2000

AstaLaVista is an ‘underground search engine’. I’d been there before, and since its survived this long, it must be good.

An update on the Internet cable scenario.

inc.com has lots of good articles on anything to do with business – business plans, customer service, e-commerce, law, strategy, etc. Especially their guides.

I-DNS looks like a great concept. You can register a domain name in any language. Localized Internet is taking off like mad.

The IT Act will be implemented in September. We’re just done with our business proposal. If we rush in now, we may be just in time to get a first mover advantage. But we’re losing the lead each day. Read about itsvalidated.com.

These days I need to search a lot for images. images.altavista.com and gallery.yahoo.com have proven very handy. To me, it seems Altavista’s the eternal innovator, and gives away its lead to Yahoo. They came up with the image service first (and its still better). But their babelfish language translator is still one of its kind.

Why do we drive on the left? The medieval nobility wielded their sword on the right (mostly), and rode on the left, so as to chop off oncoming horsemen. Peasants walked on the right to avoid the swords. While the New Scientist’s last word reveals why Napolean drove on the right, it’s not clear why Americans do. Kevin Lowey has a different opinion, though.

Direct Hit (from AskJeeves) is a search engine. Copernic is a software that searches multiple sites. Flyswat is a way of interfacing a messaging board with your browser. I’ve heard they’re all cool.

What’s more of a rage than profitable dot-coms? Bankrupt dot-coms, as listed by dotcomfailures, startupfailures, and fuckedcompany. Scepticism’s gone far enough to make this web economy bullshit generator a great hit.

While hunting for some stuff on public relations on the Internet, I found 10 ways public relations specialists can use the Internet. Actually, the links are useful to anyone doing any news research. What’s Next Online, 12th July has a good writeup on how to research online. I did find some good Internet PR related links too on About.com, Connecting Online and Impulse Research.

Internet Telephony in India is legal. Some stories: 1 | 2 | 3

There’s a whole series of articles on Umashankar Dikshit – a Silicon Valley pujari. Not a bad idea – epujari.com (which incidentally is on sale.) Following the articles on Rediff and USA Today, there’s this really funny piece. Now I’ve heard everything. The San Francisco Chronicle reported some weeks ago that a Hindu priest in Silicon Valley called Umashankar Dixit is in great demand to perform Lakshmi poojas when e-commerce startups are launched by Indians, as an increasing number are. Mr. Dixit says modestly that he is considered a ’lucky hand’ because his God is Ganesha, the remover of obstacles. He – Mr. Dixit that is, not Ganesha – has been compensated in cash and stock options by several startups and says he has already done very well from the IPOs of successful companies like Exodus Communications. Rediff’s US edition and USA Today have since come up with their own breathless takes on Mr. Dixit, reporting among other things that he spends an hour every morning, presumably just after sandhyavandanam, on the Internet monitoring the financial markets. ...

While we’re on metrics, here are some search engine metrics from useit.com, Media Metrix, Nielsen’s NetRatings and StatMarket. Yahoo’s right on top, followed by MSN.

With network-tools, you can find out where a particular computer is, who’s it registered with, and how information travels there.

The latest browser stats say that 69% of the world uses, Internet Explorer, while only 27% use Netscape. BrowserWatch says 57%-26%. Netscape 6 might do something about it, given that Microsoft’s split.

Now there’s even more e-brokers: Sharekhan (what a name), 5-paisa and EquityMaster.

India’s truly on the Net. With a slew of localized sites – Yahoo! India, CNet India, India.internet.com, and ZDNet India. – we’ve arrived! Don’t underestimate any of them, especially Yahoo! and its finance, news (with full coverage) and movie sites.

Check out Harappa if you’re interested in the Indus Valley Civilization.

Speed 2: Cruise Control. The climax. A tanker is getting blown up. Why, then, is a cow flying out as debris? If you’re interested in special effects, Visual Effects HQ is all about FX in movies. About.com talks about the technology. Yahoo!, as usual, has a whole bunch of deadly FX links.

A neat joke on Amazon.com.