

Nomic is a game that you play by changing the rules of the game. You start with an initial set of rules and then players can vote to change the rules. Steve Gardner has produced a summary of many such games played on the Internet. If you're interested in legislation, or online games, this is an interesting topic.

Good worm

After the good worm, we now have the social worm, which searches for child porn and reports it. This is starting a Robin Hood-esque trend.

MailReader

If you have a POP account and want to read mails on it, MailReader.com offers a good web interface. Their mission statement is a revelation.

Unhappy workers are better than happy ones

Here's a new one. A study shows that unhappy workers are better than happy ones. Throw the Hawthorne effect out of the window.

NetMogul

Carl Steadman's book, NetMogul, is evolving online. It's about dot-com startups. What I liked best was the way the book has been formatted online.

Genes into space

And now you can send out your genes into space. You write a poem on your photo, stick your hair on it, and they'll throw it into space. Read the FAQ. Oh, and by the way, it costs $50. If they can store 4.5 million submissions, and get $30 per submission (after discounts), they still make $135 million. Plus merchandise, advertising, etc. How much does it cost to launch a spacecraft? (NASA lets you send your name to Mars for free, though. I signed up and got a certificate.)

Hackers who make six figures

If you don't believe in online theft, read the diaries of hackers who make six figures, or stores of junk-mail hoaxes. If you've already been had, share your sorrow at Card cops.

Yahoo buzz

Keep up with Yahoo's buzz.

Changemakers.net

Changemakers.net is a journal/portal for social entrepreneurship. That is, people who're changing society in a new way. Normally, I wouldn't have given this a second thought, but the site appears so extensive, and the concept so intruiging, that I think it's worth a browse. DigitalDivide.org is based on a similar theme, except for the Internet world.

BCG New Delhi

BCG New Delhi is now officially on the BCG world map.

Bankruptcy email to employees

Envisionet filed for Chapter 11 (they're bankrupt), and sent a reassuring e-mail to their employees, telling them it was business as usual.

Most successful executives are filled with self doubt and humility

Intruiging, but Collins (author of Built to Last) finds that the most successful executives are filled with self-doubt and humility.

GartnerG2

The Gartner Group, which focused on IT strategy, has launched GartnerG2, which will talk about business strategy.

Check your mobile phones serial number

A note from my friend Ashish: "To check your Mobile phone's serial number, key in the following digits on your phone:

* # 0 6 #

A 15 digit code will appear on the screen. This number is unique to your handset. Should your phone get stolen, you can phone your service provider and give them this code. They will then be able to block your handset. So even if the thief changes the SIM card your phone will be totally useless. If everybody did this, there would be no point in stealing mobile phones."

More dead sites

Feed is dead. Suck is dead. Thankfully, Plastic is alive. Demise of a Net Magazine.

Micro-advertising experiment

Danny Yee's micro-advertising experiment indicates that weblogs like Robot Wisdom (which is quite impressive) may be more effective than Google.

Copyright search engine

The US Copyright office has come up with a Copyright search engine.

Artificial Intelligence

A review of Spielberg's A.I. with lots of spoilers.

OggVorbis

Will OggVorbis beat MP3 Pro? Will Netscape 6.1 beat IE 5.5? Will OpenBSD 2.9 overtake Linux? Unlikely. But should be interesting to watch.

Nuke the Hamptons

Nuke the Hamptons: a very interesting site.

I am at Bangkok

I'm in Bangkok. Not planning to update this site for a week. Incidentally, it's almost time for my site's first anniversary -- a year since 28 July 2000, when I started updating it regularly.

Consulting Central ranking

Having seen a bit of it from the inside, I agree with Consulting Central's ranking of consulting companies.

Real Jukebox

I listen to radio on Real Jukebox's Radio Tuner. They offer 2,500 channels, including business talk channels and western classical (my interests).

PhD theses

My friends, Dr. Jani and Dr. Jigs, have written theses on "Local Intelligent Control In Biological Systems And Industrial Processes" and Modified Microporous Aluminosilicates As Novel Solid Acid Catalysts.

History of Economic Thought

New School's History of Economic Thought website is an excellent collection of contrasting viewpoints on business and economics.

Bacon Number

The University of Virginia computes the Bacon Number for any actor, similar to the Erdos number in mathematics. We trace the acting links of Shahrukh Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and even Prabhu Deva to Kevin Bacon. (BCG did the same for consultants who have worked together, and it turns out that I have a Bruce Henderson number of 3.)

Ancient History Sourcebook

The Ancient History Sourcebook contains many ancient books in full-text (English), such as The Odyssey, The Code of Hammurabi, etc. Also included are the Manusmriti and Chanakya's Arthashastra. Chanakya has also written a lesser known Niti Shastra.

Yahoo conversations

Yahoo has come up with a 'conversations' site. Will it pick up? (BTW, the new version of Yahoo Messenger supports webcams, message archives, and file sharing.)

Limits of computing power

A bizzarre calculation on the limits of computing power using fundamentals of quantum mechanics.

Ideosphere

Among all concepts I have encountered on the Web, this one is the most intruiging. Ideosphere has created a futures market for ideas. You put a claim on this website, and people can buy/sell coupons based on these ideas. When the claim becomes true/false, these coupons increase/decrease in value. Of course, no real money is involved -- it's just a score. Very interesting, nevertheless, to get a feel of what people think. (There's a similar exchange for Bollywood.)

GCC

The new GNU C Compiler GCC 3.0 includes a Java compiler.

Google voice search

Google just goes on. They're working on voice search now.

Webby nominees

The Webby nominees in broadband include Heavy and Yahoo Financevision.

Sony Entertainment site

Sony Entertainment's site has an archive of broadband content, including trailers, Sony TV interviews, etc. Pretty good!

PC World best of the Web

PC World's Best of the Web uncovers gems like Safeweb (like Anomymizer.com but free), MegaPixel (digital cameras), Betanews, ArtistDirect (music search) and Multimedia Library.

IE6 preview

The public preview of IE 6 is out. The revolutionary feature is smart tags. I think the image toolbar is a pretty neat idea too.

Google image search

Google has an image search with 150 million images. (While on the topic of Google, try this search on dead.long.live.)

Easel

Easel is a GUI for Linux written by people from Apple. Hopefully, it will really bring Linux to the masses.

BBC measures beauty

BBC's study on human faces analyses how beauty can be measured, how we can spot lies, etc. They even have a video that shows Bill Clinton's testimony -- and a furrowed brow.

Bollywood links

A good collection of Bollywood links.

Yahoo add-ons

I'm fiddling around with Yahoo's add-ons like guestbook, site stats, etc. Don't be surprised to see wierd things popping up on my page.

Google Zeitgeist

Google Zeitgeist: trends in Google searches. (Zeitgeist means "the general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era"). Similar to Buzz and Lycos50. Other sites that offer search profiles are AskJeeves, Search.com, Excite, and Goto.

Cosmology

An excellent tutorial on cosmology from NASA.

Tamil film songs and their raagas

I saw this page 5 years ago, and thought I'd lost it since then. It's a list of tamil film songs and their raagas.

Try this: search for a song and listen online.

eBiquity

eBiquity has news on pervasive computing (which, as with most good things, started at Xerox.)

Webby Awards

The Webby Awards are out.

BMW films

BMW films -- short films, ads for BMW, which are available only on BMWfilms.com. Great stuff for car chase lovers. Pretty good logic too, since the people who'd buy a BMW could afford a high-speed Internet connection.

The Semantic Web

Tim Berners-Lee's article on The Semantic Web is the first one that helped me understand what's so great about the RDF (Resource Description Framework).

Machiavellian Intelligence

The Machiavellian Intelligence hypothesis says that the brain evolved more for its social purpose, than for finding food and things like that. Incidentally, Google's collection on evolution is as comprehensive as ever.

Dipti Kamath

A refreshing personal website by Dipti Kamath.

Why Open Source is better than Windows

David Wheeler's report shows how open source is quantintatively better than Windows. All it needs is a good user interface, a suite of applications, and a little less fanaticism about keeping it free, in order for it to commercialise.

Dating sites in India

Someone wanted to know dating sites in India. Bachelors India, India dating, Bharatplanet singles, Yahoo India dating, Dating club, Singles India and Dhak dhak.

CourtesyFlush

Learn courtesy at CourtesyFlush.

Am I Annoying

Am I Annoying has a list of the most and least annoying people in the world. The most annoying person I'd heard of in that list was Steven Seagal (the least was Kate Winslet)

Sanskrit texts and bhajans

Sanskrit texts and bhajans are available as audio.

HAL and IBM

If you thought HAL and IBM in 2001: A Space Odyssey was clever, you should read this article to learn out about the pun in Gattaca.

Genomic News

Celera's Genomic News is a pretty good source of information on what's happening in genetic engineering.

Internet Oracle

The Internet Oracle (ultimate source of Internet humour, IMHO) is alive and well.

Archimedes foresight

Archimedes may have anticipated a bit of Cantor's work on infinity. In mathematical history terms, that's about as big as the ancient Greeks invented aeroplanes.

Yahoo Clubs

Lots about artificial intelligence on Yahoo Clubs, ai.about.com, and Generation5. Among other things, you can find various version of Alice to chat with.

Wednesday is popular

Wednesday seems the most popular day for visiting my site. While I get 14 visitors a day on average, I seem to get 22 visitors on Wednesdays.

Secret Yahoo emoticons

Secret Yahoo emoticons.

Time zone converter

I've started needing a time zone converter pretty badly, with all these international interviews that I'm doing.

45 billion writedown

A $45 billion writedown from JDS Uniphase. The largest ever loss in corporate history.

Site design

My site actually has pretty bad design against these parameters. Need to work on it. Besides, the time is up for static sites. Dynamic website design will rule. Wonder when Geocities will start offering these features.

Spam todos

If you don't want spam, here are some things to do and not to do. Don't post usenet articles, to start with.

Something different happening to copyrights

In some quiet corner, something different is happening to copyrights. The law of eminent domain is being applied to content. Not good enough, but its a start.

Code Red virus spread animaton

This study has some nice animations on how the Code Red virus spread geographically.

Blogdex

MIT's Blogdex crawls weblogs (like mine) for popular links. Nice concept -- somewhat like Google's, except more "current information" based. The page of only weblogs has a good list of weblogs (not as comprehensive as Eatonweb), and Rebecca's written a good history of weblogs.

Supreme Court rulings

The full texts of Supreme Court rulings. Online and free.

Encyclopaedia Britannica no longer free

Encyclopaedia Britannica is now a paid service.

Ruin your wrists

Don't work too hard on keyboards. You'll ruin your wrists like I did.

Churchill quotes

Funny Churchill quotes.

Joel on Software

Joel writes on software. "Good software takes 10 years" is a good read.

American layoffs are faster

When the boom was on, America's flexible labour laws made it a haven. With the slowdown, American layoffs are faster. Flexible labour laws come with the penalty of volatility.

Virtual Stapler

I had several minutes of fun using the Virtual Stapler.

Moody downgrading

If nothing else, the Moody downgrading and S & P downgrading mean a further slowdown in India, despite any rate cuts.

DotComDoom

DotComDoom.com -- about the demise of dot-coms. News links.

Windows CE source code

I'd missed this earlier. Microsoft has released its Windows CE source code to the public!

Corante

Corante filters tech news.

Romeo and Juliet chat

Chris Coutts has a chatter's version of Romeo & Juliet. A hilarious but accurate 10-minute flash movie. (Coutts has also made other movies.)

Website updated

SOME people have updated their website, and done a jolly decent job of it too. ONE may appreciate that.

Improve your memory

I'm trying to improve my memory. It's terrible.

Evolution does not contradict the Second Law

A simple and detailed explanation for why evolution does not contradict the second law of thermodynamics.

Vodka ad

I'm on vacation until 27 August. Don't expect too many updates. In the meantime, enjoy a CNet ad I liked. (Note: I'm not getting any "ad revenues" for this. Nor do I enjoy vodka. I prefer milk shakes.)
(I used to have an Absolut vodka ad here, but it doesn't seem to work any more.)

Pravda

To those who're curious about what's happening in Russia, Pravda has been online in English for a while.

Pun of the day

Pun of the day

Meta blog

Yet another meta blog by wacky brit. The idea seems to be catching on fast.

Movies pirated on the Internet

"Dude, Where's My Car" tops the list of movies pirated on the Internet in July. The pirating is usually through file sharing software. Unlike music companies, studios are moving with the wind, before it gets too late.

Amazons honor system

Amazon's honor system is a quick and easy way to sell content on the Internet. (They also have other ways of selling.) It's available only for the US currently, though. Pity...

Whispers in the corridors

Whispers in the corridors publishes rumours circulating in the IAS circles. An extremely well-informed site, I'm told.

Financial cartoons

Financial cartoons.

Windows RG

A spoof on Windows: Windows RG

Roll your own DSL

Cringely teaches you how to roll your own DSL.

Convergence Bill

The Convergence Bill has finally been approved.

Ant City

Ant City: a cute online game where you get to blow up a city. (OK, OK, nothing cute about that.)

Anil hates forwards

Anil hates forwards too.

Top ranking books

Amazon's top ranking books is a heavily tracked index.

More weird news

More weird news.

Delhi children learn computing by themselves

Just leave a computer connected to the Internet near the slums of Delhi, and it's incredible what the children there do with it! (More at India: Hole in the Wall)

IE6

IE6 is out with new features. My site has already had quite a few hits with people using IE6! BTW, it doesn't have Java or Plugin support.

Chinese vs Japanese vs Koreans

Can you tell the difference between Chinese, Japanese and Koreans? I tried a test. My report card read "Bad".

Your ISP can shut you down

Big Brother took a little longer than 1984, but by 2001, it has arrived. Even if you didn't upload an copyrighted file, your ISP can shut you down. Oh, they can monitor what you're doing too -- literally, by face. And imprison you without trial. Better read up your "copy rights".

Teoma

Teoma and Wisenut are search engines like google. Teoma's "expert links" feature looks promising.

Search engine for current events

Just what I needed -- a search engine for current events.

Old versions of programs

Archives of old versions of programs. As opposed to Beta versions.

How much are you worth

How much are you worth?

Web accessibility guidelines

Web accessibility guidelines.

Online book on growing populations

"Growing Populations, Changing Landscapes: Studies from India, China, and the United States (2001)" -- an online book at NAP.

MMORPGs

Try playing a massive multiplayer online roll-playing game (MMORPG) some time.

Gramophone magazine

The Gramophone magazine has reviews on classical western music.

Usenet

What is the Usenet?

First Lady

This First Lady really talks!

Do not reply to spam

A warning from Yahoo not to reply to spam saying "Remove me from the mailing list".

Anti DMCA

Anti DMCA is against the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Physics FAQs

The sci.physics FAQs. Incidentally, energy is not conserved. Hot water freezes faster than cold water. And mirrors don't swap left-right -- they swap in-out.

Encyclopaedia Galactica

Encyclopaedia Galactica. For Asimov fans.

The largest scientific experiment

The largest scientific experiment and the funniest Internet experiment, IMHO.

Bobby Fischer playing chess on the Internet

Is Bobby Fischer playing Chess on the Internet?

SSSCA

The SSSCA bill appears even worse than the DMCA.

Pocket Guide to the Internet

The Pocket Guide to the Internet.

People I know in US are safe

All IIMB, IITM and VM junta in the US are safe, to my knowledge.

I love chocolates

I love chocolates. Especially white. When I went to Bangkok, every chocolate I bought was white:

Toblerone: (Blue & white) Swiss Milk Chocolate with a White Chocolate Cream Filling and Honey and Almond Nougat
Lindt: Swiss Classic White Chocolate
The Belgian: 7 Seashells with Hazelnut Praline Filling
Ritter Sport: White Whole Hazelnut
Hershey's Chocolate: Cookies 'n' Creme Chocolate Cookie bits in White Chocolate
Hershey's Kisses: Cookies 'n' Creme Chocolate Cookie bits in White Chocolate

e paper

e-ink on e-paper.

Nostradamus prophesy

There's been several mails about Nostradamus' prophecy coming true with the World Trade Center bombings. Stuff like

> "In the City of God there will be a great thunder,
> Two brothers torn apart by Chaos, while the fortress
> endures, the great leader will succumb" , "The third
> big war will begin when the big city is burning"

I refer you to this article to put things in perspective.

Metafilter

A new paradigm. Weblog as conversation. Metafilter.

Red Cross Fund

Amazon's Red Cross Fund has collected over $3.6 million as of today. The Internet's proving a great way to mobilise funds!

Nostradamus quote not by Nostradamus

That Nostradamus quote was not by Nostradamus in the first place. (16 Sep: fury, cbs, nostradamus-repository, 18 Sep: yahoo, about, urban legends)

Time photo essay

Time magazine's photo essay on the tragedy. And then there's some infographics on the two towers.

Rosetta Project

The Rosetta Project: keeping a thousand languages alive.

Apple wireless DSL

Apple's got wireless DSL. Wow!

Interactive map of NY

An interactive map of NY

daypop

I like daypop. It threw up my site right on top when I searched for "Anand" :-)

Warren Buffet has no plans to sell

Warren Buffet has no plans to sell stocks. Maybe it's time for us to buy, then?

International Shadows Project

The International Shadows Project.

Urban legends

No updates till the weekend. I'm in Bangalore. In the meantime, remember not to trust anything that's forwarded to you. It's likely to be an urban legend.

The World at