2001

I have joined the Boston Consulting Group at Mumbai.

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.)

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The US Budget is online.

There’s a portal for “404 Not Found” error messages.

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

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

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.)

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

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

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

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

Pictures of the Year

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